The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Medes and Persians, Grecians and Macedonians

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THE

ANCIENT HISTORY

OF

THE EGYPTIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, ASSYRIANS,
BABYLONIANS, MEDES AND PERSIANS,
GRECIANS, AND MACEDONIANS;

By M. ROLLIN,

LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, PRQFESSOR OF ELOQUENCE IN

THE ROYAL COLLEGE, AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF
INSCRIPTIONS AND BELLES-LETTRES.

Translates from the French,

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY THE
REV. R. LYNAM, A. M.

ASSISTANT CHAPLAIN TO THE MAGDALEN HOSPITAL.

THE FIFTEENTH EDITION,
REVISED AND CORRECTED;
AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NINETEEN NEW PLATES.

IN EIGHT VOLUMES.
VOUR:

LONDON:

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Printed by J. F. Dove, St. John’s Square. i

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TO THE

CHAPLAIN TO THE HONOURABLE

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

THIS EDITION OF

ROLLIN’S ANCIENT HISTORY

is respectfully inscribed

AS A TRIFLING MARK OF
ESTEEM AND GRATITUDE,

BY HIS

VERY HUMBLE SERVANT,

THE PRINTER.

St. Jown’s SQuaRE,
Feb. 4, 1823.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

The learned quotations have been carefully examined
and corrected: and, what has long been a deszderatum
in all the English editions, a Lirr of the AurHorR has
been prefixed.

The whole of the plates (nineteen in number) have
been engraved expressly for this Edition: and a com-
petent person has been employed to examine the maps.

The proprietors therefore think they may fairly af-
firm, that the present is the most complete and hand-
some Edition ever published,

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

Ir is a remarkable instance of literary injustice, that
the Author of the Ancient History, while describing
the events of empires, and delineating the manners of
nations, and the characters of individuals, has been
suffered (in this country at least) to have the actions
of his own life condemned to the silence of utter ob-
livion. Numerous editions of these volumes have
passed, in all forms, through the British press, without
the smallest memoir having been conceded to the spot-
less fame of the learned writer. A curiosity to become
acquainted with the lives of those whose works have gra-
tified us, and a desire of comparing their actions in the
turbulence of the world with their sentiments in the calm
of the closet, are feelings so natural and universal, that
we trust we shall not be refused the thanks of the Eng-
lish readers of Rollin, for endeavouring to supply, from
the best sources to which we have access, a sketch of
the life of the amiable historian.

Charles Rollin was born in the city of Paris, on the
30th of January, 1661. He derived no celebrity from
his parentage: he was the second son of a cutler at Pa-
ris, and was originally destined, like his elder brother,
to follow the business of his father. A Benedictine friar,
whom he sometimes served at mass, discovered in him
more intelligence and love of learning, than he could
submit to see sacrificed to a mechanical occupation.
He declared to Rollin’s mother his opinion of her son’s
ability, and descanted upon the advantage of cultiva-
ting such eminent talents, The affectionate parent, who
was a widow, thought herself precluded by necessity
from a scheme which her discernment approved. She
urged her inability to defray the expenses of a learned
education for her son: but this obstacle being after-

x. MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

wards surmounted by the zeal of the benevolent eccle-
siastic,* young Rollin was dismissed from toils to which
he was superior, and full of eager delight commenced
the more pleasing labours of college.

He pursued his studies with that avidity ‘which grows
by what it feeds on;’ and the wonderful celerity of his
progress soon requited the patronage of his Benedic-
tine friend. The amiableness of his heart disclosed it-
self as visibly as the quickness of his genius. The
alteration of his views and circumstances did not swell
his bosom into any disdain of his former condition ;
and his behaviour to his mother was changed in no-
thing, but the greater delicacy of his tenderness and
submission. She was made to participate in the tri-
umphs and honours of her son; as she often found,
under her humble mansion, persons of high birth and
eminent stations soliciting that young Rollin might
pass the vacations with their sons, who were his fellow-
students at college.

After having studied the humanities and philosophy
at the college of Plessis, he devoted three years to
theology at the Sorbonne, one of the most famous
schools in Europe for divinity. His teacher in rheto-
ric was M. Hersan, a professor of considerable reputa-
tion in France, This gentleman conceived such an
exalted opinion of Rollin’s virtue and abilities, that he
declared he was sometimes tempted to call him divine.
When any composition of prose or verse was required
from him, the professor was not ashamed to commend
his pupil even to the disparagement of himself. ‘ Ap-
ply (he would say) to Rollin; he will do it better than

can.’f

When M. Hersan relinquished his duties at the col-
lege of Plessis, our Author, though only in the twenty-

* He obtained for young Rollin ‘une bourse’ at the college of
Plessis. Speaking of the ‘ boursiers,’ Rollin observes, (Traité des
Etudes, tom. 4. p. 371.) ‘ Ils sont les enfants de la maison ; et les col-
léges, dans leur origine, ont été fondés pour eux.’ They are upon the
foundation, therefore, like the scholars at the colleges of Cambridge.

+ Vie de Rollin prefixed to Traité des Etudes. To this, once for
all, we acknowledge many obligations.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XI

third year of his age, was judged by the university —
competent to succeed so able and learned a master.
Nothing but his own modesty debarred him from the
honour: he consented however to become professor of
an inferior class, and in 1687 was advanced to the chair
of rhetoric. In the following year M. Hersan, with
the permission of the king, resigned, in favour of Rollin,
the professorship of eloquence in the Royal college.
The warm eulogies and accumulated benefits which

our Author received from his venerable master, might
have awakened in hearts, less susceptible than his,
some lively emotions of gratitude. Rollin always de-
lighted to pay the most affectionate acknowledgments
to his benefactor. At the end of his second vo-
lume of 7'raité des Etudes, he has given to the world
M. Hersan’s character, which, if drawn with fidelity
(and we doubt not it is), exhibits a union of learning
and virtue, to which there are few parallels. He thus
speaks of him: ‘ He was accustomed to behave towards
me in the character of parent as well as master, having
always loved me as his son. In the classes he took
particular care of my instruction, destining me even
then to be his successor. [can say, without flattery, that
no one ever possessed greater talent for making his pu-
pils relish the beauties of authors, and for inspiring them
with emulation. The funeral oration of M. Le Tellier,
chancellor, which he pronounced in the Sorbonne, and
which is the only piece of prose that he permitted to
be published, is sufficient to shew how far he excelled
in delicacy of taste; and the verses which we have
from his pen may pass for models in that kind of com-
position. Buthe was still more estimable for the qua-
lities of his heart, than those of his mind. Kindness,
simplicity, modesty,* disinterestedness, contempt of
riches, generosity carried almost to excess, these vir-
tues constituted his character. He never availed him-
self of the unbounded confidence which a powerful
minister} placed in him, except for the purpose of ob-
liging others. At the time I was principal of the col-

* ¢ He would never allow himself to be chosen rector of the uni-
versity.’ + M. de Louvois.

Xil MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

lege of Beauvais, he sacrificed, from kindness to myself
and love to the public, two thousand crowns to defray
there the expense of some necessary repairs and embel-
lishments. But the last years of his life, though spent
in retirement and obscurity, surpassed all the rest. He
withdrew to Compiégne, the place of his birth. There,
separated from all society, occupied solely in the study
of sacred history, which had always been his delight,
having continually in his mind the thought of death*
and eternity, he devoted himself entirely to the service
of the poor children of the town. He built for them a
school, perhaps the most handsome in the kingdom, and
established a master for their instruction. He fulfilled
the office of one himself: he assisted very frequently at
their lessons: he almost always had some of them at
his table: he clothed many: he distributed to all, at
stated seasons, different rewards for their encourage-
ment: and his sweetest consolation was to think, that
after his death these children would make for him the
same prayer that the famous Gerson, whose humility
led him to become schoolmaster at Lyons, requested
in his will to be made for him by his pupils: “ My God,
my Creator, have pity upon thy poor servant, John Ger-
son.” He has had the blessing to die poor in some
sort in the midst of the poor; that which remained of
his property having hardly sufficed for a last endow-
ment which he had made of Sisters of Charity for the
instruction of girls, and the care of sick persons.’

Such was the preceptor ; and we shall see the pupil,
who has given this account, practising similar virtues,
and engaged in occupations equally useful. Although
Rollin was intrusted, at an early period of life, with
the duties of a very important situation, he acquitted
himself in them with all the wisdom and gravity of age,
no less than with the zeal and activity of youth. Con-
sidering that nothing could be more necessary to a stu-
dent than a knowledge of his native tongue, he re-
quired his pupils to pay a more strict attention to the

* “He published a collection of extracts which he had made upon
this subject, called, Pensées édifiantes sur la mort, tirées des propres
paroles de l' Ecriture sainte et des saints Peres,’

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. Xi}

French language, and to make themselves familiar
with the chefs dauvre of poetry and eloquence which
it contains. Classical learning appears to have been
in a declining state; for the knowledge of the Greek
language had been ; so much neglected, that Rollin is
called the reviver of it in the university. To fix the
minds of his pupils more attentively upon their stu-
dies, he established examinations, to which the public
were admitted, and in which it was the duty of the
scholars to give an account of, and answer questions
relative to, the Latin or Greek authors they had read
during the preceding years. These exercises were found
so useful, and were so agreeable to the taste of the
nation, that without any decree of the university, they
were adopted by all the colleges ; and from these they
passed into private schools, and penetrated (our Author
tells us) into all the provinces.

Although sensible of the duty of respecting the cus-
toms of the university, there was one practice to which
he declared an invincible repugnance, from that love
of propriety which in his bosom was paramount to all
other considerations. It was a custom, supported much
more by its antiquity than its wisdom, for the profes-
sors to compose tragedies, the parts of which were
sustained by their pupils. Rollin argues most strenu-
ously in his fourth volume of 7raité des Htudes against
these theatrical exhibitions: and as part of his reason-
ing applies to the annual performances of Terence’s
plays, at one of our great public schools, it may be
worth while to give a short abstract of his opinions
upon the subject.

After adverting to the inconvenience and the labour
to which the professors were subjected by the practice,
he complains that it often happened that the scholars,
under the pretext of preparing for the tragedy, eee
doned or neglected their regular studies for nearly two
months. He next alludes to the expenses incurred.
He declares that the pupils did not gain even the ad-
vantage of improving their elocution: that Quintilian*

* Ne gestus quidem omnis ac motus a comeedis petendus est.
Quanquam enim utrumque eorum ad quemdam modum prestare

XIV MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

remarks after Cicero, that there is a great difference
between the delivery of players and of orators: why,
therefore, accustom the young to a faulty manner,
which they will be compelled to abandon, when they
come to speak upon real business in public? He adds,
that the greatest objection against scenical exhibitions,
is the injury which it is probable will be inflicted upon
the piety and morals of the young performers. It
is natural enough they should be seized with a desire
of gaining ocular instruction in the best manner of filling
their parts ; and for that purpose they may frequent the
theatre too often, and imbibe such a taste for plays, as
may be followed with fatal results. If our seminaries
are to be converted into playhouses, the passion of
love, even in its most honourable form, should be ex-
cluded. All that makes one feel the impression of
love (says M. de Fenelon*), ‘the more it is softened
and disguised, the more dangerous it appears to me.’
M. de la Rochefoucault condemns plays for the same
reason.

Rollin’s concluding objection is of such a solemn
and weighty nature, that we shall give the translation
of his own words :—‘ There had crept in an abuse still
more intolerable, one expressly forbidden by the law
of Godt (I know not what was the origin of the pro-

debet orator, plurimim tamen aberit a scenico. Quintil. lib. 1.
cap. 11.
* Education des Filles.

+ ‘ The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man,
neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so
are abomination unto the Lord thy God.’ Deut. xxii. 5.

In Bishop Mant’s Bible we meet with the following note to this
passage. ‘It was an idolatrous custom for men to wear the
flowered garments of women, when they worshipped Venus; and
for women to wear a coat of mail and armour, when they wor-
shipped Mars; these dresses being accounted more pleasing to
them, as better suiting their particular characters; for Venus was
supposed to be the goddess of pleasure and love, and Mars the
god of arms and war. The idolatrous notion of deities of different
sexes was a great corruption of the knowledge of the true God; and
gave great occasion for debauchery and impurities, even in their
religious worship. It was this custom which the present law was
designed to discountenance.’ Lowman.

Without questioning the correctness of this statement, we may

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XV

hibition), and which kept its ground a long time in the
university : it was that of robing the young pupils in
female dresses in the tragedies. Can the world have
been ignorant during so many years that such a custom
(to use the expression of Scripture) was an abomina-
tion in the sight of God? The imprudence of some
person, who perhaps had little knowledge or little re-
ligion, may have first introduced it; and men afterwards
followed, without- reflection, a practice which the
found established.’ Since the university has forbidden
it, all persons have opened their eyes, and complied
with a regulation so wise and necessary. Those who
had the most concern in it, were chiefly persuaded by
what they heard related of a gentleman who was an
able professor,* and still more remarkable for his vir-
tue ; who at his death evinced extreme pain at having
followed a custom, which he knew had been to some
scholars an occasion of immorality (déréglement). That
is the time and situation in which we should place our-
selves to judge soberly of what we should follow, and
what we should avoid.’

M. Rollin proceeds with obvious satisfaction to relate
the manner in which the exhibition of tragedies was
formally condemned by the corporation of the city of
Toulouse, and literary exercises adopted instead at the
college of Esquile. In our Author’s time most of the
colleges at Paris had relinquished the obnoxious custom,
and it was afterwards totally abandoned atthe university.
Why do we (who often boast so loudly of our superior
virtue and discernment) retain amongst us a practice
which was condemned in France, and exploded from the
country, nearly a centuryago? If all the force of Rollin’s
arguments respecting the criminality of such a custom
could be annihilated, what possible benefit can accrue
from the annual performances at Westminster-school ?
observe, that the prohibition, ‘a man shall not put on a woman’s
garment,’ is so express and unqualified, that every violation of it,
for whatever purpose, must be accounted a sin. The words ‘all
that do so are abomination unto the Lord,’ declare the sin to be of
such a heinous nature, that a Christian should tremble at the

thought of being wantonly guilty of it.
* M.de Belleville, professor of rhetoric in the college of Plessis.

XVI MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

Although we must admire the delicacy and philan-
thropy of many of Terence’s sentiments, yet the ideas
which predominate in his scenes, are those of soft lovers
and lying slaves. How far the scholars of Westmin-
ster are obliged to submit to these scenic exhibitions,
and how far the yoke is one which cannot be dis-
carded, is a deliberation which concerns those who are
intrusted with the government of the school. It can-
not be impossible that the female characters at least
should be expunged: and is it not fit that moral pro-
priety should be more consulted than dramatic harmo-
ny? Parents, who consider it the most important part
of their duty carefully to guard the virtuous principles
of their children, cannot follow a more zealous guide
than the amiable Rollin. We warn them, therefore, to
hesitate before they sanction a custom from which his
feelings always recoiled with the most lively abhorrence.

After having held the professorship of rhetoric at the
college of Plessis with great reputation for the space
of eight or ten years, our Author resigned his post,
with the view of devoting his leisure to the study of
ancient history. But his absence from the university
was short: he was recalled in the end of the year 1694
to fill the situation of rector. This dignity he enjoyed
two years successively; which prolongation of his
ofice was a rare distinction, and an honourable proof
of the confidence which Alma Mater reposed in his
zeal and abilities. 3

Of the numbers of strangers who visit Paris, to
gratify their curiosity and indulge in pleasure, how
many are ignorant that the capital of luxuries contains
a venerable seat of learning. The metropolitan uni-
versity of France is renowned for the antiquity of its
origin, the eminence of its professors, and the erudi-
tion of its scholars. Pope Honorius III. called it a pa-
radise of delights which the hand of the Most High had
planted at Paris, the school of all kinds of literature.
The University styled herself the eldest daughter of
king's ; a title which she might justly assume on ac-
count of the many important privileges anciently be-
stowed upon. her by royal favour. Her schools at

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. ° XVI.

first consisted of four divisions, according to the num-
ber of nations or tribes, of which she formed the uni-
versity. The distinction of nations or tribes was after-
wards merged in the four faculties of divinity, civil and
canon law, physic, and the sciences. The rector.was
the supreme head of the whole body. :
On being elected to this high station, Rollin presided
in it with the most laudable vigilance and assiduity: .
he was strict in maintaining the discipline of the col-
leges: he revived the ancient customs, and introduced
some salutary reforms. He complied with the statutes
of the university which enjoined him to visit the col-
leges ; although his predecessors had thought them-
selves at liberty to neglect this useful duty. He con-
verted into a law the practice of commencing the lecture,
in the classes of humanity and philosophy, with the
explanation of some passage of Scripture. With the
same view of extending biblical knowledge, he pub-
lished, for the benefit of the inferior classes, a collection
of maxims selected from the Old and New Testament.
Although there was no man more humble and inoffen-
sive, when he was only personally concerned ; he was
very tenacious of the rights of his office, considering
that the dignity of the university was united with his
own. ‘At a public thesis of law (says Amelot de la
Houssaye), he would never suffer that the Archbishop of
Sens, Fortin de la Hoguette, should take precedence of
him.’ He mortified the pride of another archbishop
with a severe reproof of a practical nature. At the feast
of Candlemas, it was the rector’s duty, prescribed by
ancient custom, to present a wax taper to the king and the
queen, and, among other eminent persons, to the arch-
bishop of Paris. The metropolitan, M. de Harlay, not
feeling much gratification at this honour, adopted a
very unceremonious method of receiving it. Upon the
arrival of the deputies of the university, a gentleman of
his household appeared, who made the Archbishop’s
apologies, and received the taper in his stead. M. Rol-
lin, aware of the indignity put upon his predecessors,
and expecting the same himself, took suitable precau-
tions, and determined to resent indifference with indif-
VOu. TS b

XV MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

ference. When therefore he had arrived with all his
train in the court before the porch of Notre-Dame, in-
stead of waiting upon M. de Harlay, he sent the syndic
of the university with orders to carry the taper to the
archbishop’s gentleman. :

His office of rector expiring, Rollin was engaged in
superintending the education of the nephews of Cardi-
nal de Noailles. The Abbé Vittement recalled him to
a public station by obtaining for him the place of Prin-
cipal of the college of Beauvais. Rollin at first ex-
pressed some repugnance at the thought of filling such
a situation ; not, we suppose, from any indolent love of
ease, but from an anxious sensibility which magnified
in his apprehension the difficulties he would have to
encounter. Such appears to have been the state of his
feelings when he wrote to M. Duguet, a learned theo-
logian, by whose persuasion chiefly Rollin’s scruples
were overcome. ‘ You have almost forced me (declares
our Author to him) to undertake an important and dif-
ficult office ; you are bound to assist me in bearing the
weignt of it. I have to instruct in religion, youths who
are becoming numerous; it is for you to furnish me
with such lights and instructions as I ought to impart
to them.’ The connexion of learned men is often as ad-
vantageous to the public, as it isagreeableto themselves.
The consequence of Rollin’s entreaty was, that M. Du-
guet composed his Commentaires sur louvrage des siv
Jours et sur la Genese. The first volume of this work,
printed separately under the title of Explication sur
Couvrage des six yours, is an excellent performance, in
which the useful throughout is enlivened with the
agreeable.* ;

The college of Beauvais soon exhibited proofs of
the estimation in which Rollin’s talents were held by
his countrymen. This society, which previously had
been almost deserted, began to abound with scholars
under the government of its new principal. A singular
instance is given of the uncommon reputation which
he enjoyed. A rich gentleman of one of the provinces,
attracted by Rollin’s fame, brought his son to be re-

* Siécles Littéraires de la France,

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. X1X

ceived as a pensioner in the college of Beauvais. Rol-
lin declared his inability to admit him, as the number
of pensioners was already inconveniently great; and,
to convince the father, he conducted him through all
the apartments and dormitories, which were completely
occupied. However, parental expectation was not to
be so easily frustrated: ‘I have come to Paris (ex-
claimed the father) on purpose to bring you my son;
I shall depart to-morrow, and I will send him to you
with a bed; I have but him, you may put him in the
court, in fic cellar, if you please, but let him be in your
college, and from that moment I| shall have no uneasi-
ness about him.’ The goodness of Rollin could not re-
sist such an appeal as this. He was obliged to receive
the youth, and to dispose of him in his own apartments,
until he could place him amongst the other scholars.

In our Author’s time the duties of a principal resem-
bled those of a master of a seminary, more than of a head
of a college, in modern days. It was his province not
only to guard the discipline, and preside over the stu-
dies of the scholars, but also to instruct them in reli-
gious and moral duties, and even attend to their diet
and personal comforts. With what care, what vigilance
and affection, each of these parts of his office should be
fulfilled, Rollin has explained at length in his 77aité
des Etudes. The description must have been easy to
him; for (according to the testimony of those who
knew him), in particularizing the duties of a principal,
he has given the details of what was his own invariable
practice.

Heendeavoured to perpetuate among his countrymen
the accomplishments of learning, and the principles of
correct taste. There is no purer joy (he declares*) to
a scholar and a man of virtue, than to contribute by his
exertions to qualify youths for the office of skilful pro-
fessors ; and the pleasure is heightened, if he acts upon
motives of gratitude, to repay in some measure the be-
nefits which he himself has received from the university.
Rollin’s actions were in conformity with this generous
sentiment. He was too amiable not to be warmed with

* Traité des Etudes.
b 2

XX MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

a grateful remembrance of the manner in which he him-
self had been raised to eminence: it was impossible he
should forget the benevolence of his Benedictine friend,
the favours of M. Hersan, and the dignities which the
university had bestowed upon him. He requited these
obligations by labouring to advance others in that ho-
nourable course which he himself had trodden. One
of the most learned of his pupils was M. Crevier, the
author of several voluminous works. This gentleman
continued Rollin’s Roman History, but in the task has
proved himself inferior to his master. He published
also, besides other works, a History of the Roman
Emperors: and there is an edition of Livy, which passes
under his name, although he is not entitled to the cre-
dit of the whole performance. The origin of this work
deserves to be recorded. The notes of Crevier’s-Livy,
which are concise and learned, were the result of lite-
rary conversations held between Rollin, some of the
professors of the college of Beauvais, the Abbé d’As-
feld, and others. M. Crevier, as the youngest person,
had the task of digesting and compiling the matter of
these discussions. They took place when the duties of
college were finished, and originated in the zeal of Rol-
lin, who considered them as no more than a recreation.
Thus, even the leisure of this learned man was inge-
niously employed, and became productive of benefit to
the republic of letters.

But no virtues and no qualifications, however distin-
guished, could protect him from the rage of religious
animosity. He was persecuted for Jansenism, a crime
which those, who are not much acquainted with theo-
logical controversies, may desire to be explained tothem.
The name of Cornelius Jansen or Jansenius, bishop of
Ypres, has become celebrated on account of his posthu-
mous work, called Augustinus, which is deeply impreg-
nated with Calvinistic sentiments. About the middle
of the seventeenth century this book was made the pre-
text of a violent controversy in France. The Jesuits,
incensed against the followers of Jansen, and inflamed
with the lust of dominion, more perhaps than the love
of truth, caused the following articles, as expressing the

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. Xxl

Bishop of Ypres’s faith, to be condemned by the Faculty
of Theology at Paris, and afterwards by Pope Innocent
the Tenth.

1. There are divine precepts which even good men
cannot obey without the assistance of God.

2. That no man can resist the influence of divine
grace on his mind.

3. That to render human actions meritorious, it is not
necessary for them to be free from necessity, but con-
straint.

4. That the doctrine of free-will is a gross error.

5. That Jesus Christ died not for all men, but only
for the elect.

The Jansenists uttered complaints and replies: and
as the propositions, which were declared heretical, were
not given in the words of Jansen, they denied that they |
were to be found in his book. In the sequel, the two
parties were entangled in a vehement dispute concern-
ing the extent of divine grace. The Jesuits main-
tained, ‘that there is a general grace bestowed upon
all mankind, but in such a sense subordinated to
free-will, that this grace is rendered efficacious or in-
efficacious as the will chooses, without any additional
assistance from God, and without needing any thing
exterior to itself to make its operations effectual; on
which account it is distinguished by the epithet szff:-
cient. The Jansenists, on the contrary, affirm, that no
grace is actually sufficient, unless it be also efficacious;
that is, that all those principles which do not determine
the will to act effectively, are insufficient for action, be-
cause, they say, no one can act without efficacious
grace. * The ablest advocates of the Jansenists were
M. Arnauld, and other members of the Society of Port
Royal ; together with the celebrated Blaise Pascal, a
man whose profound and universal genius it is impos-
sible to contemplate without astonishment. If it were
ever allowable to rejoice at a controversy, it would be
when it gives birth to such admirable works as Pascal’s
Provincial Letters. The eloquence of Frenchmen
of the most opposite tastes and sentiments, has been

* Provincial Letters. Letter 2. |

XXll MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

employed in panegyrizing this extraordinary produe-
tion. It was the opinion of Voltaire, that the best co-
medies of Moliere do not surpass the Provincial Letters
in wit, nor the discourses of Bossuet excel them in sub-
limity. The Bishop of Meaux himself, who is perhaps
the most eloquent of all the moderns, being interrogated
what work (omitting his own writings) he should. most
desire to be the author of, answered, the Provincial
Letters. D’Alembert and Boileau have contributed
eulogies equally warm and unqualified as the preced-
ing. The work, which so many acute judges have con-
spired to praise, was eventually the chief cause of the
extinction of the order of the Jesuits. Pascal made a
transition from the subject of sufficient and efficacious
grace, to attack the principles and morality of his ad-
versaries: and he exposed their artful iniquity with so
much pungency of ridicule, and so much vehemence of
reproof, that they became universally contemptible. Al-
though their order was not suppressed in Europe, nor
expelled even from France, till more than a century af-
terwards; yet they gradually lost their authority, and
were unable to withstand the keenness and the weight
of those arguments which Pascal had taught their ene-
mies to wield against them. They retained their power,
however, long enough to inflict consummate vengeance
upon the society of Port Royal. When the ferocious
Jesuit Michael Le Tellier was appointed confessor to
Louis XIV., that monastery, which had become illus-
trious by the residence of learned scholars, and devout
nuns, was razed to the ground, and the very dead dis-
interred to gratify the revenge of the disciples of the
fanatic Loyola.

Rollin’s offences consisted in the constancy with which
he retained his friendship for some of the exiled mem-
bers of Port Royal, and in the courage which animated
him to write in defence of what he considered to be the
doctrines of truth. Thus rendering himself hateful to
a powertul party, he became the victim of their intrigues,
and was finally ordered to quit the college of Beauvais.
He bore this injury with great magnanimity. Although
compelled unjustly to forego the duties of a principal,

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXII

he still retained the most anxious regard for the youth
over whom he had presided. His chief concern was to —
see such a successor in his place, as would be most ©
competent to support the interests and reputation of the
college. The person whom his own judgment approved
was M. Coffin: and when he was assured that the ap-
pointment of this gentleman was agreeable to others as
well as himself, he found his bosom relieved of the
greatest inquietude which disturbed him. On the even-
ing of the 6th of June, 1712, after having paid in cha-
pel the sacrifice of devotion to his heavenly Protector,
Rollin silently left the college, without any attendant,
and with little consolation but what was afforded him
by a mind conscious of its integrity. The scholars
were not aware till after his departure, that the connex-
ion with their virtuous principal was dissolved. When
the unwelcome intelligence was announced to them,
then (says M. Crevier, who was a witness of the scene)
it was evident how much Rollin was beloved. As soon
as it was known with certainty, that he had departed
from the college never to enter it again in his former
capacity, the grief of the scholars was loud and univer-
sal. The Boursiers expressed their regret in a more
honourable manner than by empty lamentations. Rol-
lin had been accused of negligence to them in particular :
in order to confute this calumny, and repair as far as
possible an injury to which they had been made ac-
cessory, they addressed to him a letter, and all put
their signatures to a testimonial, avouching their deep-
est respect and gratitude to the master from whom they
had been so unexpectedly separated.

Rollin fixed his residence in a retired part of Paris,
where he had purchased a small house, which he in-
habited until his death. The concerns of education,
and the interests of the youth of France, still occupied
his attention. His solitude was constantly intruded
upon by parents, who came to consult him respecting
their children. They seemed to think they should not
fully discharge their duty to their offspring, unless they
sought the benefit of M. Rollin’s judicious advice.
His kindness satisfied the parental anxieties of all who

XXi1V. MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

approached him; but his most tender regard was re-
served for his late scholars of the college of Beauvais.
In this M. Coffin sympathized with him, and paid so
much deference to his predecessor’s judgment, as not
to venture to undertake any thing of importance with-
out his counsel.

The fruit of Rollin’s leisure, and first production
from his pen, was an edition of Quintilian’s Institutions,
which has been republished in London, and is the
chief edition which is used in the schools of our Gallie
neighbours. In this publication our Author gave a pre-
face, written in pure Latinity, ably characterizing the
merit of the great Roman rhetorician, and explaining
the utility of his work for the purpose of forming both
the orator and the man of virtue. As the book was
designed chiefly for juvenile scholars, he retrenched
those parts of the author, which seemed obscure and
redundant. He elucidated the text with a selection of
short notes, and prefixed a summary to the head of
each chapter. |

This edition appeared in 1715, and the same year
the university appointed him Procureur, or chief of the
nation of France. In this office he had an opportunity
of giving a public specimen of that eloquence, in the
study and explanation of which so many years of his
life had been employed. The regency under Louis XV.
had just bestowed upon the citizens the privilege of
gratuitous instruction; which favour they were ena-
bled to grant by securing a fixed stipend to each pro-
fessor of the university. The funds to defray these
salaries, were levied from the department of the Post.
This tax was no more than a debt of justice to the uni-
versity, which had made the first attempt, in France,
for the establishment of posts, by those messengers who
used to conduct the young students from foreign na-
tions to Paris, and were the only agents of communi-
cation between them and their country. Rollin having
to express the public thanks for the bounty of Louis,
endeavoured (as he himself informs us*) to explain the
earnest and careful manner in which the university la-
* Dedication to Traité des Etudes.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXV

boured to imbue the minds of her scholars not only
with learning, but much more with tenets of probity and
religion. His discourse was so gratifying to the mem-
bers of the learned body, which he represented, that
they requested him to expand his thoughts, and to dis-
cuss in detail what he had been obliged to treat in a
very brief and cursory manner. The following is their
decree extracted from the records of the university.

‘Anno Domini 1720, die 13 Januarii.

‘ Placuit per amplissimum Rectorem, Universitatis
nomine, gratias maximas agi haberique domino Carolo
Rollin, cumque ei precibus agi, ut orationem suam ty-
pis imprimat ac faciat publici juris; sin vinci modes-
tia non possit, saltem partem eam sue orationis que
est de Ratione docendi in Academia Parisiensi usur-
pari consueta, fusius aliquanto atque uberius, per sin-
gula capita explicet, etc. Atque ita ab amplissimo
Rectore conclusum fuit, signatum Cofhini, Rector.’

Considering this request as obligatory as a com-
mand, Rollin took up his pen, and produced his 7razté
des Etudes, or Manner of Teaching and Studying the
Belles Lettres. This work, which is very comprehen-
sive in its plan, is divided into six parts. In the first,
the Author treats of the study of languages, the French,
the Latin, and the Greek. In the second, he discourses
of poetry; and in the third, of rhetoric. The two next
are appropriated to history and philosophy ; and the
last, which is intended to direct the judgment of teach-
ers, enters into a detail concerning the management of
youth, and the government of a college. These sub-
jects are discussed, if not always in a profound, at least
in an agreeable manner. Rollin possessed the French
art of saying common things in a pleasant way; and his
disquisitions often shew more oratorical neatness, than
philosophical depth. Those who can read Blair's Lec-
tures in their own language, need not undertake the
task of studying the 7raité des Etudes. Still, the pe-
rusal of the latter work will repay the reader of taste ;
as besides displaying the most anxious and watchful

XXV1 MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

zeal for the good of the community, it developes the
character, and embodies many of the chief beauties, of
the best French and classical writers. The book is
curious also, as unfolding the ancient institutes and dis-
cipline of the university of Paris. Perplexed as parents
are liable to be, with a multiplicity of novel schemes of
education, let them determine that no system is com-
plete, which does not embrace all the points which
Rollin enumerates—learning, morals, and religion.
The ancient university of Paris (we are assured by
him*) aimed at three objects: first, to cultivate the
minds of youth, and adorn them with all the knowledge
which they are capable of receiving; next, to rectify
and regulate their hearts by the principles of honour
and probity, in order to make them good citizens ;
and lastly, as the perfection and consummation of
the work, to actuate them with the spirit of sincere
Christians.

From the time of the delivery of Rollin’s public ha-
rangue to the completion of his Zraité des Etudes, was
a period of nearly ten years; at the end of which the
university again elevated him to the office of Rector.
Rollin had not abandoned his principles, nor his ene-
mies softened their intolerance. Ina discourse which he
delivered on the 11th of December, 1730, he shewed that
neither time nor persecution had convinced him of the
error of those doctrines, which had occasioned his for-
mer disgrace. How far he was indiscreet in thus re-
kindling religious feuds, we have not precise information
enough to enable us to determine. Although it seems
irreconcilable with his character that he should be
guilty of: any acrimonious bitterness in avowing his
opinions, yet his delinquency was considered as un-
pardonable as before. The honours, which would have
expired in a few months, were violently seized from
him: he was displaced from his post, and driven into
his former retirement.

Intolerance could not snatch the pen from his hands,
nor close the press against his publications. To assist
those studies of youth, over which he was debarred from

* Discours Préliminaire.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXVll

personally presiding, he composed his Ancient History,
which appeared in thirteen volumes at different times,
between 1730 and 1738. Of all his works, this is the
one which has obtained for its author the greatest de-
gree of celebrity: it has spread his renown through the
most intelligent nations of Europe; and what is no small
_ distinction, has made his name as familiar to English
readers, as the names of the most esteemed writers
among their own countrymen. A reputation so emi-
nent must be built upon solid merit. The author of
the Ancient History has effected much more than he
professed to undertake ; since his volumes, rising above
the rank of an ordinary accompaniment to scholastic
studies, contain a fund of knowledge and gratification
suitable to the taste of every description of readers.
They are so deeply imbued with the spirit and learn-
ing of antiquity, that those who are debarred from the
original works of the classical writers, cannot go to a
better source to form correct notions of the temper and
manners of ancient people: while the more accom-
plished scholar will be delighted to find the substance
of his studies embodied, and presented to the review
of his mind, in one consistent work.

The plan of the Ancient History, which embraces the
events of many centuries, and the exploits of many na-
tions, required that its author should possess a very
extensive range of erudition. It was necessary to
search all the stores of antiquity, in order to ascend to
the most distant epochs of the Egyptian and Assyrian
annals, and to describe the numerous transactions of
Carthaginians, and Greeks, and Macedonians. Ac-
cordingly we find, there is scarcely a classical writer
from whom Rollin has not enriched his pages: histo-
rians and poets, philosophers and orators, are all con-
strained in turn to furnish incidents and allusions, and
embellish the account of their own, or preceding ages.
The variety of scenes and events, through which the
reader is carried, is sufficient to stimulate the dullest
curiosity, and sustain an ardent interest in the mind.
We are transported to the greatest cities of the world,
to Carthage, to Athens and Babylon, amidst a suc-

XXV111 MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

cession of events which possess all the liveliness and
splendour of romance without its exaggerations. We
become familiarized with the most noble characters of
antiquity : we accompany Hannibal in his invasion of
Italy, follow Cyrus to the throne of Persia, and are
amazed at the daring achievements of Alexander in
his rapid conquest of the East. We pass from the tu-
~ mults of the camp to the noise of the forum, and learn
how Pericles and Demosthenes swayed the minds of
the capricious Athenians; or retiring to the converse of
philosophers, we hear Socrates discourse upon the
rules of practical wisdom, and wonder how so much
acuteness and magnanimity should be repaid with an in-
famous death. In short, we meet with such a number of
curious incidents, noble sentiments, and weighty apo-
phthegms, that the chief spoils of ancient times being
collected together, only a moderate industry is requi-
site to store them in our minds.

Upon the moral instruction to be gained from the
perusal of history, Rollin always carefully enlarges.
His pages are almost as thickly interspersed with re-
flections as those of Euripides; but with more propriety,
as it is the peculiar province of history to instruct by
maxims drawn from experience, while tragedy aspires to
purify the soul by the emotions of terror and pity. Our
Author’s custom of moralizing so diffusely, is to be at-
tributed to his solicitude for the virtuous principles of
- the young, for whose benefit chiefly his Ancient His-
tory was compiled. Persons however of riper age and
more mature judgment may be delighted with his sen-
timents. It was a compliment paid him by that Duke of
Cumberland who was his contemporary: ‘I know not
how M. Rollin manages: every where else reflections
weary me ; in his book they charm me, and I never lose
a single word of them.’ Whatever opinion we may form
of the profusion with which his sentiments are lavished,
it is impossible not to admire their excellent tendency.
Nothing can be more pure, more noble, and more pious,
than our Author’s reflections. In estimating the qua-
lities of any great character, his judgment is never daz-
zled by the lustre of specious exploits: he makes the

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XX1X

true glory of actions to consist in the virtuous motives
which inspired them, and the degree of utility which
followed, or was likely to follow, their execution.

As the education ofall the learned part of Christendom
is grounded upon a close acquaintance with the writings
of Pagan authors, nothing should be more carefully
guarded against, than an anomalous mixture of Christian
and Heathen principles. An unqualified admiration
of Heathen characters, will gradually infuse into the
heart the tenets of Heathen morality; so that a scholar
often, by a process imperceptible to himself, incorpo-
rates the sentiments of Paganism with the profession
of Christianity. Rollin was aware of this danger, to
which the lovers of classical literature are exposed.
To counteract it, he determines the merit of Pagan ac-
tions by the standard of Christian morality. Nor is this
unjust: to judge men by a perfect law which they did
not possess, would be a flagrant breach of equity ; but
to estimate actions in the abstract by any rule which is
not rigidly correct, would be voluntarily to mislead our
own understandings. In the perusal, therefore, of An-
cient History, it is sufficient sometimes to admire the
magnanimity of the great characters which it portrays,
without imitating their conduct. Rollin is generally
careful to intercept our admiration, whenever it is likely
to exceed due bounds; and he animadverts upon the
sentiments which might be excusable in a Heathen,
but can admit of no palliation under the light which
revealed religion has imparted. This correctness and
delicacy of moral feeling, which pervades our Author's
work, will considerably enhance its value with those
who know how artfully their principles may be attacked
in the midst of historical disquisition. It would have
detracted nothing from their elegance, but would have »
obviated the reproach, which they bear, of disinge-
nuous and rancorous hostility to the Christian reve-
lation, if the two most accomplished historians of our
own country had not deviated from the track before
them, in order to asperse a faith, the excellence of
which they were too arrogant and self-sufficient to ap-
preciate. Rollin labours to establish, and not con-

XXX MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

found, the principles of his readers: his taste as well
as virtue would not allow him to interrupt the pleasures
of fancy, or the emotions of the heart, by a silly and
unexpected sneer. If he enchants us not with all the
graces of Hume or Gibbon, neither does he attempt to
perplex us with their insidious sophisms. To study
his volumes is to accustom ourselves to form correct
sentiments, and to nourish a generous enthusiasm for
piety and virtue.

His style (of which it is not fair to judge with rigo-
rous minuteness from a translation, which was executed
many years ago) possesses a graceful ease, and harmo-
nious sweetness. It is formed upon the model of
Xenophon; with the writings of which historian he had
an accurate acquaintance, as they constituted his fa-
vourite study. He has imitated his beauties with so
much success, that as the disciple of Socrates was de-
nominated the Attic Bee, so the pupil of Hersan has
been styled the Bee of France.*

Amidst many excellences his work does not exhibit
much historical acumen. He is not eminent for that
critical sagacity, which guides the reader satisfactorily
through various discrepancies, preserves him from be-
ing imposed upon by the hasty accounts of historians,
and often collects the truth from a few scattered hints
or allusions, ingeniously compared together. Rollin
confides with too much credulity in the unfounded
anecdotes and exaggerated relations of the ancient
writers ; and while his facts are not always authentic,
neither is his chronology remarkable for its accuracy.
Minor defects have been observed. Important and
trifling occurrences are sometimes mingled together in
awkward confusion: and he has contributed to the in-
equality of style, which disfigures his book, by fre-
quently borrowing fifty or sixty pages together from
different modern writers.| These obligations he inge-

* “Un honnéte homme, Rollin, dit M. Montesquieu (CEuvres
posth.) a, par ses ouvrages d’Histoire, enchanté le public. C’est le
coeur qui parle au cceur; on sent une secréte satisfaction d’entendre
parler la vertu: c’est l’abeille de la France,’

+ Siécles Littéraires de la France.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXXI

nuously avows, and never affects to treat in a new way
the subjects, which have been discussed satisfactorily
by others before him.

The reputation of our Author’s writings attracted
the notice of the great, from whom he received many
flattering marks of regard. The Prince Royal of Prussia,
afterwards Frederick II. cherished a warm esteem fo:
him, and in one of his letters complimented him with
a sentiment worthy of Meceenas: ‘ Des hommes tels que
vous marchent a coté des souverains. The Queen of
England had expressed a desire to maintain a corre-
spondence with him, but the plan was frustrated by her
death. The Duke of Orleans intrusted to him the
superintendence of the studies of his son, and wished
him to take every Monday an account of the young
prince's proficiency. Such intercourse as this, however
honourable, was too distant to supply the place of that
friendship, which seldom subsists in its full warmth of af-
fection, but between equals. Amongst the private friends
of Rollin were ranked many men whose talents and si-
tuations reflected a degree of honour upon the persons,
whom they judged worthy of their intimate regard.
The Abbé d’Asfeld is particularly named as the most
tender and amiable friend of our Author. The souls —
of these two virtuous men were attracted together and
united by a close conformity of sentiments, by the
same earnest piety, and the same pure taste in the stu-
dies of literature. Rollin allowed the Abbé to partici-
pate in all his labours and in all his pleasures. He dis-
burdened his anxieties to him, while he was at the head
of the college of Beauvais ; and assisted himself by his
judgment during the composition of his learned works.
He made him also the companion of his rural walks ; in
which the two friends perused together the Lives of
Plutarch, thus contriving that the beauties of nature
and the beauties of learning should be tasted at the
same time, and each be heightened by the other.

Rollin softened the pressure of old age by the in-
nocent pleasures of conviviality. During the last
years of his life he yielded, more freely than before,
to the numerous invitations with which his society was

XXX1l MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

courted. Every day almost he dined abroad with his
friends; excepting Sundays and festivals, when his
piety kept him at home, that he might be able to at-
tend vespers. At these entertainments his kindness
and address always effected some useful object.
Parents were benefited by his experienced counsels ;
and the children, whom they presented to him, were
encouraged by his tenderness, and improved by his
skilful interrogatories. If sometimes after the repast
(his biographer relates) he happened to slip away
without being observed by any one, he was sure to be
found in an adjoining apartment with a young scholar,
who was giving an account to him of some passage of
history, or reciting some choice piece of eloquence or
poetry.

Thus he enjoyed one of those pure gratifications,
which Cicero* enumerates as compatible with the con-
dition of old age: ‘Quid enim est jucundius senectute
stipata studiis juventutis? An ne eas quidem vires se-
nectuti relinquemus, ut adolescentulos doceat, instituat,
ad omne officii munus instruat? quo quidem opere quid
potest esse preclarius?’ He verified, also, the same
orator’s commendation of age: ‘Sed videtis, ut se-
nectus non modo languida atque iners non sit, verum
etiam sit operosa, et semper agens aliquid et moliens ;
tale scilicet, quale cujusque studium in superiore vita
fuit.’ He was sixty years old when he took up the
pen the first time to write in his native language; and
he was nearly ten years older when he commenced his
Ancient History, a laborious work, which seemed to
require the vigorous application of youth, in order to
execute it. The love of ease did not overcome his in-
dustry even at seventy-five ; for it was at such an ad-
vanced stage of life that he ventured to undertake a
new work. This was the Roman History from the
foundation of Rome to the battle of Actium; the first
volume of which was published with the last of the
Ancient History. It appears by his letters that he de-
liberated some time with his pious friends, whether he
should commence an arduous undertaking at a declin-

* De Senectute.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXXIll

ing age, which he desired to consecrate entirely to the
studies and meditations of religion. It was represented
to him, that the sacrifice of his leisure being so advan-
tageous to youth, could not fail to be acceptable to his
Creator. He was persuaded by this reasoning, and
lived to finish nearly half of the intended work. This
last performance does not possess sufficient merit to
exalt it to a comparison with the Ancient History ;
which inferiority has been supposed to arise, either
from the natural decay of age, which had enfeebled his
powers, or from the fierceness and tumult of the events
of the Roman republic, which might be disgusting to
his tranquil disposition, and the peaceful sentiments
of old age. His desire of being useful, or else that
garrulity which increases with years, betrayed him into
an unpardonable excess of moralizing. While he merely
indicates many important events, he dwells with pro-
lixity upon those which furnish opportunity for the
serious reflections with which he was burdened. The
greatest benefit of the work to a French reader is, that
he may enjoy in it the finest parts of Livy elegantly
translated into his own language.* M. Crevier conti-
nued the History from the ninth to the sixteenth vo-
lume; and however little praise Rollin’s part of the per-
formance has received, his pupil’s has been commended
still less. |
But our Author’s name had acquired sufficient lustre
from his former publications; and as his days had been
honourably spent, so they were triumphantly closed.
In the short illness, which was fatal to him, when the
last sacraments were being administered, his friends
and pupils were overpowered with grief, and could
not refrain from tears. Elated with Christian hope,
and anticipating the glorious reward of his labours,
he piously reproved their lamentations, by declaring :
‘I wish to see no tears and no marks of affliction ;
this day with us is a festival.’ Supported by such holy
sentiments he joyfully expired, after a long life, which
had been extended to the eighty-first year. Themem-

* Siécles Littéraires.
VO 1. Cc

XXXIV MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

bers of the university were present at the solemnity of
his funeral ; but the customary eulogy by a public dis-
course was denied him. The same religious hatred,
which persecuted him during his life, saddened his
obsequies, and suppressed the praise which was due to
his memory. Neither his venerable age, nor his nu-
merous virtues, had been able to preserve him from the
aspersions of calumny. He had been accused of con-
cealing in his humble mansion a press, from which
issued anonymous pamphlets, inimical to the peace of
both church and state. The informations against him
were so positive and urgent, that Cardinal Fleury, the
minister, ordered the police to examine his house ; and
the search was as rigorous, as the accusation had been
malicious and groundless. Thus in life and in the
grave, this most harmless man was the victim of Jesu-
itical hatred. Louis XVI. endeavoured to cancel the.
injustice which had been done him, and ordered a sta-
tue to be erected to his memory, among those of the
most illustrious men of France.

To this honour he was indisputably entitled, by be-
ing adorned with all those excellences which consti-
tute a great and amiable character. In Rollin we ad-
mire learning ennobled by virtue, and virtue exalted
by piety. He lived in a brilliant era of French lite-
rature, in an age of the most perfect orators and poets.
Although his works do not elevate him to the renown
of the most eminent writers of his country, yet his ta-
lents were very considerable, his learning extensive,
and his taste pure and classical. Of his virtues we
may affirm, that they were almost without a blemish.
We see him presiding over the education of the youth
of France with as much affection and vigilance, as if
he were the patriarch of the whole nation, and had
adopted all the children of the country as his sons.
We observe him in retirement constantly practising
the lessons which he taught, and portraying the loveli-
ness of virtue by the efficacy of a good example.

Depressed by an obscure birth and an humble for-
tune, Rollin had to surmount many difficulties, in order
to gain the eminent posts of learning. It was his own

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXXV

strength chiefly on which he was compelled to rely ;
as he had no friends, but those whom his exemplary
conduct and superior talents happened to conciliate.
When his success had equalled his merit, and perhaps
surpassed his ambition, his mind was as humble as if
he had remained in the obscurity in which he was
born. He never affected any disdain of his former
condition, nor attempted to conceal the meanness of
his birth; on the contrary, he gave notoriety to it by
his own pen, and ina Latin epigram reminds one of his
friends, that he took his flight from the caves of Aitna
to the tops of Pindus.

Doctissimo viro N. Bosquillon, cim ei cultellum in xenia mitteret.

ZEtna heec, non Pindus, tibi mittit munera: morem
Cyclopes Musis preecipuere suum.

Translatum AStneis me Pindi in culmina ab antris
Hic se, si nescis, culter, amice, docet.* —

At the time he was caressed by the most illustrious
persons in Europe, he lived ina style as simple and
unostentatious as that of the plainest citizen. His
house was so small, that it could sometimes with diffi-
culty contain the numerous visitants who flocked to

* There are some other verses by Rollin which are a proof of
his amiable condescension. He sent to young Lepelletier a large
taper, such as it was customary to present to the presidents of par-
liament at the feast of Candlemas; at the same time he addressed to
him the following lines, which must be understood as spoken by
the university.

Ad venustulum et elegantulum et peramabilem Pelteriolum, cim
ei, tanquam futuro quondum senatis principi, cereum mitteret.

Incipe, parve puer, dono cognoscere matrem,
Venturique istud pignus honoris habe.
Talia supremi queis sedes summa senatts
Contigerit, soleo munera ferre viris.
Te manet heec sedes: summum Themis ipsa tribunal
(Vera cano) patri destinat, inde tibi.+
Cura sit interea ludo tibi fingere corpus,
Mox animum pulchris artibus ipsa colam.
Academia Parisiensis, primogenita regum filia,
31 Jan. 1695.

+ This prediction was verified: for twelve years afterwards, M.
Lepelletier was first president, and he was succeeded by his son.

eZ

XXXVI MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

him. Splendour and parade were wearisome to him.
When courtesy compelled him to be present at those
entertainments, which had no attraction but the luxury
of the repast, and the rank of the guests, he always re-
turned home dissatisfied. ‘Those dinners (he would
complain) ‘where one does nothing but dine, fatigue
me: I reckon such days lost.’ He preferred the tables
of virtuous citizens, who were zealous for the education
of their children: with them he had always an oppor-
tunity to discharge his duty ; These (he would say) are
my dukes and peers.’

His moderation was a virtue which proceeded from
disinterestedness, and not a duty imposed by unavoid-
-able poverty. He had many opportunities of enrich-
ing himself, all of which he magnanimously overlooked
or rejected. He never availed himself of his intercourse
with the great for the purpose of self-aggrandizement ;
although his income at the time of his greatest prospe-
rity, was scarcely three thousand livres.* He relin-
quished those profits which would have been only the
just remuneration of his study and labours: for the
sole stipulation which he made with the bookseller who
published his works was, that he might be allowed to
indemnify him, if he should happen to incur any loss.

After he had quitted the college of Beauvais, his
friend and protector the president of Mesmes secretly
solicited for him a pension upon an ecclesiastical be-
nefice. When he was upon the point of obtaining
his request, he sent for Rollin to communicate the in-
telligence, which he thought would be joyfully received.
But our Author, having heard the proposal, exclaimed
with surprise, ‘A pension, my Lord, forme! why, what
service have I rendered the church, that I should pos-
sess ecclesiastical revenues?’ The president reminded
him, that the Christian education which he had given
to so many youths was a service rendered to the church
as well as the state ; and urged him, as he was far from
rich, to accept the assistance which was offered. ‘My
Lord (replied Rollin), I am richer than the king ; and
firmly persisted in rejecting property to which he thought

* One hundred and twenty-five pounds.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXXVII

none but churchmen entitled. The impropriators of
this country have been too long in possession of church
lands, to feel any scruples concerning the validity of
their titles: when however they see half the clergy im-
poverished, and themselves abounding in wealth, they
might very aptly put the question to their consciences,
‘What service have we done to the church, that we
should possess ecclesiastical revenues? The property
which has been so long enjoyed by them, and the right
to which has been solemnly recognised, no moderate
and peaceable subject would desire to see disturbed :
but when the clergy, who are compelled to undergo an
expensive education, and afterwards to devote their
time and studies to ecclesiastical functions, are envied
a mechanic’s pittance, which is all that most of them
ever gain from the altar ; surely they may be permitted
to silence clamour, and repel odium, by pointing to the
impropriators, and asking what those laymen have done
for the church, that they possess its revenues, without
any of the dispute or obloquy which the clergy en-
counter ?

Although straitened in his circumstances, Rollin is
commended for great liberality and beneficence. He
assisted with his purse the scholars whom he intended
for professors, and who were too indigent to defray the
entire expenses attendant upon their studies. Every -
month his servant distributed alms to a considerable
amount: and on one occasion, being informed of the
increase of the price of bread, he wrote to his faith-
ful domestic from the chateau d’Asfeld: ‘ You must
double the ordinary distribution for the last month, and
for this: you must even make it triple, if you think it ne-
cessary. Do not be afraid of impoverishing me by giving
too much: itis laying out my money at great interest.’

In devotion, our Author was rigid, and even super-
stitious. During the time of the popular fanaticism
respecting the Abbé Paris,* Rollin was to be seen pray-
ing at the tomb of the pious deacon.

* Francis Paris, a famous deacon of Paris, was the eldest son
of acounsellor of parliament. After the death of his father, he

XXXVI MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

He said his breviary with the most punctual regu-
larity. He heard mass every day, and always received
the sacrament on Sundays. He cherished a singular
devotion towards the Virgin Mary; and on the days
consecrated to her worship, he usually went to Notre-
Dame, where he heard mass, communicated, and passed
part of the morning in prayers. Every year, if he was
at Paris in the month of October, he made on foot the
pilgrimage of St. Denys, during the festival of that
apostle of France.

He visited also every year his parish church of St.
John en Gréve, in order to renew his baptismal vows at
the sacred font.

It was a practice which he commenced when he was
principal, and afterwards continued till his death, to
pray every day to the infant Jesus Christ for the young,
to the Virgin Mary for mothers, and to St. Joseph for
fathers and masters.

During Lent he practised great austerities, and ob-
served the discipline of the primitive ages of the church.
Such is the picture which has been drawn of Rollin’s
devotion. Protestants perhaps may be tempted to
smile at some of his superstitious performances; but it

relinquished all his property to his brother, and retiring from the
world, devoted himself to prayer, and the rigorous duties of peni-
tence. He submitted even to manual labours, and wove stockings
for the poor, whom he considered as his brethren. He died in his
retreat in 1727, being 37 years of age. His brother having erected
a tomb for him in the cemetery of St. Medard, the poor whom the
deacon had relieved, some rich persons who had been edified, and
many females who had been instructed by him, resorted to the se-
pulchre, to pray and exercise their devotion. Among the multi-
tudes of sick persons who at last flocked to the tomb, a few cures
were effected, which were considered by the Jansenists as miracu-
lous, but which might be naturally occasioned by violent convul-
sions, which would ‘ produce a removal of disorders depending
upon obstruction.’ The disturbance at length became so great,
that the government was obliged to order the cemetery to be closed
in January, 1732.

The Parisian miracles (with two other instances still more weak)
Mr. Hume has been audacious and silly enough to compare with
the miracles recorded in the New Testament. Dr. Paley has re-
plied to the sophist in his Evidences, part. i. prop. 2. chap. 2.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. XXXIxX

is their duty, while they shun his errors, to imitate his
piety, and the amiable virtues which were engendered
by it.

aes has been usual to prefix to the English edition of
the Ancient History a letter from Bishop Atterbury ; and
as the great celebrity of the writer makes it interesting,
we shall not presume to withhold it.

A Letter written by the Right Reverend Dr. Francis
ATTERBURY, late Lord Bishop of Rochester, to M.
Roun, in commendation of this Work.

REVERENDE ATQUE ERUDITISSIME VIR,

Cum, monente amico quodam, qui juxta edes tuas
habitat, scirem te Parisios revertisse, statui salutatum
te ire, ut primum per valetudinem liceret. Id officii,
ex pedum infirmitate aliquandiu dilatum, cum tandem
me impleturum sperarem, frustra fui; domi non eras.
Restat, ut quod coram exequi non potul, scriptis saltem
literis preestem; tibique ob ea omnia, quibus a te auc-
tus sum, beneficia, grates agam, quas habeo certé, et
semper habiturus sum, maximas.

Revera munera illa librorum nuperis a te annis edi-
torum egregia ac perhonorifica mihi visa sunt. Multi
enim facio, et te, vir preestantissime, et tua omnia quee-
cunque in isto literarum genere perpolita sunt; in quo
quidem Te ceteris omnibus ejyusmodi scriptoribus facilé
antecellere, atque esse eundem et dicendi et sentiendi
magistrum optimum, prorsts existimo ; cumque in ex-
colendis his studiis aliquantulum ipse et opere et tem-
poris posuerim, liberé tamen profiteor me, tua cum le-
gam ac relegam, ea edoctum esse a te, non solim que
nesciebam prorsus, sed etiam que antea didicisse mihi
visus sum. Modesté itaque nimitim de opere tuo sentis,
cum juventuti tantum instituendee elaboratum id esse
contendis. Ea certé scribis, que 4 viris istiusmodi re-
rum haud imperitis, cum voluptate et fructu legi pos-
sunt. Vetera quidem et satis cognita revocas in me-
moriam; sed ita revocas, ut illustres, ut ornes; ut

xl MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

aliquid vetustis adjicias quod novum sit, alienis quod
omnino tuum: bonasque picturas bona in luce collo-
cando efficis, ut etiam iis, a quibus seepissimé conspec-
tee sunt, elegantiores tamen solito appareant, et placeant
magis.

Certé, dum Xenophontem sepius versas, ab illo et
ea que a te plurimis in locis narrantur, et ipsum ubi-
que narrandi modum videris traxisse, stylique Xeno-
phontei nitorem ac venustam simplicitatem non imitari
tantum, sed plané assequi: ita ut si Gallicé scisset Xe-
nophon, non aliis illum, in eo argumento quod tractas,
verbis usurum, non alio prorsus more scripturum, ju-
dicem.

Heec ego, haud assentandi caus4 (quod vitium procul
a me abest), sed veré ex animi sententia dico. Cum
enim pulchris a te donis ditatus sim, quibus in eodem
aut in‘alio quopiam doctrine genere referendis impa-
rem me sentio, volui tamen propensi erga te animi gra-
tique testimonium proferre, et te aliquo saltem munus-
culo, etsi perquam dissimili, remunerari.

Perge, vir docte admodtim et venerande, de bonis
literis, quee nunc neglectz passim et spretee jacent, bene
mereri ; perge juventutem Gallicam (quando illi solum-
modo te utilem esse vis) optimis et preeceptis et exem-
plis informare.

Quod ut facias, annis etatis tue elapsis multos adji-
ciat Deus! iisque decurrentibus sanum te prestet atque
incolumem. Hoc ex animo optat ac vovet

Tui observantissimus
Franciscus RoFFENSsIs.

Pransurum te mecum post festa dixit mihi amicus ille
noster, qui tibi vicinus est. Cum statueris tecum quo
die adfuturus es, id illi significabis. Me certé annis
malisque debilitatum, quandocunque veneris, domi in-
venies. .

6° Kal. Jan. 1731.

MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN. xh

TRANSLATION.

REVEREND AND MOST LEARNED SIR,

WueEn I was informed by a friend who lives near
you, that you were returned to Paris, I resolved to wait
on you, as soon as my health would permit. After
having been prevented by the gout for some time, I
was in hopes at length of paying my respects to you
at your house, and went thither, but found you not at
home. It is incumbent on me, therefore, to do that in
writing, which I could not in person, and for all the ©
favours you have been pleased to confer upon me, to
return you the warmest acknowledgments which, as I
now feel, I shall ever continue to cherish.

And indeed I esteem the books you have lately pub-
lished, as presents of uncommon value, and such as do
me very great honour. For I have the highest esteem,
most excellent Sir, both for you, and for every thing
that comes from so masterly a hand as yours, in the
kind of learning of which you treat; in which I sin-
cerely believe that you far excel all other writers, and
are at the same time the best master both of speaking
and thinking well: andI freely confess that, though I
had applied some time and pains in cultivating such
studies, when I read your volumes over and over again,
I am instructed by you not only in things of which I
was entirely ignorant, but also those which I fancied
myself to have learned before. You have, therefore,
too modest an opinion of your work, when you declare
it composed solely for the instruction of youth. What
you write may undoubtedly be read with pleasure and
improvement by persons who are proficients in learning
of that kind. For whilst you call to mind ancient
facts and things sufficiently known, you do it in such a
manner, that you illustrate, you embellish them; still
adding something new to the old, something entirely
your own to the labours of others: by placing good
pictures in a good light, you make them appear with
unusual elegance and more exalted beauties, even to
those who have seen and studied them most.

In your frequent correspondence with Xenophon,

xlil MEMOIRS OF ROLLIN.

you have certainly extracted from him, both what you
relate in many places, and every where his very man-
ner of relating; you seem not only to have imitated,
but attained, the shining elegance and beautiful sim-
plicity of that author’s style: so that had Xenophon
excelled in the French language, in my judgment, he
would have used no other words, nor written in any
other manner, upon the subjects you treat, than you
have done.

I do not say this out of flattery (which is far from
being my vice), but from my real sentiments and opi-
nion. As you have enriched me with your handsome
presents, which I know how incapable I am of repaying
either in the same or in any other kind of learning, I
was willing to testify my gratitude and affection for
you, and at least to make you some small, though ex-
ceedingly unequal, return.

Go on, most learned and venerable Sir, to deserve
well of sound literature, which now lies universally
neglected and despised. Go on, in forming the youth
of France (since you will have their utility to be your
sole view) upon the best precepts and examples.

Which that you may effect, may it please God to add
many years to your life, and during the course of them
to preserve you in health and security. This is the
earnest wish and prayer of,

Your most faithful friend,
Francis Rorren.

P.S. Our friend, your neighbour, tells me you in-
tend to dine with me after the holidays. When you
have fixed upon the day, be pleased to let him know it.
Whenever you come, you will be sure to find one so

weak with age and sufferings, as I am, at home.
December 26, 1731.
It is proper to add, that the volumes of the Ancient
History not being published by the Author all at one
time, there were several prefaces or introductions for

the different parts of the work. These by the English
editors have been retrenched and incorporated into

one. ReL
London, Feb. 5, 1823.

CONTENTS

OF

THE EIGHT VOLUMES.

VOL,: 5.
Boox I.—The ancient history of the Egyptians.
Boox II.—The history of the Carthaginians.

VODit
Boox II. continued.—The history of the Carthaginians.
Boox III.—The history of the Assyrians.

Boox IV.—The foundation of the empire of the Persians and

Medes, by Cyrus: containing the reigns of Cyrus, of Cambyses,
and Smerdis the Magian.

Boox V.—The history of the origin and first settlement of the
several states and governments of Greece.

Boox VI.—The history of the Persians and Grecians.

VOTE:
Boox VI. continued.—The history of the Persians and Grecians.
Booxs VII. and VIII.—The history of the Persians and Grecians.

Boox 1X.—The history of the Persians and Grecians ; continued
during the first fifteen years of the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon.

VOLE.

Boox IX. continued.—The ancient history of the Persians and
Grecians.

Boox X.—The ancient history of the Persians and Grecians.

Boox XI.—The history of Dionysius the elder and younger, tyrants
of Syracuse.

Booxs XII. and XIII.—The history of the Persians and Grecians.
Book X1V.—the history of Philip.

VOL. V:
Boox XV.—The history of Alexander.
Boox XVJ.—The history of Alexander’s successors.

xliv CONTENTS OF THE EIGHT VOLUMES.

VOL. VI.

Booxs XVII. and XVIII.—The history of Alexander’s successors.
Boox XIX.—Sequel of the history of Alexander’s successors.

VOL. VIt.

Boox XIX. continued.—Sequel of the history of Alexander’s
successors.

Booxs XX. and XXI.—The history of Alexander’s successors
continued.

VOL. VIII.
Boox XXII.—The history of Syracuse.
Boox XXIII.—The history of Pontus.
Boox XXIV.—The history of Egypt.
Chronological Table.
General Index.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Page
PreFrace. The usefulness of profane mes a with :
regard to religion . : é ° ae |
Of religion : : : ; . a . -xXvi
Of the feasts . ° - : . : : ° XXIX
The Panathena : : : : : : : . ibid.
Feasts of Bacchus. : : : eee ' » XXXi
The feast of Eleusis . : ; ; . ‘ : XXXIll
Of auguries, oracles, &c. . : ‘ : : : XXXVIi
Of auguries : : : : : : : 50 MEXVUL
Of oracles . ; ; : . ; ; ° Hee
Of the games and combats . , es : : ae |
Of the Athlete, or combatants . , ‘ is i eS)
Of wrestling : : : ° : : ° - lvii
Of boxing, or the cestus ‘ Ser cs ‘ Been |b.
Of the pancratium . : . , . ‘ eb <
Of the discus, or quoit : : : ; : : . ibid.
Of the pentathlum : ‘ : ‘ . : ‘ 64
Ofraces . : : ; : : ‘ ° ; Ree bit
Of the foot-race . eta : : ° : ° a Exdit
Of the horse-races_. : : ‘ : : ' . Ixiv
Of the chariot-races_ . : + Ixy
Of the honours and rewards granted to the victors . ‘ + lxix
The different taste of the Greeks and Romans i in regard to
public shows . : ; » xxi
Of the prizes of wit, and the shows and representations of the
theatre . ‘ : ; Ixxiv

Extraordinary fondness of the Athenians for the entertainments

of the stage. Emulation of the poets in disputing the prizes

in those representations. A short idea of dramatic poetry Ixxvi
The origin and progress of tragedy. Poets who excelled in it

at Athens: Aischylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Ixxvii
Of the ancient, middle, and new comedy. ‘ . Lexxviii
The theatre of the ancients described - . ‘ - XCV1
Passion for the representations of the theatre one of the prin-

cipal causes of the decline, Teeengey) and auisw ta of the

Athenian state ° ‘ ° ‘ee
Epochas of the Jewish history : ; : ° ha PER i
Roman history. : +0 01x

The origin and condition of the Elotee, « or Helots ° : Ce
Lycurgus, the Lacedemonian laweiver ‘ : AE a
War between the Argives and the Lacedeemonians 2 <a CXS

Wars between the Messenians and Lacedzemonians : . CXiil

xlvyi CONTENTS OF VOL, I.

Page
The first Messenian war : : : , : . CXiil
The second Messenian war . ‘ : : ‘ CXVIIi
The kingdom of Egypt : : : : ; ; » CXXV
Syria ; , 5 : 5 : . ibid.
Macedonia : ‘ ; , : CXXVI
Thrace and ee : : : ‘ CXXvil
Kings of Bithynia ; : ° : . . ibid.
— Pergamus . ‘ : : : : : . ibid.
-——— Pontus : ; ; : : ; 20) SCxXViit
— Cappadocia : : 2 , : : CXXiX
Armenia . ; : , e : CXXX
Epirus : : . : : : s . ibid.
Tyrants of Heraclea . : : ‘ : : - -CXXKIL
Kings of Syracuse. . : : : : 2. CRRXILE
Other kings : . ; A : ; : oe POX xXIY
BOOK I.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS.

Part I. The description of Egypt: with an account of what
is most curious and remarkable in that country . . 138
Cuap. I. Thebais ; : ‘ P 3 136
II. Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis : ; ; welod
Sect. I. The obelisks : : : : » 139
II. The pyramids . : : : : . . 140

III. The labyrinth : : : : : . 143
IV. The lake of Meeris G ; ; : ; oad
V. The inundations of the Nile . A ; 2 e145

1. The sources of the Nile . : : - . 146
2. The cataracts of the Nile . ; : . 147
3. Causes of the inundations of the Nile ‘ . 148
4. The time and continuance of the inundations _ . ibid.
5. The height of the inundations . , Eso
6. The canals of the Nile and spiral pumps aon
‘7. The fertility caused by the Nile : - 152
8. Two different prospects exhibited by the Nile . 154
9. The canal formed by the Nile, by which a com-
munication is made between the two seas . ibid.
Cuapr. III. Lower Egypt . . . 155
Part II. Of the manners and customs of the Baepien . 160
Cuar. I. Concerning the kings and government 161
II. Concerning the priests and religion of the Egyptians 167
Sect. I. The worship of the various deities . ; : - 469

IJ. The ceremonies of the Egyptian funerals : fav
Cuap. III. Of the Egyptian soldiers and war. . . 179

IV. Of their arts and sciences . . 180
V. Of their husbandmen, shepherds, anid artificers ate?
VI. Of the fertility of Egypt : : . 186

Part III. The history of the kings of Egypt SH ons . 192
The kings of Egypt : . : : . 194

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xl vii

BOOK II. |

THE HISTORY OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.
Page
Part I. Of the character, manners, religion, and government,
of the Carthaginians . 231
Secr. I. Carthage formed after the model of Tyre, of ‘which
that city was acolony . : , : . ibid.
II. The religion of the Carthaginians . . . . 232
III. Form of the government of Carthage. ; - 238
The suffetes ° : : , : : ~ 239
The senate : : ; : : ° . 240
The people . : . : . 241
The tribunal of the Hundred ‘ ° : - ibid
Defects in the government of Carthage . ° - 243
IV. Trade of Carthage, the first source of its wealth and
power. » 245
V. The mines of Spain, the second source of the tiches
and power of reese ‘ ; : : . 247

Vie Wart. : ‘ : ; . . . 248

VII. Arts and sciences : ‘ - 252
VIII. The character, manners, and qualities, of the Car-

thaginians ; ‘ . ~ 255

Part II. The history of the Carthaginians ° . ° - 258
Cuap. I. The foundation of Carthage, and its aggrandizement,

till the time of the first Punic war . . - ibid.

Conquests of the Carthaginians in Africa - . ° - 261
— Sardinia . . + 263
— Spain - . . - 264
Sicily - - . - 267
Cuap. II. The history of pean, from the first Punic war

to its destruction . . . . . « 299
Art. I. The first Punic war - “ . . - 300
The Libyan war; or against the mercenaries - . - 322
The second Punic war . . : si 300
Theremote and more immediate causes of fie second Punic war 334.
War proclaimed . : ° . - 341
The beginning of the Peron eae war . . - 342

The passage of the Rhone . . : . . - 344
The march after the battle of the HORE: . : - 346

Passage over the Alps . . . - 348
Hannibal enters Italy . . . : . - 35]
Battle of the cavalry near the Ticinus - . . - 353

Trebia . . . . . : - 356
— Thrasymene . . . - 360
Hannibal’s conduct with respect e Pabius . . - 363
The state of affairs in Spain . . : - 368
The battle of Canne- — - : . . . - ibid.
Hannibal takes up his winter-quarters in Capua , - 375
The transactions relating to Spain and Sardinia - 378

The ill success of Hannibal. The sieges of Capua and Rome ibid

xvii CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Page
The defeat and death of the two Scipios in Spain” - - 381
Asdrubal - . . : - 382
Scipio conquers all Spain. Is appointed consul, and sails

into Africa. Hannibal is recalled : - 385
Interview between Hannibal and ecpieys in Africa, followed
by abattle - . . . : - 390
A peace concluded Pereeen: the Carhagiicn and the Ro-
mans. The end of the second Punic war - . - 392
A short reflection on the government of Carthage, in the
time of the second Punic war - . : - 396
The interval between the second and ie Punic war - 397
Secr..I. Continuation of the history of Hannibal . - ibid.
Hannibal undertakes and.completes the reformation of the
courts of justice, and the treasury of earthaee . - ibid.
- Hannibal’s retreat and death . : . - 400

‘character and eulogium : . : - 409

PREFACE. ili

another* because of the unrighteous dealings and wicked-
ness committed therein.

We discover this important truth in going
os sprees at back to the most remote antiquity, and the
men, after the. Origin of profane history; I mean, to the
flood. dispersion of the posterity of Noah into

the several countries of the earth where
they settled. Liberty, chance, views of interest, a love for
certain countries, and similar motives, were, in outward
appearance, the only causes of the different choice which
men made in these various migrations. But the Scriptures
inform us, that amidst the trouble and confusion that
followed the sudden change in the language of Noah’s de-
scendants, God presided invisibly over all their counsels
and deliberations; that nothing was transacted but by the
Almighty’s appointment; and that he alone guided* and
settled all mankind, agreeably to the dictates of his mercy
and justice: >The Lord scattered them abroad from thence
upon the face of all the earth.

It is true, indeed, that God, even in those early ages, had
a peculiar regard for that people, whom he was one day
to consider as his own. He pointed out the country which
he designed for them; he caused it to be possessed by
another laborious nation, who applied themselves to culti-
vate and adorn it; and to improve the future inheritance of
the Israelites. He then fixed, in that country, the like
number of families, as were to be settled in it, when the
sons of Israel should, at the appointed time, take posses-
sion of it; and did not suffer any of the nations, which
were not subject to the curse pronounced by Noah against
Canaan, to enter upon an inheritance that was to be given
up entirely to the Israelites. -++Quando dividebat Alitisst-
mus gentes, quando separabat filios Adam, constituit ter-
minos populorum juxta numerum filiorum Israel. But this
peculiar regard of God to his future people, does not in-
terfere with that which he had for the rest of the nations of
the earth, as is evident from the many passages of Scrip-
ture, which teach us, that the entire succession of ages is
present to him; that nothing is transacted in the whole

2 Ecclus. x. 8. b Gen. xi. 8, 9.'

* The ancients themselves, according to Pindar, (Olymp. Od. vii.) had
retained some idea, that the dispersion of men was not the effect of
chance, but that they had been settled in different countries by the ap-
pointment of Providence.

+ “ When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when
he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel” (whom he had in view). This is
one of the interpretations given to this passage. Vide Bp. Mant’s Bible.
Deut. xxxii. 8.

b2

iv PREFACE.

universe, but by his appointment; and that he directs the
several events of it from age toage. Tu es Deus conspec-
tor seculorum. A seculo usque in seculum respicis.
We must therefore consider, as an indis-
God alone has putable principle, and as the basis and
fixed the fateof foundation of the study of profane history,
all ee ee that the providence of the Almighty has,
Mis wi peonlé. from all eternity, appointed the establish-
and the reign of ment, duration, and destruction, of king-
his Son. doms and empires, as well in regard to the
general plan of the whole universe, known
only to God, who constitutes the order and wonderful har-
mony of its several parts; as particularly with respect to
the people of Israel, and still more with regard to the
Messiah, and the establishment of the Church, which is his
great work, the end and design of all his other works, and
ever present to his sight; “Netum a seculo est Domino opus
suum.
God has vouchsafed to discover to us, in Holy Scripture,
a part of the relation of the several nations of the earth
to his own people; and the little so discovered, diffuses
great light over the history of those nations, of whom we
shall have but a very imperfect idea, unless we have re-
course to the inspired writers. ‘They alone display, and
bring to light, the secret thoughts of princes, their inco-
herent projects, their foolish pride, their impious and cruel
ambition: they reveal the true causes and hidden springs
of victories and overthrows; of the grandeur and declen-
sion of nations; the rise and ruin of states; and teach us,
what indeed is the principal benefit to be derived from
history, the judgment which the Almighty forms both of
princes and empires, and consequently what idea we our-
selves ought to entertain of them.
Not to mention Egypt, that served at first
Powerful kings asthe cradle (if I may be allowed the ex-
appointed to pu- pression) of the holy nation; and which
ce protect afterward was a severe prison, and a
es fiery furnace to* it; and, at last, the scene
of the most astonishing ‘miracles that God
ever wrought favour of Israel; not to mention, I say,
Egypt, the mighty empires of Nineveh and Babylon fur-
nish a thousand proofs of the truth here advanced.
-Their most powerful monarchs, Tiglath-Pileser, Shal-

b Ecclus. xxxvi. 17. xxxix. 19. ¢ Acts, xv. 18.
* “| will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and
will rid you out of their bondage.” Exod. vi. 6. “ Out of the iron fur-
nace, even out of Egypt.” Deut. iv. 20.

PREFACE. | Vv

maneser, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and many more,
were, in God’s hand, as so many instruments, which he
employed to punish the transgressions of his people. ‘He
lifted up an ensign to the nations from far, and hissed unto
them from the end of the earth, to come and receive his orders.
He himself put the sword into their hands, and appointed
their marches daily. He breathed courage and ardour into
their soldiers; made their armies indefatigable in labour,
and invincible in battle; and spread terror and consterna-
tion wherever they directed their steps.

The rapidity of their conquests ought to have enabled
them to discern the invisible hand which conducted them.
But, says one of these* kings in the name of the rest, “By
the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom ;

for Tam prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the
people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down
the inhabitants like a valiant man. And my hand hath found
as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs
that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was
none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

But this monarch, so august and wise in his own eye,
how did he appear in that of the Almighty? Only asa
subaltern agent, a servant sent by his master: ‘The rod of
his anger, and the staff in his hand. God’s design was to
chastise, not to extirpate, his children. But Sennacherib
shad it in his heart to destroy and cut off all nations. What
then will be the issue of this kind of contest between the
designs of God, and those of this prince? "At the time
that he fancied himself already possessed of Jerusalem,
the Lord, with a single blast, disperses all his proud hopes;
destroys, in one night, a hundred fourscore and five thou-
sand of his forces: “and+ putting a hook in his nose, and a
bridle in his lips (as though he had been a wild beast), he
leads him back to his own dominions, covered with infamy,
through the midst of those nations, who, but a little before,
had beheld him in all his pride and haughtiness.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, appears still more
visibly governed by a Providence, to which he himself is
an entire stranger, but which presides over all his delibera-
tions, and determines all his actions.

4 [gai. v. 26—30. x. 28—34. xiii. 4, 5.

e Isai. x. 13,14. ‘ Isai.x.5. & Ibid.ver.7. © Ubid.. verte.

* Sennacherib.

+ ‘“‘ Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine
ears, therefore 1 will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in
thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou. camest.”
2 Kings, xix. 28.

ar | PREFACE.

i Being come at the head of his army to two highways,
the one of which led to Jerusalem, and the other to Rab-
bath, the chief city of the Ammonites, this king, not know-
ing which of them it would be best for him to strike into,
debates for some time with himself, and at last casts lots.
God makes the lot fall on Jerusalem, to fulfil the menaces
he had pronounced against that city, viz. to destroy it, to
burn the temple, and lead its inhabitants into captivity.

k One would imagine, at first sight, that this king had
been prompted to besiege Tyre, merely from a political
view, viz. that he might not leave behind him so powerful
and well-fortified a city; nevertheless, a superior will had
decreed the siege of Tyre. God designed, on one side, to
humble the pride of Ithobal its king, who fancying himself
wiser than Daniel, whose fame was spread over the whole
east; and ascribing entirely to his rare and uncommon pru-
dence the extent of his dominions, and the greatness of his
riches, persuaded himself that he was ‘a god, and sat in the
seat of God. On the other side, he also designed to chas-
tise the luxury, the voluptuousness, and the pride, of those
haughty merchants, who thought themselves kings of the
sea, and sovereigns over crowned heads; and especially,
that inhuman joy of the Tyrians, who looked upon the fall
of Jerusalem (the rival of Tyre) as their own aggrandize-
ment. ‘These were the motives which prompted God him-
self to lead Nebuchadnezzar to Tyre; and to make him
execute, though unknowingly, his commands. IpciRco
ecce EGO ADDUCAM ad Tyrum Nabuchodonosor.

* 'To recompense this monarch, whose army the Almighty
had caused “fo serve a great service against Tyre (these
are God’s own words); and to compensate the Babylonish
troops, for the grievous toils they had sustained during a
thirteen years’ siege; "I will give, saith the Lord God, the
land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and
he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her
prey, and it shall be the wages for his army.

The same Nebuchadnezzar°, eager to immortalize his
name by the grandeur of his exploits, was determined to
heighten the glory of his conquests by his splendour and
magnificence, in embellishing the capital of his empire with
pompous edifices, and the most sumptuous ornaments. But
whilst a set of adulating courtiers, on whom he lavished the

! Ezek. xxi. 19—23. k Chap. xxvi, xxvii, XXviii.
' Chap. xxviii. 2. ™ Chap. xxix. 18, 20.
" Ibid. ver. 19. ° Dan. iv. 1—34.

* 'This incident is related more at large in the history ofthe Egyptians,
under the reign of Amasis.

PREFACE. Vii

highest honours and immense riches, make all places re-
sound with his name, an august senate of watchful spirits
is formed, who weigh, in the balance of truth, the actions
of kings, and pronounce upon them a sentence from which
there lies no appeal. The king of Babylon is cited before
this tribunal, in which there presides the Supreme Judge,
who, to a vigilance which nothing can elude, adds a holi-
ness that will not allow of the least irregularity. Vigil et
sanctus. In this tribunal all Nebuchadnezzar’s actions,
which were the admiration and wonder of the public, are
examined with rigour; and a search is made into the in-
ward recesses of his heart, to discover his most hidden
thoughts. How will this formidable inquiry end? At the
instant that Nebuchadnezzar, walking in his palace, and
revolving, with a secret complacency, his exploits, his
grandeur, and magnificence, is saying to himself, ? Is not
this great Babylon that I built for the house of the kingdom,
by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?
in this very instant, when, by vainly flattering himself that
he held his power and kingdom from himself alone, he
usurped the seat of the Almighty; a voice from heaven
pronounces his sentence, and declares to him, that, ‘his
kingdom was departed from him, that he should be driven
Srom men, and his dwelling -be with the beasts of the field,
until he knew that the Most High ruled in the kingdoms of
men, and gave them to whomsoever he would.

This tribunal, which is for ever assembled, though invi-
sible to mortal eyes, pronounced the like sentence on those
famous conquerors, on those heroes of the pagan world,
who, like Nebuchadnezzar, considered themselves as the
sole authors of their exalted fortune; as independent on
authority of every kind, and as not holding of a superior
power.

As God appointed some princes to be the instruments of
his vengeance, he made others the dispensers of his good-
ness. He ordained Cyrus to be the deliverer of his people ;
and, to enable him to support with dignity so glorious a
function, he endued him with all the qualities which consti-
tute the greatest captains and princes: and caused that ex-
cellent education to be given him, which the heathens so
much admired, though they neither knew the Author nor
true cause of it.

We see in profane history the extent and swiftness of his
conquests, the intrepidity of his courage, the wisdom of his
views and designs; his greatness of soul, his noble genero-
sity; his truly paternal affection for his subjects; and, on

P Dan. iv. 30. 4 Chap. iv. 31, 32.

viii PREBACE,

their part, the grateful returns of love and tenderness, which
made them consider him rather as their protector and father,
- than as their lord and sovereign. We find, I say, all these
particulars in profane history ; but we do not perceive the
secret principle of so many exalted qualities, nor the hid-
den spring which set them in motion.

_ But Isaiah discloses them, and delivers himself in words
suitable to the greatness and majesty of the God who in-
spired him. He* represents this all-powerful God of armies
as leading Cyrus by the hand, marching before him, con-
ducting him from city to city, and from province to pro-
vince; subduing nations before him, loosening the loins of
kings, breaking in pieces gates of brass, cutting in sunder
the bars of iron, throwing down the walls and bulwarks of
cities, and putting him in possession of the treasures of
darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places.

"The prophet also tells us the cause and motive of all
these wonderful events. It was in order to punish Baby-
lon, and to deliver Judah, that the Almighty conducts Cy-
rus, step by step, and gives success to all his enterprises.
“I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all
his ways. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine
elect. But this prince is so blind and ungrateful, that he
does not know his master, nor remember his benefactor.
‘I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.—
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.

Men seldom form to themselves a right
A fine image of judgment of true glory, and the duties es-
the regal office. —_ sential to regal power. The Scripture alone
gives us a just idea of them, and this it does
in a wonderful manner, “under the image of a very large
and strong tree, whose top reaches to heaven, and whose
branches extend to the extremities of the earth. As its
foliage is very abundant, and it is bowed down with
fruit, it constitutes the ornament and felicity of the plains
around it. It supplies a grateful shade, and a secure re-
treat to beasts of every kind: animals, both wild and tame,
are safely lodged beneath it, the birds of heaven dwell in
its branches, and it supplies food to all living creatures.

T Isai. xlv.13,14. * Chap. xlvy.13.4. ‘Chap.xlv.4,5. "Dan. iv. 10, 11.

* “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I
have holden, to subdue nations before him ; and I will loose the loinsof kings,
to vpen before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut:

‘I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; will break
in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

“* And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of
secret places, that thou mayest know, that I the Lord which cali thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel.” Isai. xlv. 1—3. _

PREFACE. , ix

Can there be a more just or more instructive idea of the
kingly office, whose true grandeur and solid glory does not
consist in that splendour, pomp, and magnificence, which
surround it; nor in that reverence and exterior homage
which are paid to it by subjects, and which are justly due
to it; but in the real services and solid advantages it pro-
cures to nations, whose support, defence, security, and
asylum, it forms (both from its nature and institution), at
the same time that it is the fruitful source of blessings of
every kind; especially with regard to the poor and weak,
who ought to find, beneath the shade and protection of
royalty, a sweet peace and tranquillity not to be interrupted
or disturbed; whilst the monarch himself sacrifices his
ease, and experiences alone those storms and tempests
from which he shelters all others ? :

I think that I observe this noble image, and the execu-
tion of this great plan (religion only excepted) realized in
the government of Cyrus, of which Xenophon has given us
a picture, in his beautiful preface to the history of that
prince. He has there specified a great number of nations,
which, though separated from each other by vast tracts of
country, and still more widely by the diversity of their
manners, customs, and language, were however all united,
by the same sentiments of esteem, reverence, and love, for
a prince, whose government they wished, if possible, to
have continued for ever, so much happiness and tranquil-
lity did they enjoy under it.*

To this amiable and salutary govern-
Ajustideaofthe ment, let us oppose the idea which the sa-
conquerorsofan- Cred writings give us of those monarchs
tiquity. © and conquerors so much boasted by anti-
quity, ae instead of making the happi-
ness of mankind the sole object of their care, were prompt-
ed by no other motives than those of interest and ambition.
*The Holy Spirit represents them under the symbols of
monsters: generated from the agitation of the sea, from the
tumult, confusion, and dashing of the waves one against
the other; and under the image of cruel wild beasts, which
spread terror and desolation universally, and are for ever
vorging themselves with blood and slaughter ; bears, lions,
tigers, and leopards. How strong and expressive 1s this
colouring !

Nevertheless, it is often from such destructive models,

that the rules and maxims of the education generally be-

2 Dan. vii.
~ ~ , ss ,
* ’RovvyOn ixOupiay ipBareiv rocatrny tov Tavtag adr yxapitecPat,
Wore de TH avTOU youn akwoy cuBepvacbat.

x PREFACE.

stowed on the children of the great are borrowed ; and it is
these ravagers of nations, these scourges of mankind, they
propose to make them resemble. By inspiring them with
the sentiments of a boundless ambition, and the love of
false glory, they become (to borrow an expression from
Scripture) ’young lions ; they learn to catch the prey, and
devour men—to lay waste cities, to turn lands and their ful-
ness into desolation by the noise of their roaring. And when
this young lion is grown up, God tells us, that the noise of
his exploits, and the renown of his victories, are nothing
but a frightful roaring, which fills all places with terror and
desolation.

The examples I[ have hitherto mentioned, extracted from
the history of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and
Persians, prove sufliciently the supreme power exercised
by God over all empires; and the relation he has thought
fit to establish between the rest of the nations of the earth
and his own peculiar people. The same truth appears as
conspicuously under the kings of Syria and Egypt, suc-
cessors of Alexander the Great; between whose history,
and that of the Jews under the Maccabees, every body
knows the close connexion.

To these incidents I cannot forbear adding another,
which, though universally known, is not therefore the less
remarkable; I mean the taking of Jerusalem by Titus.
* When he had entered that city, and viewed all the fortifi-
cations of it, this prince, though a heathen, owned the all-
powerful arm of the God of Israel; and, in a rapture of
admiration, cried out, ‘‘ It is manifest that the Almighty
has fought for us, and has driven the Jews from those
towers; since neither the utmost human force, nor that of
all the engines in the world, could have effected it.”

Besides the visible and sensible con-
God has always nexion of sacred and profane history, there
disposed of hu- jig another more secret and more distinct
manevents,with relation with respect to the Messiah, for
relation to the ; ‘
reignofthe Mes- Whose coming the Almighty, whose work
siah, ' was ever present to his sight, prepared man-
kind from far, even by the state of ignorance
and dissoluteness in which he suffered them to be immersed
during four thousand years. It was to make mankind sen-
sible of the necessity of our having a Mediator, that God
permitted the nations to walk after their own ways; while
neither the light of reason, nor the dictates of philosophy,
could dispel the clouds of error, or reform their depraved
inclinations.

Y Ezek. xix. 3. 7. « Joseph. J, iii. c. 46.

PREFACE. Xi

When we take a view of the grandeur of empires, the
majesty of princes, the glorious actions of great men, the
order of civil societies, and the harmony of the different
members of which they are composed, the wisdom of le-
gislators, and the learning of philosophers, the earth seems
to exhibit nothing to the eye of man but what is great and
resplendent; nevertheless, in the eye of God it was equally
barren and uncultivated, as at the first instant of the crea-
tion. * The earth was without form and void. This is say-
ing but little; it was wholly polluted and impure (the reader
will observe that I speak here of the heathens), and ap-
peared, to God, only as the haunt and retreat of ungrateful
and perfidious men, as it did at the time of the flood. » The
earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence.

Nevertheless, the Sovereign Arbiter of the universe, who,
pursuant to the dictates of his wisdom, dispenses both light
and darkness, and knows how to check the impetuous tor-
rent of human passions, would not permit mankind, though
abandoned to the utmost corruptions, to degenerate into
absolute barbarity, and brutalize themselves, in a manner,
by the extinction of the first principles of the law of nature,
as is seen in several savage nations. Such an obstaele
would have too much retarded the rapid progress, promised
by him to the first preachers of the doctrine of his Son.

He darted from far, into the minds of men, the rays of
several yreat truths, to dispose them for the reception of
others more important. He prepared them for the instruc-
tions of the gospel, by those of philosophers; and it was
with this view that God permitted the heathen professors
to examine, in their schools, several questions, and es-
tablish several principles, which are nearly allied to reli-
eion; and to engage the attention of mankind, by the bril-
liancy of their disputations. It is well known, that the phi-
losophers inculcate in every part of their writings, the ex-
istence of a God, the necessity of a Providence that pre-
sides over the government of the world, the immortality of
the soul, the ultimate end of man, the reward of the good
and punishment of the wicked, the nature of those duties
which constitute the band of society, the character of the
virtues that are the basis of morality, as prudence, justice,
fortitude, temperance, and other similar truths, which,
though incapable of guiding men to righteousness, were yet
of use to scatter certain clouds, and to dispel certain ob-
scurities.

It is by an effect of the same providence, which prepared,
from far, the ways of the gospel, that, when the Messiah

* Genyi2; > Chap. vi. 11.

ei PREFACE.
revealed himself in the flesh, God had united together al-
most all nations, by the Greek and Latin tongues; and had
subjected to one monarch, from the ocean to the Euphrates,
all the people not united by language, in order to give a
more free course to the preaching of the apostles. The
study of profane history, when entered upon with judgment
and maturity, must lead us to these reflections, and point
out to us the manner in which the Almighty makes the em-
pires of the earth subservient to the establishment of the
kingdom of his Son.
It ought likewise to teach us how to appre-
Exterior talents Ciate all that glitters most in the eye of the
indulged to the WoOrld, and is most capable of dazzling it.
heathens. Valour, fortitude, skill in government, pro-
| found policy, merit in magistracy, capacity
for the most abstruse sciences, beauty of genius, delicacy
of taste, and perfection in all arts: these are the objects
which profane history exhibits to us, which excite our ad-
miration, and often our envy. But at the same time this
very history ought to remind us, that the Almighty, ever
since the creation, has indulged to his enemies all those
shining qualities which the world esteems, and on which it
frequently bestows the highest eulogiums; while, on the
contrary, he often refuses them to his most faithful servants,
‘whom he endues with talents of an infinitely superior na-
‘ture, though men neither know their value, nor are desirous
of them. ‘° Happy ts that people that is in such a case: yea,
happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.
I shall conclude this first part of my pre-
We must not be face with a reflection which results natu-
too profuse in rally from what has been said. Since it is
aa applauses of certain, that all these great men, who are
em. ° :
so much boasted of in profane history,
were so unhappy as not to know the true God, and to dis-
please him; we should therefore be cautious and circum-
spect in the praises which we bestow upon them. * St.
Austin, in his Retractions, repents his having lavished so
many encomiums on Plato, and the followers of his philo-
sophy ; because these, says he, were impious men, whose
doctrine, in many points, was contrary to that of Jesus
Christ.
However, we are not to imagine, that St. Austin sup-

©-Psalcexliy. 15:

* Laus ipsa, quad Platonem vel Platonicos seu Academicos philosophos
tantiim extuli, quanitiim impios homines non oportuit, non immeritd mihi
displicuit ; presertim quorum contra errores magnos defendenda est Chris-
tiana doctrina. Retract. |. i. c. 1.

PREFACE. oe xiii
poses it to be unlawful for us to admire and praise what-
ever is either beautiful in the actions, or true in the maxims,
of the heathens. He * only advises us to correct whatever is
erroneous, and to approve whatever is conformable to recti-
tude and justice in them. He applauds the Romans on many
occasions, and particularly in his book ‘De. Civitate Dei,
which is one of the last and finest of his works. He there
shews, that the Almighty raised them to be victorious over
nations, and sovereigns ofa great part of the earth, because
of the gentleness and equity of their government (alluding
to the happy ages of the Republic); thus bestowing on vir-
tues that were merely human, rewards of the same kind, with
which that people, blind on this subject, though so enlight-
ened On others, were so unhappy as to content themselves.
St, Austin therefore does not condemn the encomiums which
are bestowed on the heathens, but only thé excess of them.

Students ought to take care, and especially we, who by
the duties of our profession are obliged to be perpetually
conversant with heathen authors, not to enter too far into
the spirit of them; not to imbibe, unperceived, their senti-
ments, by lavishing too great applauses on their heroes;
nor to give into excesses which the heathens indeed did
not consider as such, because they were not acquainted ©
with virtues of a purer kind. Some persons, whose friend-
ship I esteem as [ ought, and for whose learning and judg-
ment I have the highest regard, have found this defect in
some parts of my work, on the Method of teaching and
studying the Belles Lettres, &c.; and are of opinion, that I
have gone too great lengths in the encomiums which T be-
stow on the illustrious men of paganism. [ indeed own,
that the expressions on those occasions are sometimes too
strong and too unguarded: however, I imagined that I had
supplied a proper corrective to this, by the hints which I
have interspersed in those four volumes; and, therefore,.
that it would be only losing time to repeat them: not to
mention my having laid down, in different places, the prin-
ciples which the fathers of the church establish on: this
head, declaring, with St. Austin, that without true piety,
that is, without a sincere worship of the true God, there’
can be no true virtue; and that no virtue can be such,
whose object is worldly glory; a truth, says this father,
acknowledged. universally by those who are inspired with
real and solid piety. 4Illud constat inter omnes veraciter
pios, neminem sine vera pietate, id est, vert Det vero cultu,

d Lib. v. cap. 19. 21, &c. © De Civitate Dei, lib. v. c. 19,
* Id in quoque corrigendum, quod pravum est ; quod autem rectum est,
approbandum. We Bapt. cont. Donat. 1. vil. c. 16.

Kiv PREFACE,
veram posse habere virtutem ; nec eam veram esse, quando
glorie servit humane.

¢When I observed that Perseus had not resolution enough
to kill himself, I do not thereby pretend to justify the prac-
tice of the heathens, who looked upon suicide as lawful ;
but simply to relate an incident, and the judgment which
Paulus A:milius passed on it. Had I barely hinted a word
or two against that custom, it would have obviated all mis-
take, and left no room for censure.

The ostracism, employed in Athens against persons of
the greatest merit; theft connived at, as it appears, by Ly-
curgus in Sparta; an equality of good established in the
same city, by the authority of the state, and things of a like
nature, may admit of some difficulty. However, I shall
pay a more immediate attention to these* particulars, when
the course of the history brings me to them ; and shall avail
myself with pleasure of such lights as the learned and un-
prejudiced may favour me by communicating.

In a work like that I now offer the public, intended more
immediately for the instruction of youth, it were heartily
to be wished, that not one single thought or expression
might occur, that could contribute to inculcate false or
dangerous principles. When I first set about writing the
present history, | proposed this for my maxim, the import-
ance of which I perfectly conceive, but am far from ima-
gining that I have always observed it, though it was my
intention to do so; and therefore on this, as on many other
occasions, I shall stand in need of the reader’s indulgence.

As I write principally for young persons, and for those
who do not intend to make very deep researches into an-
cient history, I shall not burden this work with a sort of
erudition, that might have been naturally introduced into
it, but does not suit my purpose. My design is, in giving
a continued. series of ancient history, to extract from the
Greek and Latin authors all that I shall judge most useful
and entertaining with respect to the transactions, and most
instructive with regard to the reflections.

I should wish to be able to avoid, at the same time, the
dry sterility of epitomes, which convey no distinct idea to
the mind; and the tedious accuracy of long histories, which
tire the reader’s patience. Iam sensible that it is difficult
to. steer'exactly between the two extremes; and although,
in the two parts of history of which this first volume con-
sists, I have retrenched a great part of what we meet with

© Vol. iv. p. 385.
‘* This Mr. Rollin has done admirably in the several volumes of his
Ancient History.

PREFACE. a

in ancient authors, they may still be thought too long: but
I was afraid of spoiling the incidents, by being too studi-
ous of brevity. However, the taste of the public shall be
my guide, to which I shall endeavour to conform hereafter.
I was so happy as not to displease the public in my first*
attempt. I wish the present work may be equally success-
ful, but dare not raise my hopes so high. The subjects I
there treated, viz. polite literature, poetry, eloquence, and
curious and detached pieces of history, gave me an oppor-
tunity of introducing into it from ancient and modern au-
thors, whatever is most beautiful, affecting, delicate, and
just, with regard both to thought and expression. The
beauty and justness of the things themselves which I of-.
fered the reader, made him more indulgent to the manner
in which they were presented to him; and. besides, the va-
riety of the subjects supplied the want of those graces which
might have been expected from the style and composition.
But I have not the same advantage in the present work,
the choice of the subjects not being entirely at my discre-
tion. Ina connected history, an author is often obliged
to relate a great many things that are not always very in-
teresting, especially with regard to the origin and rise of
empires; and these parts are generally overrun with thorns,
and offer very few flowers. However, the sequel will fur-
nish matter of a more pleasing nature, and events that en-
gage more strongly the reader’s attention; and I shall take
care to make use of the valuable materials which the best
authors will supply. In the mean time, I must entreat the
reader to remember that in a wide extended and beautiful
region, the eye does not every where meet with golden har-
vests, smiling meads, and fruitful orchards}. but sees, at
different intervals, wild and less cultivated tracts of land.
And, to use another comparison, furnished by + Pliny, some
trees in the spring emulously shoot forth a numberless mul-
titude of blossoms, which by this rich dress (the splendour
and vivacity of whose colours charm the eye) proclaim a
happy abundance in a more advanced season; while other
ttrees, of a less gay appearance, though they bear good fruits,
have not however the fragrance and beauty of blossoms,
nor seem to share in the joy ofreviving nature. The reader
will easily apply this image to the composition of history.

* The Method of teaching and studying the Belles Lettres, &e..

+ Arborum flos est pleni veris indicium, et anni renascentis ; flos gaudium
arborum. Tune se novas, aliasque quam sunt, ostendunt, tunc variis colo-
rum picturis in. certamen usque luxuriant. Sed hoe negatum plerisque.
Non enim omnes florent, et sunt tristes quedam, queque non sentiunt gaudia
annorum ; nec ullo flore exhilarantur, natalesve pomorum recursus annuos
versicolort nuntio promittunt. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. Ixvi. c. 25.

t As the fig-trees.

Vi PREFACE:

‘lo adorn and enrieh my own, I will be so ingetiuous as
to confess, that I do not scruple, nor am ashamed, to rifle
from all quarters, and that IF often do not cite the authors
from whom [ transcribe, because of the liberty I occa-
sionally take to make some slight alterations. Ihave made
the best use in my power of the solid reflections that occur
in the second and third parts of the Bishop of Meaux’s*
Universal History, which is one of the most beautiful and
most useful books in our language. I have also received
great assistance from the Jearned Dean Prideaux’s Con-
nexion of the Old and New Testament, in which he has
traced and cleared up, in an admirable manner, the parti-
culars relating to ancient history. I shall take the same
liberty with whatever comes in my way, that may suit my
design, and contribute to the perfection of my work.

I am very sensible, that it is not so much for a person’s
reputation, thus to make use of other men’s labours, and
that it is ina manner renouncing the name and quality of
author. But I am not over fond of that title; and shall be
extremely well pleased, and think myself very happy, if I
can but deserve the name of a good compiler, and supply
my readers with a tolerable history ; who will not be over
solicitou. to inquire whether it be an original composition
ef myo, or not, provided they are but pleased with it.

I canine. determine the exact number of volumes which
this work will make; but am persuaded there will be no
less than ten or twelve. + Students, with a very moderate
application, may easily go through this course of history
in a year, without interrupting their other studies. Ac-
_cording to my plan, my work should be given to the highest
form but one. Youths in this class are capable of plea-
sure and improvement from this history; and-I would not
have them enter upon that of the Romans till they study
rhetoric. :

It would have been useful, and even necessary, to have
given some idea of the ancient authors from whence I have
extracted the facts which I here relate. But the course
itself of the history will naturally give me an opportunity
of mentioning them.

In the mean time, it may not be impro-
The judgment: per to take notice of the superstitious cre-
we oughttoform qdulity with which most of these authors are
of the auguries, reproached, on the subject of auguries, aus-
prodigies, and —. ais
oracles, of the . Pices, prodigies, dreams, and oracles. And,
ancients. indeed, we are shocked to see*writers, so
7 ‘judicious in all other respects, lay it down

* Mons. Bossuet.
+ Former editions of this work were printed in ten volumes.

PREFACE. Xvi

as a kind of law, to relate these particulars with a scrupu-
lous accuracy; and to dwell gravely on a tedious detail of
trifling and ridiculous:ceremonies, such as the flight of birds
to the right or left hand, signs discovered in the smoking
entrails of beasts, the ereater or less greediness of chickens
in pecking corn, and a thousand similar absurdities.

It must be confessed, that a sensible reader cannot, with-
out astonishment, see persons among the ancients in the
highest repute for wisdom and knowledge; generals who
were the least liable to be influenced by popular opinions,
and most sensible how necessary it is to take advantage of
auspicious moments; the wisest councils of princes per-
fectly well skilled in the arts of government; the most
august assemblies of grave senators; in a word, the most
powerful and most learned nations in all ages: to see, I
say, all these so unaccountably weak, as to make to depend
on these trifling practices, and absurd observances, the de-
cision of the greatest affairs, such as the declaring of war,
the giving battle, or pursuing a victory—deliberations that
were of the utmost importance, and on which the fate and
welfare of kingdoms frequently depended.

But, at the same time, we must be so just as to own, that
their manners, customs, and laws, would not permit * i ‘en, in
these ages, to dispense with the observation of thes prac-
tices: that education, hereditary tradition transmitted from
immemorial time, the universal belief and consent of dif-
ferent nations, the precepts, and even examples of philoso-
phers; that all these, I say, made the practices in question
appear venerable in their eyes : and that these ceremonies,
how absurd soever they may appear to us, and are really
so in themselves, constituted part of the religion and pub-
lic worship of the ancients:

This religion was false, and this worship mistaken; yet
the principle of it was laudable, and founded in nature:
the stream was corrupted, but the fountain was pure. Man
assisted only by his own light, sees nothing beyond the
present moment. Futurity is to him an abyss invisible to
the most keen, the most piercing sagacity, and exhibits
nothing on which he may with certainty fix his views, or
form his resolutions. He is equally feeble and impotent
with regard to the execution of his designs. He is sensible,
that he is dependant entirely on a Supreme Power, that
disposes all events with absolute authority, and which; in
spite of his utmost efforts, and of the wisdom of the best
concerted schemes, by raising only the smallest obstacles
and slightest disappointments, renders it impossible for
him to execute his measures.

VOU. 4, c

Xvill - PREFACE.

This obscurity and weakness oblige him to have re-
course to a superior. knowledge and power: he is forced,
both by his immediate wants, and the strong desire he has
to succeed in all his undertakings, to address that Being
who he is sensible has reserved to himself alone the know-
ledge of futurity, and the power of disposing it as he sees
fitting. He accordingly directs prayers, makes vows, and
offers sacrifices, to prevail, if possible, with the Deity, to
reveal himself, either in dreams, in oracles, or other signs
which may manifest his will; fully convinced that nothing
can happen but by the divine appointment; and that it is
a man’s greatest interest to know this supreme will, in or-
der to conform his actions to it.

This religious principle of dependance on, and venera-
tion of, the Supreme Being, is natural to man: it is im-
printed deep in his heart; he is reminded of it, by the in-
ward sense of his extreme indigence, and by all the objects
which surround him; and it may be affirmed, that this per-
petual recourse to the Deity, is one of the principal foun-
dations of religion, and the strongest band by which man
is united to his Creator. :

Those who were so happy as to know the true God, and
were chosen to be his peculiar people, never failed to
address him in all their wants and doubts, in order to obtain
his succour, and to know his will. He accordingly vouch-
safed to reveal himself to them; to conduct them by appa-
ritions, dreams, oracles, and prophecies; and to protect
them by miracles of the most astonishing kind.

But those who were so blind as to substitute falsehood
in the place of truth, directed themselves, for the like aid,
to fictitious and deceitful deities, who were not able to
answer their expectations, nor recompense the homage
that mortals paid them, any otherwise than by error and
illusion, and a fraudulent imitation of the conduct of the
true God.

Hence arose the vain observation of dreams, which,
from a superstitious credulity, they mistook for salutary
warnings from heaven; those obscure and equivocal an-
swers of oracles, beneath whose veil the spirits of darkness
concealed their ignorance; and, by a studied ambiguity,
reserved to themselves an evasion or subterfuge, whatever
might be the event. To this are owing the prognostics
with regard to futurity, which men fancied they should find
in the entrails of beasts, in the flight and singing of birds,
in the aspect of the planets, in fortuitous accidents, and

In the caprice of chance; those dreadful prodigies that
filled a whole nation with terror, and which, it was

=

PREFACE. xix

believed, nothing could expiate but mournful ceremonies,
and even sometimes the effusion of human blood: in fine,
those black inventions of magic, those delusions, enchant-
ments, sorceries, invocations of ghosts, and many other
kinds of divination. |

All I have here related was a received usage, observed
by the heathen nations in general: and’ this usage was
founded on the principles of that religion of which I have
given a short account. We have a signal proof of this in
that passage of the Cyropzdia,” where Cambyses, -the
father of Cyrus, gives that young prince such noble instruc-
tions; instructions admirably well adapted to form the
great captain and great king. He exhorts him, above all
things, to pay the highest reverence to the gods; and not to
undertake any enterprise, whether important or inconsi-
derable, without first calling upon and consulting them;
he enjoins him to honour the priests and augurs, as being
their ministers and the interpreters of their will, but yet not
to trust or abandon himself so implicitly and blindly to them,
as not by his own application, to learn every thing relating
to the science of divination, of auguries and auspices. The
reason which he gives for the subordination and depend-
ance in which kings ought to live with regard to the gods,
and the benefit derived from consulting them in all things,
is this: How clear-sighted soever mankind may be in the
ordinary course of affairs, their views are always very
narrow and bounded with regard to futurity; whereas the
Deity, at a single glance, takes in all ages and events.
As the gods, says Cambyses to his son, are eternal, they
know equally all things, past, present, and to come. With
regard to the mortals who address them, they give salutary
counsels to those whom they are pleased to favour, that they
may not be ignorant of what things they ought, or ought
not to undertake. If it is observed, that the deities do not
give the like counsels to all men, we are not to wonder at
it, since no necessity obliges them to attend to. the welfare
of those persons on whom they do not vouchsafe to confer
their favour.

Such was the doctrine of the most learned and most en-
lightened nations, with respect to the different kinds of
divination; and it is no wonder that the authors who wrote
the history of those nations, thought it incumbent on them
to give an exact detail of such particulars as constituted
part of their religion and worship, and was frequently, in a

w Xenoph. in Cyrop. I. i, p. 25, 27.
c2

3x PREFACE.

manner, the soul of their deliberations, and the standard
of their conduct. I therefore was of opinion, for the same
reason, that it would not be proper for me to omit entirely,
in the ensuing history, what relates to this subject, though
I have, however, retrenched a great part of it.

Archbishop Usher is my usual guide in chronology. In
the history of the Carthaginians I commonly set down
four eras: The year from the creation of the world, which,
for brevity’s sake, I mark thus, A.M.; those of the foun-
dation of Carthage and Rome; and lastly, the year before
the birth of our Saviour, which I suppose to be the
4004th year of the world; wherein I follow Usher and
others, though they suppose it to be four years earlier.

We shall now proceed to give the reader the proper pre-
liminary information concerning this work, according to
the order in which it is executed.

To know in what manner the states and kingdoms were
founded, that have divided the universe; the steps where-
by they rose to that pitch of grandeur related in history; by
what ties families and cities were united, in order to con-
stitute one body or society, and to live together under the
same laws and a common authority; it will be necessary
to trace things back, in a manner, to the infancy of the
world, and to those ages in which mankind, being dispers-
ed into different regions (after the confusion of tongues),
began to people the earth.

In these early ages every father was the supreme head
of his family; the arbiter and judge of whatever contests
and divisions might arise within it; the natural legislator
over his little society; the defender and protector of those,
who by their, birth, education, and weakness, were under
his protection and safeguard, and whose interests pater-
nal tenderness rendered equally dear to him as his own.

But although these masters enjoyed an independent au-
thority, they made a mild and paternal use of it. So far
from being jealous of their power, they neither governed
with haughtiness, nor decided with tyranny. As they were
obliged by necessity to associate their family in their do-
mestic labours, they also summoned them together, and
asked their opinion in matters of importance. In this
manner all affairs were transacted in concert, and for the
common good.

The laws which paternal vigilance established in this
little. domestic senate, being dictated with no other view
than to promote the general welfare; concerted with such
children as were come to years of maturity, and accepted

PREFACE. xxi
by the inferiors with a full and free consent; were reli-
giously kept and preserved in families as an hereditary
polity, to which they owed their peace and security.

But different motives gave rise to different laws. One

man, overjoyed at the birth of a first-born son, resolved to
distinguish him from his future children, by bestowing on
him a more considerable share of his possessions, and
giving him a greater authority in his family. Another,
more attentive to the interest of a beloved wife, or darling
daughter whom he wanted to settle in the world, thought
it incumbent on him to secure their rights and increase
their advantages. The solitary and cheerless state to
which a wife would be reduced in case she should become
a widow, affected more intimately another man, and made
him provide beforehand, for the subsistence and comfort
of a woman who formed his felicity. From these differ-
ent views, and others of the like nature, arose the different
customs of nations, as well as their rights, which are in-
finitely various.
_ In proportion as every family increased, by the birth of
children, and their marrying into other families, they ex-
tended their Jittle domain, and formed, by insensible de-
grees, towns and cities.

These societies growing, in process of time, very nu-
merous; and the families being divided into various
branches, each of which had its head, whose different in-
terests and characters might interrupt the general tran-
quillity; it was necessary to intrust one person with the
government of the whole, in order to unite all these chiefs
or heads under a single authority, and to maintain the
public peace by a uniform administration, The idea
which men still retained of the paternal government, and
the happy effects they had experienced from it, prompted
them to choose from among their wisest and most virtuous
men, him in whom they had observed the tenderest and
most fatherly disposition. Neither ambition nor ‘cabal had
the least share in this choice; probity alone, and the repu-
tation of virtue and equity, decided on these occasions,.
and gave the preference to the most worthy.*

To heighten the lustre of their newly acquired dignity,
and enable them the better to put the laws in execution,
as well as to devote themselves entirely to the public
good; to defend the state against the invasions of their
neighbours, and the factions of discontented citizens; the
~ title of king was bestowed upon them, a throne was erected,

* Quos ad fastigium hujus majestatis non ambitio popularis, sed spectate
inter bonos moderatio provehebat. Justin. |. 1. c.1.

xxii PREFACE.

and a sceptre put into their hands; homage was paid
them, officers were assigned, and guards appointed for the
security of their persons; tributes were granted; they were
invested with full powers to administer justice, and for
this purpose were armed with a sword, in order to restrain
injustice, and punish crimes.

At first,* every city had its particular king, who, being
more solicitous to preserve his dominion than to enlarge
it, confined his ambition within the limits of his native
country. But the almost unavoidable feuds which break
out between neighbours; jealousy against a more power-
ful king; a turbulent and restless spirit; a martial dispo-
sition, or thirst of aggrandisement; or the display of abi-
lities; gave rise to wars, which frequently ended in the
entire subjection of the vanquished, whose cities were
possessed by the victor, and increased insensibly his do-
minions. Thus,} a first victory paving the way to a se-
cond, and making a prince more powerful and enterpri-
sing, several cities and provinces were united under one
monarch, and formed kingdoms of a greater or less extent,
according to the degree of ardour with which the victor
had pushed his conquests.

But among these princes were found some, whose am-
bition being too vast to confine itself within a single king-
dom, broke over all bounds, and spread universally like
a torrent, or the ocean; swallowed up kingdoms and
nations; and fancied that glory consisted in depriving
princes of their dominions, who had not done them the
least injury; in carrying fire and sword into the most re-
mote countries, and in leaving every where bloody traces
of their progress! Such was the origin of those famous
empires which included a great part of the world.

Princes made a various use of victory, according to the
diversity of their dispositions or interests. Some, con-
sidering themselves as absolute masters of the con-
quered, and imagining they were sufliciently indulged in
sparing their lives, bereaved them, as well as their chil-
dren; of their possessions, their country, and their liberty;
subjected them to a most severe captivity ; employed them
in those arts which are necessary for the support of life,
in the lowest and most servile offices of the house, in the
painful toils of the field; and frequently forced them, by

* Fines imperti tueri magis quam proferre mos erat. Intra suam
cuique patriam regna finiebantur. Justin. 1.1. ¢. 1.

+ Domitis proximis, cim accessione virium fortior ad altos transiret, et
proxima queque victoria instrumentum sequentis esset, totius ortentis popu-
los subegit. Justin. ibid.

PREFACE. X Xiti

the most inhuman treatment, to dig in mines, and ransack
the bowels of the earth, merely to satiate their avarice ;
and hence mankind were divided into freemen and slaves,
masters and bondmen.

Others introduced the custom of transporting whole na- _
tions into new countries, where they settled them, and gave
them lands to cultivate.

Other princes again, of more gentle dispositions, cen-
tented themselves with only obliging the vanquished na-
tions to purchase their liberties, and the enjoyment of their
laws and privileges, by annual tributes laid on them for
that purpose; and sometimes they would suffer kings to sit
peaceably on their thrones, upon condition of their paying
them some kind of homage. ho .

But such of these monarchs as were the wisest and ablest
politicians, thought it glorious to establish a kind of equa-
lity betwixt the nations newly conquered and their other
subjects; granting the former almost all the rights and pri-
vileges which the others enjoyed: and by this means the
great number of nations, that were spread over different
and far distant countries, constituted, in some measure, but
one city, at least but one people.

Thus I have given a general and concise idea of mankind,
from the earliest monuments which history has preserved
on this subject ; the particulars whereof I shall endeavour
to relate, in treating of each empire and nation. I shall
not touch upon the history of the Jews, nor that of the
Romans. i

The history of the Carthaginians, that of the Assyrians
and the Lydians, which occurs in the second volume, is
supported by the best authorities; but it is highly neces-
sary to review the geography, the manners and customs of
the different nations here treated of; and first with regard
to the religion, manners, and institutions of the Persians and
Grecians ; because these shew their genius and character,
which, we may call, in some measure, the soul of history.
For to take notice only of facts and dates, and confine our
curiosity and researches to them, would be imitating the
imprudence of a traveller, who, in visiting many coun-
tries, should content himself with knowing their exact
distance from each other, and consider only the situation
of the several places, their buildings, and the dresses of
the people ; without giving himself the least trouble to coh-
verse with the inhabitants, in order to inform himself of
their genius, manners, disposition, laws, and government.
Homer, whose design was to give, in the person of Ulysses,

XXi¥V PREFACE.

‘ a model of a wise and intelligent traveller, tells us, at the
very opening of his Odyssey, that his hero informed him-
self very exactly of the manners and customs of the several
people whose cities he visited; in which he ought to be
imitated by every person who applies himself to the study
of history.

As Asia will hereafter be the principal scene of the his-
tory we are now entering upon, it may not be improper to
give the reader such a general idea of it, as may at least
make him acquainted with its most considerable provinces
and cities. :

The northern and eastern parts of Asia are less known
in ancient history.

To the north are ASIATIC SARMATIA and ASIATIC Scy-
THIA, which answer to Tartary.

Sarmatia is situated between the river. Tanais, which se-
parates Europe and Asia, and the river Rha, or Volga.
Scythia is divided into two parts; the one on this, the other
on the other side of mount Imaus. The nations of Scythia
best known to us are the Sace and Massagete.

The most eastern parts are, SERICA, Cathay; SINARUM
REGIO, China; and Inpia. This last country was better
known anciently than the two former. It was divided into
two parts; the one on this side the Ganges, included be-
tween that river and the Indus, which now composes the
dominions of the Great Mogul; the other part was that on
the other side of the Ganges.

The remaining part of Asia, of which much greater men-
tion is made in history, may be divided into five or six
parts, taking it from east to west.

I. Upper Asia, which begins at the river Indus. The
chief provinces are GEDROSIA, CARMANIA, ARACHOSIA,
DRANGIANA, BAcTRIANA, the capital of which was Bac-
tra; SoGDIANA, MARGIANA, HyRCANIA, near the Cas-
pian Sea; PartTuia, MEDIA, its chief city Ecbatana ;
Persia, the cities of Persepolis and Elymais; SUSIANA,
the city of Susa; Assyria, the city of Nineveh, situated
on the river Tigris; MESOPOTAMIA, between the Euph-
rates and Tigris; BABYLONIA, the city of Babylon on the
river Euphrates. |

If. ASIA BETWEEN THE PonTUS EUXINUS AND THE
CaspPIAN SEA. Therein we may distinguish four provinces.
1. Coucuis, the river Phasis, and mount Caucasus. 2. IBF-
RIA. 3. ALBANIA; which two last-mentioned provinces
_ how form part of Georgia. 4. The greater ARMENIA. This
1s separated from the lesser by the Euphrates; from Meso-

PREFACE. XXKV

potamia by mount Taurus ; and from Assyria by mount
Niphates. Its cities are Artaxata and Tigranocerta, and
the river Araxes runs through it.

Til. Asra Minor. This may be divided into four or
five parts, according to the different situation of its provinces.

1. Northward, the shore of the Pontus Euxinus; Pon-
TUS, under three different names. Its cities are, Trapezus,
not far from which are the people called Chalybes or Chal-
dai; Themiscyra, a city on the river Thermodon, and fa-
mous for having been the abode of the Amazons. Papu-
LAGONIA, BITHYNIA3; the cities of which are, Nice, Pru-
sa, Nicomedia, Chalcedon opposite to Constantinople and
Heraclea.

2. Westward, going down by the shores of the Aigean
sea: Mysia, of which there are two. The LESSER, in
which stood Cyzicus, Lampsacus, Parium, Abydos oppo-
site to Sestos from which it is separated only by the Dar-
danelles; Dardanum, Sigeum, Ilion, or Troy ; and almost
on the opposite side, the little island of Tenedos. The
rivers are, the 4sepus, the Granicus, and the Simois. Mount
Ida. ‘This region is sometimes called Phrygia Minor, of
which T'roas is part.

TheGREATER Mysia. Antandros, Trajanopolis, Adra-
myttium, Pergamus. Opposite to this Mysia is the island
of LESBos; the cities of which are, Methymna, where the
celebrated Arion was born; and Mitylene, which has given
to the whole island its modern name Metelin.

Mousa. Elea, Cume, Phocea. -

Tonia. Smyrna, Clazomene, Teos, Lebedus, Colophon,
Ephesus, Priene, Miletus.

Caria. Laodicea, Antiochia, Magnesia, Alabanda. The
river Meander.

Doris. Halicarnassus Cnidos.

Opposite to these four last countries, are the islands
Curios, SAMos, PATHMoS, Cos; and lower, towards the
south, RHODES.

3. Southward, along the Mediterranean ;

LyctiA, the cities of which are, Telmesus, Patara. The
river Xanthus. Here begins mount Taurus, which runs
the whole length of Asia, and assumes different names, ac-
cording to the several countries through which it passes.

PAMPHYLIA. Perga, Aspendus, Sida.

Ciuicia. Seleucia, Corycium, Tarsus, on the river Cyd-
nus. Opposite to Cilicia is the island of Cyprus. The
cities are, Salamis, Amathus, and Paphos. 7

4. Along the banks of the Euphrates, going up northward;

The LESSER ARMENIA. Comana, Arabyza, Melitene,

XVI PREFACE,

Satala. The river Melas, which empties itself into the
Euphrates.

5. Inland: ? :

Cappapocia; the cities whereof are, Neocesarea, Co-
mana Pontica, Sebastia, Sebastopolis, Diocesarea, Cesarea,
otherwise called Mazaca, and Tyana. ‘

LycAONIA and IsauRIaA. Iconium, Isauria.
Pisipia. Seleucia and Antiochia of Pisidia.

Lypia. Its cities are, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia.
The rivers are, Caystrus, and Hermus, into which the Pac-
tolus empties itself. Mount Sipylus and Tmolus.

PuryciA Major. Synnada, Apamia.

IV. Syria, now named Suria, called under the Ro-
man emperors the East, the chief provinces of which are,

1. PALESTINE, by which name is sometimes understood
all Judea. Its cities are, Jerusalem, Samaria, and Cesarea
Palestina. The river Jordan waters it. The name of Pa-
lestine is also given to the land of Canaan, which extended
along the Mediterranean; the chief cities of which were
Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus, Accaron, and Gath.

2. PH@NIcIA, whose cities are, Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon,
and Berytus. Its mountains, Libanus, and Antilibanus.

3. SYRIA, properly so called, or ANTIOCHENA; the
cities whereof are, Antiochia, Apamia, Laodicea, and Se-
leucia.

4. ComMAGENA. The city of Samosata.

5. Cauesyria. The cities are, Zeugma, Thapsacus,
Palmyra, and Damascus.

V. ARABIA PETR&ZA. Its cities are, Petra, and Bostra.
Mount Casius. DESERTA. FELIX.

Of Religion.

It is observable, that in all ages and in every country the
several nations of the world, however various and opposite
in their characters, inclinations, and manners, have always
united in one essential point; the inherent opinion of an
adoration due to a Supreme Being, and of external forms
calculated to evince such a belief. Into whatever country
we cast our eyes, we find priests, altars, sacrifices, festi-
vals, religious ceremonies, temples, or places consecrated
to religious worship. Among every people we discover a
reverence and awe of the Divinity ; an homage and honour
paid to him; and an open profession of an entire de-
pendance upon him in all their undertakings, in all
their necessities, in all their adversities and dangers. In-
capable of themselves to penetrate into futurity and to en-
sure success, we find them careful to consult the Divinity

PREFACE. XXvil

by oracles, and by other methods of a like nature; and to
merit his protection by prayers, vows, and offerings. It is
by the same supreme authority they believe the most so-
lemn treaties are rendered inviolable. It is that which
gives sanction to their oaths; and to it by imprecations is
referred the punishment of such crimes and enormities as
escape the knowledge and power of men. Qn all their pri-
vate concerns, voyages, journeys, marriages, diseases, the
Divinity is still invoked. With him their every repast be-
gins and ends. No war is declared, no battle fought, no
enterprise formed, without his aid being first implored; to
which the glory of the success is constantly ascribed by
public acts of thanksgiving, and by the oblation of the most
precious of the spoils, which they never fail to set apart as
appertaining by right to the Divinity.

No variety of opinion is discernible in regard to the
foundation of this belief. If some few persons, depraved
by false philosophy, presume from time to time to rise up
against this doctrine, they are immediately disclaimed by
the public voice. They continue singular and alone, with-
out making parties, or forming sects: the whole weight of
the public authority falls upon them; a price is set upon
their heads; whilst they are universally regarded as exe-
crable persons, the bane of civil society, with whom it is
criminal to have any kind of commerce.

So general, so uniform, so perpetual a consent of all the
nations of the universe, which neither the prejudice of the
passions, the false reasoning of some philosophers, nor the
authority and example of certain princes, have ever been
able to weaken or vary, can proceed only from a first prin-
ciple, which forms a part of the nature of man; from an
inward sentiment implanted in his heart by the Author of
his being; and from an original tradition as ancient as the
world itself. ehiaie

Such were the source and origin of the religion of the
ancients; truly worthy of man, had he been capable of
persisting in the purity and simplicity of these first princi-
ples: but the errors of the mind, and the vices of the heart,
those sad effects of the corruption of human nature, have
strangely disfigured their original beauty. ‘There are still
some faint rays, some brilliant sparks of light, which a ge-
neral depravity has not been able to extinguish utterly ; but
they are incapable of dispelling the profound darkness of
the gloom which prevails almost universally, and presents
nothing to view but absurdities, follies, extravagances, li-
centiousness, and disorder; in a word, a hideous chaos of
frantic excesses and enormous vices.

XXVili PREFACE.

Can any thing be more admirable than these principles
laid down by Cicero?* ‘That we ought above all things to
be convinced that there is a Supreme Being, who presides
over all the events of the world, and disposes every thing
as sovereign lord and arbiter: that it is to him mankind
are indebted for all the good they enjoy: that he penetrates
into, and is conscious of, whatever passes in the most se-
cret recesses of our hearts: that he treats the just and the
impious according to their respective merits: that the true
means of acquiring his favour, and of being pleasing in his
sight, is not by employing of riches and magnificence in
the worship that is paid to him, but by presenting him with
a heart pure and blameless, and by adoring him with an
unfeigned profound veneration.

Sentiments so sublime and religious were the result of
the reflections of some few who employed themselves in
the study of the heart of man, and had recourse to the first
principles of his institution, of which they still retained
some valuable relics. But the whole system of their reli-
gion, the tendency of their public feasts and ceremonies,
the essence of the Pagan theology, of which the poets were
the only teachers and professors, the very example of the
gods, whose violent passions, scandalous adventures, and
abominable crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes,
and proposed in some measure to the imitation, as well as
adoration, of the people: these were certainly very unfit
means to enlighten the mind of men, and to form them to
virtue and morality.

It is remarkable, that in the greatest solemnities of the
Pagan religion, and in their most sacred and venerable mys-
teries, far from perceiving any thing which can recommend
‘virtue, piety, or the practice of the most essential duties of
ordinary life, we find the authority of laws, the imperious
power of custom, the presence of magistrates, the assembly
of all orders of the state, the example of fathers and mo-
‘thers, all conspire to train up a whole nation-from their in-
fancy in an impure and sacrilegious worship, under the
name, and in a manner under the sanction, of religion itself;
as we shall soon see in the sequel.

After these general reflections upon Paganism, it is time
to proceed to a particular account of the religion of the
Greeks. I shall reduce this subject, though infinite in it-

* Sit hoc jam a principio persuasum civibus: dominos esse omnium rerum
ac moderatores devs, eaque que geruntur eorum geri judicio ac numine ;
eosdemque optimeé de genere hominum mereri; et, qualis quisque sit, quid
agat, quid in se admittat, qua mente, qua pietate religiones colat, intueri ;

prorumque et impiorum habere rationem-—Ad divos adeunto casté. Pieta-
tem adhibento, opes amovento. Cic. de Leg. |. ii. n. 15 et 19.

PREFACE. XxXix

self, to four articles, which are, 1. The feasts. 2. The ora-
cles, auguries and divinations.. 3. The games and combats.
4. The public shows and representations of the theatre. In
each of these articles, I shall treat only of what appears
most worthy of the reader’s curiosity, and has most relation
to this history. I omit saying any thing of sacrifices, having
given a sufficient idea of them elsewhere.*

Of the Feasts.

AN infinite number of feasts were celebrated in the se-
veral cities of Greece, and especially at Athens, of which
I shall describe only three of the most famous; the Pana-
thenea, the feasts of Bacchus, and those of Eleusis.

The Panathenea.

‘Tus feast was celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva,
the tutelary goddess of that city, to which she gave her
name,} as well as to the feast of which we are speaking.
Its institution was ancient, and it was called at first the
Athenea; but after Theseus had united the several towns
of Attica into one city, it took the name of Panathenea.
These feasts were of two kinds, the great and the less,
which were solemnized@with almost the same ceremonies ;
the less annually, and the great upon the expiration of every
fourth year.

In these feasts were exhibited racing, the gymnastic com-
bats, and the contentions for the prizes of music and poetry.
‘Ten commissaries, elected from the ten tribes, presided on
this occasion, to regulate the forms, and distribute the re-
wards to the victors. This festival continued several days.

In the morning of the first day a race was run on foot, in
which each of the runners carried a lighted torch in his
hand, which they exchanged continually with each other,
without interrupting the race. They started from the Cera-
micus, one of the suburbs of Athens, and crossed the whole
city. The first that came to the goal, without having put
out his torch, carried the prize. In the afternoon they ran
the same course on horseback.

The gymnastic or athletic combats followed the races.
The place for that exercise was upen the banks of the Tlis-
sus, a small river, which runs through Athens, and empties
itself into the sea at the Pirzeus.

Pericles first instituted the prize of music. In this dis-
pute were sung the praises of Harmodius and Aristogiton,
who, at the expense of their lives, delivered Athens from
the tyranny of the Pisistratide; to which was afterward

* Manner of Teaching, &c. vol. i. + ’AOHyy.

XXX PREFACE.

added the eulogium of Thrasybulus, who expelled the thirty
tyrants. The prize was warmly disputed, not only amongst
the musicians, but still more so among the poets; and it
was highly glorious to be declared victor in this contest.
fEschylus is reported to have died with grief upon seeing
the prize adjudged to Sophocles, who was much younger
than himself.

These exercises were followed by a general procession,
wherein was carried, with great pomp and ceremony, a sail,
embroidered with gold, on which were curiously delineated
the warlike actions of Pallas against the Titans and Giants.
This sail was affixed to a vessel, which bore the name of
the zoddess. The vessel, equipped with sails, and with a
thousand oars, was conducted from the Ceramicus to the
temple of Eleusis, not by horses or beasts of draught, but
by machines concealed in the bottom of it, which put the
oars in motion, and made the vessel glide along.

The march was solemn and majestic. At the head of it
were old men who carried olive branches in their hands,
SadrAopdpor; and these were chosen for the symmetry of
their shape, and the vigour of their complexion. Athenian
matrons, of great age, also accompanied them in the same
equipage.

The grown and robust men formed the second class.
They were armed’ at all points, and had bucklers and
lances. After them came the strangers that inhabited
Athens, carrying mattocks, instruments proper for tillage.
Next followed the Athenian women of the same age, at-
tended by the foreigners of their own sex, carrying vessels
in their hands for the drawing of water.

The third class was composed of the young persons
of both sexes, selected from the best families in the city.
The young men wore vests, with crowns upon their heads,
and sang a peculiar hymn in honour of the goddess. The
maids carried baskets, cavnpdpor, in which were placed the
sacred utensils proper to the ceremony, covered with veils,
to keep them from the sight of the spectators. The person,
to whose care those sacred things were intrusted, was
bound to observe a strict continence for several days be-
fore he touched them, or distributed them to the Athenian
virgins ;* or rather, as Demosthenes says, his whole life
and conduct ought to have been a perfect model of
virtue and purity. It was a high honour for a young
woman to be chosen for so noble and august an office,
and an insupportable affront to be deemed unworthy of
-* Odyi mooeionpévoy ypEp@y aoOpoy ayvevery povoy, AAA Tov Bioy Oro
nyvevxévat, Demost. in extrema Aristocratia.

PREFACE. XXxi

it. We shall see that Hipparchus offered this indignity to
the sister of Harmodius, which extremely incensed the
conspirators against the Pisistratidz. These Athenian
virgins were followed by the foreign young women, who
carried umbrellas and seats for them.

The children of both sexes closed the at of the pro-
cession.

In this august ceremony, the pafwoot were appointed to
sing certain verses of Homer; a manifest proof of the es-
timation in which the works of that poet were held, even
with regard to religion. Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus,
first introduced that custom.

I have observed elsewhere,* that in the gymnastic games
of this feast, a herald proclaimed, that the people of
Athens had conferred a crown of gold upon the celebrated
physician Hippocrates, in gratitude for the signal services
which he had rendered the state during the pestilence.

In this festival the people of Athens put themselves, and
the whole republic, under the protection of Minerva, the
tutelary goddess of their city, and implored of her all kind
of prosperity. From the time of the battle of Marathon,
in these public acts of worship, express mention was made
of the Platzans, and they were joined in all things with
the people of Athens.

Feasts of Bacchus.

Tuer worship of Bacchus had been brought out of Egypt
to Athens, where several feasts had been established in
honour of the god; two particularly more remarkable than
all the rest, called the great and the less feasts of Bacchus.
The latter were a kind of preparation for the former, and
were celebrated in the open field about autumn. They
were named Lenza, from a Greek word‘ that signifies a
wine-press. ‘The great feasts were commonly called Dio-
nysia, from one of the names of that god,> and were solem-
nized in the spring within the city.

In each of these feasts the public were entertained with
games, shows, and dramatic representations, which were
attended with a vast concourse of people, and exceeding
magnificence, as will be seen hereafter: at the same time
the poets disputed the prize of poetry, submitting to the
judgment of arbitrators, expressly chosen for that purpose,
their pieces, whether tragic or comic, which were then re-
presented before the people.

These feasts continued many days. ‘Those who were ini-
tiated, mimicked whatever the poets had thought fit to

* Vol. iii. c. 3. § 2. ® Anvoc. > Dionysius.

«xxii PREFACE.

feign of the god Bacchus. They covered themselves with
the skins of wild beasts, carried a thyrsus in their hands,
a kind of pike with ivy-leaves twisted round it; had drums,
horns, pipes, and other instruments calculated to make a
great noise; and wore upon their heads wreaths of ivy
and vine branches, and of other trees sacred to Bacchus.
Some represented Silenus, some Pan, others the Satyrs,
all dressed in suitable masquerade. Many of them were
mounted on asses; others dragged* goats along for sa-
crifices.. Men and women, ridiculously dressed in this
manner, appeared night and day in public; and imitating
drunkenness, and dancing with the most indecent gestures,
ran in throngs about the mountains and forests, scream-
ing and howling furiously; the women especially seemed
more outrageous than the men; and, quite out of their
senses, in their +furious transports invoked the god,
whose feast they celebrated, with loud cries; evot Baxye,
@ laxxé, or IdBakxe, or Ila Baxye.

This troop of Bacchanalians was followed by the virgins
of the noblest families in the city, who were called
kavynpdoo, from carrying baskets on their heads, covered
with vine leaves and ivy.

To these ceremonies others were added, obscene to the
last excess, and worthy of the god who chose to be ho-
noured in sucha manner. The spectators gave in to the
prevailing humour, and were seized with the same frantic
spirit. Nothing was seen but dancing, drunkenness, de-
bauchery, and all that the most abandoned licentiousness
can conceive of gross and abominable. And this an
entire people, reputed the wisest of all Greece, not only
suffered, but admired and practised. I say an entire
people; for Plato,{ speaking of the Bacchanalia, says in
direct terms, that he had seen the whole city of Athens
drunk at once. | : :

‘Livy informs us, that this licentiousness of the Bac-
chanalia having secretly creptinto Rome, the most horrid
disorders were committed there under cover of the night,
and the inviolable secrecy which all persons who were
initiated into these impure and abominable mysteries,
were obliged, under the most horrid imprecations, to ob-
Serve. ‘The senate, being apprised of the affair, put a stop

¢ Liv. |. xxxix. n. 8, 18.
* Goats were sacrificed, because they spoiled the vines.
+ From this fury of the Bacchanalians these feasts were distinguished
by the name of Orgia. ’Opy1}, ira, furor. c
_ | Ldoay ieackuny tiv wodw mepi ra Awviora peOdovoay. Lib. i. de

Leg. p. 637.

PREFACE, eh Hitt

to those sacrilegious feasts by the most severe penalties;
and first banished the practisers of them from Rome, and
afterward from Italy. These examples inform us, *how
far a mistaken sense of religion, that covers the greatest
crimes with the sacred name of the Divinity, is capable of
misleading the mind of man. |

The Feasts of Eleusis.

THERE is nothing in all Pagan antiquity more celebrated
than the feast of Ceres Eleusina. The ceremonies of
this festival were called, by way of eminence, the mysteries, |
from being, according to Pausanias, as much above all
others, as the gods are above men. Their origin and in-
stitution are attributed to Ceres herself, who, in the reign
of Erechtheus, coming to Eleusis, a small town of Attica,
in search of her daughter Proserpine, whom Pluto had
carried away, and finding the country afflicted with a
famine, invented corn as a remedy for that evil, with which
she rewarded the inhabitants. +She not only taught them
the use of corn, but instructed them in the principles of
probity, charity, civility, and humanity; from whence her
mysteries were called Qzsuopdpia, and Initia. To these
first happy lessons fabulous antiquity ascribed the cour-
tesy, politeness, and urbanity, so remarkable among the
Athenians.

These mysteries were divided into the less and the
greater; of which the former served as a preparation for
the latter. The less were solemnized in the month of An-
thesterion, which answers to our November; the great in the
month Boedromion, which corresponds to August. Only
Athenians were admitted to these mysteries; but of them,
each sex, age, and condition, had a right to be received.
All strangers were absolutely excluded, so that Hercules,
Castor and Pollux, were obliged to be adopted as Athe-
nians in order to their admission; which, however, extend-
ed only to the lesser mysteries. I shall consider princi-
pally the great, which were celebrated at Eleusis.

Those who demanded to be initiated into them, were

* Nihil in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio, ubi deorum numen
pretenditur sceleribus. Liv. xxxix. n. 16. ‘ eee

+ Multa eximia divinaque videntur Athene tue peperisse, atque in vitam
hominum attulisse ; tum nihil melius illis mystertis, quibus ex agresti im-
manique vité exculti ad humanitutem et mitigati sumus, initiaque ut appel-
lantur, ita re vera principia vite cognovimus. Cic. |. ii. de Leg. n. 36.

Teque Ceres, et Libera, quarum sacra, sicut opiniones hominum ac reli-
giones ferunt, longé maximis atque occultissimis ceremonits continentur: a
quibus initia vite atque victis, legum, morum, mansuetudinis, humanitatis
exempla hominibus et civitatibus data ac dispertita esse dicuntur. Id. Cic.
in Verr. de Supplic. n. 186.

VOL. 1, d

XXXiV PREFACE.

- obliged, before their reception, to purify themselves in the
lesser mysteries, by bathing in the river Ilissus, by saying
certain prayers, offering sacrifices, and, above all, by living
in strict continence during a certain interval of time pre-
scribed them. That time was employed in instructing
them in the principles and elements of the sacred doctrine
of the great mysteries.

When the time for their initiation arrived, they were
brought into the temple; and to inspire the greater reve-
rence and terror, the ceremony was performed in the night.
Wonderful things took place upon this occasion. Visions
were seen, and voices heard of an extraordinary kind. A
sudden splendour dispelled the darkness of the place, and
disappearing immediately, added new horrors to the gloom.
Apparitions, claps of thunder, earthquakes, heightened
the terror and amazement; whilst the person to be admit-
ted, overwhelmed with dread, and sweating through fear,
heard, trembling, the mysterious volumes read to him, if in
such a condition he was capable of hearing at all. ‘These
nocturnal rites gave birth to many disorders, which the
severe law of silence imposed on the persons initiated,
prevented from coming to light, *as St. Gregory Nazian-
zen observes. What cannot superstition effect upon the
mind of man, when once his imagination is heated? The
president in this ceremony was called Hierophantes. He
wore a peculiar habit, and was not permitted to marry.
The first who served in this function, and whom Ceres
herself instructed, was Eumolpus; from whom his succes-
sors were called Eumolpide. He had three colleagues;
4one who carried a torch; another a herald, ‘whose office
was to pronounce certain mysterious words; and a third
to attend at the altar.

_ Besides these officers, one of the principal magistrates
of the city was appointed to take care that all the cere-
monies of this feast were exactly observed. He was called
the king,’ and was one of the nine Archons. His business
was to offer prayers and sacrifices. The people gave him
four assistants, one chosen from the family of the Eumol-
pidz, a second from that of the Ceryces, and the two last
from two other families. He had besides ten other minis-
ters to assist him in the discharge of his duty, and parti-
cularly in offering sacrifices, from whence they derived

‘\ their name.?

4 Aadodyoe. © Kijové, f Baowdede.
§ ’Eripednrai. 4 ‘Teoomotol.
* Oldev ‘EXevoly ratra, cai of rv cwrupivwy Kat cowie dvTwy akwy
érrai. Orat. de saer. lumin.

PREFACE. XXXYV

The Athenians initiated their children of both sexes very
early into these mysteries, and would have thought it cri-
minal to have let them die without such an advantage. It
was their general opinion, that this ceremony was an en-
gagement to lead a more virtuous and regular life; that it
recommended them to the peculiar protection of the god-
desses (Ceres and Proserpine), to whose service they de-
voted themselves; and procured to them a more perfect
and certain happiness in the other world; whilst, on the
contrary, such as had not been initiated, besides the evils
they had to apprehend in this life, were doomed, after their
descent to the shades below, to wallow eternally in dirt,
filth, and excrement. ‘Diogenes the Cynic believed nothing
of the matter, ‘and when his friends endeavoured to per-
suade him to avoid such a misfortune, by being initiated
before his death—“< What,” said he, ‘shall Agesilaus
and Epaminondas lie amongst mud and dung, whilst the
vilest Athenians, because they have been initiated, pos-
sess the most distinguished places in the regions of the
blessed?” Socrates was not more credulous; he would
not be initiated into these mysteries, which was perhaps
one reason that rendered his religion suspected.

*Without this qualification, none were admitted to enter
the temple of Ceres; and Livy informs us of two Acarna-
nians, who, having followed the crowd into it upon one of
the feast-days, although out of mistake and with no ill
design, were both put to death without mercy. It was also
a capital crime to divulge the secrets and mysteries of this
feast. Upon this account Diagoras the Melian was pro-
scribed, and a reward set upon his head. It very nearly
cost the poet Aéschylus his life, for speaking too freely of
it in some of his tragedies. The disgrace of Alcibiades
proceeded from the same cause. *Whoever had violated
this secrecy, was avoided as a wretch accursed and ex-
communicated. ‘Pausanias, in several passages, wherein
he mentions the temple of Eleusis, and the ceremonies

i Diogen. Laért. |. vi. p. 389. kay. 1. Xaxt6-7. 14;
! Lib. i. p. 26, and 71.
* Est et fideli tuta silentio
Merces. Vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum
Vulgarit arcane, sub isdem

Sit trabibus, fragilemve mecum

Solvat phaselum. Hor. Od. 2. lib. iii.
Safe is the silent tongue, which none can blame,
Who keeps the faithful secret merits fame:
Beneath one roof ne’er let him rest with me, -

Who Ceres’ mysteries reveals;
In one frail bark ne’er let us put to sea,

Nor tempt the jarring ee with spreading sails.

d

XXXVi PREFACE.

practised there, stops short, and declares he cannot pro-.
ceed, because he had been forbidden by a dream or vision.

This feast, the most celebrated of profane antiquity, was
of nine days’ continuance. It began the fifteenth of the
month Boedromion. After some previous ceremonies and
sacrifices on the first three days, upon the fourth, in the
evening, began the procession of the Basket; which was
laid upon an open chariot slowly drawn by oxen, *and
followed by a long train of the Athenian women. They
all carried mysterious baskets in their hands, filled with
several things, which they took great care to conceal, and
covered with a veil of purple. This ceremony represent-
ed the basket into which Proserpine put the flowers she
was gathering when Pluto seized and carried her off.

The fifth day was called the day of the Torches; because
at night the men and women ran about with them in imi-
tation of Ceres, who having lighted a torch at the fire of
mount Aitna, wandered about from place to place in search
of her daughter.

The sixth was the most famous day of all. It was
called Tacchus, which is the same as Bacchus, the son of
Jupiter and Ceres, whose statue was then brought out with
great ceremony, crowned with myrtle, and holding a torch
inits hand. The procéssion began at the Ceramicus, and
passing through the principal places of the city, continued
to Eleusis. The way leading to it was called the sacred
way, and lay across a bridge over the river Cephisus.
™This procession was very numerous, and generally con-
sisted of thirty thousand persons. ‘The temple of Eleusis,
where it ended, was large enough to contain the whole of
this multitude; and "Strabo says, its extent equal to that
of the theatres, which every body knows were capable of
holding a much greater number of people. The whole
way re-echoed with the sound of trumpets, clarions, and
other musical instruments. Hymns were sung in honour
of the goddesses, accompanied with dancing, and other
extraordinary marks of rejoicing. ‘The route before men-
tioned, through the sacred way, and: over the Cephisus,
was the usual one: but after the Lacedzmonians, in the
Peloponnesian war, had fortified Decelia, the Athenians
were obliged to make their procession by sea, till Alci-
biades re-established the ancient custom.

m Herod. |. viii. c. 65. 2 L, ix. p. 395.
* Tardaque Eleusine matris volventia plaustra.
Virg. Georg. lib. i. ver. 163.
The Eleusinian mother’s mystic car
Slow rolling

PREFACE. ‘ XXXvil

The seventh day was solemnized by games, and the gym-
nastic combats, in which the victor was awarded with a
measure of barley; without doubt because it was at Eleu-
sis the goddess first taught the method of raising that
grain, and the use of it. The two following days were em-
ployed in some particular ceremonies, neither important
nor remarkable.

During this festival it was prohibited, under very great
penalties, to arrest any person whatsoever, in order to
their being imprisoned, or to present any bill of complaint
to the judges. It was regularly celebrated every fifth
year, that is, after a revolution of four years; and history
does not mention that it was ever interrupted, except upon
the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great.° The Athe-
nians, who were then upon the point of celebrating the
great mysteries, were so much affected with the ruin of
that city, that they could not resolve, in so general an
affliction, to solemnize a festival which breathed nothing
but merriment and rejoicing. "It was continued down to
the time of the Christian emperors. Valentinian would
have abolished it, if Preetextatus, the proconsul of Greece,
had not represented, in the most lively and affecting terms,
the universal sorrow which the abrogation of that feast
would occasion among the people; upon which it was
suffered to subsist. It is supposed to have been finally
suppressed by Theodosius the Great; as were all the rest
of the Pagan solemnities.

Of Auguries, Oracles, &c.

NoTrHING is more frequently mentioned in ancient his-
tory, than oracles, auguries, and divinations. No war
was made, or colony settled; nothing of consequence
was undertaken, either public or private, without hav-
ing first consulted the gods. This was a custom uni-
versally established amongst the Egyptian, Assyrian,
Grecian, and Roman nations; which is no doubt a proof,
as has been already observed, that it was derived from
ancient tradition, and that it had its origin in the religion
and worship of the true God. It is not indeed to be ques-
tioned, but that God, before the deluge, did manifest his
will to mankind in different methods, as he has since done
to his people, sometimes in his own person and vivd voce,
sometimes by the ministry of angels or of prophets in-
spired by himself, and at other times by apparitions or in
dreams. When the descendants of Noah dispersed them-

° Plut. in vit. Alex. p. 671. P Zozim. Hist. I. iv.

XXXViil PREFACE.

selves into different regions, they carried this tradition
along with them, which was every where retained, though
altered and corrupted by the darkness and ignorance of
idolatry. None of the ancients have insisted more upon
the necessity of consulting the gods on all occasions by
auguries and oracles than Xenophon; and he founds that
necessity, as I have more than once observed elsewhere,
upon a principle deduced from the most refined reason
and discernment. He represents, in several places, that
man of himself is very frequently ignorant of what is ad-
vantageous or pernicious to him; that, far from being ca-
pable of penetrating the future, the present itself escapes
him: so narrow and short-sighted is he in all his views,
that the slightest obstacles can frustrate his greatest de-
signs; that the Divinity alone, to whom all ages are pre-
‘sent, can impart a certain knowledge of the future to him:
that no other being has power to facilitate the success of
his enterprises; and that it is reasonable to believe he will
enlighten and protect those, who adore him with the purest °
affection, who invoke him at all times with greatest con-

stancy and fidelity, and consult him with most sincerity
and integrity.

Of Auguries.

WHAT areproach is it to human reason, that so luminous
a principle should have given birth to the absurd reason-
ings, and wretched notions, in favour of the science of au-
gurs and soothsayers, and been the occasion of espousing,
with blind devotion, the most ridiculous puerilities: should
have made the most important affairs of state depend upon
a bird’s happening to sing upon the right or left hand ;
upon the greediness of chickens in pecking their grain; the
inspection of the entrails of beasts; the liver’s being entire
-and in good condition, which, according to them, did some-
times entirely disappear, without leaving any trace or mark
of its having ever subsisted ! To these superstitious obser-
vances may be added, accidental rencounters, words spoken
by chance, and afterward turned into good or bad pas-
sages; forebodings, prodigies, monsters, eclipses, comets ;
every extraordinary phenomenon, every unforeseen acci-
dent, with an infinity of chimeras of the like nature.

Whence could it happen, that so many great men, illus-
trious generals, able politicians, and even learned philoso-
phers, have actually given in to such absurb imaginations ?
Plutarch, in particular, so estimable in other respects, is
to be pitied for his servile observance of the senseless cus-

PREFACE. xia

toms of the Pagan idolatry, and his ridiculous credulity in
dreams, signs, and prodigies. PHe tells us in his works,
that he abstained a great while from eating eggs, upon ac-
count of a dream, with which he has not thought fit to make
us farther acquainted. |

The wisest of the Pagans knew well how to appreciate
the art of divination, and often spoke of it to each other,
and even in public, with the utmost contempt, and ina
manner best adapted to expose its absurdity. The grave
censor Cato was of opinion, that one soothsayer could not
look at another without laughing. Hannibal was amazed
at the simplicity of Prusias, whom he had advised to give
battle, upon his being diverted from it by the inspection of
the entrails of a victim. ‘‘ What,’ said he, “ have you
more confidence in the liver of a beast, than in so old and
experienced a captainas Tam?” Marcellus, who had been
five times consul, and was augur, said, that he had disco-
vered a method of not being put to a stand by the sinister
flight of birds, which was, to keep himself close shut up in
his litter. |

Cicero explains himself upon the subject of auguries
without ambiguity or reserve. Nobody was more capable
of speaking pertinently upon it than himself (as M. Morin
observes in his dissertation upon the same subject). As
he was adopted into the college of augurs, he had made
himself acquainted with their most abstruse secrets, and
had all possible opportunity of informing himself fully in
their science. That he did so, sufficiently appears from
the two books he has left us upon divination, in which, it
may be said, he has exhausted the subject. In the second,
wherein he refutes his brother Quintus, who had espoused
the cause of the augurs, he combats and defeats his false
reasonings with a force, and at the same time with so refined
and delicate a raillery, as leaves us nothing to wish; and
he demonstrates by proofs, each more convincing than the
other, the falsity, contrariety, and impossibility, of that art.
*But what is very surprising, in the midst of all his argu-
ments, he takes occasion to blame the generals and magis-
trates, who on important conjunctures had contemned the
prognostics; and maintains, that the use of them, as great

P Sympos, lib. ii. Quest. 3. p. 635.

* Errabat nultis in rebus antiquitas ; quam vel usu jam, vel doctrind, vel
vetustate immutatam videmus. Detineter autem et ad opinionem vulgi, et
ad magnas utilitates reip. mos, religio, disciplina, jus augurum, collegw aue-
toritas. Nee verd non omni supplicio digni P. Claudius, L. Junius con-

sules, qui contra auspicia navigdrunt. Parendum enim fuit religioni, nec
patrius mos tam contumaciter repudiandus. Divin. |. ii. n. 70, 71.

xl PREFACE.

an abuse as it was in his own opinion, ought nevertheless
to be respected, out of regard to religion, and the prejudices
of the people. . |

_ All that Ihave hitherto said tends to prove, that Paganism
was divided into two sects, almost equally enemies of reli-
gion; the one by their superstitious and blind regard for
auguries, the other by their irreligious contempt and deri-
sion of them.

The principle of the first, founded on one side upon the
ignorance and weakness of man in the affairs of life, and on
the other upon the prescience of the Divinity and his al-
mighty providence, was true; but the consequence deduced
from it in favour of auguries, false andabsurd. They ought
to have proved that it was certain, that the Divinity him-
self had established these external signs to denote his in-
tentions, and that he had obliged himself to a punctual
conformity to them upon all occasions: but they had no-
thing of this in their system. These auguries and divina-
tions therefore were the effect and invention of the igno-
rance, rashness, curiosity, and blind passions, of man, who
presumed to interrogate God, and to oblige him to give an-
swers upon every idle imagination and unjust enterprise.

The others, who gave no real credit to any thing enjoined
by the science of augury, did not fail, however, to observe
its trivial ceremonies through policy, in order the better to
subject the minds of the people to themselves, and to re-
concile them to their own purposes, by the assistance of
superstition: but by their contempt for auguries, and their
inward conviction of their falsity, they were led into a dis-
belief of the Divine Providence, and to despise religion
itself; conceiving it inseparable from the numerous absur-
dities. of this kind, which rendered it ridiculous, and conse-
quently unworthy a man of sense.

Both the one and the other behaved in this manner, be-
cause, having mistaken the Creator, and abused the light
of nature, which might have taught them to know and to
adore him, they were deservedly abandoned to their own
darkness, and toa reprobate mind; and, if we had not been
enlightened by the true religion, we, even at this day, should
give ourselves up to the same superstitions.

Of Oracles.

No country was ever richer in, or more productive of,
oracles, thanGreece. I shall confine myself to those which
were the most noted.

The oracle of Dodona, a city of the Molossians, in Epirus,

PREFACE. xli

was much celebrated; where Jupiter gave answers either
by vocal oaks, * or doves, which had also their language,
or by resounding basins of brass, or by the mouths of
priests and priestesses.

The oracle of Trophonius in Beeotia, though he was no-
thing more than a hero, was in great reputation. After
many preliminary ceremonies, as washing in the river, of-
fering sacrifices, drinking a water called Lethe, from its
quality of making people forget every thing, the votaries
went down into his cave, by small ladders, through a very
narrow passage. At the bottom was another little cavern,
the entrance of which was also exceeding small. There
they lay down upon the ground, with a certain composition
of honey in each hand, which they were indispensably |
obliged to carry with them. Their feet were placed within
the opening of the little cave; which was no sooner done,
than they perceived themselves borne into it with great
force and velocity. Futurity was there revealed to them;
but not to allin the same manner. Some saw, others heard,
wonders. From thence they returned quite stupified, and
out of their senses, and were placed in the chair of Mne-
mosyne, the goddess of memory; not without great need
of her assistance to recover their remembrance, after their
great fatigue, of what they had seen and heard; admitting
they had seen or heard any thing at all. Pausanias, who
had consulted that oracle himself, and gone through all
these ceremonies, has left a most ample description of it;
to which ‘Plutarch adds some particular circumstances,
which I omit, to avoid a tedious prolixity.

‘The temple and oracle of the Branchide, in the neigh-
bourhood of Miletus, so called from Branchus, the son of
Apollo, was very ancient, and in great esteem with all the
Tonians and Dorians of Asia. Xerxes, in his return from
Greece, burnt this temple, after the priests had delivered
its treasures to him. That prince, in return, granted them
an establishment in the remotest parts of Asia, to secure
them against the vengeance of the Greeks. After the war
was over, the Milesians re-established that temple with a
magnificence which, according to Strabo, surpassed that of

4 Pausan. I. ix. p. 602. 604. r Plut. de gen. Socr. p. 590.
* Herod. J. i.c. 157. Strab. |. xiv. p. 634.

* Certain instruments were fastened to the tops of oaks, which, being
shaken by the wind, or by some other means, gave a confused sound.
Servius observes, that the same word, in the Thessalian language, signi-
fies dove and pr ophetess, which had given room for the fabulous tradition
of doves that spoke. It was easy to make those brazen basins sound by
some secret means, and to give what signification they pleased to a con-
fused and inarticulate noise.

xiii PREFACE.

all the other temples of Greece. When Alexander. the
Great had overthrown Darius, he utterly destroyed the city
where the priests Branchidz had settled, of which their
descendants were at that time in actual possession, punish-
ing in the children the sacrilegious perfidy of their fathers.

‘Tacitus relates something very singular, though not very
probable, of the oracle of Claros, a town of Ionia, in Asia
Minor, near Colophon. ‘“‘ Germanicus,” says he, ‘* went to
consult Apollo at Claros. It is not a woman that gives
the answers there, as at Delphi, but a man, chosen out of
certain families, and almost always of Miletus. It is suffi-
cient to let him know the number and names of those who
come to consult him. After which he retires into a cave,
and having drunk of the waters of a spring within it, he
delivers answers in verse upon what the persons have in
their thoughts, though he is often ignorant, and knows no-
thing of composing in measure. It is said, that he foretold
to Germanicus his sudden death, but in dark and ambigu-
ous terms, according to the custom of oracles.”

I omit a great number of other oracles, to proceed to the
most famous of them all. It is very obvious, that I mean
the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. He was worshipped there
under the name of the Pythian, a title derived from the ser-
pent Python, which he had killed, or from a Greek word,
that signifies to inquire, rv8éc0a, because people came
thither to consult him. From thence the Delphic priestess
was Called Pythia, and the games there celebrated, the
Pythian games.

Delphi was an ancient city of Phocisin Achaia. Itstood
upon the declivity, and about the middle, of the mountain
Parnassus, built upon a small extent of even ground, and
surrounded with precipices, that fortified it without the help
of art. "Diodorus says, that there was a cavity upon Par-
nassus, from whence an exhalation rose, which made the
goats dance and skip about, and intoxicated the brain. A
shepherd having approached it, out of a desire to know the
causes of so extraordinary an effect, was immediately seized
with violent agitations of body, and pronounced words,
which, without doubt, he did not understand himself; but
which, however, foretold futurity. Others made the same
experiment, and it was soon rumoured throughout the
neighbouring countries. The cavity was no longer ap-
proached without reverence. The exhalation was con-
cluded to have something divine in it. A priestess was
appointed for the reception of its effects, and a tripod placed
upon the vent, called by the Latins, Cortina, perhaps from

'Tacit. Annal. I. ii. c. 54. « Lib. xiv. p. 427, 428.

PREFACE. xliii

the skin* that covered it. From thence she gave her ora-
cles. ‘The city of Delphi rose insensibly round about this
cave; and a temple was erected, which, at length, became
very magnificent. The reputation of this oracle almost
effaced, or at least very much exceeded, that of all others.

At first a single Pythia sufficed to answer those who came
to consult the oracle, as they did not yet amount to any
great number; but in process of time, when it grew into
universal repute, a second was appointed to mount the tri-
pod alternately with the first, and a third chosen to succeed
in case of death, or disease. There were other assistants
besides these to attend the Pythia in the sanctuary, of whom
the most considerable were called prophets ;’ it was their
business to take care of the sacrifices, and to inspect them.
To these the demands of the inquirers were delivered by
word of mouth, orin writing; and they returned the answers
as we shall see in the sequel.

We must not confound the Pythia with the Sibyl of Del-
phi. The ancients represent the latter as a woman that
roved from country to country, venting her predictions.
She was at the same time the Sibyl of Delphi, Erythre,
Babylon, Cumz, and many other places, from her having
resided in them all.

The Pythia could not prophesy till she was intoxicated
by the exhalation from the sanctuary of Apollo. ‘This mi-
raculous vapour had not that effect at all times and upon
all occasions. The god was not always in the inspiring
humour. At first he imparted himself only once a year,
but at length he was prevailed upon to visit the Pythia
every month. All days were not proper, and upon some
it was not permitted to consult the oracle. These unfor-
tunate days occasioned an oracle’s being given to Alex-
ander the Great worthy of remark. He went to Delphi to
consult the god, at a time when the priestess pretended it
was forbidden to ask him any questions, and would not
enter the temple. Alexander, who was always warm and
tenacious, took hold of her by the arm to force her into it,
when she cried out, *Ah, my son, you are not to be resisted !
or, My son, you are invincible! Upon which words he de-
clared he would have no other oracle, and was contented
with that he had received.

The Pythia, before she ascended the tripod, was a long
time preparing for it by sacrifices, purifications, a fast of
three days, and many other ceremonies. ‘The god denoted
his approach by the moving of a laurel, that stood before

* Corium. Y Woddynra. * Avicnrog él, @ Tat.
00pn n ’

xliv PREFACE.

the gate of the temple, which shook also to its very foun-
dations. |

As soon* as the divine vapour, like a penetrating fire,
had diffused itself through the entrails of the priestess, her
hair stood upright upon her head, her looks grew wild, she
foamed at the mouth, a sudden and violent trembling seized
her whole body, with allthe+ symptoms of distraction and
frenzy. She uttered, at intervals, some words almost inar-
ticulate, which the prophets carefully collected, and ar-
ranged with a certain degree of order and connexion. Af-
ter she had been a certain time upon the tripod, she was
reconducted to her cell, where she generally continued many
days to recover from her fatigue; and, as Lucan says,’ a
sudden death was often either the reward or punishment of
her enthusiasm :

Numinis aut pana est mors immatura recepti,
Aut pretium. :

The prophets had poets under them, who made the ora-
cles into verses, which were often bad enough, and gave
occasion to remark, that it was very surprising, that Apollo,
who presided over the choir of the muses, should inspire
his priestess no better. But Plutarch informs us, that it
was not the god who composed the verses of the oracle.
He inflamed the Pythia’s imagination, and kindled in her
soul that living light, which unveiled all futurity to her.
The words she uttered in the heat of her enthusiasm, having
neither method nor connexion, and coming only by starts,
if that expression may be used, from the bottom of her sto-

y Lib. v.
* Cui talia fanti
Ante fores, subitd non vultus, non color unus,
Non compte mansere come: sed pectus anhelum,
Lt rabie fera corda tument ; majorque videri,
Nec mortale sonans ; afflata est numine quando
Jam propiore dei. Virg. in. |. vi. v. 46—51.

+ Among the various marks which God has given us in the Scriptures
to distinguish his oracles from those of the devil, the fury or madness, at-
tributed by Virgil to the Pythia, et rabie fera corda tument, is one. It is I,
saith God, that shew the falsehood of the diviner’s predictions, and give to
such as divine, the motions of fury and madness; or, according to Isa.
xliv. 25, That frustrateth the tohens of the liar, and maketh diviners mad.
Instead of which, the prophets of the true God constantly gave the divine
answers in an equal and calm tone of voice, and with a noble tranquillity
of behaviour. Another distinguishing mark is, that the demons gave their
oracles in secret places, by-ways, and in the obscurity of caves; whereas
God gave his in open day, and before all the world. JZ have not spoken in
secret, in a dark place of the earth, Isa. xlv. 19. I have not spokenin secret
from the beginning. Isa. xlviii. 16. So that God did not permit the devil
to imitate his oracles, without imposing such conditions upon him, as
might distinguish between the true and false inspiration.

PREFACE. xily

mach, or rather’ from her belly, were collected with care
by the prophets, who gave them afterward to the poets to
be turned into verse. ‘These Apollo left to theirown genius
and natural talents; as we may suppose he did the Pythia
when she herself composed verses, which, though not of-
ten, happened sometimes. The substance of the oracle
was inspired by Apollo, the manner of expressing it was
the priestess’s own: the oracles were however often given
in prose. |

The general characteristics of oracles were * ambiguity,
obscurity, and convertibility (if I may use that expression),
so that one answer would agree with several various, and
sometimes directly opposite, events. By the help of this
artifice, the demons, who of themselves are not capable of
knowing futurity, concealed their ignorance, and amused
the credulity of the Pagan world. When Crcesus was upon
the point of invading the Medes, he consulted the oracle
of Delphi upon the success of that war, and was answered,
that by passing the river Halys, he would ruin a great em-
pire. What empire, his own, or that of his enemies? He
was to guess that; but whatever the events might be, the
oracle could not fail of being in the right. As much may
be said upon the same god’s answer to Pyrrhus:

Aio te, AXacida, Romanos vincere posse.

I repeat it in Latin, because the equivocality, which
equally implies, that Pyrrhus could conquer the Romans,
and the Romans Pyrrhus, will not subsist in a translation.
- Under the cover of such ambiguities, the god eluded all
difficulties, and was never in the wrong. :

It must, however, be confessed, that sometimes the an-
swer of the oracle was clear and circumstantial. I have
related, in the history of Croesus, the stratagem he made use
of to assure himself of the veracity of the oracle, which was,
to demand of it, by his ambassador, what he was doing at
a certain time prefixed. The oracle of Delphi replied, in
verse, that he was causing a tortoise and a lamb to be dressed
in a vessel of brass, which was really the case. *The em-
peror Trajan made a similar trial of the god at Heliopolis,
by sending him a letter} sealed up, to which he demanded
an answer. The oracle made no other return, than to com-

* ’Ryyaorpipvboc. @ Macrob. |. i. Saturnal. c. xxiii.

* Quid si aliquis dixerit multa ab idolis esse predicta ; hoc sciendum,
quod semper mendacium Junxerint veritati, et sie sententias temperarint, ut,
seu boni seu mali quid accidisset, utrumque possit intelligi. Hieronym. in
cap. xlii. Isaize. He cites the two examples of Croesusand Pyrrhus.

+ One method of consulting the oracle was by sealed letters, which were
Jaid upon the altar of the god unopened.

sui PREFACE. |

mand a blank paper, well folded and sealed, to be delivered
to him. Trajan, upon the receipt of it, was struck with
amazement to see an answer so correspondent with his own
letter, in which he knew he had written nothing. The won-
derful* facility with which demons can transfer themselves
almost in an instant from place to place, made it not im-
possible for them to give the two answers, which I have
last mentioned, and to foretell in one country, what they
had seen in another; this is Tertullian’s opinion,

Admitting it to be true, that some oracles have been fol-
lowed precisely by the events foretold, we may believe that
God, to punish the blind and sacrilegious credulity of the
Pagans, has sometimes permitted the demons to have a
knowledge of things to come, and to foretell them distinctly
enough. Which conduct of God, though very much above
human comprehension, is frequently attested in the Holy
Scriptures.

It has been questioned, whether the oracles, mentioned
in profane history, should be ascribed to the operations of
demons, or only to the wickedness and imposture of men.
Vandale, a Dutch physician, has maintained the latter opi-
nion; and Monsieur Fontenelle, when a young man, adopted
it, in the persuasion (to use his own words) that it was in-
different, as to the truth of Christianity, whether the ora-
cles were the effect of the agency of spirits, or a series of
impostures. Father Baltus, the Jesuit, professor of the
Holy Scriptures in the university of Strasburgh, has refuted
them both in a very solid treatise, wherein he demonstrates,
invincibly, from the unanimous authority of the Fathers,
that demons were the real agents in the oracles. He at-
tacks, with equal force and success, the rashness and pre-
sumption of the Anabaptist physician; who, calling in
question the capacity and discernment of those holy doc-
tors, secretly endeavoured to efface the high idea all true
believers should entertain of those great leaders of the
church, and to depreciate their venerable authority, which
is so great a difficulty to all who deviate from the principles
of ancient tradition. Now if that was ever certain and
uniform in any thing, it is so in this point; for all the Fa-
thers of the church, and ecclesiastical writers of all ages,
maintain, and attest, that the devil was the author of idol-
atry in general, and of oracles in particular.

* Omnis spiritus ales. Hoc et angeli et demones. Igitur momento ubique
sunt ; totus orbis illis loeus unus est: quid ubi geratur tam facile sciunt,
quam enuntiant. . Velocitas divinitatis creditur, quia substantia ignoratur.—
Ceterim testudinem decoqui cum carnibus pecudis Pythius eo modo renun-

reat quo supra diximus. Momento apud Lydiam fuerat. ‘ertull. in
polog.

PREFACE. xlvi

This opinion does not hinder our believing that the
priests and priestesses were frequently guilty of fraud and
imposture in the answers of the oracles. For is not the
devil the father and prince of lies? In the Grecian history,
we have seen more than once the Delphic priestess suffer
herself to be corrupted by presents. It was from that
motive, she persuaded the Lacedzmonians to assist the
people of Athens in the expulsion of the thirty tyrants;
that she caused Demaratus to be divested of the royal
dignity, to make way for Cleomenes; and dressed up an
oracle to support the imposture of Lysander, when he en-
deavoured to change the succession to the throne of Sparta.
And I am apt to believe that Themistocles, who well knew
the importance of acting against the Persians by sea, in-
spired the god with the answer he gave, to defend them-
selves with wooden walls. ‘Demosthenes, convinced that
the oracles were frequently suggested by passion or inter-
est, and suspecting, with reason, that Philip had instructed
them to speak in his favour, boldly declared, that the
Pythia philippized; and bade the Athenians and Thebans
remember that Pericles and Epaminondas, instead of
listening to, and amusing themselves with, the frivolous
answers of the oracle, those idle bugbears of the base and
cowardly, consulted only reason in the choice and execu-
tion of their measures.

The same Father Baltus examines, with equal success, a
second point in dispute, namely, the cessation of oracles. |
Mr. Vandale, to oppose with some advantage a truth so
glorious to Jesus Christ, the subverter of idolatry, had
falsified the sense of the Fathers, by making them say,
that oracles ceased precisely at the moment of Christ’s birth.
The learned apologist for the Fathers shews, that they all
allege that oracles ceased after our Saviour’s birth, and the
preaching of his gospel; not on a sudden, but in propor-
tion as his salutary doctrines: became known to mankind,
and gained ground in the world. This unanimous opinion
of the Fathers is confirmed by the unexceptionable evi-
dence of great numbers of the Pagans, who agree with
them as to the time when the oracles ceased.

What an honour to the Christian religion was this silence
imposed upon the oracles by the victory of Jesus Christ!
Every Christian had this power. ‘Tertullian, in one of his
apologies, challenges the Pagans to make the experiment,
and consents that a Christian should be put to death, if he
did not oblige those givers of oracles to confess themselves

4 Plut. in Demosth. p, 854. ¢ Tertull. in Apolog.

xlviti PREFACE.

devils. ‘Lactantius informs us, that every Christian could
silense them by only the sign of the cross. And all the
world knows, that when Julian the Apostate was at Daph-
ne, a suburb of Antioch, to consult Apollo; the god,-not-
withstanding all the sacrifices offered to him, continued
mute, and only recovered his speech to answer those who
inquired the cause of his silence, that they must ascribe it
to the interment of certain bodies in the neighbourhood.
Those were the bodies of Christian martyrs, amongst which
was that of St. Babylas.

This triumph of the Christian religion ought to give us
a due sense of our obligations to Jesus Christ, and, at the
same time, of the darkness to which all mankind were
abandoned before his coming. We have seen, amongst
the Carthaginians, *fathers and mothers, more cruel than
wild beasts, inhumanly giving up their children, and an-
nually depopulating their cities, by destroying the most
vigorous of their youth, in obedience to the bloody dictates
of their oracles and false gods. The victims were chosen
without any regard to rank, sex, age, or condition. Such
bloody executions were honoured with the name of sa-
crifices, and designed to make the gods _ propitious.
‘“‘What greater evil,” cries Lactantius, ‘ could they in-
flict in their most violent displeasure, than thus to de-
prive their adorers of all sense of humanity, to make
them cut the throats of their own children, and pollute
their sacrilegious hands with such execrable parricides!”

A thousand frauds and impostures, openly detected at
Delphi, and every where else, had not opened men’s eyes,
nor in the least diminished the credit of the oracles; which
subsisted upwards of two thousand years, and was carried
to an inconceivable height, even in the minds of the great-
est men, the most profound philosophers, the most power-_
ful princes, and generally among the most civilized na-
tions, and such as valued themselves most upon their
wisdom and policy. The estimation they were in, may
be judged from the magnificence of the temple of Delphi,
and the immense riches amassed in it through the super-
stitious credulity of nations and monarchs.

: f Lib. de ver sapient. c. xxvii.

* Tam barbaros, tam immanes Suisse homines, ut parricidium suum, id est
tetrum atque execrabile humano generi facinus, sacrificium vocarent. Cim
teneras atque innocentes animas, que maximé est a@tas parentibus dulcior,
sine ullo respectu pietatis extinguerent, immanitatemque omnium bestiarum,
que tamen fetus suos amant, feritate superarent. O dementiam insanabi-
lem! Quid illis isti dit amplius facere possent si essent iratissimi, quam fa-
ctunt propitii? Cixm suos cultores parricidiis inquinant, orbitatibus mactant,
humamis sensibus spoliant. Lactant. 1.i. c. 21.

PREFACE. xlix

eThe temple of Delphi having been burnt about the
fifty-eighth Olympiad, the Amphictyons, those celebrated
judges of Greece, took upon themselves the care of re-
building it. ‘They agreed with an architect for 300
talents, which amounts to 900,000 livres.* The cities
of Greece were to furnish that sum. The inhabitants of
Delphi were taxed a fourth part of it, and collected con-
tributions in all parts, even in foreign nations, for that
service. Amasis, at that time king of Egypt, and the
Grecian inhabitants of his country, contributed consider-
able sums towards it. The Alcmzonidz, a potent fa-
mily of Athens, took upon themselves the conduct of the
building, and made it more magnificent, by consider-
able additions of their own, than had been proposed in the
model.

Gyges, king of Lydia, and Croesus, one of his succes-
sors, enriched the temple of Delphi with an incredibie
number of presents. Many other princes, cities, and
private persons, by their example, in a kind of emulation
of each other, had heaped up in it tripods, vases, tables,
shields, crowns, chariots, and statues of gold and silver of
all sizes, equally infinite in number and value. The pre-_
sents of gold which Croesus alone made to this temple,
amounted, according to Herodotus," to upwards of 254
talents; that is, about 762,000 French livres;+ and per-
haps those of silver to as much. Most of these presents
were in being at the time of Herodotus. ‘Diodorus Sicu-
lus, adding those of other princes to them, makes their
amount 10,000 talents, or 30,000,000 of livres.

kAmongst the statues of gold, consecrated by Croesus in
the temple of Delphi, was placed that of his female baker,
the occasion of which was this. Alyattes, Croesus’s father,
having married a second wife, by whom he had children,
she laid a plan to get rid of her son-in-law, that the crown
might descend to her own issue. For this purpose she
engaged the female baker to put poison into a loaf, that
was to be served at the young prince’s table. The woman,
who was struck with horror at the crime (in which she
ought to have had no part at all), gave Croesus notice of
it. The poisoned loaf was served to the queen’s own chil-
dren, and their death secured the crown to the lawful suc-
cessor. When he ascended the throne, in gratitude to his
benefactress, he erected a statue to her in the temple of
Delphi. But, it may be said, could a person of so mean'a

5 Herod. 1. ii. c. 180. and I. v. ¢, 62. b Herod. |. i. @ 50, 51.
i Diod. 1. xvi. p. 453. k Plut. de Pyth. orac. p. 401.

* About 44,428/. sterling. + About 33,5002. { About 1,300,0007,
V.0E.-%. €

1 PREFACE.

condition deserve so great an honour? Plutarch answers
in the affirmative; and with a much better title, he says,
than many of the so-much-vaunted conquerors and heroes,
who have acquired their fame only by murder and devas-
tation.

It is not to be wondered at, that such immense riches
should have tempted the avarice of mankind, and exposed
Delphi to being frequently pillaged. Without mentioning
more ancient times, Xerxes, who invaded Greece witha
million of men, endeavoured to seize upon the spoils of
this temple. Above a hundred years after, the Phoceans,
near neighbours of Delphi, plundered it at several times.
The same rich booty was the sole motive of the irruption
of the Gauls into Greece under Brennus. The guardian
god of Delphi, if we may believe historians, sometimes
defended this temple by surprising prodigies; and at
others, either from impotence or want of presence of mind,
suffered himself to be plundered. When Nero made this
temple, so famous throughout the universe, a visit, and
found in it five hundred brass statues of illustrious men
and gods to his liking, which had been consecrated to
Apollo (those of gold and silver having undoubtedly dis-
appeared upon his approach), he ordered them to be taken
down, and shipping them on’‘board his vessels, carried
them with him to Rome.

Those who are desirous of more particular information
concerning the oracles and riches of the temple of Delphi,
may consult some dissertations upon this subject, printed |
in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, of which
I have made good use, according to my custom.

Of the Games and Combats.

GAMES and combats made a part of the religion, and
had a share in almost all the festivals, of the ancients; and
for that reason it is proper that they should find a place
in this work. Whether we consider their origin, or the de-
sign of their institution, we shall not be surprised at their
being so prevalent in the best-governed states.

Hercules, Theseus, Castor, and Pollux, and the greatest
heroes of antiquity, were not only the institutors or re-
storers of them, but thought it glorious to share in the ex-
ercise of them, and mefitorious to succeed therein. These
subduers of monsters, and of the common enemies of man-
kind, thought it no disgrace to them to aspire-to the vic-
tories in these: combats; nor that the new wreaths, with

1 Vol. iii.

PREFACE. fi

which their brows were encircled in the solemnization of
these games, detracted from. the lustre of those they had
before acquired. Hence the most famous poets made
these combats the subject of their verses; the beauty of
whose poetry, whilst it immortalized themselves, seemed
to promise an eternity of fame to those whose victories it
celebrated. Hence arose that uncommon ardour which
animated all Greece, to tread in the steps of those ancient
heroes, and, like them, to signalize themselves in the pub-
lic combats.

A reason more solid, and originating in the very nature
of these combats, and of the people who used them, may
be given for their prevalence. The Greeks, by nature
warlike, and equally intent upon forming the bodies and
minds of their youth, introduced these exercises, and an-
nexed honours to them, in order to prepare the younger
sort for the profession of arms, to confirm their health, to
render them stronger and more robust, to inure them to
fatigues, and to make them intrepid in close fight, in which,
the use of fire-arms being then unknown, strength of body
generally decided the victory. ‘These athletic exercises
supplied the place of those in use amongst our nobility, as
dancing, fencing, riding the great horse, &c.; but they did
not confine themselves to a graceful mien, nor to the beau-
ties of a shape and face; they were for joining strength to
the charms of person.

It is true, these exercises, so illustrious by their foun-
ders, and so useful in the ends at first proposed from
them, introduced public masters, who taught them to young
persons, and, from practising them with success, made
public show and ostentation of their skill. This sort of
men applied themselves solely to the practice of this art,
and, carrying it to an excess, they formed it into a kind of
science, by the addition of rules and refinements; often
challenging each other out of a vain emulation, till at
length they degenerated into a profession of people who,
without any other employment or merit, exhibited them-
selves as a sight for the diversion of the public. Our
dancing-masters are not unlike them in this respect, whose
natural and original designation was to teach youth a grace-
ful manner of walking, and a good address; but now wesee
them mount the stage, and perform ballets in the garb of
comedians, capering, jumping, skipping, and making va-
riety of strange unnatural motions. We shall see, in the
sequel, what opinion the wiser among the ancients had of
their professed combatants and wrestling-masters,

There were four games solemnized in Greece. The

e2-

lii PREFACE.

Olympic, so called from Olympia, otherwise Pisa, a town
of Elis in Peloponnesus, near which they were celebrated,
after the expiration of every four years, in honour of Jupi-
ter Olympicus. The Pythian, sacred to Apollo *Pythius,
so called from the serpent Python, killed by him; they
were celebrated at Delphi every four years. The Nemean,
which took their name from Nemeza, a city and forest of
Peloponnesus, and were either instituted or restored by
Hercules, after he had slain the lion of the Nemzean forest.
They were solemnized every two years. And lastly, the
Isthmian, celebrated upon the isthmus of Corinth, every
four years, in honour of Neptune. ™Theseus was the re-
storer of them, and they continued even after the ruin of
Corinth. That persons might be present at these public
sports with greater quiet and security, there was a general
suspension of arms, and cessation of hostilities, throughout
all Greece, during the time of their celebration.

In these games, which were solemnized with incredible
magnificence, and drew together a prodigious concourse
‘of spectators and combatants from all parts, a simple
wreath was all the reward of the victors. In the Olympic
games, it was composed of wild olive; in the Pythian, of
laurel; in the Nemzan, of green parsley ;> and in the Isth-
mian, of the same herb dried. The institutors of these
games wished that it should be implied from hence, that
honour alone, and not mean and sordid interest, ought to
be the motive of great actions. Of what were men not ca-
pable, accustomed to act solely from so glorious a princi-
ple! °We have seen, in the Persian war, that Tigranes, one
of the most considerable captains in the army of Xerxes,
having heard the prizes in the Grecian games described,
cried out with astonishment, addressing himself to Mardo-
nius, who commanded in chief, +Heavens! against what
men are you leading us? Insensible to interest, they combat
only for glory! Which exclamation, though looked upon. by
Xerxes as an effect of abject fear, abounds with sense and
judgment. —

PIt was from the same principle that the Romans, whilst
they bestowed upon other occasions crowns of gold of
great value, persisted always in giving only a wreath of
oaken leaves to him who had saved the life of a citizen.
«*O manners, worthy of eternal remembrance!” cried

m Paus. |. ii. p. 88. » Apium. ° Herod. 1. viii. c. 26.
P Plin. |. xvi. c. 4.
* Several reasons are given for this name.
+ Tarai, Mapddme, xotovg tx’ dvdpac tyayec "paxnoopévove 7péEac, ot ov
EOL XONMATWY Tov ay@va ToLOvYTaL, GAG TEpi aoETIIC.

\ PREFACE. lili
Pliny, in relating this laudable custom. ‘“O grandeur,
truly Roman, that would assign no other reward but ho-
nour, for the preservation of a citizen! a service, indeed,
above all reward; thereby sufficiently evincing their opi-
nion, that it was criminal to save a man’s life from the
motive of lucre and interest!” O mores eternos, qui tan-
ta opera honore solo donaverint ; et cium reliquas coronas
auro commendarent, salutem civis in pretio esse noluerint,
clara professione servari quidem hominem nefas esse lucri
causa !

Amongst all the Grecian games, the Olympic held unde-
niably the firstrank; and that for threereasons. They were
sacred to Jupiter, the greatest of the gods; instituted by
Hercules, the first of the heroes; and celebrated with more
pomp and magnificence, amidst a greater concourse of
spectators attracted from all parts, than any of the rest.

i[f Pausanias may be believed, women were prohibited
to be present at them upon pain of death; and during their
continuance, it was ordained, that no woman should ap-
proach the place where the games were celebrated, or pass
on that side of the river Alpheus. One only was so bold
as to violate this law, and slipped in disguise amongst those
who were training the wrestlers. She was tried for the
offence, and would have suffered the penalty enacted by
the law, if the judges, in regard to her father, her brother,
and her son, who had all been victors in the Olympic games,
had not pardoned her offence, and saved her life.

This law was very conformable with the manners of the
Greeks, amongst whom the ladies were very reserved, sel-
dom appeared in public, had separate apartments, called
Gynecea, and never ate at table with the men when strangers
were present. It was certainly inconsistent with decency
to admit them at some of the games, as those of wrestling
and the Pancratium, in which the combatants fought naked.

"The same Pausanias tells us, in another place, that the
priestess of Ceres had an honourable seat in these games,
and that virgins were not denied the liberty of being present
at them. For my part, I cannot conceive the reason of
such inconsistency, which indeed seems incredible.

The Greeks thought nothing comparable to the victory in
these games. They looked upon it as the perfection of
glory, and did not believe it permitted to mortals to desire
any thing beyond it. *Cicero assures us, that with them
it was no less honourable than the consular dignity in its

4 Pausan. |. v. p. 297. T Ibid. 1}. vi. p. 382.
* Olympiorum victoria, Gracis consulatus ille antiquus videbatur. Tuscul.

Quest. lib. ii. n. 41.

liv - PREFACE.

original splendour with the ancient Romans. And in an-
other place he says, that *to conquer at Olympia, was al-
most, in the estimation.of the Grecians, more great and glo-
rious, than to receive the honour of a triumph at Rome.
Horace speaks in still stronger terms of this kind of victory.
+He is not afraid to say, that it exalts the victor above hu-
man nature ; they were no longer men, but gods.

We shall see hereafter what extraordinary honours were
paid to the victor, of which one of the most affecting was,
to date the year with hisname. Nothing could more effec-
tually stimulate their endeavours, and make them regard-
less of expenses, than the assurance of immortalizing their
names, which, through all future ages, would be enrolled
- in their annals, and stand in the front of all laws made in
the same year with the victory. To this motive may be
added the joy of knowing, that their praises would be cele-
brated by the most famous poets, and form the subject of
conversation in the most illustrious assemblies ; for these
odes were sung in every house, and formed a part in every
entertainment. What could be a more powerful incentive
to a people, who had no other object and aim than that of
human glory ?

I shall confine myself upon this head to the Olympic
games, which continued five days; and shall describe, in
as brief a manner as possible, the several kinds of combats
of which they were composed. M. Burette has treated
this subject in several dissertations, printed in the Memoirs
of the Academy of Belles Lettres; wherein purity, perspi-
cuity, and elegance of style, are united with profound eru-
dition. I make no scruple in appropriating to my use the
riches of my brethren; and, in what I have already said
upon the Olympic games, have made very free with the late
Abbé Massieu’s remarks upon the Odes of Pindar.

The combats which had the greatest share in the solem-
nity of the public games, were boxing, wrestling, the pan-
cratium, the discus or quoit, and racing. 'To these may be
added, the exercises of leaping, throwing the dart, and that
of the trochus, or wheel; but as these were neither important
nor of any great reputation, I shall content myself with
having only mentioned them in this place. For the better
methodising the particulars of these games and exercises,

* Olympionicum esse apud Grecos prope majus fuit et gloriosius quam
Rome triumphasse. Pro Flacco, num. xxxi.
+ Palmaque nobilis
Terrarum dominos evehit ad deos. Od. i. lib. 1.
Sive quos Elea domum reducit
Palma celestes. Od. ii. lib. iv.

PREFACE. lv

it will be necessary to begin with an account of the Ath-
letze, or combatants. ars

Of the Athlete, or Combatants.

Tur term Athlete is derived from the Greek word d0doc,
which signifies labour, combat. This name was given to
those who exercised themselves with an intention to dis-
pute the prizes in the public games. The art by which
they formed themselves for these encounters, was called
Gymnastic, from the Athletz’s practising naked.

Those who were designed for this profession frequented,
from their most tender age, the Gymnasia or Palestre,
which were a kind of academies maintained for that pur-
pose at the public expense. In these places, such young
people were under the direction of different masters, who
employed the most effectual metliods to inure their bodies
for the fatigues of the public games, and to train them for
the combats. The regimen they were under was very hard
and severe. At first they had no other nourishment than
dried figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a coarse heavy sort of
bread, called paZa. ‘They were absolutely forbidden the
use of wine, and enjoined continence; which Horace ex-
presses thus:

Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam

Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit,
Abstinuit venere et vino.— Art. Poet. v. 412.

Who in the Olympic race the prize would gain,
Has borne from early youth fatigue and pain,
Excess of heat and cold has often try’d,

Love’s softness banish’d, and the glass deny’d.

St. Paul, by a comparison drawn from the Athletz, exhorts
the Corinthians, near whose city the Isthmian games were
celebrated, to a sober and penitent life. Those who strive,
says he, for the mastery, are temperate in all things : Now
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incor-
ruptible. *Tertullian uses the same thought to encourage
the martyrs. He makes a comparison from what the hopes
of victory made the Athletz endure. He repeats the severe
and painful exercises they were obliged to undergo; the
continual denial and constraint in which they passed the
best years of their lives; and the voluntary privation which
they imposed upon themselves, of all that was most pleas-
ing and grateful to their passions. It is true, the Athletz
did not always observe so severe a regimen, but at length
* Nempe enim et Athlete segregantur ad strictiorem disciplinam, ut ro-
bori edificando vacent ; continentur a luxurid, a cibis latioribus, @ potu
jucundiore ; coguntur, eructantur, fatigantur. ‘Tertul. ad Martyr. —

lvi PREFACE.

substituted in its stead a voracity and indolence extremely
remote from it.

The Athlete, before their exercises, * were rubbed with
oils and ointments, to make their bodies more supple and
vigorous. At first they made use of a belt, with an apron
or scarf fastened to it, for their more decent appearance in
the combat; but one of the combatants happening to lose
the victory by this covering’s falling off, that accident was
the occasion of sacrificing modesty to convenience, and re-
trenching the apron for the future. The Athletz were
naked only in some exercises, as wrestling, boxing, the
pancratium, and the foot-race. They practised a kind of
novitiate in the Gymnasia for ten months, to accomplish
themselves in the several exercises by assiduous applica-
tion ; and this they did in the presence of such, as curiosity
or idleness conducted to look on. But when the celebra-
tion of the Olympic games drew nigh, the Athletze who
were to appear in them were kept to double exercise.

Before they were admitted to combat, other proofs were
required ; as to birth, none but Greeks were to be received.
It was also necessary that their manners should be unex-
ceptionable, and their condition free. No foreigner was
admitted to combat in the Olympic games; and when Alex-
ander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, presented
himself to dispute the prize, his competitors, without any
regard to the royal dignity, opposed his reception as a
Macedonian, and consequently a barbarian and a stranger;
nor could the judges be prevailed upon to admit him, till
he had proved in due form his family originally descended
from the Argives.

The persons who presided in the games were called
Agonothete, Athlothete, and Hellanodice: they registered
the name and country of each champion; and upon the
opening of the games a herald proclaimed the names of the
combatants. ‘They were then made to take an oath, that
they would religiously observe the several laws prescribed
in each kind of combat, and do nothing contrary to the es-
tablished orders and regulations of the games. Fraud, ar-
tifice, and excessive violence, were absolutely prohibited ;
and the maxim so generally received elsewhere, +that it is
indifferent whether an enemy is conquered by deceit or va-
lour, was banished from these combats. The address of a
- combatant, expert in all the niceties of his art, who knows
how to shift and ward dexterously, to put the change upon
his adversary with art and subtilty, and to improve the

* The persons employed in this office were called Alipte,
+ Dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?

PREFACE. Ivii

least advantages, must not be confounded here with the
cowardly and knavish cunning of one who, without regard
to the laws prescribed, employs the most unfair means to
vanquish his competitor. Those who disputed the prize
in the several kinds of combats, drew lots for their prece-
dency in them.

It is time to bring our champions to blows, and to run
over the different kinds of combats, in which they exercised
themselves.

Of Wrestling.

WRESTLING is one of the most ancient exercises of
which we have any knowledge, having been practised in
the time of the patriarchs, as the wrestling of the angel with
Jacob proves.’ Jacob supported the angel’s attack so vi-
gorously, that the latter, perceiving he could not throw so
rough a wrestler, was induced to make him lame by touch-
ing the sinews of his thigh, which immediately shrunk up.

Wrestling, among the Greeks, as well as other nations,
was practised at first with simplicity, little art, and in a na-
tural manner; the weight of the body, and the strength of
the muscles, having more share in it than address and skill.
Theseus was the first that reduced it to method, and refined
it by the rules of art. He wasalso the first who established
the public schools called Palestre, where the young people
had masters to instruct them in it.

The wrestlers, before they began the combat, were rub-
bed all over in a rough manner, and afterward anointed
with oils, which added to the strength and flexibility of
their limbs. But as this unction, by making the skin
too slippery, rendered it difficult for them to take hold of
each other, they remedied that inconvenience, sometimes
by rolling themselves in the dust of the Palzstra, some- -
times by throwing a fine sand upon each other, kept for that
purpose in the Xystz, or porticoes of the Gymnasia.

Thus prepared, the wrestlers began their combat. They
were matched two against two, and sometimes several
couples contended at the same time. In this combat, the
whole aim and design of the wrestlers was, to throw their
adversary upon the ground. Both strength and art were
employed for this purpose : They seized each other by the
arms, drew forwards, pushed backwards, used many dis-
tortions and twistings of the body ; locking their limbs into
each other’s, seizing by the neck, throttling, pressing in their
arms, struggling, plying on all sides, lifting from the ground,
dashing their heads together like rams, and twisting one

* Gen. xxxil. 24.

iviii PREFACE:

another’s necks. The most considerable advantage in the
wrestler's art, was to make himself master of his adver-
sary’s legs, of which a fall was the immediate consequence. |
From whence Plautus says in his Pseudolus, speaking of
wine, * He is a dangerous wrestler, he presently trips up the
heels. ‘The Greek terms drooxeAiZav and rrepviZav, and the
Latin word supplantare, seem to imply, that one of these
arts consisted in stooping down to seize the antagonist un-
der the soles of his feet, and in raising them up to give
him a fall.

In this manner the Athletz wrestled standing, the com-
bat ending with the fall of one of the competitors. But
when it happened that the wrestler who was down drew his
adversary along with him, either by art or accident, the
combat continued upon the sand, the antagonists tumbling
and twining with each other in a thousand different ways,
till one of them got uppermost, and compelled the other to
ask quarter, and confess himself vanquished. ‘There was
a third sort of wrestling called ’Axpoxerpiopic, from the Ath-
letz’s using only their hands in it, without taking hold of
the body, as in the other kinds ; and this exercise served as
prelude to the greater combat. It consisted in interming-
ling their fingers, and in squeezing them with all their
force ; in pushing one another, by joining the palms of their
hands together; in twisting their fingers, wrists, and other
joints of the arm, without the assistance of any other mem-
ber; and the victory was his, who obliged his opponent to
ask quarter.

The combatants were to fight three times successively,
and to throw their antagonists at least twice, before the
prize could be adjudged to them.

* Homer describes the wrestling of Ajax and Ulysses;
- Ovid, that of Hercules and Achelous; Lucan, of Hercules
and Antzus; and Statius, in his Thebaid, that of Tydeus
and Agylleus.

The wrestlers of greatest reputation amongst the Greeks,
were Milo of Crotona, whose history I have related else-
where at large, and Polydamas. The latter, alone and
without arms, killed a furious lion upon mount Olympus, in
imitation of Hercules, whom he proposed to himself asa
model in this action. Another time, having seized a bull
by one of his hinder legs, the beast could not get loose with-
out leaving his hoof in his hands. He could hold a cha-
riot behind, while the coachman whipped his horses in vain

* Iliad. 1. xxiii. v. 708, &c. Ovid. Metam. 1. ix. v. 31, &c. Phars.
1. iv. v.612. Stat. 1. vi. v. 847.
* Captat pedes primiom, luctator dolosus est.

PREFACE. lix

to make them go forward. Darius Nothus, king of Persia,
hearing of his prodigious strength, was desirous of seeing
him, and invited himto Susa. Three soldiers of that prince’s
guard, and of that band which the Persians called immortal,
esteemed the most warlike of their troops, were ordered to
fallupon him. Our champion fought, and killed them all three.

Of Boxing, or the Cestus.

BoxINeé is a combat at blows with the fist, fromt whence
it derives its name. The combatants covered their fists
with a kind of offensive arms, called Cestus, and their heads
with a sort of leather cap, to defend their temples and ears,
which were most exposed to blows, and to deaden their
violence. The Cestus was a kind of gauntlet, or glove,
made of straps of leather, and plated with brass, lead, or
iron. Their use was tostrengthen the hands.of the com-
batants, and to add violence to their blows.

Sometimes the Athletz came immediately to the most
violent blows, and began their onset in the most furious
manner. Sometimes whole hours passed in harassing and
fatiguing each other, by a continual extension of their arms,
rendering each other's blows ineflectual, and endeavouring
by that sparring to keep off their adversary. But when
they fought with the utmost fury, they aimed chiefly at the
head and face, which parts they were most careful to de-
fend, by either avoiding or parrying the blows made at them.
When a combatant came on to throw himself with all his
force and vigour upon another, they had a surprising ad-
dress in avoiding the attack, by a nimble turn of the body,
which threw the imprudent adversary down, and deprived
him of the victory.

However fierce the combatants were against each other,
their being exhausted by the length of the combat, would
frequently reduce them to the necessity of making a truce;
upon which the battle was suspended by mutual consent
for some minutes, that were employed in recovering their
fatigue, and rubbing off the sweat in which they were bathed:
after which they renewed the fight, till one of them, by let-
ting fall his arms, through weakness and faintness, ex-
plained that he could no longer support the pain or fatigue,
and desired quarter; which was confessing himself van-
quished.

Boxing was one of the roughest and ab dangerous of
the eymnastic combats; because, besides the danger of
being crippled, the combatants ran the hazard of their lives.
They sometimes fell down dead, or dying, upon the sand;
though that seldom happened, except the vanquished per-

Ix PREFACE.

son persisted too long in not acknowledging his defeat ; yet
it was common for them to quit the field with a counte-
nance so disfigured, that it was not easy to know them af-
terward ; carrying away with them the sad marks of their
vigorous resistance, such as bruises and contusions in the
face, the loss of an eye, their teeth knocked out, their jaws
broken, or some more considerable fracture.

We find in the poets, both Latin and Greek, several de-
scriptions of this kind of combat. In Homer, that of Epeus
and Euryalus; "in Theocritus, of Pollux and Amycus; in
Apollonius Rhodius, the same battle of Pollux and Amy-
cus; in Virgil, that of Dares and Entellus; and in Statius,
and Valerius Flaccus, of several other combatants.

Of the Pancratium.

THE Pancratium* was so called from two Greek words,
which signify, that the whole force of the body was neces-
sary for succeeding in it. It united boxing and wrestling
in the same fight, borrowing from one its manner of strug-
gling and flinging, and from the other, the art of dealing
blows and of avoiding them with success. In wrestling it
was not permitted to strike with the hand, nor in boxing to
seize each other in the manner of the wrestlers; but in the
Pancratium, it was not only allowed to make use of all the
gripes and artifices of wrestling, but the hands and feet, and
even the teeth and nails, might be employed to conquer an
antagonist.

This combat was the most rough and dangerous. A
Pancratiast in the Olympic games (called Arrichion, or Ar-
rachion), perceiving himself almost suffocated by his ad-
versary, who had got fast hold of him by the throat, at the
same time that he held him by the foot, broke one of his
enemy’s toes, the extreme anguish of which obliged him to
ask quarter at the very instant that Arrichion himself ex-
pired. . The Agonothetez crowned Arrichion, though dead,
and proclaimed him victor. Philostratus has left us a very
lively description of a painting, which represented this
combat.

Of the Discus, or Quoit.

THE Discus was a kind of quoit of a round form, made
sometimes of wood, but more frequently of stone, lead, or
other metal; asironor brass. Those who used this exer-
cise were called Discoboli, that is, flingers of the Discus.
The epithet xarwyadioc, which signifies borne upon the

" Dioscor. Idyl. xxii. Argonautic, lib. ii. Aineid. I.v. Thebaid. |. vii.
Argonaut. |. iv. - * [lay kparoc.

PREFACE. | Ixi
shoulders, given to this instrument by Homer, sufficiently
shews that it was of too great a weight to be carried from
place to place in the hands only, and that the shoulders
were necessary for the support of such a burden for any
length of time. ~ |

The intent of this exercise, as of almost all the others,
was to invigorate the body, and to make men more capable
of supporting the weight and use of arms. In war they
were often obliged to carry such loads, as appear exces-
sive in these days, either of provisions, fascines, palisades ;
or in scaling of walls, when, to equal the height of them,
several of the besiegers mounted upon the shoulders of
each other.

The Athletz, in hurling the Discus, put themselves into
the posture best adapted to add force to their cast; that is,
they advanced one foot, upon which they leaned the whole
weight of their bodies. ‘They then poised the Discus in
their hands, and whirling it round several times almost ho-
rizontally, to add force to its motion, they threw it off with
the joint strength of hands, arms, and body, which had all
a share in the vigour of the discharge. He that flung the
Discus farthest was the victor.

The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in
their endeavours to represent naturally the attitudes of the
Discoboli, have left to posterity many masterpieces in their
several arts. Quintilian exceedingly extols a statue of
that kind, which had been finished with infinite care and ap-
plication by the celebrated Myron: *What can be more
finished, says he, or express more happily the muscular dis-
tortions of the body in the exercise of the Discus, than the
Discobolus of Myron ?

Of the Pentathlum.

THE Greeks gave this name to an exercise composed of
five others. It is the common opinion, that those five ex-
ercises were wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart,
and the Discus. It is believed that this sort of combat
was decided in one day, and sometimes the same morning :
and that to obtain the prize, which was single, it was re-
quired that a combatant should be the Victor in all thos
exercises. |

The exercise of leaping, and throwing the javelin, of
which the first consisted in leaping a certain length, and
the other in hitting a mark with a javelin at a certain dis-
tance, contributed to the forming of a soldier, by making

* Quid tam distortum et elaboratum, quam est tlle Discobolus Myronis?
Quintil. lib. ii, cap. 13.

Ixii PREFACE,

him nimble and active in battle, and expert in flinging the
spear and dart.

Of Races.

' Or all the exercises which the Athletz cultivated with
so much pains and industry to enable them to appear inthe —
public games, running held the foremost rank. The Olym-
pic games generally opened with races, and were solem-
nized at first with no other exercise.

The place where the Athletz exercised themselves in
running, was generally called the Stadium by the Greeks ;
as was that wherein they disputed in earnest for the prize.
As the lists or course for these games was at first but one
*Stadium in length, it took its name from its measure, and
was called the Stadium, whether precisely of that extent,
or of a much greater. Under that denomination was in-
cluded not only the space in which the Athletz ran, but
also that which contained the spectators of the gymnastic
games. The place where the Athletz contended, was called
Scamma, from its lying lower than the rest of the Stadium,
on each side of which, and at the extremity, ran an ascent,
or kind of terrace, covered with seats and benches, upon
which the spectators were seated. The most remarkable
parts of the Stadium were its entrance, middle, and ex-
tremity.

The entrance of the course, from whence the competitors
started, was marked at first only by a line drawn on the
sand from side to side of the Stadium. ‘To that at length
was substituted a kind of barrier, which was only a cord
strained tight in the front of the horses or men that were to
run. It was sometimes a rail.of wood. The opening of
this barrier was the signal for the racers to start.

The middle of the Stadium was remarkable only by the
circumstance of having the prizes allotted to the victors set
up there. +St. Chrysostom draws a fine comparison from
this custom. As the judges, says he, in the races and other
games, expose in the midst of the Stadium, to the view of the
Champions, the crowns which they are to receive ; in like man-
ner the Lord, by the mouth of his prophets, has placed, in
the midst of the course, the prizes which he designs for those
who have the courage to contend for them.

* The Stadium was a measure of distance among the Greeks, and_ was,
according to Herodotus, I. ii. c. 149, six hundred feet in-length. Pliny
says, lib. ii. c. 23, that it was six hundred and twenty-five. Those two
‘authors may be reconciled by considering the difference between the
Greek and Roman foot; besides which, the length of the Stadium varies,

according to the difference of times and places.
+ Hom. lv. in Matth. c. 16.

PREFACE. Ix ii

At the extremity of the Stadium was a goal, where the
foot-races ended, but in those of chariots and horses they
were to run several times round it without stopping, and
afterward conclude the race by regaining the other extre-
mity of the lists, from whence they started.

There were three kinds of races, the chariot, the horse,
and the foot-race. I shall begin with the last, as the more
simple, natural, and ancient.

1. Of the Foot-race.

THE runners, of whatever number they were, ranged
themselves in a line, after having drawn lots for their places.
*W hilst they waited the signal to start, they practised, by
way of prelude, various motions to awaken their activity,
and to keep their limbs pliable and in a right temper. They
kept themselves in wind by small leaps, and making Tittle
excursions, that were a kind of trial of their speed and agi-
lity. Upon the signal being given, they flew towards the
goal, with a rapidity scarce to be followed by the eye,
which was solely to decide the victory. For the Agonistic
laws prohibited, under the penalty of infamy, the attaining
it by any foul method.

In the simple race, the extent of the Stadium was run
but once, at the end of which the prize attended the victor;
that is, he who came in first. Im the race called AfavAoc,
the competitors ran twice that length; thatis, after having
arrived at the goal, they returned to the barrier. To these
may be added a third sort, called AoArydc, which was the
longest of all, as its name implies, and was composed of
several Diauli. Sometimes it consisted of twenty-four
Stadia backwards and forwards, turning twelve times round
the goal.

|There were some runners in ancient times, as well among
the Greeks as Romans, who have been much celebrated for
their swiftness. YPliny tells us, that it was thought prodi-

y Plin. 1. vii. c. 20.
. Tune rite citatos -
Explorant, acuuntque gradus, variasque per artes
Instimulant docto languentia membra tumultu.
Poplite nunc flexo sidunt, nunc lubrica forti
Pectora collidunt plausu: nunc ignea tollunt
Crura brevemque fugam nec opino fine reponunt.
; Stat. Theb. lib. vi. v. 587, &c.
They try, they rouse their speed, with various arts ;
Their languid limbs they prompt to act their parts,
Now with bent hams, amidst the practis’d crowd,
They sit; now strain their lungs, and shout aloud ;
Now a short flight with fiery steps they trace,
And with a sudden stop abridge the mimic race.

Ixiv PREFACE.

gious in Phidippides to run eleven hundred and forty Sta-
dia? between Athens and Lacedzmon in the space of two
days, till Anystis, of the latter place, and Philonides, the
runner of Alexander the Great, went twelve hundred Stadia*
in one day, from Sicyon to Elis. These runners were de-
nominated ijuep0dodu0r, as we find in that passage of He-
rodotus’, which mentions Phidippides. In the consulate
of Fonteius and Vipsanus, in the reign of Nero, a boy of
nine years old ran seventy-five thousand paces*® between
noon and night. Pliny adds, that in his time there were
runners, who ran one hundred and sixty thousand paces?
in the Circus. Our wonder at such a prodigious speed will
increase (continues he), ‘if we reflect, that when Tiberius
went to Germany to his brother Drusus, then at the point
of death, he could not arrive there in less than four-and-
twenty hours, though the distance was but two hundred
thousand paces‘, and he changed his carriage three times,*
and went with the utmost diligence.

2. Of the Horse-races.

THE race of a single horse with a rider was less cele-
brated among the ancients, yet it had its favourers amongst
the most considerable persons, and even kings themselves,
and was attended with uncommon glory to the victor. Pin-
dar, in his first ode, celebrates a victory of this kind, ob-
tained by Hiero, king of Syracuse, to whom he gives the
title of KéAne, that is, Victor in the horse-race ; which name
was given to the horses carrying only a single rider,
Ké\nrec. Sometimes the rider led another horse by the bri-
dle, and then the horses were called Desultorit, and their
riders Desultores ; because, after a number of turns in the
Stadium, they changed horses, by dexterously vaulting from
one to the other. A surprising address was necessary upon
this occasion, especially in an age unacquainted with the
use of stirrups, and when the horses had no saddles, which
made the leap still more difficult. Among the African troops
there were also cavalry} called Desultores, who vaulted from
one horse to another, as occasion required; and these
were generally Numidians.

2 57 leagues. 2 60 leagues. > Herod. |. vi. c. 106.
© 30 leagues. 4 More than 53 leagues.
© Val. Max.'h:v: ¢; 6. f 67 leagues.

* He had only a guide and one officer with him.

+ Nec omnes Numide in dextro locati cornu, sed quibus desultorum in mo-
dum binos trahentibus equos, inter acerrimam sepe pugnam, in recentem
equum ex fesso armatis transultare mos erat; tanita velocitas ipsis, tamque
docile equorum genusest. Livy. lib. xxiii.

PREFACE. Ixy

3. Of the Charicé-races.

Tuis kind of race was the most renow.ied of ali the exer-
cises used in the games of the ancients, and that from
whence most honour redounded to the victors; which is not
to be wondered at, if we consider whence it arose. It is
plein that it was derived from the constant custom of
princes, heroes, and great men, of fighting in battle upon
chariots. Homer has an infinity of examples of this kind.
This custom being admitted, it is natural to suppose it very
-agreeable to those heroes, to have their charioteers as ex-
pert as possible in driving, as their success depended, in a
very great measure, upon the address of their drivers. It
was anciently, therefore, only to persons of the first consi-
deration, tiuat this office was confided. Hence arose a laud-
able emulation to excel others in the art of guiding a cha-
riot, and a kind of necessity to practise it very much, in or-
der to succeed. The high rank of the persons who made
use of chariots, ennobled, as it always happens, an exer-
cise peculiar to them. The other exercises were adapted
to private soldiers and horsemen, as weestling, running, and
the single-horse-race ; but the use of chariots in the field
was always reserved to princes, and generals of armies.

Hence it was, that all those who presented themselves
in the Olympic games to dispute the prize in the chariot-
races, were persons considerable either for their riches,
their birth, their employments, or great actions. Kings
themselves eagerly aspired to this glory, from the belief
that the title of victor in these games was scarce inferior to
that of conqueror, and that the Olympic palm added new
dignity to the splendours ofathrone. Pindar’s odes inform
us, that Gelon and Hiero, kings of Syracuse, were of that
opinion. Dionysius, who reigned there long after them,
carried the same ambition much higher. Philip of Mace-
don had these victories stamped upon hiscoins, and seemed
as much gratified with them as with those obtained against
the enemies 6: his state. °All the world knows the answer
of Alexander the Great on this subject. When his friends
asked him whether he would not dispute the prize of the
races in these games? Yes, said he, ef kings were to be my
antagonists. Which shews, that he would not have dis-
dained these contests, if there had been competitors in
them worthy of him.

The chariots were generally drawn by two or four horses,
ranged abreast: bige, quadrige. Sometimes mules sup-
plied the place of horses, and then the chariot was called

e Plut. in Alex. p. 666.
VOL. ! f

Ixvi PREFACE.

d7wijvn. Pindar, in the fifth ode of his first book, celebrates
one Psaumis, who had obtained a triple victory: one by a
chariot drawn by four horses, r<Ooim7w; another by one
drawn by mules, drnvn; and the third by a single horse,
xéAntt, Which the title of the ode expresses.

These chariots, upon a signal given, started together
from a place called Carceres. ‘Their places were regulated
by lot, which was not an indifferent circumstance as to the
victory ; for as they were to turn round a boundary, the
chariot on the left was nearer than those on the right, which
consequently had a greater compass to take. It appears
from several passages in Pindar, and especially from one
in Sophocles, which I shall cite very soon, that they ran
twelve times round the Stadium. He that came in first the
twelfth round was victor. The chief art consisted in taking
the best ground at the turning of the boundary: for if the
charioteer drove too near it, he was in danger of dashing
‘the chariot to pieces; and if he kept too wide ofit, his near-
est antagonist might cut between him, and get foremost.

It is obvious that these chariot-races could not be run
without some danger ; for as the* motion of the wheels was
very rapid, and it was requisite to graze against the bound-
ary in turning, the least error in driving would have broken
the chariot in pieces, and might have dangerously wounded
the charioteer. An example of which we find in the Elec-
tra of Sophocles, who gives an admirable description of a
chariot-race run by ten competitors. ‘The pretended Ores-
tes, at the twelfth and last round, which was to decide the
victory, having only one antagonist, the rest having been
thrown out, was so unfortunate as to break one of his
wheels against the boundary, and falling out of his seat en-
tangled in the reins, the horses dragged him violently for-
wards along with them, and tore him to pieces. But this
very seldom happened. *To avoid such danger, Nestor
gave the following directions to his son Antilochus, who
was going to dispute the prize in the chariot-race. My son,
says he, drive your horses as near as possible to the bound-
ary; for which reason, always incline your body over your
chariot, get the left of your competitors, and encouraging the
horse on the right, give him the rein, whilst the near horse,
hard held, turns the boundary so close that the nave of the
wheel seems to graze upon it; but have a care of running
against the stone, lest you wound your horses, and dash the
chariot in pieces.

f Hom. II. L. xxiii. v. 334, &e.

* Metaque fervidis evitata rotis. Horat. Od. i. lib. i.
The goal shunn’d by the burning wheels.

PREFACE. Ixvil

- Father Montfaucon mentions a difficulty, in his opinion
of much consequence, in regard to the places of those who
contended for the prize in the chariot-race. They all started
indeed from the same line, and at the same time, and so far
had no advantage of each other ; but he, whose lot gave him
the first place, being nearest the boundary at the end of the
career, and having but a small compass to describe in turn-
ing about it, had less way to make than the second, third,
fourth, &c. especially when the chariots were drawn by
four horses, which took up a greater space between the first
and the others, and obliged them to make a larger circle in
coming round. ‘This advantage twelve times together, as
must happen, admitting the Stadium was to be run round
twelve times, gave such a superiority to the first, as seemed
to assure him infallibly of the victory against all his com-
petitors. ‘To me it seems that the fleetness of the horses,
joined with the address of the driver, might countervail this
odds: either by getting before the first, or by taking his place ;
if not in the first, at least insome of the subsequent rounds;
for it is not to be supposed, that in the progress of the race,
the antagonists always continued in the same order in which
they started. They often changed places ina short interval
of time, and in that variety and vicissitude consisted all the
diversion of the spectators.

It was not required, that those who aspired to the victory
should enter the lists, and drive their chariots in person.
Their being spectators of the games, or even sending their
horses thither, was sufficient; but in either case, it was
previously necessary to register the names of the persons
for whom the horses were to run, either in the chariot or
single-horse-races.

& At the time that the city of Potidza surrendered to
Philip, three couriers brought him advices; the first, that
the Illyrians had been defeated in a great battle by his ge-
neral Parmenio; the second, that he had carried the prize
of the horse-race in the Olympic games; and the.-third, that
the queen was delivered of a son. Plutarch seems to insi-
nuate, that Philip was equally delighted with each of these
circumstances.

h Hierg sent horses to Olympia, to run for the prize, and
caused a magnificent pavilion to be erected for them. Upon
this occasion Themistocles harangued the Greeks, to per-
suade them to pull down the tyrant’s pavilion, who had re-
fused his aid against the common enemy, and to hinder his
horses from running with the rest. It does not appear that
any regard was had to this remonstrance ; for we find, by

¢ Plut. in Alex. p. 666. h Plut. in Themist. p. 124.
{2

lxviii PREFACE.

one of Pindar’s odes, composed in honour of Hiero, that he
won the prize in the equestrian races.

‘No one ever carried the ambition of making a great
figure in the public games of Greece so far as Alcibiades,
in which he distinguished himself in the most splendid man-
ner, by the great number of horses and chariots which he
kept only for the races. There never was either private
person or king, that sent, as he did, seven chariots at once
to the Olympic games, wherein he carried the first, second,
and third prizes; an honour no one ever had before him.
The famous poet Euripides celebrated these victories in an
ode, of which Plutarch has preserved a fragment. The vic-
tor, after having made a sumptuous sacrifice to Jupiter,
gave a magnificent feast to the innumerable multitude of
spectators at the games. It is not easy to comprehend,
how the wealth of a private person should suffice for so
enormous an expense: but Antisthenes, the scholar of So-
crates, who relates what he saw, informs us, that many ci-
ties of the allies, in emulation ofeach other, supplied Alci-
biades with all things necessary for the support of such in-
credible magnificence; equipages, horses, tents, sacrifices,
the most exquisite provisions, the most delicate wines; in
a word, all that was necessary to the support of his table
or train. ‘The passage is remarkable; for the same author
assures us, that this was notonly done when Alcibiades went
to the Olympic games, but in all his military expeditions
and journeys by land or sea. Wherever, says he, Alci-
biades travelled, he made use of four of the allied cities as
his servants. Ephesus furnished him with tents, as magnifi-
cent as those of the Persians ; Chios took care to provide for
his horses ; Cyzicum supplied him with sacrifices, and provi-
sions for his table; and Lesbos gave him wine, with whatever
else was requisite for his house.

I must not omit, in speaking of the Olympic games, that
the ladies were admitted to dispute the prize in them as well
as the men; and that many of them obtained it. ‘Cynisca,
sister of Agesilaus king of Sparta, first opened this new
path of glory to her sex, and was proclaimed conqueror in
the race of chariots with four horses. 'This victory, of
which till then there had been no example, did net fail of
being celebrated with all possible splendour. ™A magni-
ficent monument was erected at Sparta in honour of Cynis-
ca; and the Lacedzmonians, though otherwise very little
sensible to the charms of poetry, appointed a poet to trans-
mit this new triumph to posterity, and to immortalize its me-

i Plut. in Alcibiad. p. 196, | k Pausan. |]. iii. p. 172.
| Thid. p. 188. m Ibid. p. 172.

PREFACE. Ixix

mory by an inscription in verse. "She herself dedicated a
chariot of brass, drawn by four horses, in the temple of
Delphi; in which the charioteer was also represented; a
certain proof that she did not driveit herself. °In process
of time, the picture of Cynisca, drawn by the famous Apel-
les, was annexed to it, and the whole adorned with many
inscriptions in honour of that Spartan heroine.

Of the Honours and Rewards granted to the Victors.

THESE honours and rewards were of several kinds. The
acclamations of the spectators in honour of the victors were
only a prelude to the prizes designed them. These prizes
were different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel,
according to the different places where the games were ce-
lebrated. Those crowns were always attended with branches
of palm, that the victors carried in their right hands ; which
custom, according to Plutarch,’ arose (perhaps) from a
property of the palm-tree, which displays new vigour the
more endeavours are used to crush or bend it, and is a
symbol of the courage and resistance of the champion who
had obtained the prize. As he might be victor more than
once in the same games, and sometimes on the same day,
he might also receive several crowns and palms.

When the victor had received the crown and palm, a he-
rald, preceded by a trumpet, conducted him through the
Stadium, and proclaimed aloud the name and country of the
successful champion, who passed in that kind of review be-
fore the people, whilst they redoubled their acclamations
and applauses at the sight of him.

When he returned to his own country, the people came
out in a body to meet him, and conducted him into the city,
adorned with all the marks of his victory, and riding upon
a chariot drawn by four horses. He made his entry not
through the gates, but through a breach purposely made in
the walls. Lighted torches were carried before him, anda
numerous train followed to do honour to the procession.

The athletic triumph almost always concluded with feasts
made for the victors, their relations, and friends, either at
the expense of the public, or by private individuals, who
regaled not only their families and friends, but often a great
part of the spectators. ‘Alcibiades, after having sacrificed
to the Olympian Jupiter, which was always the first care
of the victor, treated the whole assembly. Leophron did
the same, as Athenzeus reports; who adds, that Empedo-

" Pausan. I. v. p. 309. ° Td. 1. vi. p. 344.
P Sympos. |. viii. queest. 4. a Plut. in Alcib. p. 196.
Libs 1, fsa:

Ixx PREFACE.

cles of Agrigentum, having conquered in the same games,
and not having it in his power, being a Pythagorean, to re-
gale the people with flesh or fish, caused an ox to be made
of a paste, composed of myrrh, incense, and all sorts of
spices, of which pieces were given to all who were present.

One of the most honourable privileges granted to the ath-
letic victors, was the right of precedency at the public games.
At Sparta it was a custom tor the king to take them with
him in military expeditions, to fight near his person, and to
be his guard; which, with reason, was judged very honour-
able. Another privilege, in which advantage was united
with honour, was that of being maintained for the rest of
their lives at the expense of their country. “That this ex-
pense might not become too chargeable to the state, Solon
reduced the pension of a victor in the Olympic games to
five hundred drachmas ;* in the Isthmian to a hundred ;" and
in the rest in proportion. The victor and his country con-
sidered this pension less as a relief of the champion’s indi-
gence, than as a mark of honour and distinction. They
were also exempted from all civil offices and employments.

The celebration of the games being over, one of the first
cares of the magistrates, who presided in them, was to in-
scribe, in the public register, the name and country of the
Athletz who had carried the prizes, and to annex the spe-
cies of combat in which they had been victorious. The
chariot-race had the preference to all other games. Hence
the historians, who date occurrences by the Olympiads, as
Thucydides, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus Sicu-
lus, and Pausanias, almost always express the Olympiad
by the name and country of the victors in that race.

The praises of the victorious Athlete were amongst the
Greeks one of the principal subjects of their lyric poetry.
We find that all the odes of the four books of Pindar turn
upon it, each of which takes its title from the games in
which the combatants signalized themselves, whose victo-
ries those poems celebrate. The poet, indeed, frequently
enriches his matter, by calling in to the champion’s assist-
ance, Incapable alone of inspiring all the enthusiasm ne-
cessary, the aid of the gods, heroes, and princes, who have
any relation to his subject; and to support the flights of
imagination, to which he abandons himself. Before Pin-
dar, the poet Simonides practised the same manner of wri-
ting, intermingling the praises of the gods and heroes with
those of the champions whose victories he sang. “It is re-
lated upon this head, that one of the victors in boxing,

_ * Diog. Laert.in Solon, p. 37. t About 1. " About 22.
x Cic. de Orat. |. ii, n. 352, 353. + Pheed. 1. ii. fab, 24. Quintil. ]. xi, c, 2.

PREFACE. IXxt
called Scopas, having agreed with Simonides for a poem
upon his victory, the poet, according to custom, after having
given the highest praises to the champion, expatiated in a
long digression to the honour of Castor and Pollux. Sco-
pas, satisfied in appearance with the performance of Simo-
nides, paid him, however, only the third part of the sum
agreed on, referring him for the remainder to the Tyndari-
dz, whom he had celebrated so well. And in fact he was
well paid by them, if we may believe the sequel; for, at the
feast given by the champion, whilst the guests were at ta-
ble, a servant came to Simonides, and told him, that two
men, covered with dust and sweat, were at the door, and
desired to speak with him in all haste. He had scarce set
his foot out of the chamber, in order to go to them, when
the roof fell in, and crushed the champion, with all his
guests, to death.

Sculpture united with poetry to perpetuate the fame of the
champions. Statues were erected to the victors, especially
in the Olympic games, in the very place where they had
been crowned, and sometimes in that of their birth also;
which was commonly done at the expense of their country.
Amongst the statues which adorned Olympia, were those
of several children of ten or twelve years old, who had ob-
tained the prize at that age in the Olympic games. They
did not only raise such monuments to the champions, but
to the very horses to whose swiftness they were indebted
‘for the Agonistic crown: and ¥Pausanias mentions one,
which was erected in honour of a mare, called Aura, whose
history is worth repeating. Phidolas her rider, having
fallen off in the beginning of the race, the mare continued
to run in the same manner as if he had been upon her back.
She outstripped all the rest; and upon the sound of the
trumpets, which was usual towards the end of the race to
animate the competitors, she redoubled her vigour and cou-
rage, turned round the goal; and, as if she had been sensi-
ble that she had gained the victory, presented herself before
the judges of the games. The Eleans declared Phidolas
victor, with permission to erect a monument to himself and
the mare that had served him so well.

The different Taste of the Greeks and Romans,
in regard to Public Shows.

Brrore I make an end of these remarks upon the com-
bats and games so much in estimation amongst the Greeks,
I beg the reader’s permission to make a reflection, that may

y Lib. vi, p. 368.

xxii PREFACE.

seive to explain the difference of characier beiween the
Greeks and Romans, with regard to this subject.

The most common entertainment of the latter, at which
the fair sex, by navure tender and compassionate, were pre-
sent in throngs, was the combat of the gladiators, and of
men with bears and lions; in which the cries of the wounded
and dying, and the abundant effusion of human blood; sup-
plied a grateful spectacle for a whole people, who feasted
their cruel eyes with the savage pleasure of seeing men
murder one another in cool blood; and in the times of the
persecutions, with the tearing in pieces of old men and in-
fants, of women and tender virgins, whose age and weak-
ness are apt to excite compassion in the hardest hearts.

In Greece these combats were absolutely unknowa, and
were only introduced into some cities, after their subjection
to the Roman people. *The Athenians, however, whose
distinguishing characteristics were benevolence and hu-
manity, never admitted them into their city; and when it
was proposed to introduce the combats of the gladiators,
that they might not be outdone by the Corinthians in that
point, First throw down, cried out an *Athenian from the
midst of the assembly, throw down the altar, erected above
a thousand years ago by our ancestors to Mercy.

It must be allowed that in this respect the conduct and
wisdom of the Greeks were infinitely superior to that of the
Romans. I speak of the wisdom of Pagans. Convinced
that the multitude, too much governed by the objects of
sense to be sufficiently amused and entertained with the
pleasures of the understanding, could be delighted only with
sensible objects, both nations were studious to divert them
with games and shows, and such external contrivances as
were proper to affect the senses; in the institution of which,
each ev.nced and followed its peculiar inclination and dis-
position.

The Romans, educated in war, and accustomed to bat-
tles, always retained, notwithstanding the politeness upon
which they piqued themselves, something of their ancient
ferocity; and hence it was, that the effusion of blood, and
the murders exhibited in their public: shows, far from in-
Spiring them with horror, formed a grateful entertainment
to them.

The insolent pomp of triumphs flowed from the same
source, and argued no less inhumanity. To obtain this
honour, it was necessary to prove, that eight or ten thou-

* Lucian. in vit. Demonact. p. 1014:
* It was Demonax, a celebrated philosopher, whose d‘sciple Lucian had
been. He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

PREFACE. xxii

sand men had been killed in battle. The spoils, which were
carried with so much ostentation, proclaimed, that an in-
finity of worthy families had been reduced to the utmost
misery. ‘The innumerable troop of captives had been free
persons a few days before, and were often distinguishable
for honour, merit, and virtue. The representation of the
towns that had been taken in the war, explained that they
had sacked, plundered, and burni, the most opulent cities ;
and had either destroyed or enslaved their inhabitants. In
short, nothing was more inhuman, than to drag kings and
princes in chains before the chariot of a Roman citizen,
and to insu!t their misfortunes and humiliation in that public
manner.

The triui:aphal arches, erected under the emperors, where
the enem‘es appeared with chains upon their hands and legs,
could proceed only from a haughty fierceness of disposition,
and an inhuman pride, that took delight in immortalizing
the shame and sorrow of subjected nations.

4 The joy of the Greeks after a victory was far more mo-
dest. They erected trophies, indeed, but of wood, a sub-
stance of no long duration, which time would soon consume;
and these it was prohibited to renew. Plutarch’s reason
for this is admirable.* After time had destroyed and ob-
literated the marks of dissension and enmity that had divided
nations, it would have been the excess of odious and bar-
barous animosity, to have thought of re-establishing them,
to perpetuate the remembrance of ancient quarrels, which
could not be buried too soon in silence and oblivion. He
adds, that the trophies of stone and brass, since substituted |
to those of wood, reflect no honour upon those who intro-
duced the custom.

>T am pleased with the grief depicted on Agesilaus’s’
countenance, after a considerable victory, wherein a great
number of his enemies, that is to say, of Greeks, were left
upon the field, and to hear him utter, with sighs and groans,
these words, so full of moderation and humanity: Oh,-un-
happy Greece, to deprive thyself of so many brave citizens,
and to destroy those who had been sufficient to have conquered
all the Barbarians !

The same spirit of moderation and humanity prevailed in
the public shows of the Greeks. Their festivals had no-
thing mournful or afilictive in them. Every thing in those
feasts tended to delight, friendship, and harmony; and in

@ Plut. in Quest. Rom. p. 273.
> Plut. in Lacon. Apophthegm. p. 211.
*"Ore Tov xpdvov Ta onpsia Tic TodG Tobc ToEMIoUC Stapopac apavpovyToc,
avrove avakapBavew Kai Kavorovtiy éripPovor tori Kai guramrexXOnporv.

Ixxiv PREFACE,

that consisted one of the greatest advantages which resulted
to Greece from the solemnization of these games. ‘The re-
publics, separated by distance of country and diversity of
interests, having the opportunity of meeting from time to
time, in the same place, and in the midst of rejoicing and
festivity, allied themselves more strictly with one another,
stimulated each other against the Barbarians and the com-
mon enemies of their liberty, and made up their differences
by the mediation of some neutral state in alliance with them.
The same language, manners, sacrifices, exercises, and
worship, all conspired to unite the several little states of
Greece into one great and formidable nation; and to pre-
serve amongst them the same disposition, the same princi-
ples, the same zeal for their liberty, and the same fondness
for the arts and sciences.

Of the Prizes of Wit, and the Shows and
Representations of the Theatre.

I HAVE reserved, for the conclusion of this head, another
kind of competition, which does not at all depend upon the
strength, activity, and address of the body, and may be called
with reason the combat of the mind: wherein the orators,
historians, and poets, made trial of their capacities, and
submitted their productions to the censure and judgment of
the public. The emulation in this sort of dispute was so
much the more lively and ardent, as the victory in question
might justly be deemed to be infinitely superior to all others,
because it affects the man more nearly, is founded on his
personal and internal qualities, and decides upon the merit
of his intellectual capacity; which are advantages we are
apt to aspire after with the utmost vivacity and passion, and
of which we are least of all inclined to renounce the glory
to others.

It was a great honour, and at the same time a most sen-
sible pleasure, for writers, who are generally fond of fame
and applause, to have known how to unite in their favour
the suffrages of so numerous and select an assembly as that
of the Olympic games; in which were present all the finest
geniuses of Greece, and all who were most capable of judg-
ing of the excellency of a work. This theatre was equally
open to history, eloquence, and peetry.

¢ Herodotus read his history at the Olympic games to
all Greece, assembled at them, and was heard with such
applause, that the names of the nine Muses were given to the
nine books which compose his work, and the people cried
out wherever he passed, That is he, who has written our

© Lucian. in Herod. p. 622.

PREFACE. Ixxy

history, and celebrated our glorious successes against the
Barbarians so excellently.

All who had been present at the games, caused _after-
ward every part of Greece to resound with the name and
glory of this illustrious historian.

Lucian, who writes the fact which I have related, adds,
that after the example of Herodotus, many of the sophists
and rhetoricians went to Olympia, to read the harangues
of their composing; finding that the shortest and most cer-
tain method of acquiring a great reputation in a little time.

‘Plutarch observes, that Lysias, the famous Athenian
orator, contemporary with Herodotus, pronounced a speech
in the Olympic games, wherein he congratulated the Greeks
upon their reconciliation with each other, and their having
united to reduce the power of Dionysius the Tyrant, as
upon the greatest action they had ever done.

° We may judge of the eagerness of the poets to signalize
themselves in these solemn games, from that of Dionysius
himself. That prince, who had the foolish vanity to be-
lieve himself the most excellent poet of his time, appointed
readers, called in Greek papwédoi (rhapsodists ), to read se-
veral pieces of his composing at Olympia. When they be-
gan to pronounce the verses of the royal poet, the strong
and harmonious voices of the readers occasioned a pro-
found silence, and they were heard at first with the great-
est attention, which continually decreased as they went
on, and turned at last into downright horse-laughs and
hooting; so miserable did the verses appear. ‘ He com-
forted himself for this disgrace by a victory he gained some
time after in the feast of Bacchus at Athens, in which he
caused a tragedy of his composition to be represented.

The disputes of the poets in the Olympic games were no-
thing in comparison with the ardour and emulation that
prevailed at Athens; which is what remains to be said
ypon this subject, and therefore I shall conclude with it,
taking occasion to give my readers, at the same time, a short
view of the shows and representations of the theatre of the
ancients. Those who would be more fully informed on
this subject, will find it treated at large in a work lately
made public by the reverend Father Brumoi, the Jesuit; a
work which abounds with profound knowledge and erudi-
tion, and with reflections entirely new, deduced from. the
nature of the poems of which it treats. I shall make con-
siderable use of that piece, and often without citing it;
which is not uncommon with me.

4 Plut. de vit. Orat. p. 836. * Diod. |. xiv, p. 318.
f Diod. |. xv. p. 381.

Ixxvi PREFACE.

Extraordinary Fondness of the Athenians for the Entertain-
ments of the Stage. Emulation of the Poets in disputing
the Prizes in those Representations. A short Idea of Dra-
matic Poetry.

No people ever expressed so much ardour and eagerness
for the entertainments of the theatres as the Greeks, and
especially the Athenians. ‘The reason is obvious; as no
people ever demonstrated such extent of genius, nor car-
ried so far the love of eloquence and poesy, taste for the
sciences, justnéss of sentiments, elegance of ear, and deli-
cacy in all the refinements of language. *A poor woman,
who sold herbs at Athens, discovered Theophrastus to be a
stranger, by a single word which he affectedly made use of
in expressing himself. The common people got the trage-
dies of Euripides by heart. The genius of every nation
expresses itself in the people’s manner of passing their
time, and in their pleasures. The great employment and
delight of the Athenians were to amuse themselves with
works of wit, and to judge of the dramatic pieces, that
were acted by public authority several times a year, espe-
cially at the feasts of Bacchus, when the tragic and comic
poets disputed for the prize. 'The former used to present
four of their pieces at a time ; except Sophocles, who did
not think fit to continue so laborious an exercise, and con-
fined himself to one performance, when he disputed the
prize.

The state appointed judges, to determine upon the merit
of the tragic or comic pieces, before they were represented
in the festivals. They were acted before them in the pre-
sence of the people; but undoubtedly with no great prepa-
ration. The judges gave their suffrages, and that perfor-
mance, which had the most voices, was declared victorious,
received the crown as such, and was represented with all
possible pomp at the expense of the republic. This did
not, however, exclude such pieces, as were only in the
second or third class. The best had not always the pre-
ference; for what times have been exempt from party, ca-
price, ignorance, and prejudice? & A‘lian is very angry
with the judges, who, in one of these disputes, gave only
the second place to Euripides. He accuses them of judg-
ing either without capacity, or of suffering themselves to be
bribed. It is easy to conceive the warmth and emulation.
which these disputes and public rewards excited amongst

8 /Blian, |. ii. c. 8.

* Attica anus Theophrastum, hominem alioqui disertissimum, annotaté
untus affectatione verbi, hospitem dixit. Quint. 1. viii. c. 1.

PREFACE. Ixxvii

the poets, and how much they contributed to the perfection
to which Greece carried dramatic performances.

The dramatic poem introduces the persons themselves,
speaking and acting upon the stage: in the epic, on the
contrary, the poet only relates the different adventures of
his characters. It is natural to be delighted with fine de-
scriptions of events, in which illustrious persons and whole
nations are interested ; and hence the epic poem had its
origin. But we are quite differently affected with hearing
those persons themselves, with being the confidants of their
most secret sentiments, and auditors and spectators of their
resolutions, enterprises, and the happy or unhappy events at-
tending them. To read and sce an action, are quite different
things ; we are infinitely more moved with what is acted,
than with what we merely read. Our eyes as well as our
minds are addressed at the same time. The spectator,
agreeably deceived by an imitation so nearly approaching
life, mistakes the picture for the original, and thinks tke
object real. This gave birth to dramatic poetry, which
includes tragedy and comedy.

To these may be added the satyric poem, which derives
its name from the satyrs, rural gods, who were always the
chief characters in it; and not from the satire, a kind of
abusive poetry, which has no resemblance to this, and is of
a much later date. The satyric poem was neither tragedy
nor comedy, but something between both, participating of
the character of each. The poets, who disputed the prize,
generally added one of these pieces to their tragedies, to
allay the gravity and solemnity of the one, with the mirth
and pleasantry of the other. There is but one example of
this ancient poem come down to us, which is the Cyclops
of Euripides.

I shall confine myself upon this head to tragedy an
comedy; both which had their origin amongst the Greeks,
who looked upon them as fruits of their own growth, of
which they could never have enough. Athens was re-
markable for an extraordinary appetite of this kind. These
two poems, which were for a long time comprised under
the general name of tragedy, received there by degrees such
improvements, as at length raised them to their highest
perfection.

The Origin and Progress of Tragedy. Poets who excelled in
it at Athens; Atschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

THERE had been many tragic and comic. poets before

Thespis; but as they had made no alterations in the origi-

evil | PREFACE.

nal rude form of this poem, and as Thespis was the first
that made any improvement in it, he was generally es-
teemed its inventor. -Before him, tragedy was no more
than a jumble of buffoon tales in the comic style, inter-
mixed with the singing of a chorus in praise of Bacchus;
for it is to the feasts of that god, celebrated at the time of
the vintage, that tragedy owes its birth.

La tragédie, informe et grossiere en naissant,
N’étoit qu’un simple choeur, ot chacun en dansant,
Et du dieu des raisins entonnant les louanges,
S’éfforgoit d’attirer de fertiles vendanges.
La, le vin et la joie éveillant les esprits,
Du plus habile chantre un bouc étoit le prix.
Boileau, Art. Poet. chant. iii.

Formless and gross did tragedy arise,

A simple chorus, rather mad than wise;

For fruitful vintages the dancing throng
Roar’d to the god of grapes a drunken song:
Wild mirth and wine sustain’d the frantic note,
And the best singer had the prize, a goat.

Thespis made several alterations in it, which Horace de-
scribes after Aristotle, in his Art of Poetry. The *first was
to carry his actors about in a cart, whereas before they
used to sing in the streets, wherever chance led them.
Another was to have their faces smeared over with wine-
lees, instead of acting without disguise, as at first. He
also introduced a character among the chorus, who, to give
the actors time to rest themselves and to take breath, re-
peated the adventures of some illustrious person; which
recital, at length, gave place to the subjects of tragedy.

Thespis fut le premier, qui barbouillé de lie,
Promena par les bourgs cette heureuse folie,
_ Et d’acteurs mal ornés chargeant un tombereau,
Amusa les passans d’un spectacle nouveau.
Boileau, Art. Poet. chant. iii.

First Thespis, smear’d with lees, and void of art,
The grateful folly vented from a cart;

And as this tawdry actors drove about,

The sight was new, and charm’d the gaping rout.

* baa tragice genus invenisse camane —
witur, et plaustris vexisse poémata Thespis,
Que canerent agerentque peruncti fecibus ora.—Hor. de Art. Poet.

When Thespis first exposed the tragic Muse,
Rude were the actors, and a cart the scene,
Where ghastly faces, smear’d with lees of wine,
Frighted the children, and amused the crowd.
. ‘ Roscom. Art. of Poet.

PREFACE. Ixxix

*Thespis lived in the time of Solon. That
A.M. 3440. wise legislator, upon seeing his pieces
Ant. J.C, 564. performed, expressed his dislike, by strik-
ing his staff against the ground; appre-
hending that these poetical fictions, and idle stories, from
mere theatrical representations, would soon become matters
of importance, and have too great a share in all public
and private affairs. '
It is not so easy to invent, as to improve
A. M. 3464. the inventions of others. The alterations .
Ant. J.C.540. ‘Thespis made in tragedy, gave room for
Aischylus to maké new and more con-
siderable of his own. He was born at Athens, in the
first year of the sixtieth Olympiad. He took upon him
the profession of arms, at a time when the Athenians
reckoned almost as many heroes as citizens. He was at
the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Platzea, where he did
his duty. But his disposition called him
A.M. 3514. elsewhere, and put him upon entering into
Ant, J.C. 490. another course, where no less glory was
to be acquired; and where he was soon
without any competitors. As a superior genius, he took
upon him to reform, or rather to create tragedy anew;
of which he has, in consequence, been always acknow-
ledged the inventor and father. Father Brumoi, in a dis-
sertation which abounds with wit and good sense, explains
the manner in which Aéschylus conceived the true idea
of tragedy from Homer’s epic poems. The poet himself
used to say, that his works were the remnants of the feasts
given by Homer in the [iad and Odyssey.
Tragedy, therefore, took a new form under him. He
gave *masks to his actors, adorned them with robes and
trains, and made them wear buskins. Instead of a
cart he erected a theatre of a moderate elevation, and
entirely changed their style; which from being merry and
burlesque, as at first, became majestic and serious.
Eschyle dans le choeur jetta les personages :
D’un masque plus honnéte habilla les visages:

Sur les ais d’un théatre en public exhaussé
Fit paroitre ’acteur d’un brodequin chaussé.— Boileau, Art. Poet.

k Plut. in Solon. p. 95.
* Post hune persone palleque repertor honeste
Aischylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis,
Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno.—Hor. de Art. Poet.
This Aschylus (with indignation) saw,
And built a stage, found out a decent dress,
Bronght vizards in, a civiler disguise,
And taught men how to speak and how to act.—Roscom. Art. Poet.

1xxx PREFACE.
From A‘schylus the chorus learnt new grace:
He veil’d with decent masks the actor’s face,

Taught him in buskins f.rst to tread the stage,
And raised a theatre 1o please the age.

But that was only the external part or body of tragedy.
Its soul, which was the most important and essential ad-
dition of Aischylus, consisted in the vivacity and spirit of
the action, sustained by the dialogue of the persens of the
drama introduced by him; in the artful working up of the
stronger passions, especially of terror and pity, which, by
alternately afflicting and agitating the soul with mournful
or terrible objects, produce a grateful pleasure and delight
from that very trouble and emotion; in the choice of a
subject, great, noble, interesting, and contained within due
bounds by the unity of time, place, and action: in short, it
is the conduct and disposition of the whole piece, which,
by the order and harmony of its parts, and the happy
connexion of its incidents and intrigues, holds the mind
of the spectator in suspense till the catastrophe, and then
restores him his tranquillity, and dismisses him with satis-
faction.

The chorus had been established before Aischylus, as it
composed alone, or next to alone, what was then called
tragedy. He did not therefore exclude it, but, on the con-
trary, thought fit to incorporate it, to sing as chorus between
the acts. ‘Thus it supplied the interval of resting, and was
a kind of person of the drama, employed * either in giving
useful advice and salutary instructions, in espousing the
party of innocence and virtue, in being the depository of
secrets, and the avenger of violated religion, or in sustain-
ing all those characters at the same time, according to Ho-

* Actoris partes chorus officiumque virile
Defendat, neu quid medios intereinat actus,
Quod non proposito conducat, et hereat apte.
Ile bonis faveatque, et concilietur amicis,
Et regat tratos, et amet peccare timentes.
Ile dapes laudet mense brevis; ille salubrem
Justitiam, legesque, et apertis otia portis.
Iile tegat commissa, deosque precetur et oret,
Ut redeat miseris, abeat fortuna superbis.—Hor. de Art. Poet.

The chorus should supply what action wants,
And hath a generous and manly part;
Bridles wild rage, loves rigid honesty,
And strict observance of impartial laws,
Sobriety, security, and peace,
And begs the gods to turn blind Fortune’s wheel,
To raise the wretched, and pull down the proud ;
But nothing must be sung between the acts,
But what someway conduces to the plot.
Roscom. Art. of Poetry

PREFACE. Ixxxi

race. The corypheus, or principal person of the chorus,
spoke for the rest.

In one of Auschylus’s pieces, called the Eumenides, the
poet represents Orestes at the bottom of the stage, sur-
rounded by the furies, laid asleep by Apollo. Their figure
must have been extremely horrible, as it is related, that
upon their waking and appearing tumultuously on the thea-
tre, where they were to act as a chorus, some women miscar-
ried with the surprise, and several children died of the fright.
The chorus at that time consisted of fifty actors. After
this accident, it was reduced to fifteen by an express law,
and at length to twelve.

I have observed, that one of the alterations made by
Aischylus in tragedy, was the mask worn by his actors.
These dramatic masks had no resemblance to ours, which —
Only cover the face, but were a kind of case for the whole
head, and which, besides the features, represented the
beard, the hair, the ears, and even the ornaments used by
women in their head-dresses. These masks varied ac-
cording to the different pieces that were acted. The
subject is treated at large in a dissertation of M. Boin-
din’s, inserted in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles
Lettres.°

I could never comprehend, as I have observed,” in speak-
ing of pronunciation, how masks came to continue so long
upon the stage of the ancients; for certainly they could
not be used, without considerably deadening the spirit of
the action, which is principally expressed in the counte-
nance, the seat and mirror of what passes inthe soul. Does
it not often happen, that the blood, according as it is put
in motion by different passions, sometimes covers the face
with a sudden and modest blush, sometimes inflames it
with the heat of rage and fury, sometimes retires, leay-
ing it pale with fear, and at others diffuses a calm and
amiable serenity over it? All these affections are strongly
imaged and distinguished in the lineaments of the face.
The mask deprives the features of this energetic language,
and of that life and soul, by which it is the faithful inter-
preter of all the sentiments of the heart. I do not wonder,
therefore, at Cicero’s remark upon the action of Roscius.*
Our ancestors, says he, were better judges than we are.
They could not wholly approve even Roscius himself whilst
he performed in a mask.

*Vol.iv. P Manner of Teaching, vol. iv.

* Qud meliis nostriill senes, qui personatum, ne Roscium quidem, mag-

nopere laudabant, Lib. iii, de Orat. n. 221.

VOL. I. g

Ixxxil PREFACE,

ZEschylus was in the sole possession of the glory of the
stage, with almost every voice in his favour, when a young
rival made his appearance to dispute the palm with him.

This was Sophocles. He was born at Co-

A.M.3509. lonos, a town in Attica, in the second year

Ant. J.C.495. of the seventy-first Olympiad. His father
was a blacksmith, or one who kept people of

that trade to work for him. His first essay was a master-
piece. When, upon the occasion of Cimon’s having found
the bones of Theseus, and their being brought to Athens, a
dispute between the tragic poets was appointed, Sophocles
entered the lists with Auschylus, and car-

A.M. 3534. ried the prize against him. The ancient

Ant.J.C.470. victor, laden till then with the wreaths he
had acquired, believed them all lost by
failing of the last, and withdrew in disgust into Sicily to
king Hiero, the protector and patron of all the learned in
disgrace at Athens. He died there soon after in a very
singular manner, if we may believe Suidas. As he lay
asleep in the fields, with his head bare, an eagle, taking his
bald crown for a stone, let a tortoise fall upon it, which
killed him. Of ninety, or at least seventy tragedies, com-
posed by him, only seven are now extant.

Nor have those of Sophocles escaped the injury of time
better, though one hundred and seventeen in number, and
according to some one hundred and thirty. He retained
to extreme old age all the force and vigour of his genius, as
appears from a circumstance in his history. His children,
unworthy of so great a father, upon pretence that he had
lost his senses, summoned him before the judges, in order
to obtain a decree, that his estate might be taken from him,
and put into their hands. He made no other defence, than to
read a tragedy he was at that time composing, called Gidi-
pus at Colonos, with which the judges were so charmed,
that he carried his cause unanimously; and his children,
detested by the whole assembly, got nothing by their suit,
but the shame and infamy due to so flagrant ingratitude.
He was twenty times crowned victor. Some say he ex-
pired in repeating his Antigone, for want of power to re-
cover his breath, after a violent endeavour to pronounce a
long period to the end; others, that he died of joy upon
his being declared victor, contrary to his expectation. The
figure of a hive was placed upon his tomb, to perpetuate
the name of Bee, which had been given him, from the sweet-
ness of his verses: whence it is probable, the notion was
derived of the bees having settled upon his lips, when in

PREFACE. Ixxxili

his cradle. He died in his ninetieth year,

A.M. 3599. the fourth of the ninety-third Olympiad,

Ant. J.C. 405. after having survived Euripides six years,
who was not so old as himself.

The latter was born in the first year of

A.M. 3524. the seventy-fifth Olympiad, at Salamis,

Ant. J. C. 480. whither his father Mnesarchus and mother

Clito had retired, when Xerxes was pre-
paring for his great expedition against Greece. He ap-
plied himself at first to philosophy, and, amongst others,
had the celebrated Anaxagoras for his master. But the
danger incurred by that great man, who was very near being
made the victim of his philosophical tenets, inclined him
to the study of poetry. He discovered in himself a genius
for the drama, unknown to him at first ; and employed it
with such success, that he entered the lists with the great
masters of whom we have been speaking. *His works
sufficiently denote his profound application to philosophy.
They abound with excellent maxims of morality: and it is
in that view that Socrates in his time, and +Cicero long
after him, set so high a value upon Euripides.

One cannot sufficiently admire the extreme delicacy ex-
pressed by the Athenian audience on certain occasions,
and their solicitude to preserve the reverence due to moral-
ity, virtue, decency, and justice. It is surprising to observe
the warmth with which they unanimously reproved what-
ever seemed inconsistent with them, and called the poet to
an account for it, notwithstanding his having a well-founded
excuse, as he had given such sentiments only to persons
notoriously vicious, and actuated by the most unjust pas-
sions.

Euripides had put into the mouth of Bellerophon a pom-
pous panegyric upon riches, which concluded with this
thought: Riches are the supreme good of the human race,
and with reason excite the admiration of the gods and men.
The whole theatre cried out against these expressions ; and
he would have been banished directly, if he had not desired
the sentence to be respited till the conclusion of the piece,
in which the advocate for riches perished miserably.

He was in danger of incurring serious inconveniences
from an answer he puts into the mouth of Hippolytus.
Pheedra’s nurse represented to him, that he had engaged
himself under an inviolable oath to keep her secret. My

* Sententiis densus, et in tis que a sapientibus sunt, pene ipsis est par.
Oiuiptilclax. eek.

+ Cui (Euripidi ) tu quantim credas nescio ; ego certé singulos ejus ver-
sus singula testimonia puto. pist. viii. 1. 14, ad Famil.

g 2

Ixxxlv PREFACE.

tongue, it is true, pronounced that oath, replied he, but my
heart gave no consent to it. ‘This frivolous distinction ap-
peared to the whole people, as an express contempt of the
religion and sanctity of an oath, that tended to banish all
Sincerity and good faith from society and the intercourse
of life.

Another maxim* advanced by Eteocles in the tragedy
called the Phoenicians, and which Cesar had always in his
mouth, is no less pernicious: If justice may be violated at
all, it is when a throne is in question ; in other respects, let it.
be duly revered. It is highly criminal in Eteocles, or rather
in Euripides, says Cicero, to make an exception in that
very point wherein such violation is the highest crime that
can be committed. Eteocles is a tyrant, and speaks like
a tyrant, who vindicates his unjust conduct by a false
maxim ; and it is not strange that Czsar, who was a tyrant
by nature, and equally unjust, should lay great stress upon
the sentiments of a prince whom he so much resembled.
But what is remarkable in Cicero, is his falling upon the
poet himself, and imputing to him as a crime, the having
advanced so pernicious a principle upon the state.

*Lycurgus, the orator, who lived in the time of Philip
and Alexander the Great, to re-animate the spirit of the
tragic poets, caused three statues of brass to be erected, in
the name of the people, to A&schylus, Sophocles, and Euri-
pides; and having ordered their works to be transcribed,
he appointed them to be carefully preserved amongst the
public archives, from whence they were taken from time
to time to be read; the players not being permitted to re-
present-them on the stage.

The reader expects, no doubt, after what has been said
relating to the three poets, who invented, improved, and
carried tragedy to its perfection, that I should point out
the peculiar excellences of their style and character. For
that I must refer to Father Brumoi, who will do it much
better than it isin my power. After having laid down, as
an undoubted principle, that the epic poem, that is to say
Homer, pointed out the way for the tragic poets; and hay-
ing demonstrated, by reflections drawn from human nature,
upon what principles and by what degrees, this happy imi-

* Plut. in vit. x. orat. p. 841.

* Ipse autem socer (Casar ) in ore semper Grecos versus Euripidis de
Pheenissis habebat, quos dicam ut potero, incondité fortasse, sed tamen ut res
possit intelligz :

Nam, si violandum est jus, regnandi gratia
Violandum est ; aliis rebus pietatem colas.
Capitalis Eteocles, vel potiis Euripides, quiid unum, quod omnium scele-
atissimum fuerit, exceperit. Offic. |. iii. n. 32.

PREFACE. IXxxv

tation was conducted to its end; he goes on to describe the
three poets above mentioned, in the most lively and bril-
liant colours. )

Tragedy took at first from Aischylus, its inventor, a much
more lofty style than the Iliad; that is, the magnum loqui
mentioned by Horace. Perhaps Aischylus, who had a full
conception of the grandeur of the language of tragedy,
carried it too high. It is not Homer’s trumpet, but some-
thing more. His pompous, swelling, gigantic diction, re-
sembles rather the beating of drums and the shouts of bat-
tle, than the noble harmony of the trumpets. The eleva-
tion and grandeur of his genius would not permit him to
speak the language of other men, so that his Muse seemed
rather to walk in stilts, than in the buskins of his own in-
vention.

Sophocles understood much better the true excellence
of the dramatic style: he therefore copies Homer more
closely, and blends in his diction that honeyed sweetness,
from whence he was denominated the Bee, with a gravity
that gives his tragedy the modest air of a matron, compelled
to appear in public with dignity, as Horace expresses it.

The style of Euripides, though noble, is less removed
from the familiar ; and he seems to have affected rather the
pathetic and the elegant, than the nervous and the lofty.

As Corneille, says Father Brumoi in another place, after
having opened to himself a path entirely new and unknown
to the ancients, seems like an eagle towering in the clouds,
from the sublimity, force, unbroken progress, and rapidity
in his flight; and, as Racine, in copying the ancients in a
manner entirely his own, imitates the swan, that sometimes
floats upon the air, sometimes rises, then falls again, with
an elegance of motion, and a grace peculiar to herself; so
/Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, have each of them a
particular characteristic and method. The first, as the in-
ventor and father of tragedy, is like a torrent rolling impe-
tuously over rocks, forests, and precipices; the second re-
sembles a * canal, which flows gently through delicious
cardens; and the third a river, that does not follow its course
in a continued line, but loves to turn and wind his silver
wave through flowery meads and rural scenes.

This is the character which Father Brumoi gives of the

* I know not whether the idea of a canal that flows gently through deli-
cious gardens, is well adapted to designate the character of Sophocles,
which is peculiarly distinguished by nobleness, grandeur, and elevation.
That of an impetuous and rapid stream, whose waves, from the violence
of their motion, are loud, and to be heard afar off, seems to me a more

suitable image of that poet.

[XXXVi PREFACE,

three poets, to whom the Athenian stage was indebted for
its perfection in tragedy. *A®schylus drew it out of its
original chaos and confusion, and made it appear in some
degree of lustre ; but it still retained the rude unfinished air
of things in their beginning, which are generally defective
in point of art and method. Sophocles and Euripides
added infinitely to the dignity of tragedy. ‘The style of the
first, as has been observed, is more noble and majestic; of
the latter, more tender and pathetic ; each perfect in their
way. In this diversity of character, it is difficult to decide
which is most excellent. The learned have always been
divided upon this head; as we are at this day, with re-
spect to the + two poets of our own nation, whose tragedies
have made our stage illustrious, and not inferior to that of
Athens. |

I have observed, that the tender and pathetic distin-
guishes the compositions of Euripides, of which Alexander
of Phere, the most cruel of tyrants, was a proof. That
barbarous man, upon seeing the Troades of Euripides
acted, found himself so moved with it, that he quitted the
theatre before the conclusion of the play; professing that
he was ashamed to be seen in tears for the distress of He-
cuba and Andromache, who had never shewn the least com-
passion for his own citizens, of whom he had butchered
such numbers.

When I speak of the tender and pathetic, I would not be
understood to mean a passion that softens the heart into
effeminacy, and which, to our reproach, is almost alone, or
at least more than any other passion, ‘received upon our
stage, though rejected by the ancients, and condemned by
the nations around us of greatest reputation for their genius,
and taste for the sciences and polite learning. The two great
principles for moving the passions amongst the ancients,
were terror and pity.t. And indeed, as we naturally refer
every thing to ourselves, or our own particular interest,
when we see persons of exalted rank or virtue sinking un-
der great evils, the fear of the like misfortunes, with which
we know that human life is on all sides invested, seizes
upon us, and from a secretimpulse of self-love, we find our-
selves sensibly affected with the distresses of others; be-
sides which, the sharing a+ common nature with the rest of
our species, makes us sensible to whatever befals them.

' OdBo0¢ kai Eeoe
* Tragaedias primus in lucem Aischylus protulit: sublimis et gravis, et
grandiloquus sepe usque ad vitium:; sed rudis in plertsque et incompositus.
Quintil. |. x. c, 1. + Corneille and Racine.
{ Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto. Ter.

PREFACE. IXXXVil
Upon a close and attentive inquiry into those two passions,
they will be found the most deeply inherent, active, exten-
sive, and general, affections of the soul; including all or-
ders of men, great and small, rich and poor, of whatever
age or condition. Hence the ancients, accustomed to con-
sult nature, and to take her for their guide in all things,
with reason conceived terror and compassion to be the —
soul of tragedy; and that those affections ought to prevail
in it. The passion of love was in no estimation amongst.
them, and had seldom any share in their dramatic pieces ;
though with us it is a received opinion, that they cannot be
supported without it.

It is worth our trouble to examine briefly in what man-
ner this passion, which has always been deemed a weak-
ness and a blemish in the greatest characters, got such foot- |
ing upon our stage. Corneille, who was the first who
brought the French tragedy to any perfection, and whom
all the rest have followed, found the whole nation en-
amoured with the perusal of romances, and little disposed
to admire any thing not resembling them. From the desire
of pleasing his audience, who were at the same time his
judges, he endeavoured to move them in the manner they
had been accustomed to be affected ; and, by introducing
love in his scenes, to bring them the nearer to the predomi-
nant taste of the age for romance. From the same source
arose that multiplicity of incidents, episodes, and adven-
tures, with which our tragic pieces are crowded and ob-
scured; so contrary to probability, which will not admit
such a number of extraordinary and surprising events in
the short space of four-and-twenty hours; so contrary to
the simplicity of ancient tragedy; and so adapted to con-
ceal, by the assemblage of so many different objects, the
sterility of the genius of a poet, more intent upon the mar-
vellous, than upon the probable and natural.

Both the Greeks and Romans have preferred the iambic
to the heroic verse in their tragedies; not only because the
first has a kind of dignity better adapted to the stage, but,
whilst it approaches nearer to prose, retains sufficiently
the air of poetry to please the ear: and yet has too little
of it to put the audience in mind of the poet, who ought -
not to appear at all in representations, where other persons
are supposed to speak and act. Monsieur Dacier makes a
very just reflection on this subject. He says, that it is the
misfortune of our tragedy to have almost no other verse
than what it has in common with epic poetry, elegy, pas-
toral, satire, and comedy; whereas the learned languages
have a great varicty of versification.

IXXXVIii- PREFACE.

This inconvenience is highly obvious in our tragedy ;
which consequently is obliged to lose sight of nature and
probability, as it obliges heroes, princes, kings, and queens,
to express themselves in a pompous strain in their familiar
conversation, which it would be ridiculous to attempt in
real life. The giving utterance to the most impetuous pas-
sions in a uniform cadence, and by hemistichs and rhymes,
would undoubtedly be tedious and offensive to the ear, if
the charms of poetry, the elegance of expression, and the
spirit of sentiments, and perhaps, more than all of them,
the resistless force of custom, had not in a manner subject-
ed our reason, and spread a veil before our judgment.

it was not chance, therefore; which suggested to the
Greeks the use of iambics in their tragedy. Nature itself
seems to have dictated that kind of verse to them. In-
structed by the same unerring guide, they made choice of
a different versification for the chorus, better adapted to the
motions of the dance, and the variations of the song; be-
cause it was necessary for poetry here to shine out in all
its lustre, whilst the mere conversation between the real
actors was suspended. ‘The chorus was an embellishment
of the representation, and a relaxation to the audience, and
therefore required more exalted poetry and numbers te
support it, when united with music and dancing.

Of the Old, Middle, and New Comedy.

WHILST tragedy was thus rising to perfection at Athens,

comedy, the second species of dramatic poetry, and which,
till then, had been much neglected, began to be cultivated
with more attention. Nature was the common parent of
both. We are sensibly affected with the dangers, dis-
tresses, misfortunes, and, in a word, with whatever relates
to the lives and conduct of illustrious persons ; and this
gave birth to tragedy. And we are as curious to know the
adventures, conduct, and defects, of our equals; which sup-
ply us with occasions of laughing, and being merry at the
expense of others.. Hence comedy derives itself; which
is properly an image of private life. Its design is to ex-
pose defects and vices upon the stage, and, by affixing ridi-
cule to them, to make them contemptible ; and consequent-
ly, to instruct by diverting. Ridicule,.therefore (or, to ex-
press the same word by another, pleasantry), ought to pre-
vail in comedy.
_ This species of entertainment took at different times
three different forms at Athens, as well from the genius of
the poets, as from the influences of the government, which
occasioned various alterations in it.

PREFACE. IXxxix

The old comedy, so called * by Horace, and which he
dates after the time of Aischylus, retained something of its
original rudeness, and the liberty it had been used to take
of throwing out coarse jests, and reviling the spectators
from the cart of Thespis. Though it was become regular
in its plan, and worthy of a great theatre, it had not learnt
to be more reserved. It represented real transactions,
with the names, dress, gestures, and likeness, in masks, of
whomsoever it thought fit to sacrifice to the public derision.
In a state where it was held good policy to unmask what-
ever carried the air of ambition, singularity, or knavery,
comedy assumed the privilege to harangue, reform, and ad-
vise, the people upon their most important interests. No
one was spared in a city of so much liberty, or rather
licentiousness, as Athens was at that time. Generals, ma-
gistrates, government, the very gods were abandoned to the
poet’s satirical vein; and all was well received, provided
the comedy was diverting, and the Attic salt not wanting.

" In one of these comedies, not only the priest of Jupiter
determines to quit his service, because no more sacrifices
are offered to the god; but Mercury himself comes, in a
starving condition, to seek his fortune amongst mankind,
and offers to serve as a porter, sutier, bailiff, guide, door-
keeper; in short, in any capacity, rather than return to
heaven. In another*, the same gods, reduced to the extre-
mity of famine, from the birds having built a city in the air,
whereby their provisions are cut off, and the smoke of incense
and sacrifices prevented from ascending to heaven, depute
three ambassadors in the name of Jupiter to conclude a
treaty of accommodation with the birds, upon such condi-
tions as they shall approve. The chamber of audience,
where the three famished gods are received, is a kitchen
well stored with excellent game of all sorts. Here Hercules,
deeply smitten with the smell of roast meat, which he appre-
hends to be more exquisite and nutritious than that of in-
cense, begs leave to make his abode, and to turn the spit,
and assist the cook upon occasion. The other pieces of
Aristophanes abound with strokes still more satirical and
severe upon the principal divinities.

I am not much surprised at the poet’s insulting the gods,
and treating them with the utmost contempt, as from them he
had nothing to fear; but I cannot help wondering at his
having brought the most illustrious and powerful persons
of Athens upon the stage, and presuming to attack the

* Successit vetus his comedia non sine multé
Laude. Hor. in Art. Poet.
" Plutus. The Birds.

xe PREFACE.

government itself, without any manner of respect or re-
serve.

Cleon having returned triumphant, contrary to the gene-
ral expectation, from the expedition against Sphacteria, was
looked upon by the people as the greatest captain of that
age. Aristophanes, to set that bad man in a true light, who
was the son of a tanner, and a tanner himself, and whose
rise was owing solely to his temerity and impudence, was
so bold as to make him the subject of a comedy,’ without
being awed by his power and influence: but he was obliged
to play the part of Cleon himself, and appeared for the first
time upon the stage in that character; not one of the come-
dians daring to represent it, nor to expose himself to the
resentment of so formidable an enemy. His face was
smeared over with wine-lees; because no workman could
be found, that would venture to make a mask resembling
Cleon, as was usual when persons were brought upon the
stage. In this piece he reproached him with embezzling
the public treasures, with a violent passion for bribes and
presents, with craft in seducing the people, and denies him
the glory of the action at Sphacteria, which he attributes
chiefly to the share his colleague had in it.

In the Acharnians, he accuses Lamachus of having been
made general, rather by bribery thanmerit. He imputes to
him his youth, inexperience, and idleness; at the same time
that he, and many others, whom he covertly designates,
convert to their own use the rewards due only to valour and
real services. He reproaches the republic with their prefer-
ence of the younger citizens to the elder, in the government
of the state, and the command of their armies. He tells them
plainly, that when peace shall be concluded, neither Cleo-
nymus, Hyperbolus, nor many other such knaves, all men-
tioned by name, shall have any share in the public affairs ;
they being always ready to accuse their fellow-citizens of
crimes, and to enrich themselves by such informations.

In his comedy called the Wasps, imitated by Racine in his
Plaideurs, he exposes the mad passion of the people for pro-
secutions and trials at law, and the enormous injustice fre-
quently committed in passing sentence and giving judgment.

The poet,* concerned to see the republic obstinately bent
upon the unhappy expedition to Sicily, endeavours to ex-
citein the people athorough disgust for so ruinous awar, and
to inspire them with the desire of a peace, as much the in-
terest of the victors as the vanquished, after a war of seve-
ral years’ duration, equally pernicious to each party, and
capable of involving all Greece in ruin.

¥ 'The Knights. «The Peace.

PREFACE. xcl

None of Aristophanes’s pieces. explains better his bold-
ness, in speaking upon the most delicate affairs of the state
in the crowded theatre, than his comedy called Lysistrata.
One of the principal magistrates of Athens had a wife of
that name, who is supposed to have taken it into her head
to compel Greece to conclude a peace. She relates, how,
during the war, the women, inquiring of their husbands the
result of their counsels, and whether they had not resolved
to make peace with Sparta, received no answers but impe-
rious looks, and orders to mind their own business: that,
however, they perceived plainly to what a low condition the
government was declined: that they took the liberty to re-
monstrate mildly to their husbands upon the sad conse-
quences of their rash determinations, but that their humble
representations had no other effect than to offend and enrage
them: that, at length, being confirmed by the general opi-
nion of all Attica, that there were no longer any men in the
state, nor heads for the administration of affairs, their pa-
tience being quite exhausted, the women had thought it pro-
per and advisable to take the government upon themselves,
and preserve Greece, whether it would or no, from the folly
and madness of its resolves. For her part, she declares,
that she has taken possession of the city and treasury, in
order, says she, to prevent Pisander and his confede-
rates, the four hundred administrators, from exciting trou-
bles, according to their custom, and from robbing the pub-
lic asusual. (Was ever any thing so bold?) She goes on to
prove, that the women only are capable of retrieving affairs,
by this burlesque argument; that admitting things to be in
such a state of perplexity and confusion, the sex, accus-
tomed to untangling their threads, were the only persons to
set them right again, as being best qualified. with the ne-
cessary address, patience, and moderation. The Athenian
politics are thus made inferior to those of the women, who
are only represented in a ridiculous light, to turn the deri-
sion upon their husbands, who were engaged in the admi-
nistration of the government.

These extracts from Aristophanes, taken almost word for
word from Father Brumoi, seemed to me very proper togive
an insight into that poet’s character, and the genius of the
ancient comedy, which was, as we see, a Satire of the most
poignant and severe kind, that had assumed*to itself an in-
dependency from respect to persons, and to which nothing
was sacred. It is no wonder that.Cicero condemns so li-
centious and uncurbed a liberty.* It might, he says, have

* Quem illa non attigit, vel potiis quem non vexavit ? Esto, populares ho-
mines, improbos, 1n remp. seditiosos, Cleonem, Cleophontem, Hyperbolum

ar PREFACE.

been tolerable, had it attacked only bad citizens, and sedi-
tious orators, who endeavoured to raise commotions in the
state,such as Cleon, Cleophon, and Hyperbolus: but when
a Pericles, who for many years had governed the common-
wealth both in war and peace with equal wisdom and au-
thority (he might have added, and a Socrates, declared by
Apollo the wisest of mankind) is brought upon the stage to
be laughed at by the public, itis as if our Plautus or Ne-
vius had attacked the Scipios, or Czcilius had dared to revile
Marcus Cato in his plays. . ms

That liberty is still more offensive to us, who are born and
live under a monarchical government, which is far from be-
ing favourable to licentiousness. But without intending to
justify the conduct of Aristophanes, which is certainly in-
excusable, I think, to judge properly of it, it would be ne-
cessary to lay aside the prejudices of birth, nations, and
times, and to imagine we live in those remote ages, in a state
purely democratical. We must not fancy Aristophanes to
have been a person of little consequence in his republic, as
the comic writers generally are in our days. The king of
Persia had a very different idea of him. ‘It is a known
story, that in an audience of the Greek ambassadors, his
first inquiry was after a certain comic poet (meaning Ari-
stophanes), that put all Greece in motion, and gave such
effectual counsels against him. Aristophanes did that upon
the stage, which Demosthenes did afterward in the public
assemblies. The poet’s reproaches were no less animated
than the orator’s. In his comedies he uttered the same
sentiments as he had a right to deliver from the public
rostrum. ‘They were addressed to the same people, upon
the same occasions of the state, the same means of success,
and the same obstacles to their measures. In Athens, the
whole people were the sovereign, and each of them had an
equal share in the supreme authority. Uponthis they were
continually intent, were fond of discoursing upon it them-
selves, and of hearing the sentiments of others. The public
affairs were the business of every individual; on which
they were desirous of being fully informed, that they might
know how to conduct themselves on every occasion of war
or peace, which frequently offered, and to decide upon their
own, as well as upon the destiny of their allies or enemies.
Hence rose the liberty taken by the comic poets, of dis-

lesit: patiamur—Sed Periclem, ciim jam sue civitati maximé auctoritate

plurimos annos domi et belli prefuisset, violari versibus, et eos agi in scend,

non plits decuit, quam si Plautus noster voluisset, aut Nevius, P. et Cn. Sci-

piont, aut Cecilius M. Catoni maledicere. Ex fragm. Cic. de Rep. lib. iv.
© Aristoph. in Acharn.

PREFACE. Xclil

cussing affairs of the state in their performances. The peo-
ple were so far from being offended at it, or at the manner
in which those writers treated the principal persons of the
state, that they conceived their liberty in some measure to
consist in it.

Three *poets particularly excelled in the old comedy;
Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes. The last is the only
one of them whose pieces have come down to us entire;
and out of the great number which he composed, eleven are
all that remain. He flourished in an age when Greece
abounded with great men, and was contemporary with So-
crates and Euripides, whom he survived. During the Pelo-
ponnesian war, he made his greatest figure; less as a writer
to amuse the people with his comedies, than as’ censor of
the government, retained to reform the state, and to be al-
most the arbiter of his country.

He is admired for an elegance, poignancy, and happiness
of expression, or, in a word, that Attic salt and spirit, to

which the Roman language could never attain, and for+
which Aristophanes is more remarkable than any other of
the Greek authors. His particular excellence was raillery.
None ever touched what was ridiculous in the characters
whom he wished to expose with such success, or knew better
how to convey it in allits full force to others. Butit would
be necessary to have lived in his times, to be qualified to
judge of this. The subtle salt and spirit of the ancient
raillery, according to Father Brumoi, is evaporated through
length of time, and what remains of it is become flat and
insipid to us; though the sharpest part will retain its vigour
throughout all ages.

Two considerable defects are justly imputed to this poet,
which very much obscure, if not entirely efface, his glory.

* Eupolis, atque Cratinus, Aristophanesque poeta,
Atque alii, quorum comedia prisca virorum est,
Si quis erat dignus describt, quod malus, aut fur,
Quod mechus foret, aut sicarius, aut alioqut of te
Famosus ; multé cum libertate notabant.—Hor. Sat. iv. 1.1,

With Aristophanes’ satiric rage,

When ancient comedy amused the age,

Or Eupolis’s or Cratinus’ wit,

And others that all-licensed poem. writ ;

None, worthy to be shewn, escaped the scene,
No public knave, or thief of lofty mien ;

The loose adult’rer was drawn forth to sight;
The secret murd’rer trembling lurk’d the night ;
Vice play’d itself, and each ambitious spark ;
All boldly branded with the poet’s mark.

+ Antiqua comedia sinceram illam sermonis Attict gratiam propé sola
retinet. Quintil.

XciV PREFACE.

These are, low buffoonery, and gross obscenity; and it has
in vain been attempted to offer, in excuse for the first of
these faults, the charaeter of his audience; the bulk of which
generally consisted of the poor, the ignorant, and dregs of
the people, whom, however, it was as necessary to please,
as the learned and the rich. The depraved taste of the
lower order of people, which once banished Cratinus and
his company, because his scenes were not grossly comic
enough for them, is no excuse for Aristophanes, as Menan-
der could find out the art of changing that grovelling taste,
by introducing aspecies of comedy, not altogether so modest
as Plutarch seems to insinuate, yet much less licentious than
any before his time.

The gross obscenities, with which all Aristophanes’s
comedies abound, have no excuse; they only denote to
what a pitch the libertinism of the spectators, and the de-
pravity of the poet, had proceeded. Had he even impreg-
nated them with the utmost wit, which however is not the
case, the privilege of laughing himself, or of making others
laugh, would have been too dearly purchased at the ex-
pense of decency and good manners.* And in this case it
may well be said, that it were better to have no wit at all,
than to make so ill a use of it.+ F. Brumoi is very much
to be commended for having taken care, in giving a general
idea of Aristophanes’s writings, to throw a veil over those
parts of them that might have given offence to modesty.
Though such behaviour be the indispensable rule of religion,
it is not always observed by those who pique themselves
most on their erudition, and sometimes prefer the title of
Scholar to that of Christian.

The old comedy subsisted till Lysander’s time, who, upon
having made himself master of Athens, changed the form
of the government, and put it into the hands of thirty of
the principal citizens. ‘The satirical liberty of the theatre
was offensive to them, and therefore they thought fit to put
a stop to it. The reason of this alteration is evident, and
confirms the reflection made before upon the privilege which
the poets possessed of criticising with impunity the persons
at the head of the state. The whole authority of Athens was
then invested in tyrants. The democracy was abolished.
The people had no longer any share in the government.
They were no more the prince; their sovereignty had ex-
pired. The right of giving their opinions and suffrages upon
affairs of state was at an end; nor dared they, either in

* Nimium risis pretium est, si probitatis impendio constat. Quintil. lib.
vi. c. 3.
+ Non pejus duxerim tardi ingenit esse, quammali. Quintil. lib. i. ¢. 3.

PREFACE. xcv

their own persons or by the poets, presume to censure the
sentiments and conduct of their masters. The calling per-
sons by their names upon the stage was prohibited ; but
poetical ill-nature soon found the secret of eluding the in-
tention of the law, and of making itself amends for the re-
straint which was imposed upon it by the necessity of using
feigned names. It then applied itself to discover what was
ridiculous in known characters, which it copied to the life,
and from thence acquired the double advantage of gratify-
ing the vanity of the poets, and the malice of the audience,
na more refined manner: the one had the delicate plea-
sure of putting the spectators upon guessing their meaning,
and the other of not being mistaken in their suppositions,
and of affixing the right name to the characters represented.
Such was the comedy, since called the Middle Comedy, of
which there are some instances in Aristophanes.

It continued till the time of Alexander the Great, who
having entirely assured himself of the empire of Greece by
the defeat of the Thebans, caused a check to be put upon
the licentiousness of the poets, which increased daily.
From thence the New Comedy took its birth, which was
only an imitation of private life, and brought nothing upon
the stage but feigned names, and fictitious adventures.

Chacun peint avec artdans ce nouveau miroir,
S’y vit avec plaisir, ou crut ne s’y pas voir.
L’avare des premiers rit du tableau fidéle
D’un avare souvent tracé sur son modeéle ;
Et mille fois un fat, finement exprimé,
Méconnut le portrait sur lui-méme formé.
Boileau, Art. Poet. chant. tii.

In this new glass, whilst each himself survey’d,
He sat with pleasure, though himself was play’d ;
The miser grinn’d whilst avarice was drawn,
Nor thought the faithful likeness was his own;
His own dear self no imaged fool could find,
But saw a thousand other fops design’d.

This may properly be called fine comedy, and is that of
Menander. Of one hundred and eighty, or rather eighty
plays, according to Suidas, composed by him, all of which
Terence is said to have translated, there remain only a few
fragments. We may form a just judgment of the merit of the
originals from the excellence of the copy. Quintilian, in
speaking of Menander, is not afraid to say,* that with the
beauty of his works, and the height of his reputation, he
obscured, or rather obliterated, the fame of all other writers

* Atque ille quidem omnibus ejusdem operis auctoribus abstulit nomen, et
fulgore quodam sue claritatis tenebras obduxit. Quintil. lib. x.c. 1.

xevi PREFACE.

in the same way. He observes, in another passage, that
his own times were not so just + to his merit as they ought
to have been, which has been the fate of many others ; but
that he was sufliciently made amends by the favourable
opinion of posterity. And indeed Philemon, a comic poet,
who flourished about the same period, though older than
Menander, was preferred before him.

The Theatre of the Ancients described.

I HAVE already observed, that Aischylus was the first
founder of a fixed and durable theatre adorned with suit-
able decorations. It was at first, as well as the amphithe-
atres, composed of wooden planks, the seats in which rose
one above another ; but those having one day broke down,
by having too great a weight upon them, the Athenians,
excessively enamoured of dramatic representations, were
induced by that accident to erect those superb structures,
which were imitated afterwards with so much splendour by
the Roman magnificence. What I shall say of them, has
almost as much relation to the Roman as the Athenian
theatres ; and is extracted entirely from M. Boindin’s learn-
ed dissertation upon the theatre of the ancients,‘ who has
treated the subject in its fullest extent.

The theatre of the ancients was divided into three prin-
cipal parts; each of which had its peculiar appellation.
The division for the actors was called in general the scene,
or stage; that for the spectators was particularly termed the
theatre, which must have been of vast extent,‘ as at Athens
it was capable of containing above thirty thousand persons;
and the orchestra, which amongst the Greeks was the place
assigned for the pantomimes and dancers, though at Rome
it was appropriated to the senators and vestal virgins.

The theatre was of a semicircular form on one side, and
square on the other. The space contained within the
semicircle, was allotted to the spectators, and had seats
placed one above another to the top of the building. The
Square part in the front of it, was appropriated to the
actors ; and in the interval, between both, was the orchestra.
- The great theatres had three rows of porticoes, raised
one upon another, which formed the body of the edifice,
and at the same time three different stories for the seats.
From the highest of those porticoes the women saw the
representation, sheltered from the weather. The rest of

+ Quidam, sicut Menander, justiora posterorum, quam su@ etatis, judicia
sunt consecuti, Quintil. lib. iil. c. 6.
© Memoirs of the Acad. of Inscript. &c. vol. i. p. 136, &c.
f Strab. J. 1x. p.395. Herod. I, viii. c. 65.

PRERACE. XCVii

the theatre was uncovered, and all the business of the stage
was performed in the open air.

Each of these stories consisted of nine rows of seats,
including the landing-place, which divided them from each
other, and served as a passage from side to side. But as
this landing-place and passage took up the space of two
benches, there were only seven to sit upon, and conse-
quently in each story. there were seven rows of seats. They
were from fifteen to eighteen inches in height, and twice as
much in breadth; so that the spectators had room to sit at
their ease, and without being incommoded by the legs of
the people above them, no foot-boards being provided for
them.

Each of these stories of benches were divided in two dif-
ferent manners; in theirheight by the landing-places, called
by the Romans Precinctiones, and in their circumferences
by several stair-cases, peculiar to each story, which inter-
secting them in right lines, tending towards the centre of
the theatre, gave the form of wedges to the quantity of seats
between them, from whence they were called Cunez.

Behind these stories of seats were covered galleries,
through which the people thronged into the theatre by great
Square openings, contrived for that purpose in the walls
next the seats. Those openings were called Vomitoria,
from the multitude of people crowding through them into
their places.

As the actors could not be heard to the extremity of the
theatre, the Greeks contrived a means to supply that defect,
and to augment the force of the voice, and make it more
distinct and articulate. For that purpose they invented.a
kind of large vessels of copper, which were disposed under
the seats of the theatre, in such a manner, as made all
sounds strike upon the ear with more force and distinctness.

The orchestra being situated, as I have observed, be-
tween the two other parts of the theatre, of which one was
circular and the other square, it participated of the form of
each, and occupied the space between both. It was di-
vided into three parts.

The first and most considerable was more particularly
called the orchestra, from a Greek word! that signifies to
dance. It was appropriated to the pantomimes and
dancers, and to all such subaltern actors as played between
the acts, and at the end of the representations.

The second was named @upéAn, from its being square, in
the form of an altar. Here the chorus was generally placed.

Ooyetabat.
VOL. U: h

XcevVili PREFACE.

And in the third, the Greeks disposed their band of mu-
sic. They called it vrooxhvov, from its being situate at the
bottom of the principal part of the theatre, to which they
gave the general name of the scene.

I shall describe here this third part of the theatre, called
the scene; which was also subdivided into three different

arts.

The first and most considerable was properly called the
scene, and gave its name to this whole division. It occu-
pied the whole front of the building from side to side, and
was the place allotted for the decorations. This front had
two small wings at its extremity, from which hung a large
curtain, that was let down to open the scene, and drawn up
between the acts, when any thing in the representation made
it necessary.

The second called by the Greeks indifferently tpooxhyov,
and Aoyeiov, and by the Romans Proscenium, and Pulpitum,
was a large open space in front of the scene, in which the
actors performed their parts, and which, by the help of the
decorations, represented either a public square or forum,
a common street, or the country; but the place so repre-
sented was always in the open air.

The third division was a part reserved behind the scenes,
and called by the Greeks wapaocxjvov. Here the actors
dressed themselves, and the decorations were locked up.
In the same place were also kept the machines, -of which
the ancients had abundance in their theatres.

As only the porticoes and the building of the scene were
roofed, it was necessary to draw sails, fastened with cords
to masts, over the rest of the theatre, to screen the audience
from the heat of the sun. But as this contrivance did not
prevent the heat, occasioned by the perspiration and breath
of so numerous an assembly, the ancients took care to al-
lay it by a kind of rain; conveying the water for that use
above the porticoes, which falling again in form of dew
through an affinity of small pores concealed in the statues,
with which the theatre abounded, did not only diffuse a
grateful coolness all around, but the most fragrant exhala-
tions along with it; for this dew was always perfumed.
Whenever the representations were interrupted by storms,
the spectators retired into the porticoes behind the seats of
the theatre. .

The fondness of the Athenians for representations of this
kind cannot be expressed. Their eyes, their ears, their
imagination, their understanding, all shared in the satisfac-
tion. Nothing gave them so sensible a pleasure in drama-
tic performances, either tragic or comic, as the strokes

PREFACE. Xcix

which were aimed at the affairs of the public; whetber pure
chance occasioned the application, or the address of the
poets, who knew how to reconcile the most remote subjects
with the transactions of the republic. They entered by
that means into the interests of the people, took occasion
to soothe their passions, authorize their pretensions, justify,
and sometimes condemn, their conduct, entertain them with
agreeable hopes, instruct them in their duty in certain nice
conjunctures; in consequence of which they often not only
acquired the applauses of the spectators, but credit and in-
fluence in the public affairs and counsels: hence the thea-
tre became so grateful, and so interesting to the people.
It was in this manner, according to some authors, that Eu-
ripides artfully adapted his tragedy of Palamedes* to the
sentence passed against Socrates; and pointed out, by an
illustrious example of antiquity, the innocence of a philo-
sopher, oppressed by malignity supported by power and
faction.

Accident was often the occasion of sudden and unfore-
seen applications, which from their appositeness were very
agreeable to the people. Upon this verse of Auschylus, in
praise of Amphiaraus,

’Tis his desire
Not to appear, but be the great and good,

the whole audience rose up, and unanimously applied it to
Aristides". The same thing happened to Philopoemen at
the Nemzean games. At the instant he entered the theatre,
these verses were singing upon the stage;

ea ee

He comes, to whom we owe
Our liberty, the noblest good below.

Allthe Greeks cast their eyes upon Philopoemen', and with
clapping of hands, and acclamations of joy, expressed their
veneration for the hero.

‘In the same manner at Rome, during the banishment of
Cicero, when some verses of +Accius, which reproached
the Greeks with their ingratitude in suffering the banish-
ment of Telamon, were repeated by Aisop, the best actor
of his time, they drew tears from the eyes of the whole as-
sembly.

Upon another, though very different, occasion, the Ro-

h Plat. in Aristid. p. 320. _ 4 Plut. in Philopoem. p. 362. -
k Cic. in Orat. pro Sext. n. 120, 123.
* Itis not certain whether this piece was prior or posterior to the death
of Socrates. :
+ O dash Argivi, inanes Gratt, immemores beneficit, -
Exulare sivistis, swistis pelli, pulsum patimini.
h 2

76 PREFACE.

man people applied to Pompey the Great some verses to:
this effect :

! "Tis our unhappiness has made thee great;
and then addressing the people;
The time shall come when you shall late deplore
So great a power confided to such hands ;
the spectators obliged the actor to repeat these verses se-
veral times.

Fondness for theatrical Representations one of the principal
Causes of the Decline, Degeneracy, and Corruption, of
the Athenian State.

WHEN wecompare the happy times of Greece, in ailich
Europe and Asia resounded with nothing but the fame of
the Athenian victories, with the later ages, when the power
of Philip and Alexander the Great had in a manner reduced
it to slavery, we shall be surprised at the strange alteration
in that republic. But what is most material, is the inves-
tigation of the causes and progress of this declension: and
these M. de Tourreil has discussed in an admirable manner
in the elegant preface to his translation of Demosthenes’
Orations.

There were no longer, he observes, at Athens, any traces
of that manly and vigorous policy, equally capable of
planning good and retrieving bad success. Instead of that,
there remained only an inconsistent loftiness, apt to evapo-
rate in pompous decrees. ‘They were no more those Athe-
nians, who, when menaced by a deluge of Barbarians, de-
molished their houses to build ships with the timber, and
whose women stoned the abject wretch to death that pro-
posed to appease the great king by tribute orhomage. The
love of ease and pleasure had almost entirely extinguished
that of glory, liberty, and independence.

Pericles, that great man, so absolute, that those who en-
vied him treated him asa second Pisistratus, was the first
author of this degeneracy and corruption. With the design
of conciliating the favour of the people, he ordained that
upon such days as games or sacrifices were celebrated, a
certain number of oboli should be distributed amongst
them; and that in the assemblies in which affairs of state
were to be discussed, every individual should receive a
certain pecuniary gratification in right of being present.
Thus the members of the republic were seen for the first
time to sell their care in the administration of the govern-
ment, and to rank amongst servile employments the most
noble functions of the sovereign power.

' Cie. ad Attic. 1. ii. Epist:19. Val. Max. L. vi. c. 2.

PREFACE. Ci

It was not difficult to foresee where so excessive an abuse

would end: and, to remedy it, it was proposed to establish
a fund for the support of the war, and to make it a capital
crime to. advise, upon any account whatsoever, the appli-
cation of it to other uses; but, notwithstanding, the abuse
- always subsisted. At first it seemed tolerable, whilst the
citizen, who was supported at the public expense, endea-
voured to deserve it by doing his duty in the field for nine
months together. Every one was to serve in his turn, and
whoever failed was treated as a deserter without distinction:
but at length the number of the transgressors carried it
against the law; and impunity, as it commonly happens,
multiplied their number. People accustomed to the de-
lightful abode of a city, where feasts and games were per-
petually taking place, conceived an invincible repugnance
for labour and fatigue, which they looked upon as un-
worthy of free-born men.

It was therefore necessary to find amusement for this
indolent people, to fill up the great void of an unactive,
useless life. Hence arose principally their fondness, or
rather frenzy, for public show. 'The death of Epaminon-
das, which seemed to promise them the greatest advantage,
gave the final stroke to their ruin and destruction. Their
courage, says Justin”, did not survive that illustrious The-
ban. Freed from a rival, who kept their emulation alive,
they sunk into a lethargic sloth and effeminacy. The funds
for armaments by land and sea were soon lavished upon
games and feasts. The seaman’s and soldier’s pay was
distributed to the idle citizen. An indolent and luxurious
mode of life enervated every breast. The representations
of the theatre were preferred to the exercises of the camp.
Valour and military knowledge were entirely disregarded.
Great captains were in no estimation; whilst good poets
and excellent comedians engrossed the universal applause.

Extravagance of this kind makes it easy to comprehend
in what multitudes the people thronged to the dramatic
performances. As no expense was spared in embellishing
them, exorbitant sums were sunk in the service of the.
theatre. If, says Plutarch’, an accurate calculation were
to be made, what each representation of the dramatic pieces
cost the Athenians, it would appear, that their expenses in
playing the Bacchanalians, the Phoenicians, Qidipus, An-
tigone, Medea, and Electra (tragedies written either by So-
phocles or Euripides), were greater than those which had
been employed against the Barbarians in defence of the
liberty, and for the preservation of Greece. This gavea

" Justin. |. vi. c. 9. ° Plut..de glor. Athen. p. 349.

Cii PREFACE.

Spartan just reason to exclaim, on seeing an estimate of
the enormous sums laid. out in these contests of the tragic
poets, and the extraordinary pains taken by the magis-
trates who presided in them?, that a people must be void of
sense to apply themselves in so warm and serious a manner
to things so frivolous. For, added he, games should be only
games ; and nothing is more unreasonable than to purchase
a short and trivial amusement at so great a price. Plea-
sures of this kind agree only with public rejoicings and sea-
sons of festivity, and were designed to divert people at their
leisure hours ; but should by no means interfere with the
affairs of the public, nor the necessary expenses of the go-
vernment.

After all, says Plutarch, in the passage which I have
already cited, of what utility have these tragedies been to
Athens, though so much boasted by the people, and ad-
mired by the rest of the world? I find that the prudence
of Themistocles enclosed the city with strong walls; that
the fine taste and magnificence of Pericles improved and
adorned it; that the noble fortitude of Miltiades preserved
its liberty; and that the moderate conduct of Cimon ac-
quired it the empire and government of all Greece. If the
wise and learned poetry of Euripides, the sublime diction
of Sophocles, the lofty buskin of Aischylus, have obtained
equal advantages for the city of Athens, by delivering it
from impending calamities, or by adding to its glory, I am
willing (he goes on) that dramatic pieces should be placed
in competition with trophies of victory, the poetic theatre
with the field of battle, and the compositions of the poets
wiih the great exploits of the generals. But what a com-
parison would this be? On the one side would be seen a
few writers, crowned with wreaths of ivy, and dragging a
goat or an ox after them, the rewards and victims assigned
them for excelling in tragic poetry: on the other, a train of
illustrious captains, surrounded by the colonies which they
founded, the cities which they captured, and the nations
which they subjected. Itis not to perpetuate the victories |
of Aischylus and Sophocles, but in remembrance of the
glorious battles of Marathon, Salamis, Eurymedon, and
many others, that so many feasts are celebrated every
month with such pomp by the Grecians.

The inference which Plutarch draws from hence, in which
we ought to agree with him, is, that it was the highest im-
prudence in the * Athenians thus to prefer pleasure to duty,

P Plut. Sympos. I. vii. quest. vii. p. 710.

*’Anapravovow ’AOnvaiot peydda, Thy crovddy sig THY Tadidy Karavadio-
KOvTEC, TouTéoTe peydhwy arocridwy Samdvag Kai orpaTeyparwy ipddia KaTa-
xopnyovrrec eig 7d Oéarpor.

PREFACE. cili

fondness for the theatre to the love of their country, trivial
shows to application to public business, and to consume,
in useless expenses and dramatic entertainments, the funds
intended for the support of fleets and armies. Macedon,
till then obscure and inconsiderable, well knew how to take
advantage of the * Athenian indolence and effeminacy ;
and Philip, instructed by the Greeks themselves, amongst
whom he had for several years applied himself success-
fully to the art of war, was not long before he gave Greece a
master, and subjected it to the yoke, as we shall see in the
sequel.

I am now to open an entirely new scene to the reader’s
view, not unworthy his curiosity and attention. We have
seen two states of no great consideration, Media and Persia,
extend themselves far and wide, under the conduct of Cyrus,
like a torrent or a conflagration; and, with amazing rapidity,
conquer and subdue many provinces and kingdoms. We
shall see now that vast empire setting the nations under its
dominion in motion, the Persians, Medes, Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians, and many others; and
falling, with all the forces of Asia and the East upon a little
country, of very small extent, and destitute of all foreign
assistance; I mean Greece. When, on the one hand, we
behold so many nations united together, such preparations
of war made for several years with so much diligence; in-
numerable armies by sea and land, and such fleets, as the
sea could hardly contain; and, on the other hand, two weak
cities, Athens and Lacedzmon, abandoned by all their
allies, and left almost entirely to themselves; have we not
reason to believe, that these two little cities are going to be
utterly destroyed and swallowed up by so formidable an
enemy; and that no footsteps of them will be left remain-
ing? And yet we shall find that they will prove victorious ;
and by their invincible courage, and the several battles they
gain both by sea and land, will make the Persian empire
lay aside all thoughts of ever again turning their arms
against Greece.

The history of the war between the Persians and the
Greeks will illustrate the truth of this maxim, that it is not
the number, but the valour of the troops, and the conduct
of the generals, on which depends the success of military
expeditions. The reader will admire the surprising courage

* Quibus rebus effectum est, ut inter otia Grecorum, sordidum et obscu-
rum antea Macedonum nomen emergeret; et Philippus, obses triennio
Thebis habitus, Epaminonde et Pelopide virtutibus eruditus, regnum Mace-
donia, Grecia et Asie cervicibus, velut jugum servitutis, imponeret. Just.
1. vi. c. 9.

civ PREFACE.

and intrepidity of the great men at the head of the Grecian
affairs, whom neither all the world in motion against them
could deject, nor the greatest misfortunes disconcert; who
undertook, with a handful.of men, to make. head against
innumerable armies; who, notwithstanding such a prodi-
gious inequality of forces, dared to hope for success; who
even compelled victory to declare on the side of merit and
virtue ; and taught all succeeding generations what infinite
resources are to be found in prudence, valour, and ex-
perience; ina zeal for liberty and our country ;.in the love
of our duty; and in all the sentiments of noble and gene-
rous souls.

This war of the Persians against the Grecians will be
followed by another amongst the Greeks themselves, but of
a very different kind from the former. In the latter, there
will scarce be any actions, but what in appearance are of
little consequence and seemingly unworthy of a reader’s
curiosity who is fond of great events: in this he will meet
with little besides private quarrels between certain cities,
or some small commonwealths ; some inconsiderable sieges
(excepting that of Syracuse, one of the most important re-
lated in ancient history), though several of these sieges
were of no short duration; some battles between armies,
where the numbers were small, and but little blood shed.
What is it then, that has rendered these wars so famous in
history? Sallust informs us in these words: * The actions
of the Athenians doubtless were great ; and yet I believe
they were somewhat less than fame will have us conceive of
them. But because Athens abounded in noble writers the
acts of that republic are celebrated throughout the whole
world as most glorious ; and the gallantry of those heroes who
performed them, has had the good fortune to be thought as
transcendent as the eloquence of those who have described
them. ;

Sallust, though jealous enough of the glory the Romans
had acquired by a series of distinguished actions, with which
their history abounds, yet does justice in this passage to the
Grecians, by acknowledging, that their exploits were truly
great and illustrious, though somewhat inferior, in his opi-
nion, to their fame. What is then this foreign and borrowed
lustre, which the Athenian. actions have derived from the

* Atheniensium res geste, sicuti ego existimo, satis ample magnificeque
fuerunt ; veriim aliquanto minores tamen, quam famd feruntur. Sed quia
provenére ibi scriptorum magna ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium
facta pro maximis celebrantur. Ita eorum, que fecére, virtus tanta habe-
tur, quantim eam verbis potuere extollere: preclara angenia, Sallust. in
Bell. Catilin.

PREFACE. ev

eloquence of their historians? It is, that the whole universe
agrees in looking upon them as.the greatest and most glo-
rious that ever were performed: Per terrarumorbem Athe-
niensium facta PRO MAXIMIS CELEBRANTUR. All nations,
seduced and enchanted as it were with the beauties of the
Greek authors, think that people’s exploits superior to any
thing that was ever done by any other nation. This, ac-
cording to Sallust, is the service which the Greek authors
have done the Athenians, by their excellent manner of de-
scribing their actions ; and very unhappy it is for us, that
our history, for want of similar assistance, has left a thou-
sand brilliant actions and fine sayings unrecorded, which
would have been put in the strongest light by the writers of
antiquity, and have done great honour to our country.

But be this as it may, it must be confessed, that we are
not always to judge of the value of an action, or the merit of
the persons who shared in it, by the importance of the
event. Itis rather in such sieges and engagements as we
find recorded in the history of the Peloponnesian war, that
the conduct and abilities of a general are truly conspicuous.
Accordingly, it is observed, that it was chiefly at the head
of small armies, and in countries of no great extent, that
our best generals of the last age displayed their great ca-
pacity, and shewed themselves not inferior to the most ce-
lebrated captains of antiquity. In actions of this sort chance
has no share, and does not cover any oversights that are
committed. Every thing is conducted and carried on by
the prudence of the general. He is truly the soul of the
forces, which neither act nor move but by his direction.
He sees every thing, and is present every where. Nothing
escapes his vigilance and attention. Orders are seasona-
bly given, and seasonably executed. Contrivances, strata-
gems, false marches, real or feigned attacks, encampments,
decampments ; in a word, every thing depends upon him
alone. , i

On this account, the reading of the Greek historians, such
as Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius, is of infinite ser-
vice to young officers ; because those historians, who were
also excellent commanders, enter into all the: particulars of
the events which they relate, and lead the readers, as it
were, by the hand, through all the sieges and battles they
describe ; shewing them, by the example of the greatest
generals of antiquity, and by a kind of anticipated experi-
ence, in what manner. war is to be carried on.

Nor is it only with regard to military exploits, that the
Grecian history affords us such excellent models. We shall
there find celebrated legislators, able politicians, magis-

cvi | PREFACE.

trates born for government, men that have excelled in all
arts and sciences, philosophers that carried their inquiries
as far as was possible in those early ages, and who have
left us such maxims of morality, as might put many Chris-
tians to the blush.

If the virtues of those who are celebrated in history may
serve us for models in the conduct of our lives; their vices
and failings, on the other hand, are no Jess proper to cau-
tion and instruct us; and the strict regard, which an histo-
rian is obliged to pay to truth, will not allow him to dissem-
ble the latter, through fear of eclipsing the lustre of the for-
mer. Nor does what I here advance contradict the rule laid
down by Piutarch, on the same subject, in his preface to
the life of Cimon. He requires, that the illustrious actions
of great men be represented in their full light; but as to the
faults, which may sometimes escape them through passion
or surprise, or into which they may be drawn by the neces-
sity of affairs,* considering them rather asa certain degree
of perfection wanting to their virtue, than as vices or crimes
that proceed from any corruption of the heart: such im-
perfections as these, he would have the historian, out of
compassion to the weaknesses of human nature, which pro-
duces nothing entirely perfect, content himself with touch-
ing very lightly; in the same manner as an able painter,
when he has a fine face to draw, in which he finds some
little blemish or defect, does neither entirely suppress it,
nor think himself obliged to represent it with a strict exact-
ness ; because the one would spoil the beauty of the pic-
ture, and the other would destroy the likeness. The very
comparison Plutarch uses, shews that he speaks only of
slight and excusable faults. But as to actions of injustice,
violence, and brutality, they ought not to be concealed nor
disguised on any pretence; nor can we suppose, that the
same privilege should be allowed in history as in painting,
which invented the} profile, to represent the side face of a
prince who had lost one eye, and by that means ingeniously
concealed so disagreeable a deformity. History, the most
essential rule of which is sincerity, will by no means ad-
mit of such indulgences, as indeed would deprive it of its
greatest advantage.

Shame, reproach, infamy, hatred, and the execrations of
the public, which are the inseparable attendants on criminal

4 In Cim. p. 479, 480.
* "EMelupara paddov dperije rude } kaxiag movypeipara.
+, Habet in picturd speciem tota facies. Apelles tamen imaginem Anti-
ee ene tantiim altero ostendit, ut amissi oculi deformitas lateret. Quintil.
oli. ce. 13,

PREFACE. evli

and brutal actions, are no less proper to excite a horror for
vice, than the glory, which perpetually attends good actions,
is to inspire us with the love of virtue. And these, accord-
ing to* Tacitus, are the two ends which every historian
ought to propose to himself, by making a judicious choice
of what is most extraordinary both in good and evil, in order
to occasion that public homage to be paid to virtue which
is justly due to it, and to create the greater abhorrence for
vice, on account of that eternal infamy that attends it.

The history which I am writing furnishes but too many
examples of the latter sort. With respect to the Persians,
it will appear, by what is said of their kings, that those
princes whose power has no other bounds than those of
their will, often abandon themselves to all their passions ;
that nothing is more difficult than to resist the illusions of a
man’s own greatness, and the flatteries of those that sur-
round him; that the liberty of gratifying all one’s desires,
and of doing evil with impunity, is a dangerous situation ;
that the best dispositions can hardly withstand such a temp-
tation; that even after having begun their career favoura-
bly, they are insensibly corrupted by softness and effemi-
nacy, by pride, and their aversion to sincere counsels; and
that it rarely happens they are wise enough to consider, that,
when they find themselves exalted above all laws and re-
straints, they stand then most in need of moderation and
wisdom, both in regard to themselves and others ; and that
in such a situation they ought to be doubly wise and doubly
strong, in order to set bounds within, by their reason, to a
power that has none without.

With respect to the Grecians, the Peloponnesian war
will shew the miserable effects of their intestine divisions,
and the fatal excesses into which they were led by their
thirst of dominion; scenes of injustice, ingratitude, and
perfidy, together with the open violation of treaties, or
mean artifices and unworthy tricks to elude their execu-
tion. It will shew, how scandalously the Lacedzmonians
and Athenians debased themselves to the Barbarians, in
order to beg aids of money from them: how shamefully the
great deliverers of Greece renounced the glory of all their
past labours and exploits, by stooping and making their
court to haughty and insolent satrapz, and by going suc-
cessively, with a kind of emulation, to implore the protec-
tion of the common enemy, whom they had so often con-

* Exequi sententias haud institui, nisi insignes per honestum, aut notabilt
dedecore: quod precipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, ut-
que pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamid metus sit. Tacit. Annal.
i ¥ lil. Cc. 65. i

eviil PREFACE.

quered ; and in what manner. they employed the. succours
they obtained from them, in oppressing their ancient allies,
and extending their own territories by unjust and violent
methods.

On both sides andsometimes in the same person, we shall
find a surprising mixture of good and bad, of virtues and
vices, of glorious actions and mean sentiments ; and some-
times, perhaps, we shall be ready to ask ourselves, whether
these can be the same persons and the same people, of whom
such different things are related; and whether it be possible,
that such a bright and shining light, and such thick clouds
of smoke and darkness, can proceed from the same source?

The Persian history includes the space of one hundred
and seventeen years, during the reigns of six kings of Per-
sia: Darius, the first of the name, the son of Hystaspes;
Xerxes the first; Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus;
Xerxes the second; Sogdianus (these two last reigned but a
very little time); and Darius the second, commonly called
Darius Nothus. This history begins at the year of the
world 3483, and extends to the year 3600. As this whole
period naturally divides itself into two parts, I shall also
divide it into two distinct books.

The first part, which consists of ninety years, extends
from the beginning of the reigr of Darius the first, to the
forty-second year of Artaxerxes, the same year in which
the Peloponnesian war began; that is, from the year of the
world 3483, to the year 3573. This part chiefly contains
the different enterprises and expeditions of the Persians
against Greece, which never produced more great men and
great events, nor ever displayed more conspicuous or more
solid virtues. Here will be seen the famous battles of
Marathon, Thermopyle, Artemisium, Salamis, Platza,
Mycale, Eurymedon, &c. Here the most eminent com-
manders of Greece signalized their courage; Miltiades,
Leonidas, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pausanias, Pe-
ricles, Thucydides, &c.

To enable the reader the more easily to recollect what
passed within the space of time among the Jews, and also
among the Romans, the history of both which nations is
entirely foreign to that of the Persians and Greeks, I shall
ie set down in few words. the principal epochas relating
to them.

Epochas of the Jewish History.

THE people of God were at this time returned from their
Babylonish captivity to Jerusalem, under the conduct of
Zorobabel. Usher is of opinion, that the history of Esther

PREFACE. clx

ought to be placed in the reign of Darius. The Israelites,
under the shadow of this prince’s protection, and animated
by the earnest exhortations of the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah, did at last finish the building of the temple,
which had been interrupted for many years by the cabals
of their enemies. Artaxerxes was no less favourable to
the Jews than Darius: he first of all sent Ezra to Jeru-
salem, who restored the public worship, and the observa
tion of the law; then Nehemiah, who caused walls to be
built round the city, and fortified it against the attacks of
their neighbours, who were jealous of its reviving great-
ness. It is thought that Malachi, the last of the prophets,,
was contemporary with Nehemiah, or that he prophesied
not long after him.

This interval of the sacred history extends from the reign
of Darius I. to the beginning of the reign of Darius Nothus;
that is to say, from the year of the world 3485, to the year
3081. After which the Scripture is entirely silent, till the.
time of the Maccabees.

Epochas of the Roman History.

THE first year of Darius I. was the 233d of the building
of Rome. ‘Tarquin the Proud was then on the throne, and.
about ten years afterwards was expelled, when the consular
government was substituted to that of the kings. In the
succeeding part of this period happened the war against
Porsenna ; the creation of the tribunes of the people; Co-.
riolanus’s retreat among the Volsci, and the war that ensued
thereupon; the wars of the Romans against the Latins, the
Veientes, the Volsci, and other neighbouring nations; the
death of Virginia under the Decemvirate; the disputes be-
tween the people and senate about marriages and the con-
sulship, which occasioned the creating of military tribunes
instead of consuls. This period of time terminates in the
323d year from the foundation of Rome.

The second part, which consists of twenty-seven years,
extends from the 43d year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, to
the death of Darius Nothus; that is, from the year of the
world 3573, to the year 3600. It contains the first nineteen
years of the Peloponnesian war, which continued twenty-
seven, of which Greece and Sicily were the seat, and
wherein the Greeks, who had before triumphed over the
Barbarians, turned their arms against each other. Among
the Athenians, Pericles, Nicias; and Alcibiades; among
the Lacedzmonians, Brasidas, Gylippus, and Lysander,
distinguished themselves in the most extraordinary manner.

Rome continues to be agitated by different disputes be-

cx PREFACE.

tween the senate and the people. ‘Towards the end of this
period, and about the 350th year of Rome, the Romans
formed the siege of Veji, which lasted ten years.
I have already observed, that eighty years
A.M. 2900. after the taking of Troy, the Heraclide,
Ant.J.C.1104. that is, the descendants of Hercules, re-
turned into the Peloponnesus, and made
themselves masters of Lacedamon, where two brothers,
Eurysthenes and Procles, sons of Aristodemus, reigned
jointly together. ‘Herodotus observes, that these two bro-
thers were, during their whole lives, at variance; and that
almost all their descendants inherited the like disposition
of mutual hatred and antipathy; so true it is, that the so-
vereign power will admit of no partnership, and that two
kings will always be too many for one kingdom! However,
after the death of these two, the descendants of both still
continued to sway the sceptre jointly: and what is very
remarkable, these two branches subsisted for near nine
hundred years, from the return of the Heraclidz into the
Peloponnesus, to the death of Cleomenes, and supplied
Sparta with kings without interruption, and that generally
in a regular succession from father to son, especially in
the elder branch of the family.

The Origin and Condition of the Elote, or Helots.

WHEN the Lacedemonians first began to settle in Pelo-
ponnesus, they met with great opposition from the inha-
bitants of the country, whom they were obliged to subdue
one after another by force of arms, or receive into their
alliance on easy and equitable terms, with the imposition
of a small tribute. Strabo* speaks of a city called Elos,
not far from Sparta, which, after having submitted to the
yoke, as others had done, revolted openly, and refused to
pay the tribute. Agis, the son of Eurysthenes, newly set-
tled on the throne, was sensible of the dangerous tendency
of this first revolt, and therefore immediately marched with
an army against them, together with Sotis, his colleague.
They laid siege to the city, which, after a pretty long re-
sistance, was forced to surrender at discretion. This prince
thought it proper to make such an example of them as
should intimidate all their neighbours, and deter them from
the like attempts, and yet not alienate their minds by too
cruel a treatment; for which reason he put none to death.
He spared the lives of all the inhabitants, but at the same
time deprived them of their liberty, and reduced them all to
a state of slavery. From thenceforward they were employed

t Lib. vi. c. 52. * Lib. viii. p. 365. Plut. in Lycurg. p. 40.

PREFACE. cxi

in all mean and servile offices, and treated with extreme
rigour. These were the people who were called Elote, or
Helots. The number of them exceedingly increased in
process of time, the Lacedzmonians giving undoubtedly
the same name to all the people whom they reduced to the
same condition of servitude. As they themselves were
averse to labour, and entirely addicted to war, they left the
cultivation of their lands to these slaves, assigning every
one of them a certain portion of ground, the produce of
which they were obliged to carry every year to their respec-
tive masters, who endeavoured, by all sorts of ill usage, to
make their yoke more grievous and insupportable. This
was certainly very bad policy, and could only tend to breed
a vast number of dangerous enemies in the very heart of
the state, who were always ready to take arms and revolt
on every occasion. The Romans acted more prudently ;
for they incorporated the conquered nations into their state,
by associating them into the freedom of their city, and
thereby converted them from enemies, into brethren and
fellow-citizens.

Lycurcus, the Lacedemonian Lawgiver.

*EURYTION, or Eurypon, as he is named by others, suc-
ceeded Soiis. In order to gain the affection of his people,
and render his government agreeable, he thought fit to
recede in some points from the absolute power exercised
by the kings his predecessors; this rendered his name so
dear to his subjects, that all his descendants were, from
him, called Eurytionidz. But this relaxation gave birth
to horrible confusion, and an unbounded licentiousness in
Sparta, and for a long time occasioned infinite mischiefs.
The people became so insolent, that nothing could restrain
them. If Eurytion’s successors attempted to recover their
authority by force, they became odious; and if, through
complaisance or weakness, they chose to dissemble, their
mildness served only to render them contemptible; so that
order in a manner was abolished, and the laws no longer
regarded. These confusions hastened the death of Lycur-
gus’s father, whose name was Eunomus, and who was
killed in an insurrection. Polydectes, his eldest son and
successor, dying soon after without children, every body
expected that Lycurgus would have been king. And indeed
he was so in effect, as long as the pregnancy of his bro-
ther’s wife was uncertain; but as soon as that was manifest,
he declared that the kingdom belonged to her child, in case
it proved a son; and from that moment he took upon him- |

‘ Plut. in Lycurg. p. 10.

cxii PREFACE...

self the administration of the government, as guardian ta
his unborn nephew, under the title of Prodicos; which was
the name given by the-Lacedzmonians to the guardians of
their kings. When the child was born, Lycurgus took him
in his. arms, and cried out to the company that was present,
Behold, my lords of Sparta, your new-born king! andiat
the same time, he put the infant into the king’s seat, and
named him Charilaus, because of the joy the people ex-
pressed upon occasion of his birth. The reader will find,
in the second volume of this history, all that relates to the
history of Lycurgus, the reformation he made, and the
excellent laws he established in Sparta. Agesilaus: was
at this time king in the elder branch of the family.

War between the Argives and the Lacedemonians.

"Some time after this, in the reign of Theopompus, a
war broke out between the Argives and Lacedzmonians,
on account of a little country, called Thyrea, that lay upon
the confines of the two states, and to which each of them
pretended a right. When the two armies were ready to
engage, it was agreed on both sides, in order to spare the
effusion of blood, that the quarrel should be decided by
three hundred of the bravest men chosen from their re-
spective armies; and that the land in question should
become the property of the victorious party. 'To leave the
combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired
to some distance. Those generous champions then, who
had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced
towards each other, and fought with so much resolution
and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two:
on the side of the Argives, and one on that of the Lace-
dzmonians, lay.dead upon the spot; and only the night
parted them. ‘The two Argives, looking upon themselves
as the conquerors, made what haste they could to Argos
to carry the news; the single Lacedzmonian, Othryades
by name, instead of retiring, stripped the dead bodies of
the Argives, and carrying their arms into the Lacedzmo-
nian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two
armies returned to the field of battle. Both sides laid
equal claim to the victory: the Argives, because they had
more of their champions left alive than the enemy had;
the Lacedzmonians, because the two Argives that re-
mained alive had fled; whereas their single soldier had re-
mained master of the field of battle, and -had carried: off the
spoils of the enemy: in short, they could not determine the
dispute without coming to another.engagement. Here for-

" Herod..-I: i. c,: 825 >

PREFACE. cxiii

tune declared in favour of the Lacedzemonians, and the little
territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But
Othryades, not able to bear the thoughts of surviving his
brave companions, or of enduring the sight of Sparta after
their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where
tl had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with
them.

Wars between the Messenians and Lacedemonians.

THERE were no less than three several wars between
the Messenians and the Lacedemonians, all of them very
fierce and bloody. Messenia was a country in Pelopon-
nesus, towards the west, and not far from Sparta: it was of
considerable strength, and was governed by its'own kings.

The first Messenian War.

*The first Messenian war lasted twenty
A.M. 3261. years, and broke out the second year of
Ant.J.C.743. the ninth Olympiad. The Lacedawmoni-
ans pretended to have received several
considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among
others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the
inhabitants of Messenia, when they went, according to
custom, to a temple, that stood on the borders of the two
nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles, their king,
which was a consequence of the former outrage. Proba-
bly a desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a
territory which lay so convenient for them, might be the
true cause of the war. But be that as it may, the war
broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus,
kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of-archon at

Athens was still decennial.
yEuphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was
then king of Messenia. He gave the command of his
army to Cleonnis. ‘The Lacedzemonians opened the cam-
paign with the siege of Amphea, a small inconsiderable
city, which, however, they thought would suit them very
well as a place for military stores. The town was taken
by storm, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. This
first blow served only to animate the Messenians, by .
shewing them what they were to expect from the enemy,
if they did not defend themselves with vigour. ‘The Lace-
dzemonians, on their part, bound themselves by an oath,
not to lay down their arms, nor return to Sparta, till
they had made themselves masters of all the cities and

x Pausan. J. iv. p. 216—242. Justin. 1. iii. c. 4.
Y Pausan. I. iv. p. 225, 226.
VOI. 1

exiv PREFACE. |

lands belonging to the Messenians: so much did they rely
upon their strength and valour. |

“Two battles were fought, wherein the loss was nearly
equal on both sides. But after the second, the Messenians
suffered extremely through the want of provisions, which
occasioned a great desertion in their troops, and at last
brought a pestilence among them.

Hereupon they consulted the oracle of Delphi, which
directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the gods,
to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in sacrifice. Aris-
tomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his
own daughter. The Messenians then considering, that if
they left garrisons in all their towns, they should extremely
weaken their army, resolved to abandon them all, except
Ithome, a little place seated on the top of a hill of the
same name, about which they encamped and fortified them-
selves. In this situation were seven years spent, during
which nothing passed but slight skirmishes on both sides,
the Lacedzmonians not daring in all that time to force
the enemy to a battle.

Indeed, they almost despaired of being able to reduce
them: nor was there any thing but the obligation of the
oath, by which they had bound themselves, that made
them continue so burdensome a war. *What gave them
the greatest uneasiness was, their apprehension, lest
their absence from their wives for so many years, an
absence which might still continue many more, should
destroy their families at home, and leave Sparta destitute
of citizens. ‘To prevent this misfortune, they sent home
such of their soldiers as were come to the army since the
forementioned oath had been taken, and made no scruple
of prostituting their wives to their embraces. The children
that sprung from this unlawful intercourse, were called Par-
theniz, a name given them to denote the infamy of their
birth. As soon as they were grown up, not being able to
endure such an opprobrious distinction, they banished
themselves from Sparta with one consent, and under the
conduct of *Phalantus, went and settled at Tarentum in
Italy, after driving out the ancient inhabitants.
>» At last, in the eighth year of the war, which was the
thirteenth of Euphaes’s reign, a fierce and bloody battle
was fought near Ithome. Euphaes pierced through the
battalions of Theopompus with too much heat and preci-
pitation for a king. He there received a multitude of

2 Pausan. |. iv. 227—234. @ Diod. |. xv. p. 378.

» Pausan. |. iv. p. 234, 235. Diod. in Frag.
* Et regnata petam Laconi rura Phalanto. Hor. Od. yi. 1. 2.

PREFACE. CXV

wounds, several of which were mortal. He fell, and seemed
to give up the ghost. Whereupon wonderful efforts of
courage were exerted on both sides; by the one, to carry
off the king; by the other, to save him. Cleonnis killed
eight Spartans, who were dragging him along, and spoiled
them of their arms, which he committed to the custody of
some of his soldiers. He himself received several wounds,
all in the fore-part of his body, which was a certain proof
that he had never turned his back upon his enemies. Aris-
tomenes, fighting on the same occasion, and for the same
end, killed five Lacedzemonians, whose spoils he likewise
carried off, without receiving any wound. In short, the
king was saved and carried off by the Messenians; and, all
mangled and bloody as he was, he expressed great joy that
they had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle
was over, met Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds,
could neither walk by himself, nor with the assistance of
those that lent him their hands. He therefore took him
upon his shoulders, without quitting his arms, and carried
him to the camp.

As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the
wounds of the king of Messenia and of his officers, there
arose a new contention among the Messenians, that was
pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was ofa
very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other.
The affair in question was, the adjudging the prize of glory
to him that had signalized his valour most in the late en-
gagement. It was a custom among them, which had long
been established, publicly to proclaim, after a battle, the
name of the man that had shewed the greatest courage.
Nothing could be more proper to animate the officers and
soldiers, to inspire them with resolution and intrepidity,
and to stifle the natural apprehension of death and danger.
Two illustrious champions entered the lists on this occa-
sion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes.

The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, atiended
by the principal officers of his army, presided in the coun-
cil, where this important dispute was to be decided. Each
competitor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis founded his
pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had
slain, and upon the multitude of wounds he had received
in the action, which were so many undoubted testimonies
of the courage with which he had faced both death and
danger ; whereas, the condition in which Aristomenes came
out of the engagement, without hurt and without wound,
seemed to shew, that he had been very careful of his own
person, or, at most, could only prove, that he had been more

i2

cxvi PREFACE.

fortunate, but not more brave or courageous, than himself.
And as to his having carried him on his shoulders into the
camp, that action indeed might serve to prove the strength
of his body, but nothing farther; and the thing in dispute at
this time, says he, is not strength but valour.

The only thing Aristomenes was reproached for, was, his
not being wounded; therefore he confined himself to that
point. J am, says he, called fortunate, because I have
escaped from the battle without wounds. If that were owing
to my cowardice, I should deserve another epithet than that
of fortunate ; and instead of being admitted to dispute the
prize, ought to undergo the rigour of the laws that punish
cowards. But what is objected to me as a crime, is in truth
my greatest glory. For, if my enemies, astonished at my
valour, durst not venture to attack or oppose me, it is no
small degree of merit that I made them fear me ; or if, whilst
they engaged me, I had at the same time strength to cut them
in pieces, and skill to guard agaist their attacks, Imust then
have been at once both valiant and prudent. For whoever,
in the midst of an engagement, can expose himself to dangers
with caution and security, shews, that he excels at the same
time both in the virtues of the mind and the body. As for
courage, no man living can reproach Cleonnis with any
want of it; but for his honour’s sake, I am sorry that he
should appear to want gratitude.

After the conclusion of these harangues, the question was
put to the vote. The whole army is in suspense, and im-
patiently waits for the decision. No dispute could be so
warm and interesting as this. It is not a competition for
gold or silver, but solely for honour. The proper reward
of virtue is pure disinterested glory. Here the judges are
unsuspected. ‘The actions of the competitors still speak
for them. It is the king himself, surrounded with his of-
ficers, who presides and adjudges. A whole army are the
witnesses. The field of battle is a tribunal without par-
tiality and cabal. In short, all the votes concurred in fa-
vour of Aristomenes, and adjudged him the prize.

¢ Kuphaes died not many days after the decision of this
affair. He had reigned thirteen years, and during all that
time had been engaged in war with the Lacedzmonians.
As he died without children, he left the Messenians at
liberty to choose his successor. Cleonnis and Damis were
candidates. in opposition to Aristomenes; but he was
elected king in preference to them. When he was on the
throne, he did not scruple to confer on his two rivals the

© Pausan. I. v’ p. 235, 241.

PREFACE. €XVIl

principal offices of the state: all strongly attached to the —
public good, even more than to their own glory; competi-
tors, but not enemies; these great men were actuated by a
zeal for their country, and were neither friends nor adver-
saries to one another, but for its preservation.

In this relation, I have followed the opinion of the late

Monsieur *Boivin the elder, and have made use of his
learned dissertation upon a fragment of Diodorus Siculus,
which the world was little acquainted with. He supposes
and proves in it, that the king spoken of in that fragment is
Euphaes ; and that Aristomenes is the same that Pausanias
calls Aristodemus, according to the custom of the ancients
who were often called by two different names.
_ Aristomenes, otherwise called Aristodemus, reigned near
seven years, and was equally esteemed and beloved by his
subjects. “The war still continued all this time. ‘Towards
the end of his reign he beat the Lacedzemonians, took their
king Theopompus, and, in honour of Jupiter of Ithome,
sacrificed three hundred of them, among whom their king
was the principal victim. Shortly after, Aristodemus sa-
crificed himself upon the tomb of his daughter, in conformity
to the answer of an oracle. Damis was his successor, but
without taking upon him the title of king.

‘After his death, the Messenians never had any success
in their affairs, but found themselves in a very wretched
and hopeless condition. Being reduced to the last extrem-
ity, and utterly destitute of provisions, they abandoned
Ithome, and fled to such of their allies as were nearest to
them. The city was immediately razed, and the other part
of the country submitted. ‘They were made to engage by
oath never to forsake the party of the Lacedzmonians, and
never to revolt from them; a very useless precaution, only
proper to make them add the guilt of perjury to their re-
bellion. Theirnew masters imposed no tribute upon them;
but contented themselves with obliging them to bring to
the Spartan market one half of the corn they should reap
every harvest. It was likewise stipulated, that the Messe-
nians, both men and women, should attend, in mourning, the
funerals either of the kings or chief citizens of Sparta; which
the Lacedzemonians probably looked upon as a mark of

dependance, and asa kind of homage paid

A.M. 3281. to their nation. Thus ended the first Mes-
Ant, J. C. 723. senian war, after having lasted twenty

_years. 3 :

4 Clem. Alex. in Protrep. p. 20. Euseb. in Prep. 1. iv. c. 16. —
© Pausan. I. iv. p. 241, 242.
* Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, vol. ii, p. 84—113.

exviii PREFACE.

The second Messenian War.

f THE lenity with which the Lacedzmonians treated the
Messenians at first, was of no long duration. When once
they found the whole country had submitted, and thought
the people incapable of giving them any farther trouble,
they returned to their natural character of insolence and
haughtiness, that often degenerated into cruelty, and some-
times even into ferocity. Instead of treating the vanquished
with kindness, as friends and allies, and endeavouring by
gentle methods to win those whom they had subdued by
force, they seemed intent upon nothing but aggravating
their yoke, and making them feel the whole weight of sub-
jection. They laid heavy taxes upon them, delivered them
up to the avarice of the collectors of those taxes, gave no
ear to their complaints, rendered them no justice, treated
them with contempt like vile slaves, and committed the
most heinous outrages against them.

Man, who is born for liberty, can never reconcile himself
to servitude : the most genile slavery exasperates, and pro-
vokes him to rebel. What could be expected then from so
cruel a one as that under which the Messenians groaned ?
After having endured it with great uneasiness* near forty
years, they resolved to throw off the yoke, and to recover
their ancient liberty. This was in the fourth year of the

SAT sen twenty-third Olympiad: the office of archon
Ant. J.C. 694, atAthens was then made annual; and Anax-
ander and Anaxidamus reigned at Sparta.

The Messenians’ first care was to strengthen themselves
by the alliance of the neighbouring nations. These they
found well inclined to enter into their views, as very agree-
able to their own interests. For it was not without jea-
lousy and apprehensions, that they saw so powerful a city
rising up in the midst of them, which manifestly seemed to
aim at extending her dominion over al] the rest. The peo-
ple therefore of Elis, the Argives and Sicyonians, declared
for the Messenians. Bat before their forces were joined,
a batile was fought between the Lacedzmonians and Mes-
senians. +Aristomenes, the second of that name, was at
the head of the latter. He was a commander of intrepid
courage, and of great abilities in war. The Lacedzmonians

f Pausan. p. 242. 261. Justin. J. iii.-c. 5.

* Cium per complures annos gravia servitutis verbera, plerumque et vin-
cula, ceieraque capitivitaiis mala perpessi essent, post longam penarum pa-
tientiam bellum instaurant. Justin. |. iii. ¢. 5.

+ According to several historians, there was another Aristomenes in the
first Messenian war, Diod. 1. xv. p. 378.

PREFACE. cxix

were beaten in this engagement. Aristomenes, to give the
enemy at first an advantageous opinion of his bravery,
knowing what influence it has on the success of future en-
terprises, boldly ventured to enter into Sparta by night,
and upon the gate of the temple of Minerva, surnamed
Chalcicecos, to hang up a shield, on which was an inscrip-
tion, signifying, that it was a present offered by Aristome-
nes to the goddess out of the spoils of the Lacedzmonians.

This bravado did in reality astonish the Lacedzmonians.
But they were still more alarmed at the formidable league
that was formed against them. The Delphic oracle, which
they consulted, in order to know by what means they should
be successful in this war, directed them to send to Athens
for a commander, and to submit to his counsel and con-
duct. This was avery mortifying step toso haughty a city
as Sparta. But the fear of incurring the god’s displeasure
by a direct disobedience, prevailed over all other consider-
ations. ‘They sent an embassy therefore to the Athenians.
The people of Athens were somewhat perplexed at the re-
quest. On the one hand, they were not sorry to see the
Lacedeimonians at war with their neighbours, and were far
from desiring to furnish them with a good general: on the
other, they were afraid also of disobeying the god. To ex-
tricate themselves out of this difiiculty, they offered the La-
cedzemonians Tyrtzus. He was a poet by profession, and
had something original in the turn of his mind, and disa-
greeable in his person; for he was lame. Notwithstand-
ing these defects, the Lacedzmonians received him as a
general sent them by Heaven itself. Their success did not
at first answer their expectation, for they lost three battles
successively.

The kings of Sparta, discouraged by so many disap-
pointments, and out of all hopes of better success for the
future, were absolutely bent upon returning to Sparta, and
marching home again with their forces. Tyrtzus opposed
this design very warmly, and at length brought them over
to his opinion. He addressed the troops, and repeated to
them some verses he had made with that intention, and on
which he had bestowed great pains and application. He
first endeavoured to comfort them for their past losses,
which he imputed to no fault of theirs, but only to ill for-
tune, or to fate, which no buman wisdom can surmount.
He then represented to them, how shameful it would be for
Spartans to fly from an enemy; and how glorious it would
be for them rather to perish sword in hand, if it was so de-
creed by fate, in fighting for their country. Then, as if all
danger was vanished, and the gods, fully satisfied and ap-

exx PREFACE.

peased with their late calamities, were entirely turned to
their side, he set victory before their eyes as present and
certain, and as if she herself were inviting them to battle.
sAll the ancient authors, who have made any mention of the
style and character of Tyrtzeus’s poetry, observe, that it
was full of a certain fire, ardour, and enthusiasm, that
inflamed the minds of men, that exalted them above them-
selves, that inspired *them with something generous and
martial, that extinguished all fear and apprehension of dan-
ger or death, and made them wholly intent upon the preser-
vation of their country and their own glory.

Tyrtzus’s verses had really this effect on the soldiers
upon this occasion. ‘They all desired, with one voice, to
march against the enemy. Being become indifferent as to
their lives, they had no thoughts but to secure themselves
the honour of a burial. To this end they all tied strings
round their right arms, on which were inscribed their own
and their fathers’ names, that, if they chanced to be killed
in the battle, and to have their faces so altered through time,
or accidents, as not to be distinguishable, it might certainly
be known who each of them was by these marks. Soldiers
determined to die are very valiant. This appeared in the
battle that ensued. It was very bloody, the victory being
a long time disputed on both sides: but at last the Messe-
nians gave way. When Tyrtaus went afterwards to Spar-
ta, he was received with the greatest marks of distinction,
and incorporated into the body of citizens.

The gaining of this battle did not put an end to the war,
which had already lasted three years. Aristomenes, having
assembled the remains of his army, retired to the top of a
mountain, of difficult access, which was called Ira. The
conquerors attempted to carry the place by assault, but
that brave prince defended himself there for the space of
eleven years, and performed the most extraordinary ac-
tions of valour. He was at last obliged to quit it, only by
surprise and treachery, after having defended it like a lion.
Such of the Messenians as fell into the hands of the Lace-
dzemonians on this occasion, were reduced to the condition
of the Helots. The rest, seeing their country ruined, went
and settled at Zancle, a city in Sicily, which afterwards
took its name from this people, and was called Messana;:
the same place as is called at this day Messina. Aristo-
menes, after having conducted one of his daughters to
Rhodes, whom he had given in marriage to the tyrant of

& Plat. 1.i.de Legib. p.629. Plut. in Agid. et Cleom. p. 805.
* aicwme mares animos in martia bella
erstbus exacutt. Hor. in Art. Poet.

PREFACE. cxxi

that place, thought of passing on to Sardis, to remain with
Ardys, king of the Lydians, or to Ecbatana, with Phra-
ortes, king of the Medes; but death prevented the execu-
tion of all his-designs.

The second Messenian war was of four-
teen years’ duration, and ended the first year
of the twenty-seventh Olympiad.

There was a third war between these people and the La-
cedzmonians, which began both at the time, and on the oc-
casion, of a great earthquake that happened at Sparta.
‘We shall speak of this war in its place.

The history, of which it remains for me to treat in this
work, is that of the successors of Alexander, and compre-
hends the space of two hundred and ninety-three years ;
from the death of that monarch, and the commencement of
the reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, in Egypt, to the
death of Cleopatra, when that kingdom became a Roman
province, under the emperor Augustus.

The history will present to our view a series of. all the
crimes which usually arise from inordinate ambition; scenes
of jealousy and perfidy, treason, ingratitude, and flagrant
abuses of sovereign power; cruelty, impiety, an utter ob-
livion of the natural sentiments of probity and honour, with
the violation of all laws human and divine, will rise before
us. We shall behold nothing but fatal dissensions, destruc-
tive wars, and dreadful revolutions. Men, originally friends,
brought up together, and natives of the same country, com-
panions in the same dangers, and instruments in the accom-
plishment of the same exploits and victories, will conspire
to tear in pieces the empire they had al! concurred to form
at the expense of their blood. We shall see the captains
of Alexander sacrifice the mother, the wives, the brother,
and sisters, of that prince, to their own ambition; without
sparing even those to whom they themselves either owed,
or gave, life. We shall no longer behold those glorious
times of Greece, that were once so productive of great men
and great examples; or, if we should happen to discover
some traces and remains of them, they will only resemble
the gleams of lightning that shoot along in a rapid track,
and attract attention only in consequence of the profound
darkness that precedes and follows them.

Tacknowledge myself to be sufficiently sensible how much
a writer is to be pitied, for being obliged to represent human
nature in such colours and lineaments as dishonour her, and
which cannot fail of inspiring disgust, and a secret affliction
in the minds of those who are made spectators of such a
picture. History loses whatever is most interesting and

A. M. 3334.
Ant. J. C. 670.

exxil PREFACE,

most capable of conveying pleasure and instruction, when
she can only produce those effects, by inspiring the mind
with horror for criminal actions, and by a representation of
the calamities which usually succeed them, and are to be
considered as their just punishment. It is difficult to engage
the attention of a reader, for any considerable time, on ob-
jects which only raise his indignation; and it would be af-
fronting him, to seem desirous of dissuading him from the
excess of inordinate passions, of which he conceives him-
self incapable.

How is it possible to diffuse any interest through a nar-
ration, which has nothing to offer but a uniform series of
vices and great crimes; and which makes it necessary to
enter into a particular detail of the actions and characters
of men born for the calamity of the human race, and whose
very name should not be transmitted to pesterity ? It may
even be thought dangerous, to familiarize the minds of the
generality of mankind to uninterrupted scenes of too suc-
cessful iniquity ; and to be particular in describing the un-
just success which waited on those illustrious criminals, the
long duration of whose prosperity being frequently attended
with the privileges and rewards of virtue, may be thought
an imputation on Providence, by persons of weak under-
standings.

This history, which seems likely to prove very disagree-
able, from the reasons I have just mentioned, will become
more so from the obscurity and confusion in which the se-
veral transactions will be involved, and which it will be diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to remedy. ‘Ten or twelve of Alex-
ander’s captains were engaged in a course of hostilities
against each other, for the partition of his empire after his
death; and to secure to themselves some portion greater or
less, of that vast body. Sometimes feigned friends, some-
times declared enemies, they are continually forming differ-
ent parties and leagues, which are to subsist no longer than
is consistent with the interest of each individual. Mace-
donia changed its master five or six times in a very short
space; by what means then can order and perspicuity be
preserved, in so prodigious a variety of events that are per-
petually crossing and breaking in upon each other?

Besides which, I am no longer supported by any ancient
authors capable of conducting me through this darkness and
confusion. Diodorus will entirely abandon me, after hav-
ing been my guide for some time ; and no other historian
will appear to take his place. No proper series of affairs
will remain ; the several events are not to be disposed into
any regular connexion with each other; nor will it be pos-

PREFACE. CXXiii

sible to point out, either the motives to the resolutions
formed, or the proper character of the principal actors in
this scene of obscurity. 1 think myself happy when Poly-
bius, or Plutarch, lend me their assistance. Inmy account
of Alexander’s successors, whose transactions are, perhaps,
the most complicated and perplexed part of ancient history,
Usher, Prideaux, and Vaillant, will be my usual guides;
- and, on many occasions, I shall only transcribe from Pri-
deaux ; but, with all these aids, I shallnot promise to throw
so much light upon this history as I could desire.

After a war of more than twenty years, the number of the
principal competitors was reduced to four: Ptolemy, Cas-
sander, Seleucus, and Lysimachus; the empire of Alex-
ander was divided into four fixed kingdoms, agreeably to
the prediction of Daniel, by a solemn treaty concluded be-
tween the parties. Three of these kingdoms, Egypt, Mace-
donia, Syria, or Asia, will have a regular succession of mo-
narchs, sufficiently clear and distinct; but the fourth, which
comprehended Thrace, with part of the Lesser Asia, and
some neighbouring provinces, will suffer a number of va-
riations.

As the kingdom of Egypt was that which was subject to
the fewest changes, because Ptolemy, who was established
there as governor, at the death of Alexander, retained the
possession of it ever after, and left it to his posterity ; we
shall, therefore, consider this prince as the basis of our chro-
nology, and our several epochas shall be fixed from him.

The fifth volume contains the events for the space of one
hundred and twenty years, under the first four kings of
Egypt, viz. Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, who reigned thirty-
eight years; Ptolemy Philadelphus, who reigned forty ;
Ptolemy Euergetes, who reigned twenty-five ; and Ptolemy
Philopator, whose reign continued seventeen.

In order to throw some light upon the history contained
therein, I shall, in the first place, give the principal events
of it, in a chronological abridgment. |

Introductory to which, | must desire the reader to ac-
company me in some reflections, which have not escaped
Monsieur Bossuet, with relation to Alexander. This prince,
who was the most renowned and illustrious conqueror in all
history, was the last monarch of his race. Macedonia, his
ancient kingdom, which his ancestors had governed for so
many ages, was invaded from all quarters, as a vacant suc-
cession; and after ithad long been a prey to the strongest,
it was at last transferred to another family. If Alexander
had continued peaceably in Macedonia, the grandeur of his
empire would not have excited the ambition of his captains;

CXXIV PREFACE.

and he might have transmitted the sceptre of his progenitors
to his own descendants; but, as he had not prescribed any
bounds to his power, he was instrumental in the destruction
of his house, and we shall behold the extermination of his
family, without the least remaining traces of them in history.
His conquests occasioned a vast effusion of blood, and fur-
nished his captains with a pretext for murdering one an-
other. These were the effects that flowed from the boasted
bravery of Alexander, or rather from that brutality, which,
under the specious names of ambition and glory, spread
desolation, and carried fire and sword through whole pro-
vinces, without the least provocation, and shed the blood
of multitudes who had never injured him.

We are not to imagine, however, that Providence aban-
doned these events to chance; but, as it was then prepar-
ing all things for the approaching appearance of the Mes-
siah, it was vigilant to unite all the nations that were to be
first enlightened with the Gospel, by the use of one and the
same language, which was that of Greece: and the same
Providence made it necessary for them to learn this foreign
tongue, by subjecting them to such masters as spoke no
other. The Deity, therefore, by the agency of this lan-
guage, which became more common and universal than any
other, facilitated the preaching of the apostles, and rendered
it more uniform.

The partition of the empire of Alexander the Great
among the generals of that prince, immediately after his
death, did not subsist for any length of time, and hardly
took place, if we except Egypt, where Ptolemy had first
established himself, and on the throne of which he always
maintained himself without acknowledging any superior.

- It was not till after the battle of Ipsus
A. M. 3704. in Phrygia, wherein Antigonus, and his
Ant. J. C. 300. son Demetrius, surnamed Poliorcetes, were
defeated, and the former lost his life, that
this partition was fully regulated and fixed. The em-
pire of Alexander was then divided into four kingdoms,
by a solemn treaty, as had been foretold by Daniel. Pto-
lemy had Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Coelesyria, and Palestine.
Cassander, the son of Antipater, obtained Macedonia and
Greece. Lysimachus acquired Thrace, Bithynia, and some
other provinces on the other side of the Hellespont and the
Bosphorus. And Seleucus had Syria, and all that part of
the greater Asia which extended to the other side of the
Euphrates, and as far as the river Indus,

Of these four kingdoms, those of Egypt and Syria sub-

sisted, almost without any interruption, in the same fami-

PREFACE. cCxxv

lies, through a long succession of princes. The kingdom
of Macedonia had several masters of different families suc-
cessively. That of Thrace was at last divided into seve-
ral branches, and no longer constituted one entire body,
by which means all traces of regular succession ceased to
subsist. ?

I. The Kingdom of Egypt.

THE kingdom of Egypt had fourteen monarchs, includ-
ing Cleopatra, after whose death, those dominions became
a province of the Roman empire. All these princes had
the common name of Ptolemy, but each of them was like-
wise distinguished by a peculiar surname. They had also
the appellation of Lagides, from Lagus the father of that
Ptolemy who reigned the first in Egypt. The fifth and
sixth volumes contain the histories of six of these kings,
and I shall give their names a place here, with the duration
of their reigns, the first of which commenced immediately
upon the death of Alexander the Great.

A. M. Ptolemy Soter. He reigned thirty-eight years
3680. and some months.

Ptolemy Philadelphus. He reigned forty years,

3718. including the two years of his reign in the life-
time of his father.

3758. Ptolemy Euergetes, twenty-five years.
3783. Ptolemy Philopator, seventeen.

3800. Ptolemy Epiphanes, twenty-four.
3824. Ptolemy Philometor, thirty-four.

II. The Kingdom of Syria.

THE kingdom of Syria had twenty-seven kings; which
makes it evident, that their reigns were often very short:
and indeed several of these princes waded to the throne
through the blood of their predecessors.

They are usually called the Seleucide, from Seleucus,
who reigned the first in Syria. History reckons up six
kings of this name, and thirteen who are called by that of
Antiochus; but they are all distinguished by different sur-
names. Others of them assumed different names, and the
last, Antiochus XIII. was surnamed Epiphanes, Asiati-
cus, and Commagenus. In his reign Pompey reduced Sy-
ria into a Roman province, after it had been governed by
kings for the space of two hundred and fifty years, accord-
ing to Eusebius.

The kings of Syria, the transactions of whose reigns are
contained in the fifth and sixth volumes, are eight in
number.

CXXVi PREFACE:
A. M.

3704. Seleucus Nicator. He reigned twenty years.
372A. Antiochus Soter, nineteen.

3743. Antiochus Theos, fifteen.

3758. Seleucus Callinicus, twenty.

3778. Seleucus Ceraunus, three.

3781. Antiochus the Great, thirty-six.

3817. Seleucus Philopator, twelve.

3829, Antiochus Epiphanes, brother of Seleucus Phi-

lopator, eleven.
Ill. The Kingdom of Macedonia.

MAcEDONIA frequently changed its mas-
A. M. 3707. __ ters, after the solemn partition had been made
between the four princes. Cassander died
three or four years after that partition, and left three sons.
Philip,the eldest, died shortly after his father. The other
two contended for the crown without enjoying it, both dying
soon after without issue. |
Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, and Lysi-
A. M. 3710. machus made themselves masters of all, or
the greatest part of Macedonia; sometimes
in conjunction, and at other times separately.
After the death of Lysimachus, Seleucus
A. M. 3723. possessed himself of Macedonia, but did not
long enjoy it.
Ptolemy Ceraunus having slain the preced-
A. M. 3724. ing prince, seized the kingdom, and possessed
it but a very short time, having lost his life in
a battle with the Gauls, who had made an irruption into
that country.

A. M. 9728. Sosthenes, who defeated the Gauls, reigned

but a short time in Macedonia.
Antigonus Gonatas, the son of Demetrius
A. M. 3728. Poliorcetes, at length obtained the peaceable
possession of the kingdom of Macedonia, and
transmitted it to his descendants, after he had reigned
thirty-four years. :
He was succeeded by his son Demetrius,
A.M. 3762. who reigned ten years, and then died, leaving
a son named Philip, who was but two years
old.
Antigonus Doson reigned twelve years in
the quality of guardian to the young prince. .
Philip after the death of Antigonus, as-
A. M. 3784. cended the throne at the age of fourteen
years, and reigned something more than forty.

A. M. 3772.

PREFACE. CXXVii

His son Perseus succeeded him, and reign-

A. M.3824. edabout eleven years. He was defeated and

taken prisoner by Paulus Acmilius ; and Ma-

cedonia, in consequence of that victory, was added to the
provinces of the Roman empire.

IV. The Kingdom of Thrace, and Bithynia, &c.

Turis fourth kingdom, composed of several separate pro-
vinces very remote from one another, had not any succes-
sion of princes, and did not long subsist in its first condi-
tion; Lysimachus, who first obtained it, having been killed
in a battle after a reign of twenty years, and all his family
being exterminated by assassinations, his dominions were
dismembered, and no longer constituted one kingdom.

Beside the provinces which were divided among the cap-
tains of Alexander, there were others which had been either
formed before, or were then erected, into different states,
independent of the Greeks, whose power greatly increased
in process of time.

Kings of Bithynia.

Wuitst Alexander was extending his con-
A.M. 3686. quests in the East, Zypethes had laid the
foundations of the kingdom of Bithynia. It
is not certain who this Zypethes was, unless that * Pau-
sanias, from his name, conjectures that he was a Thracian.
His successors, however, are better known.
Nicomedes I. This prince invited the Gauls
A. M. 3726. to assist him against his brother, with whom
he was engaged in a war.
Prusias I.
Prusias Il. surnamed the Hunter, in whose
A.M.3820. court Hannibal took refuge, and assisted him
with his counsels, in his war against Eu-
menes I]. king of Pergamus.
Nicomedes II. was killed by his son Socrates.
Nicomedes ITI. was assisted by the Romans in his wars
with Mithridates, and bequeathed to them at his death the
kingdom of Bithynia, as a testimonial of his gratitude to
them ; by which means these territories became a Roman
province.
Kings of Pergamus.
THis kingdom at first comprehended only one of the

smallest provinces of Mysia, on the coast of the Aigean
sea, over-against the island of Lesbos.

* Lib. v. p. 310.

CXX Vill PREFACE:

It was founded by Philetzrus, a eunuch,
A. M. 3721. who had served under Docimus, a com-
Ant. J.C. 283. mander of the troops of Antigonus. Liysi-
machus confided to him the treasures he
had deposited in the castle of the city of Pergamus, and he
became master both of these and the city after the death of
that prince. He governed this little sovereignty for the space
of twenty years, and then left it to Eumenes his nephew.
Eumenes J. enlarged his principality, by
A.M. 3741. the addition of several cities, which he took
Ant. J. C. 263. from the kings of Syria, having defeated
Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, in a battle.
He reigned twenty-two years.
He was succeeded by Attalus I. his cou-
A.M. 3763. sin-german, who assumed the title of king,
Ant.J. C. 241. after he had conquered the Galatians; and
transmitted it to his posterity, who enjoyed
it to the third generation. Heassisted the Romans in their
war with Philip, and died after a reign of forty-three years.
He left four sons. |
His successor was Eumenes IT. his eldest
A.M. 3807. son, who founded the famous library of
Ant. J.C.197. Pergamus. He reigned thirty-nine years,
and left the crown to his brother Attalus,
in the quality of guardian to one of his sons whom he had
by Stratonice, the sister of Ariarathes king of Cappadocia.
The Romans enlarged his dominions considerably, after
the victory they obtained over Antiochus the Great.
_ Attalus II. espoused Stratonice his bro-
A.M.3845. ther’s widow, and took extraordinary care
Ant. J. C. 159. of his nephew, to whom he left the crown,
after he had worn it twenty-one years.
Attalus III. surnamed Philometor, dis-
A. M. 3866. tinguished himself by his barbarous and
Ant. J.C. 138. extraordinary conduct. He died after he
had reigned five years, and bequeathed his
riches and dominions to the Romans.
Aristonicus, who claimed the succession,
A.M. 3871. endeavoured to defend his pretensions
Ant. J. C. 133. against the Romans, but the kingdom of
Pergamus was reduced, after a war of four
years, into a Roman province.
Kings of Pontus.
THE kingdom of Pontus, in Asia Minor,
A.M. 3490. — was anciently dismembered from the mo-
Ant. J. C. 514. narchy of Persia, by Darius the son of
Hystaspes, in favour of Artabazus, who is

PREFACE. cxxix

said, by some historians, to have been the son of one of
those Persian lords who conspired against the Magi.
Pontus is a region of Asia Minor, situated partly along
the coast of the Euxine sea ( Pontus Euxinus ), from which
it derives its name. It extends from the river Halys, as
far as Colchis. Several princes reigned in that country
since Artabazus.
The sixth monarch was Mithridates I. who
A.M.3600. is properly considered as the founder of
Ant. J. C. 404. the kingdom of Pontus, and his name was
assumed by the generality of his successors.
He was succeeded by his son Ariobar-

A.M. 3641. zanes, who had governed Phrygia under

Ant. J. C. 363. Artaxerxes Mnemon: he reigned twenty-
six years.

His successor was Mithridates II. An-

A.M.3667. tigonus suspecting, in consequence of a

Ant. J. C. 337. dream, that he favoured Cassander, had
determined to destroy him, but he eluded
the danger by flight. This prince was called Kriorjec, or the
Founder, and reigned thirty-five years.
Mithridates III., who succeeded him,
pavers ne added Cappadocia and Paphlagonia to his
dominion, and reigned thirty-six years.

After the reigns of two other kings, Mithridates IV. the
ereat-grandfather of Mithridates the Great, ascended the
throne, and espoused a daughter of Seleucus Callinicus,
king of Syria, by whom he had Laodice, who was married
to Antiochus the Great.

He was succeeded by his son Pharnaces,

A.M. 3819. | who had some disagreement with the kings
Ant. J.C. 185. of Pergamus. He made himself master of

Sinope, which afterwards became the capi-
tal of the kingdom of Pontus.

After him reigned Mithridates V., surnamed Euergetes,
the first who was called the friend of the Romans, because
he had assisted them against the Carthaginians in the third
Punic war.

He was succeeded by his son Mithri-

A. M. 3880. dates VI. surnamed Eupator. This is the

Ant. J. C. 124. great Mithridates who sustained so long a
war with the Romans: he reigned sixty-
six years.

Kings of Cappadocia.
STRABO’* informs us, that Cappadocia was divided into
4 Strab. |. xii. p. 534.
YOULL k

cxxx PREFACE.

two Satrapies, or governments, under the Persians, as it
also was under the Macedonians. The maritime part of
Cappadocia formed the kingdom of Pontus: the other tracts
constituted Cappadocia properly so called, or Cappadocia
Major, which extended along mount Taurus, and to a great
distance beyond it.

When Alexander’s captains divided the

A. M. 3682. provinces of his empire among themselves,
Aut. J. C. 322. Cappadocia was governed by a prince

named Ariarathes. Perdiccas attacked and
defeated him, after which he caused him to be slain.

His son Ariarathes re-entered the kingdom of his father
some time after this event, and established himself so ef-
fectually, that he left it to his posterity.

The generality of his successors assumed the same name,
and will have their place in the series of the history.

Cappadocia, after the death of Archelaus, the last of its
kings, became a province of the Roman empire, as the rest
of Asia also did much about the same time.

_ Kings of Armenia.

ARMENIA, a vast country of Asia, extending on each
side of the Euphrates, was conquered by the Persians;
after which it was transferred, with the rest of the empire,
to the Macedonians, and at last fell to the share of the Ro-
mans. It was governed for a great length of time by its
own kings, the most considerable of whom was Tigranes,
who espoused the daughter of the great Mithridates, king
of Pontus, and was also engaged in a long war with the
Romans. This kingdom supported itself many years, be-
tween the Roman and Parthian empires, sometimes de-
pending on the one and sometimes on the other, till at last
the Romans became ils masters.

Kings of Epirus.

EPIRUS is a province of Greece, separated from Thes-
saly and Macedonia by mount Pindus. The most power-
ful people of this country were the Molossians.

The kings of Epirus pretended to derive their descent
from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, who established himself
in that country; and called themselves Atacidz, from Ma-
- cus, the grandfather of Achilles.

’The genealogy of the latter kings, who were the only
sovereigns of this country of whom any accounts remain,
is variously related by authors, and consequently must be
doubtful and obscure. |

® Diod. |. xvi. p. 465. Justin. 1. viii. c. 6. Plat. in Pyrrho.

PREFACE. CXXXi

Arymbas ascended the throne, after a long succession of
kings; and as he was then very young, the states of Epirus,
who were sensible that the welfare of the people depends
on the proper education of their princes, sent him to Athens,
which was the residence and centre of all the aris and
sciences, in order to cultivate, in that excellent school, such
knowledge as was necessary to form the mind of a king.
He there learned the art of reigning, and * as he surpassed
all his ancestors in ability and knowledge, he was in con-
sequence infinitely more esteemed and heloved by his peo-
ple than they had been. When he returned from Athens,
he made laws, established a senate and magistracy, and
regulated the form of the government.

Neoptolemus, whose daughter Olympias had espoused
Philip king of Macedon, attained. an equal share in the
regal government with Arymbas his eldest brother, by the
influence of his son-in-law. After the death of Arymbas,
fBacidas, his son, ought to have been his successor; but
Philip had still sufficieut influence to procure his expulsion
from the kingdom by the Molossians, who establised Alex-
ander, the son of Neoptolemus, sole monarch of Epirus.

Alexander espoused Cleopatra, the daughter of Philip,
and marched with an army into Italy, where he lost his
life in the country of the Brutians.

/Eacidas then ascended the throne, and reigned without
any associate in Epirus. He espoused Phthia, the daugh-
ter of Menon the Thessalian, by whom he had two daugh-
ters, Deidamia and Troias, and one son, the celebrated
Pyrrhus.

As he was marching to the assistance of Olympias, his
troops mutinied against him, condemned him to exile, and
slaughtered most of his friends. Pyrrhus, who was then
an infant, happily escaped this massacre.

Neoptolemus, a prince of the blood, but whose particu-
lar extraction is little known, was placed on the throne by
the people of Epirus. |

Pyrrhus, being recalled by his subjects at the age of
twelve years, first shared the sovereignty with Neoptole-
mus; but having afterwards divested him of his dignity,
he reigned alone.

This history will treat of the various ad-

A. M. 3733. ventures of this prince. He died in the
Ant. J. C. 271. city of Argos, in an attack to make himself

master of it.

Helenus, his son, shened after him for some time in
Epirus, which was afterwards united to the Roman empire.

* Quanto doctior majoribus, tanto et gratior populo fuit. Just. 1. xvii. c.3.
kez

€XXXii PREFACE.

Tyrants of Heraclea.

HERACLEA is a city of Pontus, anciently founded by
the Boeotians, who sent a colony into that country by the
order of an oracle.

‘When the Athenians, having conquered the Persians,
had imposed a tribute on the cities of Greece and Asia
Minor, for the fitting out and support of a fleet intended
for the defence of the common liberty, the inhabitants of
Heraclea, in consequence of their attachment to the Per-
sians, were the only people who refused to acquiesce in so
just a contribution. _Lamachus was therefore sent against
them, and he ravaged their territories; but a violent tem-
pest having destroyed his whole fleet, he beheld himself
abandoned to the mercy of that people, whose innate fe-
rocity might naturally have been increased, by the severe
treatment they had lately received. But * they had re-
course to no other vengeance than kindness; they furnish-
ed him with provisions and troops for his return, and were
willing to consider the depredations which had been com-
mitted in their country as advantageous to them, if at that
price they could convert the enmity of the Athenians into
friendship.

| Some time after this event, the populace
A.M.3640. of Heraclea excited a violent commotion
Ant.J.C.364. against the rich citizens and senators, who
having implored assistance to no effect,

first from Timotheus the Athenian, and afterwards from
Epaminondas the Theban, were necessitated to recall
Clearchus a senator to their defence, whom themselves
had banished; but his exile had neither improved his
morals nor rendered him a better citizen than he was
before. He therefore made the troubles, in which he found
the city involved, subservient to his design of subjecting it
to his own power. With this view he openly declared for
the people, caused himself to be invested with the highest
office in the magistracy,. and assumed a sovereign autho-
rity in a short time. Being thus become a professed ty-
rant, there were no kinds of violence to which he had not
recourse against the rich and the senators, to satiate his
avarice and cruelty. He proposed for his model Diony-

¢ Justin. |. xvi. c. 3—5. Diod.1. xv. p. 390.

* Heraclienses honestiorem beneficii, quam ultionis oceasionem rati, in-
structos commeatibus auxiliisque dimittunt ; bene agrorum suorum popula-
tionem impensam existimantes, si, quos hostes habuerant, amicos reddidis-
sent. Justin.

PREFACE. CXXXii

sius the Tyrant, who had established his power over the
Syracusans at the same time. |

After a hard and inhuman servitude of twelve years,
two young citizens, who were Plato’s disciples, and had
been instructed in his maxims, formed a conspiracy against
Clearchus, and slew him; but though they delivered their
country from the tyrant, the tyranny still subsisted.

oR SARA ¢Timotheus, the son of Clearchus, as-

Ant.J.C. 352, | Sumed his place, and pursued his conduct
for the space of fifteen years.

‘He was succeeded by his brother Dio-

A. M. 3667. nysius, who was in danger of being dispos-

Ant. J. C. 337. sessed of his authority by Perdiccas; but

as this last was soon destroyed, Dionysius

contracted a friendship with Antigonus, whom he assisted |
against Ptolemy in the Cyprian war.

He espoused Amastris, the widow of Craterus, and
daughter of Oxiathres, the brother of Darius. This alliance
inspired him with so much courage, that he assumed the
title of king, and enlarged his dominions by the addition
of several places which he seized on the confines of He-
raclea.

He died two or three years before the

A.M. 3700. battle of Ipsus, after a reign of thirty-three
Ant. J. C.304. years, leaving two sons and a daughter

under the tutelage and regency of Amastris.

This princess was rendered happy in her administration,
by the affection Antigonus entertained for her. She found-
ed a city, and called it by her own name; into which she
transplanted the inhabitants of three other cities, and es-
poused Lysimachus, after the death of Antigonus.‘

Kings of Syracuse.

AONE G0Rk H1R0, and his son Hieronymus, reign-

Ant. J.C. 269, © at Syracuse ; the first fifty-four years,
the second but one year.

A.M. 3789. Syracuse recovered its liberty by the.
Ant.J.C.215. death of the last, but continued in the in-

here terest of the Carthaginians, which Hiero-
Ant. J.C.213, "ymus had caused it to espouse. His con-
) - duct obliged Marcellus to form the siege
of that city, which he took the following year. I shall
reuse upon the history of these two kings in another
place.

4 Diod. |. xvi. p. 435. © Ebid. p. 478. f Fbid. |. xx. p. 833.

CXXKXIV PREFACE.

- Other Kings.

SEVERAL kings likewise reigned in the Cimmerian Bos-
phorus, as also in Thrace, Cyrene in Africa, Paphlagonia,
Colchis, Iberia, Albania, and a variety of other places;
but their history is very uncertain, and their successions
have but little regularity.

These circumstances are very different with respect to
the kingdom of the Parthians, who formed themselves, as
we shall see in the sequel, into such a powerful monarchy,
as became formidable even to the Roman empire. That
of the Bactrians received its original about the same pe-
riod: I shall treat of each in their proper places.

ee

CATALOGUE of the Editions of the principal GREEK
AUTHORs cited in this WoRK.

Heropotus. Francof. An. 1608.
THUCYDIDES. Apud Henricum Stephanum, An. 1588.

XENOPHON. Luteite Parisiorum, apud Socielatem
Grecarum Edilionum, An. 1625. .

PouysBius. Parisiis, An. 1609.

Dioporus SicuLus. Hanovie, Typis Wechelianis,
An. 1604.

Prurarcuus. Lutelice Parisiorum apud Socielatem
Grecarum Editionum, An. 1624.

STRABO. Luteltie Parisiorum, Typis regiis, An. 1620.
ATHENZUS. Lugduni, An. 1612.
PAUSANIAS. Hanovie, Typis Wechelianis, An. 1613.

APPIANUS ALEXANDER. Apud Henric. Stephan. An.
1592.

Puato. Ex nova Joannis Serrani interpretatione.
Apud Henricum Siephanum, An. 1578.

ARISTOTELES. Lutelie Parisiorum, apud Societatem
Grecarum Editionum, An. 1619.

IsocRATES. Apud Paulum Stephanum, An. 1604.

DiocENES LAERTIUS. Apud Henricum Stephanum,
An, 1594.

DEMOSTHENES. Francof. An. 1604.
ArRiANus. Lugd. Batav. An. 1704.

BOOK I.

|

THE

ANCIENT HISTORY

OF THE

EGYPTIANS.

ed

PARTS. |
Description of Egypt : with an Account of whatever is

most curious and remarkable in that Country.

icypr comprehended anciently, within limits of no
very great extent, a prodigious number of cities,* and
an incredible multitude of inhabitants.

It is bounded on the east by the Red Sea and. the
Isthmus of Suez ; on the south by Ethiopia, on the west
by Libya, and on the north by the Mediterranean. The
Nile runs from south to north, through the whole coun-
try, about two hundred leagues j in length. This coun-
try is enclosed on each side with a ridge of mountains,
which very often leave, between the foot of the hills and
the river Nile, a tract of ground of not above half a day’s
journey in length,” and sometimes less.

On the west side, the plain grows wider in some places,
and extends to twenty-five or thirty leagues. The great-
est breadth of Egypt is from Alexandria to Damietta,
being about fifty leagues.

Ancient Egypt may be divided into three principal
parts: Upper Egypt, otherwise called Thebais, which
was the most southern part; Middle Egypt, or Hepta-
nomis, so called from the San Nomi or districts it con-

@ It is related that under Amasis, there were twenty thousand inha-

bited cities in Egypt. Herod. |. ii. c. 177.

> A day’s journey is twenty-four eastern, or thirty-three English miles
and a quarter.

Loo DESCRIPTION

tained: Lower Egypt, which included what the Greeks
called Delta, and all the country as far as the Red Sea, and
along the Mediterranean to Rhinocolura, or mount Ca-
sius. Under Sesostris,° all Egypt became one kingdom,
and was divided into thirty-six governments or Nomi:
ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and sixteen in the country.
between both.

The cities of Syene and Elephantina divided Egypt
from Ethiopia; and in the days of Augustus were the
boundaries of the Roman empire: Claustra olim Romanz

Imperii, Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. cap. 61.

CHAP ek
THEBAIS.

Tues, from whence Thebais had its name, might
vie with the noblest cities in the universe. Its hundred
gates, celebrated by Homer," are universally known ;
and acquired it the surname of Hecatompylos, to distin-
guish it from the other Thebes in Boeotia. Its popula-
tion was proportionate to its extent ;° and, according to
history, it could send out at once two hundred chariots
and ten thousand fighting men at each of its gates. The
Greeks and Romans have celebrated its magnificence and
grandeur,’ though they saw it only in its ruins; so au-
gust were the remains of this city.

In the Thebaid,£ now called Said, have been disco-
vered temples and palaces which are still almost entire,
adorned with innumerable columns and statues. One
palace especially is admired, the remains whereof seem
to have existed purely to eclipse the glory of the most
pompous edifices. Four walks extending farther than
the eye can see, and bounded on each side with sphinxes,
composed of materials as rare and extraordinary as their
size is remarkable, serve as avenues to four porticoes,
whose height is amazing to behold. And even they who

© Strabo, |. xvii. p. 787. 4 Hom. Il, i. ver. 381.
© Strabo, lL. xvii. p. 816. f Tacit. Ann. |. ii. c. 60.
& Thevenot’s Travels.

OF EGYPT. 137

have given us the description of this wonderful edifice,
had not time to go round it ; and are not sure that they
saw above half: however, what they had a sight of was
astonishing. A hall, which in all appearance stood in
the middle of this stately palace, was supported by a hun-
dred and twenty pillars six fathoms round, of a propor-
tionable height, and intermixed with obelisks, which so
many ages have not been able to demolish. Painting
had displayed all her art and magnificence in this edifice.
The colours themselves, which soonest feel the injury of
time, still remain amidst the ruins of this wonderful
structure, and preserve their beauty and lustre; so hap-
pily could the Egyptians imprint a character of immor-
tality on all their works. Strabo," who was on the spot,
describes a temple he saw in Egypt, very much resem-
bling that of which I have been speaking.

The same author,’ describing the curiosities of The-
bais, speaks of a very famous statue of Memnon, the
remains whereof he had seen. It is said that this statue,
when the beams of the rising sun first shone upon it in
the morning, uttered an articulate sound.* And indeed
Strabo himself was an ear-witness of this; but then he
doubts whether the sound came from the statue.

CHAP. II.

Mippie Eecyrpr, or HEPTANOMISs.

Memputs was the capital of this part of Egypt. In this
city were to be seen many stately temples; among them
that of the god Apis, who was honoured here after a
particular manner. I shall speak of it hereafter, as well
as of the pyramids which stood in the neighbourhood of
this place, and rendered it so famous. Memphis was
situated on the west side of the Nile.

Grand Cairo,! which seems to have succeeded Mem-

h Lib. xvii. p. 805. i Pp. 816.
k Germanicus aliis quoque miraculis intendit animum, quorum preci-
pua fuere Memnonis saxea effigies, ubi radiis solis icta est, vocalem so-
num reddens, &c. Zacit. Annal. |. li. c. 61. - ' Theyenot.

138 DESCRIPTION

phis, is built on the other side of that river. ‘The castle
of Cairo is one of the greatest curiosities in Egypt. It
stands on a hill without the city, has a rock for its foun-
dation, and is surrounded with walls of a vast height and
solidity. You go up to the castle by a way hewn out
of the rock, and which is so easy of ascent, that loaded
horses and camels get up without difficulty. The great-
est rarity in this castle is Joseph’s well, so called, either
because the Egyptians are pleased with ascribing what
is most remarkable among them to that great man, or
because such a tradition has been preserved in the coun-
try. This is a proof, at least, that the work in question
is very ancient ; and it is certainly worthy the magnifi-
cence of the most powerful kings of Egypt. This well
has, as it were, two stories, cut out of the solid rock to
_ a prodigious depth. ‘The descent to the reservoir of
water, between the two wells, is by a staircase seven or
eight feet broad, consisting of two hundred and twenty
steps, and so contrived, that the oxen employed to throw
up the water, ge down with all imaginable ease, the de-
scent being scarcely perceptible. ‘The well is supplied
from a spring, which is almost the only one in the whole
country. The oxen are continually turning a wheel
with a rope, to which a number of buckets are fastened.
The water thus drawn from the first and lowermost well
is conveyed by a little canal into a reservoir, which forms
the second wel] ; from whence it is drawn to the top in
the same manner, and then conveyed by pipes to all
parts of the castle. As this well is supposed by the in-
habitants of the country to be of great antiquity, and has
indeed much of the antique manner of the Egyptians, I
thought it might deserve a place among the curiosities
of ancient Egypt. /

Strabo™ speaks of a similar engine, which, by wheels
and pulleys, threw up the water of the Nile to the top of
a very high hill; with this difference, that, instead of
oxen, a hundred and fifty slaves were employed to turn
these wheels.

The part of Egypt of which we now speak, is famous

™ Lib. xvii. p. 807.

OF EGYPT. 139

for several rarities, each of which deserves a particular
examination. I shall mention only the principal, such
as the obelisks, the pyramids, the labyrinth, the lake of
Meeris, and the Nile.

Sect. I. THe OBELISKsS.

Egypt seemed to place its chief glory in raising mo-
numents for posterity. Its obelisks form at this day, on
account of their beauty as well as height, the principal
ornament of Rome ; and the Roman power, despairing
to equal the Egyptians, thought it honour ous to
borrow the monuments of their kings.

An obelisk isa quadrangular, taper, high spire, or py-
ramid, raised perpendicularly, and terminating in a point,
to serve as an ornament to some open square; and is
very often covered with inscriptions or hieroglyphics,
that is, with mystical characters or symbols used by the
Egyptians to conceal and disguise their sacred things,
and the mysteries of their theolo

Sesostris erected in the city of Heliopolis two obelisks
of extreme hard stone, brought from the quarries of
Syene, at the extremity of Egypt... They were each one
hundred and twenty cubits high, that is, thirty fathoms,
or one hundred and eighty feet.° The emperor Augus-
tus, having made Egypt a province of the empire, caused >
these two obelisks to be transported to Rome, one
whereof was afterwards broken to pieces. He dared
not venture to make the same attempt upon a third, —
which was of a monstrous size.” It was made in the
reign of Rameses: it is said that twenty thousand men
were employed in the cutting of it. Constantius, more
daring than Augustus, caused it to be removed to Rome,
Two of these obelisks are still to be seen there, as well
as another a hundred cubits, or twenty-five fathoms
high, and eight cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter.
Caius Cesar had it brought from Egypt in a ship of so

odd a form, that, according to cae the like had never
been seen.

» Diod. lib. i. p. 87.

° Jt is proper to observe, once for all, that an Egyptian cubit, accord-

ing to Mr. Greaves, was one foot nine inches and about 3 of our measure.
P Plin. 1. xxxvi. c. 8, 9. 4 Plin., |. Xxxvi. c. 9.

140 DESCRIPTION

Every part of Egypt abounded with this kind of obe-
lisks ; they were for the most part cut in the quarries
of Upper Egypt, where some are now to be seen half
finished. But the most wonderful circumstance is, that
the ancient Egyptians should have had the art and
contrivance to dig even in the very quarry a canal,
through which the water of the Nile ran in the time of
its inundation ; from whence they afterwards raised up
the columns, obelisks, and statues, on rafts " proportioned
to their weight, in order to convey them into Lower
Egypt. And as the country was intersected every where
with canals, there were few places to which those
huge bodies might not be carried with ease ; although
their weight would have broken every other kind of
engine. ;

Sect. IJ. Tue PyraAmips.

A pyramid is a solid or hollow body,* having a large,
and generally a square base, and terminating in a point.

There were three pyramids in Egypt more famous
than the rest, one whereof was justly ranked among the
seven wonders of the world; they stood not very far
from the city of Memphis. I shall take notice here
only of the largest of the three. This pyramid, like
the rest, was built on a rock, having a square base, cut
on the outside as so many steps, and decreasing gradu-
ally quite to the summit. It was built with stones of a
prodigious size, the least of which were thirty feet,
wrought with wonderful art, and covered with hierogly-
phics. According to several ancient authors, each side
was eight hundred feet broad, and as many high. The
summit of the pyramid, which to those who viewed it
from below, seemed a point, was a fine platform, com-
posed of ten or twelve massy stones, and each side of
that platform sixteen or eighteen feet long.

M. de Chazelles, of the Academy of Sciences, who
went purposely on the spot in 1693, gives us the follow-

ing dimensions :—

* Rafts are pieces of flat timber put together, to carry goods on rivers.
* Herod. 1. ii. c. 124, &c. Diod. 1. i. p. 39-41. | Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 12.

OF BEY PI 141

- ‘The side of the square base 110 fathoms.
The fronts are equilateral triangles,

and therefore the superficies of oe iON
the base is | :
The perpendicular height 773 fathoms.
The solid contents 313,590 cubical fathoms.

A hundred thousand men were constantly employed
about this work, and were relieved every three months
by the same number. ‘Ten complete years were spent
in hewing out the stones, either in Arabia or Ethiopia,
and in conveying them to Egypt; and twenty years
more in building this immense edifice, the inside of
which contained numberless rooms and apartments.
There were expressed on the pyramid, in Egyptian cha-
racters, the sums it cost only for garlic, leeks, onions,
and other vegetables of this description, for the work-
men; and the whole amounted to sixteen hundred ta-
lents of silver,’ that is, four millions five hundred thou-
sand French livres; from whence it was easy to conjec-
ture what a vast sum the whole expense must have
amounted to.

Such were the famous Egyptian pyramids, which by
their figure, as well as size, have triumphed over the in-
juries of time and the Barbarians. But what efforts
soever men may make, their nothingness will always
appear. ‘These pyramids were tombs ; and there is still
to be seen, in the middle of the largest, an empty sepul-
chre, cut out of one entire stone, about three feet deep
and broad, and a little above six feet long." Thus all
this bustle, all this expense, and all the labours of so
many thousand men for so many years, ended in pro-
curing for a prince, in this vast and almost boundless
pile of building, a little vault six feet in length. Besides,
the kings who built these pyramids, had it not in their
power to be buried in them; and so did not enjoy the
sepulchre they had built. The public hatred which they
incurred, by reason of their unheard-of cruelties to their
subjects, in laying such heavy tasks upon them, occa-
sioned their being interred in some obscure place, to

t About 200,000/. sterling.
" Strabo mentions the sepulchre, lib. xvii. p. 808,

142 DESCRIPTION

prevent their bodies from being exposed to the fury and
vengeance of the populace.

This last circumstance,” which historians have taken
particular notice of, teaches us what judgment we ought
to pass on these edifices, so much boasted of by the an-
cients. It is but just to remark and esteem the noble
genius which the Egyptians had for architecture; a ge-
nius that prompted them from the earliest times, and
before they could have any models to imitate, to aim in
all things at the grand and magnificent ; and to be in-
tent on real beauties, without deviating in the least from
a noble simplicity, in which the highest perfection of
the art consists. But what idea ought we to form of
those princes, who considered as something grand, the
raising by a multitude of hands, and by the help of
money, immense structures, with the sole view of ren-
dering their names immortal; and who did not scruple
to destroy thousands of their subjects to satisfy their vain-
glory! They differed very much from the Romans, who
sought to immortalize themselves by works of a magni-
ficent kind, but, at the same time, of public utility.

Pliny” gives us, in few words, a just idea of these py-
ramids, when he calls them a foolish and useless osten-
tation of the wealth of the Egyptian kings; Reguwm pe-
cunié otiosa ac stulta ostentatio : and adds, that by a just
punishment their memory is buried in oblivion ; the his-
torians not agreeing among themselves about the names
of those who first raised those vain monuments; Jnter
eos non constat a quibus facte@ sint, justissimo casu oblite-
ratis tante vanitatis auctoribus. Ina word, according
_ to the judicious remark of Diodorus, the industry of the
architects of those pyramids is no less valuable and praise-
worthy, than the design of the Egyptian kings is con-
temptible and ridiculous.

But what we should most admire in these ancient
monuments, is, the true and standing evidence they give
of the skill of the Egyptians in astronomy ; that is, ma
science which seems incapable of being brought to per-
- fection, but by a long series of years, and a great num-
_ber of observations. M. de Chazelles, when he mea-
Y Diod. lib. i. p. 40. - Ww Lib, xxxvi. cap. 12.

OF EGYPT. 143

sured the great pyramid in question, found that the four
sides of it were turned exactly to the four quarters of the
world; and consequently shewed the true meridian of
that place.. Now, as so exact a situation was in all pro-
bability purposely pitched upon by those who piled up
this huge mass of stones above three thousand years ago,
it follows, that during so long a space of time, there has
been no alteration in the heavens in that respect, or
(which amounts to the same thing) in the poles of the
earth or the meridians. This is M. de Fonitenelle’s re-
mark in his eulogium of M. de Chazelles.

Sect. II]. Tne Lasyrintu.

What has been said concerning the judgment we
ought to form of the pyramids,* may also be applied to
the labyrinth, which Herodotus, who saw it, assures us
was still more surprising than the pyramids. It was built
at the southern extremity of the lake of Moeris, whereof
mention will be made presently, near the town of Croco-
diles, the same with Arsinoeé. It was not so much one
single palace, as a magnificent pile composed of twelve
palaces, regularly disposed, which had a communication
with each other. Fifteen hundred rooms, interspersed
with terraces, were ranged round twelve halls, and dis-
covered no outlet to such as went to see them. ‘There
was the like number of buildings under ground. These
subterraneous structures were designed for the burying-
place of the kings, and also (who can speak this without
confusion, and without deploring the blindness of man !)
for keeping the sacred crocodiles, which a nation, so
wise in other respects, worshipped as gods.

In order to visit the rooms and halls of the labyrinth,
it was necessary, asthe reader will naturally suppose,
for people to take the same precaution as Ariadne made
Theseus use, when he was obliged to go and fight the
Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. Virgil describes it
in this manner : |

Ut quondam Creta feriur labyrintbas in alta
Parietibus textum cecis iter ancipitemque
Mille viis babuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi
Falleret indeprensus et irremeabilis error.’

* Herod. 1. ii. c. 148, Diod. |. i. p.42. Plin. J. xxxvi.c.13. Strab.
I, Xvi. p, Sil. y /Eneid, |. vy. ver. 588, &c.

4

144 : DESCRIPTION

Hic labor ille domfis, et inextricabilis error.
Deedalus, ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,
Ceca regens filo vestigia.”

And as the Cretan labyrinth of old,

With wand’ring ways, and many a winding fold,
Involved the weary feet without redress,

Ina round error, which deny’d recess:

Not far from thence he grav’d the wondrous maze;
A thousand doors, a thousand winding ways.

Secr. IV. hae Lake or Manis.

The noblest and most wonderful of all the structures
or works of the kings of Egypt, was the lake of Meeris :*
accordingly, Herodotus considers it as vastly superior to
the pyramids and labyrinth. As Egypt was more or
less fruitful in proportion to the inundations of the Nile;
and as in these floods, the too great or too little rise of
the waters was equally fatal to the lands, king Meeris,
to prevent these two inconveniences, and to correct, as
far as lay in his power, the irregularities of the Nile,
thought proper to call art to the assistance of nature ;
and so caused the lake to be dug, which afterwards went
by his name. This lake was in circumference about
three thousand six hundred stadia,” that is, about one
hundred and eighty French leagues, and three hundred
feet deep. Two pyramids, on each of which was placed
a colossal statue, seated on a throne, raised their heads
to the height of three hundred feet, in the midst of the
lake, whilst their foundations took up the same space
under the water; a proof that they were erected before
the cavity was filled, and a demonstration that a lake of
such vast extent was the work of man’s hands, in one
prince’s reign. This is what several historians have re-
lated concerning the lake Meeris, on the testimony of
the inhabitants of the country. And M. Bossuet, the
bishop of Meaux, in his discourse on universal history,
relates the whole as fact. For my part, I will confess
that I do not see the least probability in it. Is it possible
to conceive, that a lake of a hundred and eighty leagues
in circumference, could have been dug in the reign of

2 /Bneid, |. vi. ver. 27, &e. 2 Herod. 1. ii. c. 140. Strabo, I. xvii.
p- 787. Diod. 1. i. p. 47. Plin. lL. v.c. 9. Pomp. Mela, I. i.
> Vide Herod. et Diod. Pliny agrees almost with them.

OF EGYPT. 145

one prince? In what manner, and where, could the earth
taken from it be conveyed? What should prompt the
Egyptians to lose the surface of so much land? By what
arts could they fill this vast tract with the superfluous
waters of the Nile? Many other objections might be
made. In my opinion, therefore, we ought to follow
Pomponius Mela, an ancient geographer ; especially as
his account is confirmed by several modern travellers.
According to that author, this lake is but twenty thou-
sand paces, that is, seven or eight French leagues, in cir-
cumference. Meeris, aliquando campus, nunc lacus, vi-
ginti millia passuum in circuitu patens.°

This lake had a communication with the Nile, by a
great canal, more than four leagues long,* and fifty feet
broad. Great sluices either opened or shut the canal
and lake, as there was occasion.

The charge of opening or shutting them amounted to
fifty talents, that is, fifty thousand French crowns.’ The
fishing of this lake brought the monarch immense sums ;
but its chief utility related to the overflowing of the
Nile. When it rose too high, and was like to be at-
tended with fatal consequences, the sluices were opened,
and the waters, having a free passage into the lake, co-
vered the lands no longer than was necessary to enrich
them. On the contrary, when the inundation was too
low, and threatened a famine, a sufficient quantity of
water, by the help of drains, was let out of the lake, to
water the lands. In this manner the irregularities of
the Nile were corrected ; and Strabo remarks, that, in
his time, under Petronius, a governor of Egypt, when
the inundation of the Nile was twelve cubits, a very |
great plenty ensued; and even when it rose but to eight
cubits, the dearth was scarce felt in the country ; doubt-
less because the waters of the lake made up for those of
the inundation, by the help of canals and drains.

SECT. V. Tue INunNDATIONS OF THE NILE:

The Nile is the greatest wonder of Egypt. As it
seldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole.

¢ Mela, |. i « Kighty-five stadia. © 11,2501. sterling.
VOL. I. L

146 DESCRIPTION

country by its regular inundations, supplies that defect,
by bringing, as a yearly tribute, the rains of other coun-
tries; which made a poet say ingeniously, The Egyp-
tian pastures, how great soever the drought may be, never
implore Jupiter for rain :
Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,
Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Jovi.‘ ;

To multiply so beneficent a river, Egypt was cut into
numberless canals, of a length and breadth proportioned
to the different situations and wants of the lands. The
Nile brought fertility every where with its salutary
streams; united cities one with another, and the Medi-
terranean with the Red Sea; maintained trade at home
and abroad, and fortified the kingdom against the ene-
my; so that it was at once the nourisher and protector
of Egypt.

The fields were delivered up to it; but the cities that
were raised with immense labour, and stood like islands
in the midst of the waters, looked down with joy on the
plains which were overflowed, and at the same time en-
riched, by the Nile.

This is a general idea of the nature and effects of this
river, so famous among the ancients. But a wonder so
astonishing in itself, and which has been the object of
the curiosity and admiration of the learned in all ages,
seems to require a more particular description, in which
I shall be as concise as possible.

1. The Sources of the Nile.

The ancients placed the sources of the Nile in the
mountains of the moon (as they are commonly called),
in the tenth degree of south latitude. But our modern
travellers have discovered that they lie in the twelfth
degree of north latitude; and by that means they cut
off about four or five hundred leagues of the course
which the ancients gave that river. It rises at the foot
ofa great mountain in the kingdom of Gojam in Abys-
sinia, from two springs, or eyes, to speak in the language

‘Seneca ( Nat. Quest. |. iy. c.2.) ascribes these verses to Ovid, but
they are Tibullus’s.

|

OF EGYPT. 147

of the country, the same word in Arabic signifying eye
and fountain. These springs are thirty paces from one
another, each as large as one of our wells or a coach-
wheel. The Nile is increased with many rivulets which
run into it; and after passing through Ethiopia in a
very winding course, flows at last: into Egypt.

2. The Cataracts of the Nile.

This name is given to some parts of the Nile, where
the water falls down from the steep rocks. This river,
which at first glided smoothly along the vast deserts of
Ethiopia, before it enters Egypt, passes by the cataracts.
Then growing on a sudden, contrary to its nature, raging
and violent in those places where it is pent up and re-
strained; after having at last broken through all obsta-
cles in its way, it precipitates itself from the top of some
rocks to the bottom, with so loud a noise, that it is heard
three leagues off.

The inhabitants of the country, accustomed by long
practice to this sport, exhibit here a spectacle to travel-
lers that is more terrifying than diverting. ‘Two of them
go into a little boat, the one to guide it, the other to
throw out the water. After having long sustained the.
violence of the raging waves by managing their little
boat very dexterously, they suffer themselves to be car-
ried away with the impetuous torrent as swift as an ar-
row. ‘The affrighted spectator imagines they are going
to. be swallowed up in the precipice down which they
fall; when the Nile, restored to its natural course, dis~

¢ Excipiunt eum (Nilum) cataractz, nobilis insigni spectaculo locus.
—lIllic excitatis primtim aquis, quas sine tumultu leni alveo duxerat,
violentus et torrens per malignos transitus prosilit, dissimilis sibi——-
tandemque eluctatus obstantia, in vastam altitudinem subito destitutus
cadit, cum ingenti circumjacentium regionum strepitu; quem perferre
gens ibi & Persis collocata non potuit, obtusis assiduo fragore auribus, et
ob hoc sedibus ad quietiora translatis. Inter miracula fluminis incredi-
bilem incolarum audaciam accepi. Bini parvula navigia conscendunt,
quorum alter navem regit, alter exhaurit. Deinde multim inter rapidam
insaniam Nili et reciprocos fluetus volutati, tandem tenuissimos canales
tenent, per quos angusta rupium effugiunt: et cum toto flumine effusi
navigium ruens manu temperant, magnoque spectantium metu in caput
nixi, cium jam adploraveris, mersosque atque obrutos tanta mole credi-
deris, longé ab co in quem ceciderant loco navigant, tormenti modo
missi. Nec mergit cadens unda, sed planis aquis tradit. Senec. Nat.
Quest, |. iv. c. 2.

L 2

148 | DESCRIPTION

covers them again, at a considerable distance, on its
smooth and calm waters. ‘This is Seneca’s account,
which is confirmed by our modern travellers.

3. Causes of the Inundations of the Nile.

The ancients’ have invented many subtile reasons for
the Nile’s great increase, as may be seen in Herodotus,
Diodorus Siculus, and Seneca. But it is now no longer
a matter of dispute, it being almost universally allowed,
that the inundations of the Nile are owing to the great
rains which fall in Ethiopia, from whence this river flows.
These rains swell it to such a degree, that Ethiopia first,
and then Egypt, are overflowed ; and that which at first
was but a large river, rises like a sea, and overspreads the
whole country.

Strabo observes,’ that the ancients only guessed that
the inundations of the Nile were owing to the rains which
fall in great abundance in Ethiopia; but adds, that se-
veral travellers have since been eye-witnesses of it; Pto-
lemy Philadelphus, who was very curious in all things
relating to arts and sciences, having sent thither able
persons, purposely to examine this matter, and to ascer-
tain the cause of so uncommon and remarkable an
effect.

A. The Time and Continuance of the Inundations.

Herodotus," and after him Diodorus Siculus, and se-
veral other authors, declare, that the Nile begins to
swell in Egypt at the summer solstice, that is, about the
end of June, and continues to rise till the end of Sep-
tember ; and then decreases gradually during the months
of October and November ; after which it returns to its
channel, and resumes its wonted course. This account
agrees very nearly with the relations of all the moderns,
and is founded in reality on the natural cause of the in-
undation, viz. the rains which fall in Ethiopia. Now,
according to the constant. testimony of those who have
been on the spot, these rains begin to fall in the month

» Herod. 1. ii. c. 19—27. Diod. 1. i. p. 35—39. . Senec. Nat. Quest.
I. iv. c, 1 & 2,
Lib. xvii. p. 789. © * Herod. 1. ii. c. 19. Diod. 1. i. p. 32.

* OF: EGY-PT. <: 149

of April, and continue, during five months, till the end
of August and beginning of September. The Nile’s in-
crease in Egypt must, consequently, begin three weeks
or a month after the rains have begun to fall in Abyssi-
nia; and accordingly travellers observe, that the Nile
begins to rise in the month of May, but so slowly at the
first, that it probably does not yet overflow its banks.
The inundation happens not till about the end of June,
and lasts the three following months, according to He-
rodotus.

I must point out to such as consult the originals, a
contradiction in this place between Herodotus and Dio-
dorus on one side; and between Strabo, Pliny, and So-
linus, on the other.. These last shorten very much the
continuance of the inundation; and suppose the Nile
to draw off from the lands.in three months or a hundred
days. And what adds to the difficulty, is, that Pliny
seems to ground his opinion on the testimony of He-
rodotus: Jn totum autem revocatur Nilus intra ripas in
Libra, ut tradit Herodotus, centesimo die. I leave to the
learned the reconciling of this contradiction.

5. The Height of the Inundations.

The just height of the inundatian,' according to Pliny,
is sixteen cubits. When it rises but to twelve or thirteen,
a famine is threatened ; and when it exceeds sixteen, there
is danger. It must be remembered, that a cubit is a
foot and a half. The emperor Julian takes notice,” in a
letter to Ecdicius, prefect of Egypt, that the height of
the Nile’s overflowing was fifteen cubits, the 20th of
September, in 362. ‘The ancients do not agree entirely
with one another, nor with the moderns, with regard to
the height of the inundation; but the difference is not
very considerable, and may proceed, 1. from the dispa-
rity between the ancient and modern measures, which it
is hard to estimate on a fixed and certain foot; 2. from

' Justum incrementum est cubitorum xvi. Minores aque non omnia
rigant: ampliores detinent tardius recedendo. He serendi tempora ab-
sumunt solo madente; ille non dant sitiente. Utrumque reputat pro-
vincia. In duodecim cubitis famem sentit, in tredecim etiamnum esurit;
quatuordecim cubita hilaritatem efferunt, quindecim securitatem, sexde-
cim delicias. Pl, |. v. c. 9. m Jul. Epist. 50.

150 | DESCRIPTION

the carelessness of the observers and historians; 3. from
the real difference of the Nile’s increase, which was not
so great the nearer it approached the sea.

As the riches of Egypt depended on the inundation of
the Nile,” all the circumstances and different degrees of
its increase had been carefully considered ; and by a long
series of regular observations, made during many years,
the inundation itself discovered what kind of harvest
the ensuing year was likely to produce. The kings had
placed at Memphis a measure on which these different
increases were remarked; and from thence notice was
given to all the rest of Egypt, the inhabitants of which
knew, by that means, beforehand, what they might fear
or promise themselves from the harvest. Strabo° speaks
of a well on the banks of the Nile near the town of
Syene, made for that purpose.

The same custom is observed to this day at Grand
Cairo. In the court of a mosque there stands a pillar,
on which are marked the degrees of the Nile’s increase;
and common criers every day proclaim in all parts of the
city, how high it is risen. The tribute paid to the Grand
Seignior for the lands, is regulated by the inundation.
‘The day on which it rises to a certain height, is kept as
a grand festival, and solemnized with fire-works, feast-
ings, and all the demonstrations of public rejoicing ; and
in the remotest ages, the overflowing of the Nile was
always attended with a universal joy throughout all
Egypt, that being the fountain of its happiness.

The heathens ascribed the inundation of the Nile to
their god Serapis ;” and the pillar on which was marked
the increase, was preserved religiously in the temple of
that idol. ‘The emperor Constantine having ordered it
to be removed into the church of Alexandria, the Egyp-
tians spread a report, that the Nile would rise no more
by reason of the wrath of Serapis; but the river over-
flowed and increased as usual the following years. Julian
the apostate, a zealous protector of idolatry, caused this’
pillar to be replaced in the same temple, out of which it
was again removed by the command of Theodosius.

® Diod. 1.i. p. 33. © Lib. xvii. p. 817.
P Socrat. l,i. c. 18. Sozom. I], v. c. 3.

OF EGYPT. 151

6. The Canals of the Nile and Spiral Pumps.

Divine Providence, in giving so beneficent a river to
Egypt, did not thereby intend that the inhabitants of it
should be idle, and enjoy so great a blessing without
taking any pains. One may naturally suppose, that as
the Nile could not of itself cover the whole country,
great labour was to be used to facilitate the overflowing
of the lands; and numberless canals cut, in order to
convey the waters to all parts. The villages, which
stand very thick on the banks of the Nile on eminences,
have each their canals, which are opened at proper times,
to let the water into the country. ~The more distant
villages have theirs also, even to the extremities of the
kingdom. ‘Thus the waters are successively conveyed
to the most remote places. Persons are not permitted
to cut the trenches to receive the waters, till the river is
at a certain height; nor to open them all at once; be-
cause otherwise some lands would be too much over-
flowed, and others not covered enough. They begin
with opening them in Upper, and afterwards in Lower
Egypt, according to the rules prescribed in a roll or
book, in which all the measures are exactly set down.
By this means the water is husbanded with such care,
that it spreads itself over all the lands. The countries
overflowed by the Nile are so extensive, and lie so low,
and the number of canals so great, that of all the waters
which flow into Egypt during the months of June, July,
and August, it is believed that not a tenth part of them
‘reaches the sea.

But as, notwithstanding all these canals, there are still
abundance of high lands which cannot receive the
benefit of the Nile’s overflowing; this want is supplied
by spiral pumps, which are turned by oxen, in order to
bring the water into pipes, which convey it to these
lands. Diodorus‘ speaks of a similar engine invented by
Archimedes in his travels mto Egypt, which is called
Cochlea Aigyptia.

1 Lib. i. p. 30. and lib. v. p. 213.

152 DESCRIPTION

4, The Fertility caused by the Nile.

There is no country in the world where the soil is
more fruitful than in Egypt; which is owing entirely
to the Nile. * For whereas other rivers, when they
overflow lands, wash away and exhaust their vivific
moisture; the Nile, on the.contrary, by the excellent
slime it brings along with it, fattens and enriches them
in such a manner, as sufficiently compensates for what
the foregoing harvest had impaired. ‘The husbandman,
in this country, never tires himself with holding the
plough, or breaking the clods of earth. As soon as the
Nile retires, he has nothing to do but to turn up the
earth, and temper it with a little sand, in order to lessen
its rankness ; after which he sows it with great ease, and
with little or no expense. ‘Two months after it is co-
vered with all sorts of corn and pulse. The Egyptians
generally sow in October and November, according as
the waters draw off; and their harvest is in March and
April.

The same land bears, in one year, three or four differ-
ent kinds of crops. Lettuces and cucumbers are sown
first; then corn; and, after harvest, several sorts of pulse
which are peculiar to Egypt. As the sun is extremely
hot in this country, and rains fall very seldom in it, it is
natural to suppose that the earth would soon be parched,
and the corn and pulse burnt up by so scorching a heat,
were it not for the canals and reservoirs with which
Egypt abounds; and which, by the drains from thence,
amply supply wherewith to water and refresh the fields
and gardens.

The Nile contributes no less to the nourishment of
cattle, which is another source of wealth to Egypt. The
Egyptians begin to turn them out to grass in November,
and they graze till the end of March. Words could
never express how rich their pastures are; and how fat
the flocks and herds (which, by reason of the mildness of
the air, are out night and day) grow in a very little time.

* Cum czteri amnes abluant terras et eviscerent; Nilus adeo nihil
exedit nec abradit, ut contra adjiciat vires.—Ita juvat agros duabus ex
causis, et quod inundat, et quod oblimat. . Senec. Nat. Quest, |. iv. c. 2.

OF EGYPT. 153
During the inundation of the Nile, they are fed with
hay and cut straw, barley and beans, which are their
common food.
A man cannot, says Corneille de Bruyn im his
Travels,’ help observing the admirable providence of
God towards this country, who sends at a fixed season
such great quantities of rain in Ethiopia, in order to
water Egypt, where a shower of rain scarce ever falls ;
and who, by that means, causes the driest and most
sandy soil, to become the richest and most fruitful
country in the universe. |

Another thing to be observed here, is that (as the
inhabitants say) in the beginning of June and the four
following months the north-east winds blow constantly,
in order to keep back the waters, which otherwise would
draw off too fast; and to hinder them from discharging
themselves into the sea, the entrance to which. these
winds bar up, as it were, from them. The ancients have
not omitted this circumstance.

The same Providence, whose ways are wonderful
and infinitely various,‘ displayed itself after a quite differ-
ent manner in Palestine, in rendering it exceeding fruit-
ful; not by rains, which fall during the course of the
year, as 1s usual in other places; nor by a peculiar inun-
dation, like that of the Nile in Egypt; but by sending
fixed rains at two seasons, when his people were obe-
dient to him, to make them more sensible of their con-
tinual dependance upon him. God himself commands
them, by his servant Moses, to make this reflection :
The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the
land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou
sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a gar-
den of herbs : but the land whither ye go to possess tt, 1s a
land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain
of heaven." After this, God promises to give his people,
so long as they shall continue obedient to him, the
former and the latter rain: the first in autumn, to bring
up the corn; and the second in the spring and summer,
to make it grow and ripen.

5 Vol. ii. t Multiformis sapientia. Eph. iii. 10.
" Deut. xi. 10—18.

154 | DESCRIPTION

8. The different Prospects exhibited by the Nile.

There cannot be a finer sight than Egypt at two
seasons of the year. ™ For if a man ascends some
mountain, or one of the largest pyramids of Grand
Cairo, in the months of July and August, he beholds a
vast sea, in which numberless towns and villages appear,
with several causeys leading from place to place; the
whole interspersed with groves and fruit-trees, whose
tops only are visible; all which forms a delightful pros-
pect. This view is bounded by mountains and woods,
which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can dis-
cover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined.
On the contrary, in winter, that is to say in the months
of January and February, the whole country is like one
continued scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure,
enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator
- beholds, on every side, flocks and herds dispersed over
all the plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and
gardeners. ‘The air is then perfumed by the great
quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other
trees ; and is so pure, that a wholesomer or more agree-
able is not found in the world; so that nature, being
then dead, as it were, in all other climates, seems to be
alive only for so delightful an abode.

Q. The Canal formed ly the Nile, by which a Com-

munication is made between the two. Seas.

* The canal, by which a communication was made be-
tween the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, ought to
have a place here, as it was not one of the least ad-
vantages which the Nile procured to Egypt. Sesostris,
or, according to others, Psammetichus, first projected
the design, and began this work. Necho, successor to
the last prince, laid out immense sums upon it, and em-
ployed a prodigious number of men. It is said, that

’ Tlla facies pulcherrima est, cum jam se in agros Nilus ingessit. La-
tent campi, operteque sunt valles: oppida insularum modo extant. Nul-
lum in. Mediterraneis, nisi per navigia, commercium est: majorque est
letitia in gentibus, qud minus terrarum suarum vident., Senec. Nat.
Quest. |. iv. ¢. 2.

: eos. l. ii. c. 158. Strab. |. xvii. p. 804. Plin. I. vi. c. 29. Diod.
»1. p. 29.

OF EGYPT. 1399

above six score thousand Egyptians perished in the un-
dertaking. He gave it over, terrified by an oracle, which
told him that he would thereby open a door for Barba-
rians (for by this name they called all foreigners) to enter
Egypt. The work was continued by Darius, the first of
that name ; but he also desisted from it, upon his being
told, that as the Red Sea lay higher than Egypt, it would
drown the whole country. But it was at last finished
under the Ptolemies, who, by the help of sluices, opened
or shut the canal as there was occasion. It began not
far from the Delta, near the town of Bubastus. It was
a hundred cubits, that is, twenty-five fathoms broad, so
that two vessels might pass with ease; it had depth
enough to carry the largest ships; and was about a thou-
sand stadia, that is, above fifty leagues long. ‘This canal
was of great service to the trade of Egypt. But it is now
almost filled up, and there are scarce any remains of it to
be seen. |

Cir, til

Lower Ecypt.

I am now to speak of Lower Egypt. Its shape, which
resembles a triangle, or Delta, A, gave occasion to its
bearing the latter name, which is that of one of the
Greek letters. Lower Egypt forms a kind of island; it
begins at a place where the Nile is divided into two large
canals, through which it empties itself into the Medi-
terranean: the mouth on the right hand is called the
Pelusian, and the other the Canopic, from two cities in
their neighbourhood, Pelusium and Canopus, now called
Damietta and Rosetta. Between these two large branches,
there are five others of less note. This island is the best
cultivated, the most fruitful, and the richest part of Egypt.
Its chief cities (very anciently) were Heliopolis, Hera-
cleopolis, Naucratis, Sais, Tanis, Canopus, Pelusium ;
and, in later times, Alexandria, Nicopolis, &c. It was
in the country of Tanis that the Israelites dwelt.

156 DESCRIPTION

*'There was at Sais'a temple dedicated to Minerva,
who is supposed to be the same as Isis, with the follow-
ing inscription: Lam whatever hath been, and is, and
shall be ; and no mortal hath yet pierced through the veil
that shrouds me.

* Heliopolis, that is, the city of the sun, was so called
from a magnificent temple there dedicated to that planet.
Herodotus, and other authors after him, relate some par-
ticulars concerning the Phoenix and this temple, which,
if true, would indeed be very wonderful. Of this kind
of birds, if we may believe the ancients, there is never’
but one at a time in the world. He is brought forth in
Arabia, lives five or. six hundred years, and is of the
size of an eagle. His head is adorned with a shining
and most beautiful crest ; the feathers of his neck are of
a gold colour, and the rest of a:purple ; his tail is white,
intermixed with red, and his eyes sparkling like stars.
When he is old, and finds his end approaching, he builds
a nest with wood and aromatic spices, and then dies. Of
his bones and marrow, a worm is produced, out of which
another Phoenix is formed. His first care is to solem-
nize his parent's obsequies, for which purpose he makes
up a ball in the shape of an egg, with abundance of per-
fumes of myrrh, as heavy as he can carry, which he often
essays beforehand ; then he makes a hole in it, where he
deposits his parent’s body, and closes it carefully with
myrrh and other perfumes. After this he takes up the
precious load on his shoulders, and flying to the altar of
the sun, in the city of Heliopolis, he there burns it.

- Herodotus and Tacitus dispute the truth of some of
the circumstances of this account, but seem to suppose
it true in general. Pliny, on the contrary, in the very
beginning of his account of it, insinuates plainly enough,
that he looks upon the whole as fabulous; and this is
_ the opinion of all modern authors.

This ancient tradition, though grounded on an evident
falsehood, hath yet introduced into almost all languages,
the custom of giving the name of phoenix to whatever is

2 Plutar. de Isid. p. 354.

* Strab. 1]. xvii. p: 805. Herod. |. ii..c. 73... Plin. 1. x. c. 2. Tacit.
Ann. I. vi. c, 28.

OF EGYPT... 157

singular and uncommon in its kind: Kara avis in terris,
says Juvenal,” speaking of the difficulty of finding an ac-
complished woman in all respects. And Seneca observes
the same of a good man.‘

What is reported of swans, viz. that they never sing
but in their expiring moments, and that then they war-
ble very melodiously, is likewise grounded merely on a
vulgar error: and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but
also by the orators, and even the philosophers. O mu¢is
quoque piscilus donatura cycni, st libeat, sonum, says Ho-
race“ to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent dis-
course which Crassus made in the senate, a few days be-
fore his death, to the melodious singing of a dying swan :
Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis vox et oratio.
De Orat. |. iii. n. 6. And Socrates used to say, that
good men ought to imitate swans, who, perceiving by a
secret instinct, and a sort of divination, what advantage
there is in death, die singing and with joy: Providentes
quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu_et voluptate moriuntur.
Tusc. Qu. |. i, n. 73. I thought this short digression
might be of service to youth ; and return now to my
subject. 7 .

It was in Heliopolis, ° that an ox, under the name of
Mnhevis, was worshipped as a god. Cambyses, king of
Persia, exercised his sacrilegious rage on this city ; burn-
ing the temples, demolishing the palaces, and destroying
the most precious monuments of antiquity in it. There
are still to be seen some obelisks which escaped his fury ;
and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which
city they are an ornament even at this day.

Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, from whom
its had its name, vied almost in magnificence with the
ancient cities in Egypt. It stands four days’ journey
from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the
trade of the east. ‘The merchandises were unloaded at
Portus Muris,£ a town on the western coast of the Red
Sea; from whence they were brought upon camels to

b Sat. vi. |
¢ Vir bonus tam cito nec fieri potest, nec intelligi—tanquam Phoenix,
semel anno quingentesimo nascitur. Ep. 40.

@ Od. iii. 1. iv. © Strab. |. xvii. p. 805.
i Strab. 1. svi. p.. 78h. s Or Myos Hormos.

158 DESCRIPTION

a town of Thebais, called Cophat, and afterwards con-
veyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants
resorted from all parts.

It is well known that the trade of the East hath at all
times enriched those who carried it on. This was the
chief source of the vast treasures that Solomon amassed,
and which enabled him to build the magnificent temple
of Jerusalem. David, by conquering Idumea," became
master of Elath and Esion-geber, two towns situated on
the eastern shore of the RedSea. From these two ports,
Solomon sent fleetsto Ophir and ‘Tarshish,' which always
brought back immense riches.‘ This traffic, after having
been enjoyed some time by the Syrians, who regained
Idumzea, passed from them into the hands of the Ty-
rians. ‘These got all their merchandise conveyed, by
the way of Rhinocolura (a sea-port town lying between
the confines of Egypt and Palestine), to Tyre, from
whence they distributed them all over the western world.
Hereby the Tyrians enriched themselves exceedingly,
under the Persian empire, by the favour and protection
of whose monarchs they had the full possession of this
trade. But when the Ptolemies had made themselves
masters of Egypt, they soon drew all this trade into their
kingdom, by building Berenice and other ports on the
western side of the Red Sea, belonging to Egypt ; and
fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, which thereby rose
to be the city of the greatest trade in the world. There
it continued for a great many centuries after ; and all the
traffic which the western parts of the world from that
time had with Persia, India, Arabia, and the eastern
coasts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red
Sea and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered,
a little above two hundred years since, of sailing to those
parts by the Cape of Good Hope. After this, the Por-
tuguese for some time were masters of this trade; but
now it is in a‘manner engrossed wholly by the English
and Dutch. This short account of the East-India trade,

h 2 Sam. viii. 14. i 1 Kings, ix. 26.
« He got in one voyage 450 talents of gold, 2 Chron. viii. 18; which
amounts to three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling.
Prid. Connex. vol. i. ad ann. 740, not. 1 Strab. |. xvi. p. 481.

OF EGYPT. 159
from Solomon’s time, to the present age, is extracted
from Dr. Prideaux.™

"For the convenience of trade, there was built near
Alexandria, in an island called Pharos, a tower which
bore the same name. At the top ofthis tower was kept
a fire, to light such ships as sailed by night near those
dangerous coasts, which were full of sands and shelves,
from whence all other towers, designed for the same use,
have derived their name, as, Pharo di Messina, &c. The
famous architect Sostratus built it by order of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, who expended eight hundred talents upon
it.° It was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the
world. Some, through a mistake, have commended that
prince, for permitting the architect to put his name in the
inscription which was fixed on the tower instead of his
own.? It was very short and plain, according to the
manner of the ancients. Sostratus Cnidius Dexiphanis
F’, Diis Servatoribus pro navigantibus : i.e. Sostratus the
Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes, to the protecting deities,
for the use of sea-faring people. But certainly Ptolemy
must have very much undervalued that kind of immor-
tality which princes are generally so fond of, to suffer,
that his name should not be so much as mentioned in
the inscription of an edifice so capable of immortalizing
him. What we read in Lucian" concerning this matter,
deprives Ptolemy of a modesty, which indeed would be
very ill placed here. This author informs us, that Sos-
tratus, to engross in after-times the whole glory of that
noble structure to himself, caused the inscription with his
own name to be carved in the marble, which he after-
wards covered with lime, and thereon put the king’s
name. The lime soon mouldered away ; and by that
means, instead of procuring the architect the honour
with which he had flattered himself, served only to dis-
cover to future ages his mean fraud and ridiculous vanity.

Riches failed not to bring into this city, as they usually
do in all places, luxury and licentiousness ; so that the

P Pattlr Pes " Strab. 1. xvii. p. 791, Plin. |. xxxvi. c, 12
° Eight hundred thousand crowns, or 180,000/, sterling.
P Magno animo Ptolemzi regis, quod in eA permiserit Sostrati Cnidii
architecti structures nomen inscribi. Plin.
4 De scribend. Hist. p. 706.

160 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

Alexandrian voluptuousness became a proverb." In this
city arts and sciences were also industriously cultivated :
witness that stately edifice, surnamed the Museum, where
_the literati used to meet, and were maintained at the pub-
lic expense; and the famous library, which was aug-
mented considerably by Ptolemy Philadelphus ; and
which, by the magnificence of the kings his successors, at
last contained seven hundred thousand volumes. In
Ceesar’s wars with the Alexandrians, * part of this library
(situate in the ‘ Bruchion), which consisted of four hun-
dred thousand volumes, was unhappily consumed by fire.

PART H.

OF TIIE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

Eeypr was ever considered, by all the ancients, as the
most renowned school for wisdom and politics, and the
source from whence most arts and sciences were derived.
This kingdom bestowed its noblest labours and finest arts
on the improvement of mankind; and Greece was so
sensible of this, that its most illustrious men, as Homer,
Pythagoras, Plato; even its great legislators, Lycurgus
and Solon, with many more whom it is needless to men-
tion, travelled into Egypt, to complete their studies, and
draw from that fountain whatever was most rare and
valuable in every kind of learning. God himself has
given this kingdom a glorious testimony ; when praising
Moses, he says of him, that he was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians."

To give some idea of the manners and customs of
Egypt, I shall confine myself principally to these particu-
lars: its kings and government; priests and religion ;
soldiers and war; sciences, arts, and trades.

The reader must not be surprised if he sometimes finds,
in the customs I take notice of, a kind of contradiction:
This circumstance is owing either to the difference of

* Ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis. Quintil.

* Plut. in. Cas. p. 731. Seneca de tranquil, anim. c. ix.
* A quarter or division of the city of Alexandria. " Acis, Vil. 22.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 161

countries and nations, which did not always follow the
same usages; or to the different way of thinking of the
historians whom I copy.

CHAP. I.

CoNCERNING THE KINGS AND GOVERNMENT.

Tue Egyptians were the first people who rightly un-
derstood the rules of Government. A nation so grave
and serious immediately perceived, that the true end of
politics is, to make life easy, and a people happy.

The kingdom was hereditary; but, according to
Diodorus,‘ the Egyptian princes conducted themselves
ina different manner from what is usually seen in other
monarchies, where the prince acknowledges no other
rule of his actions than his own arbitrary will and plea-
sure. But here, kings were under greater restraint from
the laws than their subjects. ‘They had some particular
ones digested by a former monarch, that composed part
of what the Egyptians called the sacred books. Thus
every thing being settled by ancient custom, they never
sought to live in a different way from their ancestors.

No slave nor foreigner was admitted into the immediate
service of the prince; such a post was.too important to
be intrusted to any persons, except those who were the
most distinguished by their birth, and had received the
most excellent education; to the end, that as they had the
liberty of approaching the king’s person day and night,
he might, from men so qualified, hear nothing which
was unbecoming the royal majesty ; nor have any sen-
timents instilled into him but such as were of a noble and
generous kind. For, adds Diodorus, it is very rarely
seen that kings fly out into any vicious excess, unless
those who approach them approve their irregularities, or
serve as instruments to their passions. 3 !

The kings of Egypt freely permitted, not only the
quality and proportion of what they ate and drank to be
prescribed them (a thing customary in Egypt, whose in-

t Diod., I. i. p. 63, &e.

VOL. I. eae.

162 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

habitants were all sober, and whose air inspired frugality),
but even that all their hours, and almost every action,
should be under the regulation of the laws.

In the morning at day-break, when the head is clear-
est, and the thoughts most unperplexed, they read the
several letters they received ; to form a more just and dis-
tinct idea of the affairs which were to come under their
consideration that day.

As soon as they were dressed, they went to the daily
sacrifice performed in the temple; where, surrounded with
their whole court, and the victims placed before the altar,
they assisted at the prayer pronounced aloud by the high-
priest, in which he asked of the gods, health and all other
blessings for the king, because he governed his people
with clemency and justice, and made the laws of his king-
dom the rule and standard of his actions. ‘The high-
priest entered into a long detail of his royal virtues, ob-
serving, that he was religious to the gods, affable to men,
moderate, just, magnanimous, sincere; an enemy to
falsehood ; liberal; master of his passions; punishing
crimes with the utmost lenity, but boundless in reward-
ing merit. He next spoke of the faults which kings
night be guilty of ; but supposed, at the same time, that
they never committed any, except by surprise or igno-
rance ; and loaded with imprecations such of their minis-
ters as gave them ill counsel, and suppressed or disguised
the truth. Such were the methods of conveying instruc-
tion to their kings. It was thought that reproaches
would only sour their tempers ; and that the most eftec-
tual method to inspire them with virtue, would be to
point out to them their duty in praises conformable to
the sense of the laws, and pronounced in a solemn man-
ner before the gods. After the prayers and sacrifices
were ended, the counsels and actions of great men were
_ read to the ‘king out of the sacred books, in order that
he might govern his dominions according to their maxims,
and maintain the laws which had made his Dee ee

and their subjects so happy.

- I have already observed, that the quantity as well as
quality of what he ate or drank were prescribed, by the
laws, to the king: his table was covered with nothing

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 163

but the most common food; because eating in Egypt
was designed, not to tickle the palate, but to satisfy the
cravings of nature. One would have concluded (observes
the historian), that these rules had been laid down by
some able physician, who was attentive only to the health
of the prince, rather than by a legislator. The same
simplicity was seen in all other things; and we read in
Plutarch" of a temple in Thebes, which had one of its
pillars inscribed with imprecations against that king who
first introduced profusion and luxury into Egypt.

The principal duty of kings, and their most essential
function, is the administering justice to their subjects.
Accordingly, the kings of Egypt cultivated more imme-
diately this duty ; convinced that on this depended not
only the ease and comfort of individuals, but the happi-
ness of the state ; which would be a herd of robbers rather
than a kingdom, should the weak be unprotected, and
the powerful enabled by their riches and influence to
commit crimes with impunity.

Thirty judges were selected out of the principal cities,
to form a body for dispensing justice through the whole
kingdom. ‘The prince, in filling these vacancies, chose
such as were most renowned for their honesty ; and put
at their head, him who was most distinguished for his
knowledge and love of the laws, and was had in the most
universal esteem. ‘They had revenues assigned them,
to the end that, being freed from domestic cares, they
might devote their whole time to the execution of the
laws. Thus honourably maintained by the generosity
of the prince, they administered gratuitously to the peo-
ple that justice to which they have a natural right, and
which ought to be equally open to all; and, in some
sense, to the poor more than the rich, because the latter
find a support within themselves ; whereas the very con-
dition of the former exposes them more to injuries, and
therefore calls louder for the protection of the laws. To
guard against surprise, affairs were transacted by writing
in the assemblies of these judges. That false eloquence
was dreaded, which dazzles the mind, and moves the pas-
sions. “Truth could not be expressed with too much

" De Isid. & Osir. p. 354.
M 2

164 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

plainness, as it alone was to have the sway in judgments ;
because in that alone the rich and poor, the powerful
and weak, the learned and the ignorant, were to find re-
lief and security. The president of this senate wore a
collar of gold set with precious stones, at which hung a
figure represented blind, this being called the emblem of
truth. When the president put this collar on, it was un-
derstood as a signal to enter upon business. He touched
the party with it who was to gain his cause, and this was
the form of passing sentence.

The most excellent circumstance in the laws of the
Egyptians, was, that every individual, from his infancy,
was nurtured in the strictest observance of them. A
new custom in Egypt was a kind of miracle.* All things
there ran in the old channel; and the exactness with
which little matters were adhered to, preserved those of
more importance ; and consequently no nation ever re-
tained their laws and customs longer than the Egyptians.

Wilful murder was punished with death,’ whatever
might be the condition of the murdered person, whether
he was free-born or otherwise. In this the humanity
and equity of the Egyptians were superior to that of the
Romans, who gave the master an absolute power of life
and death over his slave. The emperor Adrian, indeed,
abolished this law ; from an opinion, that an abuse of this
nature ought to be reformed, let its antiquity or autho-
rity be ever so great.

Perjury was also punished with death, * because that
crime attacks both the gods, whose majesty is trampled
upon by invoking their name to a false oath; and men,
by breaking the strongest tie of human society, viz. sin-
cerity and veracity.

The false accuser was condemned to undergo the
punishment which the person accused was to have suf-
fered, had the accusation been proved. ‘

He who had neglected or refused to save a man’s life
when attacked, if it was in his power to assist him, was
punished as rigorously as the assassin :® but if the unfor-
tunate person could not be succoured, the offender was

° Plat. in Tim. p. 656. 4 Diod. 1. i. p. 70.
¢ Pag.69. , ® Thid. s Ibid.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 165

at least to be impeached ; and penalties were decreed for
any neglect of this kind. ‘Thus the subjects were a guard
and protection to one another; and the whole body of
the community united against the designs of the bad.

No man was allowed to be useless to the state; > but
every one was obliged to enter his name and place of
abode in a public register, that remained in the hands of
the magistrate, and to describe his profession, and his
means of support. If he gave a false account of himself,
he was immediately put to death.

To prevent borrowing of money, the parent of sloth,
frauds, and chicane,* king Asychis made a very judicious
law. The wisest and best-regulated states, as Athens and
Rome, ever found insuperable difficulties, in contriving
a just medium, to restrain, on one hand, the cruelty of
the creditor in the exaction of his loan ; and on the other,
the knavery of the debtor, who refused or neglected to.
pay his debts. Now Egypt took a wise course on this
occasion ; and, without doing any injury to the personal
liberty of its inhabitants, or ruining their families, pur-
sued the debtor with incessant fears of infamy in case he
were dishonest. No man was permitted to borrow mo-
ney without pawning to the creditor the body of his fa-
ther, which every Egyptian embalmed with great care,
and kept reverentially in his house (as will be observed
in the sequel), and therefore might be easily moved from
one place to another. Bu. it was equally impious and
infamous not to redeem soon so precious a pledge; and
he who died without having discharged this duty, was
deprived of the customary honours paid to the dead.*

Diodorus ' remarks an error committed by some of the
Grecian legislators. They forbid, for instance, the takmg
away (to satisfy debts) the horses, ploughs, and other im-
plements of husbandry employed by peasants; judging
it inhuman to reduce, by this security, these poor men

h Diod. I. i. p. 69. i Herod. |. ii. c. 136.

k This law put the whole sepulchre of the debtor into the power of the
creditor, whoremoved to his own house the bedy of the father: the debtor
refusing to discharge his obligation, was to be deprived of burial, either in
his father’s sepulchre or any other; and whilst he lived, he was.not per-
mitted to bury any person descended from-him., Mydé aire éxsivp redev~

rhoavrt eivar ragig Kupjca—pnr Gddov pydéva roy tavrov amoyevomevoy
Oaya. Herod. 1 Diod. |. i. p. 71.

166 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

to an impossibility of discharging their debts, and getting
their bread: but, at the same time, they permitted the
creditor to imprison the peasants themselves, who alone
were capable of using these implements ; which exposed
them to the same inconveniences, and at the same time
deprived the government of persons who belong, and are
necessary to it; who labour for the public emolument,
and over whose person no private man has any right.

Polygamy was allowed in Egypt,’ except to the priests,
who could marry but one woman. Whatever was the
condition of the woman, whether she was free or a slave,
her children were deemed free and legitimate.

One custom that was practised in Egypt,” shews the
profound darkness into which such‘nations as were most
celebrated for their wisdom have been plunged ; and this
is the marriage of brothers with their sisters, which was
not only authorized by the laws, but even, in some mea-
sure, originated from their religion, from the example
and practice of such of their gods, as had been the most
anciently and universally adored in Egypt, that is, Osiris
and Isis.

A very great respect was there paid to old age." The
young were obliged to rise up for the old; and on every
occasion, to resign to them the most honourable seat.
The Spartans borrowed this law from the Egyptians.

The virtue in the highest esteem among the Egyp-
tians, was gratitude. ‘The glory which has been given
them of being the most grateful of all men, shews that
they were the best formed of any nation for social life.
Benefits are the band of concord, both public and pri-
vate. He who acknowledges favours, loves to confer
them; and in banishing ingratitude, the pleasure of doing
good remains so pure and engaging, that it is impossible
for a man to be insensible of it. But it was particularly
towards their kings that the Egyptians prided themselves
on evincing their gratitude. They honoured them whilst
living, as so many visible representations of the Deity ;
and after their death lamented for them as the fathers of
their country. These sentiments of respect and tender-
ness proceeded from a strong persuasion, that the Divi-

| Diod. lib. i. p. 72. | -™ Ibid. p.22,. —® Herod... ii. ¢. 20.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 167

nity himself had placed them upon the throne, as he dis-
tinguished them so greatly from all other mortals: and
that kings bore the most noble characteristics of the
Supreme Being, as the power and will of doing good to
others were united in their persons.

CHAT. i.

CoNCERNING THE PRIESTS AND RELIGION OF
THE EGYPTIANS.

Priests in Egypt held the second rank tokings. They.
had great privileges and revenues; their lands were ex-
empted from all imposts ; of which some traces are seen
in Genesis, where it is said, Joseph made it a law over
the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh should have the fifth
part, except the land of the priests only, which became
not Pharaoh’s.°

The prince usually honoured them with a large share
in his confidence and government, because they, of all
his subjects, had received the best education, had ac
quired the greatest knowledge, and were most strongly
attached to the king’s person and the good of the public.
They were at one and the same time the depositaries of
religion and of the sciences; and to this circumstance was
owing the great respect which was paid them by the na-
tives as well as foreigners, by whom they were alike con-
sulted upon the most sacred things relating to the mys-
teries of religion, and the most profound subjects in the
several sciences.

The Egyptians pretend to be the first institutors of
festivals and processions in honour of the gods.’ One
festival was celebrated in the city of Bubastus, whither
persons resorted from all parts of Egypt, and upwards
of seventy thousand, besides children, were seen at it.
Another, surnamed the feast of the lights, was solem-
nized at Sais. All persons, throughout Egypt, who did
not go to Sais, were obliged to illuminate their windows.

‘ Different animals were sacrificed in different coun-

° Gen, xvii. 26, P Herod. I. ii. c. 60. P [bid. c. 39.

168 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

tries; but one common and general ceremony was ob-
served in all sacrifices, viz. the laying of hands upon the
head of the victim, loading it at the same time with im-
precations; and praying the gods to divert upon that
victim all the calamities which might threaten Egypt.

It is to Egypt that Pythagoras owed his favourite
doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of
souls." The Egyptians believed, that at the death of
men, their souls transmigrated into other human bodies ;
and that, if they had been vicious, they were imprisoned
in the bodies of unclean or ill-conditioned beasts, to
expiate in them their past transgressions ; and that after
a revolution of some centuries, they again animated other
human bodies.

The priests had the possession of the sacred books,
which contained, at large, the principles of government,
as well as the mysteries of divine worship. Both were
commonly involved in symbols and enigmas," which,
under these veils, made truth more venerable, and excited
more strongly the curiosity of men. The figure of
Harpocrates, in the Egyptian sanctuaries, with his finger
- upon his mouth, seemed to intimate, that mysteries were
there enclosed, the knowledge of which was revealed to
very few. The sphinxes, placed at the entrance of all
temples, implied the same. It is very well known, that
pyramids, obelisks, pillars, statues, in a word, all public
monuments, were usually adorned with hieroglyphics,
that is, with symbolical writings; whether these were
characters unknown to the vulgar, or figures of animals,
under which was couched a hidden and _parabolical
meaning. Thus, .by a hare, was signified a lively and
piercing attention,° because this creature has a very deli-
cate sense of hearing. ‘The statue of a judge without
hands, and with eyes fixed upon the ground, symbolized
the duties of those who were to exercise the judiciary
functions.?

It would require a volume to treat fully of the religion
of the Egyptians. But I shall confine myself to two
articles, which form the principal part of it; and these

™ Diod. Li. p. 88. ® Plut. de Isid. & Osir. p. 354.
° Plut. Sympos. |. iv. p. 670. P Id. de Isid. p; 355.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 169

are, the worship of the different deities, and the cere-
monies relating to funerals.

Sect. I. THe WorsHIP OF THE VARIOUS DEITIES.

Never were any people more,superstitious than the
Egyptians ; they had a great number of gods, of differ-
ent orders and degrees, which I shall omit, because they
_ belong more to fable than to history. Among the rest,
two were universally adored in that country, and these
were Osiris and Isis, which are thought to be the sun
and moon.: and indeed the worship of those planets gave
rise to idolatry. |

Besides these gods, the Egyptians worshipped a great
number of beasts; as the ox, the dog, the wolf, the hawk,
the crocodile, the ibis,’ the cat, &c. Many of these
beasts were the objects of the superstition only of some
particular cities ; and whilst one people worshipped one
species of animals as gods, their neighbours held the
same animals in abomination. ‘This was the source of
the continual wars which were carried on between one
city and another; and this was owing to the false policy
of one of their kings, who, to deprive them of the oppor-
tunity and means of conspiring against the state, endea-
voured to draw off their attention, by engaging them in
religious contests. I call this a false and mistaken policy ;
because it directly thwarts the true spirit of government,
the aim of which is, to unite all its members in the strict-
est ties, and to make all its strength consist in the perfect
harmony of its several parts.

Every nation had a great zeal for their gods. -dmong
us, Says Cicero," zé zs very common to see temples robbed,
and statues carried off; but it was never hnown, that any
person in Egypt ever abused a crocodile, an ibis, or cat ;
for its inhabitants would have suffered the most extreme
torments, rather than be guilty of such sacrilege. It was
death for any person to kill one of these animals volun-
tarily ;* and even a punishment was decreed against him
who should have killed an ibis, or cat, with or without

4 Or Egyptian stork.
¥ De nat. Deor, |. i. n. 82. Tusc. Quest. 1. v. n. 78,
* Herod. |. ii. c. 65,

170 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

design. Diodorus' relates an incident, to which he him-
self was an eye-witness during his stay in Egypt :—A Ro-
man having inadvertently, and without design, killed a
cat, the exasperated populace ran to his house ; and nei-
ther the authority of the king, who immediately de-
tached a body of his guards, nor the terror of the Roman
name, could rescue the unfortunate criminal. And such
was the reverence which the Egyptians had for these
animals, that in an extreme famine they chose to eat one
another, rather than feed upon their imagined deities.
Of all these animals, the bull Apis, called Epaphus
by the Greeks, was the most famous." Magnificent
temples were erected to him; extraordinary honours
were paid him while he lived, and still greater after his
death. Egypt went then into a general mourning.
His obsequies were solemnized with such a pomp as is
hardly credible. In the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, the
bull Apis dying of old age,* the funeral pomp, besides
the ordinary expenses, amounted to upwards of fifty
thousand French crowns.” After the last honours had
been paid to the deceased god, the next care was to pro-
vide him a successor ; and all Egypt was sought through
for that purpose. He was known by certain signs, which
distinguished him from all other animals of that species ;
upon his forehead was to be.a white spot, in form of a
crescent ; on his back, the figure of an eagle; upon his
tongue that of a beetle. As soon as he was found,
mourning gave place to joy; and nothing was heard, in
all parts of Egypt, but festivals and rejoicings. ‘The new
god was brought to Memphis, to take possession of his
dignity, and there installed with a great number of ce-
remonies. The reader will find hereafter, that Camby-
ses, at his return from his unfortunate expedition against
Ethiopia, finding all the Egyptians in transports of joy
for the discovery of their new god Apis, and imagining
that this was intended as an insult upon his misfortunes,

t Diod. 1. i. p. 74, 75.
" Herod. |. ili. c. 27, &c. Diod. l.i. p. 76. Plin. 1. viii. c. 46.

x Pliny affirms, that he was not allowed to exceed a certain term of
years; and was drowned in the priests’ well. Non est fas eum certos vita
excedere annos, mersumque in sacerdotum fonte enecant.—Nat. Hist... viii.
c. 46. ¥ Above 11,250/. sterling.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. Vet

killed, in the first impulse of his fury, the young bull,
who by that means had but a short enjoyment of his
divinity. .- 7 |

It is plain, that the golden calf set up near mount
Sinai by the Israelites, was owing to their abode in Egypt,
and an imitation of the god Apis: as well as those which
were afterwards set up by Jeroboam (who had resided a
considerable time in Egypt) in the two extremities of
the kingdom of Israel.

The Egyptians, not contented with offering incense
to animals, carried their folly to such an excess, as to
ascribe a divinity to the pulse and roots of their gardens.
For this they are ingeniously reproached by the satirist:

Who has not heard where Egypt’s realms are named,
What monster-gods her frantic sons have framed?
Here Ibis gorged with well-grown serpents, there
The Crocodile commands religious fear.

Where Memnon’s statue magic strings inspire
With vocal sounds, that emulate the lyre;
And Thebes, (such, Fate, are thy disastrous turns !)
Now prostrate o’er her pompous ruins mourns ;
A monkey-god, prodigious to be told!

Strikes the beholder’s eye with burnish’d gold.
To godship here blue Triton’s scaly herd,

The river-progeny is there preferr’d:

Through towns Diana’s power neglected lies,
Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise :

And should you leeks or onions eat, no time
Would expiate the sacrilegious crime.
Religious nations sure, and blest abodes,
Where ev’ry orchard is o’er-run with gods.

It is astonishing to see a nation which boasted its su-
periority above all others with regard to wisdom and
learning, thus blindly abandon itself to the most gross
and ridiculous superstitions. Indeed, to read of animals
and vile insects, honoured with religious worship, placed

7 Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Aigyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adorat
Pars heec; illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin.
Effigies sacri nitet aurea Cercopitheci,

Dimidio magicz resonant ubi Memnone chorde,
Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.

illic coeruleos, hic piscem fluminis, illic

Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.

Porrum et coepe nefas violare, ac frangere morsu.

O sanctas gentes, quibus heec nascuntur in hortis
Numina! Juven. Satin. xv.

172 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

in temples, and maintained with great care and at an
extravagant expense ;” to read, that those who murdered
them were punished with death, and that these animals
were embalmed, and solemnly deposited in tombs. as-
signed them by the public; to hear, that this extrava-
gance was carried to such lengths, as that leeks and oni-
ons were acknowledged as deities; were invoked in ne-
cessity, and depended upon for succour and protection;
are absurdities which we, at this distance of time, can
scarce believe ; and yet they have the evidence of all an-
tiquity. You enter, says Lucian,* into a magnificent
temple, every part of which glitters with gold and silver.
You there look attentively for a god, and are cheated
with a stork, an ape, or a cat; a just emblem, adds that
author, of too many palaces, the masters of which are
far from being the brightest ornaments of them.

Several reasons are assigned for the worship paid to
animals by the Egyptians.

The first is drawn from fabulous history. It is pre-
tended that the gods, in a rebellion made against them
by men, fled into Egypt, and there concealed themselves
under the form of different animals; and that this gave
birth to the worship which was afterwards paid to those
animals, 3

The second is taken from the benefit which these se-
veral animals procure to mankind :* Oxen by their la-
bour; sheep by their wool and milk ; dogs by their service
in hunting, and guarding houses, whence the god Anubis
was represented with a dog’s head: the ibis, a bird very
much resembling a stork, was worshipped, because he
put to flight, the winged serpents, with which Egypt
would otherwise have been grievously infested ; the cro-
codile, an amphibious creature, that is, living alike upon
land and water, of a surprising strength and size,* was
worshipped, because he defended Egypt from the incur-

* Diodorus affirms, that in his time the expense amounted to no less
than one hundred thousand crowns, or 22,500/. sterling. Lib. i. p. 76.

@ Imag. » Diod.1.1.:p. 77, Kc.

©Tpsi qui irridentur A’gyptii, nullam belluam nisi ob aliquam utilita-

oe ana ex e& caperent, consecraverunt. Cie. lib. i. De natura Deor.

* Which, according to Herodotus, is more than seventeen cubits in
length. L. ii.c. 68. :

OF THE EGYPTIANS... 173

sions of the wild Arabs ; the ichneumon was adored, be-
cause he prevented the too great increase of crocodiles,
which might have proved destructive to Egypt. Now
the little animal in question does this service to the
country two ways. First, it watches the time when the
crocodile is absent, and breaks his eggs, but does not eat
them. Secondly, when the crocodile is asleep upon the
banks of the Nile (and he always sleeps with his mouth
open), the ichneumon, which lies concealed in the mud,
leaps at once into his mouth; gets down to his entrails,
which he gnaws; then piercing his belly, the skin of
which is very tender, he escapes with safety; and thus,
by his address and subtilty, returns victorious over so
terrible an animal.

Philosophers, not satisfied with reasons which were
too trifling to account for such strange absurdities as
dishonoured the heathen system, and at which themselves
secretly blushed ; have, since the establishment of Chris-
tianity, supposed a third reason for the worship which the
Egyptians paid to animals ; and declared, that it was not
offered to the animals themselves, but to the gods, of
whom they are symbols. Plutarch,* in his treatise where |
he examines professedly the pretensions of Isis and Osiris,
the two most famous deities of the Egyptians, says as
follows: Philosophers honour the image of God wherever
they find it, even in inanimate beings, and consequently
more in those which have life. We are therefore to ap-
prove, not the worshippers of these animals, but those who,
by their means, ascend to the Deity; they are to be consi-
dered as so many mirrors, which nature holds forth, and
in which the Supreme Being displays himself in a wonder-
Jul manner ; or, as so many instruments, which he makes
use of to manifest outwardly his incomprehensible wisdom.
Should men, therefore, for the embellishing of statues, amass
together all the gold and precious stones in the world, the
worship must not be referred to the statues ; for the Deity
does not exist in colours artfully disposed, nor in frail
matter destitute of sense and motion. Plutarch says in
the same treatise,' that as the sun and moon, heaven, earth,
and the sea, are common to all men, but have different

eP. 382. . P. 377, 378.

174 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

names according to the difference of nations and languages ;
in like manner, though there is but one Deity, and one
Providence which governs the universe, and which has se-
veral subaltern ministers under it ; men give to this Deity,
which is the same, different names; and pay it different
honours, according to the laws and customs of every
country.

But were these reflections, which offer the most ra-
tional vindication that can be suggested of idolatrous
worship, sufficient to cover the absurdity of it; could it
be called a raising of the divine attributes in a suitable
manner, to direct the worshipper to admire and seek for
the image of them in beasts of the most vile and con-
temptible kinds, as crocodiles, serpents, and cats? Was
not this rather degrading and debasing the Deity, of
whom even the most stupid usually entertain a much
greater and more august idea P

And even these philosophers were not always so just,
as to ascend from sensible beings to their invisible Au-
thor. The Scriptures tell us, that these pretended sages
deserved, on account of their pride and ingratitude, to be
given over to a reprobate mind ; and whilst they professed
themselves wise, to become fools, for having changed the
glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things." To shew what man is when left to him-
self, God permitted that very nation, which had carried
human wisdom to its greatest height, to be the theatre in
which the most ridiculous and absurd idolatry was acted.
And, on the other side, to display the almighty power of
his grace, he converted the frightful deserts of Egypt into
a terrestrial paradise ; by peopling them, in the time ap-
pointed by his providence, with numberless multitudes of
illustrious hermits, whose fervent piety and rigorous pe-
nance have done so much honour to the Christian reli-
gion. I cannot forbear giving here a famous instance of
it ; and I hope the reader will excuse this kind of di-
gression. .

The great wonder of Lower Egypt, says Abbé Fleury

h Rom. i. 22, 23.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 175

in his Ecclesiastical History,’ was the city of Oxyrinchus,
peopled with monks, both within and without, so that
they were more numerous than its other inhabitants.
The public edifices and idol-temples had been converted
into monasteries, and these likewise were more in num-
ber than the private houses. ‘The monks lodged even
over the gates and in the towers. The people had
twelve churches to assemble in, exclusive of the oratories
belonging to the monasteries. ‘There were twenty thou-
sand virgins, and ten thousand monks in this city, every
part of which echoed night and day with the praises of
God. By order of the magistrates, sentinels were posted
at the gates, to take notice of all strangers and poor who
_ came into the city ; and the inhabitants vied with each
other who should first receive them, in order to have an
opportunity of exercising their hospitality towards them.

Secr. II. THe CEREMONIES OF THE EGYPTIAN
FUNERALS.

I shall now give a concise account of the funeral ce-
remonies of the Egyptians.

The honours which have been paid in all ages and na-
tions to the bodies of the dead, and the religious care
which has always been taken of sepulchres, seem to insi-
nuate a universal persuasion, that bodies were lodged in
sepulchres merely as a deposit or trust.

We have already observed, in our mention of the py-
ramids, with what magnificence sepulchres were built in
Egypt; for, besides that they were erected as so many sa-
cred monuments, destined to transmit to future times the
memory of great princes ; they were likewise considered
as the mansions where the body was to remain during a
long succession of ages: whereas common houses were
called inns,* in which men were to abide only as travel-
lers, and that during the course of a life which was too
short to engage their affections.

When any person in a family died, all the kindred and
friends quitted their usual habits, and put on mourning ;
and abstained from baths, wine, and dainties of every

i'Tom, v. p. 25, 26. kK Diod. I. i. p. 47.

176 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

_ kind. This mourning continued forty or seventy days ;
probably according to the quality of the person.

Bodies were embalmed three different ways.' The
most magnificent was bestowed on persons of distin-
guished rank, and the expense amounted to a talent of
silver, or three thousand French livres.™

Many hands were employed in this ceremony.” Some
drew the brain through the nostrils, by an instrument
made for that purpose. Others emptied the bowels and
intestines, by cutting a hole in the side, with an Ethiopian
stone that was as sharp as arazor; after which the cavi-
ties were filled with perfumes and various odoriferous
drugs. As this evacuation (which was necessarily at-
tended with some dissections) seemed in some measure
cruel and inhuman ; the persons employed fled as soon
as the operation was over, and were pursued with stones
by the standers-by. But those who embalmed the body
were honourably treated. They filled it with myrrh,
cinnamon, and all sorts of spices. After a certain time,
the body was swathed in lawn fillets, which were glued
together with a kind of very thin gum, and then crusted
over with the most exquisite perfumes. By this means,
it is said, that the entire figure of the body, the very li-
neaments of the face, and even the hairs on the lids and
eye-brows, were preserved in their natural perfection.
The body thus embalmed was delivered to the relations,
who shut it up in a kind of open chest, fitted exactly to
the size of the corpse; then they placed it upright against
the wall, either in their sepulchres (if they had any) or in
their houses. ‘These embalmed bodies are what we now
call Mummies, which are still brought from Egypt, and
are found in the cabinets of the curious. This shews the
care which the Egyptians took of theirdead. Their gra-
titude to their deceased relations was immortal. Chil-
dren, by seeing the bodies of their ancestors thus pre-
served, recalled to mind those virtues for which the pub-
lic had honoured them ; and were excited to a love of
those laws which such excellent persons had left for their
security. We find that part of these ceremonies were

1 Herod. I, ii. c. 85, &c. m About 1377. 10s. sterling.
" Diod, 1. i. p. 81.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. ya 4

performed in the funeral honours paid to Joseph in
ey & ae

I have said that the public recognised the virtues of
deceased persons, because that, before they could be ad-
mitted into the sacred asylum of the tomb, they under-
went a solemn trial. And this circumstance in the Egyp-
tian funerals, is one of the most remarkable to be found
in ancient history. |

It was a consolation among the heathens, to a dying
man to leave a good name behind him ; and they ima-
gined that this is the only human blessing of which death
cannot deprive us. But the Egyptians would not suffer
praises to be bestowed indiscriminately on all deceased
persons. This honour was to be obtained only from the
public voice. The assembly of the judges met on the
other side of a lake, which they crossed in a boat. He
who sat at the helm was called Charon, in the Egyptian
language; and this first gave the hint to Orpheus, who
had been in Egypt and after him, to the other Greeks,
to invent the fiction of Charon’s boat. As soon as a man
was dead, he was brought to his trial. ‘The public ac-
cuser was heard. If he proved that the deceased had led
a bad life, his memory was condemned, and he was de-
prived of burial. ‘The people admired the power of the
laws, which extended even beyond the grave ; and every
one, struck with the disgrace inflicted on thedead person,
was afraid to reflect dishonour on his own memory, and
his family. But if the deceased person was not con-
victed of any crime, he was interred in an honourable
manner.

A still more astonishing circumstance, in this public
inquest upon the dead, was, that the throne itself was no
protection from it. Kings were spared during their lives,
because the public peace was concerned in this forbear-
ance; but their quality did not exempt them from the
judgment passed upon the dead, and even some of them
were deprived of sepulture. This custom was imitated
by the Israelites. We see, in Scripture, that bad kings
were not interred in the monuments of their ancestors.
This practice suggested to princes, that if their majesty
placed them out of the reach of men’s judgment while

VOL. I. | N

178 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

they were alive, they would at last be liable to it, when
death should reduce them to a level with their subjects.
_ When thereforea favourablejudgment was pronounced
on a deceased person, the next thing was to proceed to
the ceremonies of interment. In his panegyric, no men-
tion was made of his birth, because every Egyptian was
deemed noble. No praises were considered as just or
true, but such as related to the personal merit of the de-
ceased. He was applauded for having received an excel-
lent education in his younger years ; and in his more ad-
vanced age, for having cultivated piety towards the gods,
justice towards men, gentleness, modesty, moderation,
and all other virtues which constitute the good man.
Then all the people besought the gods to receive the
deceased into the assembly of the just, and to admit him
as partaker with them of their everlasting felicity.

To conclude this article of the ceremonies of funerals,
it may not be amiss to observe to young pupils, the dif-
ferent manners in which the bodies of the dead were
treated by the ancients. Some, as we observed of the
Egyptians, exposed them to view after they had been
embalmed, and thus preserved them to after-ages ; others,
as the Romans, burnt them on a funeral pile; and others,
again, laid them in the earth.

The care to preserve bodies without lodging them in
tombs, appears injurious to human nature in general, and
to those persons in particular to whom respect is designed
to be shewn by this custom; because it exposes too visi-
bly their wretched state and deformity ; since whatever
care may be taken, spectators see nothing but the melan-
choly and frightful remains of what they once were. The
custom of burning dead bodies has something in it cruel
and barbarous, in destroying so hastily the remains of
persons once dear to us. ‘That of interment is certainly
the most ancient and religious. It restores to the earth
what had been taken from it ; and prepares our belief of
a second restitution of our bodies, from that dust of
which they were at first formed.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 179

-CHAP. III.

Or THE EcypTiAN SOLDIERS AND War.

Tue profession of arms was in great repute among the
Egyptians. After the sacerdotal families, the most illus-
trious, as with us, were those devoted toa military life.
‘They were not only distinguished by honours, but by
ample liberalities. Every soldier was allowed twelve
Aroure ; that is, a piece of arable land very near answer-
ing to half a French acre,° exempt from all tax or tri-
bute. Besides this privilege, each soldier received a
daily allowance of five pounds of bread, two of flesh, and
a quart of wine.’ This allowance was sufficient to sup-
port part of their family. Such an indulgence made
them more affectionate to the person of their prince, and
the interests of their country, and more resolute in the
defence of both; and as Diodorus‘ observes, it was
thought inconsistent with good policy, and even common
sense, to commit the defence of a country to men who
had no interest in its preservation.

Four hundred thousand soldiers were kept in conti-
nual pay ;° all natives of Egypt, and trained up in the ex-
actest discipline. ‘They were inured to the fatigues of
war, by a severe and rigorous education. ‘There is an
art of forming the body as well as the mind. This art,
lost by our sloth, was well known to the ancients, and
especially to the Egyptians. Foot, horse, and chariot-
races, were performed in Egypt with wonderful agility,
and the world could not shew better horsemen than the
Egyptians. The Scripture in several places * speaks ad-
vantageously of their cavalry.

Military laws were easily preserved in Egypt, because

° Twelve Aroure. An Egyptian Aroura was 10,000 square cubits,
equal to three roods, two perches, 55% square feet of our measure.

P The Greek is, oitvov résoapec dovoripec, which some have made to sig-
nify a determinate quantity of wine, or any other liquid : others, regarding
the etymology of the word dpvorijo, have translated it by. haustrum, a
bucket, as Lucretius, lib. v. 51; others by Aaustus, a draught, or sup. He-
rodotus says, this allowance was given only to the two thousand guards,
who attended annually on the kings. Lib. ii. ce. 168.

4 Lib. i. p- 67. r Herod. L. ii. c. 164. 168.
* Cant.i.9. Isa. xxxvi. 9.

N 2

180 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

sons received them from their fathers; the profession of
war, as all others, being transmitted from father to son.
Those who fled in battle, or discovered any signs of
cowardice, were only distinguished by some particular
‘mark of ignominy;' it being thought more advisable to
restrain them by motives of honour, than by the terrors
of punishment. |

But notwithstanding this, I will not pretend to say,
that the Egyptians were a warlike people. _ It is of little
advantage to have regular and well-paid troops; to have
armies exercised in peace, and employed only in mock
fights : it is war alone, and real combats, which form the
soldier. Egypt loved peace, because it loved justice, and
‘maintained soldiers only for its security. Its inhabitants,
content with a country which abounded in all things,
had no ambitious dreams of conquest. ‘The Egyptians
extended their reputation in a very different manner, by
sending colonies into all parts of the world, and with
them laws and politeness. ‘They triumphed by the wis-
dom of their counsels, and the superiority of their know-
ledge ; and this empire of the mind appeared more noble
and glorious to them, than that which is achieved by arms
and conquest. But, nevertheless, Egypt has given birth
to illustrious conquerors, as will be observed hereafter,
when we come to treat of its kings.

CHAP. IV.

Or THEIR ARTS AND SCIENCES.

Tue Egyptians had an inventive genius, but directed it
only to useful projects. Their Mercuries filled Egypt
with wonderful inventions, and left it scarcely ignorant
of any thing which could contribute to accomplish the
mind, or procure ease and happiness. The discoverers
of any useful invention received, both living and dead,
rewards worthy of their profitable labours. It is this
which consecrated the books of their two Mercuries, and
stamped them with a divine authority. The first libra-

t Diod. p. 76.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 181

ries were in Egypt; and the titles they bore inspired an
eager desire to enter them, and dive into the secrets they
contained. ‘They were called the remedy for the diseases
of the soul," and that very justly, because the soul was
there cured of ignorance, the most dangerous, and the
parent of all other maladies.

As their country was level, and the sky always serene _
and unclouded, the Egyptians were among the first who
observed the courses of the planets. ‘These observations.
led them to regulate the year* from the course of the
sun; for, as Diodorus observes, their year, from the most
remote antiquity, was composed of three hundred sixty-
five days and six hours. ‘To adjust the property of their
lands, which were every year covered by the overflowing
of the Nile, they were obliged to have recourse to sur-
veys : and this first taught them geometry. They were
great observers of nature, which, in a climate so serene,
and under so intense a sun, was vigorous and fruitful.

By this study and application they invented or im-
proved the science of physic. The sick were not aban-
doned to the arbitrary will and caprice of the physician.
He was obliged to follow fixed rules, which were the ob-
servations of old and experienced practitioners, and writ-
ten in the sacred books. While these rules were observed,
the physician was not answerable for the success ; other-
wise, a miscarriage cost him his life. ‘This law checked,
indeed, the temerity of empirics ; but then it might pre-
vent new discoveries, and keep the art from attaining to
its just perfection. Every physician, if Herodotus’ may
be credited, confined his practice to the cure of one dis-
ease only; one was for the eyes, another for the teeth,
and so on, ’ |

"« Wuyiic tarpetoy

x It will not seem surprising that the Egyptians, who were the most an-
cient observers of the celestial motions, should have arrived to this know-
ledge, when ‘it is considered, that the lunar year, made use of by the
Greeks and Romans, though it appears so inconvenient and irregular,
supposed nevertheless a knowledge of the solar year, such as Diodorus Si-
culus ascribes to the Egyptians. It will appear at first sight, by calcula-
ting their intercalations, that those who first divided the year in this man-
ner, were not ignorant, that to three hundred sixty-five days some hours
were to be added, to keep pace with the sun. Their only error lay in

supposition, that only six hours were wanting: whereas an addition of al-
most eleven minutes more was requisite. Y Lib. ii. c. 84,

182 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

What we have said of the pyramids, the labyrinth, and
that infinite number of obelisks, temples, and palaces,
whose precious remains still strike the beholder with ad-
miration, and in which the magnificence of the princes
- “who raised them, the skill of the workmen, the riches of
the ornaments diffused over every part of them, and the
just proportion and beautiful symmetry of the parts, in
which their greatest beauty consisted, seemed to vie with
each other ; works, in many of which the liveliness of the
colours remains to this day, in spite of the rude hand of
time, which commonly deadens or destroys them: all
this, I say, shews the perfection to which architecture,
painting, sculpture, and all other arts, had arrived in
Egypt. |

The Egyptians entertaimed but a mean opinion of
those gymnastic exercises, which did not contribute to
invigorate the body, or improve health;’ as well as of
music,* which they considered as a diversion not only
useless but dangerous, and only fit to enervate the mind.

alate

CHAP: -Y¥.

Or THEIR HusBANDMEN, SHEPHERDS, AND ARTIFICERS.

HusBANDMEN, shepherds, and artificers, formed the
three classes of lower life in Egypt, but were neverthe-
less had in very great esteem, particularly husbandmen
and shepherds.” ‘The body politic requires a superiority
and subordination of its several members ; for as, in the
natural body, the eye may be said to hold the first rank,
yet its lustre does not dart contempt upon the feet, the
hands, or even on those parts which are less honourable.
In like manner, among the Egyptians, the priests, sol-
diers, and scholars, were distinguished by particular ho-
nours ; but all professions, to the meanest, had their share
in the public esteem, because the despising any man,
whose labours, however mean, were useful to the state,
was thought a crime.

* Diod. 1.1. p. 73.

* Thy d& povouriy vopifovow od pdvoy dxonoroy bmdpyev, AA Kai Bda-
Bepay, we dv tkOndivovoay rag rév dvdpiy Wuydg. ” Diod, 1. i. p. 67, 68.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 183

A better. reason than the foregoing, might have in-
spired them at the first with these sentiments of equity
and moderation, which they so long preserved. As they
all descended from Cham,° their common father, the me-
-mory of their still recent origin occurrmg to the minds
of all in those first ages, established among them a kind
of equality, and stamped, in their opinion, a nobility on
every person derived from the common stock. Indeed,
the difference of conditions, and the contempt with which
persons of the lowest rank are treated, are owing merely
to the distance from the cammon root; which makes us
forget that the meanest plebeian, when his descent is
traced back to the source, is equally noble with those of
the most elevated rank and titles.

Be that as it will, no profession in Egypt was consi-
dered as grovelling or sordid. By this means arts were
raised to their highest perfection. ‘The honour which
cherished them mixed with every thought and care for
their improvement. Every man had his way of life as-
signed him by the laws, and it was perpetuated from fa-
ther to son. ‘Two professions at one time, or a change
of that which a man was born to, were never allowed.
By this means, men became more able and expert in em-
ployments which they had always exercised from their
infancy ; and every man adding his own experience to that
of his ancestors, was more capable of attaining perfection
in his particular art. Besides, this wholesome institu-
tion, which had been established anciently throughout
Egypt, extinguished all irregular ambition; and taught
every man to sit down contented with his condition,
without aspiring to one more elevated, from interest,
vain-glory, or levity.

From this source flowed numberless inventions for the
improvement of all the arts, and for rendering life more
commodious, and trade more easy. I once could not
believe that Diodorus! was in earnest, in what he relates
concerning the Egyptian industry, vz. that this people
had found out a way, by an artificial fecundity, to hatch
eggs without the sitting of the hen ; but all modern tra-
vellers declare it to be a fact, which certainly is worthy

¢ Or Ham, 1 Diod. |, i. p. 67.

184 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

our investigation, and is said to be practised also in Eu-
rope. Their relations inform us, that the Egyptians
stow eggs in ovens, which are heated to such a tempera-
ment, and with such just proportion to the natural warmth
of the hen, that the chickens produced by these means
are as strong as those which are hatched the natural way.
The season of the year proper-for this operation is, from
the end of December to the end of April; the heat in
Egypt being too violent in the other months. During
these four months, upwards of three hundred thousand
eggs are laid in these ovens, which, though they are not

all successful, nevertheless produce vast numbers of fowls
_ at an easy rate. The art lies in giving the ovens a due de-
gree of heat, which must not exceed a fixed proportion.
About ten days are bestowed in heating these ovens, and
very near as much time in hatching theeggs. Itis very
entertaining, say these travellers, to observe the hatching
of these chickens, some of which shew at first nothing
but their heads, others but half their bodies, and others
again come quite out of the egg: these last, the moment
they are hatched, make their way over the unhatched
eggs, and form a diverting spectacle. Corneille le Bruyn,
in his Travels,° has collected the observations of other tra-
vellers on this subject. Pliny‘ likewise mentions it; but
it appears from him, that the Egyptians, anciently, em-
ployed warm dung, not ovens, to hatch eggs.

I have said, that husbandmen particularly, and those
who took care of flocks, were in great esteem in Egypt,
some parts of it excepted, where the latter were not suf-
fered. It was, indeed, to these two professions that
Egypt owed its riches and plenty. It is astonishing to
reflect what advantages the Egyptians, by their art and
labour, drew from a country of no great extent, but whose
soil was made wonderfully fruitful by the inundations of
the Nile, and the laborious industry of the inhabitants.

It will be always so with every kingdom, whose go-
vernors direct all their actions to the public welfare. The

© Tom. ii. p. 64. f Lib. x. c. 54.

& Swineherds, in particular, had a general ill name throughout Egypt,

as they had the care of soimpure an animal. Herodotus (I. ii. c. 47.) tells

us, that they were not permitted to enter the Egyptian temples, nor
“would any. man give them his daughter in marriage.

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 185

culture of lands, and the breeding of cattle, will be an
inexhaustible fund of wealth in all countries, where, as
in Egypt, these profitable callings are supported and
encouraged by maxims of state and policy: and we may
consider it as a misfortune, that they are at present fallen
into so general a disesteem; though it is from them that
the most elevated ranks (as we esteem them) are fur-
nished, not only with the necessaries, but even the luxu-
ries, of life. Hor, says Abbé Fleury, in his admirable
work, Of the Manners of the Israelites, where the sub-
ject I am upon is thoroughly examined, it is the peasant
who feeds the citizen, the magistrate, the gentleman, the
ecclesiastic : and whatever artifice and craft may be used
to convert money into commodities, and these back again
into money ; yet all must ultimately be owned to be re-
ceived from the products of the earth, and the animals
which it sustains and nourishes. Nevertheless, when we
compare men’s different stations of life together, we give
the lowest place to the husbandman: and with many peo-
ple a wealthy citizen, enervated with sloth, useless to the
public, and void of all merit, has the preference, merely
because he has more money, and lives a more easy and de-
lightful life.

But let us imagine to ourselves a country where so great
a difference is not made between the several conditions;
where the life of a nobleman is not made to consist in idle-
ness and doing nothing, but in a careful preservation of
his liberty; that is, in a due suljection to the laws and the
constitution ; by a man’s subsisting upon his estate with-
out a dependance on any one, and being contented to enjoy
a little with liberty, rather than a great deal at the price
of mean and base compliances: a country, whose sloth,
effeminacy, and the ignorance of things necessary for life,
are held in just contempt; and where pleasure ts less va-
lued than health and bodily strength: in such a country,
it will be much more for a man’s reputation to plough, and
heen flocks, than to waste all his hours in sauntering from
place to place, in gaming and expensive diversions.

But we need not have recourse to Plato’s common-
wealth, for instances of men who have led these useful
lives, It was thus that the greatest part of mankind

186 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

lived during near four thousand years; and that not only
the Israelites, but the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the
Romans, that is to say, nations the most civilized, and
most renowned for arms and wisdom. ‘They all incul-
cate the regard which ought to be paid to agriculture,
and the breeding of cattle: one of which (without saying
any thing of hemp and flax, so necessary for our clothing)
supplies us by corn, fruits, and pulse, with not only a
plentiful but delicious nourishment; and the other, be-
sides its supply of exquisite meats to cover our tables,
almost alone gives life to manufactures and trade, by the
skins and stuffs it furnishes.

Princes are commonly desirous, and their interest cer-
tainly requires it, that the peasant who, in a literal sense,
sustains the heat and burden of the day, and pays so great
a proportion of the national taxes, should meet with fa-
vour and encouragement. But the kind and good in-
tentions of princes are too often defeated by the insatiable
and merciless avarice of those who are appointed to col-
lect their revenues. History has transmitted to usa fine
saying of Tiberius on this head:—A prefect of Egypt
having augmented the annual tribute of the province,
and, doubtless, with the view of making his court to the
emperor, remitted to him a sum much larger than was
customary; that prince, who, in the beginning of his
reign, thought, or at least spoke justly, answered, That
it was his design not to flay, but to shear his sheep.”

CHAP, V1.

Or THE FERTILITY OF EeypPrT.

Unper this head, I shall treat only of some plants
peculiar to Egypt, and of the abundance of corn which
it produced. |

Papyrus. This is a plant from the root of which shoot
out a great many triangular stalks, to the height of six
or seven cubits. ‘The ancients’ writ at first upon palm-

\ Xiphilin. in apophthegm. Tib. Ces.

KsipeoOai pov ra mp6Bara, dN’ obk drrokipetOar BovrAopa.
aia i Phin. 1, xiii. Ca. 11. A

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 187

leaves; next on the inside of the bark of trees, from
whence the word Jiber, or book, is derived; after that,
upon tables covered over with wax, on which the cha-
racters were impressed with an instrument called Stylus,
sharp-pointed at one end to write with, and flat at the
other, to efface what had been written; which gave oc-
casion to the following expression of Horace: :
- Szpe stylum vertas, iterum que digna legi sint

Scripturus: Sat. lib. i. x. ver. 72.

Oft turn your style, if you desire to write

Things that will bear a second reading—
The meaning of which is, that a good performance is not

to be expected without many erasures and corrections.

- At last the use of paper“ was introduced, and this was
made of the bark of Papyrus, divided into thin flakes or
leaves, which were very proper for writing: and this Pa-
pyrus was likewise called Byblus:

Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere byblos

Noverat.— Lucan.

Memphis as yet-knew not to form in leaves

The watry byblos.

Pliny calls it a wonderful imvention,' so useful to life,
that it preserves the memory of great actions, and im-
mortalizes those who achieved them. Varro ascribes this
invention to Alexander the Great, when he built Alex-
andria; but he had only the merit of making paper more
common, for the invention was of much greater anti-
quity. The same Pliny adds, that Eumenes, king of
Pergamus, substituted parchment instead of paper; in
emulation of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, whose library he
was ambitious to excel by this invention, which had the
advantage over paper. Parchment is the skin of a sheep,
dressed and made fit to write upon. It was called Perga-
menum from Pergamus, whose kings had the honour
of the invention. All the ancient manuscripts are either
upon parchment or vellum, which is calf-skin, and a
great deal finer than the common parchment. Itis very

k The Papyrus was divided into thin flakes (into which it naturally
patted), which being laid ona table, and moistened with the glutinous
waters of the Nile, were afterwards pressed together, and dried in the sun.

- 1 Posted promiscué patuit usus rei, qué constat immortalitas hominum.
--. Chartz usu maximé humanitas constat in memoria.

188 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

curious to see white fine paper wrought out of filthy rags
picked up in the streets. The plant Papyrus was use-
ful likewise for sails, tackling, clothes, coverlets,™ &c.

Linum. Flax is a plant whose bark, full of fibres or
strings, is useful in making fine linen. ‘The method of
making this linen in Egypt was wonderful, and carried
to such perfection, that the threads which were drawn
out of them, were almost too small for the observation
of the sharpest eye. Priests were always habited in linen,
and never in woollen ; and all persons of distinction ge-
nerally wore linen-clothes. This flax formed a consi-
derable branch of the Egyptian trade, and great quan-
tities of it were exported into foreign countries. The
manufacture of flax employed a great number of hands
in Egypt, especially of the women, as appears from that
passage of Isaiah, in which the prophet menaces Egypt
with a drought of so terrible a nature, that it should in-
terrupt every kind of labour: Moreover, they that work
in fine flax, and they that weave net-works, shall be con-
founded.” We likewise find in Scripture, that one effect
of the plague of hail, called down by Moses upon Egypt,°
was the destruction of all the flax which was then bolled.
This storm was in March.

Byssus. This was another kind of flax? extremely
. fine and delicate, which often received a purple dye. It
was very dear; and none but rich and wealthy persons
could afford to wear it. Pliny, who gives the first place
to the Asbeston or Asbestinum (Zz. e. the incombustible
flax), places the Byssus in the next rank; and says, that
the dress and ornaments of the ladies were made of it.’
It appears from the Holy Scriptures, that it was chiefly
from Egypt that cloth made of this fine flax was brought :
Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt."

™ Phin. 1. xix. ¢. 1. Bisa Sino, ° Exod. ix. 31.
® Plin. lib. xix. c. 1.

9 Proximus Byssino mulierum maximeé deliciis genito: inventum jam
est etiam [scilicet Linum] quod ignibus non absumetur, vivum id vocant,
_ ardentesque in focis conviviorum ex eo vidimus mappas, sordibus exustis
splendescentes igni magis, quam possent aquis: i.e. A flax is now found
out, which is proof against the violence of fire; itis called living flax; and
we have seen table napkins of it glowing in the fires of our dining-rooms ;
and receiving a lustre and a cleanliness from flames, which no water could
have given it. ¥ Ezek. xxvii. 7,

‘OF THE EGYPTIANS. 189

- T take no notice of the Lotus, a very common plant,
and in great request among the Egyptians, of whose
berries in former times they made bread. ‘There was
- another Lotus in Africa, which gave its name to the Lo-
tophagi, or Lotus eaters; because they lived upon the
fruit of this tree, which had so delicious a taste, if Homer
may be credited, that it made those who ate it forget all
the sweets of their native country, as Ulysses found to
his cost in his return from Troy.

In general, it may be said, that the Egyptian pulse and
fruits were excellent ; and might, as Pliny observes,‘ have
sufficed singly for the nourishment of the inhabitants ;
such was their excellent quality, and so great their plenty.
And indeed working men lived then almost upon nothin
else, as appears from those who were employed in build-
ing the pyramids.

Besides these rural riches, the Nile, from its fish, and
the fatness, it gave to the soil for the feeding of cattle,
furnished the tables of the Egyptians with the most ex-
quisite fish of every kind, and the most succulent flesh.
This it was which made the Israelites so deeply regret
the loss of Egypt, when they found themselves in the
wilderness. Who, say they, in a plaintive, and at the
same time seditious tone, shall give us flesh to eat ?
We remember the flesh which we did eat in Egypt freely ;
the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the
onions, and the garlick." We sat by the flesh-pots, and.
we did eat bread to the full.”

But the great and matchless wealth of Egypt arose from
its corn, which, even in an almost universal famine, en-
abled it to support all the neighbouring nations, as it par-
ticularly did under Joseph’s administration. In_ later
ages it was the resource and mostcertain granary of Rome
and Constantinople. It is a well-known story, how a
calumny raised against St. Athanasius, viz. of his having
threatened to prevent in future the importation of corn

® Tov & Soric AwToto Payor pedendéa KapToy,

Oi ér’ arayyeina WAAL HOErEV, ode vieoOar. Odyss. ix. ver. 94, 95.
My 7 Tic AwToto gayGy, vdoroio AAOnrar. ver. 102.
t AEgyptus frugum quidem fertilissima, sed ut propé sola iis carere pos-

sit, tanta est ciborum ex herbis abundantia, Plin. |. xxi. c. 15.
"Numb, xi, 4, 5. < Exod. xvi. 3. .

190 “MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

into Constantinople from Alexandria, incensed the em-
peror Constantine against that holy bishop, because he
knew that his capital-city could not subsist without the
corn which was brought to it from Egypt. The same
reason induced all the emperors of Rome to take so great
a care of Egypt, which they considered as the nursing-
mother of the world’s metropolis.

Nevertheless, the same river, which enabled this pro-
vinceto subsist the two most populous cities in the world,
sometimes reduced even Egypt itself to the most terrible
famine ; and it is astonishing that Joseph’s wise foresight,
which in fruitful years had made provision for seasons of
sterility, should not have taught these so-much-boasted
politicians, to adopt similar precautions against thechanges
and inconstancy of the Nile. Pliny, in his panegyric
upon Trajan, paints with wonderful strength the ex-
tremity to which that country was reduced by a famine
under that prince’s reign, and his generous relief of it.
The reader will not be displeased to read here an extract
of it, in which a greater regard will be had to Pliny’s
thoughts than to his expressions.

The Egyptians, says Pliny, who gloried that they
needed neither rain nor sun to produce their corn, and
who believed they might confidently contest the prize of
plenty with the most fruitful countries of the world,
were condemned to an unexpected drought, and a fatal
sterility, from the greatest part of their territories being
deserted and left unwatered by the Nile, whose inun-
dation is the source and sure standard of their abun-
dance. ‘They then implored that assistance from their
prince, which they had been accustomed to expect only
from their river.’ The delay of their relief was no longer
than that which employed a courier to bring the melan-
choly news to Rome; and one would have imagined, that
this misfortune had befallen them only to display, with
greater lustre, the generosity and goodness of Cesar. It
was an ancient and general opinion,’ that our city could

_Y Inundatione, id est, ubertate regio fraudata, sic opem Cesaris invoca-
vit, ut solet amnem suum.

* Percrebuerat antiquitds urbem nostram nisiopibus Aigypti ali susten-

tarique non posse. Superbiebat ventosa et insolens natio, quod victorem

OF THE EGYPTIANS. 191

not subsist without provisions drawn from Egypt. “This
vain and proud nation boasted, that, though conquered,
they nevertheless fed their conquerors; that by means
of their river, either abundance or scarcity were entirely
in their own disposal. - But we now have returned the
Nile his own harvests, and given him back the provisions
he sent us. Let the Egyptians be then convinced, by
their own experience, that they are not necessary to us,
and are only our vassals. Let them know that their
ships do not so much bring us the provision we stand in
need of, as the tribute which they owe us. And let them
never forget, that we can do without them, but that they
can never do without us. This most fruitful province
had been ruined, had it not worn the Roman chains.
The Egyptians, in their sovereign, found a deliverer, and
‘a father. Astonished at the sight of their granaries, filled
without any labour of their own, they were at a loss to
know to whom they owed this foreign and gratuitous
plenty. The famine of a people, though at such a distance
from us, yet so speedily stopped, served only to let them
feel the advantage of living under ourempire. The Nile
may, in other times, have diffused more plenty on Egypt,
but never more: glory upon us.* May Heaven, content
with this proof of the people’s patience and the prince’s
generosity, restore for ever back to Egypt its ancient
fertility !

Pliny’s reproach to the Egyptians, for their vain and
foolish pride with regard to the inundations of the Nile,
points out one of their most peculiar characteristics, and
recalls to my mind a fine passage of Ezekiel, where God
thus speaks to Pharaoh, one of their kings: Behold, Jam
against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon
that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My.
river is my own, and I have made it for myself.” God
perceived an insupportable pride in the heart of this
prince: a sense of security and confidence in the inun-
dations of the Nile, mdependent entirely on the in-
fluences of heaven ; as though the happy effects of this

quidem populum pasceret tamen, quddque in suo flumine, in suis manibus,
vel abundantia nostra vel fames esset. Refudimus Nilo suas copias. Re-
cepit frumenta que miserat, deportatasque messes revexit.
*Nilus Aigypto quidem szpe, sed gloriz nostra nunquam largior iluxit.
> Ezek. xxix. 3. 9.

192 HISTORY OF THE

inundation had been owing to nothing but his own care
and labour, or those of his predecessors: The river is
mine, and I have made it.

Before I conclude this second part, which treats of the
manners of the Egyptians, I think it incumbent on me
to bespeak the attention of my readers to different pas-
sages scattered in the history of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph,
and Moses, which confirm and illustrate part of what we
meet with in profane authors upon this subject. They
will there observe the perfect polity which reigned in
Egypt, both in the court and the rest of the kingdom ;
the vigilance of the prince, who was informed of all trans-
actions, had a regular council, a chosen number of mi-
nisters, armies ever well maintained and disciplined, both
of horse, foot, and armed chariots; intendants in all the
provinces ; overseers or guardians of the public granaries ;
wise and exact dispensers of the corn lodged inthem; a
court composed of great officers of the crown, a captain
of his guards, a chief cup-bearer, a master of his pantry ;
in a word, all things that compose a prince’s household,
and constitute a magnificent court. But above all these,
the readers will admire the fear in which the threatenings
of God were held,° the inspector of all actions, and the
judge of kings themselves; and the horror the Egyptians
had for adultery, which was acknowledged to be a crime
of so heinous a nature, that it alone was capable of bring-
ing destruction on a nation.

Jira aed ited i
THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF EGYPT.

No part of ancient history is more obscure or uncertain,
than that of the first kings of Egypt. This proud nation,
fondly conceited of its antiquity and nobility, thought it
glorious to lose itself in an abyss of infinite ages, which
seemed to carry its pretensions backward to eternity.
According to its own historians,° first gods, and after-
wards demi-gods or heroes, governed it successively,
through a series of more than twenty thousand years.

© Gen. xii. 10—20. 4 Diod. 1.1. p. 41.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 193

But the absurdity of this vain and fabulous claim 1s easily
discovered.

To gods and demi-gods, men succeeded as rulers or
kings in Egypt, of whom Manetho has left us thirty
dynasties or principalities. This Manetho was an Egyp-
tian high priest, and keeper of the sacred archives of
Egypt, and had been instructed in the Grecian learning:
he wrote a history of Egypt, which he pretended to have
extracted from the writings of Mercurius and other an-
cient memoirs, preserved in the archives of the Egyptian
temples. He drew up this history under the reign, and
at the command, of Ptolemy Philadelphus. -If his thirty
dynasties are allowed to be successive, they make up a
series of time of more than five thousand three hundred
years, to the reign of Alexander the Great; but this is a
manifest forgery. Besides, we find in Eratosthenes,*
who was invited to Alexandria by Ptolemy Euergetes, a
catalogue of thirty-eight kings of Thebes, all different
from those of Manetho. The clearing up of these dif-
ficulties has put the learned to a great deal of trouble and
labour. The most effectual way to reconcile such con-
tradictions, is to suppose, with almost all the modern
writers upon this subject, that the kings of these differ-
ent dynasties did not reign successively after one another,
but many of them at the same time, and in different
countries of Egypt. ‘There were in Egypt four princi-
pal dynasties; that of Thebes, of Thin, of Memphis, and
of Tanis. I shall not here give my readers a list of the
kings who have reigned in Egypt, of most of whom we
have only the names transmitted tous. I shall only take
notice of what seems to me most proper, to give youth the
necessary light into this part of history, for whose sake
principally I engaged in this undertaking; and I shall
confine myself chiefly to the memoirs left us by Hero-
dotus and Diodorus Siculus, concerning the Egyptian
kings, without even scrupulously preserving the exactness
of succession, at least in the early part of the monarchy,
which is very obscure; and without pretending to recon-
cile these two historians. Their design, especially that
of Herodotus, was not to lay before us an exact series

e An historian of Cyrene.
VOR VT, O

194 HISTORY OF THE

of the kings of Egypt, but only to pomt out those princes
whose history appeared to them most important and in-
structive. I shall follow the sane plan, and hope to be
forgiven, for not having involved either myself or my
readers in a labyrinth of almost inextricable difficulties,
from which the most able can scarce disengage them-
selves, when they pretend to follow the series of history,
and reduce it to fixed and certain dates. ‘The curious
may consult the learned pieces,’ in which this subject is
treated in all its extent. |

I am to promise, that Herodotus, upon the credit of
the Egyptian priests whom he had consulted, gives us a
great number of oracles and singular incidents, all which,
though he relates them as so many facts, the judicious
reader will easily discover to be what they really are; I
mean, fictions.

The ancient history of Egypt comprehends 2158
years, and is naturally divided into three periods.

The first begins with the establishment of the Egyp-
tian monarchy, by Menes, or Misraim, the son of Cham,®*
in the year of the world 1816; and ends with the de-
struction of that monarchy by Cambyses, king of Persia,
in the year of the world 3479. ‘This first period con-
tains 1063 years.

The second period is intermixed with the Persian and
Grecian history, and extends to the death of Alexander
the Great, which happened in the year 3681, and con-
sequently includes 202 years.

The third period is that in which a new monarchy
was formed in Egypt by the Lagide, or Ptolemies, de-
seendants from Lagus; to the death of Cleopatra, the
last queen of Egypt, in 3974 ; and this last comprehends
203 years.

I shall now treat only of the first period, reserving the
two others for the zeras to which they belong.

The Kings of Egypt.
A.M.1sic. . Menges. Historians are unanimously
Ant. J.C. 2188. agreed, that Menes was the first king of

Sir John Marsham’s Canon Chronic. ; Father Pezron; the Dissertations
of F. Tournemine, and Abbé Sevin, &c. ¢ Or Ham.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 195

Egypt. It is pretended, and not without foundation,
that he is the same with Misraim, the son of Cham.

Cham was the second son of Noah. When the fa-
mily of the latter, after the extravagant attempt of build-
ing the tower of Babel, dispersed themselves into differ-
ent countries, Cham retired to Africa; and it doubtless
was he who afterwards was worshipped as a god, under
the name of Jupiter Ammon. He had four children,
Chus,? Misraim, Phut, and Canaan. Chus settled in
Ethiopia; Misraim in Egypt, which generally is called
in Scripture after his name, and by that of Cham’ his
father; Phut took possession of that part of Africa, which
lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan, of the country
which afterwards bore his name. ‘The Canaanites are
certainly the same people who are called almost always
Phoenicians by the Greeks, of which foreign name no
reason can be given, any more than of the oblivion of
the true one.

I return to Misraim. He is allowed‘ to be the same
with Menes, whom all historians declare to be the first
king of Egypt, the institutor of the worship of the gods,
and of the ceremonies of the sacrifices.

Busiris, some ages after him, built the famous city of
Thebes, and made it the seat of his empire. We have
elsewhere taken notice of the wealth and magnificence
of this city. This prince is not to be confounded with
Busiris, so infamous for his cruelties.

Osymanpyas. Diodorus' gives a very particular
description of many magnificent edifices, raised by this
king; one of which was adorned with sculptures and
paintings of exquisite beauty, representing his expedition
against the Bactrians, a people of Asia, whom he had
invaded with four hundred thousand foot and twenty
thousand horse, In another part of the edifice was ex-
hibited an assembly of the judges, whose president wore,
on his breast, a picture of Truth, with her eyes shut, and

; h Or Cush, Gen. x. 6. _

iThe footsteps of its old name (Mesraim) remain to this day among the
Arabians, who call it Mesre; by the testimony of Plutarch it was called
Xnpia, Chemia, by an easy corruption of Chomia, and this for Cham, or
Ham.

k Herod, |. ii. p. 99. Diod.1. i. p. 42. ' Diod. I, i. pt 44, 45.

o 2

196 HISTORY OF THE

himself was surrounded with books; an emphatic em-
blem, denoting that judges ought to be perfectly versed
in the laws, and impartial in the administration of them.

The king likewise was painted here, offering to the
gods gold and silver, which he drew every year from the
mines of Egypt, amounting to the sum of sixteen
millions.”

Not far from hence was seen a magnificent library,
the oldest mentioned in history. Its title or inscription
on the front was, The office, or treasury, of remedies for
the diseases of the soul. Near it were placed statues, re~
presenting all the Egyptian gods, to each of whom the
king made suitable offerings : by which he seemed to be
desirous of informing posterity that his life and reign
had been crowned with piety to the gods, and justice to
men.

His mausoleum displayed uncommon magnificence :
it was encompassed with a circle of gold, -a cubit in
breadth, and 365 cubits in circumference ; each of which
shewed the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and the
rest of the planets. For, so early as this king’s reign,
the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, each
consisting of thirty days; to which they added every
year five days and six hours. The spectator did not
know which to admire most in this stately monument,
whether the richness of its materials, or the genius and
industry of the artists.

Ucnorevs, one of the successors of Osymandyas,
built the city of Memphis.° This city was 150 furlongs,
or more than seven leagues in circumference, and stood
at the point of the Delta, in that part where the Nile di-
vides itself into several branches, or streams. Southward
from the city, he raised a lofty mole. On the right and
left he dug very deep moats to receive the river. ‘These
were faced with stone, and raised, near the city, by
strong causeys; the whole designed to secure the city
from the inundations of the Nile, and the incursions of
the enemy. A city so advantageously situated, and so
strongly fortified, that it was almost the key of the Nile,

_ ™ ‘Three thousand two hundred myriads of mine. - |
” See Sir Isaac Newton’s Chronology, p. 30. | ° Diod. p. 46.

RINGS: OF EGY? T. ‘197

and, by this means, commanded the whole country, be-
came soon the usual residence of the Egyptian kings.
It kept possession of this honour, till Alexandria was built
by Alexander the Great. 3
Maris. This king made. the famous lake which
went by his name, and whereof mention has been al-
ready made. :
| Egypt had long been governed by its
yee ee er native princes, when strangers, called
Shepherd-kings (Hycsos in the Egyptian
language), from Arabia or Phoenicia, invaded and seized
a great part of Lower Egypt, and Memphis itself; but
Upper Egypt remained unconquered, and the kingdom
of Thebes existed till the reign of Sesostris. These fo-
reign princes governed about 260 years.
Under one of these princes, called
riey hata Pharaoh in Scripture’ (a name common to |
all the kings of Egypt), Abraham arrived
there with his wife Sarah, who was exposed to great
hazard, on account of her. exquisite beauty, which
reaching the prince’s ear, she was by him taken from
Abraham, upon the supposition that she was not his wife,
but only his sister.
TuHetumosis, or Amosis, having ex-
Aapar a sye pelled the Shepherd-kings, reigned in
Lower Egypt.
peter. Long after his reign, Joseph was brought
Ant. J.C. 172g, 2 Slave into Egypt, by some Ishmaelitish
merchants; sold to Potiphar; and by a
series of wonderful events, enjoyed the supreme autho-
rity, by his being raised to the chief employment of the
kingdom. I shall pass over his history, as it is so uni-
versally known. But I must take notice of a remark of
Justin (the epitomizer of ‘Trogus Pompeius,’ an excel-
lent historian of the Augustan age), viz. that Joseph,
the youngest of Jacob’s children, whom his brethren,
through envy, had sold to foreign merchants, being
endowed from heaven with the interpretation of dreams,’

1 Gen. xii. 10—20. * Lib. Xxxvi. c. 2.
. * Justin ascribes this gift of heaven to Joseph’s skill in magical arts:
Cum magicas ibi artes (Egypti sc.) solerti ingenio percepisset, &e.

198 HISTORY OF THE

and a knowledge of futurity, preserved, by his uncom-
mon prudence, Egypt from the famine with which it
was menaced, and was extremely caressed by the king.
Jacob also went into Egypt with his
ee rats whole family, which met with the kind-
est treatment from the Egyptians, whilst
Joseph’s important services were fresh in their memories.
But after his death, say the Scriptures, there arose up
a new hing, which knew not Joseph.*
RAMESES-MIAMUM, according to arch-
bishop Usher, was the name of this king,
who is called Pharaoh in Scripture. He
reigned sixty-six years, and oppressed the Israelites in a
most grievous manner. He set over them task-masters,
to affiict them with their burdens, and they built for Pha-
raoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses*—and the
Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with
rigour ; and they made their lives bitter with hard lbond-
age, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service
in the field; all their service wherein they made them
serve, was with rigour.” This king had two sons, Ame-
nophis and Busiris.
| AMENOPHIS, the eldest, succeeded him.
Ty He was the Pharaoh, under whose reign
the Israelites departed out of Egypt, and
was drowned in passing the Red Sea.
- Father Tournemine makes Sesostris,
Pisa eee of whom we shall speak immediately, the
haraoh who raised the persecution
against the Israelites, and oppressed them with the most
painful toils. This is exactly agreeable to the account
given, by Diodorus, of this prince, who employed in his
Egyptian works only foreigners; so that we may place
the memorable event of the passage of the Red Sea,
under his son Pheron;’ and the characteristic of im-
piety ascribed to him by Herodotus, greatly strengthens

A.M. 2427.
Ant. J. C. 1577.

Exod. i. 8.

" Feb. urbes thesaurorum. UXX. urbes munitas. ‘These cities avere
appointed to preserve, as in a storehouse, the corn, oil, and other pro-
ducis of Egypt. Vatab. * Exod. i. 11. 18, 14.

Y This name bears a great resemblance to Pharaoh, which was com-
mon to the Egyptian kings.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 199

the probability of this conjecture. The plan I have
proposed to follow in this history, excuses me from
entering into chronological discussions.

Diodorus,’ speaking of the Red Sea, has made one
remark very worthy our observation; A tradition (says
that historian) has been transmitted through the whole
nation, from father to son, for many ages, that once an
extraordinary ebb dried up the sea, so that its bottom
was seen; and that a violent flow immediately after
brought back the waters to their former channel.—It is
evident, that the miraculous passage of Moses over the
Red Sea is here hinted at; and I make this remark,
purposely to admonish young students, not to slip over
in their perusal of authors, these precious remains of
antiquity; especially when they bear, like this passage,
any relating to religion.

Archbishop Usher says, that Amenophis left two
sons, one called Sesothis, or Sesostris, and the other
Armais. ‘The Greeks call him Belus, and his two sons
Egyptus and Danaus.

SESOSTRIS* was not only one of the most powerful
kings of Egypt, but one of the greatest conquerors that
antiquity boasts of.

His father, whether by inspiration, caprice, or, as the
Egyptians say, by the authority of an oracle, formed a
design of making his son a conqueror. This he set
about after the Egyptian manner, that is, in a great and
noble way. All the male children, born the same day
with Sesostris, were, by the king’s order, brought to
court. Here they were educated as if they had been
his own children, with the same care bestowed on Se-
sostris, with whom they were brought up. He could
not possibly have given him more faithful ministers, nor
officers who more zealously desired the success of his
arms. The chief part of their education was, the inuring
thera, from their infancy, to a hard and laborious life,
in order that they might one day be capable of sustain-
ing with ease the toils of war. ‘hey were never suffered
to eat, till they had run, on foot or horseback, a con-
siderable race. Hunting was their most common exercise.

2 Lib. iii. p. 74. * Herod. I. ii. cap. 102.110. Diod. 1. i. p. 48. 54.

A

200 HISTORY OF THE

Elian remarks, that Sesostris was taught by Mercury,
who instructed- him in politics, and the art of govern-
ment. This Mercury is he whom the Greeks called
Trismegistus, 7. e. thrice great. Egypt, his native
country, owes to him the invention of almost every art.
The two books, which go under his name, bear such
evident characters of novelty, that the forgery is no
longer doubted. There was another Mercury, who
also was very famous amongst the Egyptians for his
rare knowledge; and of much greater antiquity than he
of whom we have been speaking. Jamblicus, a priest
of Egypt, affirms, that it was customary with the Egyp-
tians to affix the name of Hermes, or Mercury, to all the
new books or inventions that were offered to the public.

When Sesostris was more advanced in years, his
father sent him against the Arabians, in order to acquire
military knowledge. Here the young prince learned
to bear hunger and thirst; and subdued a nation which
till then had never been conquered. The youths edu-
cated with him attended him in all his campaigns.

Accustomed by this conquest to martial toils, he was
next sent by his father to try his fortune westward. He
invaded Libya, and subdued the greatest part of that
vast country.

Sresostris. During this expedition
anew @ ioo1, his father died, and left him capable of
attempting the greatest enterprises. He
formed no less a design than that of the conquest of the
world. But before he left his kingdom, he provided
for his domestic security, in winning the hearts of his
subjects by his generosity, justice, and a popular and
obliging behaviour. He was no less studious to gain
the affection of his officers and soldiers, whom he wished
to be ever ready to share the last drop of their blood in
his service; persuaded that his enterprises would all be
unsuccessful, unless his army should be attached to his
person by all the ties of esteem, affection, and interest.
He divided the country into thirty-six governments
(called Nomi), and bestowed them on persons of merit,
and the most approved fidelity.

b Ta vonpara éxpovowOijvat, lib. xii. c. 4.

KINGS OF EGY PT, 201

In the mean time he made the requisite preparations,
levied forces, and headed them with officers of the great-
est bravery and reputation, and these were taken chiefly
from among the youths who had been educated with
him. He had seventeen hundred of these officers, who
were all capable of inspiring his troops with resolution,
a love of discipline, and a zeal for the service of their
prince. His army consisted of six hundred thousand
foot, and twenty-four thousand horse, besides twenty-
seven thousand armed chariots.

He began his expedition by invading Ethiopia, si-
tuated on the south of Egypt. He made it tributary;
and obliged the nations of it to furnish him annually
with a certain quantity of ebony, ivory, and gold.

He had fitted out a fleet of four hundred sail, and
ordering it to advance to the Red Sea, made himself
master of the isles and cities lying on the coasts of that
sea. He himself heading his land army, over-ran and
subdued Asia with amazing rapidity, and advanced far-
ther into India than Hercules, Bacchus, and in after-
times Alexander himself had ever done; for he subdued
the countries beyond the Ganges, and advanced as far
as the Ocean. One may judge from hence how unable
the more neighbouring countries were to resist him.
The Scythians, as far as the river Tanais, as well as
Armenia and Cappadocia, were conquered. He left
a colony in the ancient kingdom of Colchos, situated
to the east of the Black Sea, where the Egyptian
customs and manners have been ever since retained.
Herodotus saw in Asia Minor, from one sea to the
other, monuments of his victories. In several countries
was read the following inscription engraven on pillars:
Sescstris, hing of kings, and lord of lords, subdued this
country by the power of his arms. Such pillars were
found even in Thrace, and his empire extended from the
Ganges to the Danube. In his expeditions, some nations
bravely defended their liberties, and others yielded them
up without making the least resistance. ‘This disparity
was denoted by him in hieroglyphical figures, on the
monuments, erected to perpetuate the remembrance of
his victories, agreeable to the Egyptian practice.

202 HESTORY OF THE

The scarcity of provisions in Thrace stopped the pro-
gress of his conquests, and prevented his advancing
farther in Europe. One remarkable circumstance. is
observed in this conqueror, who never once thought, as
others had done, of preserving his acquisitions; but
contenting himself with the glory of having subdued and
despoiled so many nations; after having made wild
havoc up and down the world for nine years, he con-
fined himself almost within the ancient limits of Egypt,
a few neighbouring provinces excepted; for we do not
find any traces or footsteps of this new empire, either
under himself or his successors. .

He returned therefore Jaden with the spoils of the
vanquished nations, dragging after him a numberless
multitude of captives, and covered with greater glory
than any of his predecessors; that glory I mean which
employs so many tongues and pens in its praise; which
consists in invading a great number of provinces in a
hostile way, and is often productive of numberless cala-
mities. He rewarded his officers and soldiers with a
truly royal magnificence, in proportion to their rank
and merit. He made it both his pleasure and duty, to
put the companions of his victory in such a condition
as might enable them to enjoy, during the remainder of
their days, a calm and easy repose, the just reward of
their past toils.

With regard to himself, for ever careful of his own
reputation, and still more of making his power advan-
tageous to his subjects, he employed the repose which
peace allowed him, in raising works that might con-
tribute more to the enriching of Egypt, than the im-
mortalizing his name; works, in which the art and in-
dustry of the workman were more admired, than the
immense sums which had been expended on them.

A hundred famous temples, raised as so many monu-
ments of gratitude to the tutelar gods of all the cities,
were the first, as well as the most illustrious, testimonies
of his victories; and he took care to publish in the in-
scriptions on them, that these mighty works had been
completed without burdening any of his subjects. He
made it his glory to be tender of them, and to employ

KINGS OF EGYPT. 203

only captives in these monuments of his conquests.
The Scriptures take notice of something like this,
where they speak of the buildings of Solomon.’ But
he prided himself particularly in adorning and enrich-
ing the temple of Vulcan at Pelusium, in acknowledg-
ment of the protection which he fancied that god had
bestowed on him, when, on his return from his expe-
ditions, his brother had a design of destroying him in
that city, with his wife and children, by setting fire to
the apartment where he then lay.

His great work was, the raising, in every part of
Egypt, a considerable number of high banks, or moles,
on which new cities were built, in order that these might
be a security for men and beasts during the inundations
of the Nile.

From Memphis, as far as the sea, he cut, on both
sides of the river, a great number of canals, for the con-
veniency of trade, and the conveying of provisions, and
for the settling an easy correspondence between such
cities as were most distant from one another. Besides
the advantages of trafhc, Egypt was, by these canals,
made inaccessible to the cavalry of its enemies, which
before had so often harassed it by repeated incursions.

He did still more. ‘To secure Egypt from the inroads
of its nearer neighbours, the Syrians and Arabians, he
fortified all the eastern coast from Pelusium to Helio-
polis, that is, for upwards of seven leagues.°

Sesostris might have been considered as one of the
most illustrious and most boasted heroes of antiquity,
had not the lustre of his warlike actions, as well as his
pacific virtues, been tarnished by a thirst of glory, and
a blind fondness for his own grandeur, which made him
forget that he was a man. The kings and chiefs of the
conquered nations came, at stated times, to do homage
to their victor, and pay him the appointed tribute. On
every other occasion, he treated them with sufficient
humanity and generosity. But when he went to the
temple, or entered his capital, he caused these princes

b 9 Ohron. viii. 9: But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no
servants for his work.
© 150 stadia, about 18 miles English.

~ Fs

204 HISTORY OF THE

to be harnessed to his car, four abreast, instead of
horses; and valued himself upon his being thus drawn
by the lords and sovereigns of other nations. What I
am most surprised at, is, that Diodorus should rank this
foolish and inhuman vanity among the most shining ac-
tions of this prince.

Being grown blind in his old age, he died by his own
hands, after having reigned thirty-three years, and left
his kmgdom infinitely rich. His empire, nevertheless,
did not reach beyond the fourth generation. But there
still remained, so low as the reign of Tiberius, magnifi-
cent monuments, which showed the extent of Egypt
under Sesostris,* and the immense tributes which were
paid to it.*

I now go back to some facts which took place in this
period, but which were omitted, in order that I might
not break the thread of the history, and now I shall but
barely mention them.

About the zerain question, the Egyptians
settled themselves in divers parts of the earth.
The colony, which Cecrops led out of Egypt, built twelve
cities, or rather as many towns, of which he composed
the kingdom of Athens.

We observed, that the brother of Sesostris, called by
the Greeks Danaus, had formed a design to murder him,
on his return to Egypt, after his conquests.
But being defeated in his horrid project, he
was obliged to fly. He thereupon retired to Pelopon-
nesus, where he seized upon the kingdom of Argos, which
had been founded about four hundred years before by
Inachus. |

A.M. 2448.

A. M. 2530.

Busiris, brother of Amenophis, so infa-
mous among the ancients for his cruelties,
exercised his tyranny at that time on the banks of the
Nile; and barbarously murdered all foreigners who landed
in his country : this was probably during the absence of
Sesostris.

A. M. 2533.

4 Tacit. Ann. I. ii. c. 60.

_© Legebantur indicta gentibus tributa—haud minis magnifica quam nunc
vt Parthorum aut potentid Romané jubentur—Inscribed on pillars, were
read the tributes imposed on vanquished nations, which were not inferior
to those new paid to the Parthian and Roman powers.

. A. M. 2549.

KINGS OF EGY PT. 205

_ About the same time, Cadmus brought
from Syria into Greece the invention of let-
ters. Some pretend, that these characters or letters were
Egyptian, and that Cadmus himself was a native of Egypt,
and not of Phoenicia; and the Egyptians, who ascribe to
themselves the invention of every art, and boast a greater
antiquity than any other nation, give to their Mercury
the honour of inventing letters. Most of the learned
agree,’ that Cadmus carried the Pheenician or Syrian
letters into Greece, and that those letters were the same
as the Hebraic; the Hebrews, who formed but a small
nation, being comprehended under the general name of
Syrians. Joseph Scaliger, in his notes on the Chronicon
of Eusebius, proves, that the Greek letters, and those of
the Latin alphabet formed from them, derive their original
from the ancient Phoenician letters, which are the same
with the Samaritan, and were used by the Jews before the
Babylonish captivity. Cadmus carried only sixteen let-
ters into Greece,’ eight others being added afterwards.
I return to the history of the Egyptian kings, whom
I shall hereafter rank in the same order as Herodotus has
assigned to them.
PuEron succeeded Sesostris in his king-
A.M. 2647. dom, but not in his glory. Herodotus? re-
Ant. J. C. 1457. J ates but one action of his, which shews
how greatly he had degenerated from the religious sen-
timents of hisfather. In an extraordinary inundation of
the Nile, which exceeded eighteen cubits, this prince, en-
raged at the wild havoc which was made by it, threw a
javelin at the river, as if he intended thereby to chastise
its insolence ; but was himself immediately punished for
his impiety, if the historian may be credited, with the
loss of sight.

‘ The reader may consult, on this subject, two learned dissertations of
Abbé Renaudot, inserted in the second volume of the History of the Acade-
my of Inscriptions.

8 The sixteen letters brought by Cadmus into Greece, are a, B, y, 6, €, t,
Kk, A, fy v, 0, 7,0, 0,7, v. Palamedes, at the siege of Troy, 2. e. upwards
of two hundred and fifty years lower than Cadmus, added the fonr follow-
ing, £, 0, ¢, x; and Simonides, a long time after, invented the four others,

namely, n, w, 2, w.
es Herod. Lii. ec. 111. Diod. 1. i. p. 54.

206 HISTORY OF THE

‘Proteus. “He was of Memphis,
= ae ae where, in Herodotus’s time, his temple
me" was still standing, in which was a chapel
dedicated to Venus the Stranger. Itis conjectured that
this Venus was Helen. For in the reign of this monarch,
Paris the Trojan, returning home with Helen, whom he
had stolen, was driven by a storm into one of the mouths
of the Nile, called Canopic ; and from thence was con-
ducted to Proteus at Memphis, who reproached him in
the strongest terms for his base perfidy and guilt, in
‘stealing the wife of his host, and with her all the effects
in his house. He added, that the only reason why he did
not punish him with death (as his crime deserved) was,
because the Egyptians were careful not to imbrue their
hands in the blood of strangers: that he would keep
Helen, with all the riches that were brought with her, in
order to restore them to their lawful owner: that as for
himself (Paris), he must either quit his dominions in three
days, cr expect to be treated as an enemy. ‘The king’s
order was obeyed. Paris continued his voyage, and ar-
rived at Troy, whither he was closely pursued by the
Grecian army. ‘The Greeks summoned the ‘Trojans to
surrender Helen, and with her all the treasures of which
her husband had been plundered. ‘The Trojans answered,
that neither Helen, nor her treasures, were in their city.
And indeed, was it at all likely, says Herodotus, that
Priam, who was so wise an old prince, should choose to see
i Herod. I. ii. c. 112. 120.

k T do not think myself obliged to enter here into a discussion, which
would be attended with very perplexing difficulties, should I pretend to
reconcile the series, or succession of the kings, as given by Herodotus,
with the opinion of archbishop Usher. ‘This last supposes, with many
other learned men, that Sesostris is the son of that Egyptian king who was
drowned in the Red Sea, whose reign must consequently have begun in
the year of the world 2513, and continued till the year 2547, since it lasted
thirty-three years. Should we allow fifty years to the reign of Pheron his
son, there would still be an interval of above two hundred years between
Pheron and Proteus, who, according to Herodotus, was the immediate
successor of the former; since Proteus livedat the time ofthe siege of Troy,
which, according to Usher, was taken An. Mun. 2820. I know not whe-
ther his almost total silence on the Egyptian kings after Sesostris, was
owing to his sense of this difficulty. I suppose a long interval to have oc-
curred between Pheron and Proteus: accordingly, Diodorus (lib.i. p. 54.)

fills it up with a great many kings: and the same must be said of some of
the following kings.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 207

his children and country destroyed before his eyes, rather
than give the Greeks the just and reasonable satisfaction
they desired? But it was to no purpose for them to
affirm with an oath that Helen was not in their city ; the
Greeks, being firmly persuaded that they were trifled with,
persisted obstinately in their unbelief: the deity, con-
tinues the same historian, being resolved, that the Trojans,
by the total destruction of their city and empire, should
teach the affrighted world this lesson:' THatr GREAT
CRIMES ARE ATTENDED WITH AS GREAT AND SIGNAL
PUNISHMENTS FROM THE OFFENDED GODS. Menelaus,
on his return from Troy, called at the court of king Pro-
teus, who restored him Helen, with all her treasure.
Herodotus proves, from some passages in Homer, that
the voyage of Paris to Egypt was not unknown to this
oet.

; Ruampsinitus. What is related by Herodotus” con-
cerning the treasury built by this king, who was the
richest of all his predecessors, and his descent into hell,
has so much the air of romance and fiction, as to deserve
no mention here.

Till the reign of this king, there had been some shadow,
at least, of justice and moderation in Egypt ; but in the
two following reigns, violence and cruelty usurped their
place. ‘a

Cueops and CrepHren. ‘These two princes," who
were truly brothers by the similitude of their manners,
seem to have vied with each other which of them should
distinguish himself most, by a barefaced impiety towards
the gods, and a barbarous inhumanity to men. Cheops
reigned fifty years, and his brother Cephren fifty-six
years after him. They kept the temples shut during the
whole time of their long reigns; and forbid the offering
of sacrifices under the severest penalties. On the other
hand, they oppressed their subjects by employing them
in the most grievous and useless works ; and sacrificed
the lives of numberless multitudes of men, merely to
gratify a senseless ambition of immortalizing their names
by edifices of an enormous magnitude, and a boundless

lOc rév peyddoy adicnuaror peyadat etoi kai at Timwpiat Tad THY Dear.

Mj Al Coa 2h 120; " Herod. |. ii. c, 124.128. Diod. 1.1. p, 57.

208 HISTORY OF THE

expense. It is remarkable, that those stately pyramids,
which have so long -been the admiration of the whole
world, were the effect of the irreligion and merciless
cruelty of those princes.

-Mycerinus. He was the son of Cheops,’ but of a
character opposite to that of his father. So far from
walking in his steps, he detested his conduct, and pur-
sued quite different measures. He again opened the
temples of the gods, restored the sacrifices, did all that
lay in his power to comfort his subjects, and make them
forget their past miseries; and believed himself set over
them for no other purpose but to exercise justice, and to
make them taste all the blessings of an equitable and
peaceful administration. He heard their complaints,
dried their tears, alleviated their misery, and thought
himself not so much the master as the father of his peo-
ple. ‘This procured him the love of them all. Egypt
resounded with his praises, and his name commanded
veneration in all places.

One would naturally conclude, that so prudent and
humane a conduct must have drawn down on Mycerinus
the protection of the gods. But it happened far other-
wise. [Elis misfortunes began from the death of a darling
and only daughter, in whom his whole felicity consisted.
He ordered extraordinary honours to be paid to her me-
mory, which were still continued in Herodotus’s time.
This historian informs us, that in the city of Sais, exqui-
site odours were burnt, in the day-time, at the tomb of
this princess; and that during the night a al was kept
constantly burning.

He was told by an oracle, that his reign would con-
tinue but seven years. And as he complained of this to
the gods, and inquired the reason, why so long and
prosperous a reign had been granted to his father and
uncle, who were equally cruel andimpious, whilst his own,
which he had endeavoured so carefully to render as equi-
table and mild as it was possible for him to do, should
be so short and unhappy; he was answered, that -these
were the very causes of it, it being the will of the gods to
oppress and afflict Egypt during the space of one hun-

° Herod. I. ii. p. 139, 140. Diod. p. 58.

KINGS OF EGYPT. ‘ 209

dred and fifty years, as a punishment for its crimes ; and
that his reign, which was to have been like those of
the preceding monarchs, of fifty years’ continuance, was
shortened on account of his too great lenity. Mycerinus
likewise built a pyramid, but much inferior in dimensions
to that of his father. |

Asycuis. He enacted the law relating to loans,?
which forbade a son to borrow money, without giving the
dead body of his father by way of security for it. The
law added, that in case the son took no care to redeem his
father’s body by restoring the loan, both himself and his
children should be deprived for ever of the rites of se-
pulture. 2

He valued himself for having surpassed all his prede-
cessors, by the building a pyramid of brick, more magni-
ficent, if this king was to be credited, than any hitherto
seen. ‘The following inscription, by its founder’s order,
was engraved upon it: CoMPpARE ME NOT WITH PyY-
RAMIDS BUILT OF STONE: WHICH I AS MUCH EXCEL
AS JUPITER DOES ALL THE OTHER GODS.!

If we suppose the six preceding reigns (the exact dura-
tion of some of which is not fixed by Herodotus) to com-
prise one hundred and seventy years, there will remain
an interval of near three hundred years to the reign of
Sabachus the Ethiopian. In this interval I place a few
circumstances related in Holy Scripture.

Puaraon, king of Egypt, gave his
AM. oer, _daughter in marriage to Solomon king of
Ant. J. C. 1013. § § &
Israel ;" who received her in that part of
Jerusalem called the city of David, till he had built her
a palace.
Sesacu or Shishak, otherwise called
ABM Sesonchis.
| It was to him that Jeroboam fled,* to
avoid the wrath of Solomon, who intended to kill him.
He abode in Egypt till Solomon’s death, and then re-
P Herod. |. ii. c. 136.

a The remainder of the inscription, as we find it in Herodotus, is—for

men plunging long poles down to the bottom of the lake, drew bricks

(rXivOove eiovoay) out of the mud which stuck to them, and gave me this

form. ¥
' | Kings, iii. 1. * 1 Kings, xi. 40. and xii.

VOL. I. P

210 HISTORY OF THE

turned to Jerusalem, when, putting himself at the head of
the rebels, he won from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon,
ten tribes, over whom he declared himself king.
_ This Sesach, in the fifth year of the
Pn Mr. os3-,. reign of Rehoboam, marched against Je-
rusalem, because the Jews had transgress-
ed against the Lord. He came with twelve hundred
chariots of war, and sixty thousand horse.” He had
brought numberless multitudes of people, who were all
Libyans, Troglodytes, and Ethiopians." He made him-
self master of all the strongest cities of Judah, and ad-
vanced as far. as Jerusalem. Then the king and the
princes of Israel having humbled themselves, and im-
plored the protection of the God of Israel; God told
them, by his prophet Shemaiah, that, because they hum-
bled themselves, he would not utterly destroy them as
they had deserved; but that they should be the servants
of Sesach: in order that they might know the difference
of his service and the service of the kingdoms of the coun-
try.* Sesach retired from Jerusalem, after having plun-
dered the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the
king’s house ; he carried off every thing with him, and
even also the 300 shields of gold which Solomon had made.
cir Zeraw, king of Ethiopia, and doubt-
Ant. J. C.941, less of Egypt at the same time, made war
upon Asa king of Judah.’ His army con-
sisted of a million of men, and three hundred chariots
of war. Asa marched against him, and drawing up his
army in order of battle, in full reliance on the God whom
he served: Lord, says he, it is nothing for thee to help,
whether with many, or with them that have no power.
Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy
name we go against this multitude; O Lord, thou art our
God, let not man prevail against thee. A prayer offered
up with such strong faith was heard. God struck the
Ethiopians with terror; they fled, and all were irrevo-
cably defeated, being destroyed before the Lord, and be-
Sore his host. 7
* 2 Chron. xii, 1—9.

"The English version of the Bible says, The Lubims, the Sukkiims,
and the Ethiopians.

* Or, of the kingdoms of the earth. y 2Chron. xiy. 9—13.

KINGS OF EGYPT. A len

Anysis. He was blind,’ and under his reign Saga-
cuus, king of Ethiopia, being encouraged by an oracle,
entered Egypt with a numerous army, and possessed him-
self of it. He reigned with great clemency and justice.
Instead of putting to death such criminals as had been
sentenced to die by the judges, he made them repair the
causeys on which the respective cities to which they be-
longed were situated. He built several magnificent tem-
ples, and, among the rest, one in the city of Bubastus, of
which Herodotus gives a long and elegant description.
After a reign of fifty years, which was the time appointed
by the oracle, he retired voluntarily to his old kingdom
of Ethiopia ; and left the throne of Egypt to Anysis, who,

- during this time, had concealed himself in
ae 7S Papas the fens. It is believed that this Saba-
chus was the same with SO, whose aid
was implored by Hoshea king of Israel, against Shalma-
neser king of Assyria."
A rapesee SETHON. He reigned fourteen years.
Ait TC) a. He is the same with Sevechus, the son
of Sabacon or So the Ethiopian, who
reigned so long over Egypt. ‘This prince, so far from
discharging the functions of a king, was ambitious
of those of a priest; causing hirnself to be conse-
crated high-priest of Vulcan. Abandoning himself en-
tirely to superstition, he neglected to defend his kingdom
by force of arms ; paying no regard to military men, from
a firm persuasion that he should never have occasion for
their assistance : he therefore was so far from endeavour-
ing to gain their affections, that he deprived them of
their privileges, and even dispossessed them of the reve-
nues of such lands as his predecessors had given them.

He was soon made sensible of their resentment in a
war that broke out suddenly, and from which he deli-
vered himself solely by a miraculous protection, if Hero-
dotus may be credited, who intermixes his account of this
war with a great many fabulous particulars. Senacharib
(so Herodotus calls this prince), king of the Arabians and
Assyrians, having entered Egypt with a numerous army,
the Egyptian officers and soldiers refused to march against

* Herod. ii. cap. 137. Diod. |. i. p. 59. @ 2 Kings, xvii. 4.
P2

912 HISTORY OF THE

him. The high-priest of Vulcan, being thus reduced to
the greatest extremity, had recourse to his god, who bid
him not despond, but march courageously against the
enemy with the few soldiers he could raise. Sethon
obeyed. A small number of merchants, artificers, and
others, who were the dregs of the populace, joined him ;
and with this handful of men, he marched to Pelusium,
where Senacharib had pitched his camp. The night fol-
lowing, a prodigious multitude of rats entered the camp
of the Assyrians, and gnawing all their bowstrings, and
the thongs of their shields, rendered them incapable of
making the least defence. Being disarmed in this man-
ner, they were obliged to fly; and they retreated with
the loss of a great part of their forces. Sethon, when he
returned home, ordered a statue of himself to be set up
in the temple of Vulcan, holding in his right hand a rat,
and these words to be inscribed thereon: Ler THE MAN
WHO BEHOLDS ME LEARN TO REVERENCE THE GODS.”
It is very obvious that this story, as related here from
Herodotus, is an alteration of that which is told in the
Second Book of Kings.° We there see, that Sennacherib
king of of the Assyrians, having subdued all the neigh-
bouring nations, and made himself master of all the other
cities of Judah, resolved to besiege Hezekiah in Jerusa-
lem, his capital city. The ministers of this holy king,
in spite of his opposition, and the remonstrances of the
prophet Isaiah, who promised them, in God’s name, a
sure and certain protection, provided they would trust in
him only, sent secretly to the Egyptians and Ethiopians
for succour. ‘Their armies, being united, marched to
the relief of Jerusalem at the time appointed, and were
met and vanquished by the Assyrians in a pitched battle.
He pursued them into Egypt, and entirely laid waste the
country. At his return from thence, the very night be-
fore he was to have given a general assault to Jerusalem,
which then seemed lost to all hopes, the destroying angel
made dreadful havoc in the camp of the Assyrians; de-
stroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand men by
fire and sword ; and proved evidently, that they had great

> "Ee tye ric dptwy, evosBre torw. © Chap. xix.

KINGS OFE GY PT, 213

reason to rely, as Hezekiah had done, on the promise of
the God of Israel. |

This is the real fact. But as it was no ways honour-
able to the Egyptians, they endeavoured to turn it to
their own advantage, by disguising and corrupting the
circumstances ofit. Nevertheless, the footsteps of this
history, though so much defaced, ought yet to be highly
valued, as coming from an historian of so great antiquity
and authority as Herodotus.

The prophet Isaiah had foretold, at several times, that
this expedition of the Egyptians, which had been con-
certed, seemingly, with such prudence, conducted with
the greatest skill, and in which the forces of two power-
ful empires were united, in order to relieve the Jews,
would not only be of no service to Jerusalem, but even
destructive to Egypt itself, whose strongest cities would
be taken, its territories plundered, and its inhabitants of
all ages and sexes led into captivity. See the 18th, 19th,
20th, 30th, 31st, &c. chapters of his prophecy.

Archbishop Usher and Dean Prideaux suppose that it
was at this period, that the ruin of the famous city No-
Amon,* spoken of by the prophet Nahum, happened.
That prophet says, that she was carried away—that her
young children were dashed in pieces at the top of all the
streets—that the enemy cast lots for her honourable men,
and that all her great men were bound in chains.© He
observes, that all these misfortunes befel that city, when
Egypt and Ethiopia were her strength; which seems to
refer clearly enough to the time of which we are here
speaking, when Tharaca and Sethon had united their
forces. However, this opinion is not without some dif-
ficulties, and is contradicted by some learned men. It
is sufficient for me, to have hinted it to the reader.

Till the reign of Sethon," the Egyptian priests com-
puted three hundred and forty-one generations of

4The Vulgate calls that city Alexandria, to which the Hebrew gives
the name of No-Amon; because Alexandria was afterwards built in the
place where this stood. Dean Prideaux, after Bochart, thinks that it was
Thebes, surnamed Diospolis. Indeed, the Egyptian Amon is the same
with Jupiter. But Thebes is not the place where Alexandria was since

built. Perhaps there was another city there, which also was called No-

Amon. ie
¢ Nahum, iii. 8. 10. f Herod. |. ii. cap. 142.

214 HISTORY OF THE

men; which make eleven thousand three hundred and
forty years; allowing three generations to a hundred
years. They counted the like number of priests and
kings. The latter, whether gods or men, had succeeded
one another without interruption, under the name of
Piromis, an Egyptian word signifying good and virtuous.

The Egyptian priests shewed Herodotus three hundred
and forty-one wooden colossal statues of these Piromis,
all ranged in order ina great hall. Such was the folly of
the Egyptians, to lose themselves as it were in a remote
antiquity, towhich no other people could dare to pretend.

Tuaraca. He it was who joined
Sethon, with an Ethiopian army, to re-
lieve Jerusalem. After the death of Se-
thon, who had sitten fourteen years on the throne, ‘Tha-
raca ascended it, and reigned eighteen years. He was
the last Ethiopian king who reigned in Egypt.

After his death, the Egyptians, not being able to
agree about the succession, were two years in a state of
anarchy, during which there were great disorders and
confusions among them.

A. M. 3299.
Ant. J. C. 705.

Twelve Kings.

At last, twelve of the principal noble-
A, M. 3319.

Ant. J.C. 6g5, ™en, conspiring together, seized upon
the kingdom, and divided it amongst

themselves into as many parts." It was agreed by them,
that each should govern his own district with equal power
and authority, and that no one should attempt to invade
or seize the dominions ofanother. They thought it ne-
cessary to make this agreement, and to bind it with the
most dreadful oaths, to elude the prediction of an oracle,
which had foretold, that he among them who should
offer his libation to Vulcan out of a brazen bowl, should
gain the sovereignty of Egypt. ‘They reigned together
fifteen years in the utmost harmony: and, to leave a
famous monument of their concord to posterity, they
jointly, and ata common expense, built the famous laby-

rinth, which was a pile of building consisting of twelve

& Afric. apud Syncel. p. 74. Diod. 1. i. p. 59.
» Herod. |. ii. cap. 147. 152.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 215

large palaces, with as many edifices under ground as ap-
peared above it. I have spoken elsewhere of this laby-
rinth.

One day, as the twelve kings were assisting at a so-
lemn and periodical sacrifice offered in the temple of
Vulcan, the priests, having presented each of them a
golden bowl for the libation, one was wanting; when
Psammetichus,' without any design, supplied the want of
this bow] with his brazen helmet (for each wore one),
and with it performed the ceremony of the libation.
This accident struck the rest of the kings, and recalled
to their memory the prediction of the oracle above-
mentioned. ‘They thought it therefore necessary to se-
cure themselves from his attempts, and therefore, with
one consent, banished him into the fenny parts of Egypt.

After Psammetichus had passed some years there,
waiting a favourable opportunity to revenge himself for
the affront which had been put upon him, a courier
brought him advice, that brazen men were landed in
Egypt. These were Grecian soldiers, Carians and Io-
nians, who had been cast upon the coasts of Egypt by a
storm ; and were completely covered with helmets, cui-
rasses, and other arms of brass. Psammetichus immedi-
ately called to mind the oracle, which had answered him,
that he should be succoured by brazen men from the
sea-coast. He did not-doubt but the prediction was
now fulfilled. He therefore made a league with these
strangers; engaged them with great promises to stay
with him ; privately levied other forces; and put these
Greeks at their head; when giving battle to the eleven
kings, he defeated them, and remained sole possessor of
Egypt.

Psammeticuus. As this prince owed

Cea his preservation to the Ionians and Cari-
“~~” ans,* he settled them in Egypt (from

which all foreigners hitherto had been excluded); and by
assigning them sufficient lands and fixed revenues, he
made them forget their native country. By his order,
Egyptian children were put under their care to learn the
Greek tongue ; and on this occasion, and by this means,

i He was one of the twelve. _ k Herod. |. ii. c.:153, 154.

216 HISTORY OF THE

the Egyptians began to have a correspondence with the
Greeks ; and from that era, the Egyptian history, which
till then had been intermixed with pompous fables, by
the artifice of the priests, begins, according to Herodo-
tus, to speak with greater truth and certainty.

As soon as Psammetichus was settled on the throne,
he engaged in war against the king of Assyria, on the
subject of the boundaries of the two empires. This
war was of long continuance. Ever since Syria had been
conquered by the Assyrians, Palestine, being the only
country that separated the two kingdoms, was the sub-
ject of continual discord; as afterwards it was between
the Ptolemies and the Seleucid. They were eternally
contending for it, and it was alternately won by the
stronger. Psammetichus, seeing himself the peaceable
possessor of all Egypt, and having restored the ancient
form of government,’ thought it high time for him to
look to his frontiers, and to secure them against the As-
syrian, his neighbour, whose power increased daily. For
this purpose he entered Palestine at the head of an army.

Perhaps we are to refer to the beginning of this war,
an incident related by Diodorus:™ that the Egyptians,
provoked to see the Greeks posted on the right wing by
the king himself, in preference to them, quitted the ser-
vice, to the number of upwards of two hundred thou-
sand men, and retired into Ethiopia, where they met
with an advantageous settlement.

Be this as it will, Psammetichus entered Palestine,”
where his career was stopped by Azotus, one of the prin-
cipal cities of the country, which gave him so much
trouble, that he was forced to besiege it twenty-nine
years, before he could take it. This is the longest siege
mentioned in ancient history.

This was anciently one of the five capital cities of the
Philistines. The Egyptians having seized it some time
before, had fortified it with such care, that it was their
strongest bulwark on that side. Nor could Sennacherib
enter Egypt, till he had first made himself master of this

'' This revolution happened about seven years after the? captivity of
Manassch king of Judah. ;
™ Lib. i. p. 61. " Herod. lib, il. c. 157.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 217

city, which was taken by Tartan, one of his generals.°
The Assyrians had possessed it hitherto ; and it was not
till after the long siege just now mentioned, that the
Egyptians recovered it.

In this period,’ the Scythians, leaving the banks of the
Palus Meotis, made an inroad into Media, defeated
Cyaxares the king of that country, and deprived him of
all Upper Asia, of which they kept possession during
twenty-eight years. They pushed their conquests in
Syria, as far as to the frontiers of Egypt. But Psam-
metichus. marching out to meet them, prevailed so far,
by his presents and entreaties, that they advanced no far-
ther, and by that means delivered his kingdom from
these dangerous enemies.

Till his reign," the Egyptians had imagined themselves
to be the most ancient nation upon earth. Psammeti-
chus was decirous to prove this himself, and he employed
a very extraordinary experiment for this purpose. He
commanded (if we may credit the relation) two children,
newly born of poor parents, to be brought up (in the
country) in a hovel, that was to be kept continually shut.
They were committed to the care of a shepherd (others
say, of nurses, whose tongues were cut out), who was to
feed them with the milk of goats ; and was commarided
not to suffer any person to enter into this hut, nor him-
self to speak even a single word in the hearing of these
children. At the expiration of two years, as the shep-
herd was one day coming into the hut to feed these
children, they both cried out, with hands extended to-
wards their foster-father, Leccos, beccos. ‘The shepherd;
surprised to hear a language that was quite new to him;
but which they repeated frequently afterwards, sent ad-
vice of this to the king, who ordered the children to be
brought before him, in order that he himself might be
a witness to the truth of what was told him; and ac-
cordingly both of them began, in his presence, to stam-
mer out the sounds above-mentioned. Nothing now
was wanting but to ascertain what nation it was that
used this word ; and it was found, that the Phrygians
called bread by this name. From this time they were

“isa, kX; 1, P Herod. I. 1. ¢. 105, q Herod. I. ii.-c. 2, 3.

218 HISTORY OF THE

allowed the honour of antiquity, or rather of priority,
which the Egyptians themselves, notwithstanding their
jealousy of it, and the many ages they had possessed this
glory, were obliged to resign to them. As goats were
brought to these children, in order that they might feed
upon their milk, and historians do not say that they were
deaf; some are of opinion that they might have learnt
the word bec, or beccos, by mimicking the cry of those
creatures.

_Psammetichus died in the 24th year of Josias king of
Judah, and was succeeded by his son Nechao.

eee Necuao.’ This prince is often men-

“Tc me tioned in Scripture under the name of
ele Phataow Neche:

He attempted to join the Nile to the Red Sea by cut-
ting acanal from one to the other. The distance which
separates them is at least a thousand stadia. After a
hundred and twenty thousand workmen had lost their
lives in this attempt, Nechao was obliged to desist ; the
oracle which had been consulted by him having an-
swered, that this new canal would open a passage to the
Barbarians (for so the Egyptians called all other nations)
to invade Egypt.

Nechao was more successful in another enterprise.'
Skilful Phoenician mariners, whom he had taken into
his service, having sailed from the Red Sea in erder to
discover the coasts of Africa, went successfully round it ;
and the third year after their setting out, returned to
Egypt through the Straits of Gibraltar. This was a
very extraordinary voyage, in an age when the compass
was not known. It was made twenty-one centuries be-
fore Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese (by discovering the
Cape of Good Hope, in the year 1497), found out the
very same way to sail to the Indies, by which these Phee-
nicians had come from thence into the Mediterranean.

The Babylonians and Medes" having destroyed Nine-
veh, and with it the empire of the Assyrians, were thereby

* Herod. I. ii. c. 158. ‘

* Allowing 625 feet (or 125 geometrical paces) to each stadium, the dis-
tance will be 118 English miles and a little above one-third of a mile.
Herodotus says, that this design was afterwards put in execution by Da-
rius the Persian. B. ii. c. 158. * Herod. I. iv. c. 42.

" Joseph. Antiq. |. x. c. 6. 2 Kings, xxiii. 29, 30. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20—25. |

KINGS OF EGYPT. 219

become so formidable, that they drew upon themselves
the jealousy of all their neighbours. Nechao, alarmed
at the danger, advanced to the Euphrates, at the head
of a powerful army, in order to check their progress.
Josiah, king of Judah, so famous for his uncommon piety,
observing that he took his route through Judea, resolved
to oppose his passage. With this view, he raised all the
forces of his kingdom, and posted himself in the valley
of Megiddo (a city on this side Jordan, belonging to the
tribe of Manasseh, and called Magdolus by Herodotus).
Nechao informed him by a herald, that his enterprise
was not designed against him; that he had other enemies
in view; and that he had undertaken this war in the
name of God, who was with him: that for this reason
he advised Josiah not to concern himself with this war,
for fear lest it otherwise should turn to his disadvantage.
However, Josiah was not moved by these reasons: he
was sensible that the bare march of so powerful an
army through Judea, would entirely ruin it. And be-
sides, he feared that the victor, after the defeat of the
Babylonians, would fall upon him, and dispossess him
of part of his dominions. He therefore marched to
engage Nechao; and was not only overthrown by him,
but unfortunately received a wound, of which he died at
Jerusalem, whither he had ordered himself to be carried.
Nechao, animated by this victory, continued his march,
and advanced towards the Euphrates. He defeated the
Babylonians ; took Carchemish, a large city in that coun-
try ; and securing to himself the possession of it by a
strong garrison, returned to his own kingdom, after hav-
ing been absent from it three months. |
Being informed in his march homeward, that Jeho-
ahaz had caused himself to be proclaimed king at Jerusa-
lem, without first asking his consent, he commanded him
to meet him at Riblah, in Syria.* The unhappy prince
was no sooner arrived there, than he was put in chains by
Nechao’s order, and sent prisoner to Egypt, where he
died. From thence, pursuing his march, he came to Je-
rusalem, where he placed Eliakim (called by him Jehoi-
akim), another of Josiah’s sons, upon the throne, in the

* 2 Kings, xxiii. 33—35. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1.3, 4.

220 HISTORY OF THE

room of his brother: and imposed an annual tribute on
- the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and one talent of
gold.’ This being done he returned in triumph to
etd Sasa a :

Herodotus,’ mentioning this king’s expedition and the
victory gained by him at Magdolus* (as he calls it), says
that he afterwards took the city Cadytis, which he re-
presents as situated in the mountains of Palestine, and
equal in extent to Sardis, the capital at that time not only
of Lydia, but of all Asia Minor: this description can suit
only Jerusalem, which was situated in the manner above
described, and was then the only city in those parts that
could be compared to Sardis. It appears beside from
Scripture, that Nechao, after his victory, made himself
master of this capital of Judea; for he was there in person,
when he gave the crown to Jehoiakim. ‘The very name
Cadytis, which in Hebrew signifies the Holy, clearly de-
notes the city of Jerusalem, as is proved by the learned
Dean Prideaux.”

Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, observ-
ing that, since the taking of Carchemish
by Nechao, all Syria and Palestine had
shaken off their allegiance to him; and that his years and
infirmities would not permit. him to march against the
rebels in person, he therefore associated his son Nabu-
chodonosor, or Nebuchadnezzar, with him in the empire,
and sent him at the head of an army into those countries.
This young prince vanquished the army of Nechao near

y The Hebrewsilver talent, according to Dr. Cumberland, is equivalen

to 3537. 11s. 103d. so that 100 talents, English money
make s065.% ; Biever ceca? MOeG as elas iy eee 7 6d.

A. M. 3397.
Ant. J. C. 607.

The gold talent, according to the same..........- 5075 15 72
The amount of the whole tribute... ......5 26004 40,435 3 12
Bibs, 62.150. * Megiddo.

> From the time that Solomon, by meaus of his temple, had made Jeru-
salem the common place of worship to all Israel, it was distinguished from
the rest of the cities by the epithet Holy, and in the Old Testament was
called Air Hakkodesh, 7. e. the city of holiness, or the holy city. It bore
this title upon the coins, and the shekel was inscribed Jerusalem Kedu-
sha, i.e. Jerusalem the holy. At length Jerusalem, for brevity’s sake, was
omitted, and only Kedusha reserved. The Syriac being the prevailing
language, in Herodotus’s time, Kedusha, by a change in that dialect of sh
into ¢h, was made Kedutha; and Herodotus giving it a Greek termination,
it was writ Kdduric, or Cadytis. Prideaux’s Connexion of the Old and
New Testament, vol. i. part i. p. 80, 81. Svo. edit.

KINGS OF EGYPT. 221

the river Euphrates, recovered Carchemish, and reduced
the revolted provinces to their allegiance, as Jeremiah °
had foretold. Thus he dispossessed the Egyptians of all
‘that belonged to them,‘ from the little river ° of Egypt‘
to the Euphrates, which comprehended all Syria and
Palestine.
Nechao dying after he had reigned sixteen years, left
the kingdom to his son.
Race Psammis. His reign was but of six
Ant.J.C.600, years duration :* and history has left us
nothing memorable concerning him, ex-
cept that he made an expedition into Ethiopia.
It was to this prince that the Eleans sent a splendid
embassy, after having instituted the Olympic games.
They had established all the regulations, and arranged
every circumstance relating to them, with such care, that,
in their opinion, nothing seemed wanting to their perfec-
tion, and envy itself could not find any fault with them.
_ However, they did not desire so much to have the opi-
nion, as to gain the approbation, of the Egyptians," who
were looked upon as the wisest and most judicious people
inthe world. Accordingly, the king assembled the sages
of his nation. After every thing had been heard which
could be said in favour of this institution, the Eleans were
asked, whether citizens and foreigners were admitted in-
differently to these games ; to which answer was made,
that they were open to every one. To this the Egyptians -
replied, that the rules of justice would have been more
strictly observed, had foreigners only been admitted to
these combats; because it was very difficult for the judges,
in their award of the victory and the prize, not to be pre-
judiced in favour of their fellow-citizens.
pees Aprizs. In Scripture‘ he is called Pha-
Ant.J.C.594, raoh-Hophra. He succeeded his father
| Psammis, and reigned twenty-five years.

¢ Jor.’ xlvi.. 2. 42 Kings, xxiv. 7.

© This little river of Egypt, so often mentioned in Scripture, as the
boundary of Palestine towards Egypt, was not the Nile, but a small river,
which, running through the desert that Jay betwixt those two nations,
was anciently the common boundary of both. So far the land which had
been promised to the posterity of Abraham, and divided among them by
lot, extended. Gen. xv. 18. Josh. xv. 4.

fA rivo Egypti. § Herod. |. ii. c. 160. " C. 160. iJer. xliv. 30.

939 HISTORY OF THE

During the first years of his reign," he was as fortu-
nate as any of his predecessors. He turned his arms
against the island of Cyprus; he besieged the city of Sidon
by sea and land ; took it, and made himself master of all
Phoenicia and Palestine.

So rapid a success elated his heart to a prodigious de-
gree, and, as Herodotus informs us, swelled him with so
much pride and infatuation, that he boasted, it was not in
the power of the gods themselves to dethrone him ; so
great was the idea he had formed to himself of the firm
establishment of his own power. It was with a view to
these arrogant notions, that Ezekiel put the vain and im-
pious words following into his mouth: My river is mine
own, and I have made it for myse/f.' But the true God
proved to him afterwards that he hada master, and that he
was amere man; and he had threatened him long before,
by his prophets, with all the calamities he was resolved
to bring upon him, in order to punish him for his pride.

Shortly after Hophra had ascended the throne, Zede-
kiah king of Judah sent an embassy,‘ and concluded an
alliance with him; and the year following, breaking the
oath of fidelity which he had taken to the king of Baby-
lon, he rebelled openly against him.

Notwithstanding God had so often forbidden his people
to have recourse to the Egyptians, or to put any confi-
dence in that people; notwithstanding the repeated ca-
lamities which had ensued upon the various attempts
which they had made to procure assistance from them ;
they still thought this nation their most sure refuge in
danger, and accordingly could not forbear applying to it.
This they had already done in the reign of the holy king
Hezekiah ; which gave occasion to God’s message to his
people, by the mouth of his prophet Isaiah ;' Woe to them
that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses and
trust in chariots, because they are many : but they look not
unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. The
Egyptians are men, and not God ; and their horses flesh,
not spirit: when the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both
he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall

* Herod. |. ii. c. 161. Diod. |. i. p. 62. i Ezek. xxix. 3.
k Fizek. xvii. 15. 1 Chap. xxxi. 1. 3.

KINGS OF EGYPT. paae’

down, and they shall fail together. But neither the prophet
nor the king was heard ; and nothing but the most fatal
experience could open their eyes, and make them see evi-
dently the truth of God’s threatenings.

The Jews behaved in the very same manner on this oc-
casion. Zedekiah, notwithstanding all the remonstrances
of Jeremiah to the contrary, resolved to conclude an al-
liance with the Egyptian monarch: who, puffed up with
the success of his arms, and confident that nothing could
resist his power, declared himself the protector of Israel,
and promised to deliver it from the tyranny of Nabucho-
donosor. But God, offended that a mortal had dared to
intrude himself into his place, thus declared himself to
another prophet: Son of man, set thy face against Pha-
raoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and
against all Egypt. Speak and say, Thus saith the
Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh hing of
Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his
rivers, which hath said, “My river is mine own, and I have
made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws,”
&c. God, after comparing him to a reed, which breaks
under the man who leans upon it, and wounds his hand,
adds, Behold, [ will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off
man and beast out of thee : the land of Egypt shall be de-
solate, and they shall know that I am the Lord ; because
he hah said, The river is mine, and I have made it." The
same prophet, in several succeeding chapters,’ continues
to foretell the calamities with which Egypt was going to
be overwhelmed.

Zedekiah was far from giving credit to these predic-
tions. When he heard of the approach of the Egyptian
army, and saw Nabuchodonosor raise the siege of Jeru-
salem, he fancied that his deliverance was completed,
and anticipated a triumph. His joy, however, was but
of short duration ; for the Egyptians seeing the Chaldeans
advancing, did not dare to encounter so numerous and

well-disciplined an army. They there.

Sia icone fore marched back into their own country,
and left the unfortunate Zedekiah exposed

to all the dangers of a war’ in which they themselves had

m Ezek. xxix. 2-—4. « Ezek. xxix. 8, 9.
© Chaps RS1K, XXX, KKXI, XKXT. 7 POE: XXXVii. Gny:

224 HISTORY OF THE

involved him. Nabuchodonosor again sat down before
' Jerusalem ; took and burnt it, as Jeremiah had pro-
phesied.
? Many years after,’ the chastisements
Sa oe with which God had threatened Apries
(Pharaoh- Hophra) began to fall upon him.
For the Cyrenians, a Greek colony, which had settled in
Africa, between Libya and Egypt, having seized upon and
divided among themselves a great part of fhe country be-
longing to the Libyans, forced these nations, who were
thus dispossessed by violence, to throw themselves into
the arms of this prince, and implore his protection. Im-
mediately Apries sent a mighty army into Libya, to op-
pose the Cyrenians ; but this army being defeated and
almost cut to pieces, the Egyptians imagined that Apries
had sent it into Libya, only to get it destroyed; and by
that means to attain the power of governing his subjects
without check or control. This reflection prompted the
Egyptians to shake off the yoke of a prince whom they
now considered as their enemy, But Apries, hearing of
the rebellion, dispatched Amasis, one of his officers, to
suppress it, and force the rebels to return to their allegi-
ance. But the moment Amasis began to address them,
they placed a helmet upon his head, in token of the ex-
alted dignity to which they intended to raise him, and
proclaimed him king. Amasis having accepted the crown,
stayed with the mutineers, and confirmed them in their
rebellion.

Apries, more exasperated than ever at this news, sent
Patarbemis, another of his great officers, and one of the
principal lords of his court, to put Amasis under an ar-
rest, and bring him before him; but Patarbemis not be-
ing able to carry off Amasis from the midst of the rebel
army, by which he was surrounded, was treated by Apries,
at his return, in the most ignominious and inhuman man-
ner ; for his nose and ears were cut off by the command
of that prince, who never considered, that only his want
of power had prevented his executing his commission.
So barbarous an outrage, committed upon a person of
such high distinction, exasperated the Egyptians so

4 Herod. 1. ii. c. 161, &e. Diod. 1. i. p. 62.

KINGS OF EGYPT: 229

much, that the greatest part of them joined the rebels,
and the insurrection became general. Apries was now
forced to retire into Upper Egypt, where he supported
himself some years, during which Amasis made himself
master of the rest of his dominions,

The troubles which thus distracted Egypt, afforded
Nabuchodonosor a favourable opportunity to invade that
kingdom ; and it was God himself who inspired him with
the resolution, This prince, who was the instrument of
God’s wrath (though he did not know himself to be so)
against a people whom he was resolved to chastise, had
just before taken Tyre, where himself and his army had
laboured under incredible difficulties. ‘To recompense
their toils, God abandoned Egypt to their arms. It is
wonderful to hear the Creator himself revealing his de-
signs on this subject. There are few passages in Scripture
more remarkable than this, or which give a clearer idea
of the supreme authority which God exercises over all the
princes and kingdoms of the earth: Son of man (says
the Almighty to his prophet Ezekiel"), Nebuchadnezzar,
hing of Babylon, caused his army to serve a great service
against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled :° yet had he no wages, nor his army,
for the service he had served against it... Therefore thus
saith the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt
unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take
her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey, and
it shall be the wages for his army. J have given him the
land of Egypt for his labour, wherewith he served against
it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God. Says

¥ Chap. xxix. 18—20.

s'The baldness of the heads of the Babylonians was owing to the pressure
of their helmets; and their peeled shoulders to their carrying baskets of earth
and large pieces of timber, to join Tyre to the continent. Baldness was
itself a badge of slavery ; and joined to the peeled shoulders, shews that the
conqueror’s army sustained even the most servile labours in this memorable
siege.

For the better understanding of this passage, we are to know that
Nabuchodonosor sustained incredible hardships at the siege of ¥'yre; and
that when the Tyrians saw themselves clusely attacked, the nobles con-
veyed themselves and their richest effects on ship-board, and retired into
other islands. So that when Nabuchodonosor took the city, he found no-
thing to recompense the toil which he had undergone in this siege,
S. Jerom.

VOL Q

226 HISTORY OF THE

another prophet: “He shall array himself with the land
of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment, and he
shall go forth from thence in peace. ‘Thus shall he load
himself with booty, and thus cover his own shoulders,
and those of his fold, with all the spoils of Egypt. Noble
expressions ! which shew the ease with which all the
power and riches of a kingdom are carried away, when
God appoints the revolution; and shift, like a garment,
to a new owner, who has no more to do but to take it,
and clothe himself with it.

The king of Babylon, taking advantage therefore of
the intestine divisions which the rebellion of Amasis had
occasioned in that kingdom, marched thither at the head
of hisarmy. He subdued Egypt from Migdol, or Mag-
dol, a town on the frontiers of the kingdom, as far as
Syene, in the opposite extremity, where it borders on
Ethiopia. He made a horrible devastation wherever he
came, killed a great number of the inhabitants, and made
such dreadful havoc in the country, that the damage
could not be repaired in forty years. Nabuchodonosor,
having loaded his army with spoils, and conquered the
whole kingdom, came to an accommodation with Amasis ;
and leaving him as his viceroy there, returned to Babylon.

Apries (Pharaoh-Hophra) now leaving the place
where he had concealed himself, advanced towards the
sea-coast (probably on the side of Libya) ;* and hiring °
an army of Carians, Ionians, and other foreigners, he
marched against Amasis, to whom he gave battle near
Memphis; but being overcome, Apries was taken pri-
soner, carried to the city of Sais, and there strangled in
his own palace.

The Almighty had given by the mouth of his prophets,
an astonishing relation of the several circumstances of this
mighty event. It was He who had broken the power of
Apries, which was once so formidable; and put the sword
into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, in order that he might
chastise and humble that haughty prince. Iam, said he,’
against Pharaoh hing of Egypt, and will break his arms,
which were strong, but now are broken; and I will cause

* Jerem. xliii. 12. | * Herod. |. ii.c. 163. 169. Diod. 1. i. p»62.
Y Ezek. xxx. 22. _

KINGS OF EGYPT. 27

the sword to fall out of his hand.—* But I will strengthen
the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword into
his hand. * And they shall know that 1 am the Lord.

He enumerates the towns which were to falla prey to
the victors: ’Pathros, Zoan, No (called in the Vulgate
Alexandria), Sin, Aven, Pibeseth, &c.° —

He takes notice particularly of the unhappy end of the
king, who was to be delivered up to his enemies. -Thus
saith the Lord: Behold, I will give Pharaoh-Hophra, the
king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the
hand of them that seek his life.° |

Lastly he declares, that during forty years the Egyptians
shall be oppressed with every species of calamity, and be
reduced to so deplorable a state, That there shall be no
more a prince of the land of Egypt... The event verified
this prophecy, which was gradually accomplished. Soon
after the expiration of these forty years, Egypt was made
a province of the Persian empire, to which its kings,
though natives of the country, were tributary ; and thus
the accomplishment of the prediction began. It was
completely fulfilled on the death of Nectanebus, the last
king of Egyptian extraction, A. M. 3654. Since that
time Egypt has constantly been governed by foreigners.
For since the ruin of the Persian monarchy, it has been
subject successively to the Macedonians, the Romans,
the Saracens, the Mamelukes, and lastly to the Turks,
who possess it to this day.

God was not less punctual in the accomplishment of
his prophecies, with regard to such of his own people as
had retired, contrary to his prohibition, into Egypt, after
the taking of Jerusalem, and had forced Jeremiah along
with them.‘ The instant they had reached Egypt, and
were arrived at Tahpanhes (or Tanis), the prophet, after
having hid in their presence (by God’s command) stones
in a grotto, which was near the king’s palace, declared
to them, That Nabuchodonosor should soon arrive in

2 Ezek. xxx. 24. * Ver. 25. > Ver. 14—17.
¢ The names of these towns are given as they stand in our English ver-
sion. In the margin are printed against Zoan, Tanis; against Sin, Pelu-
sium; against Aven, Heliopolis; against Pibeseth, Pubastum; and by
these last names they are mentioned in the original French of M. Rollin.
4 Jerem. xliv. 30. © Ezek. xxx. 13. f Jerem. xliii, xliv.

a2

228 HISTORY OF THE

Egypt, and that God would establish his throne in that
very place ; that this prince would lay waste the whole
kingdom, and carry fire and sword into all places ; that
themselves should fall into the hand of these cruel ene-
mies, when one part of them would be massacred, and
the rest led captive to Babylon; that only a very small
number should escape the common desolation, and be at
last restored to their country. All these prophecies had
their accomplishment in the appointed time.
on Amasis. After the death of Apries,
Ant. J. C. 569, Amasis became peaceable possessor of
Egypt, and reigned over it forty years.
He was, according to Plato,’ a native of the city of Sais.

As he was but of mean extraction,” he met with no
respect in the beginning of his reign, but was only con-
temned by his subjects: he was not insensible of this;
but nevertheless thought it his interest to subdue their
tempers by management and address, and win their affec-
tions by gentleness and reason. He hada golden cis-
tern, in which himself and those persons who were ad-
mitted to his table, used to wash their feet : he melted it
down, and had it cast into a statue, and then exposed the
new god to public worship. ‘The people hasted in crowds
to pay their adoration to the statue. The king having
assembled the people, informed them of the vile uses to
which this statue had once been put, which nevertheless
was now the object of their religious prostrations: the
application was easy, and had the desired success; the.
people thenceforward paid the king all the respect that is
due to majesty.

He always used to devote the whole morning to pub-
lic business,’ to receive petitions, give audience, pro-
nounce sentence, and hold his councils; the rest of the
day was given to pleasure: and as Amasis, in hours of
diversion, was extremely gay, and seemed to carry his
mirth beyond due bounds, his courtiers took the liberty
to represent to him the unsuitableness of such a beha-
viour ; when he answered, that it was as impossible for
the mind to be always serious and intent upon business,
as for a bow to continue always bent.

& In Tim. » Herod. I. ii. c. 172, kA d. lcii..c. 73.

KiNGs OF EGYPT: 299

It was this king who obliged the inhabitants of every
town to enter their names in a book, kept by the magis-
trate for that purpose, with their profession, and manner
of living. Solon inserted this custom among his laws.

He built many magnificent temples, especially at Sais,
the place of his birth. Herodotus admired especially a
chapel there, formed of one single stone, which was
twenty-one cubits* in front, fourteen in depth, and eight
in height ; its dimensions within were not quite so large:
it had been brought from Elephantina, and two thou-
sand men had employed three years in conveying it along
the Nile.

Amasis had a great esteem for the Greeks. He
granted them large. privileges; and permitted such of
them as were desirous of settling in Egypt, to live in the
city of Naucratis, so famous for its harbour. When the
rebuilding of the temple of Delphi, which had been
burnt, was debated on, and the expense was computed
at three hundred talents,' Amasis furnished the Del-
phians with.a very considerable sum towards discharging
their quota, which was the fourth part of the whole charge.

He made an alliance with the Cyrenians, and married
a wife from among them.

He is the only king of Egypt who conquered the is-
land of Cyprus, and made it tributary.

Under his reign Pythagoras came into Egypt, being
recommended to that monarch by the famous Polycrates,
tyrant of Samos, who had contracted a friendship with
Amasis, and will be mentioned hereafter. Pythagoras,
during his stay in Egypt, was initiated in all the myste-
ries of the country; and instructed by the priests in
whatever was most abstruse and important in their reli-
gion. It was here he imbibed his doctrine of the Me-
tempsychosis, or transmigration, of souls.

In the expedition in which Cyrus conquered so great
a part of the world, Egypt doubtless was. subdued, like
the rest of the provinces; and Xenophon positively de-
clares this in the beginning of his Cyropzedia, or institu-

k The cubit is one foot and almost ten inches. Vide supra.
' Or, 58,125. sterling.

230 HISTORY, &c.

tion of that prince.” Probably, after that the forty years
of desolation, which had been foretold by the prophet,
were expired, Egypt beginning gradually to regain
strength, Amasis shook off the yoke, and recovered his
liberty.

Accordingly, we find, that one of the first cares of
Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, after he had ascended the
throne, was to carry his arms into Egypt. On his ar-
rival there, Amasis was just dead, and succeeded by his
son Psammenitus.

PsaMMENITUvs. Cambyses, after having
en ee raat gained a battle, pursued the enemy to
Memphis ; besieged the city, and soon
took it: however, he treated the king with clemency,
granted him his life, and assigned him an honourable
pension ; but being informed that he was secretly con-
certing measures to reascend his throne, he put him to
death. Psammenitus reigned but six months: all Egypt
submitted immediately to the victor. The particulars
of this history will be related more at large, when I come
to that of Cambyses.

Here ends the succession of the Egyptian kings. From
this era the history of this nation, as was before observed,
will be blended with that of the Persians and Greeks,
till the death of Alexander. At that period, a new mo-
narchy will arise in Egypt, founded by Ptolemy the son
of Lagus, which will continue to Cleopatra, that is, for
about three hundred years. I shall treat each of these
subjects, in the several periods to which they belong.

m *Ernpte dé wat ‘EAQver ray iy Ty Acig, karaBag dé éwi Oddarray, Kai
Kuzpiwy cai Aiyurriwy, p. 5. edit. Hutchinsoni.

BOOK II.

undaieectsiedheteanaiaoestel
sinibtiaiininnentsieenieediteatiian’

THE
HISTORY

OF THE

CARTHAGINIANS

PART I.

CHARACTER, MANNERS, RELIGION, AND GOVERNMENT,
OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.

Sect. I. CarTHAGE FORMED AFTER THE MODEL OF
TYRE, OF WHICH THAT CITY WAS A COLONY.

Tue Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians, not
only for their origin, but for their manners, language,
customs, laws, religion, and their great application to
commerce, as will appear from every part of the sequel.
They spoke the same language with the Tyrians, and
these the same with the Canaanites and Israelites ; that
is, the Hebrew tongue, or at least a language, which was
entirely derived from it. Their names had commonly
some particular meaning: Thus Hanno signified gra-
cious, bountiful; Dido, amiable, or well-beloved ; Sopho-
nisba, one who keeps faithfully her husband's secrets.*
From a spirit of religion, they likewise joined the name
of God to their own, conformably to the genius of the
Hebrews. Hannibal, which answers to Hananias, sig-
nifies Baal [or the Lord] has been gracious to me. As-
drubal, answering to Azarias, implies, the Lord will be
our succour. It is the same with other names, Adher-
bal, Maharbal, Mastanabal, &c. ‘The word Poeni, from
which Punic is derived, is the same with Pheeni, or Phee-

* Bochart, part ii. |. ii. c. 16.

232 HISTORY OF THE

nicians, because they came originally from Phcenicia.
In the Poenulus of Plautus is a scene written in the Pu-
nic tongue, which has very much exercised the learned.”

But the strict union which always subsisted between
the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, is still more remark-
able. When Cambyses had resolved to make war upon
the latter, the Phoenicians, who formed the chief strength
of his fleet, told him plainly, that they could not serve
him against their countrymen ;° and this declaration
obliged that prince to lay aside his design. The Cartha-
ginians, on their side, were never forgetful of the coun-
try from whence they came, and to which they owed
their origin. They sent regularly every year to Tyre,°
a ship freighted with presents, as a quit-rent or acknow-
ledgment paid to their ancient country; and an annual
sacrifice was offered to the tutelar gods of Tyre by the
Carthaginians, who considered them as their protectors
likewise. They never failed to send thither the first-fruits
of their revenues ; nor the tithe of the spoils taken from
their enemies, as offerings to Hercules, one of the prin-
cipal gods of Tyre and Carthage. The Tyrians, to se-
cure from Alexander (who was then besieging their city)
what they valued above all things, I mean their wives
and children, sent them to Carthage ; where, though at
a time when the inhabitants of the latter were involved
in a furious war, they were received and entertained with
such a kindness and generosity as might be expected
from the most tender and opulent parents. Such unin-
terrupted testimonies of a warm and sincere gratitude,
doa nation more honour, than the greatest conquests
and the most glorious victories.

Sect. II. Tuer Rexicion or THE CARTHAGINIANS.

It appears from several passages of the history of Car-
thage, that its generals looked upon it as an indispen-
sable duty, to begin and end all their enterprises with
the worship of the gods. Hamnilcar,* father ef the great
Hannibal, before he entered Spain in a hostile manner,

> The first scene of the fifth act, translated into Latin by Petit, in the
second book of his Miscellanies. ¢ Herod. |. iii. c. 17—19.
* Polyb. 944. Q. Curt. Liv. c. 2,3. © Zavi l, x*iv-n.1. Ubid 1-21,

CARTHAGINIANS. 233

offered upa sacrifice to the gods; and his son, treading
in his steps, before he left Spain, and marched against
Rome, went as far as Cadiz in order to pay the vows
which he had made to Hercules, and to offer up new ones,
in case that god should be propitious to him. After
the battle of Cannz," when he acquainted the Carthagi-
nians with the joyful news, he recommended to. them,
above all things, the offering up a solemn thanksgiving
to the immortal gods, for the several victories he had ob-
tained. Pro his tantis totque victoriis verum esse grates
dits immortalibus agi haberique.

Neither did individuals alone pride themselves upon
displaying, on every occasion, this religious care to ho-
nour the deity; but it evidently was the genius and dis-
position of the whole nation.

Polybius® has transmitted to us a treaty of peace
concluded between Philip, son of Demetrius, king of
Macedon, and the Carthaginians, in which the great
respect and veneration of the latter for the deity, and
their inherent persuasion: that the gods engage in, and
preside over, human affairs, and particularly over the
solemn treaties made in their name and presence, are
strongly displayed. Mention is therein made of five or
six different orders of deities; and this enumeration ap-
pears very extraordinary in a public instrument, such as
a treaty of peace concluded between two nations. I will
here present my reader with the very words of the histo-
rian, as it will give some idea of the Carthaginian theo-
logy. This treaty was concluded in the presence of Jupi-
ter, Juno, and Apollo; in the presence of the demon or
genius (Saivovoc) of the Carthaginians, of Hercules and
Lolaus; in the presence of Mars, Triton, and Neptune ;
in the presence of all the confederate gods of the Cartha-
ginians; and of the sun, the moon, and the earth; in. the
presence of the rivers, meads, and waters ; in the presence
of all those gods who possess Carthage. What should
we now say to an instrument of this kind, in which the
tutelar angels and saints of a kingdom should be intro-
duced? | i seats |

The Carthaginians had two deities to whom they paid

Cdoivil Sx neh, & L. vii. p. 502.

234 HISTORY OF THE
a more particular worship, and who deserve to have
some mention made‘of them in this place.

The first was the goddess Ccelestis, called likewise
Urania, the same with the Moon, who was invoked in
great calamities, and particularly in droughts, in order
to obtain rain: ‘That very virgin Ceelestis, says Tertullian,"
the promiser of rain, Jsta ipsa Virgo Celestis pluviarum
pollicitatrix. ‘Tertullian, speaking of this goddess and of
Alisculapius, makes the heathens of that age a challenge,
which is bold indeed, but at the same time very glorious
to the cause of Christianity ; declaring, that any Chris-
tian who may first come, shall oblige these false gods to
confess publicly, that they are but devils ; and consenting
that this Christian shall be immediately killed, if he does
not extort such a confession from the mouth of these
gods. Nisi se demones confessi fuerint Christiano men-
tirt non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi san-
guinem fundite. St. Austin likewise makes frequent
mention of this deity. What is now, says he,' become
of Ceelestis, whose empire was once so great in Carthage ?
This was doubtless the same deity, whom Jeremiah‘ calls
the queen of heaven; and who was held in so much re-
verence by the Jewish women, that they addressed their
vows, burnt incense, poured out drink-offerings, and
made cakes for her with their own hands, ut faciant pla-
centas regine ceeli; and from whom they boasted their
having received all manner of blessings, whilst they re-
gularly paid her this worship; whereas, since they had
failed in it, they had been oppressed with misfortunes of
every kind.

The second deity particularly adored by the Carthagi-
nians, and in whose honour human sacrifices were of-
fered, was Saturn, known in Scripture by the name of
Moloch; and this worship had passed from Tyre to
Carthage. Philo quotes a passage from Sanchoniathon,
which shews that the kings of Tyre, in great dangers,
used to sacrifice their sons to appease the anger of the
gods; and that one of them, by this action, procured
himself divine honours, and was worshipped as a god,

» Apolog. c. xxiii. i In Psalm xeviili.
k Jer. vii. 18. and xliv. 17—25.

CARTHAGINIANS. 250

under the name of the planet Saturn: to this doubtless
was owing the fable of Saturn’s devouring his own chil-
dren. Private persons, when they were desirous of avert-
ing any great calamity, took the same method ; and, in
imitation of their princes, were so very superstitious,
that such as had no children, purchased those of the
poor, in order that they might not be deprived of the
merit of such a sacrifice. ‘This custom prevailed long
among the Pheenicians and Canaanites, from whom the
Israelites borrowed it, though forbidden expressly by
Heaven. At first, these children were inhumanly burnt,
either in a fiery furnace, like those in the valley of Hin-
nom, so often mentioned in Scripture ; or enclosed ina
flaming statue of Saturn. The cries of these unhappy
victims were drowned by the uninterrupted noise of
drums and trumpets.' Mothers™ made it a merit, and a
part of their religion, to view this barbarous spectacle
with dry eyes, and without so much as a groan; and if a
tear or a sigh stole from them, the sacrifice was less ac-
ceptable to the deity, and all the effects of it were en-
tirely lost. This strength of mind,” or rather savage
barbarity, was carried to such excess, that even mothers
would endeavour, with embraces and kisses, to hush the
cries of their children; lest, had the victim been offered
with an unbecoming grace, and in the midst of tears, it
should be displeasing to the god: Blanditzis et osculis
comprimeLant vagitum, ne flebilis hostia immolaretur.°
They afterwards contented themselves with making their
children pass through the fire, as appears from several
passages of Scripture; in which they frequently perished.

*The Carthaginians retained the barbarous custom of
offering human sacrifices to their gods, till the ruin of
their city :? an action which ought to have been called a

1 Piut. de superstit. p. 171.

™ Tlapsornce S& 4 pnrno areyxtoc Kai dorévaxroc, &c. The cruel and
pitiless mother stood by as an unconcerned spectator; a groan or a tear
falling from her, would have been punished by a fine; and still the child
must have been sacrificed. Plut. de superstitione.

" Tertul. in Apolog. ° Minut. Felix.
P.O. Cartal.. ivi-e:-6,

4 It appears from Tertullian’s Apology, that this barbarous custom pre-

vailed in Africa long‘after the ruin of Carthage. Infantes penés Africam

Saturno immolabantur palam usque ad proconsulatum Tiberi, qui eosdem
sacerdotes in eisdem arboribus templi sut obumbratricibus scelerum votivis

236 HISTORY OF THE

sacrilege rather than a sacrifice. Sacrilegium veritis guam
sacrum. It.was suspended only for some years, from the
fear they were under of drawing upon themselves the
indignation. and arms of Darius I. king of Persia, who
forbade them the offering up of human sacrifices, and
the eating the flesh of dogs : ‘ But they soon resumed this
horrid practice ; since, in the reign of Xerxes, the suc-
cessor to Darius, Gelon, the tyrar.t of Syracuse, having
gained a considerable victory over the Carthaginians in
Sicily, among other conditions of peace which he en-
joined them, inserted this article; viz. That no more hu-
man sacrifices should be offered to Saturn.. And, doubt-
less, the practice of the Carthaginians, on this very oc-
casion, made Gelon use this precaution. For during
the whole engagement,° which lasted from morning till
night, Hamilcar, the son of Hanno their general, was
perpetually offering up to the gods sacrifices of living
men, who were thrown in great numbers on a flaming
pile; and seeing his troops routed and put to flight, he
himself rushed into it, in order that he might not survive
his own disgrace, and to extinguish, says St. Ambrose
speaking of this action, with his own blood, this sacrile-
gious fire, when he found that it had not proved of ser-
vice to him.* |

In times of pestilence" they used to sacrifice a great

crucibus exposuit, teste militia patrie nostre, que id ipsum munus illi pro-
consult functa est, i. e. Children were publicly sacrificed to Saturn, down
to the proconsulship of ‘Tiberius, who hanged the sacrificing priests them-
selves on the trees which shaded their temple, as on so many crosses,
raised to expiate their crimes, of which the militia of our country are wit-
nesses, who were the actors of this execution at the command of this pro-
consul. Tertull. Apolog.c.9. ‘wo learned men are at variance about
the proconsul, and the time of his government. Salmasius confesses his
ignorance of both; but rejects the authority of Scaliger, who, for procon-
sulatum, reads proconsulem Tiberi’, and thinks Tertullian, when he wrote
his Apology, had forgot his name. However this be, it is certain that the
memory of the incident here related by Tertullian was then recent, and
probably the witnesses of it had not been long dead. .

r Plut. de sera vindic. deorum, p. 552. ® Herod. |. vii..c. 167.

tIn ipsos quos adolebat sese precipitavit ignes, ut eos vel cruore suo
extingueret, quos sibi nihil profuisse cognoverat. S. Amb.

" Cum peste laborarent, cruenta sacrorum religione et scelere pro re-
medio usi sunt. Quippe homines ut victimas immolabant, et impuberes
(que etas etiam hostium misericordiam provocat) aris admovebant, pa-
cem deorum sanguine eorum exposcentes, pro quorum vita dii maximé
rogari solent. Justin. 1. xviii. c. 6... The Gauls as well as Germans used
to sacrifice men, if Dionysius and Tacitus may be credited.

CARTHAGINIANS. as 4

number of children to their gods, unmoved with pity for
a tender age, which excites compassion in the most cruel
enemies; thus seeking a remedy for their evils in guilt
itself, and endeavouring to appease the gods by the most
shocking barbarity.

Diodorus* relates an instance of this cruelty which
strikes the reader with horror. At the time that Aga-
thocles was just going to besiege Carthage, its inhabit-
ants, seeing the extremity to which they were reduced,
imputed all their misfortunes to the just anger of Saturn,
because that, instead of offering up children nobly born,
who were usually sacrificed to him, there had been
fraudulently substituted in their stead the children of
slaves and foreigners. ‘To atone for this crime, two
hundred children of the best families in Carthage were
sacrificed to Saturn; besides which, upwards of three
hundred citizens, from a sense of their guilt of this pre-
tended crime, voluntarily sacrificed themselves. Dio-
dorus adds, that there was a brazen statue of Saturn, the
hands of which were turned downward ; so that when a
child was laid on them, it dropped immediately into a
hollow, where was a fiery furnace.

Can this, says Plutarch,’ be called worshipping the gods ?
Can we be said to entertain an honourable idea of them,
if we suppose that they are pleased with slaughter, thirsty
of human blood, and capable of requiring or accepting
such offerings? Religion,’ says this judicious author,
is placed between two rocks, that are equally dangerous
to man, and injurious to the deity, I mean impiety and
superstition. The one, from an affectation of free-
thinking, believes nothing ; and the other, from a blind
weakness, believes all things. Impiety, to rid itself of
a terror which galls it, denies the very existence of the
gods: whilst superstition, to calm its fears, capriciously
forges gods, which it makes not only the friends, but
protectors and models, of crimes. Had it not been
better, says he farther,* for the Carthaginians to have had
originally a Critias, or a Diagoras, who were open and
undisguised atheists, for their lawgivers, than to have

FALEXX. py TOG: Y De superstitione, p. 169—171.
* Idem, in Camill. p. 132. @ De superstitione.

238 HISTORY OF THE

established so frantic and wicked a religion? Could the
Typhons and the giants (the avowed enemies of the
gods), had they gained a victory over them, have esta-
blished more abominable sacrifices ?

Such were the sentiments which a heathen entertained
of this part of the Carthaginian worship. One would
indeed scarce believe that mankind were capable of such
madness and frenzy. Men do not generally of them-
selves entertain ideas so destructive of all that nature
considers as most sacred, as to sacrifice, to murder, their
children with their own hands, and to throw them in cool
blood into fiery furnaces! Sentiments so unnatural and
barbarous, and yet adopted by whole nations, and even
by the most civilized, by the Phcenicians, Carthaginians,
Gauls, Scythians, and even the Greeks and Romans,
and consecrated by custom during a long series of ages,
can have been inspired by him only who was a murderer
from the beginning; and who delights in nothing but
the humiliation, misery, and perdition, of man.

Sect. III. Form oF THE GOVERNMENT OF
CARTHAGE.

The government of Carthage was founded upon prin-
ciples of the most consummate wisdom: and it is with
reason that Aristotle” ranks this republic in the number
of those that were had in the greatest esteem by the an-
cients, and which were fit to serve as a model for others.
He grounds his opinion ona reflection, which does great
honour to Carthage, by remarking, that from its foun-
dation to his time (that is, upwards of five hundred
years), no considerable sedition had disturbed the peace,
nor any tyrant oppressed the liberty, of that state. Indeed,
mixed governments, such as that of Carthage, where the
power was divided betwixt the nobles and the people, are
subject to two inconveniences; either of degenerating
into an abuse of liberty by the seditions of the populace,
as frequently happened in Athens, and in all the Grecian
republics ; or into the oppression of the public liberty by
the tyranny of the nobles, as in Athens, Syracuse, Co-
rinth, Thebes, and Rome itself under Sylla and Cesar.

6 De rep. I. ii. c. 11.

CARTHAGINIANS. 239

It is therefore giving Carthage the highest praise, to ob-
serve, that it had found out the art, by the wisdom of its
laws, and the harmony of the different parts of its go-
vernment, to shun, during so long a series of years, two
rocks that are so dangerous, and on which others so often
split.

oe were to be wished, that some ancient author had left
us an accurate and regular description of the customs and
laws of this famous republic. For want of such assistance,
we can only give our readers a confused and imperfect
idea of them, by collecting the several passages which lie
scattered up and down in authors. Christopher Hend-
rich has obliged the learned world in this particular ; and
his work* has been of great service to me.

The government of Carthage,* like that of Sparta and
Rome, united three different authorities, which counter-
poised and gave mutual assistance to one another. ‘These
authorities were, that of the two supreme magistrates,
called Suffetes ;° that of the senate ; and that of the peo-
ple. ‘There afterwards was added the tribunal of One
Hundred, which had great credit and influence in the

republic. |
The Suffetes.

The power of the Suffetes was only annual, and their
authority in Carthage answered to that of the consuls at
Rome.’ In authors they are frequently called kings, dic-
tators, consuls, because they exercised the functions of all
three. History does not inform us of the manner of their
election. They were empowered to assemble the senate :*
in which they presided, proposed subjects for deliberation,
and collected the votes ;" and they likewise presided in all
debates on matters of importance. Their authority was
not limited to the city, nor confined to civil affairs: they

¢ Itis entitled, Carthago, sive Carthaginensium respublica, $c. Franco-
furti ad Oderam, ann. 1664. 4 Polyb. |. iv. p. 493.

© This name is derived from a word, which, with the Hebrews and Phoe-
nicians, signifies judges—Shophetim.

f Ut Rome consules, sic Carthagine quotannis annui bini reges creaban-
tur. Corn. Nep. in vité Annibalis,c.’7. The great Hannibal was once one
of the Suffetes.

& Senatum itaque Suffetes, quod velut consulare imperium apud eos
erat, vocaverunt. iv. 1. xxx.n. 7.

» Cum Suffetes ad jus dicendum consedissent. Id. 1. xxxiv. n. 62.

240 HISTORY OF THE

aad

sometimes had the command of the armies. We find,
that when their employment of Suffetes expired, they
were made preetors, which was aconsiderable office, since,
besides conferring upon them the privilege of presiding
in some causes, it also empowered them to propose and
enact new laws, and call to account the receivers of the
public revenues, as appears from what Livy’ relates con-
cerning Hannibal on this head, and which I shall take
notice of in the sequel.

The Senate.

The Senate, composed of persons who were venerable
on account of their age, their experience, their birth,
their riches, and especially their merit, formed the coun-
cil of state; and were, if I may use that expression, the
soul of the public deliberations. Their number is not
exactly known: it must, however, have been very great,
since a hundred were selected from it to forma separate
assembly, of which I shall immediately have occasion to
speak. In the Senate, all affairs of consequence were de-
bated, the letters from generals read, the complaints of
provinces heard, ambassadors admitted to audience, and
peace or war determined, as is seen on many occasions.

When the sentiments and votes were unanimous,“ the
senate decided supremely, and there lay no appeal from
it. When there was a division, and the senate could not
be brought to an agreement, the affair was then laid be-
fore the people, on whom the power of deciding thereby
devolved. The reader will easily perceive the great wis-
dom of this regulation ; and how happily it was adapted
to crush factions, to produce harmony, and to enforce and
corroborate good counsels: such an assembly being ex-
tremely jealous of its authority, and not easily prevailed
upon to let it pass into other hands. Of this we have a
memorable instance in Polybius : '—When, after the loss
of the battle fought in Africa, at the end of the second
Punic war, the conditions of peace offered by the victor
were read in the senate ; Hannibal, observing that one
of the senators opposed them, represented, in the strong-
est terms, that as the safety of the republic lay at stake,

iL, xxxiii, n. 46,47. © Arist. loc. cit. 1 L. xv. p. 706, 707.

CARTHAGINIANS. | 941

it was of the utmost importance for the senators to be

unanimous in their resolutions, to prevent such a debate

from coming before the people ;_ and he carried his point.

This, doubtless, laid the foundation, in the infancy of the

republic, of the senate’s power, and raised its authority to

so great a height. And the same author observes,” in.
another place, that whilst the senate had the administra-

tion of affairs, the state was governed with great wisdom,

and was successful in all its enterprises.

The People.

It appears from every thing related hitherto, that even
so low as Aristotle’s time, who gives so beautiful a pic-
ture, and bestows so noble a eulogium on the govern-
ment of Carthage, the people spontaneously left the care
of public affairs, and the chief administration of them, to
the senate: and this it was which made the republic so
powerful. But things changed afterwards. For the peo-
ple, grown insolent by their wealth and conquests, and
forgetting that they owed these blessings to the prudent
conduct of the senate, were desirous of having a share in
the government, and arrogated to themselves almost the’
whole power. From that period, the public affairs were
transacted wholly by cabals and factions: and this Poly-
bius assigns as one of the chief causes of the ruin of
Carthage.

The Tribunal of the Hundred.

This was a body composed of a hundred and four per-
sons ; though often, for brevity’s sake, they are called only
the Hundred. These, according to Aristotle, were the

- same in Carthage, as the Ephori in Sparta; whence it
- appears, that they were instituted to balance the power of
the nobles and senate; but with this difference, that the
Ephori were but five in number, and continued in office
but a year; whereas these were perpetual, and were up-
wards of a hundred. It is believed, that
these Centumviri are the same with the
hundred judges, mentioned by Justin,”
who were taken out of the senate, and appointed to in-

A.M. 3609.
A. Carth. 487.

m Polyb, 1. vi. p. 494. 2 L. xix. c. ii
WO TLie2ks R

242 HISTORY OF THE

quire into the conduct of their generals. The exorbitant
power of Mago’s family, which, by its engrossing the
chief employments both of the state and the army, had
thereby the sole direction and management of all affairs,
gave occasion to this establishment. It was intended as
a curb to the authority of their generals, which, whilst
the armies were in the field, was almost boundless and ab-
solute; but, by this institution, it became subject to the
laws, by the obligation their generals were under, of giv-
ing an account of their actions before these judges on
their return from the campaign: U¢ hoc metu ita in bello
imperia cogitarent, ut domi judicia legesque respicerent.°
Of these hundred and four judges, five had a particular
jurisdiction superior to that of the rest; but it is not
known how long their authority lasted. This council of
five was like the council of ten in the Venetian senate.
A: vacancy in their number could be filled by none but
themselves. They also had the power of choosing those
who composed the council of the hundred. Their au-
thority was very great, and for that reason none were
elected into this office but persons of uncommon merit ;
and it was not judged proper to annex any salary or re-
ward to it; the single motive of the public good, being
thought a tie sufficient to engage honest men to a con-
scientious and faithful discharge of theirduty. Polybius,?
in his account of the taking of New Carthage by Scipio,
distinguishes clearly two orders of magistrates established
in Old Carthage; for he says, that among the prisoners
taken at New Carthage, were two magistrates. belonging
to the body or assembly of old men [éx rine Tepovotac |: so
he calls the council of the hundred ; and fifteen of the
senate [é« ry¢ ZvyxAnrov}. Livy’ mentions only the fifteen
of the senators ; but, in another place, he names the old
men; and tells us, that they formed the most venerable
council of the government, and had great authority in
thesenate. * Carthaginenses—Oratores ad pacem peten-

° Justin. |. xix. P L. x. p. 824. edit. Gronov.
Wb XXVi Dole) xXx, n. 16.
* M. Rollin might have taken notice of some civil officers who were es-
. tablished at Carthage, with a power like that of the censors of Rome, to
inspect the manners of the citizens. ‘The chief of these officers took from
Hantilcar, the father of Hannibal, a beautiful youth, named Asdru bal, on

CARTHAGINIANS. 243

dam mittunt triginta seniorum principes. Id erat sanctius
apud illos concilium, maximaque ad ipsum senatum regen-
dum vis.

Establishments, though constituted with the greatest
wisdom and the justest harmony of parts, degenerate,
however insensibly, into disorder and the most destruc-
tive licentiousness. ‘These judges, who by the lawful exe-
cution of their power were a terror to transgressors, and
the great pillars of justice, abusing their almost unlimited
authority, became so many petty tyrants. We shall see
this verified in the history of the great Hannibal, who;
_ during his preetorship, after his return to Africa, employed

eee all his influence to reform so horrid an

A. Carth. 682. abuse; and made the authority of these

judges, which before was perpetual, only

annual, about two hundred years from the first founding
the tribunal of the One Hundred.

Defects in the Government of Carthage.

Aristotle, among other reflections made by him on the
government of Carthage, remarks two great defects in it,
both which, in his opinion, are repugnant to the views of
a wise lawgiver and the maxims of sound policy.

The first of these defects was, the investing the same
person with different employments, which was considered
at Carthage as a proof of uncommon merit. But Aris-
totle thinks this practice highly prejudicial to the public
welfare. For, says this author, a man possessed but of
one employment, is much more capable of acquitting
himself well in the execution of it ; because affairs are
then examined with greater care, and sooner dispatched.
We never see, continues our author, either by sea or
land, the same officer commanding two different bodies,
or the same pilot steering two ships. Besides, the welfare
of the state requires that places and preferments should
be divided, in order to excite an emulation among men of
merit: whereas the bestowing of them on one man, too
a report that Hamilcar was more familiar with this youth than was con-
sistent with modesty. Erat pretered cumeo [ Amilcare] adolescens illustris
et formosus Hasdrubal, quem nonnulli diligi turpis quam par erat, ab

‘Amilcare, loquebantur.—Quo factum est ut 4 prafecto morum Hasdrubalcum
eo vetaretur esse. Corn. Nep. in Vita Amilcaris. -

R 2

244 HISTORY OF THE

often dazzles him by so distinguishing a preference; and
always fills others with jealousy, discontent, and murmurs.

The second defect taken notice of by Aristotle in the
government of Carthage, was, that in order for a man to
attain the first posts, a certain income was required (be-
sides merit and noble birth). By which means, poverty
might exclude persons of the most exalted merit, which
he considers as a great evil ina government. For then,
says he, as virtue is wholly disregarded, and money is all-
powerful, because all things are attained by it; the ad-
miration and desire of riches seize and corrupt the whole
community. Add-to this, that when magistrates and
judges are obliged to pay large sums for their employ-
ments, they seem to have a right to reimburse themselves.

There is not, I believe, one instance in all antiquity,
to shew that employments, either in the state or the
courts of justice, were sold. ‘The expense, therefore,
which Aristotle talks of here to raise men to preferments
in Carthage, must doubtless be understood of the presents
that were given in order to procure the votes of the elec-
tors ; a practice, as Polybius observes, very common at
Carthage, where no kind of gain was judged a disgrace.*
It is therefore no wonder, that Aristotle should condemn
a practice whose consequences, it is very plain, may prove
fatal to a government. |

But in case he pretended that the chief employments
of a state ought to be equally accessible to the rich and
the poor, as he seems to insinuate ; his opinion is refuted
by the general practice of the wisest republics : for these,
without any way demeaning or aspersing poverty, have
thought that, on this occasion, the preference ought to
be given to riches; because it is to be presumed, that
the wealthy have received a better education, have nobler
sentiments, are more out of the reach of corruption, and
less liable to commit base actions; and that even the
state of their affairs makes them more affectionate to the
~ government, more disposed to maintain peace and order
in it, and more interested in suppressing whatever may
tend to sedition and rebellion.

* Tlapd Kapyndoviog ovdiv aisxpdy riiv dynkdyrwy mpdc Képdoc.—Polyb.
- Vi. p. 497.

CARTHAGINIANS. 245

Aristotle, in concluding his reflections on the republic
of Carthage, is much pleased with a custom that pre-
vailed there ; viz. of sending from time to time colonies
into different countries ; and in this manner procuring
its citizens commodious settlements. This provided for
the necessities of the poor, who, equally with the rich,
are members of the state: and it disburdened Carthage
of multitudes of lazy, indolent people, who were its dis-
grace, and often proved dangerous to it: it prevented
commotions and insurrections, by thus removing such
persons ascommonly occasion them ; and who, being ever
discontented under their present circumstances, are al-
ways ready for innovations and tumults.

Sect. IV. Trapr or CARTHAGE, THE FIRST SOURCE
oF 1rs WEALTH AND Power.

Commerce, strictly speaking, was the occupation of
Carthage, the particular object of its industry, and its
peculiar and predominant characteristic. It formed the
greatest strength and the chief support of that common-
wealth. In aword, we may affirm, that the power, the
conquests, the credit, and glory, of the Carthaginians, all
flowed from their commerce. Situated in the centre of the
Mediterranean, and stretching out their arms eastward
and westward, the extent of their commerce took in all
the known world, and wafted it to the coast of Spain, of
Mauritania, of Gaul, and beyond the straits and pillars
of Hercules. They sailed to all countries, in order to
buy at a cheap rate the superfluities of every nation ;
which, by the wants of others, became necessaries ; and
these they sold to them at the dearest rates. From
Egypt the Carthaginians fetched fine flax, paper, corn,
sails, and cables for ships ; from the coast of the Red Sea,
spices, frankincense, perfumes, gold, pearls, and precious
stones; from Tyre and Phoenicia, purple and scarlet,
rich stuffs, tapestry, costly furniture, and divers curious
and exquisite works of art : in a word, they fetched from
various countries, all things that can supply the necessi-
ties, or are capable of contributing to the convenience,
the luxury, and the delights, of life. They brought
back from the western parts of the world, in return for

246 HISTORY OF THE

the articles carried thither, iron, tin, lead, and copper :
by the sale of these various commodities, they enriched
themselves at the expense of all nations; and put them
under a kind of contribution, which was so much the
surer as it was spontaneous.

In thus becoming the factors and agents of all nations,
they had made themselves lords of the sea; the band
which held the east, the west, and south together ; and
the necessary channel of their communication: so that
Carthage rose to be the common city, and the centre of
_ the trade, of all those nations which the sea separated
from one another.

The most considerable personages of the city were not
ashamed of engaging in trade. ‘They applied themselves
to it as industriously as the meanest citizens ; and their
great wealth did not make them less in love with the di-
ligence, patience, and labour, which are necessary to
augment it. To this they owed their empire of the sea,
the splendour of their republic; their being able to dis-
pute for the superiority with Rome itself; and their ex-
alted pitch of power, which forced the Romans to carry
on a bloody and doubtful war, for upwards of forty years,
in order to humble and subdue this haughty rival. In
short, Rome, even when triumphant, thought Carthage
was not to be entirely reduced any other way, than by de-
priving that city of the resources which it might still de-
rive from its commerce, by which it had so long been
enabled to resist the whole strength of that mighty re-
public.

However, it is no wonder that, as Carthage came in a
manner out of the greatest school of traffic in the world,
I mean Tyre, she should have been crowned with such
rapid and uninterrupted success. The very vessels on
which its founders had been conveyed into Africa, were
afterwards employed by them in their trade. They be-
gan to make settlements upon the coasts of Spain, in
those ports where they unloaded their goods. The ease
with which they had founded these settlements, and the
conveniences they met with, inspired them with the de-
sign of conquering those vast regions; and some time
after, Nova Carthago, or New Carthage, gave the Car-

CARTHAGINIANS. | 247

thaginians an empire in that country, almost equal to
ti.at which they enjoyed in Africa. .

| SECT. V.
Ture Mines ofr SPAIN, THE SECOND SOURCE OF
THE RicHES AND Power or CARTHAGE.

Diodorus * justly remarks, that the gold and _ silver
mines found by the Carthaginians in Spain, were an in-
exhaustible fund of wealth, that enabled them to sustain
such long wars against the Romans. The natives had
long been ignorant of these treasures that lay concealed
in the bowels of the earth, at least of their use and value.
The Phoenicians took advantage of this ignorance ; and,
by bartering some wares of little value for this precious
metal, they amassed infinite wealth, When the Cartha-
ginians had made themselves masters of the country, they
dug much deeper into the earth than the old inhabitants’
of Spain had done, who probably were content with what
they could collect on the surface ; and the Romans, when
they had dispossessed the Carthaginians of Spain, pro-
fited by their example, and drew an immense revenue
from these mines of gold and silver.

: The labour employed to come at these mines, and _ to

dig the gold and silver out of them, was incredible."
For the veins of these metals rarely appeared on the sur-
face; they were to be sought for and traced through
frightful depths, where very often floods of water stopped
the miners, and seemed to defeat all future pursuits.
But avarice is no less patient in undergoing fatigues, than.
ingenious in finding expedients. By pumps, which Ar-
chimedes had invented when in Egypt, the Romans af-
terwards threw up the water out of these pits, and quite.
drained them. Numberless multitudes of slaves perished
in these mines, which were dug to enrich their masters ;
who treated them with the utmost barbarity, forced them
by heavy stripes to labour, and gave them no respite
either day or night.

Polybius, as quoted by Strabo,* says, that in his time,
upwards of forty thousand men were employed in the
mines near Nova Carthago; and furnished the Romans
€ Lib. iv. p. 312, &c. " Diod. 1. iv. p. 312, &c. * Lib, iii. p. 147,

JAB HISTORY OF THE

every day with twenty-five thousand drachmas, or
8501. 7s. 6d.*

We must not be surprised to see the Carthaginians,
soon after the greatest defeats, sending fresh and nu-
merous armies again into the field; fitting out mighty
fleets, and supporting, at a great expense, for many
years, wars carried on by them in far-distant countries.
But it must appear surprising to us, that the Romans
should be capable of doing the same; they whose reve-
nues were very inconsiderable before those great con-
quests which subjected to them the most powerful na-
tions ; and who had no resources, either from trade, to
which they were absolute strangers, or from gold or sil-
ver mines, which were very rarely found in Italy, in case
there were any; and the expenses of which must, for
that very reason, have swallowed up all the profit. The
Romans, in the frugal and simple life they led, in their
zeal for the public welfare, and their love for their coun-
try, possessed funds which were not less ready or secure
than those of Carthage, but at the same time were far
more honourable to their nation.

Sect. VI. War.

Carthage must be considered as a trading, and, at
the same time, a warlike republic. Its genius and the
nature of its government led it to traffic; and it became
warlike, first, from the necessity the Carthaginians were
under of defending themselves against the neighbouring
nations, and afterwards from a desire of extending their
commerce and empire. ‘This double idea gives us, in my
opinion, the true plan and character of the Carthaginian
republic. We have already spoken of its commerce.

The military power of the Carthaginians consisted in
their alliances with kings; in tributary nations, from
which they drew both men and money ; in some troops
raised from among their own citizens ; and in mercenary
soldiers purchased of neighbouring states, without being
themselves obliged to levy or exercise them, because they
were already well disciplined and inured to the fatigues

Y 25,000 drachmas.—An Attic drachma, according to Dr. Bernard,
=84d. English money ; consequently, 25,000==859/. 7s. 6d.

CARTHAGINIANS. © 249

of war ; they making choice, in every country, of such
troops as had the greatest merit and reputation. They
drew from Numidia a light, bold, impetuous, and indefa-
tigable cavalry, which formed the principal strength of
their armies; from the Balearic isles, the most expert
slingers in the world; from Spain, a steady and invin-
cible infantry; from the coasts of Genoa and Gaul,
troops of acknowledged valour; and from Greece itself,
soldiers fit for all the various operations of war, for the
field or the garrisons, for besieging or defending cities.

In this manner the Carthaginians sent out at once pow-
erful armies, composed of soldiers which were the flower
of all the armies in the universe, without depopulating
either their fields or cities by new levies ; without sus-
pending their manufactures, or disturbing the peaceable
artificer ; without interrupting their commerce, or weak-
ening their navy. By venal blood they possessed them-
selves of provinces and kingdoms ; and made other na-
tions the instruments of their grandeur and glory, with
no other expense of their own than their money; and
even this furnished from the traffic they carried on with
foreign nations.
~ If the Carthaginians, in the course of a war, sustained
some losses, these were but as so many foreign accidents,
which only grazed, as it were, over the body of the state,
but did not make a deep wound in the bowels or heart of
the republic. ‘These losses were speedily repaired, by
sums arising out of a flourishing commerce, as from a
perpetual sinew of war, by which the government was
continually reinforced with new supplies for the purchase
of mercenary forces, who were ready at the first sum-
mons. And from the vast extent of the coasts which the
Carthaginians possessed, it was easy for them to levy, in
a very little time, a sufficient number of sailors and row-
ers for the working of their fleets, and to procure able
pilots and experienced captains to conduct them.

But as these parts were fortuitously brought together,
they did not adhere by any natural, intimate, or neces-
sary tie. No common and reciprocal.interest united them _
in such a manner, as to form a solid and unalterable body.
Not one individual in these mercenary armies was sin-

250 | HISTORY OF THE

cerely interested in the success of measures, or in the
prosperity of the state. They did not act with the same
zeal, nor expose themselves to dangers with equal reso-
lution, for a republic which they considered as foreign,
and which consequently was indifferent to them, as they
would have done for their native country, whose happi-
ness constitutes that of the several members who com-
pose it.

In great reverses of fortune, the kings’ in alliance with
the Carthaginians might easily be detached from their in-
terest, either by that jealousy which the grandeur of a
more powerful neighbour naturally excites; or by the
hopes of reaping greater advantages from a new friend ;
or by the fear of being involved in the misfortunes of an
old ally.

The tributary nations, impatient under the weight and
disgrace of a yoke which had been forced upon their necks,
generally flattered themselves with the hopes of finding
one less galling in changing their masters; or, in case
servitude was unavoidable, the choice was indifferent to
them, as will appear from many instances in the course of
this history.

The mercenary forces, accustomed to measure their
fidelity by the largeness or continuance of their pay, were
ever ready, on the least discontent, or the slightest ex-
pectation of a more considerable stipend, to desert to the
enemy with whom they had just before fought, and to
turn their arms against those who had invited them to
their assistance.

Thus the grandeur of the Carthaginians being sustained
only by these foreign supports, was shaken to the very
foundation when they were once taken away. And ifto
this there happened to be added an interruption of their
commerce (which was their sole resource), arising from
the loss of a naval engagement, they imagined themselves
to be on the brink of ruin, and abandoned themselves to
despondency and despair; as was evidently seen at the end
of the first Punic war.

Aristotle, in the treatise where he shews the advan-
ae and defects of the government of Carthage, finds

' % As Syphax and Masinissa.

CARTHAGINIANS. 951

no fault with its keeping up none but foreign forces; it
is therefore probable, that the Carthaginians did not fall
into this practice till a long time after. But the rebel-
lions which harassed Carthage in its later years, ought
to have taught its citizens, that no miseries are compar-
able to those of a government which is supported only
by foreigners ; since neither zeal, security, nor obedience,
can be expected from them.

But this was not the case with the republic of Rome.
As the Romans had neither trade nor money, they were
not able to hire forces, in order to push on their conquests
with the same rapidity as the Carthaginians: but then,
as they procured every thing from within themselves, and
as all the parts of the state were intimately united; they
had surer resources in great misfortunes than the Car-
thaginians. And for this reason they never once thought
of suing for peace after the battle of Canne, as the Car-
thaginians had done in a less imminent danger.

The Carthaginians had, besides, a body of troops
(which was not very numerous) levied from among their

own citizens; and this wasa kind of school, in which the

flower of their nobility, and those whose talents and am-
bition prompted them to aspire to the first dignities,
learned the rudiments of the art of war. From among
these were selected all the general officers, who were put
at the head of the different bodies of their forces, and
had the chief command in the armies. ‘This nation was
too jealous and suspicious to employ foreign generals.
But they were not so distrustful of their own citizens as
Rome and Athens; for the Carthaginians, at the same
time that they invested them with great power, did not
guard against the abuse they might make of it in order
to oppress their country. ‘The command of armies was
neither annual, nor limited to any time, as in the two re-
publics above-mentioned. Many generals held their
commissions for a great number of years, either till the
war or their lives ended ; though they were still account-
able to the commonwealth for their conduct ; and liable
to be recalled, whenever a real fault, a accel, or the
superior interest of a cabal, furnished an opportunity
for it.

\

252 HISTORY OF THE

Sect. VII. Arts AND SCIENCES.

It cannot be said that the Carthaginians renounced en-
tirely the glory which results from study and knowledge.
The sending of Masinissa, son of a powerful king,* thither
for education, gives us room to believe that Carthage was .
provided with an excellent school. The great Hannibal,”
who, in all respects, was an ornament to that city, was
not unacquainted with polite literature, as will be seen
hereafter. Mago,° another very celebrated general, did
as much honour to Carthage by his pen as by his victo-
ries. He wrote twenty-eight volumes upon husbandry,
which the Roman senate had in such esteem, that after
the taking of Carthage, when they presented the African
princes with the libraries found there (another proof that
learning was not entirely banished from Carthage), they
gave orders to have these books translated into Latin,’

‘though Cato had before written his books on that sub-
ject. There is still extant® a Greek version of a treatise
drawn up by Hanno in the Punic tongue, relating to a
voyage he made (by order of the senate) with a consider-
able fleet round Africa, for the settling of different colo-
nies in that part of the world. This Hanno is believed
to be more ancient than that person of the same name,
who lived in the time of Agathocles.

Clitomachus,’ called in the Punic language Asdrubal,
was a great philosopher. He succeeded the famous Car-
neades, whose disciple he had been ; and maintained in
Athens the honour of the Academic sect. Cicero says,®
that he was a more sensible man, and fonder of study,
than the Carthaginians generally are. He wrote several
books :" in one of which he composed a piece to console
the unhappy citizens of Carthage, who, by the ruin of
their city, were reduced to slavery.

* King of the Massylians in Africa. b Nepos in vité Annibalis.
© Cic. |. i. De orat. n. 249. Plin.1. xviii. c. 3.

* These books were written by Mago in the Punic language, and trans-
lated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica, from whose version, we
may probably suppose, the Latin was made.

© Voss. de Hist. Gr. 1. iv.
Plut. de fort. Alex. p. 328. Diog. Laért. in Clitom.
_§ Clitomachus, homo et acutus ut Poenus, et valdé studiosus ac diligens.
Academ. Quest. |. iy, n. 98, h Tusc. Quest. |. iii. n. 54.

CARTHAGINIANS. 963

I might rank among, or rather place at the head of,
the writers who have adorned Africa, the celebrated Te-
rence ; himself singly being capable of reflecting infinite
honour on his country by the fame of his productions, if,
on this account, Carthage, the place of his birth, ought
not to be less considered as his country than Rome,
where he was educated, and acquired that purity of style,
that delicacy and elegance, which have gained him the
admiration of all succeeding ages. It is supposed,’ that
he was carried off when an infant, or at least very young,
by the Numidians in their incursions into the Carthagi-
nian territories, during the war carried on between these
two nations, from the conclusion of the second, to the
beginning of the third, Punic war. He was sold for a
slave to Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator ; who, after
giving him an excellent education, gave him his liberty,
and called him by his own name, as was then the custom.
He was united in a very strict friendship with the second
Scipio Africanus, and Leelius; and it was a common re-
port at Rome, that he had the assistance of these two
great men in composing his pieces. The poet, so far
from endeavouring to stifle a report so advantageous to
him, made a merit of it. Only six of his comedies are
extant. Some authors, on the authority of Suetonius
(the writer of his life), say, that in his return from Greece,
whither hehad made a voyage, he lost a hundred and eight
comedies, which he had translated from Menander, and
could not survive an accident which must naturally afflict
him in a sensible manner: but this incident is not very
well founded. Be this as it may, he died in the year of
Rome 594, under the consulship of Cneius Cornelius
Dolabella and M. Fulvius, at the age of thirty-five years,
and consequently he was born anno 560. |

It must yet be confessed, notwithstanding all we have
said, that there ever was a great scarcity of learned men
in Carthage, since it hardly furnished three or four writers
of reputation in upwards of seven hundred years. Al-
though the Carthaginians held, a correspondence with
Greece and the most civilized nations, yet this did not
excite them to borrow their learning, as being foreign to

' Suet, in vit. Terent,

254 HISTORY OF THE

their views of trade and-commerce. Eloquence, poetry,
history, seem to have been little known among them.
A Carthaginian philosopher was considered as a sort of
prodigy by the learned. What then would an astronomer
or a geometrician have been thought? I know not in what
esteem physic, which is so highly useful to life, was held
at Carthage ; or jurisprudence, so necessary to society.
As works of wit were generally had in so much disre-
gard, the education of youth must necessarily have been
very imperfect and unpolished. In Carthage, the study
and knowledge of youth were for the most part confined
to writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, and the buying and
selling goods; in a word, to whatever related to traffic.
But polite learning, history, and philosophy, were in lit-
tle repute among them. ‘These were in later years even
prohibited by the laws, which expressly forbade any
Carthaginian to learn the Greek tongue, lest it might
qualify them for carrying on a dangerous correspondence
with the enemy, either by letter or word of mouth.*
Now what could be expected from such a cast of mind?
Accordingly there was never seen among them that ele-
gance of behaviour, that ease and complacency of man-
ners, and those sentiments of virtue, which are generally
the fruits of a liberal education in all civilized nations.
The small number of great men which this nation has
produced, must therefore have owed their merit to the
felicity of their genius, to the singularity of their talents,
and along experience, without any great assistance from
cultivation and instruction. Hence it was, that the
merit of the greatest men of Carthage was sullied by
great failings, low vices, and cruel passions; and it is
rare to meet with any conspicuous virtue among them
without some blemish ; with any virtue of a noble, gene-
rous, and amiable kind, and supported by enlightened
and steady principles, such as is every where found

k Factum senatfis consultum ne quis postea Carthaginensis aut literis
Grecis aut sermoni studeret; ne aut loqui cum hoste, aut scribere sine in-
terprete posset, Justin. 1. xx. c. 5. Justin ascribes the reason of this law
to a treasonable correspondence between one Suniatus, a powerful Car-
thaginian, and Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily ; the former, by letters writ-
‘ten in Greek (which afterwards fell into the hands of the Carthaginians),
having informed the tyrantof the war designed against him by his country,
out of hatred to Hanno the general, to whom he was an enemy.

CARTHAGINIANS. : 955

among the Greeks and. Romans. The reader will per-
ceive that I here speak only of the heathen virtues, and
agreeably to the idea which the Pagans entertained of
them. af

I meet with as few monuments of their skill in arts of
a less noble and necessary kind, as painting and sculp-
ture. I find, indeed, that they had plundered their con-
quered nations of a great many works in both these
kinds ; but it does not appear that they themselves had
produced many.

From what has been said, one cannot help concluding,
that traffic was the predominant inclination, and the pe-
culiar characteristic of the Carthaginians ; that it formed,
in a manner, the basis of the state, the soul of the com-
monwealth, and the grand spring which gave motion to
all their enterprises. The Carthaginians, in general,
were skilful merchants ; employed wholly in traffic; ex-
cited strongly by the desire of gain, and esteeming no-
thing but riches; directing all their talents, and placing
their chief glory, in amassing them ; though at the same
time they scarce knew the purpose for which they were
designed, or how to use them in a noble or worthy
manner.

Sect. VIII. Tue Cuaracter, MANNERS, AND Qua-
LITIES, OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.

In the enumeration of the various qualities which Ci-
cero’ assigns to different nations, as their distinguishing
characteristics, he declares that of the Carthaginians to
be craft, skill, address, industry, cunning, calliditas;
which doubtless appeared in war, but was still more
conspicuous in the rest of their conduct ; and this was
joined to another quality that bears a very near relation
to it, and is still less reputable. Craft and cunning lead
naturally to lying, duplicity, and breach of faith; and
these, by accustoming the mind insensibly to be less
scrupulous with regard to the choice of the means for
compassing its designs, prepare it for the basest frauds

1 Quam volumus licét ipsi nos amemus, tamen nec numero Hispanos,
nec robore Gallos, nec calliditate Poenos, &c. sed pietate ac religione, &c.
omnes gentes nationesque superavimus, De Arusp. Resp. n. 19.

256 HISTORY OF THE

and the most perfidious actions. This was also one of
the characteristics of the Carthaginians ;" and it was so
notorious, that to signify any remarkable dishonesty, it
was usual to call it Punic faith, fides Punica ; and to de-
note aknavish, deceitful disposition, no expression was
thought more proper and emphatical than this, a Car-
thaginian disposition, Punicum ingenium.

An excessive thirst for amassing wealth, and an inor-
dinate love of gain, generally gave occasion in Carthage
to the committing base and unjust actions. One single
example will prove this. During a truce, granted by
Scipio to the earnest entreaties of the Carthaginians,
some Roman vessels, being driven by a storm on the
coasts of Carthage, were seized by order of the senate
and people,” who could not suffer so tempting a prey to
escape them. ‘They were resolved to get money, though
the manner of acquiring it were ever so scandalous.
The inhabitants of Carthage, even in St. Austin’s time
(as that Father informs us), shewed, on a particular oc-
casion, that they still retained part of this characteristic.°

But these were not the only blemishes and faults of
the Carthaginians.” They had something austere and
savage in their disposition and genius, a haughty and im-
perious air, a sort of ferocity, which, in the first trans-
ports of passion, was dead to both reason and remon-
strances, and plunged brutally into the utmost excesses
of violence. ‘The people, cowardly and grovelling under
apprehensions, were proud and cruel in their transports ;
at the same time that they trembled under their magis-
trates, they were dreaded in their turn by their miserable

m Carthaginenses fraudulenti et mendaces—multis et variis mercato-
rum advenarumque sermonibus ad studium fallendi questis cupiditate
vocabantur. Cie. orat. ii. in Rull. n. 94.

n Magistratus senatum vocare, populus in curiz vestibulo fremere, ne
tanta ex oculis manisbusque amitteretur preda. Consensum est ut, &c.
Dies) Xx%. E24.

° A mountebank had promised the citizens of Carthage to discover to
them their most secret thoughts, in case they would come, on a day ap-
pointed, tohear him. Being all met, he told them, they were desirous to
buy cheap and sell dear. very man’s conscience pleaded guilty to the
charge ; and the mountebank was dismissed with applause and laughter.
Vili vultis emere, et caré vendere ; in quo dicto levissimi scenici omnes tamen
conscientias invenerunt suas, eiquevera et tamen improvisa dicenti admirabili

Ffavore plauserunt. S. August. 1. xiii. de Trinit. c. 3. :
P Plut. de gen. Rep. p. 799.

‘

CARTHAGINIANS. 257

vassals. In this we see the difference which education
makes between one nation and another. ‘The Atheni-
ans, whose city was always considered as the centre of
learning, were naturally jealous of their authority, and
difficult to govern ; but still, a fund of good nature and
humanity made them compassionate the misfortunes of
others, and be indulgent to the errors of their leaders.
Cleon one day desired the assembly, in which he presided,
to break up, because, as he told them, he had a sacrifice »
to offer, and friends to entertain. The people only
laughed at the request, and immediately separated. Such
a liberty, says Plutarch, at Carthage, would have cost a
man. his life.

Livy? makes a like reflection with regard to Terentius
Varro. ‘That general, on his return to Rome after the
battle of Cannz, which had been lost by his ill conduct,
was met by persons of all orders of the state, at some
distance from Rome; and thanked by them, for his not
having despaired of the commonwealth ; who, says the
historian, had he been a general of the Carthaginians,
must have expected the most severe punishment: Cuz,
si Carthaginensium ductor fuisset, nihil recusandum sup-
plicit foret. Indeed, a court was established-at Carthage,
where the generals were obliged to give an account of
their conduct ; and they all were made responsible for
the events of the war. _ Il success was punished there as
a crime against the state; and whenever a general lost
a battle, he was almost sure, at his return, of ending his
life upon a gibbet. Such was the furious, cruel, and
barbarous disposition of the Carthaginians, who were
always ready to shed the blood of their citizens as well
as of foreigners. The unheard-of tortures which they
made Regulus suffer, are a manifest proof of this asser-
tion ; and their history will furnish us with such instances
of it, as are not to be read without horror.

2 Lab. xxit..n. 61.

VOL.-1. Ss

258 HtSTORY OF THE

> PART II.

THE HISTORY. OF THE CARTHAGINIANS.

Tue interval of time between the foundation of Car-
thage and its ruin, included seven hundred years, and may
be divided into two parts. The first, which is much the
longest and the least known (as is ordinary with the be-
ginnings of all states), extends to the first Punic war,
and takes up five hundred and eighty-two years. The
second, which ends at the destruction of Carthage, con-
tains but a hundred and eighteen years.

CHAP. I.

The Foundation of Carthage, and its Aggrandizement
till the Time of the first Punic War.

CarTHAGE in Africa was a colony from Tyre, the most
renowned city at that time for commerce in the world.
Tyre had long before transplanted into that country
another colony, which built Utica,” made famous by the
death of the second Cato, who for this reason is generally
called Cato Uticensis.

Authors disagree very much with regard to the era of
the foundation of Carthage.* It is a difficult matter, and
not very material, to reconcile them; at least, agree-
ably to the plan laid down by me, it is sufficient to

t Utica et Carthago, ambe inclyte, ambe & Phenicibus condita ; illa fato
Catonis insignis, hee suo. Pompon. Mel. c. 67. Utica and Carthage,
both famous, and both built by Phoenicians; the first renowned by Cato’s
fate, the last by its own.

® Our countryman Howel endeavours to reconcile the three different
accounts of the foundation of Carthage, in the following manner. He
says, that the town consisted of three parts, viz. Cothon, or the port and
buildings adjoining to it, which he supposes to have been first built; Me-
gara, built next, and, in respect of Cothon, called the New Town, or Kar-
thada; and Byrsa, or the citadel, built last of all, and probably by Dido.

Cothon, to agree with Appian, was built fifty years before the taking of
Troy ; Megara, to correspond with Eusebius, was built a hundred ninety-
four years later; Byrsa, to agree with Menander (cited by Josephus), was
built a hundred sixty-six years after Megara. .

CARTHAGINIANS. | 259

know, within a few years, the time in which that city
was built. :
' Carthage existed a little above seven hundred years.*
It was destroyed under the consulate of Cn.Lentulus, and
L. Mummius,.the 603d year of Rome, 385gth of the
world, and 145 before Christ. The foundation of it may
therefore be fixed in the year of the world 3158, when
Joash was king of Judah, 98 years before the building of
Rome, and 846 before our Saviour.

The foundation of Carthage is ascribed to Elisa, a Ty-
rian princess, better known by the name of Dido." Itho-
bal, king of Tyre, and father of the famous Jezebel,
called in Scripture Ethbaal, was her great grandfather.
She married her near relation Acerbas, called otherwise
Sicharbas and Sichzeus, an extremely rich prince, and
Pygmalion, king of ‘Tyre, washer brother. This prince
having put Sichzeus to death, in order that he might have
an opportunity of seizing his immense wealth, Dido
eluded the cruel avarice of her brother, by withdrawing
secretly ‘with all her dead husband’s treasures. After
having long wandered, she at last landed on the coast of
the Mediterranean, in the gulf where Utica stood, and
in the country of Africa, properly so called, distant almost
fifteen miles* from Tunis, so famous at this time for its
corsairs ; and there settled with her few followers, after
having purchased some lands from the inhabitants of the
country.’ | |

Many of the neighbouring people, invited by the pros-
pect of lucre, repaired thither to sell to these new comers
the necessaries of life; and shortly after incorporated
themselves with them. These inhabitants, who had been
thus gathered from different places, soon grew very nu-

t Liv. Epit. 1. ii. - 7

« Justin. 1. xviii.c. 4—6. App. de bello Pun. p.1. Strab. 1. xvii.
p. 832.. Paterc. |. i. c. 6. * 120 stadia. Strab. I. xiv. p. 687.

y Some authors say, that Dido put a trick on the natives, by desiring to
purchase of them, for her intended settlement, only so much land as an
ox’s hide would: encompass. The request was thought too moderate to
be denied. She then cut the hide intothe smallest thongs ; and, with them,
encompassed a large track of ground, on which she built a citadel called
Byrsa, from the hide. But this tale of the hide is generally exploded by
the learned ; who observe that the Hebrew word Bosra, which signifies a

fortification, gave rise to the Greek word Byrsa, which is the name of the
citadel of Carthage /

Ss 2

-

260 HISTORY OF THE

merous. The citizens of Utica, considering them as their
countrymen, and as descended from the same common
stock, deputed envoys with very considerable presents,
and exhorted them to build a city in the place where they
had first settled. The natives of the country, from the
esteem and respect frequently shewn to strangers, did as
much on their part. Thus all things conspiring with
Dido’s views, she built her city, which was charged with
the payment of an annual tribute to the Africans for the
ground it stood upon: and called Carthada,’ or Carthage,
a name that, in the Pheenician and Hebrew tongues
(which have a great affinity), signifies the New City. It
is said, that when the foundations were dug, a horse’s
head was found, which was thought a good omen, and a
presage of the future warlike genius of that people.*
This princess was afterwards courted by Iarbas, king
of Getulia, and threatened with a war in case of refusal.
Dido, who had bound herself by an oath not to consent
to a second marriage, being incapable of violating the
faith she had sworn to Sicheus, desired time for delibe-
ration, and for appeasing the manes of her first husband
by sacrifice. Having therefore ordered a pile to be raised,
she ascended it; and drawing out a dagger which she had
concealed under her robe, stabbed herself with it.?

2 Kartha Hadath, or Hadtha.
@ Effodére loco signum, quod regia Juno
Monstrarat, caput acris equi; nam sic fore bello
Egregiam, ct facilem victu per secula gentem.—Virg. An. 1. i. 447.

The Tyrians landing near this holy ground,
And digging here, a prosperous omen found :
From under earth a courser’s head they drew,
Their growth and future fortune to foreshew:
This fated sign their foundress Juno gave,

Of a soil fruitful, and a people brave.— Dryden.

> The story, asit is told more at large in Justin (1. xviii. c. 6), is this :—
Tarbas, king of the Mauritanians, sending for ten-of the principal Cartha-
ginians, demanded Dido in marriage, threatening to declare war against
her in case of a refusal; the ambassadors being afraid to deliver the mes-
sage of Iarbas, told her (with Punic honesty ), that he wanted to have some
person sent him, who was capable of civilizing and polishing himself and his
Africans ; but that there was no possibility of finding any Carthaginian, who
would be willing to quit his native place and kindred, for the conversation of
Barbarians, who were as savage as the wildest beasts. Here the queen,
with indignation, interrupting them, and asking, if they were not ashamed
to refuse living in any manner which might be beneficial to their country, to
which they owed even their lives? they then delivered the king’s message,
and bid her set them a pattern, and sacrifice herself to her country’s welfare.

CARTHAGINIANS. 261

Virgil has made a great alteration in this history, by
supposing that Axneas, his hero, was contemporary with
Dido, though there was an interval of near three centu-
ries between the one and the other; Carthage being

built three hundred years after the destruction of Troy. >

This liberty is very excusable in a poet, who is not tied
to the scrupulous accuracy of an historian; and we ad-
mire, with great reason, the judgment which he has shewn
in his plan, when, to interest the Romans (for whom he
wrote) in his subject, he has the art of introducing into
it the implacable hatred which subsisted between Carthage
and Rome, and ingeniously deduces the original of it from
the very remote foundation of those two rival cities.

Carthage, whose beginnings, as we have observed,
were very weak at first, grew larger by insensible degrees,
in the country where it was founded. But its dominion
was not long confined to Africa. This ambitious city ex-
tended her conquests into Europe, invaded Sardinia, made
herself mistress of a great part of Sicily, and reduced to
her subjection almost the whole of Spain; and having
sent out powerful colonies into all quarters, enjoyed the
empire of the seas for more than six hundred years ; and
formed a state which was able to dispute pre-eminence
with the greatest empires of the world, by her wealth,
her commerce, her numerous armies, her formidable
fleets, and, above all, by the courage and ability of her cap-
tains. ‘The dates and circumstances of many of these
conquests are little known. JI shall take but a transient
notice of them, in order to enable my readers to form
some idea of the countries, which will be often mentioned
in the course of this history.

Conquests of the Carthaginians in Africa.

The first wars made by the Carthaginians, were to free
themselves from the annual tribute which they had en-
gaged to pay the Africans, for the territory which had
been ceded to them.* This conduct does them no ho-
Dido, being thus ensnared, called on Sichzeus with tears and lamentations,
and answered, that she would go where the fate of her city called her. At
the expiration of three months, she ascended the fatal pile; and with her

last breath told the spectators, that she was going to her husband, as they
. hadordered her. ¢ Justin. |. xix. c. 1.

262 HISTORY OF THE

nour, as the settlement was granted them upon condition
of their paying a tribute. One would be apt to imagine,
that they were desirous of covering the obscurity of their
original, by abolishing this proof of it. But they were
not successful on this occasion. The Africans had jus-
tice on their side, and they prospered accordingly ; the
war being terminated by the payment of the tribute.

The Carthaginians afterwards carried their arms against
the Moors and Numidians, and gained many conquests
over both.* Being now emboldened by these happy suc-
cesses, they shook off entirely the tribute which gave them
so much uneasiness, and possessed themselves of a great
part of Africa.

About this time there arose a great dispute between
Carthage and Cyrene, on the subject of their respective
limits.’ Cyrene was a very powerful city, situated on the
Mediterranean, towards the greater Syrtis, and had been
built by Battus, the Lacedeemonian.

It was agreed on each side, that two young men should
set out at the same time, from either city ; and that the
_ place of their meeting should be the common boundary
of both states. The Carthaginians (these were two bro-
thers named Philzni) made the most haste; and their
antagonists pretending that foul play had been used, and
that the two brothers had set out before the time appoint-
ed, refused to stand to the agreement, unless the two
brothers (to remove all suspicion of unfair dealing’) would
consent to be buried alive in the place where they had met.
They acquiesced with the proposal ; and the Carthagi-
nians erected, on that spot, two altars to their memories,
and paid them divine honours in their city ; and from
that time the place was called the altars of the Phileni,
Are Philenorum,’ and served as the boundary of the
Carthaginian empire, which extended from thence to the
pillars of Hercules.

@ Justin. |. xix. c. 2.

_© Afri compulsi stipendium urbis condita Carthaginiensibus remittere.
Justin. 1. xix. c. 2.

f Sallust. de bello Jugurth. n. 77. Valer. Max. I. v. c. 6.
& These altars were not standing in Strabo’s time. Some geographers
think Arcadia to be the city which was anciently called Philanorum Are ;

but others believe it was Naina or Tain, situated a little west of Arcadia,
in the gulf of Sidra.

CARTHAGINIANS. 263

Conquests of the Carthaginians in Sardinia, &c.

History does not inform us exactly, either of the time
when the Carthaginians entered Sardinia, or of the man-
ner in which they got possession of it. This island was
of great use to them ;" and, during all their wars, sup-
plied them abundantly with provisions. It is separated
from Corsica only by a strait of about three leagues in
breadth. The metropolis of the southern and most fer-
tile part of it, was Caralis or Calaris, now called Cagliari.
On the arrival of the Carthaginians, the natives withdrew
to the mountains in the northern parts of the island,
which. are almost inaccessible, and whence the enemy
could not dislodge them.

The Carthaginians seized likewise on the Balearic
isles, now called Majorca and Minorca. Port Mahon
(Portus Magonis), in the latter island, was so called from
Mago, a Carthaginian general, who first made use of and
fortified it. It is not known who this Mago was;' but
it is very probable that he was Hannibal’s brother. This
harbour is, at this day, one of the most considerable in
the Mediterranean.

These isles furnished the Carthaginians with the most
expert slingers in the world, who did them great service
in battles and sieges.“ ‘They slang large stones of above
a pound weight; and sometimes threw leaden bullets,
with so much violence, that they would pierce even the
strongest helmets, shields, and cuirasses ; and were so
dexterous in their aim, that they scarce ever missed the
mark. The inhabitants of these islands were accustomed
from their infancy to handle the sling ; for which pur-
pose their mothers placed on the bough of a high tree,
the piece of bread designed for their children’s break fast,
who were not allowed a morsel till they had brought it
down with their slings. From this practice, these islands
were called Balleares and Gymnasie by the Greeks ;™

h Strab. I. v. p. 224. Diod. 1. v. p. 296.
i Liv. |. xxviii. n. 37.
k Diod. 1. v. p. 298. and I. xix. p. 742. Liv. loco citato.

1 Liquescit excussa glans funda, et attritu aéris, velut igne, distillat: 7. e.
The ball, when thrown from the sling, dissolves; and, by the friction of the
air, runs as if it was melted by fire. Senec. Nat. Quest. |, ii. e. 57.

m Strab. |. iii. p. 167.

264 HISTORY OF THE

because the inhabitants used to exercise themselves so
early in slinging of stones.”

Conquests of the Carthaginians in Spain.

Before I enter on the relation of these conquests, I
think it proper to give my readers some idea of Spain.

Spain is divided into three parts, Boetica, Lucitamia,
Tarraconensis.° na el

Beetica, so called from the river Beetis,? was the south-
ern division of it, and comprehended the present king-
dom of Grenada, Andalusia, part of New Castile, and Es-
tremadura. Cadiz, called by the ancients Gades and Ga-
dira, is a town situated in a small island of the same name,
on the western coast of Andalusia, about nine leagues
from Gibraltar. It is well known,‘ that Hercules, hav-
ing extended his conquests to this place, halted, from the
supposition that he was come to the extremity of the
world. He here erected two pillars, as monuments of
his victories, pursuant to the custom of that age. The
place has always retained the name, though time has quite
destroyed these pillars. Authors are divided in opinion,
with regard to the place where these pillars were erected.
Beetica was the most fruitful, the wealthiest, and most
populous, part of Spain.” It contained two hundred cities,

. Bochart derives the name of these islands from two Phoenician words,
Baal-jare, or master of the art of slinging. This strengthens the authority
of Strabo, viz. that the inhabitants learned their art from the Phoenicians,
who were once their masters. X¢evdovijrar dproroe NEyovrar—i~srov Poi-
viKec KaTéoxoy Tac ynoove. And this is still more probable, when we con-
sider that both the Hebrews and Phoenicians excelled in this art. The
Balearian slings would annoy an enemy either near at hand, or at a
distance. Every slinger carried three of them in war. One hung from
the neck, a second from the waist, and a third was carried in the hand.
To this, give me leave to add two more observations (foreign indeed to the
present purpose, but relating to these islands), which I hope will not be
unentertaining to the reader. The firstis, that these islands were once so
infested with rabbits, that the inhabitants of it applied to Rome, either for
aid against them, or otherwise desired new habitations, éxBdadreoPar yao
td réyv Cowy Tobrwy, those creatures having ejected them out of their old
ones. Vide Strab. Plin. |. viii. c.55. The second observation is, that
these islanders were not only expert slingers, but likewise excellent swim-
mers; which they are to this day, by the testimony of our countryman
Biddulph, who, in his Travels, informs us, that being becalmed near these
islands, a woman swam to him out of one of them, with a basket of fruit
to sell.

& Claver, 1. ii. .c. 2; P Guadalquiver.
4 Strabo, |. iii. p. 171. ' T [bid. p. 139—142,

CARTHAGINIANS. 265

and was inhabited by the Turdetani, or Turduli. On the
banks of the Beetis stood three large cities ; Castulo to-
wards the source ; Corduba lower down, the native place
of Lucan and the two Senecas ; lastly, Hispalis.°

Lusitania is bounded on the west by the Ocean, on
the north by the river Durius,‘ and on the south by
the river Anas." Between these two rivers is the Tagus.
Lusitania was what is now called Portugal, with part of
Old and New Castile.

Tarraconensis comprehended the rest of Spain, that
is, the kingdoms of Murcia and Valentia, Catalonia,
Arragon, Navarre, Biscay, the Asturias, Gallicia, the
kingdom of Leon, and the greatest part of the two Cas-
tiles. ‘Tarraco,* a very considerable city, gave its name
to this part of Spain. Pretty near it lay Barcino.’ Its
name gives rise to the conjecture, that it was. built by
Hamilcar, surnamed Barca, father of the great Hannibal.
The most renowned nations of Tarraconensis were, the
Celtiberi, beyond the river Iberus ;* the Cantabri, where
Biscay now lies; the Carpetani, whose capital was ‘To-
ledo; the Oretani, &c.

Spain, abounding with mines of gold and silver, and
peopled with a martial race of men, had sufficient to ex-
cite both the avarice and ambition of the Carthaginians,
who were more of a mercantile than of a warlike disposi-
tion, from the very genius and constitution of their re-
public. They doubtless knew that their Phoenician an-
cestors (as Diodorus* relates), taking advantage of the
happy ignorance of the Spaniards, with regard to the im-
mense riches which were hid in the bowels of their lands,
first took from them these precious treasures, in ex-
change for commodities of little value. They likewise
foresaw, that if they could once subdue this country, it
would furnish them abundantly with well-disciplined
troops for the conquest of other nations, as actually hap-
pened.

The occasion of the Carthaginians first landing in
Spain, was to assist the inhabitants of Cadiz, who were
invaded by the Spaniards.’ That city was a colony’from
; > Seville. * Douro. " Guadiana. * Tarragona,

Y Barcelona. “ Ebro. ® Lib. v. p. 312.
> Justin. 1. xliy,c.5, Diod. 1. vy. p. 300.

266. HISTORY OF THE

Tyre, as well as Utica and Carthage, and’even more an~
cient than either of them. ‘The Tyrians having built it,
established there the worship of Hercules; and erected,
in his honour, a magnificent temple, which became fa-
mous in after-ages. ‘The success of this first expedition
of the Carthaginians made them desirous of carrying their
arms into Spain.

It is not exactly known in what period they entered
Spain, nor how far they extended their first conquests.
It is probable that these were slow in the beginning, as
the Carthaginians had to do with very warlike nations,
who defended themselves with great resolution and cou-
rage. Nor could they ever have accomplished their de-
sign, as Strabo* observes, had the Spaniards (united in a
body) formed but one state, and mutually assisted one
another.. But as every district, every people, were en-
tirely detached from their neighbours, and had not the
least correspondence nor connexion with them, the Car-
thaginians were forced to subdue them one after another.
This circumstance occasioned, on one hand, the loss of
Spain; but on the other, protracted the war, and made
the conquest of the country much more difficult.* Ac-
cordingly it has been observed, that though Spain was
the first province which the Romans invaded on the
continent, it was the last they subdued ;° and was not
entirely subjected to their power, till after having made
a vigorous opposition for upwards of 200 years.

It appears from the accounts given by Polybius and
Livy, of the wars of Hamilcar, Asdrubal, and Hannibal,
in Spain, which will soon be mentioned, that the arms
of the Carthaginians had not made any considerable
progress in that country before that period, and that the
greatest part of Spain was then unconquered. But in
twenty years’ time they completed the conquest of al-
most the whole country.

At the time that Hannibal set out for Italy,’ all the

© L. iii. p. 158.

4 Such a division of Britain retarded, and at the same time facilitated,
the conquest of it to the Romans. Dum singuli pugnant, universi vincun-
tur. Tacit.

© Hispania, prima Romanis inita Provinciarum, que quidem continen-

tis sint, postrema omnium perdomitaest. Liv. |. xxviii. n. 12.
f Polyb. J. iii. p. 192, 1. i. p. 9.

CARTHAGINIANS. 267

coast of Africa, from the Philenorum Are, by the great
Syrtis, to the pillars of Hercules, was subject to the
Carthaginians. Passing through the straits, they had
conquered all the western coast of Spain, along the
ocean, as far as the Pyrenean hills. The coast which
lies on the Mediterranean, had been almost wholly sub-
dued by them ; and it was there they had built Cartha-
gena; and they were masters of all the country, as far
as the river Iberus, which bounded their dominions.
Such was, at that time, the extent of their empire. In
the centre of the country, some nations had indeed held
out against all their efforts, and could not be subdued
by them. 7

Conquests of the Carthaginians in Sicily.

The wars which the Carthaginians carried on in Si-
cily are more known. I shall here relate those which
were waged from the reign of Xerxes, who first prompted
the Carthaginians to carry their arms into Sicily, till the
first Punic war. ‘This period includes near two hundred
and twenty years; viz. from the year of the world 3520
to 3738. At the breaking out of these wars, Syracuse,
the most considerable as well as most powerful city of
Sicily, had invested Gelon, Hiero, and ‘Thrasybulus
(three brothers who succeeded one another) with the
sovereign power. After their deaths, a democracy or
popular government was established in that city, and
subsisted above sixty years. From this time, the two
Dionysiuses, Timoleon, and Agathocles, bore the sway
in Syracuse. Pyrrhus was afterwards invited into Sicily,
but he kept possession of it only a few years. Such
was the government of Sicily during the wars of which
I am going to treat. They will give us great light with
regard to the power of the Carthaginians, at the time
that they began to be engaged in war with the Romans.

Sicily is the largest and most considerable island in
the Mediterranean. It is of a triangular form, and for
that reason was called Trinacria and Triquetra. The
eastern side, which faces the Ionian or Grecian sea, ex-
tends from cape Pachynum® to Pelorum." The most

a & Pessaro. h Il Faro.

268 _ HISTORY OF THE

celebrated cities on this coast are Syracuse, Taurome-
nium, and Messana. ‘The northern coast, which looks
towards Italy, reaches from cape Pelorum to cape Lily-
beum.' The most noted cities on this coast are Myle,
Himera, Panormus, Eryx, Motya, Lilybeum. The
southern coast, which lies opposite to Africa, extends
from cape Lilybeum to Pachynum. The most remark-
able cities on this coast are Selinus, Agrigentum, Gela,
and Camarina. ‘This island is separated from Italy by
a strait, which is not more than a mile and a half over,
and called the Faro or strait of Messina, from its con-
tiguity to that city. The passage from Lilybeum to
Africa is but 1500 furlongs,‘ that is, about seventy-five
leagues.’
The period in which the Carthagini-
A. M. 3501. —_ ans first carried their arms into Sicily is
A. Carth. 343. es :
Rome, 245... not exactly known.” All we are certain
Ant. J. C. 503. of is, that they were already possessed of
some part of it, at the time that they en-
tered into a treaty with the Romans; the same year that
the kings were expelled, and consuls appointed in their
room, viz. twenty-eight years before Xerxes invaded
Greece. This treaty, which is the first we find men-
tioned to have been made between these two nations,
speaks of Africa and Sardinia as possessed by the Car-
thaginians ; whereas the conventions with regard to Si-
cily, relate only to those ports of the island which were
subject to them. By this treaty it is expressly stipu-
lated, that neither the Romans nor their allies shall sail
beyond the Fair Promontory," which was very near
Carthage; and that such merchants, as shall resort to

i Cape Boéo. k Strabo, |. vi. p. 267. -

1 This is Strabo’s calculation; but there must be a mistake in the nume-
ral characters ; and what he immediately subjoins, is a proof of this mis-
take. He says, that a man, whose eye-sight was good, might, from the
coast of Sicily, count the vessels that came out of the port of Carthage.
Is it possible that the eye can carry so far as 60 or 75 leagues? This pas-
sage of Strabo, therefore, must be thus corrected. ‘The passage from Li-
lybeeum to Africa, is only 25 leagues.

™ Polyb. |. iii. p. 245. et seq. edit. Gronov.
» The reason of this restraint, according to Polybius, was, the unwilling-
_hess of the Carthaginians to let the Romans have any knowledge of the
countries which lay more to the south, in order that this enterprising peo-
ple might not hear of their fertility. Polyb, 1. iii. p. 247, edit. Gronov.

CARTHAGINIANS. 269

this city for traffic, shall pay only certain duties which
are settled in it.°

It appears by the same treaty, that the Carthaginians
were particularly careful to exclude the Romans from all
the countries subject to them; as well as from the
knowledge of what was transacting in them; as though
the Carthaginians, even at that time, had taken umbrage
at the rising power of the Romans; and already har-
boured in their breasts the secret seeds of that jealousy
and distrust, that were one day to burst out in long and
cruel wars, anda mutual hatred and animosity, which
nothing could extinguish but the ruin of one of the
contending powers.

Some years after the conclusion of this
first treaty, the Carthaginians made an
alliance with Xerxes, king of Persia.’
This prince, who aimed at nothing less than the total
extirpation of the Greeks, whom he considered as his
irreconcilable enemies, thought it would be impossible
for him to succeed in his enterprise without the assist-
ance of Carthage, whose power was formidable even at
that time. The Carthaginians, who always kept in view
the design they entertained of seizing upon the remain-
der of Sicily, greedily snatched the favourable oppor-
tunity which now presented itself for their completing
the reduction of it. A treaty was therefore concluded;
wherein it was agreed, that the Carthaginians were to
invade, with all their forces, those Greeks who were
settled in Sicily and Italy, while Xerxes should march
in person against Greece itself.

The preparations for this war lasted three years. The
land army amounted to no less than three hundred |
thousand men, The fleet consisted of two thousand
ships of war, and upwards of three thousand small vessels
of burden. Hamilcar, the most experienced captain of
his age, sailed from Carthage with this formidable army.
He landed at Palermo ;! and, after refreshing his troops,
he marched against Himera, a city not far distant from
Palermo, and laid siege to it. Theron, who commanded

A. M. 3520.
Ant. J. C. 484.

_ 2° Polyb. 1. ili. p. 246. * P’ Diod..1.xi. p: 1. 16. 22.
4 This city is called in Latin Panormus.

270 HISTORY OF THE

in it, seeing himself very much straitened, sent to Ge-
lon, who had possessed himself of Syracuse. He flew
immediately to his relief, with fifty thousand foot and
five thousand horse. His arrival infused new courage
into the besieged, who, from that time, made a very
vigorous defence.

Gelon was an able warrior, and excelled in stratagems.
A courier was brought to him, who had been dispatched
from Selinus, a city of Sicily, with a letter for Hamilcar,
to inform him of the day when he might expect the ca-
valry which he had demanded of them. Gelon drew out
an equal number of his own troops, and sent them from
his camp about the time agreed on. ‘These being ad-
mitted into the enemy’s camp, as coming from Selinus,
rushed upon Hamilcar, killed him, and set fire to his
ships. In this critical conjuncture, Gelon attacked, with
all his forces, the Carthaginians, who at first made a gal-
lant resistance. But when the news of their general’s
death was brought them, and they saw all their fleet ina
blaze, their courage failed them, and they fled. And now
a dreadful slaughter ensued: upwards of a hundred and
fifty thousand being slain. ‘The rest of the army, hav-
ing retired to a place where they were in want of every
thing, could not make a long defence, and were forced
to surrender at discretion. ‘This battle was fought the
‘very day of the famous action of Thermopyle, in which
three hundred Spartans,’ with the sacrifice of their lives,
disputed Xerxes’s entrance into Greece.

When the sad news was brought to Carthage of the
entire defeat of the army, consternation, grief, and de-
spair, threw the whole city into such a confusion and
alarm as are not to be expressed. It was imagined that
the enemy was already at the gates. ‘The Carthaginians,
in great reverses of fortune, always lost their courage,
and sunk into the opposite extreme. Immediately they
sent a deputation to Gelon, by which they desired peace
upon any terms. He heard their envoys with great hu-
manity. The complete victory he had gained, so far

* Besides the 300 Spartans, the Thespians, a people of Boeotia, to the
number of 700, fought and died with Leonidas in this memorable battle.
Herod. \. vii. c. 202—222:

CARTHAGINIANS. _ 271

from making him haughty and untractable, had only in-
creased his modesty and clemency even towards the ene-
my. He therefore granted them a peace, without any
other condition, than their paying two thousand talents*
towards the expense of the war. He likewise required
them to build two temples, where the treaty of this peace
should be deposited, and exposed at all times to public
view. The Carthaginians did not think this a dear pur-
chase of a peace that was so absolutely necessary to their
affairs, and which they hardly durst hope for. Gisgo,
the son of Hamilcar, pursuant to the unjust custom of
the Carthaginians, of ascribing to the general the ill suc-
cess of a war, and making him bear the blame of it, was
punished for his father’s misfortune, and sent into banish-
ment. He passed the remainder of his days at Selinus,
a city of Sicily.

Gelon, on his return to Syracuse, convened the people,
and invited all the citizens to appear under arms. He
himself entered the assembly, unarmed and without his
guards, and there gave an account of the whole conduct
of his life. His speech met with no other interruption
than the public testimonies which were given him of
gratitude and admiration. So far from being treated as
a tyrant, and the oppressor of his country’s liberty, he
was considered as its benefactor and deliverer ; all, with
a unanimous voice, proclaimed him king; and the crown
was bestowed, after his death, on his two brothers.

A. NE BAGS. After the memorable defeat of the

A. Carth. 434. Athenians before Syracuse,‘ where Nicias
Ani yom 86. perished with his whole fleet, the Seges-
tans, who had declared in favour of the

Athenians against the Syracusans, fearing the resentment
of their enemies, and being attacked by the inhabitants
of Selinus, implored the aid of the Carthaginians, and
put themselves and city under their protection. At Car-
thage the people debated some time, what course it would
be proper for them to take, the affair meeting with great
difficulties. On one hand, the Carthaginians were very

* An Aiftiec silver talent, according to Dr. Bernard, is 206l. 5s.; conse-
quently, 2000 talents is 412,500/.

Diod. |. xiii. p. 169—171. 179—186.

272 HISTORY OF THE
desirous to possess themselves of a city which lay so con-
venient for them ; on the other, they dreaded the power
and forces of Syracuse, which had so lately cut to pieces
a numerous army of the Athenians; and become, by so
shining a victory, more formidable than ever. At last,
the lust of empire prevailed, and the Segestans were pro-
mised succours.
_ ‘The conduct of this war was committed to Hannibal,
who at that time was invested with the highest dignity of
the state, being one of the Suffetes. He was grandson
to Hamilcar, who had been defeated by Gelon, and killed
before Himera, and son to Gisgo, who had been con-
demned to exile. He left Carthage, animated with an
ardent desire of revenging his family and country, and of
wiping away the disgrace of the last defeat. He had a
very great army as well as fleet under his command. He
landed at a place called the Well of Lilybaum, which gave
its name to acity afterwards built on the same spot. His
first enterprise was the siege of Selinus. The attack and
defence were equally vigorous, the very women shewing
a resolution and bravery above their sex. The city, after
making a long resistance, was taken by storm, and the
plunder of it abandoned to the soldiers. The victor ex-
ercised the most horrid cruelties, without shewing the
least regard to either age or sex. He permitted such in-
habitants as had fled to continue in the city after it had
been dismantled ; and to till the lands, on condition of
their paying a tribute to the Carthaginians. This city
had been built two hundred and forty-two years.
Himera, which he next besieged and took likewise by
storm, after being more cruelly treated than Selinus, was
entirely razed, two hundred and forty years after its foun-
dation. He forced three thousand prisoners to undergo
every kind of ignominious punishments; and at last
murdered them all on the very spot where his grandfather
had been killed by Gelon’s cavalry, to appease and satisfy
his manes by the blood of these unhappy victims.
These expeditions being ended, Hannibal returned to
Carthage, on which occasion the whole city came out to
meet him, and received him amidst the most joyful ac-
clamations.

CARTHAGINIANS. 273

These successes reinflamed the desire," and revived the
design, which the Carthaginians had ever entertained, of
making themselves masters of the whole of Sicily.. Three
years after, they appointed Hannibal their general a se-
cond time; and on his pleading his great age, and re-
fusing the command of this war, they gave him for lieu-
tenant, Imilco, son of Hanno, of the same family. The
preparations for this war were proportioned to the great
design which the Carthaginians had formed. The fleet
and army were soon ready, and set out for Sicily. The
number of their forces, according to ‘Timeus, amounted
to above six-score thousand; and, according to Ephorus,
to three hundred thousand men. The enemy, on their
side, were prepared to give the Carthaginians a warm re-
ception. The Syracusans had sent to all their allies, in
order to levy forces among them; and to all the cities of
Sicily, to exhort them to exert themselves vigorously in
defence of their liberties. 3

Agrigentum expected to feel the first fury of the ene-
my. This city was prodigiously rich,* and strongly for-
tified. It was situated, as was also Selinus, on that coast
of Sicily which faces Africa. Accordingly, Hannibal
opened the campaign with the siege of this city. Ima-
gining that it was impregnable except on one side, he di-
rected his whole force to that quarter. He threw up
banks and terraces as high as the walls ; and made use,
on this occasion, of the rubbish and fragments of the
tombs standing round the city, which he had demolished
for that purpose. Soon after, the plague infected the

« Diod. |. xiii. p. 201—203; 206—211; 226—231.

* The very sepulchral monuments shewed the magnificence and
luxury of this city, being adorned with statues of birds and horses. Butthe
wealth and boundless generosity of Gellias, one of its inhabitants, is al-
most incredible. He entertained the people with spectacles and feasts ;
and during a famine, prevented the citizens from dying with hunger: he
gave portions to poor maidens, and rescued the unfortunate from want
and despair: he bad built houses in the city.and the country, purposely
for the accommodation of strangers, whom he usually dismissed with
handsome presents. Five hundred shipwrecked citizens of Gela, apply-
ing to him, were bountifully relieved, and every man supplied with a
cloak and a coat out of his wardrobe. Diod. |. xiii. Valer, Maz. |. iv. ¢.
ult. Empedocles, the philosopher, born in Agrigentum, has a memorable
saying concerning his fellow-citizens: That the Agrigentines squandered
their money so excessively every day, as if they expected it could never be ex-
hausted ; and built with such solidity and magnificence, as if they thought
they should live for ever.

VOL. I. fe

274 HISTORY OF THE

army, and swept away a great number of the soldiers, and
the general himself. The Carthaginians interpreted this
disaster as a punishment inflicted by the gods, who re-
venged in this manner the injuries done to the dead, whose
ghosts many fancied they had seen stalking before them
in the night. No more tombs were therefore demolished,
prayers were ordered to be made according to the practice
of Carthage; a child was sacrificed to Saturn, in compli-
ance with a most inhuman superstitious custom ; and many
victims were thrown into the sea, in honour of Neptune.

The besieged, who at first had gained several advan-
tages, were at last so pressed by famine, that all hopes of
relief seeming desperate, they resolved to abandon the
city. The following night was fixed on for this purpose.
The reader will naturally image to himself the grief with
which these miserable people must be seized, on their
being forced to leave their houses, their rich possessions,
and their country ; but life was still dearer to them than
all these. Never was a more melancholy spectacle seen.
To omit the rest, a crowd of women, bathed in tears, were
seen dragging after them their helpless infants, in order
to secure them from the brutal fury of the victor. But
the most grievous circumstance was, the necessity they
were under of leaving behind them the aged and sick,
who were unable either to fly or to make the least resist-
ance. The unhappy exiles arrived at Gela, which was
the nearest city, and there received all the comforts they
could expect in the deplorable condition to which they
were reduced.

In the mean time, Imilco entered the city, and mur-
dered all who were found in it. The plunder was im-
mensely rich, and such as might be expected from one
of the most opulent cities of Sicily, which contained two
hundred thousand inhabitants, and had never been be-
sieged, nor consequently plundered, before. A number-
less multitude of pictures, vases, and statues of all kinds,
were found here; the citizens having an exquisite taste
for the polite arts. Among other curiosities was the fa-
mous bull’ of Phalaris, which was sent to Carthage.

¥ This bull, with other spoils here taken, was afterwards restored to the
Agrigentines by Scipio, when he took Carthage in the third Punic war.
Cie. orat. iv. in Verrem, c. 33.

CARTHAGINIANS. 975

The siege of Agrigentum had lasted eight months.
Imilco made his forces take up their winter-quarters in
it, to give them the necessary refreshment ; and left this
city (after laying it entirely in ruins) in the beginning of
the spring. He afterwards besieged Gela, and took it,
notwithstanding the succours which were brought by
Dionysius the Tyrant, who had seized upon the govern-
ment of Syracuse. Imilco ended the war by a treaty with
Dionysius. ‘The conditions of it were, that the Cartha-
ginians, besides their ancient acquisitions in Sicily, should
still possess the country of the Sicanians,’ Selinus, Agri-
gentum, and Himera ; as likewise that of Gela and Ca-
marina, with leave for the inhabitants to reside in their
respective dismantled cities, on condition of their paying
a tribute to Carthage ; that the Leontines, the Messe-
nians, and all the Sicilians, should retain their own laws,
and preserve their liberty and independence : lastly, that
the Syracusans should still continue subject to Dionysius.
After this treaty was concluded, Imilco returned to Care
thage, where the plague still made dreadful havoc.

OME S606 Dionysius* had concluded the late peace
A. Carth. 442. with the Carthaginians with no other view
A. Rom. 3, than to get time to establish his new au-
Ant. J. C. 404. :

thority, and make the necessary prepara-
tions for the war which he meditated against them. As
he was very sensible how formidable the power of this
state was, he used his utmost endeavours to enable him-
self to invade them with success ; and his design was
wonderfully well seconded by the zeal of his subjects.
The fame of this prince, the strong desire he had to dis-
tinguish himself, the charms of gain, and the prospect of
the rewards which he promised those who should shew
the greatest industry, invited, from all quarters, into
Sicily, the most able artists and workmen at that time in
the world. All Syracuse now became in a manner an
immense workshop, in every part of which men were
seen making swords, helmets, shields, and military
engines, and preparing all things necessary for building
ships and fitting out fleets. ‘The invention of vessels

* The Sicanians and Sicilians were anciently two distinct people.
* Diod. |. xiv. p. 268—278.

Gee?

276 HISTORY OF THE

with five benches of oars (or Quingueremes), was at that
timevery recent; for, till then, those with three alone” had
been used. Dionysius animated the workmen by his pre-
sence, and by the applauses he gave, and the bounty which
he bestowed seasonably ; but chiefly by his popular and en-
gaging behaviour, which excited, more strongly than any
other conduct, the industry and ardour of the workmen ;°
and he frequently allowed those of them who most excelled
in their respective arts the honour to dine with him.
When all things were ready, and a great number of
forces had been levied in different countries, he called the
Syracusans together, laid his design before them, and re-
presented to them that the Carthaginians were the pro-
fessed enemies to the Greeks; that they had no less in
view than the invasion of all Sicily; the subjecting all
the Grecian cities; and that, in case their progress was
not checked, the Syracusans themselves would soon be
attacked: that the reason why the Carthaginians did not
attempt any enterprise, and continued inactive, was owing
entirely to the dreadful havoc made by the plague among
them; which (he observed) was a favourable opportu-
nity, of which the Syracusans ought to take advantage.
Though the tyranny and the tyrant were equally odious
to Syracuse, yet the hatred the people bore to the Car-
thaginians prevailed over all other considerations ; and
every one, guided more by the views of an interested
policy than by the dictates of justice, received the speech
with applause. Upon this, without the least complaint
made, or any declaration of war, Dionysius gave up to
the fury of the populace, the persons and possessions of
the Carthaginians. Great numbers of them resided at
that time in Syracuse, and traded there on the faith of
treaties. (The common people ran to their houses, plun-
dered their effects, and pretended they were sufficiently
authorized to exercise every ignominy, and inflict every
kind of punishment on them, for the cruelties they had
exercised against the natives of the country. And this
horrid example of perfidy and inhumanity was followed
throughout the whole island of Sicily. This was the
bloody signal of the war which was declared against them.
> Triremes, ; _ © Hfonos alit artes.

CARTHAGINIANS. 277

Dionysius having thus begun to do himself justice (in his
way), sent deputies to Carthage, to require them to re-
store all the Sicilian cities to their liberties; and that
otherwise, all the Carthaginians found in them should be
treated as enemies. This news spread a general alarm in
Carthage, especially when they reflected on the sad con-
dition to which they were reduced.

Dionysius opened the campaign with the siege of
Motya, which was the magazine of the Carthaginians in
Sicily ; and he pushed on the siege with so much vigour,
that it was impossible for Imilco, the Carthaginian ad-
miral, to relieve it. He brought forward his engines,
battered the place with his battering rams, advanced to
the wall-towers, six stories high (rolled upon wheels), and
of an equal height with their houses; and from these he
greatly annoyed the besieged with his Catapultee, an en-
gine then recently invented, which hurled, with great
violence, numerous volleys of arrows and stones against
the enemy." At last, the city, after a long and vigorous
defence, was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants of it
put to the sword, those excepted who took sanctuary in
the temples. The plunder of it was abandoned to the
soldiers; and Dionysius, leaving a strong garrison and a
trusty governor in it, returned to Syracuse.

The following year Imilco, being appointed one of the
Suffetes, returned to Sicily with a far greater army than
before.© He landed at Palermo, recovered Motya by
force, and took several other cities. Animated by these
successes, he advanced towards Syracuse, with design to

_ besiege it; marching his infantry by land, whilst his fleet,

under the command of Mago, sailed along the coast.

The arrival of Imilco threw the Syracusans into great
consternation. About two hundred ships, laden with the
spoils of the enemy, and advancing in good order, enter-
ed in a kind of triumph the great harbour, being followed
by five hundred barks. At the same time the land army,
consisting, according to some authors, of three hundred
thousand foot,’ and three thousand horse, was seen march-

4 The curious reader will find a particular account of it in the second
part of the eighth volume of this work.

€ Diod. 1. xiv. p. 279—295. Justin. |. xix. c. 2,3.

f Some authors say but thirty thousand foot, whichis the more probable
account, as the fleet which blocked up the town by sea was so formidable.

2°78 HISTORY OF THE

ing forward on the other side of the city. Imilco pitched
his tent in the very temple of Jupiter; and the rest of
the army encamped at twelve furlongs, or about a mile
and, a half, from the city. Marching up to it, Imilco
offered battle to the inhabitants, who did not care to ac-
cept the challenge. Imilco, satisfied at his having ex-
torted from the Syracusans this confession of their own
weakness and his superiority, returned to his camp ; not
doubting but he should soon be master of the city, con-
sidering it already as a certain prey which could not pos-
sibly escape him. For thirty days together, he laid waste
the neighbourhood about Syracuse, and ruined the whole
country. He possessed himself of the suburb of Achra-
dina, and plundered the temples of Ceres and Proserpine.
To fortify his camp, he beat down the tombs which stood
round the city ; and, among others, that of Gelon and his
wife Demarata, which was prodigiously magnificent.

But these successes were not lasting. All the splen-
dour of this anticipated triumph vanished in a moment,
and taught mankind, says the historian,’ that the proud-
est mortal, blasted sooner or later by a superior power,
shall be forced to confess his own weakness. Whilst
Imilco, now master of almost.all the cities of Sicily, ex-
pected to crown his conquests by the reduction of Syra-
cuse, a. contagious distemper seized his army, and made
dreadful havoc in it. It was now the midst of summer,
and the heat that year was excessive. ‘The infection be-
gan among the Africans, multitudes of whom died, with-
out any possibility of their being relieved. At first, care
was taken to inter the dead; but the number increasing
daily, and the infection spreading very fast, the dead lay
unburied, and the sick could have no assistance. ‘This
plague ‘was attended with very uncommon symptoms,
such as violent dysenteries, raging fevers,burning entrails,
acute pains in every part ofthe body. ‘The infected were
even seized with madness and fury, so that they would
fall upon any persons that came in their way, and tear
them to pieces.

Dionysius did not suffer to escape so favourable an op-
portunity for attacking the enemy. Being more than
half conquered by the plague, they made but a feeble re-

& Diodorus.

CARTHAGINIANS. 279
sistance. ‘The Carthaginian ships were almost all either
taken or burnt. The inhabitants in general of Syracuse,
old men, women, and children, came pouring out of the
city to behold an event which to them appeared miracu-
lous. With hands lifted up to heaven, they thanked the
tutelar gods of their city, for having avenged the sanctity
of the temples and tombs, which had been so brutally
violated by these barbarians. Night coming on, both
parties retired ; when Imilco, taking the opportunity of
this short suspension of hostilities, sent to Dionysius, re-
questing leave to carry back with him the small remains
of his shattered army, with an offer of three hundred ta-
lents," which was all the specie he had then left. But
this permission could only be obtained for the Cartha-
ginians, with whom Imilco stole away in the night, and
left the rest to the mercy of the conqueror.

Such was the condition in which this Carthaginian
general, who a few days before had been so proud and
haughty, retired from Syracuse. Bitterly bewailing his
own fate, and still more that of his country, he, with the
most insolent fury, accused the gods as the sole authors
of his misfortunes. The enemy, continued he, may in-
deed rejoice at our misery, but have no reason to glory in
it. We return victorious over the Syracusans, and are
defeated by the plague alone. His greatest subject of
grief, and that which most keenly distressed him, was
his having survived so many gallant soldiers, who had
died in arms. But, added he, the sequel shall make it
appear, whether it is through fear or death, or from the
desire of leading back to their native country the miserable
remains of my fellow-citizens, that I have survived the loss
of so many brave comrades. And in fact, on his arrival
at Carthage, which he found overwhelmed with grief and
despair, he entered his house, shut his doors against the
citizens, and even his. own children; and then gave him-
self the fatal stroke, in compliance with a practice to which
the heathens falsely gave the name of courage, though
it was, in reality, no other than a cowardly despair.

But the calamities of this unhappy city did not stop
here; for the Africans, who had ever borne an impla-

h About 61,800/. English money.

280 HISTORY OF THE

cable hatred to the Carthaginians, but were now exaspe-

rated to fury, because their countrymen had been left be- |
hind, and exposed to the murdering sword of the Syra-

cusans, assemble in the most frantic manner, sound the

alarm, take up arms, and, after seizing upon Tunis,

march directly to Carthage, to the number of more than

two hundred thousand men. ‘The citizens now gave

themselves up for lost. ‘This new incident was consi-

dered by them as the-sad effect of the wrath of the gods,

which pursued the guilty wretches even to Carthage.

As its inhabitants, especially in all public calamities, car-

ried their superstition to the greatest excess, their first
care was to appease the offended gods. Ceres and Pro-

serpine were deities who, till that time, had never been

heard of in Africa. But now, to atone for the outrage
which had been done them in the plundering of their
temples, magnificent statues were erected to their ho-

nour ; priests were selected from among the most distin-
guished families of the city; sacrifices and victims, ac-

cording to the Greek ritual (if I may use that expression),

were offered up to them ; in a word, nothing was omit-

ted which could be thought conducive in any manner to

appease and propitiate the angry goddesses. After this,

the defence of the city was the next object of their care.

Happily for the Carthaginians, this numerous army had

no leader, but was like a body uninformed with a soul ;

no provisions nor military engines ; no discipline nor sub-

ordination was seen among them; every man setting

himself up for a general, or claiming an independence

on the rest. Divisions therefore arising in this rabble of
an army, and the famine increasing daily, the individuals

of it withdrew to their respective homes, and delivered

Carthage from a dreadful alarm.

The Carthaginians were not discouraged by their late
disaster, but continued their enterprises on Sicily. Ma-
go, their general, and one of the Suffetes, lost a great
battle, in which he was slain. ‘The Carthaginian chiefs
demanded a peace, which was granted, on condition of
their evacuating all Sicily, and defraying the expenses of
the war. They pretended to accept the terms; but re-
presenting that it was not in their power, to deliver up

CARTHAGINIANS. 28t

the cities, without first obtaining an order from their re-
public, they obtained so long a truce, as gave them timé
sufficient for sending to Carthage. ‘They took advan-
tage of this interval, to raise and discipline new troops,
over which Mago, son of him who had been lately killed,
was appointed general. He was very young, but of great
abilities and reputation. As soon as he arrived in Sicily,
at the expiration of the truce, he gave Dionysius battle ;
in which Leptines,’ one of the generals of the latter, was
killed, and upwards of fourteen thousand Syracusans left
dead in the field. By this victory the Carthaginians ob-
tained an honourable peace, which left them in the pos-
session of all they had in Sicily, with even the addition
of some strong holds; besides a thousand talents,“ which
were paid to them towards defraying the expenses of
the war.

About this time a law was enacted at Carthage,’ by
which its inhabitants were forbid to learn to write or
speak the Greek language ; in order to deprive them of
the means of corresponding with the enemy, either by
word of mouth, or in writing. This was occasioned by
the treachery of a Carthaginian, who had written in
Greek to Dionysius, to give him advice of the departure
of the army from Carthage.

Carthage had, soon after, another calamity to struggle
with." The plague spread in the city, and made terrible
havoc. Panic terrors, and violent fits of frenzy, seized
on a sudden the unhappy sufferers ; who sallying sword
in hand out of their houses, as if the enemy had taken
the city, killed or wounded all who came in their way.
The Africans and Sardinians would very willingly have
taken this opportunity to shake off a yoke which was so
hateful to them ; but both were subjected and reduced to
their allegiance. Dionysius formed at this time an en-
terprise, in Sicily, with the same views, which was equally
unsuccessful. He died some time after, and was suc-
ceeded by his son of the same name.”

i This Leptines was brother to Dionysius.
kK About 206,000/. ' Justin. 1. xx. c. 5. m Diod. I. xv. p. 344.

» This is the Dionysius who invited Plato to his court ; and who, being
afterwards offended with his freedom, sold him fora slave. Some philo-
sophers came from Greece to Syracuse in order to redeem their brother,
which having done, they sent him home with this useful lesson ; ‘That phi-

282 HISTORY OF THE

We have already taken notice of the first treaty which
the Carthaginians concluded with the Romans. There
was another, which, according to Orosius, was concluded
in the 402d year of the foundation of Rome, and conse-
quently about the time we are now speaking of. This
second treaty was very near the same with the first, ex-
cept that the inhabitants of Tyre and Utica were expressly
comprehended in it, and joined with the Carthaginians.

eae After the death of the elder Dionysius,
A. Carth. 498, | Syracuse was involved in great troubles.”
A. Rom. 400. Dionysius the younger, who had been ex-
SUECN USS pelled, restored himself by force of arms,
and exercised great cruelties there. One part of the ci-
tizens implored the aid of Icetes, tyrant of the Leon-
tines, and by descenta Syracusan. ‘This seemed a very
favourable opportunity for the Carthaginians to seize
upon all Sicily, and accordingly they sent a mighty fleet
thither. In this extremity, such of the Syracusans as
loved their country best, had recourse to the Corin-
thians, who had often assisted them in their dangers ; and
were, besides, of all the Grecian nations, the most pro-
fessed enemies of tyranny,and the most avowed and most
generous assertors of liberty. Accordingly, the Corin-
thians sent over Timoleon, a man of great merit, who
had signalized his zeal for the public welfare, by freeing
his country from tyranny, at the expense of his own fa-
mily. He set sail with only ten ships, and arriving at
Rhegium, he eluded, by a happy stratagem, the vigilance
of the Carthaginians ; who having been informed, by
Icetes, of his voyage and design, wanted to intercept him
in his passage to Sicily.-

Timoleon had scarce above 1000 soldiers under his
command; and yet, with this handful of men, he marched
boldly to the relief of Syracuse. His small army increased
losophers ought very rarely, or very obligingly, to converse with tyrants.
This prince had learning, and affected to pass for a poet; but could not
gain that name at the Olympic games, whither he had sent his verses, to
be repeated by his brother ‘Thearides. It had been happy for Dionysius,
had the Athenians entertained no better an opinion of his poetry; for, on
their pronouncing him victor, when his poems were repeated in their city,
he was raised to such a transport of joy and intemperance, that both to-
gether killed him; and, thus, perhaps, was verified the prediction of the

oracle, viz. that he should die when he had overcome his betters.
° Diod. 1, xvi. p. 459472. Polyb. L. iii. p. 178. Plut. in Timol.

CARTH AGINIANS. 283

in proportion as he advanced. The Syracusans were now
in a desperate condition, and quite hopeless. They saw
the Carthaginians masters of the port ; Icetes of the city;
and Dionysius of the citadel. Happily, on Timoleon’s
arrival, Dionysius, having no refuge left, put the citadel
into his hands, with all the forces, arms, and ammunition,
in it; and escaped, by his assistance, to Corinth.’ Ti-
moleon had, by his emissaries, artfully represented to the
foreign soldiers, who (by that error in the constitution of
Carthage which we have before taken notice of) formed
the principal strength of Mago’s army, and the greatest
part of whom were Greeks; that it was astonishing to
see Greeks using their endeavours to make barbarians
masters of Sicily, from whence they, in a very little time,
would pass over into Greece. For could they imagine,
that the Carthaginians were come so far, with no other
view than to establish Icetes tyrant of Syracuse? Such
discourses being spread among Mago’s soldiers, gave this
general very great uneasiness ; and, as he wanted only a
pretence to retire, he was glad to have it believed, that
his forces were going to betray and desert him: and upon
this, he sailed with his fleet out of the harbour, and
steered for Carthage. Icetes, after his departure, could
not hold out long against the Corinthians ; so that they
now got entire possession of the whole city.

Mago, on his arrival at Carthage, was impeached ; but
he prevented the execution of the sentence passed
upon him by a voluntary death. His body was hung upon
a gallows, and exposed as a public spectacle to the people.
New forces were levied at Carthage,’ and a greater and
more powerful fleet than the former was sent to Sicily.
It consisted of two hundred ships of war, besides a thou-
sand transports; and the army amounted to upwards of

P Here he preserved some resemblance of his former tyranny, by turning
schoolmaster; and exercising a discipline over boys, when he could no
longer tyrannize overmen. He bad learning, and was once a scholar to
Plato, whom he caused to come again into Sicily, notwithstanding the
unworthy treatment he had met with from Dionysius’s father. Philip,
king of Macedon, meeting him in the streets of Corinth, and asking him
how he came to Iose so considerable a principality as had been léft him by
his father, he answered, that his father had indeed left him the inherit-
ance, but not the fortune which had preserved both himself and that.—
However, fortune did him no great injury, in replacing him on the dung-

hill, from which she had talged his father.
1 Plut. p. 248—250.

284 HISTORY OF THE

seventy thousand men. They landed at Lilybeeum, under
the command of Hamilcar and Hannibal, and resolved
to attack the Corinthians first. Timoleon did not wait
for, but marched out to meet them. But such was
the consternation of Syracuse, that, of all the forces
which were in that city, only three thousand Syracusans
and four thousand mercenaries followed him ; and even
of these latter a thousand deserted upon the march,
through fear of the danger they were going to encounter.
Timoleon, however, was not discouraged; but exhort-
ing the remainder of his forces to exert themselves cou-
rageously for the safety and liberties of their allies, he led
them against the enemy, whose rendezvous he had been
informed was on the banks of the little river Crimisus.
It appeared at the first reflection madness to attack an
army so numerous as that of the enemy, with only four
or five thousand foot, and athousand horse ; but Timo-
leon, who knew that bravery conducted by prudence is
superior to number, relied on the courage of his soldiers,
who seemed resolved to die rather than yield, and with
ardour demanded to be led against the enemy. ‘The
event justified his views and hopes. A battle was fought ;
the Carthaginians were routed, and upwards of ten thou-
sand of them slain, full three thousand of whom were Car-
thaginian citizens, which filled their city with mourning
and the greatest consternation. Their camp was taken, and
with it immense riches, and a great number of prisoners.

Timoleon," at the same time that he despatched the
news of this victory to Corinth, sent thither the finest
arms found among the plunder. For he was desirous of
having his city applauded and admired by all men, when
they should see that Corinth alone, among all the Gre-
cian cities, adorned its finest temples, not with the spoils
of Greece, and offerings dyed in the blood of its citizens,
the sight of which could tend only to preserve the sad
remembrance of their losses, but with those of barbarians,
which, by fine inscriptions, displayed at once the courage
and religious gratitude of those who had won them. For
these inscriptions imported, That the Corinthians, and
Limoleon their general, after having freed the Greeks,
settled in Sicily, from the Carthaginian yoke, had hung

' Plut. p- 248-250. 3

CARTHAGINIANS. 285

up these arms in their temples, as an eternal acknowledg-
ment of the favour and goodness of the gods.

After this, Timoleon, leaving the mercenary troops in
the Carthaginian territories to waste and destroy them,
returned to Syracuse. On his arrival there, he banished
the thousand soldiers who had deserted him; and took
no other revenge, than the commanding them to leave
Syracuse before sun-set.

This victory gained by the Corinthians was followed
by the capture of a great many cities, which obliged the
Carthaginians to sue for peace. |

In proportion as the appearance of success made the
Carthaginians vigorously exert themselves to raise pow-
erful armies both by land and sea, and prosperity led them
to make an insolent and cruel use of victory ; so their
courage would sink in unforeseen adversities, their hopes
of new resources vanish, and their grovelling souls con-
descend to ask quarter of the most inconsiderable enemy,
and without sense of shame accept the hardest and most
mortifying conditions. ‘Those now imposed were, that
they should possess only the lands lying beyond the river
Halycus ;* that they should give all the natives free li-
berty to retire to Syracuse with their families and effects,
and that they should neither continue in the alliance, nor
hold any correspondence, with the tyrants of that city.

About this time, in all probability, there happened
at Carthage a memorable incident, related by Justin.'
Hanno, one of its most powerful citizens, formed a de-
sign of seizing upon the republic, by destroying the whole
senate. Hechose, for the execution of this bloody plan,
the day on which his daughter was to be married, on
which occasion he designed to invite the senators to an
entertainment, and there poison them all. The conspi-
racy was discovered ; but Hanno had such influence, that
the government did not dare to punish so execrable a
crime; the magistrates contented themselves with only
preventing it, by an order which forbade, in general, too
great a magnificence at weddings, and limited the expense

_ § This river is not far from Agrigentum. It is called Lycus, by Dio-
dorus and Plutarch ; but this is thought a mistake,
t Justin. 1. xxi. c. 4,

286 HISTORY OF THE

on those occasions. Hannoseeing his stratagem defeated,
resolved to employ open force, and for that purposearmed
all the slaves. However, he was again discovered; and,
to escape punishment, retired, with twenty thousand
armed slaves, to a castle that was very strongly fortified ;
and there endeavoured, but without success, to engage
in his rebellion the Africans and the king of Mauritania.
He afterwards was taken prisoner and carried to Carthage;
where, after being whipped, his eyes were put out, his
arms and thighs broken, he was put to death in presence
of the people, and his body, all torn with stripes, was
hung ona gibbet. His children and all his relations,
though they had not joined in his guilt, shared in his
punishment. ‘They were all sentenced to die, in order
that not a single person of his family might be left, either
to imitate his crime or revenge his death. Such was the
temper of the Carthaginians; ever severe and violent in
their punishments, they carried them to the extremes of
rigour, and made them extend even to the innocent,
without shewing the least regard to equity, moderation,
or gratitude.
eit naes I come now to the wars sustained by
A. Carth.527. the Carthaginians," in Africa itself as well
rapes an as in Sicily, against Agathocles, which
exercised their arms during several years.
This Agathocles was a Sicilian of obscure birth and
low fortune.* Supported at first by the forces of the
Carthaginians, he had invaded the sovereignty of Syra-
cuse, and made himself tyrant over it. In the infancy of
his power, the Carthaginians kept him within bounds ;
and Hamilcar their chief forced him to agree to a treaty,
which restored tranquillity to Sicily. But he soon in-
fringed the articles of it, and declared war against the

" Diod.1. xix. p. 651.656. 710. 712. 737. 743. 760. Justin. I. ii.c. 1—6.

* He was, according to most historians, the son of a potter; butall allow
him to have worked at the trade. From the obscurity of his birth and
condition, Polybius raises an argument to prove his capacity and talents,
in Opposition to the slanders of Timezus. But his greatest eulogium was
the praise of Scipio. That illustrious Roman being asked, who, in his
Opinion, were the most prudent in the conduct of their affairs, and most
judiciously bold in the execution of their designs; answered, Agathocles
and Dionysius. Polyb. 1. xv. p. 1003. edit. Gronov, However, let his
capacity have been ever so great, it was exceeded by his cruelties.

CARTHAGINIANS. 987

Carthaginians themselves; who, under the conduct of
Hamilcar, obtained a signal victory over him,’ and forced
him to shut himself up in Syracuse. The Carthaginians
pursued him thither and laid siege to that important city,
the capture of which would have given them possession
of all Sicily.

Agathocles, whose forces were ene inferior to
theirs, and who moreover saw himself deserted by all
his allies, from their detestation of his horrid cruelties,
meditated a design of so daring, and, to all appearance,
so impracticable a nature, that even after being happily
carried into execution, it yet appears almost incredible.
This design was no Jess than to make Africa the seat of
war, and to besiege Carthage, at a time when he could
neither defend himself in Sicily, nor sustain the siege of
Syracuse. His profound secrecy in the execution is as
astonishing as the design itself. He communicated his
thoughts on this affair to no person whatsoever, but con-
tented himself with declaring, that he had found out an
infallible way to free the Syracusans from the danger
that surrounded them; that they had only to endure
with patience, for a short time, the inconveniences of a
siege ; but that those who could not bring themselves to
this resolution, might freely depart the city. Only six-
teen hundred persons quitted it. He left his brother
Antander there, with forces and provisions sufficient for
him to make a stout defence. He set at liberty all slaves
who were of age to bear arms, and, after obliging them
to take an oath, joined them to his forces. He carried
with him only fifty talents’ to supply his present wants,
well assured that he should find in the enemy’s country
whatever was necessary to his subsistence. He there-
fore set sail with two of his sons, Archagathus and He-
raclides, without letting any one person know whither
he intended to direct his course. All who were on
board his fleet believed that they were to be conducted
either to Italy or Sardinia, in order to plunder those
countries, or to lay waste those coasts of Sicily which
belonged to the enemy. ‘The Carthaginians, surprised

_Y The battle was fought near the river and city of Himera.
2 50,000 French crowns, or 11,2507, sterling.

288 HISTORY OF THE

at so unexpected a departure, endeavoured to prevent it;
but Agathocles eluded their pursuit, and made for the
main ocean.

He did not discover his design. till he had landed in
Africa. There, assembling his troops, he told them, in
few words, the motives which had prompted him to this
expedition. He represented, that the only way to free
their country, was to carry the war into the territories
of their enemies: that he led them, who were inured to
war, and of intrepid dispositions, against a parcel of
enemies who were softened and enervated by ease and
luxury : that the natives of the country, oppressed with
the yoke of a servitude equally cruel and ignominious,
would run in crowds to join them on the first news of
their arrival ; that the boldness of their attempt would
alone disconcert the Carthaginians, who had no expec-
tation of seeing an enemy at their gates: in short, that no
enterprise could possibly be more advantageous or ho-
nourable than this; since the whole wealth of Carthage
would become the prey of the victors, whose courage
would be praised and admired by latest posterity. The
soldiers fancied themselves already masters of Carthage,
and received his speech with applauses and acclamations.
One circumstance alone gave them uneasiness, and that
was an eclipse of the sun, which happened just as they were
setting sail. In these ages, even the most civilized na-
tions understood very little the reason of these extraor-
dinary phenomena of nature; and used to draw’ from
them (by their soothsayers) superstitious and arbitrary
conjectures, which frequently would either suspend or
hasten the more important enterprises. However, Aga-
thocles revived the drooping courage of his soldiers, by
assuring them that these eclipses always foretold some
instant change; that, therefore, good fortune was taking
its leave of Carthage, and coming over to them.

Finding his soldiers in the good disposition he wished
them, he executed, almost at the same time, a second
enterprise, which was even more daring and hazardous
than his first, of carrying them over into Africa; and this
was, the burning every ship in his fleet. Many reasons
determined him to so desperate an action. He had not

|

CARTHAGINIANS. 289

one good harbour in Africa where his ships could lie in
safety. As the Carthaginians were masters of the sea,
they would not have failed to possess themselves imme-
diately of his fleet, which was incapable of making the
least resistance. In case he had left as many hands as
were necessary to defend it, he would have weakened his
army (which was inconsiderable at the best), and put it
out of his power to gain any advantage from this unex-
pected diversion, the success of which depended entirely
on the swiftness and vigour of the execution. Lastly,
he was desirous of putting his soldiers under a necessity
of conquering, by leaving them no other refuge than
victory. Much courage was necessary to adopt such a
resolution. He had already prepared all his officers,
who were entirely devoted to his service, and received
every impression he gave them. He then came sud-
denly into the assembly with a crown upon his head,
dressed in a magnificent habit, and with the air and be-
haviour of a man who was going to perform some reli-
gious ceremony, and addressing himself to the assembly,
When we, says he, left Syracuse, and. were warmly pur-
sued by the enemy; in this fatal necessity I addressed
myself to Ceres and Proserpine, the tutelar divinities of
Sicily ; and promised, that if they would free us from this
imminent danger, I would burn all our ships in their
honour, at our first landing here. did me, therefore, O
soldiers, to discharge my vow ; for the goddesses can easily
make us amends for this sacrifice. At the same time,
taking a flambeau in his hand, he hastily led the way on
board his own ship, and set it on fire. All the officers
did the like, and were cheerfully followed by the soldiers.
The trumpets sounded from every quarter, and the
whole army echoed with joyful shouts and acclamations.
The fleet was soon consumed. The soldiers had not
been allowed time to reflect on the proposal made to
them. They all had been hurried on by a blind and
impetuous ardour ; but when they had a little recovered
their reason, and, surveying in their minds the vast ex-
tent of ocean’ which separated them from their own
country, saw themselves in that of the enemy without
the least resource, or any means of escaping out of it ;
VOL. I. U

290 HISTORY OF THE

a sad and melancholy silence succeeded the transport of
joy and acclamations which, but a moment before, had
been so general in the army. 7

Here again Agathocles left no time for reflection.
He marched his army towards a place called the Great
City, which was part of the domain of Carthage. The
country through which they marched to this place, af-
forded the most delicious and agreeable prospect in the
world. On either side were seen large meads watered
by beautiful streams, and covered with innumerable
flocks of all kinds of cattle; country-seats built with ex-
traordinary magnificence; delightful avenues planted
with olive and all sorts of fruit-trees; gardens of a pro-
digious extent, and kept with a care and elegance which
délighted the eye. This prospect reanimated the sol-
diers. They marched full of courage to the Great City,
which they took, sword in hand, and enriched them-
selves with the plunder of it, which was entirely aban-
doned to them. Tunis made as little resistance; and
this place was not far distant from Carthage.

The Carthaginians were in prodigious alarm, when it
was known that the enemy was in the country, advanc-
ing by hasty marches. This arrival of Agathocles made
the Carthaginians conclude, that their army before Sy-
racuse had been defeated, and their fleet lost. The
people ran in disorder to the great square of the city,
whilst the senate assembled in haste and in a tumultuous
manner. Immediately they deliberated on the means
for preserving the city. ‘They had no army in readiness
to oppose the enemy; and their imminent danger did
not permit them to await the arrival of those forces which
might be raised in the country and among the allies. It
was therefore resolved, after several different opinions
had been heard, to arm the citizens. The number of
the forces thus levied amounted to forty thousand foot,
a thousand horse, and two thousand armed chariots.
Hanno and Bomilcar, though divided betwixt themselves
by some family quarrels, were however joined in the
command of these troops. They marched immediately
to meet the enemy ; and, on sight of them, drew up their
forces in order of battle. Agathocles had, at most, but

CARTHAGINIANS. , 291

thirteen or fourteen thousand men.” The signal was
given, and an obstinate fight ensued. Hanno, with his
sacred cohort (the flower of the Carthaginian forces),
long sustained the fury of the Greeks, and sometimes
even ‘broke their ranks ; but at last, overwhelmed with a
shower of stones, and covered with wounds, he fell dead
on the field. Bomilcar might have changed the face of
things; but he had private and personal reasons not to
obtain a victory for his country. He therefore thought
proper to retire with the forces under his command, and
was followed by the whole army, which, by that means,
was forced to leave the field to Agathocles. After pur-
suing the enemy some time, he returned, and plundered
the Carthaginian camp. ‘Twenty thousand pair of ma-
nacles were found in it, with which the Carthaginians
had furnished themselves, in the firm persuasion of their
taking many prisoners. ‘The result of this victory was
the capture of a great number of strong-holds, and the
defection of many of the natives of the country, who
joined the victor.

This descent of Agathocles into Africa, doubtless
gave birth to Scipio’s design of making a like attempt
upon the same republic, and from the same place.°
Wherefore, in his answer to Fabius, who ascribed to
temerity his design of making Africa the seat of the war,
he forgot not to mention the example of Agathocles, as
an instance in favour of his enterprise ; and to shew,
that frequently there is no other way to get rid of an
enemy who presses too closely upon us, than by carrying
the war into his own country ; and that men are much
more courageous when they act upon the offensive, than
when they stand only upon the defensive.

While the Carthaginians were thus warmly attacked
by their enemies, ambassadors arrived to them from
Tyre.“ They came to implore their succour against
Alexander the Great, who was upon the point of taking

> Agathocles wanting arms for many of his soldiers, provided them with
such as were counterfeit, which looked well at a distance. And perceiv-
ing the discouragement his forces were under on sight of the enemy’s
horse, he let fly a great many owls (privately procured for that purpose),
which his soldiers interpreted as an omen and assurance ofvictory. Dred.
], xx. p. 754. & Dive lox x vinisn.43;
4 Diod. |. xvii. p.519. Quint. Curt. |. iv. c. 3.

i?

292 HISTORY OF THE

their city, which he had long besieged. The extremity
to which their countrymen (for so they called them)
were reduced, touched the Carthaginians as sensibly as
theirown danger. Though they were unable to relieve,
they at least thought it their duty to comfort them ; and
deputed thirty of their principal citizens, to express their
grief that they could not spare them any troops, because
of the present melancholy situation of their own affairs.
The Tyrians, though disappointed of the only hope they
had left, did not however despond ; they committed their
wives, children,* and old men, to the care of these de-
-puties; and thus, being delivered from all inquietude,
with regard to persons who were dearer to them than
any thing in the world, they thought alone of making a
resolute defence, prepared for the worst that might hap-
pen. Carthage received this afflicted company with all
possible marks of amity, and paid to guests who were so
dear and worthy of compassion, all the services which
they could have expected from the most affectionate and
tender parents.

Quintus Curtius places this embassy from Tyre to the
Carthaginians at the same time that the Syracusans were
ravaging Africa, and had advanced to the very gates of
Carthage. But the expedition of Agathocles against
Africa cannot agree in time with the siege of Tyre,
which was more than twenty years before it.

At the same time, Carthage was solicitous how to ex-
tricate itself from the difficulties with which it was sur-
rounded. The present unhappy state of the republic
was considered as the effect of the wrath of the gods:
and it was acknowledged to be justly deserved, particu-
larly with regard to two deities, towards whom the Car-
thaginians had been remiss in the discharge of cer-
tain duties prescribed by their religion, and which had
once been observed with great exactness. It was a cus-
tom (coeval with the city itself) at Carthage, to send an-
nually to Tyre (the mother-city) the tenth of all the re-
venues of the republic, as an offerimg to Hercules, the
patron and protector of both cities. The domain, and

© Tév réxvwv Kai yuvatkiy pépoc, some of their wives and children.
Diod. |. xvii. p, 519.

CARTHAGINIANS. 298

consequently the revenues of Carthage, having increased
considerably, the portion, on the contrary, of the god,
had been lessened ; and they were far from remitting the
whole tenth to him. They were seized with a scruple
on this point : they made an open and public confession
of their insincerity and sacrilegious avarice; and, to ex-
piate their guilt, they sent to Tyre a great number of
presents, and small shrines of their deities, all of gold,
which amounted to a prodigious value.

Another violation of religion, which to their inhuman
superstition seemed as flagrant as the former, gave them
no less uneasiness. Anciently, children of the best fa-
milies in Carthage used to be sacrificed to Saturn. They
now reproached themselves with having failed to pay to —
the god the honours which they thought were due to
him ; and with having used fraud and dishonest dealing
towards him, by having substituted, in their sacrifices,
children of slaves or beggars, bought for that purpose,
in the room of those nobly born. ‘To expiate the guilt
ofso horrid an impiety, a sacrifice was made to this blood-
thirsty god, of two hundred children of the first rank ;
and upwards of three hundred persons, through a sense
of this terrible neglect, offered themselves voluntarily as
victims, to pacify, by the effusion of their blood, the
wrath of the gods.

After these expiations, expresses were despatched to
Hamilcar in Sicily, with the news of what had happened
in Africa, and, at the same time, to request immediate
succours. He commanded the deputies to observe the
strictest silence on the subject of the victory of Aga-
thocles ; and spread a contrary report, that he had been
entirely defeated, his forces all cut off, and his whole
fleet taken by the Carthaginians ; and, in confirmation
of this report, he shewed the irons of the vessels pre-
tended to be. taken, which had been carefully sent to
him. ‘The truth of this report was not at all doubted
in Syracuse; the majority were for capitulating ;* when
a galley of thirty oars, built in haste by Agathocles, ar-

f And the most forward of all the rest was Antander, the brother of
Agathocles, left commander in his absence; who was so terrified with the
report, that he was eager for having the city surrendered; and expelled
out of it 8000 inhabitants who were of a contrary opinion.

294 HISTORY OF THE

rived in the port ; and through great difficulties and dan-
gers forced its way to the besieged. ‘The news of Aga- —
thocles’s victory immediately flew through the city, and
-restored alacrity and resolution to the inhabitants. Ha-
milcar made a last effort to storm the city, but was
beaten off with loss. He then raised the siege, and sent
five thousand men to the relief of his distressed country.
Some time after, having resumed the siege, and hoping
to surprise the Syracusans by attacking them in the
night, his design was discovered ;° and falling alive into
the enemy’s hands, he was put to death with the most
exquisite tortures." Hamilcar’s head was sent immedi-
ately to Agathocles, who, advancing to the enemy’s camp,
threw it into a general consternation, by displaying to
them the head of this general, which manifested the
melancholy situation of their affairs in Sicily.

To these foreign enemies was joined a domestic one,’
which was more to be feared, as being more dangerous
than the others; this was Bomilcar their general, who
was then in possession of the first post in Carthage. He
had long meditated the establishment of himself as tyrant
at Carthage, and attaining the sovereign authority there;
and imagined that the present troubles offered him the
wished-for opportunity. He therefore entered the city,
and being seconded by a small number of citizens, who
were the accomplices of his rebellion, and a body of
foreign soldiers, he proclaimed himself tyrant; and
shewed himself literally such, by cutting the throats of
all the citizens whom he met with in the streets. A tu-
mult arising immediately in the city, it was at first thought
that the enemy had taken it by some treachery ; but
when it was known that Bomilcar caused all this dis-
turbance, the young men took up arms to repel the ty-
rant, and from the tops of the houses discharged whole

8 Diod. p. 767—769.

h He was cruelly tortured till he died, and so met with the fate which
his fellow-citizens, offended at his conduct in Sicily, had probably allotted
for him at home. He was too formidable to be attacked at the head of
his army ; and therefore the votes of the senate (whatever they were) being,
according to custom, cast into a vessel, it was immediately closed, with an
order not to uncover it, till he was returned, and had thrown up his com-
mission. Justin. 1. xxii. c. 3.

i Diod. p. 779—781. Justin. 1. xxii. c. 7.

CARTHAGINIANS. 295

volleys of darts and stones upon the heads of his soldiers.
When he saw an army marching in order against him,
he retired with his troops to an eminence, with design to
make a vigorous defence, and to sell his life as dear as pos-
sible. To spare the blood of the citizens, a general par-
don was proclaimed for all without exception who would
lay down their arms. They surrendered upon this pro-
clamation, and all enjoyed the benefit of it, Bomilcar their
chief excepted: for the Carthaginians, without regarding
their oath, condemned him to death, and fastened him
to across, where he suffered the most exquisite torments.
From the cross, as from a rostrum, he harangued the
people ; and thought himself justly entitled to reproach
them for their injustice, their ingratitude, and perfidy,
which he did by enumerating many illustrious generals,
whose services they had rewarded with an ignominious
death. He expired on the cross whilst uttering these re-
proaches."

Agathocles had won over to his interest a powerful
king of Cyrene, named Ophellas,' whose ambition he had
flattered with the most splendid hopes, by leading him to
understand, that, contenting himself with Sicily, he would
leave to Ophellas the empire of Africa. But, as Agatho-
cles did not scruple to commit the most horrid crimes
when he thought them conducive to his interest, the cre-
dulous prince had no sooner put himself and his army in
his power, than, by the blackest perfidy, he caused him
to be murdered, in order that Ophellas’s army might be
entirely at his devotion. Many nations were now joined
in alliance with Agathocles, and several strong-holds were
garrisoned by his forces. As he now saw the affairs of
Africa in a flourishing condition, he thought it proper to
look after those of Sicily; accordingly he sailed back
thither, having left the command of the army to his son
Archagathus. His renown, and the report of his victo-
ries, flew before him. On the news of his arrival in

k Tt would seem incredible that any man could so far triumph over the
pains of the cross, as to talk with any coherence in his discourse; had not
Seneca assured us, that some have so far despised and insulted its tor-
tures, that they spit contemptuously upon the spectators. Quidam ex pa-
tibulo suos spectatores conspuerunt. De vita beata, ce: 19.

1 Diod. p. 777. 779. 791. 802. Justin. J. xxii. c. 7, 8.

296 HISTORY OF THE

Sicily, many towns revolted to him; but bad news soon
recalled him to Africa. His absence had quite changed
the face of things; and all his endeavours were incapa-
ble of restoring them to their former condition. All his
strong-holds had surrendered to the enemy ; the Afri-
cans had deserted him; some of his troops were lost,
and the remainder were unable to make head against the
Carthaginians: he had no way to transport them into
Sicily, as he was destitute of ships, and the enemy were
masters at sea: he could not hope for either peace or
treaty with the barbarians, since he had insulted them in
so outrageous a manner, by his being the first who had
dared to ‘make a descent in their country. In this ex-
tremity, he thought only of providing for his own safety.
After many adventures, this base deserter of his army,
and perfidious betrayer of his own children, who were
left by him to the wild fury of his disappointed soldiers,
stole away from the dangers which threatened him, and
arrived at Syracuse with very few followers. His soldiers,
seeing themselves thus betrayed, murdered his sons, and
surrendered to the enemy. Himself died miserably soon
after, and ended, by a cruel death," a life that had been
polluted with the blackest crimes.

In this period may be placed another incident related
by Justin." The fame of Alexander’s conquests made
the Carthaginians fear that he might think of turning his
arms towards Africa. The disastrous fate of Tyre, whence
they drew their origin, and which he had so lately de-
stroyed; the building of Alexandria upon the confines of
Africa and Egypt, as if he intended it as a rival city to
Carthage; the. uninterrupted successes of that prince,
whose ambition and good fortune were boundless; all
this justly alarmed the Carthaginians. To sound his in-
clinations, Hamilcar, surnamed Rhodanus, pretending to
have been driven from his country by the cabals of his

m He was poisoned by one Menon, whom he had unnaturally abused.
His teeth were putrefied by the violence of the poison, and his body tor-
tured all over with the most racking pains. Menon was excited to this
deed by Archagathus, grandson of Agathocles, whom he designed to de-
feat of the succession, in favour of his other son Agathocles. Before his
death, he restored the democracy to the people. It is observable, that
Justin (or rather Trogus) and Diodorus disagree in all the material part
of this tyrant’s history. .» Justin. |. xxi. c. 6.

CARTHAGINIANS. : 297

enemies, went over to the camp of Alexander, to whom
he was introduced by Parmenio, and offered him his ser-
vices. The king received him graciously, and had se-
veral conferences with him. Hamilcar did not fail to
transmit to his country whatever discoveries he made from
time to time of Alexander’s designs. Nevertheless, on
his return to Carthage, after Alexander’s death, he was
considered as a betrayer of his country to that prince ;
and accordingly was put to death, by a sentence which
displayed equally the ingratitude and cruelty of his coun-
trymen.

oS Se I am,now to speak of the wars of the
A. Carth.569, Carthaginians in Sicily,’ in the time of
A. Rom. 471. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. The Romans,
Ant. J.C.277. tq whom the designs of that ambitious
prince were not unknown, in order to strengthen them-
selves against any attempts he might make upon Italy,
had renewed their treaties with the Carthaginians, who,
on their side, were no less afraid of his crossing into
Sicily. To the articles of the preceding treaties, there
was added an engagement of mutual assistance, in case :
either of the contracting powers should be attacked by
Pyrrhus.

The foresight of the Romans was well founded:?
Pyrrhus turned his arms against Italy, and gained many
victories. ‘The Carthaginians, in consequence of the last
treaty, thought themselves obliged to assist the Romans ;
and accordingly sent them a fleet of six-score sail, under
the command of Mago. This general, in an audience
before the senate, signified to them the interest which his
superiors took in the war which they heard was carrying
on against the Romans, and offered them their assistance.
The senate returned thanks for the obliging offer of the
Carthaginians, but at present thought fit to decline it.

Mago" some days after repaired to Pyrrhus, upon pre-
tence of offering the mediation of Carthage for terminat-
ing his quarrel with the Romans : but in reality to sound
him, and discover, if possible, his designs with regard to
Sicily, which common fame reported he was going to in-

© Polyb. |. iii. p, 250, edit. Gronov. P Justin. |. xviii. c. 2.
4 Justin, |. xviii. c. 2.

298 HISTORY OF THE

vade. The Carthaginians were afraid that either Pyrrhus
or the Romans would interfere in the affairs of that island,
and transport forces thither for the conquest of it. And,
indeed, the Syracusans, who had been besieged for some
time by the Carthaginians, had sent pressingly for suc-
cour to Pyrrhus. This prince had a particular reason to
espouse their interests, having married Lanassa, daughter
of Agathocles, by whom he had a son named Alexander.
He at last sailed from Tarentum, passed the strait, and
arrived in Sicily. His conquests at first were so rapid,
that he left the Carthaginians, in the whole island, only
the single town of Lilybeum. He laid siege to it, but
meeting with a vigorous resistance, was obliged to raise
the siege ; not to mention that the urgent necessity of
his affairs called him back to Italy, where his presence
was absolutely necessary. Nor was it less so in Sicily,
which, on his departure, returned to the obedience of its
former masters. Thus he lost this island with the same
rapidity that he had won it. As he was embarking, he
turned his eyes back to Sicily, and exclaimed to those
about him, What a fine field of batile' do we leave the Car-
thaginians and Romans !* His prediction was soon verified.

After his departure, the chief magistracy of Syracuse
was conferred on Hiero, who afterwards obtained the
name and dignity of king, by the united suffrages of the
citizens ; so greatly had his government pleased. He
was appointed to carry on the war against the Carthagi-
nians, and obtained several advantages over them. but
now a common interest re-united them against a new ene-
my, who began to appear in Sicily, and justly alarmed
both : these were the Romans, who, having crushed all
the enemies which had hitherto exercised their arms in
Italy itself, were now powerful enough to carry them out
of it; and to lay the foundation of that vast power there
to which they afterwards attained, and of which it was
probable they had even then formed the design. Sicily

* "Quay aroXsirroper, ® Piro, Kapyndoviowg kai ‘Pwpaiowe radaiorpay. ‘The
Greek expression is beautiful. Indeed Sicily was a kind of Palestra,
where the Carthaginians and Romans exercised themselves in war, and
‘for many years seemed to play the part of wrestlers with each other. The
English language, as well as the French, has no word to express the Greek
term, * Plut. in Pyrrh. p. 398.

CARTHAGINIANS. 299

lay too commodious for them, not to form a resolution
of establishing themselves init. They therefore eagerly
snatched this opportunity for crossing into it, which
caused the rupture between them and the Carthaginians,
and gave rise to the first Punic war. This I shall treat
of more at large, by relating the causes of that war.

CHAE: 1,

Tue History or CARTHAGE, FROM THE FIRST Punic
W ar To 1Ts DEstTRUCTION.

Tue plan which I have laid down, does not allow me
to enter into an exact detail of the wars between Rome
and Carthage ; since that pertains rather to the Roman
history, which I do not intend to touch upon, except
transiently and occasionally. I shall therefore relate
such facts only, as may give the reader a just idea of the
republic whose history lies before me ; by confining my-

self to those particulars which relate chiefly to the Car-

thaginians, and to their most important transactions in
Sicily, Spain, and Africa; a subject in itself sufficiently
extensive.

I have already observed, that from the first Punic war
to the ruin of Carthage, a hundred and eighteen years
elapsed. This whole time may be divided into five parts
or intervals.

I. The first Punic war lasted twenty-four years . 24

II. The interval betwixt the first and second Punic
war, is alsotwenty-four years. . . 24

III. The second Punic war took up seventeen
ears . Pay bys

IV. The interval wines the pend sitll hind: is
forty-nine years. . 40

V. The third Punic war, terminated by the de-

struction of Carthage, continued but four
vears.aua some munths 2 0. a) os « 4

300 HISTORY OF THE

ARTICLE I.
The first Punic War.

eee Tue first Punic war arose from the fol-
A. Carth. 566. lowing cause. Some Campanian soldiers,
re ae Be in the service of Agathocles,° the Sicilian
meee tyrant, having entered as friends into Mes-
sina, soon after murdered part of the townsmen, drove
out the rest, married their wives, seized their effects, and
remained sole masters of that important city. They
then assumed the name of Mamertines. In imitation
of them, and by their assistance, a Roman legion treated
in the same cruel manner the city of Rhegium, lying
directly opposite to Messina, on the other side of the
strait. These two perfidious cities, supporting one an-
other, rendered themselves at length formidable to their
neighbours ; and especially Messina, which became very
powerful, and gave great umbrage and uneasiness both
to the Syracusans and Carthaginians, who possessed one
part of Sicily. As soon as the Romans had got rid of
the enemies they had so long contended with, and par-
ticularly of Pyrrhus, they began to think of punishing
the crime of their citizens, who had settled themselves
at Rhegium, in so cruel and treacherous a manner,
nearly ten years before. Accordingly, they took the
city, and killed, in the attack, the greatest part of the
inhabitants, who, instigated by despair, had fought to
the last gasp: three hundred only were left, who were
carried to Rome, whipped, and then publicly beheaded
in the forum. The view which the Romans had in
making this bloody execution, was, to prove to their
allies their own sincerity and innocence. Rhegium was
immediately restored to its lawful possessors. The
Mamertines, who were considerably weakened, as well
by the ruin of their confederate city, as by the losses
which they had sustained from the Syracusans, who had
lately placed Hiero at their head, thought it time to pro-
vide for their own safety. But divisions arising among
them, one part surrendered the citadel to the Carthagi-

* Polyb. 1. i. p. 8. edit. Gronov.

CARTHAGINIANS. 30k

nians, whilst the other called in the Romans to their
assistance, and resolved to put them in possession of
their city.

The affair was debated in the Roman senate, where,
being considered in all its lights, it appeared to have
some difficulties." On one hand, it was thought base,
and altogether unworthy of the Roman virtue, for them
to undertake openly the defence of traitors, whose perfidy
was exactly the same with that of the Rhegians, whom
the Romans had recently punished with so exemplary a
severity. On the other hand, it was of the utmost con-
sequence to stop the progress of the Carthaginians, who,
not satisfied with their conquests in Africa and Spain,
had also made themselves masters of almost all the
islands of the Sardinian and Hetrurian seas; and would
certainly get all Sicily into their hands, if they should be
suffered to possess themselves of Messina. From thence
into Italy, the passage was very short; and it was in
some manner to invite an enemy to come over, to leave
the entrance open. These reasons, though so strong,
could not prevail with the senate to declare in favour of
the Mamertines; and accordingly, motives of honour

Mau pad jastiee prevailed in this instance over
A. Carth. 583. those of interest and policy. But the

A. Rom. 485. people were not so scrupulous ;" for, in
Ant. J. C.263. an assembly held on this subject, it was
resolved that the Mamertines should be assisted. The
consul Appius Claudius immediately set forward with his
army, and boldly crossed the strait, after he had, by an
ingenious stratagem, eluded the vigilance of the Car-
thaginian general. The Carthaginians, partly by art
and partly by force, were driven out of the citadel; and
the city was surrendered immediately to the consul.
The Carthaginians hanged their general, for having given
up the citadel in so cowardly a manner, and prepared to
besiege the town with all their forces. Hiero joined
them with his own. But the consul having defeated
them separately, raised the siege, and laid waste at plea-
sure the neighbouring country, the enemy not daring to

' Polyb. |. i. p. 12—15. edit. Gronov. " Frontin,

302 HISTORY OF THE

face him. This was the first expedition which the Ro-
mans made out of Italy.

It is doubted,* whether the motives which promped
the Romans to undertake this expedition were very
_ upright, and exactly conformable to the rules of strict
justice. Be this asit may, their passage into Sicily, and
the succour they gave to the inhabitants of Messina,
may be said to have been the first step by which they
ascended to that height of glory and grandeur which they
afterwards attained.
~ Hiero,’ having reconciled himself to the Romans, and
entered into an alliance with them, the Carthaginians bent
all their thoughts on Sicily, and sent numerous armies
thither. Agrigentum was their place of
arms ; which, being attacked by the Ro-
mans, was won by them, after they had
besieged it seven months, and gained one battle.

Notwithstanding the advantage of this victory,’ and
the conquest of so important a city, the Romans were
sensible, that whilst the Carthaginians should continue
masters at sea, the maritime places in the island would
always side with them, and put it out of their power ever
to drive them out of Sicily. Besides, they saw with
reluctance Africa enjoy a profound tranquillity, at a time
that Italy was infested by the frequent incursions of its
enemies. ‘They now first formed the design of having
a fleet, and of disputing the empire of the sea with the
Carthaginians. ‘The undertaking was bold, and in out-
ward appearance rash; but it evinces the courage and
magnanimity of the Romans. ‘They were not at that
time possessed of a single vessel which they could call
their own; and the ships which had transported their
forces into Sicily had been borrowed of their neighbours.
They were inexperienced in sea-affairs, had no carpen-
ters acquainted with the building of ships, and did not
know even the shape of the quinqueremes, or galleys
with five benches of oars, in which the chief strength of
fleets at that time consisted. But happily, the year be-
fore, one had been taken upon the coasts of Italy, which

A. M. 3748.
A. Rom. 487.

* The Chevalier Folard examines this question in his remarks upon
Polybius, ]. i. p. 16. Y Polyb. 1. i. p. 15— 19; 2 Id. p. 20.

CARTHAGINIANS. 303

served them as a model. They therefore applied them-
selves with incredible industry and ardour to the building
of ships in the same form; and in the mean time they
got together a set of rowers, who were taught an exer-
cise and discipline utterly unknown to them before, in
the following manner. Benches were made on_ the
shore, in the same order and fashion with those of gal-
leys. The rowers were seated on these benches, and
taught, as if they had been furnished with oars to nee
themselves backwards with their arms drawn to their
breasts; and then to throw their bodies and arms for-
ward in one regular motion, the instant their command-
ing officer gave the signal. In two months, one hun-
dred galleys of five benches of oars, and twenty of three
benches, were built ; and after some time had been spent
in exercising the rowers on ship-board, the fleet put to
sea, and went in quest of the enemy. The consul Duil-
lius had the command of it.
The Romans coming up with the Car-
oa ee, thaginians near the coast of Myle, they
prepared for an engagement.* As the
Roman galleys, by their being clumsily and hastily built,
were neither very nimble nor easy to work; this incon-
venience was supplied by a machine invented for this oc-
casion, and afterwards known by the name of the Cor-
vus’ (Crow or Crane), by the help of which they grappled
the enemy’s ships, boarded them, and immediately came
to close engagement. The signal for fighting was given.
The Carthaginian fleet consisted of a hundred and thirty
sail, under the command of Hannibal.° He himself
was on board a galley of seven benches of oars, which
had once belonged to Pyrrhus. The Carthaginians,
thoroughly despising enemies who were utterly: unac-
quainted with sea-affairs, imagined that their very ap-
pearance would put them to flight, and therefore came
forward boldly, with little expectation of fighting; but
firmly imagining they should reap the spoils, which they
had already devoured with their eyes. They were
nevertheless a little surprised at the sight of the above-

* Polyb. 1.1. p22. > Tbid.
© A different person from the great Hannibal.

304 HISTORY OF THE

mentioned engines, raised on the prow of every one of
the enemy’s ships, and which were entirely new to them.
But their astonishment increased, when they saw these
engines drop down at once ; and being thrown forcibly
into their vessels, grappled ther in spite of all resistance.
This changed the form of the engagement, and obliged
the Carthaginians to come to close engagement with
their enemies, as though they had fought them on land.
They were unable to sustain the attack of the Romans:
a horrible slaughter ensued ; and the Carthaginians lost
fourscore vessels, among which was the admiral’s galley,
he himself escaping with difficulty in a small boat.

So considerable and unexpected a victory, raised the
courage of the Romans, and seemed to redouble their
vigour for the continuance of the war. Extraordinary
honours were bestowed on the consul Duillius who was
the first Roman that had a naval triumph decreed him.
A rostral pillar was erected in his honour, with a noble
inscription ; which pillar is yet standing in Rome.*

During the two following years, the Romans grew still
stronger at sea, by their success in several engagements.’
But these were considered by them only as essays pre-
paratory to the great design they meditated of carrying
the war into Africa, and of combating the Carthaginians
in their own country. There was nothing the latter
dreaded more; and to divert so dangerous a blow, they
resolved to fight the enemy, whatever might be the con-
sequence.

The Romans had elected M. Atilius

ee Regulus, and L. Manlius, consuls for this
ear.’ Their fleet consisted of three hun-

dred and thirty vessels, on board of which were one hun-
dred and forty thousand men, each vessel having three
hundred rowers, and a hundred and twenty soldiers. ‘That
of the Carthaginians, commanded by Hanno and Himil-
car, had twenty vessels more than the Romans, and a
greater number of men in proportion. The two fleets
came in sight of each other near Ecnomus in Sicily. No
man could behold two such formidable navies, or be a

‘ These pillars were called Rostrata, from the beaks of ships with which
they were adorned; Rostra. © Polyb. |. i. p. 24, fads d.acpeco.

CARTHAGINIANS:. 305

spectator of the extraordinary preparation’ they made for
fighting, without bemg under some concern, on seeing
the danger which menaced two of the most powerful
states in the world. As the courage on both sides was
equal, and no great disparity in the forces, the fight was
obstinate, and the victory long doubtful; but at last, the
Carthaginians were overcome. More than sixty of their
ships were taken by the enemy, and thirty sunk. The
Romans lost twenty-four, not one of which fell into the
enemy's hands.

The fruit of this victory, as the Romans had designed
it, was their sailing to Africa, after having refitted their
ships, and provided them with all necessaries for carry-
ing on a long war in a foreign country. They landed
happily in Africa, and began the war by taking a town
called Clypea, which had a commodious haven. From
thence, after having sent an express to Rome, to give ad-
vice of their landing, and to receive orders from the
senate, they overran the open country, in which they
made terrible havoc ; bringing away whole flocks of cat-
tle, and 20,000 prisoners.

The express returned in the mean time

Aen. with the orders of the senate, who decreed,

that Regulus should continue to command

the armies in Africa, with the title of Proconsul; and

that his colleague should return with a great part of the

fleet and the forces ; leaving Regulus only forty vessels,

15,000 foot, and 500 horse. Their leaving the latter

with so few ships and troops, was a visible renunciation

of the advantages which might have been expected from
this descent upon Africa.

The people at Rome depended greatly on the courage
and abilities of Regulus; and the joy was universal, when
it was known that he was continued in the command in
Africa ; he alone was afflicted on that account." When
news was brought him of it, he wrote to Rome, and de-
sired, in the strongest terms, that he might be appointed
a successor. His chief reason was, that the death of the
farmer who rented his grounds, having given one of his
hirelings an opportunity of carrying off all the imple-

& Polyb. p. 30. h Valv Max, li ivs:¢.4,
VOL. I. xX

306 HISTORY OF THE

ments of tillage, his presence was necessary for taking’
care of his little spot of ground (but seven acres), which
was all his family subsisted upon. But the senate under-
took to have his lands cultivated at the public expense ;
to maintain his wife and children ; and to indemnify him
for the loss he had sustained by the robbery of his hire-
ling. Thrice happy age! in which poverty was thus had
in honour, and was united with the most rare and un-
common merit, and the highest employments of the state!
Regulus, thus freed from his domestic cares, bent his
whole thoughts on discharging the duty of a general.
After taking several castles,’ he laid siege to Adis, one
of the strongest fortresses of the country. ‘The Cartha-
-ginians, exasperated at seeing their enemies thus laying
waste their lands at pleasure, at last took the field, and
marched against them, to force them to raise the siege.
With this view, they posted themselves on a hill, which
overlooked the Roman camp, and was convenient for an-
noying the enemy; but at the same time, by its situa-
tion, rendered one part of their army useless. For the
strength of the Carthaginians lay chiefly in their horses
and elephants, which are of no service but in plains.
Regulus did not give them an opportunity of descending
from the hill; but, in order to take advantage of this es-
sential mistake of the Carthaginian generals, fell upon
them in this post; and after meeting with a feeble resist-
ance, put the enemy to flight, plundered their camp, and
laid waste the adjacent country. Then, having taken
Tunis,“ an important city, and which brought him near
Carthage, he made his army encamp there.
i Polyb. 1. i. p.31—36.

K In the interval betwixt the departure of Manlius and the taking of
Tunis, we are to place the memorable combat of Regulus and his whole
army, with a serpent of so prodigious a size, that the fabulous one of Cad-
mus is hardly comparable to it. The story of this serpent was elegantly
written by Livy, but it is now lost. Valerius Maximus however partly
repairs that loss; and in the last chapter of his first book, gives us this ac-
count of this monster from Livy himself :—He [Livy] says, that on the
banks of Bagrada (an African river) lay a serpent of so enormous a size,
that it kept the whole Roman army from coming to the river. Several sol-
diers had been buried in the wide caverns of its belly, and many pressed
to death in the spiral volumes of its tail. Its skin was impenetrable to
darts: and it was with repeated endeavours that stones, slung from the
tnilitary engines, at last killed it. ‘The serpent then exhibited a sight that

was more terrible to the Roman cohorts and legions than even Carthage
itself. ‘The streams of the river were dyed with its blood, and the stench

CARTHAGINIANS. 307

The enemy were in the utmost alarm, All things had
succeeded ill with them, their forces had been defeated
by sea and land, and upwards of 200 towns had surren-
dered to the conqueror. Besides, the Numidians made
greater havoc in their territories than even the Romans.
‘hey expected every moment to see their capital besieged.
And their affliction was increased by the concourse of
peasants with their wives and children, who flocked from
all parts to Carthage for safety: which gave them me-
lancholy apprehensions of a famine in case of a siege.
Regulus, afraid of having the glory of his victory torn
from him by a successor, made some proposal of an ac-
commodation to the vanquished enemy ; but the condi-
tions appeared so hard, that they could not listen to them.
As he did not doubt his being soon master of Carthage,
he would not abate any thing in his demands; but, by an
infatuation which is almost inseparable from great and
unexpected success, he treated them with haughtiness ;
and pretended, that every thing he suffered them to pos-
sess ought to be esteemed a favour; adding this farther
insult, That they ought either to overcome like brave men,
or learn to submit to the victor. So harsh and disdainful —
a treatment only fired their resentment; and they re-
solved rather to die sword in hand, than to do any thing
which might derogate from the dignity of Carthage.

Reduced to this fatal extremity, they received, in the
happiest juncture, a reinforcement of auxiliary troops out
of Greece, with Xanthippus. the Lacedzemonian at their
head, who had been educated in the discipline of Sparta,
and learnt the art of war in-that renowned and excellent
school. When he had heard the circumstances of the
last battle, which were told him at his request ; hadclearly
discerned the occasion of its being lost ; and perfectly in-
formed himself in what the strength of Carthage consist-
ed; he declared publicly, and repeated it often, in the
hearing of the rest of the officers, that the misfortunes

of its putrid carcase infected the adjacent country, so that the Roman
army was forced to decamp. Its skin, one hundred and twenty feet long,
was sent to Rome; and, if Pliny may be credited, was to be seen (together
with the jaw-bone of the same monster) in the temple where they were
first deposited, as late as the Numantine war.

Aci rove ayabodc 7 vundy, 7 eikeey Toic bmEpixovory. Diod. Eclog.
I. xxiii. c. 10.

x2

308 HISTORY OF THE

of the Carthaginians were owing entirely to the incapacity
of their generals. ‘These discourses came at last to the
ear of the public council ; the members of it were struck
with them, and they requested him to attend them. He
enforced his opinion with such strong and convincing rea-
sons, that the oversights committed by the generals were
visible to every one; and he proved as clearly, that by a
conduct opposite to the former, they would not only se-
cure their dominions, but drive the enemy out of them.
This speech revived the courage and hopes of the Cartha-
ginians ; and Xanthippus was entreated, and, in some
measure, forced, to accept the command of the army.
When the Carthaginians saw, in his exercising of their
forces near the city, the manner in which he drew them
up in order of battle, made them advance or retreat on
the first signal, file off with order and expedition; in a
word, perform all the evolutions and movements of the
military art; they were struck with astonishment, and
owned, that the ablest generals which Carthage had
hitherto produced, knew nothing in comparison of
Xanthippus. ee i

The officers, soldiers, and every one, were lost in ad-
miration ; and what is very uncommon, jealousy gave no
alloy to it; the fear of the present danger, and the love
of their country, stifling, without doubt, all other senti-
ments. ‘The gloomy consternation, which had before
seized the whole army, was succeeded by joy and alacrity.
The soldiers were urgent to be led against the enemy, in
the firm assurance (as they said) of being victorious under
their new leader, and of obliterating the disgrace of former
defeats. Xanthippus did not suffer their ardour to cool;
and the sight of the enemy only inflamed it. When he
had approached within little more than 1200 paces of
them, he thought proper to call a council of war, in order
to shew respect to the Carthaginian generals, by consult-
ing them. All unanimously deferred to his opinion ;
upon which it was resolved to give the enemy battle the
following day.

The Carthaginian army was composed of 12,000 foot,
A000 horse, and about 100 elephants. That of the
Romans, as near as may be guessed from what goes be-

CARTHAGINIANS. 309

fore (for Polybius does not mention their numbers here),
consisted of 15,000 foot, and 300 horse. :

It must be a noble sight to see two armies like these
before us, not overcharged with numbers, but composed
of brave soldiers, and commanded by very able generals,
engaged in battle. In those tumultuous fights, where
two or 300,000 are engaged on both sides, confusion is
inevitable ; and it is difficult, amidst a thousand events,
where chance generally seems to havea greater share than
counsel, to discover the true merit of commanders, and
the real causes of victory. But in such engagements as
this before us, nothing escapes the curiosity of the reader ;
for he clearly sees the disposition of the two armies ;
imagines he almost hears the orders given out by the
generals ; follows all the movements of the army; can
pomt out the faults committed on both sides; and is
thereby qualified to determine, with certainty, the causes
to which the victory or defeat is owing. The success of
this battle, however inconsiderable it may appear from the
small number of the combatants, was-nevertheless to de-
cide the fate of Carthage.

The disposition of both armies was as follows. “Xan-
thippus drew up all his elephants in front. Behind these,
at some distance, he placed the Carthaginian infantry in
one body or phalanx. The foreign troops in the Cartha-
ginian service were posted, one part of them on the right,
between the phalanx and the horse; and the other, com-
posed of light-armed soldiers, in platoons, at the head of
the two wings of the cavalry.

On the side of the Romans, as they apprehended the
elephants most, Regulus, to provide against them, posted
his light-armed soldiers, on a line, in the front of the
legions. In the rear of these, he placed the cohorts one
behind another, and the horse on the wings. In thus
straitening the front of his main battle, to give it more
depth, he indeed took a just precaution, says Polybius,
against the elephants; but he did not provide for the
inequality of his cavalry, which was much inferior in num-
bers to that of the enemy.

The two armies being thus drawn up, waited only for
_ the signal. Xanthippus orders the elephants to advance,

310° HISTORY OF THE

to break the ranks of the enemy; and commands the
two wings of the cavalry to charge the Romans in flank.
At the same time, the latter, clashing their arms, and
shouting after the manner of their country, advance
against the enemy. Their cavalry did not stand the onset
long, being so much inferior to that of the Carthaginians.
The infantry in the left wing, to avoid the attack of the
elephants, and shew how little they feared the mercena-
ries who formed the enemy’s right wing, attacks it, puts
it to flight, and pursues it to the camp. ‘Those in the
first ranks, who were opposed to the elephants, were
broken and trodden under foot, after fighting valiantly ;
and the rest of the main body stood firm for some time,
by reason of its great depth. But when the rear, being
attacked by the enemy’s cavalry, was obliged to face about
and receive it: and those who had broken through the
elephants, met the phalanx of the Carthaginians, which
had not yet engaged, and which received them in good
order, the Romans were routed on all sides, and entirely
defeated. The greatest part of them were crushed to
death by the enormous weight of the elephants: and the
remainder, standing in the ranks, were shot through and
inrough with arrows from the enemy’s horse. Only a
small number fled ; and as they were in an open country,
the horse and elephants killed a great part of them : 500,
or thereabouts, who went off with Regulus, were taken
prisoners with him. The Carthaginians lost in this bat-
tle 800 mercenaries, who were opposed to the left wing
of the Romans: and of the latter only 2000 escaped,
who, by their pursuing the enemy’s right wing, had
drawn themselves out of the engagement. All the rest,
Regulus and those who were taken excepted, were
left dead on the field. ‘The 2000, who had escaped the
slaughter, retired to Clypea, and were saved in an almost
miraculous manner.

The Carthaginians, after having stripped the dead,
entered Carthage in triumph, dragging after them the
unfortunate Regulus, and 500 prisoners. Their joy was
so much the greater, as, but a very few days before, they
had’seen themselyes upon the brink of ruin. The men
and women, old and young people, crowded the temples,

CARTHAGINIANS. 31]

to return thanks to the immortal gods; and several days
were devoted wholly to festivities and rejoicings.

Xanthippus, who had contributed so much to this
happy change, had the wisdom to withdraw shortly after,
from the apprehension lest his glory, which had hitherto
been unsullied, might, after this first blaze, insensibly
fade away, and leave him exposed to the darts of envy
and calumny, which are always dangerous, but most in
a foreign country, when a man stands alone, unsustained
by friends and relations, and destitute of all support.

Polybius tells us, that Xanthippus’s departure was re-
lated in « different manner, and promises to take notice
of it in another place: but that part of his history has
not come down tous. We read in Appian,” that the
Carthaginians, excited by a mean and detestable jealousy
of Xanthippus’s glory, and unable to bear the thoughts
that they should stand indebted to Sparta for their safety ;
upon pretence of conducting him and his attendants back
with honour to his own country, with a numerous convoy
of ships, gave private orders to have them all put to death
in their passage; as if with him they could have buried
in the waves for ever the memory of his services, and
their horrid ingratitude to him.”

This battle, says Polybius,’ though not so considerable
as many others, may yet furnish very salutary instruc-
tions ; which, adds that author, is the greatest benefit
that can be reaped from the study of history.

First, ought any man to put a great confidence in his
good fortune, after he has considered the fate of Regulus ?
That general, insolent with victory,inexorable to the con-

™ De Bell. Pun. 30.

"This perfidious action, as it is related by Appian, may possibly be
true, when we consider the character of the Carthaginians, who were
certainly a cruel and treacherous people. But, if it be fact, one would
wonder why Polybius should reserve for another occasion, the relation of
an incident which comes in most properly here, as it finishes at once the
character and life of Xanthippus. His silence therefore in this place
makes me think, that he intended to bring Xanthippus again upon the
stage; and to exhibit him to the reader in a different light from that in
which he is placed by Appian. To this let me add, that it shewed no
great depth of policy in the Carthaginians to take this method of de-
spatching him, when so many others offered which were less liable to
censure. In this scheme formed for hisdestruction, not only himself, but
all his followers, were to be murdered, without the pretence of even a
‘storm, or loss of one single Carthaginian, to cover or excuse the perpetra-
tion of so horrid a crime. ° Lib, i. p. 36, 37.

312 HISTORY OF THE

quered, scarcely deigning to listen to them, saw himself
a few days after vanquished by them, and made their pri-
soner. Hannibal suggested the same reflection to Sci-
pio, when he exhorted him not to be dazzled with the
success of his arms. Regulus, said he, would have been
recorded as one of the most uncommon instances of va-
lour and felicity, had he, after the victory obtained in this
very country, granted our fathers the peace which they
sued for. But putting no bounds to his ambition and
the insoletice of success, the greater his prosperity, the
more ignominious was his fall.”

In the second place, the truth of the saying of Euri-
pides is here seen in its fullest extent, That one wise
head is worth a great many hands.* A single man here
changes the whole face of affairs. On one hand, he de-
feats troops that were thought invincible ; on the other,
he revives the courage of a city and an army, whom he
had found in consternation and despair.

Such, as Polybius observes, is the use which ought to
be made of the study of history. For there being two
ways of acquiring improvement and instruction, first by
one’s own experience, and secondly by that of other men;
it is much more wise and useful to improve by other
men’s miscarriages than by our own.

I return to Regulus, that I may here finish what re-
lates to him; Polybius, to our great disappointment,
taking no farther notice of that general.’

P Inter pauca felicitatis virtutisque exempla M. Atilius quondam in
hic eAdem terra fuisset, si victor pacem petentibus dedisset patribus
nostris. Sed non statuendo tandem felicitati modum, nec cohibendo
efferentem se fortunam, quanto altits elatus erat, ed foedius corruit.
Liv. |. xxx. n. 30.

1 ‘Qe Ey copdy Boddevpa Tac woddAde xeipac veg. It may not be impro-
per to take notice in this place (as it was forgotten before) of a mistake
of the learned Casaubon, in his translation of a passage of Polybius con-
cerning Xanthippus. The passage is this: ’Eyv oi¢ kai ZavOirméy riva
Aaxedatpomoy avdpa Tig Aaxwririic dywyi¢e perecxnndra, Kat rouBijpy év roic
Toremkoig ExovTa otpperpov. Which is rendered thus by Casaubon: In
queis [militibus sc. Grecia allatis] Xanthippus quidam fuit Lacedemonius,
vir disciplina Laconicd imbutus, et qui rei militaris usum mediocrem habe-
bat. Whereas, agreeably with the whole character and conduct of Xan-
thippus, I take the sense of this passage to be, a man formed by the Spar-
ae discipline, and proportionably [not moderately] skilful in military
affairs.

r This silence of Polybius has prejudiced a great many learned men
against many of the stories told of Regulus’s barbarous treatment, after

CARTHAGINIANS. Lo

After being kept some some years in

a ee prison,’ he was sent to Rome to propose
an exchange of prisoners. He had been

obliged to take an oath, that he would return in case he
proved unsuccessful. He then acquainted the senate
with the subject of his voyage; and being invited by
them to give his opinion freely, he answered, that he
could no longer do it as a senator, having lost both this
quality, and that of a Roman citizen, from the time that
he had fallen into the hands of his enemies; but he did
not refuse to offer his thoughts as a private person.
This was a very delicate affair. Every one was touched
with the misfortunes of so great a man. He needed only,
says Cicero, to have spoken one word, and it would have
restored him to his liberty, his estate, his dignity, his
wife, his children, and his country; but that word ap-

he was taken by the Carthaginians. M. Rollin speaks no farther of this
matter; and therefore 1 shall give my reader the substance of what is
brought against the general belief of the Roman writers (as well histori-
ans as poets), and of Appian on this subject. First, it is urged, that’ Po-
lybius was very sensible that the story of these cruelties was false; and
therefore, that he might not disoblige the Romans, by contradicting so
general a belief, he chose rather to be silent concerning Regulus after he
was taken prisoner, than to violate the truth of history, of which he was so
strict an observer. This opinion is farther strengthened (says the adver-
saries of this belief) by a fragment of Diodorus, which says, that the wife
of Regulus, exasperated at the death of her husband in Carthage, occa-
sioned, as she imagined, by barbarous usage, persuaded her sons to re-
venge the fate of their father, by the cruel treatment of two Carthaginian
captives (thought tobe Bostar and Hamilcar) taken inthe sea-fight against
Sicily, after the misfortune of Regulus, and put into her hands for the re-
demption of her husband. One of these died by the severity of his im-
prisonment; and the other, by the care of the senate, who detested the
cruelty, survived, and was recovered to health. This treatment of the
captives, and the resentment of the senate on that account, form a third
argument or presumption against the truth of this story of Regulus, which
is thus argued :—Regulus dying in his captivity by the usual course of na-
ture, his wife, thus frustrated of her hopes of redeeming him by the ex-
change of her captives, treated them with the utmost barbarity, in conse-
quence of her belief of the ill-usage which Regulus had received. The
senate being angry with her for it, to give some colour to her cruelties,
she gave out among her acquaintance and kindred, that her husband
died in the way generally related. This, like all other reports, increased
gradually; and, from the national hatred betwixt the Carthaginians and
Romans, was easily and generally believed by the latter. How far this is —
conclusive against the testimonies of two such weighty authors as Cicero
and Seneca (to say nothing of the poets), is left to the judgment of the
reader,

* Appian. de Bello Pun. p. 2, 3. Cic. de Off. 1. iii. n. 99, 100. Aul.
Gel. 1. viz c. 4. Senec. Ep. 99,

314 HISTORY OF THE

peared to him contrary to the honour and welfare of the
state. He therefore plainly declared, that an exchange
of prisoners ought not to be so much as thought of:
that such an example would be of fatal consequence to
the republic : that citizens who had so basely surrendered
their arms to the enemy, were unworthy of the least
compassion, and incapable of serving their country : that
with regard to himself, as he was so far advanced in years,
his death ought to be considered as nothing ; whereas
they had in their hands several Carthaginian generals, in
the flower of their age, and capable of doing their coun-
try great services for many years. It was with difficulty
that the senate complied with so generous and unex-
ampled a counsel. The illustrious exile therefore left
Rome,’ in order to return to Carthage, unmoved either
with the deep affliction of his friends, or the tears of his
wife and children, although he knew but too well the
grievous torments which were prepared for him. And,
indeed, the moment his enemies saw him returned with-
out having obtained the exchange of prisoners, they put
him to every kind of torture their barbarous cruelty
could invent. ‘They imprisoned him for a long time
in a dismal dungeon, whence (after cutting off his
eye-lids) they drew him at once into the sun, when
its beams darted the strongest heat. They next put
him into a kind of chest stuck full of nails, whose
points wounding him, did not allow him a moment’s
ease either day or night. Lastly, after having been
long tormented by being kept for ever awake in this
dreadful torture, his merciless enemies nailed him to a
cross, their usual punishment, and left him to expire on
it. Such was the end of this great man. His enemies,
by depriving him of some days, perhaps years, of life,
brought eternal infamy on themselves.

The blow which the Romans had received in Africa
did not discourage them." They made greater prepara-
tions than before, to retrieve their loss; and put to sea,
the following campaign, three hundred and sixty vessels.
The Carthaginians sailed out to meet them with two
hundred ; but were beaten in an engagement fought on

‘ Horat. 1, iii. Od. 3. « Polyb. L. i. p. 37.

CARTHAGINIANS. 315

the coasts of Sicily, and a hundred and fourteen of their
ships were taken by the Romans. The latter sailed into
Africa, to take in the few soldiers who had escaped the
pursuit of the enemy, after the defeat of Regulus; and
had defended themselves vigorously in Clypea, where
they had been unsuccessfully besieged.

Here again we are astonished that the Romans, after
so considerable a victory, and with so large a fleet,
should sail into Africa, only to bring from thence a small
garrison; whereas they might have attempted the con-
quest of it, since Regulus, with much fewer forces, had
almost completed it.

The Romans, on their return, were overtaken by a
storm, which almost destroyed their whole fleet.* The
like misfortune befel them also the following year.’
However, they consoled themselves for this double loss,
by a victory which they gained over Asdrubal, from
whom they took near a hundred and forty elephants.
This news being brought to Rome, filled the whole city
with joy ; not only because the strength of the enemy’s
army was considerably diminished by the loss of their
elephants, but chiefly because this victory had inspired
the land forces with fresh courage: who, since the de-
feat of Regulus, had not dared to venture upon an en-
gagement ; so great was the terror with which those for-
midable animals had filled the minds of all the soldiers.
It was therefore judged proper to make a greater effort
than ever, in order to finish, if possible, a war which had
continued fourteen years. The two consuls set sail
with a fleet of two hundred ships, and arriving in Sicily,
formed the bold design of besieging Lilybeum. ‘This
was the strongest town which the Carthaginians pos-
sessed, and the loss of it would be attended with that of
every part of the island, and open to the Romans a free
passage into Africa.

The reader will suppose, that the utmost ardour was
shewn, both in the assault and defence of the place.”
Imilco was governor there, with 10,000 regular forces,
exclusive of the inhabitants; and Hannibal, the son of
Hamilcar, soon brought him as many more from Car-

x Polyb. |. i. p. 388—40. y Pag. 41, 42. z Pag, 41—50.

316 HISTORY OF THE

thage; he having, with the most intrepid courage, forced
his way through the enemy’s fleet, and arrived happily
in the port.

The Romans had not lost any time. Having brought
forward their engines, they beat down several towers
with their battering rams; and gaining ground daily,
they made such progress, as gave the besieged, who
now were closely pressed, some fears. ‘The governor
saw plainly that there was no other way left to save the
city, but by firing the engines of the besiegers. Having
therefore prepared his forces for this enterprise, he sent
them out at day-break with torches in their hands, tow,
and all kinds of combustible matters; and at the same
time-attacked all the engines. The Romans exerted
their utmost efforts to repel them, and the engagement
was very bloody. Every man, assailant as well as defend-
ant, stood to his post, and chose to die rather than quit
it. AtJast, after a long resistance and dreadful slaugh-
ter, the besieged sounded.a retreat, and left the Romans
in possession of their works. ‘This conflict being over,
Hannibal embarked in the night, and, concealing his
departure from the enemy, sailed for Drepanum, where
Adherbal commanded for the Carthaginians. Drepanum
was advantageously situated; having acommodious port,
and lying about 120furlongs from Lilybeeum ; and the Car-
thaginians had been always very desirous of preserving it.

The Romans, animated by their late success, renewed
the attack with greater vigour than ever; the besieged
not daring to make a second attempt to burn their ma-
chines, so much were they disheartened by the ill suc-
cess of the former. But a furious wind rising suddenly,
some mercenary soldiers represented to the governor,
that now was the favourable opportunity for them to
fire the engines of the besiegers, especially as the wind
blew full against them; and they offered themselves for
the enterprise. The offer was accepted, and accordingly
they were furnished with every thing necessary. In a
moment the fire catched all the engines; and the Ro-
mans could not possibly extinguish it, because the flames
being spread instantly every where, the winds carried
the sparks and smoke full in their eyes, so that they

CARTHAGINIANS. 317

could not see where to apply relief; whereas their ene-
mies saw clearly where to aim their strokes, and throw
their fire. ‘This accident made the Romans lose all
hopes of being ever able to carry the place by force.
They therefore turned the siege into a blockade; raised
a strong line of contravallation round the town; and;
dispersing their army in every part of the neighbour-
hood, resolved to effect by time, what they found them-
selves absolutely unable to perform any other way.
When the transactions of the siege of Lilybeeum, and
the loss of part of the forces, were known at Rome, the
citizens, so far from desponding at this ill news, seemed
to be fired with new vigour.* Every man strove to be
foremost in the muster-roll; so that, in a very little
time, an army of 10,000 men was raised, who, crossing
the strait, marched by land to join the besiegers.
At the same time, P. Claudius Pulcher,
Aaa a the consul, formed a design of attacking
Adherbal in Drepanum.’ He thought
himself sure of surprising him, because, after the loss
lately sustained by the Romans at Lilybeeum, the enemy
could not imagine that they would venture out again at
sea. Flushed with these hopes, he sailed out with his
fleet in the night, the better to conceal his design. But
he had to do with an active general, whose vigilance he
could not elude, and who did not even give him time to
draw up his ships in line of battle, but fell vigorously
upon him whilst his fleet was in disorder and confusion.
The Carthaginians gamed a complete victory. Of the
Roman fleet, only thirty vessels got off, which being in
company with the consul, fed with him, and got away
in the best manner they could. along the coast. All the
rest, amounting to fourscore and thirteen, with the
men 6n board them, were taken by the Carthaginians;
a few soldiers excepted, who had escaped from the wreck
of their vessels. This victory displayed as much the
prudence and valour of Adherbal, as it reflected shame
and ignominy on the Roman consul.
Junius, his colleague, was neither more prudent nor
more fortunate than himself, but lost his whole fleet by

4 Polyb. p. 50. b Ebid. pao.

318 HISTORY OF THE

his ill conduct.* Endeavouring to atone for his misfor-
tune by some considerable action, he held a secret cor-
respondence with the inhabitants of Eryx,* and by that
means got the city surrendered to him. On the sum-
mit of the mountain stood the temple of Venus Erycina,
which was certainly the most beautiful as well as the
richest of all the Sicilian temples. The city stood a little
below the summit of this mountain, and the only access
to it was by a road very long and very rugged. Junius
posted one part of his troops upon the top, and the re-
mainder at the foot of the mountain, imagining that he
now had nothing to fear; but Hamilcar, surnamed Barca,
father of the famous Hannibal, found means to get into
the city, which lay between the two camps of the enemy,
and there fortified himself. From this advantageous
post he harassed the Romans incessantly for two years.
One can scarce conceive how it was possible for the
Carthaginians to defend themselves, when thus attacked
from both the summit and foot of the mountain; and
unable to get provisions, but from a little port, which
was the only one open to them. By such enterprises as
these, the abilities and prudent courage of a general
are as well, or perhaps better, discovered, than by the
winning of a battle.

For five years, nothing memorable was performed on
either side.* ‘The Romans had imagined that their land
forces would alone be capable of finishing the siege of
Lilybzeum: but as they saw it protracted beyond their
expectation, they returned to their first plan, and made
extraordinary efforts to fit out a new fleet. The public
treasury was at a low ebb; but this want was supplied by
the zeal of individuals; so ardent was the love which
the Romans bore their country. Every man, according
to his circumstances, contributed to the common ex-
pense; and, upon public security, advanced money, with-
out the least scruple, for an expedition on which the
glory and safety of Rome depended. One man fitted
out a ship at his own charge; another was equipped by
A.M. 3763. _ the contributions of two or three; so that,
A. Rom. 507. in a very little time, 200 were ready for

© Polyb. |. i. p. 54—59. 4 A city and mountain of Sicily.
© Polyb. 1. i. p. 59—62,

CARTHAGINIANS: 849.

sailing. ‘The command was given to Lutatius, the con-
sul, who immediately put to sea. ‘The enemy’s fleet
had retired into Africa: the consul therefore easily seized
upon all the advantageous posts in the neighbourhood
of Lilybeum; and foresezing that he should soon be
forced to fight, he omitted no precautions to ensure
success; and employed the interval in exercising his
soldiers and seamen at sea.

He was soon informed that the Carthaginian fleet
drew near, under the command of Hanno, who landed
in a small island called Hiera, opposite to Drepanum.
His design was to reach Eryx undiscovered by the Ro-
mans, in order to supply the army there; to reinforce
his troops, and take Barca on board to assist him in the
expected engagement. But the consul, suspecting his
intention, was beforehand with him; and having as-
sembled all his best forces, sailed for the small island
/Egusa,' which lay near the other. He acquainted his
officers with the design he had of attacking the enemy
onthe morrow. Accordingly, at day-break, he prepared
to engage: unfortunately, the wind was favourable for
the enemy, which made him hesitate whether he should
give him battle. But considering that the Carthaginian
fleet, when unloaded of its provisions, would become
lighter and more fit for action ; and, besides, would be
considerably strengthened by the forces and presence of
Barca, he came to a resolution at once; and notwith-
standing the foul weather, made directly to the enemy.
The consul had choice forces, able seamen, and excel-
lent ships, built after the model of a galley that had been
lately taken from the enemy; and which was the com-
pletest in its kind that had ever been seen. The Car-
thaginians, on the other hand, were destitute of all these
advantages. As they had been the entire masters at sea
for some years, and the Romans did not once dare to
face them, they held them in the highest contempt, and
looked upon themselves as invincible. On the first re-
port of the enemy being in motion, the Carthaginians
had put to sea a fleet fitted out in haste, as appeared
from every circumstance of it: the soldiers and seamen

f These islands are also called Aigates.

320 HISTORY OF THE

being all mercenaries, newly levied, without the least
experience, resolution, or zeal, since it was not for their
owncountry they were going to fight. This soon appeared
in the engagement. They could not sustain the first
attack. Fifty of their vessels were sunk, and seventy
taken, with their whole crews. The rest, favoured by
a wind that rose very seasonably for them, made the
best of their way to the little island from whence they
had sailed. There were upwards of 10,000 taken pri-
soners. ‘The consul sailed immediately for Lilybeum,
and joined his forces to those of the besiegers.

When the news of this defeat arrived at Carthage, it
occasioned so much the greater surprise and terror, as
it was less expected. ‘The senate, however, did not lose
their courage, though they saw themselves quite unable
to continue the war. As the Romans were now masters
of the sea, it was not possible for the Carthaginians to
send either provisions or reinforcements to the armies
in Sicily. An express was therefore immediately de-
spatched to Barca, the general there, empowering him to
act as he should think proper. Barca, so long as he had
room to entertain the least hopes, had done every thing
that could be expected from the most intrepid courage,
and the most consummate wisdom. But having now
no resource left, he sent a deputation to the consul, in
order to treat about a peace. Prudence, says Polybius,
consists in knowing how to resist and yield at a season-
able juncture. Lutatius was not insensible how tired the
Romans were grown of a war, which had exhausted them
both of men and money; and the dreadful consequences
which had attended on Regulus’s inexorable and impru-
dent obstinacy, were fresh in his memory. He there-
fore complied without difficulty, and dictated the follow-
ing treaty :—

THERE SHALL BE PEACE BETWEEN ROME AND Car-
THAGE (IN CASE THE ROMAN PEOPLE APPROVE OF IT)
ON THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS: THE CaRTHAGINI-
ANS SHALL EVACUATE ALL SICILY ; SHALL NO LONGER
MAKE WAR UPON HERO, THE SYRACUSANS, OR THEIR
ALLIES: ‘THEY SHALL RESTORE TO THE RoMANS, WITH-
OUT RANSOM, ALL THE PRISONERS WHICH THEY HAVE

CARTHAGINIANS. Ps De |

TAKEN FROM THEM; AND PAY THEM, WITHIN TWENTY
YEARS, TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED® EvusBoic TA-
LENTS OF SILVER." It is worth the reader’s remarking,
by the way, the simple, exact, and clear terms in which
this treaty is expressed ; that, in so short a compass, ad-
justs the interests of two powerful republics and their
allies, both by sea and land.

When these conditions were brought to Rome, the
people, not approving of them, sent ten commissioners
to Sicily, to terminate the affair. These made no al-
teration as to the substance of the treaty ;' only shorten-
ing the time appointed for the payment, reducing it to
ten years: a thousand talents were added to the sum that
had been stipulated, which were to be paid immediately ;
and the Carthaginians were required to depart out of all
the islands situated between Italy and Sicily. Sardinia
was not comprehended in this treaty ; but they gave it
up by another treaty which was made some years after-
wards.

A. M. 3763. Such was the conclusion of a war, one
A. Carth. 605. of the longest mentioned in history, since
gk Rom. 007 it continued twenty-four years without in-
nt. J.C. 241. ice en Nene tas
termission. The obstinacy, in disputing
for empire, was equal on either side: the same resolu-
tion, the same greatness of soul, in forming as well as in
executing of projects, being conspicuous on both sides.
The Carthaginians had the superiority in their ac-
quaintance with naval affairs; in their skill in the con-
struction of their vessels; the working of them; the
experience and capacity of their pilots; the knowledge
of coasts, shallows, roads, and winds; and in the inex-
haustible fund of wealth, which furnished all the ex-
penses of so long and obstinate a war. The Romans
had none of these advantages; but their courage, zeal
for the public good, love of their country, and a noble
emulation of glory, supplied all other deficiencies. We
are astonished to see a nation, so raw and inexperienced
in naval affairs, not only making head against a people
who were better skilled in them, and more powerful than

s This sum amounts to near 6,180,000 French livres.
5 515,000. English money. i Polyb. I. iii. p. 182.

VOL. I. i @

322 HISTORY OF THE —

any that had ever been before ; but even gaining several
victories over them at sea. No difficulties or calamities
could discourage them. They certainly would not have
thought of peace, in the circumstances under which the
Carthaginians demanded it. One unfortunate campaign
dispirits the latter: whereas the Romans are not shaken
by a succession of them.

As to soldiers, there was no comparison between those
of Rome and Carthage, the former being infinitely supe-
rior in point of courage. Among the generals who com-
mandedin this war, Hamilcar, surnamed Barca, was, doubt-
less, the most conspicuous for his bravery and prudence.

The Lilyan War ; or, against the Mercenaries.

The war which the Carthaginians waged against the
Romans,“ was succeeded immediately by another,’ which,
though of much shorter continuance, was infinitely more
dangerous ; as it was carried on in the very heart of the
republic, and attended with such cruelty and barbarity,
as is scarce to be paralleled in history ; I mean the war
which the Carthaginians were obliged to sustain against
their mercenary troops, who had served under them in
Sicily, and which is commonly called the African or Li-
byan war.™ It continued only three years and a half, but
was a very bloody one. The occasion of it was this :—

As soon as the treaty was concluded with the Romans,”
Hamilcar, having carried to Lilybeeum the forces which
were in Eryx, resigned his commission; and left to
Gisgo, governor of the place, the care of transporting
these forces into Africa. Gisgo, as though he had fore-
seen what would happen, did not ship them all off at once,
but in small and separate parties; in order that those who
came first might be paid off, and sent home, before the
arrival of the rest. ‘This conduct evinced great forecast
and wisdom, but was not seconded equally at Carthage.
As the republic had been exhausted by the expense of a
long war, and the payment of near 130,000/. to the Ro-
mans on signing the peace, the forces were not paid off

| k Polyb, Li. p. 65—89.
1 The same year that the first Punic war ended.

™ And sometimes Zevxdy, or the war with the mercenaries.
" Polyb. 1. i. p. 66.

CARTHAGINIANS. ooo

in proportion as they arrived; but it was thought proper
to wait for the rest, in the hopes of obtaining from them
(when they should be all together), a remission of some
part of their arrears. This was the first oversight.

Here we discover the genius of a state composed of
merchants, who know the full value of money, but are
little acquainted with that of the services of soldiers ; who
bargain for blood, as though it were an article of trade,
and always go to the cheapest market. In such a repub-
lic, when an éxigency is once answered, the merit of ser-
vices is no longer remembered.

These soldiers, most of whom came to Carthage, hav-
ing been long accustomed to a licentious life, caused great
disturbances in the city ; to remedy which, it was pro-
posed to their officers, to march them all to a little neigh-
bouring town called Sicca, and there supply them with
whatever was necessary for their subsistence, till the ar-
rival of the rest of their companions ; and that then they
should all be paid off, and sent home. This was a se-
cond oversight.

A third was, the refusing to let them leave their bag-
gage, their wives, and children, in Carthage, as they de-
sired; and the forcing them to remove these to Siccas;
whereas, had they stayed in Carthage, they would have
been in a manner so many hostages.

Being all met together at Sicca, they began (having
little else to do) to compute the arrears of their pay,
which they made amount to much more than was really
due to them. To this computation, they added the
mighty promises which had been made them at different
times, as an encouragement for them to do their duty ;
and pretended that these likewise ought to be brought
into the account. Hanno, who was then governor of
Africa, and had been sent to them from the magistrates
of Carthage, proposed to them to consent to some abate-
ment of their arrears; and to content themselves with
receiving a part, in consideration of the great distress
to which the commonwealth was reduced, and its pre-
sent unhappy circumstances. The reader will easily
guess how such a proposal was received. Complaints,
murmurs, seditious and insolent clamours, were

¥Z

S24 HISTORY OF THE

every where heard. These troops being composed of
different nations, who were strangers to one another’s
language, were incapable of hearing reason when they
once mutinied. Spaniards, Gauls, Ligurians, imhabit-
ants of the Balearic isles ; Greeks, the greatest part of
them slaves or deserters, and a very great number of
Africans, composed these mercenary forces. ‘Transported
with rage, they immediately break up, march towards
Carthage (being upwards of 20,000), and encamped at
Tunis, not far from that metropolis.

The Carthaginians discovered too late Hee error.
There was no “compliance, how grovelling soever, to
which they did not stoop, to soothe these exasperated sol-
diers: who, on their side, practised every knavish art
which could be thought of, in order to extort money
from them. When one point was gained, they imme-
diately had recourse to a new artifice, on which to ground
some new demand. Was their pay settled beyond the
agreement made with them, they would still be reim-
bursed for the losses which they pretended to have sus-
tained, either by the death of their horses, by the exces-
sive price which at certain times they had paid for bread-
corn; and still insisted on the recompence which had
been promised them. As nothing could be fixed, the
Carthaginians, with great difficulty, prevailed on them
to refer themselves to the opinion of some general who
had commanded in Sicily. Accordingly they pitched upon
Gisgo, who had always been very acceptable to them.
This general harangued them in a mild and insinuating
manner ; recalled to their memories the long time they
had been in the Carthaginian service ; the considerable
sums they had received from the republic ; and granted
almost all their demands.

The treaty was upon the point of being concluded,
when two mutineers occasioned a tumult in every part
ofthe camp. One of those was Spendius a Capuan, who
had been a slave at Rome, and had fled to the Carthagi-
nians. He was tall and bold. The fear he was under,
of falling into the hands of his former master, by whom
he was sure to be hanged (as was the custom), prompted
him to break off the agreement. He was seconded by

CARTHAGINIANS. 320

one Matho,° who had been very active in forming the
conspiracy. ‘These two represented to the Africans, that
the instant after their companions should be discharged
and sent home, they, being thus left alone in their own
country, would fall a sacrifice to the rage of the Cartha-
ginians, who would take vengeance upon them for the
common rebellion. ‘This was sufficient to raise them to
fury. They immediately made choice of Spendius and
Matho for their chiefs. No remonstrances were heard ;
and whoever offered to make any, was immediately put
to death. They ran to Gisgo’s tent, plundered it of the
money designed for the payment of the forces; dragged
that general himself to prison, with all his attendants ;
after having treated them with the utmost indignities.
All the cities of Africa, to whom they had sent deputies
to exhort them to recover their liberty, came over to
them, Utica and Hippacra excepted, which they there-
fore immediately besieged.

Carthage had never been before exposed to such im-
minent danger. The citizens individually drew each his
subsistence from the rents or revenues of their lands, and
the public expenses from the tribute paid by Africa. But
all this was stopped at once ; and (a much worse circum-
stance) was turned against them. ‘They found them-
selves destitute of arms and forces either for sea or land;
of all necessary preparations either for the sustaining of
a siege, or the equipping of a fleet; and, to complete
their misfortunes, without any hopes of foreign assistance
either from their friends or allies.

They might in some sense impute to themselves the
distress to which they were reduced. During the last
war, they had treated the African nations with the utmost
rigour, by imposing excessive tributes on them, in the
exaction of which no allowance was made for poverty
and extreme misery; and governors, such as Hanno,
were treated with the greater respect, the more severe

© Matho was an African, and free born; but as he had been active in
raising the rebellion, an accommodation would have ruined him. He,
therefore, despairing of a pardon, embraced the interests of Spendius with
more zeal than any of the rebels; and first insinuated to the Alrieans the
danger of concluding a peace, as this would leave them alone, and exposed
to the rage of their old masters. Polyb. p. 98. edit. Gronov.

326 HISTORY OF THE

they had been in levying those tributes. So that no
great efforts were necessary to prevail upon the Africans
to engage in this rebellion. At the very first signal that
was made, it broke out, and in a moment became gene-
ral. The women, who had often, with the deepest afflic-
tion, seen their husbands and fathers dragged to prison
for non-payment, were more exasperated than the men;
and with pleasure gave up all their ornaments towards the
expenses of the war; so that the chiefs of the rebels,
after paying all they had promised the soldiers, found
themselves still in the midst of plenty: an instructive
lesson, says Polybius, to ministers, how a people should
be treated ; as it teaches them to look, not only to the
present occasion, but to extend their views to futurity.

The Carthaginians, notwithstanding their present dis-
tress, did not despond, but made the most extraordinary
efforts. ‘The command of the army was given to Hanno.
Troops were levied by land and sea; horse as well as
foot. All citizens, capable of bearing arms were mus-
tered; mercenaries were invited from all parts; and all
the ships which the republic had left were refitted.

The rebels discovered no less ardour. We related be-
fore, that they had formed the siege of the two only cities
which refused to join them. Their army was "now in-
creased to 70,000 men. After detachments had been
drawn from it to carry on those sieges, they pitched their
camp at Tunis; and thereby held Carthage in a kind of
blockade, filled it with perpetual alarms, and frequently
advancing up to its very walls by day as well as by night.

Hanno had marched to the relief of Utica, and gained
a considerable advantage, which, had he made a proper
use of it, might have proved decisive: but entering the
city, and only diverting himself there, the mercenaries,
who had retreated to a neighbouring hill covered with
trees, hearing how careless the enemy were, poured down
upon them; found the soldiers straggling in all parts ;
took and plundered the camp, and seized upon all the
supplies that had been brought from Carthage for the
relief of the besieged. Nor was this the only error com-
mitted by Hanno; and errors, in such critical junctures,
are much the most fatal. Hamilcar, surnamed Barca,

CART HAGINIANS. 397
was therefore appointed to succeed him. ‘This general
answered the idea which had been entertained of him ;
and his first success was the obliging the rebels to raise
the siege of Utica. He then marched against their army
which was encamped near Carthage; defeated part of it,
and seized almost all their advantageous posts. ‘These
successes revived the courage of the Carthaginians.

The arrival of a young Numidian nobleman, Narava-
sus by name, who, out of esteem for the person and merit
of Barca, joined him with 2000 Numidians, was of great
service to that general.. Animated by this reinforcement,
he fell upon the rebels, who had cooped him up in a val-
ley ; killed 10,000 of them, and took 4000 prisoners.
The young Numidian distinguished himself greatly in this
battle. Barca took into his troops as many of the pri-
soners as were desirous of being enlisted, and gave the
rest free liberty to go wherever they pleased, on condi-
tion that they should never take up arms any more against
the Carthaginians ; otherwise, that every man of them,
if taken, should be put to death. ‘This conduct proves
the wisdom of that general. He thought this a better
expedient than extreme severity. And indeed where a
multitude of mutineers are concerned, the greatest part
of whom have been drawn in by the persuasions of the
most hot-headed, or through fear of the most furious,
clemency seldom fails of being successful.

Spendius, the chief of the rebels, fearing that this af-
fected lenity of Barca might occasion a defection among
his troops, thought the only expedient left him to prevent
it, would be, to strike some signal blow, which would
deprive them of all hopes of being ever reconciled to the
enemy. With this view, after having read to them some
fictitious letters, by which advice was given him, of a se-
cret design concerted betwixt some of their comrades and
Gisgo for rescuing him out of prison, where he had been
so long detained ; he brought them to the barbarous re-
solution of murdering him and all the rest of the pri-
soners; and any man, who durst offer any milder‘coun-
sel, was immediately sacrificed to their fury. Accord-
ingly, this unfortunate general, and 700 prisoners who
were confined with him, were brought out to the front

328 HISTORY OF THE

of the camp, where Gisgo fell the first sacrifice, and af-
terwards all the rest. Their hands were cut off, their
thighs broken, and their bodies, still breathing, were
thrown into a hole. The Carthaginians sent a herald
to demand their remains, in order to pay them the last
sad office, but were refused ; and the herald was farther
told, that whoever presumed to come upon the like er-
rand, should meet with Gisgo’s fate. “And, indeed, the
rebels immediately came to the unanimous resolution, of
treating all such Carthaginians as should fall into their
hands in the same barbarous manner ; and decreed far-
ther, that if any of their allies were taken, they should,
after their hands were cut off, be sent back to Carthage.
This bloody resolution was but too punctually executed.

The Carthaginians were now just beginning to breathe,
as it were, and recover their spirits, when a number of
unlucky accidents plunged them again into fresh dangers.
A division arose among their generals; and the provi-
sions, of which they were in extreme necessity, com-
ing to them by sea, were all cast away in astorm. But
the misfortune which they most keenly felt, was, the
sudden defection of the two only cities which till then had
preserved their allegiance, and im all times adhered invio-
lably to the commonwealth. These were Utica and
Hippacra. ‘These cities, without the least reason, or
even so much as a pretence, went over at once to the
rebels ; and, transported with the like rage and fury,
murdered the governor, with the garrison sent to their
relief; and carried their inhumanity so far, as to refuse
their dead bodies to the Carthaginians, who demanded
them back in order for burial.

The rebels, animated by so much success, laid siege to
Carthage, but were obliged immediately to raise it. They
nevertheless continued the war. Having drawn together,
into one body, all their own troops and those of the al-
lies (making upwards of 50,000 men in all), they watched
the motions of Hamilcar’s army, but carefully kept their
own on the hills; and avoided coming down into the
plains, because the enemy would there have had too great
an advantage over them, on account of their elephants
and cavalry. Hamilcar, more skilful in the art of war

CARTHAGINIANS. 329

than they, never exposed himself to any of their attacks;
but taking advantage of their oversights, often dispos-
sessed them of their posts, if their soldiers straggled but
ever so little; and harassed them a thousand ways.
Such of them as fell into his hands, were thrown to wild
beasts. At last, he surprised them at a time when they
least expected it, and shut them up in a post which was
so situated, that it was impossible for them to get out of
it. Not daring to venture a battle, and being unable to
get off, they began to fortify their camp, and surround-
ed it with ditches and intrenchments. But an enemy
among themselves, and which was much more formi-
dable, had reduced them to the greatest extremity: this
was hunger, which was so raging, that they at last ate
one another; Divine Providence, says Polybius, thus re-
venging upon themselves the barbarous cruelty they had
exercised on others. ‘They now had no resource left ; and
knew but too well the punishments which would be in-
flicted on them, in case they. should fall alive into the
hands of the enemy. After such bloody scenes as had
been acted by them, they did not so much as think of
peace, or of coming to an accommodation. They had sent
to their forces encamped at ‘Tunis for assistance, but with
no success. In the mean time the famine increased
daily. They had first eaten their prisoners, then their
slaves; and now their fellow-citizens only were left.
Their chiefs, now no longer able to resist the complaints
and cries of the multitude, who threatened to massacre
them if they did not surrender, went themselves to Ha-
milcar, after having obtained a safe-conduct from him.
The conditions of the treaty were, that the Carthaginians
should select any ten of the rebels, to treat them as they
should think fit, and that the rest should be dismissed
with only one suit of clothes foreach. When the treaty
was signed, the chiefs themselves were arrested and de-
tained by the Carthaginians, who plainly shewed, on this
occasion, that they did not pride themselves upon their
good faith and sincerity. The rebels, hearing that their
chiefs were seized, and knowing nothing of the conven-
tion, suspected that they were betrayed, and thereupon
immediately took up arms. But Hamilcar, having sur-

330 HISTORY OF THE

rounded them, brought forward his elephants; and either
trod them all under foot, or cut them to pieces, they be-
ing upwards of 40,000.

The consequence of this victory was, the reduction
of almost all the cities of Africa, which immediately re-
turned to their allegiance. Hamilcar, without loss of
time, marched against Tunis, which ever since the be-
ginning of the war, had been the asylum of the rebels,
and their place of arms. He invested it on one side,
whilst Hannibal, who was joined in the command with
him, besieged it on the other. Then advancing near
the walls, and ordering crosses to be set up, he hung
Spendius on one of them, and his companions who had
been seized with him on the rest, where they all expired.
Matho, the other chief, who commanded in the city,
saw plainly by this what he himself might expect ; and
for that reason was much more attentive to his own de-
fence. Perceiving that Hannibal, as being confident of
success, was very negligent in all his motions, he made
a sally, attacked his quarters, killed many of his men,
took several prisoners, among whom was Hannibal him-
self, and plundered his camp. ‘Then taking Spendius
from the cross, he put Hannibal in his place, after hay-
ing made him suffer inexpressible torments ; and sacri-
ficed round the body of Spendius thirty citizens of the
first quality in Carthage, as so many victims of his ven-
geance. One would conclude, that there had been a
mutual emulation betwixt the contending parties, which
of them should out-do the other in acts of the most bar-
barous cruelty.

Barca being at that time at a distance, it was long
before the news of his colleague’s misfortune reached
him ; and besides, the road lying betwixt the two camps
being impassable, it was impossible for him to advance
hastily to his assistance. This disastrous accident
caused a great consternation in Carthage. The reader
may have observed, in the course of this war, a continual
vicissitude of prosperity and adversity, of security and
fear, of joy and grief; so various and inconstant were the
events on either side.

In Carthage it was thought advisable to make one

CART HAGINIANS. 331
bold effort. Accordingly, all the youth capable of bear-

ing arms were pressed into the service. Hanno was
sent to join Hamilcar ; and thirty senators were deputed
to conjure those generals, in the name of the republic,
to forget past quarrels, and sacrifice their resentments
to their country’s welfare. ‘This was immediately com-
plied with; they mutually embraced, and were recon-
ciled sincerely to one another.

From this time, the Carthaginians were successful in
all things; and Matho, who in every attempt after this
came off with disadvantage, at last thought himself
obliged to hazard a battle; and this was just what the
Carthaginians wanted. The leaders.on both sides ani-
mated their troops, as going to fight a battle which
would for ever decide their fate. An engagement en-
sued. Victory was not long in suspense; for the rebels
every where giving ground, the Africans were almost all
slain, and the rest surrendered. Matho was taken alive,
and carried to Carthage. All Africa returned immedi-
ately to its allegiance, except the two perfidious cities
which had lately revolted; however, they were soon
forced to surrender at discretion.

And now the victorious army returned to Carthage,
and was there received with shouts of joy, and the con-
gratulations of the whole city. Matho and his soldiers,
after having adorned the public triumph, were led to
execution ; and finished, by a painful and ignominious
death, a life that had been polluted with the blackest
treasons and unparalleled barbarities. Such was the con-
clusion of the war against the mercenaries, after having
lasted three years and four months. It furnished, says
Polybius, an ever-memorable lesson to all nations, not to
employ in their armies a greater number of mercenaries
than citizens; nor to rely, for the defence of their state,
on a body of men who are not attached to it either by
interest or affection.

I have hitherto purposely deferred taking notice of
such transactions in Sardinia as passed at the time I have
been speaking of, and which were, in some measure, de-
pendant on, and resulting from, the war waged in Africa
against the mercenaries. ‘They exhibit the same violent

aoe HISTORY OF THE

methods to promote rebellion; the same excesses of
cruelty; as if the wind had carried the same spirit of
discord and fury from Africa into Sardinia.

When the news was brought there of what Spendius
and Matho were doing in Africa, the mercenaries in that
island also shook off the yoke, in imitation of these in-
cendiaries. ‘They began by the murder of Bostar their
general, and of all the Carthaginians under him. A
successor was sent; but all the forces which he carried
with him went over to the rebels; hung the general on
across; and, throughout the whole island, put all the
Carthaginians to the sword, after having made them suf-
fer inexpressible torments. They then besieged all the
cities one after another, and soon got possession of the
whole country. But feuds arising between them and
the natives, the mercenaries were driven entirely out of
the island, and took refuge in Italy. Thus the Cartha-
ginians lost Sardinia, an island of great importance to
them, on account of its extent, its fertility, and the great
number of its inhabitants.

The Romans, ever since their treaty with the Car-
thaginians, had behaved towards them with great justice
and moderation. A slight quarrel, on account of some
Roman merchants who were seized at Carthage for
having supplied the enemy with provisions, had embroiled
them a little. But these merchants being restored on
the first complaint made to the senate of Carthage, the
Romans, who prided themselves upon their justice and
generosity on all occasions, made the Carthaginians a
return of their former friendship; served them to the
utmost of their power ; forbade their merchants to fur-
nish any other nation with provisions ; and even refused
to listen to the proposals made by the Sardinian rebels,
when invited by them to take possession of the island.

But these scruples and delicacy wore off by degrees ;
and Cesar’s advantageous testimony (in Sallust) of their
honesty and plain dealing, could not, with any propriety,
be applied here: Although, says he, in all the Punic

_ ? Bellis Punicis omnibus, cdm szpe Carthaginenses et in pace et per
inducias multa nefanda facinora fecissent, nunquam ipsi per occasionem
talia fecere: magis quod se dignum foret, quim quod in illos jure fieri
posset, querebant. Sallust. in bell. Cattlin. . .

CARTHAGINIANS. ooD

wars, the Carthaginians, both in peace and during truces,
had committed a number of detestable actions, the Romans
could never (how inviting soever the opportunity might be)
be prevailed upon to retaliate such usage ; being more at-
tentive to their own glory, than to the revenge they mighi
have justly taken on such perfidious enemies. _

ALM 9767. The mercenaries, who, as was observed,
A. Carth. 609. had retired into Italy, brought the Ro-
ie Rom. 611. mans at last to the resolution of sailing

ntigdJCeene. sie

over into Sardinia, to render themselves
masters of it. The Carthaginians were deeply afflicted
at the news, upon pretence that they had a more just
title to Sardinia than the Romans; they therefore put
themselves in a posture to take a speedy and just re-
venge on those who had excited the people of that island
to take up arms against them. But the Romans, pre-
tending that these preparations were made, not against
Sardinia, but their state, declared war against the Car-
thaginians. The latter, quite exhausted in every respect,
and scarce beginning to breathe, were in no condition
to sustain a war. ‘The necessity of the times was there-
fore to be complied with, and they were forced to yield —
to a more powerful rival. A fresh treaty was thereupon
made, by which they gave up Sardinia to the Romans,
and obliged themselves to a new payment of twelve
hundred talents, to keep off the war with which they
were menaced. ‘This injustice of the Romans was the
true cause of the second Punic war, as will appear in
the sequel.

The second Punic War.

The second Punic war, which I am now going to
relate, is one of the most memorable recorded in history,
and most worthy the attention of an inquisitive reader ;
whether we consider the boldness of the enterprises; the
wisdom employed in the execution ;* the obstinate efforts
of two rival nations, and the ready resources they found
in their lowest ebb of fortune ; the variety of uncommon
events, and the uncertain issue of so long and bloody a
war; or, lastly, the assemblage of the most perfect models

WSiivel xxi 1:

334 HISTORY OF THE

in every kind of merit ; and the most instructive lessons
that occur in history, either with regard to war, policy,
or government. Never did two more powerful, or at
least more warlike, states or nations make war against
each other ; and never had these in question seen them-
selves raised to a more exalted pitch of power and glory.
Rome and Carthage were, doubtless, at that time, the
two first states of the world. Having already tried their
strength in the first Punic war, and thereby made an
essay of each other’s power, they knew perfectly well
what either could do. In this second war, the fate of
arms was so equally balanced, and the success so inter-
mixed with vicissitudes and varieties, that that party
triumphed which had been most in danger of being
ruined. Great as the forces of these two nations were,
it may almost be said, that their mutual hatred was still
greater. ‘The Romans, on one side, could not without
indignation see the vanquished presuming to attack
them; and the Carthaginians, on the other, were exas-
perated at the equally rapacious and harsh treatment
which they pretended to have received from the victor.

The plan which I have laid down does not permit me
to enter into an exact detail of this war, whereof Italy,
Sicily, Spain, and Africa, were the several seats; and
which has a still closer connexion with the Roman his-
tory than with that Iam now writing. I shall confine
myself therefore, principally, to such transactions as re-
late to the Carthaginians, and endeavour, as far as I am
able, to give my reader an idea of the genius and charac-
ter of Hannibal, who perhaps was the greatest warrior
that antiquity has to boast of.

The remote and more immediate Causes of
the second Punic War.

Before I come to speak of the declaration of war be-
twixt the Romans and Carthaginians, I think it neces-
sary to explain the true causes of it; and to point out by
what steps this rupture, betwixt these two nations, was
so long preparing, before it openly broke out.

That man would be grossly mistaken, says Polybius,"

t Lib. iii. p. 162—168.

CARTHAGINIANS. 335

who should look upon the taking of Saguntum by Han-
nibal as the true cause of the second Punic war. The
regret of the Carthaginians for having so tamely given
up Sicily, by the treaty which terminated the first Punic
war ; the injustice and violence of the Romans, who took
advantage of the troubles excited in Africa, to dispossess
the Carthaginians of Sardinia, and to impose a new tri-
bute on them; and the success and conquests of the
Jatter in Spain ; these were the true causes of the vio-
lation of the treaty, as Livy (agreeing here with Polybius)
insinuates in a few words, in the beginning of his history
of the second Punic war.*

And indeed Hamilcar, surnamed Barca, was highly ex-
asperated on account of the last treaty, which the neces-
sity of the times had compelled the Carthaginians to sub-
mit to; and he therefore meditated the design of taking
just, though distant, measures, for breaking it on the first
favourable opportunity that should offer. :

When the troubles of Africa were appeased,‘ he was
sent upon an expedition against the Numidians; in which,
giving fresh proofs of his courage and abilities, his merit
raised him to the command of the army which was to act
in Spain. Hannibal, his son," at that time but nine years
of age, begged with the utmost importunity to attend him
on this occasion ; and for that purpose employed all the
soothing arts so common to children of his age, and
which have so much power over a tender father. Hamil-
car could not refuse him; and after having made him
swear upon the altars, that he would declare himself an
enemy to the Romans as soon as age would allow him to
do it, he took his son with him.

Hamilcar possessed all the qualities which constitute
the great general. To an invincible courage, and the
most consummate prudence, he added a most engaging
and insinuating behaviour. He subdued, ina very short .
time, the greatest part of the nations of Spain, either by
the terror of his arms or his engaging conduct; and after

* Angebant ingentis spiritis virum Sicilia Sardiniaque amissee: Nam
et Siciliam nimis celeri desperatione rerum conces%am ; et Sardiniam inter
motum A fricz fraude Romanorum, stipendio etiam superimposito, inter-

ceptam. Liv. |. xxi. n. 1. t Polyb. I. ii. p. 90.
* Polybulnip. 167... daly. 1 «xi. ns

—~336 HISTORY OF THE

enjoying the command there nine years, came to an end
worthy his exalted character, dying gloriously im arms for
the cause of his country. .

The Carthaginians appointed Asdrubal,*
his son-in-law, to succeed him. This ge-
neral, to strengthen his footing in the
country, built a city, which, by the advantage of its si-
_tuation, the commodiousness of its harbour, its fortifica-

tions, and opulence, occasioned by its great commerce,

became one of the most considerable cities in the world.
It was called New Carthage, and is at this day known by
the name of Carthagena.

From the several steps of these two great generals, it
was easy to perceive that they were meditating some
mighty design which they had always in view, and laid
their schemes at a great distance for the putting it in
execution. ‘The Romans were sensible of this, and re-

roached themselves for their indolence and _ torpor,
which had thrown them into a kind of lethargy ; at a
time that the enemy were rapidly pursuing their victories
in Spain, which might one day be turned against them.
They would have been very well pleased to attack them
by open force, and to wrest their conquests out of their
hands ; but the fear of another (not less formidable) ene-
my, the Gauls, whom they expected shortly to see at their
very gates, kept them from shewing their resentment.
They therefore had recourse to negotiations ; and con-
cluded a treaty with Asdrubal, in which, without taking
any notice of the rest of Spain, they contented themselves
with introducing an article, by which the Carthaginians
were not allowed to make any conquests beyond the
Iberus.

Asdrubal,’ in the mean time, still pushed on his con-
quests, still, however, takmg care not to pass beyond the
limits stipulated by the treaty ; but by sparing no endea-
vours to win the chiefs of the several nations by a cour-
teous and engaging behaviour, he furthered the interests
of Carthage still more by persuasive methods than force
of arms. But unhappily, after having governed Spain
eight years, he was treacherously murdered by a Gaul,

* Polyb. 1, ii. p. 101. Y Polyb, 1. ii. p. 123, Liv. 1. xxi. n. 2.

A. M.3776.
A. Rom. 530.

CARTHAGINIANS. TOL

who took so barbarous a revenge for a private grudge
he bore him.’
Three years before his death,* he had
‘Mt 9783. written to Carthage, to desire that Han-
- Kom. 530. ° :
nibal, then twenty-two years of age, might
be sent tohim. The proposal met with some difficulty,
as the senate was divided betwixt two powerful factions,
which, from Hamilcar’s time, had begun to follow op-
posite views in the administration and affairs of the state.
One faction was headed by Hanno, whose birth, merit,
and zeal for the public welfare, gave him great influence
in the public deliberations. ‘This faction proposed, on
every occasion, the concluding of a safe peace, and the
preserving the conquests in Spain, as being preferable to
the uncertain events of an expensive war, which they
foresaw would one day occasion the ruin of Carthage.
The other, called the Barcinian faction, because it sup-
ported the interests of Barca and his family, had, to the
credit and influence which it had long enjoyed in the city,
added the reputation which the signal exploits of Hamil-
car and Asdrubal had given it, and declared openly for
war. Whentherefore Asdrubal’s demand came to be de-
bated in the senate, Hanno represented the danger of
sending so early into the field, a young man who already
possessed all the haughtiness and imperious temper of his
father ; and who ought, therefore, rather to be kept a
long time, and very carefully, under the eye of the magis-
trate and the power of the laws, that he might learn
obedience, and a modesty which should teach him not to
think himself superior to all other men. He concluded
with saying, that he feared this spark, which was then
kindling, would one day rise to a conflagration. His
remonstrances were not heard, so that the Barcinian fac-
tion had the superiority, and Hannibal set out for Spain.
The moment of his arrival there, he drew upon him-

z The murder was an effect of the extraordinary fidelity of this Gaul,
whose master had fallen by the hand of Asdrubal. It was perpetrated in
public; and the murderer being seized by the guards, and put to the tor-
ture, expressed so strong a satisfaction in the thoughts of his having exe-
cuted his revenge so successfully, that he seemed to ridicule all the terror
of his torments. Ko fuit habitu oris, ut superante letitid dolores ridentis
etiam speciem prebuerit. Liy. 1. xxi. n. 1. * Liv. I. xxi. n.3, 4:

VOL: 1. Z

338 HISTORY OF THE

self the eyes of the whole army, who fancied they saw
Hamilcar his father revive in him. He seemed to dart
the same fire from his eyes; the same martial vigour
displayed itself in the air of his countenance, with the
same features and engaging carriage. But his personal
qualities endeared him still more. He possessed almost
every talent that constitutes the great man. His patience
in labour was invincible, his temperance was surprising,
his courage in the greatest dangers intrepid, and his pre-
sence of mind in the heat of battle admirable; and, a still
more wonderful circumstance, his disposition and cast of
mind were so flexible, that nature had formed him equally
for commanding or obeying; so that it was doubtful whe-
ther he was dearer to the soldiers or the generals. He
served three campaigns under Asdrubal.

A.M. 3784. Upon the death of that general,’ the

A. Carth. 626. suffrages of both the army and people

A. Rom. 528. concurred in raising Hannibal to the su-
preme command. I know not whether it was not even
then, or about that time, that the republic, to heighten
his influence and authority, appointed him one of its
Suffetes, the first dignity of the state, which was some-
times conferred upon generals. It is from Cornelius
Nepos* that we have borrowed this circumstance of his
life, who, speaking of the pretorship bestowed on
Hannibal, upon his return to Carthage, and the conclu-
sion of the peace, says, that this was twenty-two years
after he had been nominated king."

The moment he was created general, Hannibal, as if
Italy had been allotted to him, and he had even then been
appointed to make war upon the Romans, turned secretly
his whole views on that side; and lost no time, for fear
of being prevented by death, as his father and brother-in-
law had been. In Spain he took several strong towns,
and conquered many nations: and although the Spaniards
greatly exceeded him in the number of forces (their army
amounting to upwards of 100,000 men), yet he chose his
time and posts so judiciously, that he entirely defeated

\. > Polyb. 1. iii. p. 168, 169. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 3—5.

¢ In Vit. Annib. c. 7.

4 Hic, utrediit, Praetor factus est, postquam rex fuerat anno secundo
et vigesimo, :

CARTHAGINIANS. 339

them. After this victory, every thing submitted to his
arms. But he still forbore laying siege to Saguntum,”
carefully avoiding every occasion of a rupture with the
Romans, till he should have taken every step which he
judged necessary for so important an enterprise, pursuant
to the advice given him by his father. He applied him-
self particularly to engage the affections of the citizens
and allies, and to gain their confidence, by generously
allotting them a large share of the plunder taken from
the enemy, and by scrupulously paying them all their ar-
rears :' a wise step, which never fails of producing its ad-
vantage at a proper season.

The Saguntines,’ on their side, sensible of the danger
with which they were threatened, informed the Romans
of the progress of Hannibal’s conquests. Upon this, de-
puties were nominated by the latter, and ordered to go
and acquaint themselves with the state of affairs upon the
spot ; they commanded them also to lay their complaints
before Hannibal, if it should be thought proper; and in
case he should refuse to do justice, that then they should
go directly to Carthage, and make the same complaints.

In the mean time Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum,
foreseeing that great advantages would accrue from the.
taking of this city. He was persuaded, that this would
deprive the Romans of all hopes of carrying on the war
in Spain; that this new conquest would secure those he
had already made; that as no enemy would be left be-
hind him, his march would be more secure and unmo-
lested ; that he should find money enough in it for the
execution of his designs; that the plunder of the city
would inspire his soldiers with greater ardour, and make
them follow him with greater cheerfulness; that, lastly,
the spoils which he should send to Carthage, would gain
him the favour of the citizens. Animated by these mo-
tives, he carried on the siege with the utmost vigour. ©

© This city lay on the Carthaginian side of the Iberus, very near the
mouth of that river, and in a country where the Carthaginians were al-
lowed to make war; but Saguntum, as an ally of the Romans, was ex-
cepted from all hostilities, by virtue of the late treaty.
f Tbi largé partiendo preedam, stipendia przeterita cum fide exsolvendo,
cunctos civium sociorumque animos in se firmavit. Lv. |. xxi. n. 5,
& Polyb. |. iii. p. 170—173. Liy. |. xxi. n. 6—15,

fg

340 . HISTORY OF. THE

He himself set an example to his troops, was present at
all the works, and exposed himself tothe greatest dangers.

News was soon carried to Rome that Saguntum was
besieged. But the Romans, instead of flying to its re-
lief, lost their time in fruitless debates, and in deputations
equally fruitless. Hannibal sent word to the Roman
deputies, that he was not at leisure to hear them ; they
therefore repaired to Carthage, but met with no better
reception, the Barcinian faction having prevailed over
the complaints of the Romans, and all the remonstrances
of Hanno. |

During all these voyages and negotiations, the siege
was carried on with great vigour. The Saguntines were
now reduced to the last extremity, and in want of all
things. An accommodation was thereupon proposed ;
but the conditions on which it was offered appeared so
harsh, that the Saguntines could not prevail upon them-
selves to accept them. Before they gave their final an-
swer, the principal senators, bringing their gold and
silver, and that of the public treasury, into the market-
place, threw both into a fire lighted for that purpose, and
afterwards rushed headlong into it themselves. At the
same time, a tower, which had been long assaulted by
the battering rams, falling with a dreadful noise, the Car-
thaginians entered the city by the breach, soon made
themselves masters of it, and cut to pieces all the inha-
bitants who were of age to bear arms. But notwith-
standing the fire, the Carthaginians got a very great
booty. Hannibal did not reserve to himself any part of
the spoils gained by his victories, but applied them
solely to the carrying on his enterprises. . Accordingly,
Polybius remarks, that the taking of Saguntum was of
service to him, as it awakened the ardour of his soldiers,
by the sight of the rich booty which they had just ob-
tained, and by the hopes of more ; and it reconciled all
the principal persons of Carthage to Hannibal, by the
large presents he made to them out of the spoils.

Words could never express the grief and consterna-
tion with which the melancholy news of the capture and
cruel fate of Saguntum was received at Rome.? Com-

8 Polyb. p. 174,175. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 16, 17,

CARTHAGINIANS. 341

passion for this unfortunate city, shame for having failed
to succour such faithful allies, a just indignation against
the Carthaginians, the authors of all these calamities ; a
strong alarm raised by the successes of Hannibal, whom
the Romans fancied they saw already at their gates ; all
these sentiments caused so violent an emotion, that
during the first moments of their agitation, the Romans
were unable to come to any resolution, or do any thing
but give way to the torrent of their passion, and sacrifice
floods of tears to the memory of a city which fell the vic-
tim of its inviolable fidelity" to the Romans, and had been
betrayed by their unaccountable indolence and imprudent
delays. When they were a little recovered, an assembly
of the people was called, and war was decreed unani-
mously against the Carthaginians.

War proclaimed.

That no ceremony might be wanting,’ deputies were
sent to Carthage, to inquire whether Saguntum had been
besieged by order of the republic, and, if so, to declare
war ; or, in case this siege had been undertaken solely by
the authority of Hannibal, to require that he should be
delivered up to the Romans. ‘The deputies perceiving
that the senate gave no direct answer to their demands,
one of them, taking up the folded lappet of his robe, I
bring here, says he, in a haughty tone, either peace or
war ; the choice is left to yourselves. ‘The senate answer-
ing, that they left the choice to him: I give you-war
then, says he, unfolding his robe. And we, replied the
Carthaginians, with the same haughtiness, as heartily
accept it, and are resolved to prosecute it with the same
cheerfulness, Such was the beginning of the second
Punic war. |

If the cause of this war should be ascribed to the
taking of Saguntum,* the whole blame, says Polybius,
lies upon the Carthaginians, who could not, with any
colourable pretence, besiege a city that was in alliance
with Rome, and, as such, comprehended in the treaty,
which forbade either party to make war upon the allies

h Sanctitate discipline, qua fidem socialem usque ad perniciem suam
coluerunt. Ziv. 1. xxi.n. 7. 1 Polyb. p.187. Liv. |. xxi. n. 18, 19.
K Polyb. 1. iii. p. 184, 185.

342 HISTORY OF THE

of the other. But should the origin of this war be traced
higher, and carried back to the time when the Cartha-
ginians were dispossessed of Sardinia by the Romans,
and a new tribute was so unreasonably imposed on them ;
it must be confessed, continues Polybius, that the con-
duct of the Romans is entirely unjustifiable on these
two points, as being founded merely on violence and in-
justice ; and that, had the Carthaginians, without having
recourse to ambiguous and frivolous pretences, plainly
demanded satisfaction upon these two grievances, and,
upon their being refused it, had declared war against
Rome; in that case, reason and justice had been entirely
on their side.

The interval between the conclusion of the first, and
the beginning of the second, Punic war, was twenty-four
years.

The Beginning of the second Punic War.

i dnrnras. When war was resolved upon,’ and
A. Carth. 629. | proclaimed on both sides, Hannibal, who
A. Rom. 531. then was twenty-six or twenty-seven
years of age, before he discovered his
grand design, thought it incumbent on him to provide
for the security of Spain and Africa. With this view,
he marched the forces out of the one into the other, so
that the Africans served in Spain and the Spaniards in
Africa. He was prompted to this from a persuasion,
that these soldiers, being thus at a distance from their
respective countries, would be fitter for service; and
more firmly attached to him, as they would be a kind of
hostages for each other's fidelity. The forces which he
left in Africa amounted to about 40,000 men, 1200
whereof were cavalry. ‘Those of Spain were something
above 15,000, of which 2550 were horse. He left the
command of the Spanish forces to his brother Asdrubal,
with a fleet of about sixty ships to guard the coasts; and,
at the same time, gave him the wisest directions for his
conduct, whether with regard to the Spaniards or the
Romans, in case they should attack him.

Livy observes, that Hannibal, before he set forward on

’ Polyb.1. iii. p. 187. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 21, 22,

CARTHAGINIANS. 343

this expedition, went to Cadiz to discharge some vows
which he had made to Hercules ; and that he engaged
himself by new ones, in order to obtain success in the
war he was entering upon. Polybius gives us,” in few
words, a very clear idea of the distance of the several
places through which Hannibal was to march in his way
to Italy. From New Carthage, whence he set out, to
the Iberus, were computed 2200" furlongs.” From the
Iberus to Emporium, a small maritime town, which se-
parates Spain from the Gauls, according to Strabo? were
1600 furlongs.‘ From Emporium to the pass of the
Rhone, the like space of 1600 furlongs." From the
pass of the Rhone to the Alps, 1400 furlongs. From
the Alps to the plains of Italy, 1200 furlongs. Thus,
from New Carthage to the plains of Italy, were 8000
furlongs."

Hannibal had long before taken the prudent precaution
of acquainting himself with the nature and situation of
the places through which he was to pass ;* of sounding
how the Gauls stood affected to the Romans; of winning
over their chiefs, whom he knew to be very greedy of
gold, by his bounty to them;* and of securing to him-
self the affection and fidelity of one part of the nations
through whose country his march lay. He was not
ignorant that the passage of the Alps would be attended
with great difficulties; but he knew they were not in-
surmountable, and that was enough for his purpose.

Hannibal began his march early in the spring, from
New Carthage, where he had wintered.’ His army then
consisted of above 100,000 men, of which 12,000 were
cavalry, and he had near forty elephants. Having crossed
the Iberus, he soon subdued the several nations which
opposed him in his march, and lost a considerable part

m Lib, iii. p. 192, 193. "275 miles.

° Polybius makes the distance from New Carthage to be 2600 furlongs;
consequently, the whole number of furlongs will be 8400, or (allowing
625 feet to the furlong) 944 English miles, and almost one-third. See Po-
lybius, edit. Gronov. p. 267. \P L. iii. p. 199. 4 200 miles.

* 200 miles. * 175 miles. ‘150 miles. " 1000 miles,
* Polyb. 1. iii. p. 188, 189.

y Audierunt preeoccupatos jam ab Annibale Gallorum animos esse: sed

ne illi quidem ipsi satis mitem gentem fore, ni subinde auro, cujus avi-

dissima gens est, principum animi concilientur. iv. 1. xxi. n. 20.
* Polyb. p. 189, 190. Liv. I. xxi. n. 22—24.

344 : HISTORY OF THE

of his army in this expedition. He left Hanno to com-
mand all the country lying between the Iberus and the
Pyrenean hills, with 11,000 men, who were appointed to
guard the baggage of those that were to follow him. He
dismissed the like number, sending them back to their
respective countries; thus securing to himself their af-
fection when he should want recruits, and affording to
the rest a sure hope that they should be allowed to
return whenever they should desire it. He passed
the Pyrenean hills, and advanced as far as the banks of
the Rhone, at the head of 50,000 foot, and go0o00 horse;
a formidable army, but less so from the number than from
the valour of the troops that composed it; troops who
had served several years in Spain, and learned the art of
war under the ablest captains that ‘Carthage could ever
boast.

Passage of the Rhone.

Hannibal,* being arrived within about four days’ march
from the mouth of the Rhone,” attempted to cross it,
because the river in this place took up only the breadth
of its channel. He bought up all the ship-boats and
little vessels he could meet with, of which the inhabitants
had a great number, because of their commerce. He
likewise built, with great diligence, a prodigious number
of boats, little vessels, and rafts. On his arrival, he found
the Gauls encamped on the opposite bank, and prepared
to dispute the passage. ‘There was no possibility of his
attacking them in front. He therefore ordered a consi-
derable detachment of his forces, under the command of
Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, to pass the river higher up;
and in order to conceal his march, and the design he had
in view, from the enemy, he obliged them to set out in
the night. All things succeeded as he had planned ; and
they passed the river® the next day without the least
opposition.

‘They passed the rest of the day in refreshing them-
selves, and in the night they advanced silently to-
wards the enemy. In the morning, when the signals

* Polyb. 1. iii. p. 270—274. edit. Gronov. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 26—28.
> A little above Avignon.
° It is thought this was betwixt: Roquemaure and Pont St. Esprit.

CARTHAGINIANS. © 345

agreed upon had been given, Hannibal prepared to at-
tempt the passage. Part of his horses, completely har-
nessed, were put into boats, that their riders might, on
landing, immediately charge the enemy. The rest of the
horses swam over on both sides of the boats, from which
one single man held the bridles of three or four. The
infantry crossed the river, either on rafts, or in small
boats, and in a kind of gondolas, which were only the
trunks ‘of trees which they themselves had made hollow.
The great boats were drawn up in a line at the top of the
channel, in order to break the force of the waves, and
facilitate the passage to the rest of the small fleet. When
the Gauls saw it advancing on the river, they, according
to their custom, uttered dreadful cries and howlings; and
clashing their bucklers over their heads, one against the
other, let fly a shower of darts. But they were prodigi-
ously astonished, when they heard a great noise behind
them, perceived their tents on fire, and saw themselves
attacked both in front and rear. They now had no way
left to save themselves but by flight, and accordingly re-
treated to their respective villages. After this, the rest
of the troops crossed the river quietly, and without any
opposition.

The elephants alone occasioned a great deal of trou-
ble. ‘They were wafted over the next day in the follow-
ing manner:—From the bank of the river was thrown
a raft, 200 feet in length, and fifty in breadth: this
was fixed strongly to the banks by large ropes, and
quite covered over with earth; so that the elephants,
deceived by its appearance, thought themselves upon firm
ground. From this first raft they proceeded to a second,
which was built in the same form, but only 100 feet
long, and fastened to the former by chains that were
easily loosened. The female elephants were put upon
the first raft, and the males followed after ; and when
they were got upon the second raft, it was loosened from
the first, and, by the help of small boats, towed to the
opposite shore. After this it was sent back to fetch those
which were behind. Some fell into the water, but they
at last got safe to shore, and not a single elephant was
drowned.

346 HISTORY OF THE
The March after the Battle of the Rhone.

The two Roman consuls had,° in the beginning of the
spring, set out for their respective provinces ; P. Scipio
for Spain with sixty ships, two Roman legions, 14,000
foot, and 1200 horse of the allies; ‘Tiberius Sempronius
for Sicily with 160 ships, two legions, 16,000 foot, and
1800 horse of the allies. ‘The Roman legion consisted,
at that time, of 4000 foot and 300 horse. Sempronius
had made extraordinary preparations at Lilybzeum, a sea-
port town in Sicily, with the design of crossing over di-
rectly into Africa. Scipio was equally confident that he
should find Hannibal still in Spain, and make that coun-
try the seat of war. But he was greatly astonished, when,
on his arrival at Marseilles, advice was brought him, that
Hannibal was upon the banks of the Rhone, and prepar-
ing to cross it. He then detached 300 horse to view the
posture of the enemy ; and Hannibal detached 500 Nu-
midian horse for the same purpose; during which, some
of his soldiers were employed in wafting over the ele-
phants.

At the same time he gave audience, in the presence of
his whole army, to one of the princes of that part of
Gaul which is situated near the Po, who assured him, by
an interpreter, in the name of his subjects, that his ar-
rival was impatiently expected; that the Gauls were ready
to join him, and march against the Romans, and he him-
self offered to conduct his army through places where
they should meet with a plentiful supply of provisions.
When the prince was withdrawn, Hannibal, in a speech
to his troops, magnified extremely this deputation from
the Gauls; extolled, with just praises, the bravery which
his forces had shewn hitherto; and exhorted them to
sustain, to the last, their reputation and glory. The sol-
diers, inspired with fresh ardour and courage, all at once
raised their hands, and declared their readiness to follow
whithersoever he should leadthe way. Accordingly, he
appointed the next day for his march; and, after offer-
ing up vows, and making supplications to the gods for
the safety of his troops, he dismissed them; desiring, at

4 Polyb. I. iii. p. 200—202, &c. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 31, 32.

CARTHAGINIANS. 347

the same time, that they would take the necessary re-
freshments.

Whilst this was doing, the Numidians returned. They
had met with, and charged, the Roman detachment:
the conflict was very obstinate, and the slaughter great,
considering the small number of the combatants, A
hundred and sixty of the Romans were left dead upon
the spot, and more than 200 of their enemies. But the
honour of the skirmish fell to the Romans; the Numi-
dians having retired and left them the field of battle.
This first action was interpreted as an omen of the fate
of the whole war,° and seemed to promise success to the
Romans, but which, at the same time, would be dearly
bought, and strongly contested. On both sides, those
who had survived this engagement, and who had been
engaged in reconnoitring, returned to inform their re-
spective generals of what they had discovered.

Hannibal, as he had declared, decamped the next day,
and crossed through the midst of Gaul, advancing north-
ward; not that this was the shortest way to the Alps,
but only, as by leading him from the sea, it prevented
him meeting Scipio; and, by that means, favoured the
design he had, of marching all his forces into Italy, with-
out having weakened them by a battle.

Though Scipio marched with the utmost expedition,
he did not reach the place where Hannibal had passed
the Rhone, till three days after he had set out from it.
Despairing therefore to overtake him, he returned to his
fleet, and reimbarked, fully resolved to wait for Hannibal
at the foot of the Alps. But, in order that he might not
leave Spain defenceless, he sent his brother Cneius thi-
ther, with the greatest part of his army, to make head
against Asdrubal; and himself set forward immediately
for Genoa, with intention to oppose the army which was
in Gaul, near the Po, to that of Hannibal.

The latter, after four days’ march, arrived at a kind of
island,‘ formed by the conflux of two rivers, which unite

© Hoc principium simulque omen belli, ut summa rerum prosperum
eventum, ita haud sané incruentam ancipitisque certaminis victoriam Ro-
manis portendit. vv. |. xxi. n. 29.

‘The text of Polybius, as it has been transmitted to us, and that of
Livy, place this island at the mectivg of the Saone and the Rhone; that

348 HISTORY OF THE

their streams in this place. Here he was chosen umpire
between two brothers, who disputed their right to the
kingdom. _ He to whom Hannibal decreed it, furnished
his whole army with provisions, clothes, and arms. This
was the country of the Allobroges, by which name the
people were called, who now inhabit the district of Ge-
neva, Vienne,® and Grenoble. His march was not much
interrupted till he arrived at the Durance, and from
thence he reached the foot of the Alps without any op-
position.

The Passage of the Alps.

The sight of these mountains," whose tops seemed to
touch the skies, and were covered with snow, and where
nothing appeared to the eye but a few pitiful cottages,
scattered here and there, on the sharp tops of inaccessible
rocks; nothing but meagre flocks, almost perished with
cold, and hairy men of a savage and fierce aspect ; this
spectacle, I say, renewed the terror which the distant
prospect had raised, and chilled with fear the hearts of
the soldiers. When they began to climb up, they per-
ceived the mountaineers, who had seized upon the high-
est cliffs, and were prepared to oppose their passage.
They therefore were forced to halt. Had the moun-
taineers, says Polybius, only lain in ambuscade, and after
having suffered Hannibal’s troops to entangle themselves
in some difficult passage, had then charged them on a
sudden, the Carthaginian army would have been irreco-
verably lost. Hannibal, being informed that they kept
those posts only in the day-time, and quitted them in the
evening, possessed himself of them by night. The Gauls
returning early in the morning, were very much sur-
prised to find their posts in the enemy’s hand: but still
they were not disheartened. Being used to climb up
those rocks, they attacked the Carthaginians, who were

is, in that part where the city of Lyons stands. But this is a manifest
error. It was Sx#pac in the Greek, instead of which 6” Apapoc has been
substituted. J. Gronovius says, that he had read, in a manuscript of Livy,
Bisarar, which shews, that we are to read [sara Rhodanusque amnes, in-
stead of Arar Rhodanusque ; and that the island in question is formed by
the conflux of the Isere and the Rhone. The situation of the Allobroges,
here spoken of, proves this evidently.

§ In Dauphiné. h Polyb. |. iii. p. 2083—208. Liv. |. xxi. n. 32—37.

CARTHAGINIANS. 349

upon their march, and harassed them on all sides. The
latter were obliged, at one and the same time, to engage
with the enemy, and struggle with the ruggedness of the
paths of the mountains, where they could hardly stand.
But the greatest disorder was caused by the horses and
beasts of burden laden with the baggage; who being
frighted by the cries and howling of the Gauls, which
echoed dreadfully among the mountains; and being
sometimes wounded by the mountaineers, came tumbling
on the soldiers and dragged them headlong with them
down the precipices which skirted the road. Hannibal,
being sensible that the loss of his baggage alone was
enough to destroy his army, ran to the assistance of his
troops, who were thus embarrassed ; and having put the
enemy to flight, continued his march without moles- |
tation or danger, and came to a castle, which was the
most important fortress in the whole country. He pos-
sessed himself of it, and of all the neighbouring villages,
in which he found a large quantity of corn, and cattle
sufficient to subsist his army three days.

After a pretty quiet march, the Carthaginians were to
encounter a new danger. ‘The Gauls, feigning to take
advantage of the misfortunes of their neighbours, who
had suffered for opposing the passage of Hannibal’s
troops, came to pay their respects to that general, brought
him provisions, offered to be his guides; and left him
hostages, as pledges of their fidelity. However, Hanni-
bal placed no great confidence in them. ‘The elephants
and horses marched in the front, whilst himself followed
with the main body of his foot, keeping a vigilant eye
over all. They came at length to a very narrow and -
rugged pass, which was commanded by an eminence
where the Gauls had placed an ambuscade. ‘These rush-
ing out on asudden, assailed the Carthaginians on every
side, rolling down stones upon them of a prodigious size.
The army would have been entirely routed, had not
Hannibal exerted himself in an extraordinary manner to
extricate them out of this difficulty.

At last, on the ninth day, they reached the summit
of the Alps. Here the army halted two days, to rest
and refresh themselves after their fatigue, after which

350 - HISTORY OF THE

they continued their march. As it was now autumn, a
great quantity of snow had lately fallen, and covered all
the roads, which caused a consternation among the
troops, and disheartened them .very much. Hannibal
perceived it, and halting ona hill from whence there
was a prospect of all Italy, he shewed them the fruitful
plains' watered by the river Po, to which they were al-
most come; adding, that they had but one effort more
to make, before they arrived at them. He represented
to them, that a battle or two would put a glorious period
to their toils, and enrich them for ever, by giving them
possession of the capital of the Roman empire. This
speech, filled with such pleasing hopes, and enforced by
the sight of Italy, inspired the dejected soldiers with
fresh vigour andalacrity. ‘They therefore pursued their
march. But still the road was more craggy and trouble-
some than ever; and as they were now on.a descent, the
difficulty and danger increased. For the ways were
narrow, steep, andslippery, in most places; so that thesol-
diers could neither keep upon their feet as they marched,
nor recover themselves when they made a false step, but
stumbled, and beat down one another.

They were now come to a worse place than any they
had. yet met with. This wasa path naturally very rug-
ged and craggy, which having been made more so by
the late falling in of the earth, terminated in a frightful
precipice above a thousand feet deep. Here the cavalry
stopped short. Hannibal, wondering at the sudden halt,
ran to the place, and saw that it really would be impos-
sible for the troops to advance. He therefore was for
making a circuitous route, but this also was found im-
practicable. As upon the old snow, which was grown
hard by lying, there was some newly fallen, that was of
no great depth, the feet, at first, by their sinking into it,
found a firm support ; but this snow being soon dissolved,
by the treading of the foremost troops and beasts of bur-
den, the soldiers marched on nothing but ice, which was
so slippery, that they had no firm footing; and where, if
they made the least false step, or endeavoured to save
themselves with their hands or knees, there were no

i Of Piedmont.

CARTHAGINIANS. 30l

boughs or roots to catch hold of. Besides this difficulty,
the horses, striking their feet forcibly into the ice to
keep themselves from falling, could not draw them out.
again, but were caught as in a gin. ‘They therefore
were forced to seek some other expedient.

Hannibal resolved to pitch his camp, and to give his
troops some days’ rest on the summit of this hill, which
was of a considerable extent; after they should have
cleared the ground, and removed all the old as well as
the new-fallen snow, which was a work of immense la-
bour. He afterwards ordered a path to be cut into the
rock itself, and this was carried on with amazing pa-
tience and ardour. ‘To open and enlarge this path, all
the trees thereabouts were cut down, and piled round the
rock ; after which fire was set to them. ‘The wind, by
good fortune, blowing hard, a fierce flame soon broke
out, so that the rock glowed like the very coals with
which it was surrounded. Then Hannibal, if Livy may
be credited (for Polybius says nothing of this matter),
caused a great quantity of vinegar to be poured on the
rock," which piercing into the veins of it, that were
now cracked by the intense heat of the fire, calcined and
softened it. In this manner, taking a large compass
about, in order that the descent might be easier, they
cut away along the rock, which opened a free passage
to the forces, the baggage, and even to the elephants.
Four days were employed in this work, during which
the beasts of burden were dying with hunger ; there be-
ing no food for them on these mountains, buried under
eternal snows. At last they came into cultivated and
fruitful spots, which yielded plenty of forage for the
horses, and all kinds of food for the soldiers.

Hannibal enters Italy.

When Hannibal entered into Italy, his army was not

k Many reject this incident as fictitious. Pliny takes notice of a re-
markable quality in vinegar ; viz. its being able to break rocks and stones.
Saxa rumpit infusum, que non ruperit ignis antecedens, |. xxiii.c. 1. He
therefore calls it, Suceus rerum domitor, |. xxxiii. c. 2. Dion, speaking
of the siege of Eleutherz, says, that the walls of it were made to fall by
the force of vinegar, 1. xxxvi. p. 8. Probably, the circumstance that
seems improbable on this occasion, is, the difficulty of Hannibal’s pro-
curing, in those mountains, a quantity of vinegar sufficient for this pur-
pose.

352 HISTORY OF THE

near so numerous as when he left Spain, where we have
seen it amounted to near 60,000 men.’ It had sus-
tained great losses during the march, either in the bat-
tles it was forced to fight, or in the passage of rivers.
At his departure from the Rhone, it still consisted of
38,000 foot, and above 8000 horse. ‘The march over
the Alps destroyed near half this number; so that
Hannibal had now remaining only 12,000 Africans,
8000 Spanish foot, and 6000 horse. ‘This account he
himself caused to be engraved on a pillar near the pro-
montory called Lacinium. It was five months and a half
since his first setting out from New Carthage, including
the fortnight he employed in marching over the Alps,
when he set up his standards in the plains of the Po, at
the entrance of Piedmont. It might then be Sep-
tember.

His first care was to give his troops some rest, which
they very much wanted. When he perceived that they
were fit for action, the inhabitants of the territories of
Turin™ refusing to conclude an alliance with him, he
marched and encamped before their chief city ; carried
it in three days, and put all who had opposed him to the
sword. ‘This expedition struck the barbarians with so
much dread, that they all came voluntarily, and surren-
dered at discretion. ‘The rest of the Gauls would have
done the same, had they not been awed by the terror of
the Roman arms, which were now approaching. Han-
nibal thought therefore that he had no time to lose;
that it was his interest to march up into the country,
and attempt some great exploit; such as might inspire
those who should have an inclination to join him with
confidence.

‘The rapid progress which Hannibal had made, greatly
alarmed Rome, and caused the utmost consternation
throughout the city. Sempronius was ordered to leave
Sicily, and hasten to the relief of his country; and P.
Scipio, the other consul, advanced by forced marches
towards the enemy, crossed the Po, and pitched his
camp near the Ticinus.”

' Polyb. |. iii. p. 209. 212—214. Liv. I. xxi. n. 39. ™ 'Taurini.
” A small river (now called 'Tesino) in Lombardy.

CARTHAGINIANS. 303

Battle of the Cavalry near the Ticinus.

The armies being now in sight, the generals on each
side made a speech to their soldiers before they engaged.°
Scipio, after having represented to his forces the glory
of their country, the achievements of their ancestors,
observed to them, that victory was in their hands, since
they were to combat only with Carthaginians, a people
who had been so often defeated by them, as well as
forced to be their tributaries for twenty years, and long
accustomed to be almost their slaves: that the advantage
they had gained over the flower of the Carthaginian
horse, was a sure omen of their success during the rest
of the war: that Hannibal, in his march over the Alps,
had just before lost the best part of his army; and that
those who survived were exhausted by hunger, cold, and
fatigue : that the bare sight of the Romans was sufficient
to put to flight a parcel of soldiers, who had the aspects
of ghosts rather than of men: in a word, that victory
was become necessary, not only to secure Italy, but to
save Rome itself, whose fate the present battle would
decide, as that city had no other army wherewith to op-
pose the enemy.

Hannibal, that his words might make the stronger
impression on the rude minds of his soldiers, speaks to
their eyes, before he addresses their ears ; and does not
attempt to persuade them by arguments, till he has first
moved them by the following spectacle. He arms
some of the prisoners whom he had taken in the moun-
tains, and obliges them to fight, two and two, in sight,
of his army ; promising to reward the conquerors with
tneir liberty and rich presents. The alacrity wherewith
the barbarians engaged upon these motives, gives Han-
nibal an occasion of exhibiting to his soldiers a lively
image of their present condition; which, by depriving
them of all means of returning back, puts them under
an absolute necessity either of conquering or dying, in
order to avoid the endless evils prepared for those that
should be so base and cowardly as to submit to the Ro-
mans. He displays to them the greatness of their re-.

A Polyb, lk lil. p- 214—218, Liv. 1. XXi, n. 39—47,
VOL. I. 2A

354 HISTORY OF THE

ward, viz. the conquest of all Italy ; the plunder of the
rich and wealthy city of Rome; an illustrious victory,
and immortal glory. He speaks contemptuously of the
Roman power, the false lustre of which (he observed)
ought not to dazzle such warriors as themselves, who
had marched from the pillars of Hercules, through the
fiercest nations, into the very centre of Italy. As for
his own part, he scorns to compare himself with Scipio,
a general of but six months’ standing: himself, who was
almost born, at least brought up, in the tent of Hamil-
car his father; the conqueror of Spain, of Gaul, of the
inhabitants of the Alps, and, what is still more, conqueror
of the Alps themselves. He rouses their indignation
against the insolence of the Romans, who had dared to
demand that himself, and the rest who had taken Sa-
guntum, should be delivered up to them; and excites
their jealousy against the intolerable pride of those im-
perious masters, who imagined that all things ought to
obey them, and that they had a right to give laws to the
whole world. —

After these speeches, both sides prepare for battle.
Scipio, having thrown a bridge across the Ticinus,
marched his troops over it. Two ill omens? had filled
his army with consternation and dread. As for the
Carthaginians, they were inspired with the boldest cou-
rage. Hannibal animates them with fresh promises,
and cleaving with a stone the skull of the lamb he was
sacrificing, he prays Jupiter to dash to pieces his head in
like manner, in case he did not give his soldiers the re-
wards he had promised them.

Scipio posts, in the first line, the troops armed with
missive weapons, and the Gaulish horse; and forming
his second line of the flower of the confederate cavalry,
he advances slowly. Hannibal advanced with his whole
cavalry, in the centre of which he had posted the troop-
ers who rode with bridles, and the Numidian horsemen‘

? These two ill omens were, first, a wolf had stolen into the camp of the
Romans, and cruelly mangled some of the soldiers, without receiving the
least harm from those who endeavoured to kill it; and, secondly, a swarm
of bees had pitched upon a tree near the Preetorium, or general’s tent.
Liv. 1. xxi. c. 46.

4 The: Numidians used to ride without saddle or bridle.

*

CARTHAGINIANS. . e 358

on the wings, in order to surround the enemy. The
officers and cavalry being eager to engage, a charge en-
sues. At the first onset, Scipio’s light-armed soldiers
had scarcely discharged their darts, when, frighted at
the Carthaginian cavalry, which came pouring upon
them, and fearing lest they should be trampled under
the horses’ feet, they gave way, and retired through the
intervals of the squadrons. ‘The fight continued a long
time with equal success. Many troopers on both sides
dismounted, so that the battle was carried on between
infantry as well as cavalry. In the mean time, the Nu-
midians surround the enemy, and charge the rear of
the light-armed troops, who at first had escaped the at-
tack of the cavalry, and tread them under their horses’
feet. The centre of the Roman forces had hitherto
fought with great bravery. Many were killed on both
sides, and even more on that of the Carthaginians. But
the Roman troops were put into disorder by the Numi-
dians, who attacked them in the rear; and especially by
a wound the consul received, which disabled him from
continuing the combat. However, this general was res-
cued out of the enemy's hands by the bravery of his son,
then but seventeen years old; and who afterwards was
honoured with the surname of Africanus, for having put
a glorious period to this war.

The consul, though dangerously wounded, retreated
in good order, and was conveyed to his camp by a body
of horse, who covered him with their arms and bodies:
the rest of the army followed him thither. He hastened
to the Po, which he: crossed with his army, and then
broke down the bridge, whereby he prevented Hannibal
from overtaking him.

It is agreed, that Hannibal owed this first victory to
his cavalry ; and it was judged from thenceforth that the
main strength of his army consisted in his horse; and
therefore, that it would be proper for the Romans to
avoid large open plains, such as are those between the Po
and the Alps. -

Immediately after the battle of the Ticinus, all the
neighbouring Gauls seemed to contend who should sub-
mit themselves first to Hannibal, furnish him with am-

2B,

356 HISTORY OF THE

munition, and enlist in his army. And this, as Polybius
has observed, was what chiefly induced that wise and skil-
ful general, notwithstanding the small number and weak-
ness of his troops, to hazard a battle ; which he indeed
was now obliged to venture, from the impossibility of
marching back whenever he should desire to do it ; be-
cause nothing but a battle would oblige the Gauls to de-
clare for him, whose assistance was the only refuge he
then had left. °

Battle of the Trebia.

Sempronius the consul," upon the orders he had re-
ceived from the senate, was returned from Sicily to Ari-
minum. From thence he marched towards the Trebia,
a small river of Lombardy, which falls into the Po a little
above Placentia, where he joined his forces to those of
Scipio. Hannibal advanced towards the camp of the
Romans, from which he was separated only by that small
river. ‘The armies lying so near one another, gave oc-
casion to frequent skirmishes, in one of which Sempro-
nius, at the head of a body of horse, gained some ad-
vantage over a party of Carthaginians, very trifling in-
deed, but which nevertheless very much increased the
good. opinion this general naturally entertained of his
own merit. |

This inconsiderable success seemed to him a complete
victory. He boasted his having vanquished the enemy
in the same kind of fight in which his colleague had been
defeated, and that he thereby had revived the courage of
the dejected Romans. Being nowresolutely bent to come,
as soon as possible, to a decisive battle, he thought it pro-
per, for decency’s sake, to consult Scipio, whom he found
of a quite different opinion from himself. Scipio repre-
sented, that in case time should be allowed for disciplin-
ing the new levies during the winter, they would be much
fitter for service in the ensuing campaign ; that the Gauls,
who were naturally fickle and inconstant, would disen-
gage themselves insensibly from Hannibal; that as soon
as his wounds should be healed, his presence might be
of some use in an affair of such general concern: in

* Polyb. 1. iii. p. 220—227.. Liv. . xxi. n. 51—56.

CARTHAGINIANS. 307

a word, he besought him earnestly not to proceed any
farther.

These reasons, though so just, made no impression
upon Sempronius. He saw himself at the head of
16,000 Romans, and 20,000 allies, exclusive of cavalry
(a number which, in those ages, formed acomplete army),
when both consuls joined their forces. The troops of
the enemy amounted to near the same number. He
thought the juncture extremely favourable for him. He
declared publicly, that all the officers and soldiers were
desirous of a battle, except his colleague, whose mind (he
observed) being more affected by his wound than his
body, could not, for that reason, bear to hear of an en-
gagement. But still, continued Sempronius, is it just
to let the whole army droop and languish with him?
What could Scipio expect more? Did he flatter himself
with the hopes that a third consul, and a new army, would
come to his assistance ? Such were the expressions he
employed, both among the soldiers, and even about Sci-
pio’s tent. The time for the election of new generals
drawing near, Sempronius was afraid a successor would
be sent before he had put an end to the war; and there-
fore it was his opinion, that he ought to take advantage
of his colleague's illness, to secure the whole honour of
the victory to himself. As he had no regard, says Poly-
bius, to the time proper for action, and only to that which
he thought suited his own interest, he could not fail of
taking wrong measures. He therefore ordered his army
to prepare for battle.

This was the very thing Hannibal desired; as he held
it for a maxim, that a general who has entered a foreign
country, or one possessed by the enemy, and has formed
some great design, has no other refuge left, than-conti-
nually to raise the expectations of his allies by some fresh
exploits. Besides, knowing that he should have to deal.
only with new-levied and inexperienced troops, he was
desirous of taking advantage of the ardour of the Gauls,
who were extremely desirous of fighting ; and of Scipio's
absence, who, by reason of his wound, could not be pre-
sent in the battle. Mago was therefore ordered to lie
in ambush with 2000 men, consisting of horse and foot,

358 HISTORY OF THE

on the steep banks of a small rivulet which ran between
the two camps, and to:conceal himself among the bushes
that were very thick there. An ambuscade is often safer
in a smooth open country, but full of thickets, as this
was, than in woods, because such a spot is less apt to be
suspected. He afterwards caused a detachment of Nu-
midian cavalry to cross the Trebia, with orders to advance
at break of day as far as the very barriers of the enemy's
camp, in order to provoke them to fight; and then to
retreat and repass the river, in order to draw the Romans
after them. What he had foreseen, came directly to
pass. The fiery Sempronius immediately detached his
whole cavalry against the Numidians, and then 6,000
light-armed troops, who were soon followed by all the
rest of the army. The Numidians fled designedly ;
upon which the Romans pursued them with great eager-
ness, and crossed the 'Trebia without resistance, but not
without great difficulty, being forced to wade up to their
very arm-pits through the rivulet, which was swoln with
the torrents that had fallen in the night from the neigh-
bouring mountains. It was then about the winter-sol-
stice, that is, in December, It happened to snow that
day, and the cold was excessively piercing. The Romans
had left their camp fasting, and without having taken
the least precaution ; whereas the Carthaginians had, by
Hannibal’s order, eaten and drunk plentifully in their
tents ; had got their horses in readiness, rubbed them-
selves with oil, and put on their armour by the fire-side.

They were thus prepared when the fight began. The
Romans defended themselves valiantly for a considerable
time, though they were half spent with hunger, fatigue,
and cold; but their cavalry was at last broken and put
to flight by that of the Carthaginians, which much ex-
ceeded theirs in numbers and strength. The infantry also
were soon in great disorder. The soldiers in ambuscade
sallying out at a proper time, rushed on a sudden-upon
their rear, and completed the overthrow. A body of
above 10,000 men resolutely fought their way through
the Gauls and Africans, of whom they made a dreadful
slaughter ; but as they could neither assist their friends
nor return to the camp, the way to it being cut off by

CARTHAGINIANS. 309

the Numidian horse, the river, and the rain, they re-
treated in good order to Placentia. Most of the rest lost
their lives on the banks of the river, being trampled to
pieces by the elephants and horses. ‘Those who escaped
went and joined the body above-mentioned. The next
night Scipio retired also to Placentia. The Carthagini-
ans gained a complete victory, and their loss was incon-
siderable, except that a great number of their horses were
destroyed by the cold, the rain, and the snow ; and that,
of all their elephants, they saved but one only.

In Spain, the Romans had better success in this and
the following campaign ;* for Cn. Scipio extended his
-conguests as far as the river Iberus,* defeated Hanno, and
took him prisoner.

Hannibal took the opportunity," whilst he was in win-
ter-quarters, to refresh his troops, and gain the affection
of the natives. For this purpose, after having declared
to the prisoners whom he had taken from the allies of the
Romans, that he was not come with the view of making
war upon them, but of restoring the Italians to their li-
berty, and protecting them against the Romans, he sent
them all home to their own countries, without requiring
the least ransom.

The winter was no sooner over,” than he set out to-
wards Tuscany, whither he hastened his march for two
important reasons: First, to avoid the ill effects which
would arise from the ill-will of the Gauls, who were tired
with the long stay of the Carthaginian army in their ter-
ritories, and were impatient of bearing the whole burden
of a war, in which they had engaged with no other view
than to carry it into the country of their common enemy:
secondly, that he might increase, by some bold exploit,
the reputation of his arms in the minds of all the inha-
bitants of Italy, by carrying the war to the very gates of
Rome; and at the same time reanimate his troops, and
the Gauls his allies, by the plunder of the enemy’s lands,
But in his march over the Apennines, he was overtaken
by a dreadful storm, which destroyed great numbers of
his men. The cold, the rain, the wind, and hail, seemed

® Polyb. 1. iii. p. 228, 229, Livy.-I. xxi. n.60,61. ‘Or Ebro.
«" Polyb. p. 229. * Liy. J. xxi. n. 58.

— 360 HISTORY OF THE

to conspire his ruin; so that the fatigues which the Car-
thaginians had undergone in crossing the Alps seemed
less dreadful than those they now suffered. He therefore
marched back to Placentia, where he again fought Sem-
pronius, who was returned from Rome. The loss on both
sides was very nearly equal.

Whilst Hannibal was in these winter-quarters,’ he hit
upon a true Carthaginian stratagem. He was surrounded
with fickle and inconstant nations ; the friendship he had
contracted with them was but of recent date. He had
reason to apprehend a change in their disposition, and,
consequently, that attempts would be made upon hislife.
To secure himself, therefore, he got perukes made, and
clothes suited to every age. Of these he sometimes wore
one, sometimes another, and disguised himself so often,
that not merely such as saw him only transiently, but
even his intimate acquaintance, could scarce know him.

At Rome, Cn. Servilius and C. Flami-
nius had been appointed consuls.* Hanni-
bal having advice that the latter was ad-
vanced already as far as Arretium, a town of Tuscany,
resolved to go and engage him as soon as possible.
Two ways being shewn him, he chose the shortest,
though the most troublesome, nay, almost impassable, by
reason of a fen which he was forced to go through.
Here the army suffered incredible hardships. During
four days and three nights they marched half way up the
leg in water, and, consequently, could not get a moment’s
sleep. Hannibal himself, who rode upon the only ele-
phant he had left, could hardly get through. His long
want of sleep, and the thick vapours which exhaled from
that marshy place, together with the unhealthiness of the
season, cost him one of his eyes.

A. M. 3788.
A. Rom. 582.

Battle of Thrasymenus.

Hannibal being thus got, almost unexpectedly,” out of
this dangerous situation, and having refreshed his troops,
marched and pitched his camp between Arretium and

¥ Polyb. 1. iii. p. 229. Liv. lL. xxii. mn. 1. Appian. in Bell. Annib.
p. 316. @ Polyb. p. 230, 231. Liv. |. xxii. n. 2.
- Polyb. I. iii. p. 231—238. Liv. I. xxii, n, 3—8.

CARTHAGINIANS. 361

Fesulz, in the richest and most fruitful part of Tuscany.
His first endeavours were to discover the disposition of
Flaminius, in order that he might take advantage of his
weak side, which, according to Polybius, ought to be the
chief study of a general. He was told, that Flaminius
was greatly conceited of his own merit, bold, enterprising,
rash, and fond of glory. To plunge him the deeper into
these excesses, to which he was naturally prone,° he in-
flamed his impetuous spirit, by laying waste and burning
the whole country in his sight.

Flaminius was not of a temper to continue inactive in
his camp, even if Hannibal had lain still. But when he
saw the territories of his allies laid waste before his eyes,
he thought it would reflect dishonour upon him, should
he suffer Hannibal to ransack Italy without control, and
even advance to the very walls of Rome without meeting
any resistance. He rejected with scorn the prudent coun-
sels of those who advised him to wait the arrival of his
colleague, and to be satisfied for the present, with put-
ting a stop to the devastation of the enemy.

In the mean time, Hannibal was still advancing towards
Rome, having Cortona on the left hand, and the lake
Thrasymenus on his right. When he saw that the con-
sul followed close after him, with design to give him bat-
tle, in order to stop him in his march ; having observed
that the ground was convenient for an engagement, he
thought only of making preparations for it. The lake
Thrasymenus and the mountains of Cortona form a very
narrow defile, which leads into a large valley, lined, on
both sides, with hills of a considerable height, and closed,
at the outlet, by a steep hill of difficult access. On this
hill, Hannibal, after having crossed the valley, came and
encamped with the main body of his army, posting his
light-armed infantry in ambuscade upon the hills on the
right, and part of his cavalry behind those on the left, as
far almost as the entrance of the defile, through which
Flaminius was obliged to pass. Accordingly, this general,
who followed him very eagerly, with the resolution to

¢ Apparebat ferociter omnia ac praeproperé acturum. Qudque pronior
esset in sua vitia, agitare eum atque irritare Poenus parat. Liv. |. xxii.
n. 3.

362. HISTORY OF THE

fight him, being come to the defile near the lake, was
forced to halt, because night was coming on; but he en-
tered it the next morning at day-break.
Hannibal having permitted him to advance, with all his
forces, above half way through the valley, and seeing the
Roman van-guard pretty near him, gave the signal for
the battle, and commanded his troops to come out of
their ambuscade, in order that he might attack the enemy
at the same time from all quarters. ‘The reader may guess
at the consternation with which the Romans were seized.
They were not yet drawn up in order of battle, neither
had they got their arms in readiness, when they found
themselves attacked in front, in rear, and in flank. In
a moment, all the ranks were put into disorder. Flami-
nius, alone undaunted in so universal a consternation,
animates his soldiers both with his hand and voice, and
exhorts them to cut themselves a passage with their
swords through the midst of the enemy. But the tu-
mult which reigned every where, the dreadful shouts of
the enemy, and a fog that was risen, prevented his being
seen or heard. However, when the Romans saw them-
selves surrounded on all sides, either by the enemy or the
lake, the impossibility of saving their lives by flight
roused their courage, and both parties began the fight
with astonishing animosity. ‘Their fury was so great, that
not a soldier in either army perceived an earthquake
which happened in that country, and buried whole cities
in ruins. In this confusion, Flaminius being slain by one
of the Insubrian Gauls, the Romans began to give ground,
and at last fairly fled. Great numbers, endeavouring to
save themselves, leaped into the lake; whilst others,
directing their course towards the mountains, fell into the
enemy’s hands whom they strove to avoid. Six thousand
only cut their way through the conquerors, and retreated
to a place of safety; but the next day they were taken
prisoners, In this battle 15,000 Romans were killed,
and about 10,000 escaped to Rome by different roads.
Hannibal sent back the Latins, who were allies of the
Romans, into their own country, without demanding the
least ransom. He commanded search to be made for
the body of Flaminius, in order to give it burial, but it

CARTHAGINIANS. 363

could not be found. He afterwards put his troops into
. quarters of refreshment, and solemnized the funerals of
thirty of his chief officers, who were killed in the battle.
He lost in all but 1500 men, most of whom were Gauls.

Immediately after, Hannibal despatched a courier to
Carthage, with the news of his good success hitherto in
Italy. ‘This caused the greatest joy for the present, gave
birth to the most promising hopes with regard to the
future, and revived the courage of all the citizens. They
now prepared, with incredible ardour, to send into Italy
and Spain all necessary succours.

Rome, on the contrary, was filled with universal grief
and alarm, as soon as the preetor had pronounced from
the rostra the following words: We have lost a great
battle. The senate, studious of nothing but the public
welfare, thought that in so great a calamity and so im-
minent a danger, recourse must be had to extraordinary
remedies. They therefore appointed Quintus Fabius
dictator, a person as conspicuous for his wisdom as his
birth. It was the custom at Rome, that the moment a
dictator was nominated, all authority ceased, that of the
tribunes of the people excepted. .M. Minucius was ap-
pointed his general of horse. We are now in the second
year of the war.

Hannibal's Conduct with respect to Fabius.

Hannibal, after the battle of Thrasymenus, not think-
ing it yet proper to march directly to Rome, contented
himself, in the mean time, with laying waste the country.
He crossed Umbria and Picenum; and after ten days’
march, arrived in the territory of Adria. He got a very
considerable booty in this march. Out of his implacable
enmity to the Romans, he commanded, that all who were
able to bear arms, should be put to the sword ; and meet-
ing no obstacle any where, he advanced as far as Apulia ;
plundering the countries which lay in his way, and carry-
ing desolation wherever he came, in order to compel the
nations to disengage themselves from their alliance with
the Romans ; and to shew all Italy, that Rome itself, now
quite dispirited, yielded him the victory.

4 Polyb. 1. iii. p. 239—255, Liv. 1. xxii. n, 9—30.
© A small town, which gave its name to the Adriatic sea.

364 HISTORY OF THE

Fabius, followed by Minucius and four legions, had
marched from Rome in quest of the enemy, but with a
firm resolution not to let him take the least advantage,
nor to advance one step till he had first reconnoitred
every place; nor hazard a battle till he should be sure
of success.

As soon as both armies were in sight, Hannibal, to
terrify the Roman forces, offered them battle, by ad-
vancing almost to the very intrenchments of their camp.
But finding every thing quiet there, he retired; blaming,
in appearance, the cowardice of the enemy, whom he
upbraided with having at last lost that valour so natural
to their ancestors ; but fretted inwardly, to find he had
to do with a general of so different a disposition from
Sempronius and Flaminius ; and that the Romans, in-
structed by their defeat, had at last made choice of a com-
mander capable of opposing Hannibal.

From this moment he perceived, that the dictator
would not be formidable to him by the boldness of his
attacks, but by the prudence and regularity of his con-
duct, which might perplex and embarrass him very much.
The only circumstance he now wanted to know, was,
whether the new general had firmness enough to pursue
steadily the plan he seemed to have laid down. He en-
deavoured, therefore, to shake his resolution by the dif-
ferent movements which he made, by laying waste the
lands, plundering the cities, and burning the villages and
towns. He, at one time, would raise his camp with the
utmost precipitation; and, at another, stop short in some
valley out of the common route, to try whether he could
not surprise him in the plain. However, Fabius still kept
his troops on the hills, but without losing sight of Han-
nibal; never approaching near enough to come to an en-
- gagement; nor yet keeping at such a distance, as might
give him an opportunity of escaping him. He never suf-
fered his soldiers to stir out of the camp, except to forage,
nor ever on those occasions without a numerous convoy.
If ever he engaged, it was only in slight skirmishes, and
so very cautiously, that his troops had always the advan-
tage. By this conduct he revived, by insensible degrees,
the courage of the soldiers, which the loss of three battles

CARTHAGINIANS. 365

had entirely damped; and enabled them to rely, as they
had formerly done, on their valour and good fortune.

Hannibal, having got an immense booty in Campania,
where he had resided a considerable time, left that coun-
try, in order that he might not consume the provisigns
he had laid up, and which he reserved for the winter sea-
son. Besides, he could no longer continue in a country
of gardens and vineyards, which were more agreeable to
the eye than useful for the subsistence of an army; a
country where he would have been forced to take up his
winter-quarters among marshes, rocks, and sands; while
the Romans would have drawn plentiful supplies from
Capua, and the richest parts of Italy. He therefore re-
solved to settle elsewhere.

Fabius naturally supposed, that Hannibal would be
obliged to return the same way he came, and that he
might easily annoy him during his march. He began by
throwing a considerable body of troops into Casilinum,
and thereby securing that small town, situated on the
Vulturnus, which separated the territories of Falernum
from those of Capua: he afterwards detached 4000 men
to seize the only pass through which Hannibal could come
out; and then, according to his usual custom, posted him-
self with the remainder of the army on the hills adjoin-
ing to the road.

The Carthaginians arrive, and encamp in the plain at
the foot of the mountains. And now the crafty Cartha-
ginian falls into the same snare he had laid for Flaminius
at the defile of Thrasymenus ; and it seemed impossible
for him ever to extricate himself out of this difficulty,
there being but one outlet, of which the Romans were
possessed. Fabius, fancying himself sure of his prey, was
only contriving how to seize it. He flattered himself,
and not without the appearance of probability, with the
hopes of putting an end to the war by this single battle.
Nevertheless, he thought fit to defer the attack till the
next day.

Hannibal perceived that his own artifices were now
employed against him.* It is in such junctures as these,
that a general has need of unusual presence of mind and

‘ Nec Annibalem fefellit suis se artibus peti. Liv.

366 HISTORY OF ‘THE

fortitude, to view danger in its utmost extent, without be-
ing dismayed; and to find out sure and instant expedients
without deliberating. Immediately, the Carthaginian
general caused 2000 oxen to be got together, and ordered
small bundles of vine-branches to be tied to their horns.
Towards the dead of night, having commanded the
branches to be set on fire, he caused the oxen to be driven
with violence to the top of the hills where the Romans
were encamped. As soon as these creatures felt the flame,
the pain rendered. them furious, they flew up and down
on all sides, and set fire to the shrubs and bushes they
met in their way. This squadron, of a new kind, was
sustained by a good number of light-armed soldiers, who
had orders to seize upon the summit of the mountain,
and to charge the enemy, in case they should meet them. ~
All things happened as Hannibal had foreseen. The
Romans who guarded the defile, seeing the fires spread
over the hills which were above them, and imagining
that it was Hannibal making his escape by torch-light,
quit their post, and run up to the mountains to oppose
his passage. ‘The main body of the army not knowing
what to think of all this tumult, and Fabius himself not
daring to stir, while it was dark, for fear of a surprise,
wait for the return of the day. Hannibal seizes this op-
portunity, marches his troops and the spoils through the
defile, which was now unguarded, and rescues his army
out of a snare in which, had Fabius been but a little more
vigorous, it would either have been destroyed, or at least
very much weakened. It is glorious for a man to turn
his very errors to his ‘advantage, and make them subser-
vient to his reputation. 7

The Carthaginian army returned to Apulia, still pur-
sued and harassed by the Romans. ‘The dictator, being
obliged to take a journey to Rome on account of some
religious ceremonies, earnestly entreated his general of
horse, before his departure, not to fight during his ab-
sence. However, Minucius did not regard either his
advice or his entreaties; but the very first opportunity
he had, whilst part of Hannibal’s troops were foraging, he
charged the rest, and gained some advantage. He im-
mediately sent advice of this to Rome, as if he had ob-

CARTHAGINIANS: 367

tained a considerable victory. ‘The news of this, with
what had just before happened at the passage of the de-
file, raised complaints and murmurs against the slow and
timorous circumspection of Fabius. In a word, matters
were carried so far, that the Roman people gave his ge-
neral of horse an equal authority with him ; a thing un-
heard of before. The dictator was upon the road when
he received advice of this: for he had left Rome, in order
that he might not be an eye-witness of what was contriv-
ing against him. His constancy, however, was not
shaken. He-was very sensible, that though his autho-
rity in the command was divided, yet his skill in the art
of war was not so.2 ‘This soon became manifest.

Minucius, grown arrogant at the advantage he had
gained over hiscolleague, proposed that each should com-
mand a day alternately, or evenalongertime. But Fa-
bius rejected this proposal, as it would have exposed the
whole army to danger whilst under the command of
Minucius. He therefore chose to divide the troops, in
order that it might be in his power to preserve, at least,
that part which should fall to his share.

Hannibal, fully informed of all that passed in the Ro-
man camp, was overjoyed to hear of this dissension be-
tween the two commanders. He therefore laid a snare

for the rash Minucius, who accordingly plunged head- — ~

long into it ; and engaged the enemy on an eminence,
in which an ambuscade was concealed. But his troops
being soon put into disorder, were just upon the point of
being cut to pieces, when Fabius, alarmed by the sudden
outcries of the wounded, called aloud to his soldiers: Let
us hasten to the assistance of Minucius : let us fly and
snatch the victory from the enemy, and extort from our
Jfellow-citizens a confession of their fault. This succour
was very seasonable, and compelled Hannibal to sound a
retreat. The latter, as he was retiring, said, That the
cloud which had been long hovering on the summit of the
mountains, had at last burst with a loud crack, and caused
a mighty storm. So important and seasonable a service
done bythe dictator, opened the eyes of Minucius. He

® Satis fidens haudquaquam cum imperii jure artem imperandi equa-
tam. Liv. |. xxii. n. 26. |

368 HISTORY OF THE

accordingly acknowledged his error, returned immediately
to his duty and obedience, and shewed, that it is some-
times: more glorious to know how to atone for a fault,
than not to have committed it.

The State of Affairs in Spain.

In the beginning of this campaign," Cn. Scipio having
suddenly attacked the Carthaginian fleet, commanded by
Hamilcar, defeated it, and took twenty-five ships, with a
great quantity of rich spoils. ‘This victory made the Ro-
mans sensible, that they ought to be particularly atten-
tive to the affairs of Spain, because Hannibal could draw
considerable supplies both of men and money from that
country. Accordingly, they sent a fleet thither, the
command whereof was given to P. Scipio, who, after his
arrival in Spain, having joined his brother, did the com-
monwealth very great service. “Till that time the Ro-
mans had never ventured beyond the Ebro. They had
been satisfied with having gained the friendship of the na-
tions situated between that river and Italy, and confirm-
ing it by alliances: but under Publius, they crossed the
Ebro, and carried their arms much farther up into the
country.

The circumstance which contributed most to promote
their affairs, was, the treachery of a Spaniard in Sagun-
tum. Hannibal had left there the children of the most
distinguished families in Spain, whom he had taken as
hostages. Abelox, for so this Spaniard was called, per-
suaded Bostar, the governor of the city, to send back
these young men into their country, in order, by that
means, to attach the inhabitants more firmly to the Car-
thaginian interest. He himself was charged with this
commission. But he carried them to the Romans, who
afterwards delivered them to their relations, and, by so
acceptable a present, acquired their amity.

The Battle of Canne.
The next spring,’ C. Terentius Varro
petite eds and L. AXmilius Paulus were chosen con-
suls at Rome. In this campaign, which

» Polyb, 1. iii. p. 245—250. Liv. 1, xxii. n. 19—22.
1 Polyb. 1. iii. p. 255—268, Liv. 1. xxii. n. 34-54,

CARTHAGINIANS. 369

was the third of the second Punic war, the Romans did
~ what had never been practised before, that is, they com-
posed the army of eight legions, each consisting of 5000
men, exclusive of the allies. For, as we have already ob-
served, the Romans never raised but four legions, each
of which: consisted of about 4000 foot, and 300 horse."
They never, except on the most important occasions,
made them consist of 5000 of the one, and 400 of the
other. As for the troops of the allies, their infantry was
equal to that of the legions, but they had three times as
many horse. Each of the consuls had commonly half
the troops of the allies, with two legions, in order for

rem to act separately ; and it was very seldom that all
these forces were used at the same time, and in the same
expedition. Here the Romans had not only four, but
eight legions, so important did the affair appear to them.
The senate even thought fit, that the two consuls of the
foregoing year, Servilius and Attilius, should serve in the
army as proconsuls ; but the latter could not go into the
field, by reason of his great age.

Varro, at his setting out from Rome, had declared
openly, that he would fall upon the enemy the very first
opportunity, and put an end to the war; adding, that it
would never be terminated so long as men such as Fabius
should be at the head of the Roman armies. An advan-
tage which he gained over the Carthaginians, of whom
near 1700 were killed, greatly increased his boldness and
arrogance. As for Hannibal, he considered this loss as a
real advantage ; being persuaded that it would serve as a
bait to the consul’s rashness, and prompt him on to a bat-
tle, which he wanted extremely. It was afterwards known,
that Hannibal was reduced to such a scarcity of provi-
sions, that he could not possibly have subsisted ten days
longer. The Spaniards were already meditating to leave
him. So that there would have been an end of Hanni-
bal and his army, if his good fortune had not thrown a
Varro in his way.

Both armies, having often removed from place to place,
came in sight of each other near Cannz, a little town in

k Polybius supposes only 200 horse in each legion: but J. Lipsius
thinks that this is a mistake either of the author or transcriber.

VOL. I. 2 8B

370 HISTORY OF THE

Apulia, situated on the river Aufidus, As Hannibal was
encamped in a level open country, and his cavalry much
superior to that of the Romans, AXmiltus did not think
proper to engage in such a place. He wished to draw
the enemy into aspot, where the infantry might have the
greatest share in the action. But his colleague, who
was inexperienced, was of a contrary opinion. Such is
the inconveniency of a divided command; jealousy, a dis-
parity of tempers, or a diversity of views, seldom failing
to create a dissension between the two generals.

The troops on each side were, for some time, con-
tented with slight skirmishes. But, at last, one day,
when Varro had the command (for the two consuls took
it by turns) preparations were made on both sides for
battle. A milius had not been consulted ; yet, though
he extremely disapproved the conduct of his colleague, as
it was not in his power to prevent it, he seconded him to
the utmost. |

Hannibal, after having made his soldiers observe, that,
being superior in cavalry, they could not possibly have
pitched upon a better spot for fighting, had it been left
to their choice: Return, then (says he), thanks to the gods
for having brought the enemy hither, that you may triumph
over them; and thank me also, for having reduced the Ro-
mans to the necessity of coming to an engagement. After
three great successive victories, is not the remembrance of
your own actions sufficient to inspire you with courage ?
By the former battles, you are become masters of the open
country ; but this will put you in possession of all the cities,
and (I presume to say it) of all the riches and power of
the Romans. It is not words that we want, but action. I
trust in the gods, that you shall soon_see my promises
verified.

The two armies were very unequal in number. That
of the Romans, including the allies, amounted to 80,000
foot, and a little above 6000 horse; and that of the
Carthaginians consisted but of 40,000 foot, all well dis-
ciplined, and of 10,000 horse. A®milius commanded the
right wing of the Romans, Varro the left, and Servilius,
one of the consuls of the last year, was posted in the
centre... Hannibal, who had the art of turning every

CARTHAGINIANS. nivel

incident to advantage, had posted himself, so as that the
wind Vulturnus,' which rises at certain stated times,
should blow directly in the faces of the Romans during
the fight, and cover them with dust; then keeping the
river Aufidus on his left, and posting his cavalry in the
wings, he formed his main body of the Spanish and
Gaulish infantry, which he posted in the centre, with half
the African heavy-armed foot on their right, and half on
the left, on the same line with the cavalry. His army
being thus drawn up, he put himself at the head of the
Spanish and Gaulish infantry ; and having drawn them
out of the line, advanced to give battle, rounding his front
as he drew nearer the enemy; and extending his flanks
in the shape of a half-moon, in order that he might leave
no interval between his main body and therest of the line,
which consisted of the heavy-armed infantry, who had
not moved from their posts.

The fight soon began, and the Roman legions that
were in the wings, seeing their centre warmly attacked,
advanced to charge the enemy in flank. Hannibal’s main
body, after a brave resistance, finding themselves furi-
ously attacked on all sides, gave way, being overpowered
by numbers ; and retired through the interval they had
left in the centre of the line. ‘The Romans having pur-
sued them thither with eager confusion, the two wings
of the African infantry, which were fresh, well armed,
and in good order, wheeled about on a sudden towards
that void space in which the Romans, who were already
fatizued, had thrown themselves in disorder ; and attack-
ed them vigorously on both sides, without allowing them
time to recover themselves, or leaving them ground to
draw up. In the mean time, the two wings of the ca-
valry, having defeated those of the Romans, which were
much inferior to them ; and having left in the pursuit of
the broken and scattered squadrons, only as many forces
as were necessary to keep them from_rallying, advanced
and charged the rearof the Roman infantry, which, being
surrounded at once on every side, by the enemy’s horse

1 A violent burning wind, blowing south-south-east, which in this flat
and sandy country, raised clouds of hot dust, and blinded and choked the
Romans.

Dap as

anes Ver HISTORY OF THE

and foot, was all cut to pieces, after having fought with
unparalleled bravery. Aimilius, being covered with the
wounds he had received in the fight, was afterwards killed
by a body of the enemy to whom he was not known ;
and with him two questors; one-and-twenty military
tribunes; many who had been either consuls or preetors ;
Servilius, one of the last year’s consuls ; Minucius, the
late general of horse to Fabius; and fourscore senators.
Above 70,000 men fell in this battle ;" and the Cartha-
ginians, so great was their fury," did not give over the
slaughter, till Hannibal, in the very heat of it, called out
to them several times, Stop, soldiers, spare the vanquished.
Ten thousand men, who had been left to guard the camp.
surrendered themselves prisoners of war after the battle.
Varro, the consul, retired to Venusia, with only seventy
horse ; and about 4000 men escaped into the neighbour-
ing cities. ‘Thus Hannibal remained master of the field,
he being chiefly indebted for this, as well as for his
former victories, to the superiority of his cavalry over that
of the Romans. He lost 4000 Gauls, 1500 Spaniards
and Africans, and 200 horse.

Maharbal, one of the Carthaginian generals, advised
Hannibal to march without loss of time directly to Rome,
promising him, that within five days they should sup in
the Capitol. Hannibal answering, that it was a matter
which required mature deliberation ; J see, replies Ma-
harbal, that the gods have not endowed the same man with
alltalents. You, Hannibal, know how to conquer, but not
to make the best use of avictory.°

It is pretended that this delay saved Rome and the
empire. Many authors, and among the rest Livy, charge
Hannibal, on this occasion, as being guilty of a capital
error. But others, more reserved, are not for condemn-
ing, without evident proofs, so.renowned a general, who
in the rest of his conduct was never wanting, either in
prudence to make choice of the best expedients, or in
readiness to put his designs in execution. They, besides,

™ Livy lessens very much the number of the slain, making them amount
but to about 43,000. But Polybius ought rather to be believed.

" Duo maximi exercitus casi ad hostium satictatem, donec Annibal
diceret militi suo: Parce ferro. Flor. 1.1. c¢. 6.

°’Fum Maharbal: Non omnia nimirum eidem Dii dedére. Vincere
scis, Annibal, victoria uti nescis. Liv. |. xxii. n. 51.

‘ CARTHAGINIANS. | 373

are inclined to judge favourably of him, from the autho-
rity, or at least the silence, of Polybius, who, speaking
of the memorable consequences of this celebrated battle,
says, that the Carthaginians were firmly persuaded, that
they should possess themselves of Rome at the first as-
sault; but then he does not mention how this could pos-
sibly have been effected, as that city was very populous,
warlike, strongly fortified, and defended with a garrison
of two legions ; nor does he any where give the least hint
that such a project was feasible, or that Hannibal did
wrong in not attempting to put it in execution.

And, indeed, if we examine matters more narrowly,
we shall find, that according to the common maxims of.
war it could not be undertaken. It is certain, that Han-
nibal’s whole infantry, before the battle, amounted but
to 40,000 men; and as 6000 of these had been slain in
the action, and, doubtless, many more wounded and dis-
abled, there could remain but six or seven-and-twenty
thousand foot fit for service : now this number was not
sufficient to invest so large a city as Rome, which hada
river running through it; nor to attack it in form, be-
cause they had neither engines, ammunition, nor any
other things necessary for carrying ona siege. For want
of these,’ Hannibal, even after his victory at TThrasyme-
nus, miscarried in his attempt upon Spoletum ; and soon
after the battle of Canne, was forced to raise the siege
of a little city,’ of no note, and of no great strength. It
cannot be denied, that had he miscarried on the present
occasion, nothing less could have been expected but that
he must have been irrecoverably lost. However, to form
a just judgment of this matter, a man ought to be a sol-
dier, and a soldier, perhaps, of those times. This is an
old dispute, on which none but those who are perfectly
well skilled in the art of war should pretend to give their
opinion. |

Soon after the battle of Cannz,” Hannibal had despatch-
ed his brother Mago to Carthage, with the news of his
victory, and at the same time to demand succours, in
order that he might be enabled to put an end to the war.

P Liv. 1. xxii. n,9. Ibid. 1. xxiii. n. 18.
4 Casilinum. r Liy. |. xxiii. n. LI—14.

374 HISTORY OF THE

Mago, on his arrival, made, in full senate, a lofty
speech, in which he extolled his brother’s exploits, and
displayed the great advantages he had gained over the
Romans. And to give a more lively idea of the great-
ness of the victory, by speaking in some measure to the
eye, he poured out in the middle of the senate, a bushel *
of gold rings, which had been taken from the fingers of
such of the Roman nobility as had fallen in the battle of
Canne. He concluded with demanding money, provi-
sions, and fresh troops. All the spectators were struck
with an extraordinary joy; upon which Imilco, a great
stickler for Hannibal, fancying he now had a fair oppor-
tunity to insult Hanno, the chief of the contrary faction,
asked him, whether they were still dissatisfied with the
war they were carrying on against the Romans, and was
for having Hannibal delivered up to them? Hanno,
without discovering the least emotion, replied that he
was still of the same mind; and that the victories of
which they so much boasted (supposing them real), could
not give him joy, but only in proportion as they should
be made subservient to an advantageous peace ; he then
undertook to prove, that the mighty exploits, on which
they insisted so much, were wholly chimerical and ima-
ginary. I have cut to pieces, says he (continuing Mago’s
speech), the Roman armies: send me some troops.— What
more could you ask had you been conquered ?— I have twice
seized upon the enemy’s camp, full (no doubt) of provisions
of every hind.—Send me provisions and money.—Could
you have talked otherwise had you lost your camp? He
then asked Mago, whether any of the Latin nations had
come over to Hannibal, and whether the Romans had
made him any proposals of peace ? To this Mago answer-
ing in the negative: I then perceive, replied Hanno, that
we are no farther advanced, than when Hannibal first
landed in Italy. ‘The inference he drew from hence was,
that neither men nor money ought to be sent. But
Hannibal’s faction prevailing at that time, no regard was

* Pliny, 1. xxxiii, e. 1, says, that there were three bushels sent to Car-
thage. Livy observes, that some authors make them amount to three
bushels and a half; but he thinks it most probable, that there was but
one, |. xxxiii, n.12. Florus, |. ii. c. 16, makes it two bushels.

CARTHAGINIANS. 3o70

paid to Hanno’s remonstrances, which were considered
merely as the effect of prejudice and jealousy ; and, ac-
cordingly, orders were given for levying, without delay,
the supplies of men and money which Hannibal required.
Mago set out immediately for Spain, to raise 24,000 foot
and 4000 horse in that country ; but these levies were
afterwards stopped, and sent to another quarter; so eager
was the contrary faction to oppose the designs of a ge-
neral whom they utterly abhorred. While, in Rome, a
consul,‘ who had fled, was thanked because he had not
despaired of the commonwealth ; at Carthage, people
were almost angry with Hannibal, for being victorious.
But Hanno could never forgive him the advantages he
had gained in this war, because he had undertaken it in
opposition to his counsel. Thus, being more jealous for
the honour of his own opinions than for the good of his
country, and a greater enemy to the Carthaginian gene-
ral than to the Romans, he did all that lay in his power
to prevent future success, and to render of no avail that
which had been already gained.

Hannibal takes up his Winter-quarters in Capua.

The battle of Canne subjected the most powerful na-
tions of Italy to Hannibal," drew over to his interest Gre-
cia Magna,* with the city of Tarentum; and thus wrested
from the Romans their most ancient allies, among whom
the Capuans held the first rank. ‘This city, by the ferti-
lity of its soil, its advantageous situation, and the bless-
ings of a long peace, had risen to great wealth and power.
Luxury, and a fondness for pleasure (the usual attendants
on wealth), had corrupted the minds of all its citizens,
who, from their natural inclination, were but too much in-
clined to voluptuousness and excess.

Hannibal made choice of this city for his winter-quar-
ters.’ Here it was that those soldiers, who had sustainéd
‘ Terentius Varro. « Liv. J. xxiii. n, 4. 18.

x Ceterium quum Greci omnem feré oram maritimam Coloniis suis, é
Grecia deductis, obsiderent, &c. But after the Greeks had, by their colo-
nies, possessed themselves of almost all the maritime coast, this very coun-
iry (together with Sicily) was called Grecia Magna, Sc. Cluver. Geo-
graph. |. ili. c. 30.

Y Ibi partem majorem hiemis exercitum in tectis habuit; adversus om-
nia humana mala seepe ac diu duratum, bonis inexpertum atque insue-

376 HISTORY OF THE

the most grievous toils, and braved the most formidable
dangers, were overthrown by abundance and a profusion
of luxuries, into which they plunged with the greater
eagerness, as they, till then, had been strangers to them.
Their courage was so greatly enervated in this bewitch-
ing retirement, that all their after efforts were owing ra-
ther to the fame and splendour of their former victories
than to their present strength. When Hannibal marched
his forces out of the city, one would have taken them for
other men, and the reverse of those who had so lately
marched into it. Accustomed, during the winter-sea-
son, to commodious lodgings, to ease and plenty, they
were no longer able to bear hunger, thirst, long marches,
watchings, and the other toils of war; not to mention
that all obedience, all discipline, were entirely laid aside.

I only transcribe on this occasion from Livy. If we are
to adopt his opinion on this subject, Hannibal’s stay at
Capua was a capital blemish in his conduct ; and he pre-
tends, that this general was guilty of an infinitely greater
error, than when he neglected to march directly to Rome
after the battle of Canne. For this delay,’ says Livy,
might seem only to have retarded his victory ; whereas
this last misconduct rendered him absolutely incapable of
ever defeating the enemy. In a word, as Marcellus ob-
served judiciously afterwards, Capua was to the Carthagi-
nians and their general, what Canne had been to the
Romans.* There their martial genius, their love of disci-
pline, were lost; there their former fame, and their almost
certain hopes of future glory, vanished at once. And,
indeed, from thenceforth the affairs of Hannibal advanced
to their decline by swift steps; fortune declared in favour
of prudence, and victory seemed now reconciled to the
Romans.

I know not whether Livy has just ground to impute all
these fatal consequences to the delicious abode of Capua.
tum. Itaque quos nulla mali vicerat vis, perdidere nimia bona ac volup-
tates immodice; et ed impensits, quod avidits ex insolentia in eas se
merserant. Liv. |. xxiii. n. 18,

_” Illa enim cunctatio distulisse modo victoriam videri potuit, hic error
vires ademisse ad vincendum. Liv. |. xxiii. n. 18.
* Capuam Annibali Cannas fuisse: ibi virtutem bellicam, ibi militarem

disciplinam, ibi preeteriti temporis famam, ibi spem futuri extinctam.
Liv, |. xxiii. n. 45,

CARTHAGINIANS. ont

If we examine carefully all the circumstances of this his-.
tory, we shall scarce be able to persuade ourselves, that
the little progress which was afterwards made by the arms
of Hannibal, ought to be ascribed to his wintering at Ca-
pua. It might, indeed, have.been one cause, but a very
inconsiderable one; and the bravery with which the forces
of Hannibal afterwards defeated the armies of consuls and
preetors; the towns they took even in sight of the Ro-
mans; their maintaining their conquests so vigorously,
and staying fourteen years after this in Italy, in spite of
the Romans; all these circumstances may induce us to
believe, that Livy lays too great a stress on the delights
of Capua.

The real cause of the decline of Hannibal’s affairs, was
owing to his want of necessary recruits and succours from
Carthage. After Mago’s speech,” the Carthaginian senate
had judged it necessary, in order for the carrying on the
conquests in Italy, to send thither a considerable re-
inforeement of Numidian horse, forty elephants, and
1000 talents; and to hire, in Spain, 20,000 foot, and
A000 horse, to reinforce their armies in Spain and Italy.
Nevertheless,* Mago could obtain an order but for 12,000
foot and 2500 horse; and even when he was just going
to march to Italy with this remforcement, so much infe- -
rior to that which had been promised him, he was coun-
termanded, and sent to Spain. So that Hannibal, after
these mighty promises, had neither infantry, cavalry, ele-
phants, nor money, sent him; but was left to depend
upon his own personal resources. His army was now re-
duced to 26,000 foot, and g000 horse. How could it be
possible for him, with so inconsiderable an army, to seize,
in an enemy’s country, on all the advantageous posts ; to
awe his new allies; to preserve his old conquests, and
form new ones; and to keep the field, with advantage,
against two armies of the Romans which were recruited
every year? ‘This was the true cause of the declension
of Hannibal’s affairs and of the ruin of those of Carthage.
Were the part where Polybius treated the subject extant,
we doubtless should find, that he lays a greater stress on
this cause, than on the luxurious delights of Capua.

P Livy. Xxtiien, 13: ¢ Ibid. n. 32.

378 i HISTORY OF THE

Transactions relating to Spain and Sardinia.

The two Scipios still continued in the
command of Spain,* and their arms were
making a considerable progress there,
when Asdrubal, who alone seemed able to cope with them,
received orders from Carthage, to march into Italy to the
relief of his brother. Before he left Spain, he wrote to
the senate, to convince them of the absolute neces-
sity of their sending a general in his stead, who was ca-
pable of making head against the Romans. Imilco was
therefore sent thither with an army; and Asdrubal set
out upon his march with his, in order to go and join his
brother. ‘The news of his departure was no sooner
known, than the greatest part of Spain was subjected by
the Scipios. ‘These two generals, animated by such sig-
nal success, resolved to prevent him, if possible, from
leaving Spain. They considered the danger to which the
Romans would be exposed, if, being scarce able to resist
Hannibal alone, they should be attacked by the two bro-
thers, at the head of two powerful armies. They there-
fore pursued Asdrubal, and, coming up with that general,
forced him to fight against his inclination. Asdrubal was
overcome ; and, so far from being able to continue his
march for Italy, he found that it would be impossible for
him to continue with any safety in Spain.

The Carthaginians had no better success in Sardinia.
Designing to take advantage of some rebellions which
they had fomented in that country, they lost 12,000 men
in a battle fought against the Romans, who took a still
greater number of prisoners, among whom were Asdru-
bal, surnamed Calvus, Hanno, and Mago,* who were dis-
tinguished by their birth as well as military exploits.

The ill Success of Hannibal. The Sieges of Capua

and Rome.

aes From the time of Hannibal's abode in
.M. 3791. E =e ee
A. Rom. 535. Capua, the Carthaginian affairs in Italy
no longer supported their former repu-
4 Liv. |. xxiii. n. 26—30. and n. 32. 40, 41.

aoe Not Hannibal’s brother.
‘Liv. |. xxiii. n. 41—46. I. xxv. n. 22. ]. xxvi. n. 5—16.

A. M. 3790.
A. Rom. 434.

CARTHAGINIANS. B79

tation. M. Marcellus, first as praetor, and afterwards
as consul, had contributed very much to this revo-
lution. He harassed Hannibal’s army on every occa-
sion, seized upon his quarters, forced him to raise sieges,
and even defeated him in several engagements; so that
he was called the Sword of Rome, as Fabius had before
been named its Buckler.
A But what most affected the Carthagi-
re aoe nian general, was to see Capua besieged by
the Romans. In order, therefore, to pre-
serve his reputation among his allies, by a vigorous
support of those who held the chief rank as such, he
flew to the relief of that city, brought forward his forces,
attacked the Romans, and fought several battles to
ans oblige them to raise the siege. At last,
A. Rom.538, seeing all his measures defeated, he
marched hastily towards Rome, in order
to make a powerful diversion. He was not without
hope of being able, in case he could have an opportu-
nity, in the first consternation, to storm some part of the
city, of drawing the Roman generals with all their forces
from the siege of Capua, to the relief of their capital ; at
least he flattered himself, that if, for the sake of continu-
ing the siege, they should divide their forces, their weak-
ness might then offer an occasion, either to the Capuans
or himself, of engaging and defeating them. Rome was
surprised, but not confounded.- A proposal being made
by one of the senators, to recall all the armies to succour
Rome ; Fabius declared,* that it would be shameful in
them to be terrified, and forced to change their measures
upon every motion of Hannibal. They therefore con-.
tented themselves with only recalling part of the army,
and one of the generals, Q. Fulvius the proconsul, from
the siege. Hannibal, after making some devastations,
drew up his army in order of battle before the city, and
the consul did the same. Both sides were preparing to
signalize themselves in a battle, of which Rome was to.
be the recompense, when a violent storm obliged them
to separate. They were no sooner returned to their re-

® Flagitiosum esse terreri ac circumagi ad omnes Annibalis commina-
tiones. Liv. |. xxvi. nu. 8.

380 HISTORY OF THE

spective camps, than the face of the heavens grew calm
and serene. The same incident happened frequently
afterwards; insomuch that Hannibal, believing that there
was something supernatural in the event, said, according
to Livy, that sometimes his own will,” and sometimes for-
tune, would not suffer him to take Rome.

But the circumstance which most surprised and inti-
midated him, was the news, that, whilst he lay encamped
at one of the gates of Rome, the Romans had sent out
recruits for the army in Spain at another gate; and that
the ground, whereon his camp was pitched, had been sold,
notwithstanding that circumstance, for its full value. So
barefaced a contempt stung Hannibal to the quick; he,
therefore, on the other side, put up to auction the shops
of the goldsmiths round the Forum. After this bravado,
he retired, and, in his march, plundered the rich temple

of the goddess Feronia.’
'. Capua, thus left to itself, held out but very little
longer. After that such of its senators as had the chief
hand in the revolt, and consequently could not expect
any quarter from the Romans, had put themselves to a
truly tragical death," the city surrendered at discretion.
The success of this siege, which, by the happy conse-
quences wherewith it was attended, proved decisive, and
fully restored to the Romans their superiority over the
Carthaginians; displayed, at the same time, how for-
midable the power of the Romans was,’ when they un-

h Audita vox Annibalis fertur, Potiunde sibi urbis Rome, modo men-
tem non dari, modo fortunam. Liv. |. xxvi. n. 11.

i Feronia was the goddess of groves, and there was one, with a temple
in it, dedicated to her, at the foot of the mountain Soracte. Strabo,
speaking of the grove where the goddess was worshipped, says, that a sa-
crifice was offered annually to her in it; and that her votaries, inspired by
this goddess, walked unhurt over burning coals. There are still extant
some medals of Augustus, in which this goddess is represented with a
crown on her head.

k Vilius Virius, the chief of this conspiracy, after having represented to
the Capuan senate, the severe treatment which his country might expect
from the Romans, prevailed with twenty-seven senators to go with him to
his own house, where, after eating a plentiful dinner, and heating them-
selves with wine, theyall drank poison. Then taking their last farewell,
some withdrew to their own houses, others stayed with Virius ; and all ex-
pired before the gates were opened to the Romans. Liv. 1. xxvi. n. 13,14.

' Confessio expressa hosti, quanta vis in Romanis ad expetendas poenas
ab infidelibus sociis, et quam nihil in Annibale auxilii ad receptos in
fidem tuendos esset. Liv. 1. xxvi. n. 16.

CARTHAGINIANS. 38k

dertook to punish their perfidious allies; and the feeble
protection which Hannibal could afford his friends at a
time when they most wanted it.

The Defeat and Death of the two Scipios in Spain.

The face of affairs was very much
a eden changed in Spain.” The Carthaginians
had three armies in that country; one
commanded by Asdrubal, the son of Gisgo; the se-
cond by Asdrubal, son of Hamilcar; and a third under
Mago, who had joined the first Asdrubal. The two
Scipios, Cneus and Publius, were for dividing their
forces, and attacking the enemy separately, which was
the cause of their ruin. They agreed that Cneus, with
a small number of Romans, and 30,000 Celtiberians,
should march against Asdrubal the son of Hammilcar ;
whilst Publius, with the remainder of the forces, com-
posed of Romans and the Italian allies, should advance
against the other two generals.

Publius was vanquished first. ‘To the two leaders
whom he had to oppose, Masinissa, elate with the vic-
tories he had lately gained over Syphax, joined himself;
and was to be soon followed by Indibilis, a powerful
Spanish prince. ‘The armies came to an engagement.
The Romans being thus attacked on all sides at once
made a brave resistance as long as they had their general
at their head; but the moment he fell, the few troops
which had escaped the slaughter secured themselves by
flicht.

The three victorious armies marched immediately in
quest of Cneus, in order to put an end to the war by his
defeat. He was already more than half vanquished by
the desertion of his allies, who all forsook him; and left
to the Roman generals this important instruction ;” vzz.
never to let their own forces be exceeded in number by
those of foreigners. He guessed that his brother was
slain, and his army defeated, upon seeing such great
bodies of the enemy arrive. He survived him but a

m Liv. xxv. n. 32—39.
" Id quidem cavendum semper Romanis ducibus erit, exemplaque hze

veré pro documentis habenda. Ne ita externis credant auxiliis, ut non
plus sui roboris suarumque proprié virium in castris habeant. Liv. n. 33.

382 HISTORY OF THE

short time, being killed in the engagement. These two
great men were equally lamented by their citizens and
allies; and Spain deeply felt their loss, because of the
justice and moderation of their conduct.

These extensive countries seemed now inevitably lost ;
but the valour of L. Marcius,’ a private officer of the
equestrian order, preserved them to the Romans. Shortly
after this, the younger Scipio was sent thither, who se-
verely revenged the death of his father and uncle, and
restored the affairs of the Romans in Spain to their
former flourishing condition.

The Defeat and Death of Asdrubal.

eee One unforeseen defeat ruined all the
A. Rom. 542, Measures, and blasted all the hopes, of
i Hannibal with regard to Italy.’ The
consuls of this year, which was the eleventh of the
second Punic war (for I pass over several events for bre-
vitys sake), were C. Claudius Nero, and M. Livius.
The latter had, for his province, the Cisalpine Gaul,
where he was to oppose Asdrubal, who, it was reported,
was preparing to pass the Alps. The former commanded
in the country of the Brutians, and in Lucania, that is,
in the opposite extremity of Italy, and was there making
head against Hannibal.

The passage of the Alps gave Asdrubal very little
trouble, because his brother had cleared the way for him,
and all the nations were disposed to receive him. Some
time after this, he despatched couriers to Hannibal, but
they were intercepted. Nero found by their letters, that
Asdrubal was hastening to join his brother in Umbria.
In a conjuncture of so important a nature as this, when
the safety of Rome lay at stake, he thought himself at
liberty to dispense with the established rules’ of his duty,
for the welfare of his country. In consequence of this,
it was his opinion, that such a bold and unexpected blow

° He attacked the Carthaginians, who had divided themselves into two
camps, and were secure, as they thought, from any immediate attempt of
the Romans; killed 37,000 of them; took 1800 prisoners, and brought off
immense plunder. Liv. I. xxv. n. 39.

P Polyb. 1. xi. p. 622—625. Liv. 1. xxvii. p.35. 39. 51.

q ap general was allowed to leave his own province, to go into that of
another.

CARTHAGINIANS. 383

ought to be struck, as might be capable of striking terror
into the enemy; by marching to join his colleague, in
order that they might charge Asdrubal unexpectedly
with their united forces. This design, if the several cir-
cumstances of it were thoroughly examined, should not
be hastily charged with imprudence. To prevent the
two brothers from joining their armies, was to save the
state. Very little would be hazarded, even though Han-
nibal should be informed of the absence of the consul.
From his army, which consisted of 42,000 men, he
drew out but 7000 for his own detachment, which in-
deed were the flower of his troops, but, at the same time,
a very inconsiderable part of them. ‘The rest remained
in the camp, which was advantageously situated, and
strongly fortified. Now, could it be supposed that Han-
nibal would attack and force a strong camp defended by
35,000 men?

Nero set out without giving his soldiers the least
notice of his design. When he had advanced so far as
that it might be communicated without any danger, he
told them, that he was leading them to certain victory ;
that, in war, all things depended upon reputation ; that
the bare rumour of their arrival would disconcert all the
measures of the Carthaginians; and that the whole ho-
nour of this battle would fall to them.

They marched with extraordinary diligence, and joined
the other consul in the night, but did not pitch separate
camps, the better to impose upon the enemy. ‘The
troops which were newly arrived joined those of Livius.
The army of Porcius the praetor was encamped near that
of the consul, and in the morning a council of war was
held. Livius was of opinion, that it would be better to
allow the troops some days to refresh themselves; but
Nero besought him not to ruin, by delay, an enterprise
to which despatch only could give success: and to take
advantage of the error of the enemy, as well absent as
present. This advice was complied with, and accord-
ingly the signal for battle was given. Asdrubal, ad-
vancing to his foremost ranks, discovered, by several
circumstances, that fresh troops were arrived; and he
did not doubt but that they belonged to the other con-

384 HISTORY OF THE

sul. This made him conjecture that his brother had
sustained a considerable loss, and, at the same time, fear,
that he was come too late to his assistance.

After making these reflections, he caused a retreat to be
sounded, and his army began to march in great disorder.
‘Night overtaking him, and his guides deserting, he was
uncertain what way to go. He marched at random,
along the banks of the river Metaurus," and was prepar-
ing to cross it, when the three armies of the enemy
came up with him. In this extremity, he saw it would
be impossible for him to avoid coming to an engage-
ment ; and therefore did every thing which could be ex-
pected from the presence of mind and valour of a great
captain. He seized an advantageous post, and drew up
his forces on a narrow spot, which gave him an oppor-
tunity of posting his left wing (the weakest part of his
army) in such a manner, that it could neither be attacked
in front, nor charged in flank; and of giving to his main
battle and right wing, a greater depth than front. After
this hasty disposition of his forces, he posted himself in
the centre, and was the first to march to attack the
enemy’s left wing; well knowing that all was at stake,
and that he must either conquer or die. The battle
lasted a long time, and was obstinately disputed by both
parties. Asdrubal, especially, signalized himself in this
engagement, and added new glory to that he had already
acquired by a series of shining actions. He led on his
soldiers trembling and quite dispirited, against an enemy
superior to them both in numbers and resolution. He
animated them by his words, supported them by his ex-
ample, and, with entreaties and menaces, endeavoured to
bring back those who fled; till, at last, seeing that vic-
tory declared for the Romans, and being unable to sur-
vive the loss of so many thousand men, who had quitted
their country to follow his fortune, he rushed at once
into the midst of a Roman cohort, and there died in a
manner worthy the son of Hamilcar and the brother of
Hannibal. ,

This was the most bloody battle the Carthaginians

¥ Now called Metoro.

CAR TEHAGINIANS. 395

had fought during this war: and, whether we consider
the death of the general, or the slaughter made of the
Carthaginian forces, it may be looked upon as a reprisal
for the battle of Canna. ‘The Carthaginians lost 55,000
men,* and 6000 were taken prisoners. The Romans
lost 8000. ‘These were so weary of killing, that some
person telling Livius, that he might very easily cut to
pieces a body of the enemy who were flying: I¢ is fit,

says he, that some should survive, in order that they may
carry the news of this defeat to the Carthaginians.

Nero set out upon his march, on the very night which
followed the engagement. Through every place where
he passed, in his return, shouts of joy and loud accla-
mations welcomed him, instead of those fears and un-
easinesses which his coming had occasioned. He ar-
rived in his camp the sixth day. Asdrubal’s head being
thrown into the camp of the Carthaginians, informed: —
Hannibal of his brother’s unhappy fate. Hannibal per-
ceived, by this cruel stroke, the fortune of Carthage:
All is over, says he,‘ I shall no longer send triumphant
messages to Carthage. In losing Asdrubal, I have lost
at once all my hope, “all my good fortune. He afterwards
retired to the extremities of the country of the Brutians,

where he assembled all his forces, who found it a very
difficult matter to subsist there, as no provisions were
sent them from Carthage.

Scipio conquers all Spain. Is appointed Consul, and
sails into Africa. Hannibal.is recalled.

The fate of arms was not more propi-
ALM. 3700; tious to the Carthaginians in Spain.
The prudent vivacity of young Scipio had

* According to Polybius, the loss amounted but to 10,000 men, and that
of the Romans to 2000: 1. xi. p. 870, edit. Gronov.
* Horace makes him speak thus, in the beautiful ode where this defeat
is described :
Carthagini j jam non ego nuntios
Mittam superbos. Occidit, occidit
Spes omnis, et fortuna nostri
Nominis, Asdrubale interempto. ib. iv. Od. 4.

-" Polyb. 1. xi. p. 650. & 1. xiv. p.677—687. & 1. xv. p. 689—694.
Liv. I. xxviii, n. 1—4. 16. 38. 40—46.' 1. xxix. n. 24—36. I. XXX. Ns
20—28.

VOR 1. 2.6

386 HISTORY OF THE

restored the Roman affairs in that country to their
former flourishing state, as the courageous slowness of
Fabius had before done in Italy. The three Carthagi-
nian generals in Spain, Asdrubal son of Gisgo, Hanno,
and Mago, having been defeated with their numerous
armies by the Romans in several engagements, Scipio
at last possessed himself of Spain, and subjected it en-
tirely to the Roman power. It was at this time that
Masinissa, a very powerful African prince, went over to
the Romans, and Syphax, on the contrary, to the Car-
thaginians. .

Scipio, at his return to Rome, was
declared consul, being then thirty years
of age. He had P. Licinius Crassus for
his colleague. Sicily was allotted to Scipio, with per-
mission for him to cross into Africa, if he found it con-
venient. He set out with all imaginable expedition for
his province; whilst his colleague was to command in
the country whither Hannibal was retired.

The taking of New Carthage, where Scipio had dis-
played all the prudence, the courage, and capacity, which
could have been expected from the greatest generals, and
the conquest of all Spain, were more than sufficient to
immortalize his name: but he had considered these only
as so many steps by which he was to climb to a nobler
enterprise: this was the conquest of Africa. Accordingly,
he crossed over thither, and made it the seat of the war.

The devastation of the country, the siege of Utica,
one of the strongest cities of Africa; the entire defeat
of the two armies under Syphax and Asdrubal, whose
_ camp was burnt by Scipio; and afterwards the taking
Syphax himself prisoner, who was the most powerful
resource the Carthaginians had left; all these things
forced them at last to turn their thoughts to peace. For
this purpose they deputed thirty of their principal sena-
tors, who were selected from that powerful body at Car-
thage, called the council of the hundred. Being intro-
duced into the Roman general’s tent, they all threw
themselves prostrate on the earth (such was the custom
of their country), spoke to him in terms of great sub-
mission, accusing Hannibal as the author of all their

A. M. 3800.
A. Rom. 544.

CAR FHAGINIANS. 387

calamities, and promising, in the name of the senate, an
implicit obedience to whatever the Romans should please
to ordain. Scipio answered, that though he was come
into Africa not for peace, but conquest, he would however
grant them a peace, upon condition that they should de-
liver up all the prisoners and deserters to the Romans ;
that they should recall their armies out of Italy and.
Gaul; should never set foot again in Spain; should re-
tire out ofall the islands between Italy and Africa; should
deliver up all their ships, twenty excepted, to the victor;
should give to the Romans 500,000 bushels of wheat,
300,000 of barley, and pay 15,000 talents ; and that in
case they were pleased with these conditions, they then,
he said, might send ambassadors to the senate. The
Carthaginians feigned a compliance, but this was only to
gain time, till Hannibal should be returned. A truce
was then granted to the Carthaginians, who immedi-
ately sent deputies to Rome, and at the same time an
express to Hannibal, to-order his return into Africa.
Aorta He was then, as was observed before,
A, Rom. 546. 1m the extremity of Italy. Here he re-
ceived the orders from Carthage, which
he could not listen to without groans, and almost shed-
ding tears; and was exasperated almost to madness, to
see himself thus forced to quit his prey. Never banished
man™* shewed so much regret at leaving his native coun-
try, as Hannibal did in going out of that of an enemy.
He often turned his eyes wishfully to Italy, accusing
gods and men of his misfortunes, and callmg down a
thousand curses, says Livy,” upon himself, for not having
marched his soldiers directly to Rome, after the battle of
Canne, whilst they were still reeking with the blood of ©
its citizens. | :
At Rome, the senate, greatly dissatisfied with the ex-
cuses made by the Carthaginian deputies, in justification
of their republic, and the ridiculous offer which they made

x Rard quenquam alium patriam exilii causé relinquentem magis mestum
abisse ferunt, guam Annibalem hostium terré excedentem. Respexisse sepe
Italia littora, et deos hominesque accusantem, in se quoque ac suum ipsius
caput execratum, Quod non cruentum ab Cannensi victoria militem
Romam duxisset. Zw. 1. xxx. n. 20.

¥ Livy supposes, however, that this delay was a capital error in Hanni-
bal, which he himself afterwards regretted. |

Z2c2

888 sO; HISTORY OF THE

in its name, of adhering to the treaty of Lutatius; thought
proper to refer the decision of the whole to Scipio, who,
being on the spot, could best judge what conditions the
welfare of the state required.

About the same time, Octavius the pretor sailing from
Sicily into Africa with 200 vessels of burden, was attacked
near Carthage by a furious storm, which dispersed all his
fleet. The citizens, not bearing to see so rich a prey
escape them, demanded importunately that the Cartha-
ginian fleet might sail out and seize it. The senate, after
a faint resistance, complied. Asdrubal, sailing out of the
harbour, seized the greatest part of the Roman ships, and
brought them to Carthage, although the truce was still
subsisting.

Scipio sent deputies to the Carthaginian senate, to
complain of this; but they were little regarded. Han-
nibal’s approach had revived their courage, and filled
them with great hopes. The deputies were even in great
danger of being ill treated by the populace. They there-
fore demanded a convoy, which was granted, and accord-
ingly two ships of the republic attended them. But the
magistrates, who were absolutely against peace, and de-
termined to renew the war, gave private orders to Asdru-
bal (who was with the fleet near Utica), to attack the
Roman galley when it should arrive in the river Bragada
near the Roman camp, where the convoy was ordered to
leave them. He obeyed the order, and sent out two
galleys against the ambassadors, who nevertheless made
their escape, but with difficulty and danger.

_ This was a fresh subject for a war between the two na-
tions, who now were more animated, or rather more ex-
asperated, one against the other, than ever: the Ro-
mans, from a desire of taking vengeance for so black a per-
fidy ; and the Carthaginians, from a persuasion that they
were not now to expect a peace.

At the same time, Lelius and Fulvius, who carried
the full powers with which the senate and people of
Rome had invested Scipio, arrived in the camp, accom-
panied by the deputies of Carthage. As the Carthagi-
nians had not only infringed the truce, but violated the
law of nations, in the person of the Roman ambassadors ;

CARTHAGINIANS. 389

it might naturally be expected that they should order the —
Carthaginian deputies to be seized by way of reprisal.
However, Scipio,’ more attentive to what was required by

the Roman generosity, than by the perfidy of the Car-

thaginians, in order not to deviate from the principles

and maxims of his own countrymen, nor his own cha-
racter, dismissed the deputies, without offering them the
least injury. So astonishing an instance of moderation,

and at such a juncture, terrified the Carthaginians, and

even put them to the blush; and made Hannibal him-

self entertain a still higher idea of a general, who, to the

dishonourable practices of hts enemies, opposed only a

rectitude and greatness of soul, that was still more wor-

thy of admiration than all his military virtues.

In the mean time, Hannibal, being strongly 1 impor-
tuned by his fellow-citizens, pieaneed forward into the
country ; and arriving at Zama, which is five days’ march
from Carthage, he there pitched his camp. He thence
sent out spies to observe the position of the Romans.
Scipio, having seized these, so far from punishing them,
only commanded them to be led about the Roman camp,
in order that they might take an exact survey of it, and
then sent them back to Hannibal. The latter knew very
well whence so noble an assurance flowed. After the
strange reverses he had met with, he no longer expected
that fortune would again be propitious. Whilst every
one was exciting him to give battle, himself only medi-
tated a peace. He flattered himself that the conditions
of it would be more honourable, as he was at the head of
an army, and as the fate of.arms might still appear un-
certain. He therefore sent to desire an interview with
Scipio, which accordingly was agreed to, and the time and
place fixed.

z‘Eoxoreiro rap avrp oudoytZopevoc, obvx odrw Ti déov rabsiv. Kapyndo-
viouc, we Ti déov Hv modéat ‘Pwpaiove. Polyb. 1. xv. p. 965. edit. Gronoy.

Quibus Scipio. tsi non induciarum modo fides, sed etiam jus gentium

in legatis violatum esset ; tamen se nihil nec institutis populi Romani nec suis
moribus indignum in is facturum esse. Livy. 1. xxx. n. 20.

390 HISTORY OF THE

The Interview between Hannibal and Scipio in

Africa, followed by a Battle.

We Thesetwo generals,’ who were not only
poe the most illustrious of their own age, but
worthy of being ranked with the most re-
nowned princes and warriors that had ever lived, having
met at the place appointed, continued for some time ina
deep silence, as though they were astonished, and struck
with a mutual admiration at the sight of each other. At
last Hannibal spoke, and after having praised Scipio in
the most artful and delicate manner, he gave a very lively
description of the ravages of the war, and the calamities
in which it had involved both the victors and the van-
quished.. He conjured him not to.suffer himself to be
dazzled by the splendour of his victories. He represented
to him, that how successful soever he might have hitherto
been, he ought however to be aware of the inconstancy
of fortune ; that without going far back for examples, he
himself, who was then speaking to him, was a glaring
proof of this: that Scipio was at that time what Hanni-
bal had been at Thrasymenus and Canne; that he ought
tomake a better use of opportunity than himself had done,
by consenting to a peace, now it was in his power to pro-
pose the conditions of it. He concluded with declaring,
that the Carthaginians would willingly resign Sicily, Sar-
dinia, Spain, and all the islands between Africa and Italy,
to the Romans ; that they must be forced, since ‘such
was the will of the gods, to confine themselves to Africa;
whilst they should see the Romans extending their con-
quests to the most remote regions, and obliging all na-
tions to pay obedience to their laws.

Scipio answered in few words, but not with less dignity.
He reproached the Carthaginians for their perfidy, in
plundering the Roman galleys before the truce was ex-
pired. He imputed to them alone, and to their injustice,
all the calamities with which the two wars had been at-
tended. After thanking Hannibal for the admonition he
had given him, with regard to the uncertainty of human
events, he concluded with desiring him to prepare for bat-

* Polyb. |. xv. p. 694—703. Liv. I]. xxx. n. 29. 35.

CARTHAGINIANS. 391

tle, unless he chose rather to accept of the conditions that
had been already proposed; to which (he observed) some
others would be added, in order to punish the Carthagi-
nians for their having violated the truce.

Hannibal could not prevail with himself to accept these
conditions, and the generals left one another, with the re-
solution to decide the fate of Carthage by a general bat-
tle. Each commander exhorted his troops to fight valiantly.
Hannibal enumerated the victories he had gained over the
Romans, the generals he had slain, the armies he had cut
to pieces. Scipio represented to his soldiers, the con-
quests of both the Spains, his successes in Africa, and the
confession the enemies themselves made of their weak-
ness, by thus coming to sue for peace. All this he spoke
with the tone and air of a conqueror.” Never were mo-
tives more powerful to prompt troops to behave gallantly.
This day was to complete the glory of the oneor the other
of the generals; and to decide whether Rome or Carthage
was to prescribe laws to all other nations.

I shall not undertake to describe the order of the bat-
tle, nor the valour of the forces on both sides. The
reader will naturally suppose, that two such experienced
generals did not forget any circumstance which could
contribute to the victory. ‘The Carthaginians, after a very
obstinate fight, were obliged to fly, leaving 20,000 men
on the field of battle, and the like number of prisoners
were taken by the Romans. Hannibal escaped in the
tumult, and entering Carthage, owned that he was irre-
coverably overthrown, and that the citizens had no other
choice left than to accept of peace on any conditions.
Scipio bestowed great eulogiums on Hannibal, chiefly
with regard to his ability in taking advantages, his man-
ner of drawing up his army, and giving out his orders in -
the engagement; and he affirmed that Hannibal had
this day surpassed himself, although the success had not
answered his valour and conduct.

With regard to himself, he well knew how to make a
proper advantage of the victory, and the consternation
with which he had filled the enemy. He commanded

» Celsus hee corpore, vultuque ita leto, ut vicisse jam crederes, dice-
bat, Ziv. 1. xxx. n. 32,

392 HISTORY OF- THE

one of his lieutenants to march his land army to Carthage,
whilst himself prepared to conduct the fleet thither.

He was not far from the city, when he met a vessel
covered with streamers and olive-branches, bringing ten
of the most considerable persons of the state, as ambas-
sadors to implore hisclemency. However, he dismissed
them without making any answer, and bade them come
to him at Tunis, where he should halt. ‘The deputies of
Carthage, thirty in number, came to him at the place ap-
pointed, and sued for peace in the most submissive terms.
He then called a council there, the majority of which
were for razing Carthage, and treating the inhabitants
with the utmost severity. But the consideration of the
time which must necessarily be employed beforeso strongly
fortified a city could be taken; and Scipio’s fear, lest a
successor might be appointed him whilst he should be
employed in the siege, made him incline to clemency. »

A Peace concluded between the Carthaginians and the
Romans. The end of the second Punic War,

The conditions of the peace dictated by Scipio to the
Carthaginians-were, That the Carthaginians should con-
tinue free, and preserve their laws, their territories, and the
cities they possessed in Africa before the war—That they
should deliver up to the Romans all deserters, slaves, and
prisoners, belonging to them ; all their ships, except ten tri-
remes ; all the elephants which they then had, and that they
should not train up any more for war—That they should
not make war out of Africa, nor even in that country, with-
out first obtaining leave for that purpose from the Roman
people —Should restore to Masinissa every thing of which
they had dispossessed either him or his ancestors—Should
Surnish money and corn to the Roman auxiliaries, till their
ambassadors should be returned from Rome—Should pay
to the Romans 10,000 Euboic talents* of silver in fifty
annual payments: and give 100 hostages, who should be
nominated by Scipio. And in order that they might have

time to send to Rome, he agreed to grant them a truce,

© Polyb. I. xv. 704—707. Liv. 1. xxx. n; 36—44.
“Ten thousand Attic talents make 30,000,000 French money. Ten
thousand Euboic talents make something more’ than 28,033,000 livres ;

CARTHAGINIANS. 393

upon condition that they should restore the ships taken dur-
ing the former, without which they were not to expect either
a truce or peace.

When the deputies were returned to Carthage, they
laid before the senate the conditions dictated by Scipio.
But they appeared so intolerable to Gisgo, that, rising up,
he made a speech, in order to dissuade his citizens from
accepting a peace on such shameful terms. Hannibal,
provoked at the calmness with which such an orator was
heard, took Gisgo by the arm, and dragged him from his
seat. A behaviour so outrageous, and so remote from
the manners of a free city like Carthage, raised a uni-
versal murmur. Hannibal himself was vexed when he
reflected on what he had done, and immediately made an
apology for it. ds J left, says he, your city at nine years
of age, and did not return to it till after thirty-six years’
absence, [ had full leisure to learn the arts of war, and
flatter myself that I have made some improvement in them.
As for your laws and customs, it is no wonder I am igno-
rant of them, and I therefore desire you to instruct me in
them. He then expatiated on the indispensable necessit
they were under of concluding a peace. He added, that
they ought to thank the gods for having prompted the
Romans to grant them a peace even on these conditions.
He pointed out to them the great importance of their
uniting in opinion; and of not giving an opportunity, by
their divisions, for the people to take an affair of this na-
ture under their cognizance. The whole city came over
to his opinion ; and accordingly the peace was accepted.
The senate made Scipio satisfaction with regard to the
ships reclaimed by him ; and, after obtaining a truce for
three months, they sent ambassadors to Rome.

These Carthaginians, who were all venerable for their
years and dignity, were admitted immediately to an

because, according to Budzus, the Euboic talent is equivalent but to
fifty-sixty minz and something more, whereas the Attic talent is worth
sixty minze : or otherwise, thus calculated in English money:

According to Budzeus, the Euboic talentis . . . 56 Minz
56 Mine reduced to English money... . . 17540.
Consequently, 10,000 Euboic talents make . 1,750,000/.
So that the Carthaginians paid annually . . . 35,0001.

This caleulation is as near the truth as it can well be brought; the Eu-
boic talent being something more than 56 minz.

394 - HISTORY OF THE

audience. Asdrubal, surnamed Hoedus, who was still an
irreconcilable enemy to Hannibal and his faction, spoke
first; and after having excused, to the best of his power,
the people of Carthage, by imputing the rupture to the
ambition of some particular persons, he added, that, had
the Carthaginians listened to his counsels and those of
Hanno, they would have been able to grant the Romans
the peace for which they now were obliged tosue. But,*
continued he, wisdom and prosperity are very rarely found
together. The Romans are invincible, because they never
suffer themselves to be Llinded by good fortune. And it
would be surprising should they act otherwise. Success
dazzles those only to whom it is new and unusual; whereas
the Romans are so much accustomed to conquer, that they
are almost insensible to the charms of victory; and it may
be said to their glory, that they have extended their em-
pire, in some measure, more by the humanity they have
shewn to the conquered, than by the conquest itself. The
other ambassadors spoke with a more plaintive tone of
voice, and represented the calamitous state to which Car-
thage was going to be reduced, and the grandeur and
power from which it was fallen.

The senate and people being equally inclined to peace,
sent full power to Scipio to conclude it ; left the condi-
tions to that general, and permitted him to march back
his army, after the treaty should be concluded.

The ambassadors desired leave to enter the city, to re-
deem some of their prisoners, and they found about 200
whom they desired to ransom. But the senate sent them
to Scipio, with orders that they should be restored with-
out any pecuniary consideration, in case a peace should
be concluded.

The Carthaginians, on the return of their ambassadors,
concluded a peace with Scipio, on the terms he himself
had prescribed. ‘They then delivered up to him more

© Rard simul hominibus bonam fortunam bonamque mentem dari
Populum Romanum eo invictum esse quéd in secundis rebus sapere et
consulere meminerit. Et herclé mirandum fuisse si aliter facerent. Ex
insolentia, quibus nova bona fortuna sit, impotentes lztitiz insanire: po-
pulo Romano usitata ac propé obsoleta ex victoria gaudia esse ; ac plus
eye parcendo victis, quam vincendo, imperium auxisse. Liv. 1]. xxx.
n. 42.

CARTHAGINIANS. 395

than 500 ships, all which he burnt in sight of Carthage;
a lamentable spectacle to the inhabitants of that ill-fated
city. He struck off the heads of the allies of the Latin
name, and hanged all the Roman citizens who were sur-
rendered up to him, as deserters. |

When the time for the first payment of the first tri-
bute imposed by the treaty was expired, as the funds of
the government were exhausted by this long and expen-
sive war; the difficulty of levying so great a sum, threw
the senate into deep affliction, and many could not re-
frain even from tears. Hannibal on this occasion is said
to have laughed ; and when he was reproached by As-
drubal Hoedus, for thus insulting his country in the
affliction which he had brought upon it, Were it possible,
says Hannibal, for my heart to be seen, and that as clearly
as my countenance ; you would then find that this laugh-
ter which offends so much, flows not from an intemperate

joy, but from a mind almost distracted with the public
calamities. But is this laughter more unseasonable than
your unbecoming tears? Then, then, ought you to have
wept, when your arms were ingloriously taken from you,
your ships burnt, and you were forbidden to engage in an
foreign wars. This was the mortal blow which laid us
prostrate.— We are sensible of the public calamity, so far
- only as we have a personal concern in it ; and the loss of
our money gives us the most pungent sorrow. Hence it
was, that when our city was made the spoil of the victor ;
when it was left disarmed and defenceless amidst so many
powerful nations of Africa, who had at that time taken the
field, not a groan, not a sigh, was heard. But now, when
you are called on to contribute individually to the tax im-
posed upon the state, you bewail and lament as if all were
lost. Alas! I only wish that the subject of this days
grief may not soon appear to you the least of your mis-
fortunes.

Scipio, after all things were concluded, embarked in
order to return to Italy. He arrived at Rome, through
crowds of people, whom curiosity had drawn together to
behold his march. The most magnificent triumph that
Rome had ever seen was decreed him, and the surname

of Africanus was bestowed upon this great man; an ho-

396 HISTORY OF THE

nour till then unknown, no person before him having: as-
A. M.3so4, Sumed the name of a vanquished nation.
A. Carth. 646. Such was the conclusion of the second

A. Rom. 548. Punic war, after having lasted seventeen
Ant, ye; C. 200.
years.

A short Reflection on the Government of Carthage in the
Time of the second Punic /Var.

I shall conclude the particulars which relate to the
second Punic war, with a reflection of Polybius,’ which
will shew the difference between the two common-
wealths of Rome and Carthage. It may be affirmed,
in some measure, that at the beginning of the second
Punic war, and in Hannibal's time, Carthage was in
its decline. The flower of its youth, and its sprightly
vigour, were already diminished. It had begun to fall
from its exalted pitch of power, and was inclining towards
its ruin; whereas Rome was then, as it were, in its bloom
and prime of life, and swiftly advancing to the conquest
of the universe. :

The reason of the declension of the one, and the rise
of the other, is deduced, by Polybius, from the different
form of government established in these commonwealths,
at the time we are now speaking of. At Carthage, the
-common people had seized upon the sovereign authority
with regard to public affairs, and the advice of their an-
cient men or magistrates was no longer listened to; all
affairs were transacted by intrigue and cabal. ‘To take
no notice of the artifices which the faction adverse to
Hannibal employed, during the whole time of his com-
mand, to perplex him; the single instance of burning
the Roman vessels during a truce, a perfidious action to
which the common people compelled the senate to lend
their name and assistance, is a proof of Polybius’s as-
sertion. On the contrary, at this very time, the Romans
paid the highest regard to their senate, that is, to a body
composed of the greatest sages; and their old men were
listened to and revered as oracles. It is well known
that the Roman people were exceedingly jealous of their
authority, and especially in whatever related to the

_ f Lib. vi. p. 493, 494,

TCARTHAGINIANS. — 397

election of magistrates. A century of young men,’ who
by lot were to give the first vote, which generally direct-
ed all the rest, had nominated two consuls. On the
bare remonstrance of Fabius," who represented to the
people, that in a tempest, like that with which Rome
was then struggling, the ablest pilots ought to be chosen
to steer the vessel of the state; the century returned to
their suffrages, and nominated other consuls. . Polybius
infers, that a people, thus guided by the prudence of old
men, could not fail of prevailing over a state which was
governed wholly by the giddy multitude. And indeed,
the Romans, under the guidance of the wise counsels’of
their senate, gained at last the superiority with regard to
the war considered in general, though they were defeated
in several particular engagements ; and established their
power and grandeur on the ruin of their rivals.

The Interval between the second and third Punic Wars.

This interval, though considerable enough with regard
to its duration, since it took up above fifty years, is very
little remarkable as to the events which relate to Car-
thage.. They may be reduced to two heads; of which
the one relates to the person of Hannibal, and the other
to some particular differences between the Carthaginians
and Masinissa king of the Numidians. We shall treat
both separately, but at no great length. et

Sect. I. Continuation of the History of Houutal

When the second Punic war was ended, by the treaty
of peace concluded with Scipio, Hannibal, as he himself
observed in the Carthaginian senate, was forty-five years
of age. What we have farther to say of this great man,
includes the space of twenty-five years.

Hannibal undertakes and completes the Reformation of
the Courts of Justice, and the Treasury of Carthage.

After the conclusion of the peace, Hannibal, at least

& Liv. |. xxiv. n. 8, 9.

» Quilibet nautarum rectorumque tranquillo mari gubernare potest :
Ubi szeva orta tempestas est, ac turbato mari rapitur vento navis, tum vi-
roet gubernatore opus est. Non tranquillo navigamus, sed jam aliquot
procellis submersi pené sumus. Itaque quis ad gubernacula sedeat, sum-
ma cur’ providendum ac preecavendum nobis est.

398 HISTORY OF THE

at first, was greatly respected in Carthage, where he filled
the first employments of the state with honour and ap-
plause. He headed the Carthaginian forces in some
wars against the Africans :* but the Romans, towhom the
very name of Hannibal gave uneasiness, not being able
to see him in arms without displeasure, made complaints
on that account, and accordingly he was recalled to
~ Carthage.

On his return he was appointed pretor, which seems
to have been a very considerable employment, and to
have conferred great authority. Carthage is therefore
going to be, with regard to him, a new.theatre, as it
were, on which he will display virtues and qualities of
a quite different nature from those we have hitherto
admired in him, and which will finish the picture of this
illustrious man.

Eagerly desirous of restoring the affairs of his afflicted
country to their former happy condition, he was per-
suaded, that the two most powerful methods to make a
state flourish, were, an exact and equal distribution of
justice to all its subjects in general, and a scrupulous
fidelity in the management of the public finances. The
former, by preserving an equality among the citizens, and
making them enjoy such a delightful, undisturbed liberty,
under the protection of the laws, as fully secures their
honour, their lives, and properties ; unites the indivi-
duals of the commonwealth more closely together, and
attaches them more firmly to the state, to which they
owe the preservation of all that is most dear and valuable
tothem. ‘The latter, by a faithful administration of the
public revenues, supplies punctually the several wants
and necessities of the state; keeps in reserve a never-
failing resource for sudden emergencies, and prevents
the people from being burdened with new taxes, which
are rendered necessary by extravagant profusion, and
which chiefly contribute to make men harbour an aver-
sion for the government.

Hannibal saw, with great concern, the irregularities
which had crept equally into the administration of justice,
and the management of the finances. Upon his being

i Corn. Nep. in Annib. c. 7.

CARTHAGINIANS. 7 399

nominated pretor, as his love for regularity and order
made him uneasy at every deviation from it, and prompt-
ed him to use his utmost endeavours to restore it; he had
the courage to attempt the reformation of this double
abuse, which drew after it a numberless multitude of
others, without dreading either the animosity of the old
faction that opposed him, or the new enmity which his
zeal for the republic must necessarily draw upon him.
The judges exercised the most flagrant extortion with
impunity.* They were so many petty tyrants, who dis-
posed, in an arbitrary manner, of the lives and fortunes
of the citizens; without there being the least possibility
of putting a stop to their injustice, because they held their
commissions for life, and mutually supported one another.
Hannibal, as preetor, summoned before his tribunal an
officer belonging to the bench of judges, who openly
abused his power. Livy tells us that he was a questor.
This officer, who was of the opposite faction to Hannibal,
and had already assumed all the haughtiness and pride of
the judges, among whom he was to be admitted at the
expiration of his present office, insolently refused to obey
thesummons. Hannibal was not of a disposition to suffer
an affront of this nature tamely. Accordingly, he caused
him to be seized by a lictor, and brought him before an
assembly of the people. There, not satisfied with direct-
ing his resenting against this single officer, he impeached
the whole bench of judges; whose insupportable and ty-
rannical pride was not restrained, either by the fear of the
laws, or a reverence for the magistrates. And, as Han-
nibal perceived that he was heard with pleasure, and that
the lowest and most inconsiderable of the people disco-
vered, on this occasion, that they were no longer able to
bear the insolent pride of these judges, who seemed to
have a design upon their liberties; he proposed a law
(which accordingly passed), by which it was enacted, that
new judges should be chosen annually; with a clause, that
none should continue in office beyond that term. The
-law, at the same time that it acquired him the friendship
and esteem of the people, drew upon him, proportion-

k Liv. Il, xxxili. n. 46.

A0O HISTORY OF THE

ably, the hatred of the greatest part of the grandees and
nobility.

He attempted another reformation, ' which created him
new enemies, but gained him great honour. The pub-
lic revenues were either squandered away by the negli-
gence of those who had the management of them, or
were plundered by the chief men of the city, and the
magistrates ; so that money being wanting to pay the
annual tribute due to the Romans, the Carthaginians
were going to levy it upon the people in general. Han-
nibal, entering into a long detail of the public revenues,
ordered an exact estimate to be laid before him; inquired
in what manner they had been applied; the employments
and ordinary expenses of the state; and having disco-
vered, by this inquiry, that the public funds had been in a
great measure embezzled, by the fraud of the officers who
had the management of them; he declared, and promised,
in a full assembly of the people, that without laying any
new taxes upon private men, the republic should here-
after be enabled to pay the tribute to the Romans; and
he was as good as his word. ‘The farmers of the revenues,
whose plunder and rapine he had publicly detected, hav-
ing accustomed themselves hitherto to fatten upon the
spoils. of their country, exclaimed vehemently against
these regulations,” as if their own property had been
forced out of their hands, and not the sums they had
plundered from the public.

The Retreat and Death of Hannibal.

This double reformation of abuses raised great cla-
mours against Hannibal. His enemies were writing: in-
cessantly to the chief men, or their friends, at Rome, to
inform them, that he was carrying on a secret intelligence
with Antiochus, king of Syria; that he frequently re-
ceived couriers from him ; and that this prince had pri-
vately despatched agents to Hannibal, to concert with
him the measures for carrying on the war he was medi-
tating: that as some animals are so extremely fierce, that

-! Liv. 1. xxiii. n. 46, 47.
™ Tum verd isti, quos paverat per aliquot annos publicus peculatas,
velut bonis ereptis, non furto eorum manibus extorto, infensi et irati,
Romanosin Annibalem, et ipsos causam odii querentes, instigabant. Liv.
” Liv. |. xxiii, n. 45-—49,

CARTHAGINIANS. AOL

it is impossible ever to tame them ; in like manner this
man was of so turbulent and implacable a spirit, that he
could not brook ease, and therefore would, sooner or
later, break out again. These informations were listened
to at Rome: and as the transactions of the preceding
war had been begun and carried on almost solely by
Hannibal, they appeared the more probable. However,
- Scipio strongly opposed the violent measures which the
senate were going to take on their receiving this intelli-
gence, by representing it as derogatory to the dignity of
the Roman people, to countenance the hatred and accu-
sations of Hannibal’s enemies; to support, with their
authority, their unjust passions; and obstinately to per-
secute him even in the very heart of his country; as
though the Romans had not humbled him sufficiently,
in driving him out of the field, and forcing him to lay
down his arms.

But notwithstanding these prudent remonstrances, the
senate appointed three commissioners to go and make
their complaints to Carthage, and to demand that Han-
nibal should be delivered up to them. On their arrival
in that city, though other motives were speciously pre-
tended, yet Hannibal was perfectly sensible that himself
only was aimed at. The evening being come, he con-
veyed himself on board a ship, which he had secretly pro-
vided for that purpose: on which occasion he bewailed
his country’s fate more than his own. Sapius patrie
quam suorum® eventus miseratus. ‘This was the eighth
year after the conclusion of the peace. ‘The first place
he landed at was Tyre, where he was received as in his
second country, and had all the honours paid him which

sh feats ae ere due to his exalted merit. After stay-

A. Rom. 586, 19g some days here, he set out for An-

tioch, which the king had lately left, and

from thence waited upon him at Ephesus.- The arrival
of so renowned a general gave great pleasure to the king;
and did not a little contribute to determine him to engage
in war against Rome ; for hitherto he had appeared wa-
vering and uncertain on that head. In this city a phi-
losopher,’ who was looked upon as the greatest orator of

° Itis probable that we should read suos. P Cic. de Orat. |. ii, n. 75, 76,
VOL. I. 2D

402 HISTORY. OF THE

Asia, had the imprudence to make a long harangue be-
fore Hannibal, on the duties of a general, and the rules
of the art-military.. The speech charmed the whole au-
dience. But Hannibal being asked his opinion of it, J
have seen, says he, many old dotards in my life, but this
exceeds them all.s

‘The Carthaginians, justly fearing that Hannibal's es-
cape would certainly draw upon them the arms of the
Romans, sent them advice that Hannibal was withdrawn
to Antiochus." The Romans were very much disturbed
at this news; and the king might have turned it ex-
tremely to his advantage, had he known how to make a
proper use of it.

The first advice that Hannibal gave him at this time,’
and which he frequently repeated afterwards, was, to
make Italy the seat of the war. He required 100 ships,
eleven or 12,000 land forces, and offered to take upon
himself the command of the fleet; to cross into Afri-
ca, in order to engage the Carthaginians in the war,
and afterwards to make a descent upon Italy; during
which the king himself should. remain in Greece with
his army, holding himself constantly in readiness to cross
over into Italy, whenever it should be thought conveni-
ent. This was the only thing proper to be done, and
the king very much approved the proposal at first.

Hannibal thought it would be expedient to prepare his
friends at Carthage,‘ in order to engage them the more
strongly in his views. ‘The transmitting of information
by letters, is not only unsafe, but they can give only an
imperfect idea of things, and are never sufficiently par-
ticular. He therefore despatched a trusty person with

4 Mie Penus liberé respondisse fertur, multos se deliros senes sepe vidisse:

Sed qui magis quam Phormio deliraret vidisse neminem. Stobeus, Serm.
lii. gives the following account of this matter: ’AvviBac dxotcac Trwikod
Tivocg émiysipodvrog, bre 6 soddc pdvoe orparnyde toriv, éyédace, vopiZwy
advvaroy eivat ixric ric Ov Epywy éurrerpiac THY ty TovTowe ETLoTHUNY ExELy. 1. Ce.
Hannibal hearing a Stoic philosopher undertake to prove that the wise
man was the only general, laughed, as thinking it impossible for a man to
have any skill in war without having long practised it.
__* They did more, for they sent two ships to pursue Hannibal, and bring
him back ; they sold off his goods, razed his house; and, by a public de-
cree, declared him an exile. Such was the gratitude the Carthaginians
shewed to the greatest general they ever had. Corn. Nep. in vité Hannib.
C. 7. * Liv. |. xxxiv. n. 60. 'Ib.n. 61.

CARTHAGINIANS. 403

ample instructions to Carthage. This man was scarce
arrived in the city, but his business was suspected. Ac-
cordingly, he was watched and followed: and, at last,
orders were issued for his being seized. However, he
prevented the vigilance of his enemies, and escaped in the
night; after having fixed, in several public places, papers,
which fully declared the occasion of his journey. The
senate immediately sent advice of this to the Romans.
pete Villius," one of the deputies who had
A. Rom. 657. been sent into Asia, to inquire into the
state of affairs there, and, if possible, to
discover the real designs of Antiochus, found Hannibal in
Ephesus. He had many conferences with him, paid him
several visits, and speciously affected to shew a particular
esteem for him on all occasions. But his chief aim, by all
this designing behaviour, was to make him be suspected,
and to lessen his credit with the king, in which he suc-
ceeded but too well.*

Some authors affirm, that Scipio was joined in this.
embassy ; and they even relate the conversation which
that general had with Hannibal. They tell us, that the
Roman having asked him, who, in his opinion, was the
greatest captain that had ever lived; he answered, Alex-
ander the Great, because, with a handful of Macedoni-
ans, he had defeated numberless armies, and carried his
conquests into countries so very remote, that it seemed
scarce possible for any man only to travel so far. Being
afterwards asked, to whom he gave the second rank; he
answered, To Pyrrhus, because this king was the first who
understood the art of pitching a camp to advantage ; no
commander ever made a more judicious choice of his
posts, was better skilled in drawing up his forces, or was
more dexterous in winning the affections of foreign sol-
diers ; insomuch, that even the people of Italy were more

e ty, ]. xxxv. n. 14. Polyb. I. iii. p. 166, 167.

* Polybius represents this application of Villius to Hannibal, as a pre-
meditated design, in order to render him suspected to Antiochus, be-
cause of his intimacy with a Roman. Livy owns, that the affair suc-
ceeded as if it had been designed; but, at the same time, he gives, fora
very obvious reason, another turn to this conversation, and says, that no
more was intended by it, than to sound Hannibal, and to remove any fears
or apprehensions he might be under from the Romans.

Y Liv. xxxy.n.14. Plutarch in vité Flamin.

2D2

404 HISTORY OF THE

desirous to have him for their governor, though a fo-
reigner, than the Romans themselves, who had so long
been settled in their country. Scipio proceeding, asked
him next, whom he looked upon as the third: on which
Hannibal made no scruple to assign that rank to himself.
Here Scipio could not forbear laughing : But what would
you have said, continued Scipio, had you conquered me ?
—J would, replied Hannibal, have ranked myself above
Alexander, Pyrrhus, and all the generals the world ever
produced. Scipio was not insensible of so refined and
delicate a flattery, which he no ways expected: and which,
by giving him no rival, seemed to insinuate, that no cap-
tain was worthy of being put in comparison with him.
The answer, as told by Plutarch,’ is less witty, and not
so probable. In this author, Hannibal gives Pyrrhus the
first place, Scipio the second, and himself the third.
Hannibal, sensible of the coldness with which Antio-
chus received him, ever since his conferences with Vil-
lius or Scipio, took no notice of it for some time, and
seemed insensible of it. But at last he thought it ad-
visable to come to an explanation with the king, and to
open his mind freely to him. The hatred, says he, which
I bear to the Romans, is known to the whole world. J
Lound myself to it by an oath, from my most tender in-
fancy. It is this hatred that made me draw the sword
against Rome during thirty-six years. It is that, which,
even in times of peace, has caused me to be driven from
my native country, and forced me to seek an asylum in
your dominions. or ever guided and fired by the same
passion, should my hopes be frustrated here, I will fly to
every part of the globe, and rouse up all nations against
the Romans. I hate them, and will hate them eternally ;
and know that they bear me no less animosity. So long
as you shall continue in the resolution to take up arms
against them, you may rank Hannibal in the number of
your best friends. But if other counsels incline you to
peace, I declare to you, once for all, address yourself to
others for advice, and not to me. Such a speech, which
came from his heart, and expressed the greatest sin-
cerity, struck the king, and seemed to remove all his sus-

* Plut.in Pyrrho. p. 687. @ Liv. lib. xxxy. n. 19.

CARTHAGINIANS. 405

picions ; so that he now resolved to give Hannibal the
command of part of his fleet.

But what havoc is not flattery capable of making in
courts and in the minds of princes!” Antiochus was
told, that it was imprudent in him to put so much confi-
dence in Hannibal, an exile, a Carthaginian, whose for-
tune or genius might suggest to him, in one day, a thou-
sand different projects: that besides, this very fame which
Hannibal had acquired in war, and which he considered
as his peculiar inheritance, was too great for a man who

Sought only under the ensigns of another ; that none but
the king ought to be the general and conductor of the war ;
and that it was incumbent on him to draw upon himself
alone the eyes and attention of all men; whereas, should
Hannibal be employed, he (a foreigner) would have the
glory of all the successes ascribed to him.—.No minds,
says Livy,° on this occasion, are more susceptible of envy,
than those whose merit is below their birth and dignity ;
such persons always abhorring virtue and worth in others,

Jor this reason alone, because they are strange and foreign
to themselves. ‘This observation was fully verified on
this occasion. Antiochus had been taken on his weak
side; a low and sordid jealousy, which is the defect and
characteristic of little minds, extinguished every generous
sentiment in that monarch. Hannibal was now slighted
and laid aside: however, he was greatly revenged on
Antiochus, by the ill success this prince met with; and
shewed how unfortunate that king is whose soul is ac-
cessible to envy, and his ears open to the poisonous in-
sinuation of flatterers.

Ina council held some time after,’ to which Hannibal,
for form’s sake, was admitted, he, when it came to his
turn to speak, endeavoured chiefly to prove, that Philip
of Macedon ought, on any terms, to be engaged to form
an alliance with Antiochus, which was not so difficult as
might be imagined. With regard, says Hannibal, to
the operations of the war, I adhere immoveally to my first
opinion; and had my counsels been listened to before,

b Liv. }. xxxv. n. 42, 43.
¢ Nulla ingenia tam prona ad invidiam sunt, quam eorum qui genus ac
fortunam suam animis non equant: Quia virtutem et bonum alienum
oderunt. d Liv. ]. xxxvi. 0.7.

‘406 HISTORY OF THE

Tuscany and Liguria would now be all in a flame; and
Hannibal (a name that strikes terror into the Romans)
in Italy. Though 1 should not be very well skilled as to
other matters, yet the good and ill success I have met
with must necessarily have taught me sufficiently how to
carry ona war against the Romans. I have nothing now
inmy power, but to give you my counsel, and offer you my
service. May the gods give success to all your undertak-
ings! Hannibal’s speech was received with applause,
but not one of his counsels was put in execution.

Antiochus, imposed upon and lulled asleep by his
flatterers, remained quiet at Ephesus, after the Romans
had driven him out of Greece ;° not once imagining that
they would ever invade his dominions. Hannibal, who
was now restored to favour, was for ever assuring him,
that the war would soon be removed into Asia, and that
he would soon see the enemy at his gates: that he must
resolve, either to abdicate his throne, or oppose vigor-
ously a people who grasped at the empire of the world.
This discourse awakened, in some little measure, the
king out of his lethargy, and prompted him to make
some weak efforts. But, as his conduct was unsteady,
after sustaining a great many considerable losses, he was
forced to terminate the war by an ignominious peace ;
one of the articles of which was, that he should deliver
up Hannibal to the Romans. However, the latter did
not give him opportunity to put it in execution, but re-
tired to the island of Crete, to consider there what course
it would be best for him to take.

The riches he had brought along with him, of which
the people of the island got some notice, had like to
_ have proved his ruin." Hannibal was never wanting in
stratagems, and he had occasion to employ them now,
to save both himself and his treasure. He filled several
vessels with molten lead, the topsof which he just covered
over with gold and silver. These he deposited in the
temple of Diana, in presence of several Cretans, to whose
honesty, he said, he confided all his treasure. A strong
guard was then posted round the temple, and Hannibal

; e Liv. I. xxxvi. n. 41.
‘ Cornel. Nep. in Annib.c.9, 10. Justin. 1. xxxii. c. 4.

CARTHAGINIANS. AO7

left at full liberty, from a supposition that his riches were
secured. But he had concealed them in hollow statues
of brass,’ which he always carried along
ae Pater with him. And then, embracing a fa-
vourable opportunity to make his escape,

he fled to the court of Prusias king of Bithynia."

It appears from history that he made some stay in the
court of this prince, who soon engaged in war with Eu-
menes king of Pergamus, a professed friend to the Ro-
mans. By means of Hannibal, the troops of Prusias
gained several victories both by land and sea.

He employed a stratagem of an extraordinary kind
in a sea-fight.' As the enemy’s fleet consisted of more
ships than his, he had recourse to artifice. He put into
earthen vessels all kinds of serpents, and ordered these
vessels to be thrown into the enemy’s ships. His chief
aim was to destroy Eumenes; and for that purpose it
was necessary for him to find out which ship he was on
board of. ‘This Hannibal discovered by sending out a
boat, upon pretence of conveying a letter tohim. Hav-
ing gained his point thus far, he ordered the command-
ers of the respective vessels to direct their attack princi-
pally against Eumenes’s ship. ‘They obeyed, and would
have taken it, had he not outsailed his pursuers. The
rest of the ships of Pergamus sustained the fight with
great vigour, till the earthen vessels had been thrown
intothem. At first they only laughed at this, and were
very much surprised to find such weapons employed
against them. But when they saw themselves sur-
rounded with the serpents, which darted out of these
vessels when they flew to pieces, they were seized with
dread, retired in disorder, and yielded the victory to the
enemy. :

ree Services of so important a nature
A. Rom. 566, Seemed to secure for ever to Hannibal
an undisturbed asylum at that prince’s
court.* However, the Romans would not suffer him to
¢ These statues were thrown out by him, ina place of public resort, as
things of little value. Corn. Nep.
h Cornel. Nep. in Annib. c, 10,11. Justin. |]. xxxii. c. 4.

' Justin. |. xxxii. c. 4. Corn. Nep. in. vit. Annib.
SLiK Wek RIK Del,

408 HISTORY OF THE

be easy there, but deputed Q. Flaminius to Prusias, to
complain of the protection he gave Hannibal. The lat-
ter easily guessed the motive of this embassy, and there-
fore did not wait till his enemies had an opportunity of
delivering him up. At first he attempted to secure
himself by flight; but perceiving that the seven secret
outlets, which he had contrived in his palace, were all
seized by the soldiers of Prusias, who, by perfidiously
betraying his guest, was desirous of making his court to
the Romans; he ordered the poison, which he had long
kept for this melancholy occasion, to be brought him ;
and taking it in his hand, Le¢ us, says he, free the Ro-
mans from the disquiet with which they have so long Leen
tortured, since they have not patience to wait for an old
man’s death. The victory which Flaminius gains over
a man disarmed and betrayed, will not do him much ho-
nour. This single day will Le a lasting testimony of the
great degeneracy of the Romans. Their fathers sent
notice to Pyrrhus, to desire he would Leware of a traitor
who intended to poison him, and that at a time when this
prince was at war with them in the very centre of Italy ;
but their sons have deputed a person of consular dignity
to spirit up Prusias, impiously to murder one who is not
only his friend, but his guest. After calling down curses
upon Prusias, and having invoked the gods, the pro-
tectors and avengers of the sacred rights of hospitality,
he swallowed the poison,’ and died at seventy years of age.

This year was remarkable for the death of three great
men, Hannibal, Philopcemen, and Scipio, who had this
in common, that they all died out of their native coun-
tries, by a death little correspondent to the glory of their
actions. ‘The two first died by poison: Hannibal being
betrayed by his host ; and Philopoemen being taken pri-
soner in a battle against the Messenians, and thrown
into a dungeon, was forced to swallow poison. As to
Scipio, he banished himself, to avoid an unjust prosecu-

' Plutarch, according to his custom, assigns him three different deaths.
Some, says he, relate, that having wrapped his cloak about his neck, he
ordered his servant to fix his knees against his buttocks, and not to leave
twisting till he had strangled him. Others say, that, in imitation of The-
mistocles and Midas, he drank bull’s blood. Livy tells us, that Hannibal
drank a poison which he always carried about him; and*taking the cup
into his hands, cried, Let us free, &c. In vité Flaminini.

CARTHAGINIANS. 409

tion which was carrying on against him at Rome, and
ended his days in a kind of obscurity.

The Character and Eulogium of Hannital.

This would be the proper place for representing the
excellent qualities of Hannibal, who reflected so much
glory on Carthage. But as I have attempted to draw his
character elsewhere,” and to give a just idea of him, by
making a comparison between him and Scipio, | think
myself dispensed from giving his eulogium at large in this
place.

Persons who devote themselves to the profession of
arms, cannot spend too much time in the study of this
great man, who is looked upon, by the best judges, as
the most complete general, in almost every respect, that
ever the world produced. | :

During the whole seventeen years that the war lasted,
two errors only are objected to him: First, his not
marching, immediately after the battle of Canna, his vic-
torious army to Rome, in order to besiege that city:
Secondly, his suffering their courage to be softened and
enervated, during their winter-quarters in Capua: errors,
which only shew that great men are not so in all things;
summi enim sunt, homines tamen ;° and which, perhaps,
may be partly excused.

But then, for these two errors, what a multitude of
shining qualities appears in Hannibal! How extensive
were his views and designs, even in his most tender years !
What greatness of soul ! What intrepidity ! What pre-
sence of mind must he have possessed, to be able, even
in the fire and heat of action, to turn every thing to ad-_
vantage! With what surprising address must he have
managed the minds of men, that, amidst so great a va-
riety of nations which composed his army, who often
were in want both of money and provisions, his camp
was not once disturbed with any insurrection, either
against himself or any of his generals ! With what equity,
what moderation, must he have behaved towards his new.
allies, to have prevailed so far as to attach them invio-
Jably to his service, though he was reduced to the neces-

™ Vol. ii. Of the Method of Studying and Teaching the Belles
Lettres. » Quintil. ;

410 HISTORY OF THE

sity of making them sustain almost the whole burden of
the war, by quartering his army upon them, and levying
contributions in their several countries! In short, how
fruitful must he have been in expedients, to be able to
carry on, for so many years, a war in a remote country,
in spite of the violent opposition made by a powerful
faction at home, which refused him supplies of every kind,
and thwarted him on all occasions! It may be affirmed,
that Hannibal, during the whole series of this war, seemed
the only prop of the state, and the soul of every part of
the empire of the Carthaginians, who could never believe
themselves conquered, till Hannibal confessed that he
himself was so.

But our acquaintance with Hannibal will be very im-
perfect, if we consider him only at the head of armies.
The particulars we learn from history, concerning the
secret intelligence he held with Philip of Macedon; the
wise ccunsels he gave to Antiochus, king of Syria; the
double reformation he introduced in Carthage, with re-
gard to the management of the public revenues and the
administration of justice, prove, that he was a great states-
man in every respect. So superior and universal was his
genius, that it took in all parts of government; and so
great were his natural abilities, that he was capable of ac-
quitting himself in all the various functions of it with
glory. Hannibal shone as conspicuously in the cabinet
as in the field; equally able to fill the civil as the mili-
tary employments. In a word, he united in his own per-
son the different talents and merits of all professions, the
sword, the gown, and the finances.

_ He had some learning ; and though he was so much
employed in military labours, and engaged in so many
wars, he, however, found some leisure to devote to lite-
rature.” Several smart repartees of Hannibal, which have
been transmitted to us, shew that he had a great fund of
natural wit; and this he improved by the most polite
education that could be bestowed at that time, and in
such a republic as Carthage. He spoke Greek tolerably
well, and even wrote some books in that language. His
preceptor was a Lacedzemonian, named Sosilus, who, with

sg Atque hic tantus vir, tantisque bellis districtus, nonnihil temporis tri-
buit litteris, &c. Corn. Nep. in vité Annib. cap. 13.

CARTHAGINIANS. All

Philenius, another Lacedeemonian, accompanied him in
all his expeditions. Both these undertook to write the
history of this renowned warrior.

With regard to his religion and moral conduct, he was
not altogether so profligate and wicked as he is repre-
sented by Livy:° ‘‘ cruel even to inhumanity, more per-
fidious than a Carthaginian; regardless of truth, of pro-
bity, of the sacred ties of oaths; fearless of the gods, and
utterly void of religion.” nhumana crudelitas, perfidia
plusquam Punica; nihil veri, nihil sancti, nullus detim
metus, nullum jusjurandum, nulla religio. According to
Polybius,’ he rejected a barbarous proposal that was made
him before he entered Italy, which was to eat human
flesh, at a time when his army was in absolute want of
provisions. Some years after,’ so far from treating with
barbarity, as he was advised to do, the dead body of Sem-
pronius Gracchus, which Mago had sent him; he caused
his funeral obsequies to be solemnized in presence of the
whole army. We have seen him, on many occasions,
evince the highest reverence for the gods; and Justin,"
who copied Trogus Pompeius, an author worthy of credit,
observes, that he always shewed uncommon moderation -
and continence with regard to the great number of wo-
men taken by him during the course of so long a war ;
insomuch that no one would have imagined he had been
born in Africa, where incontinence is the predominant
vice of the country. Pudicitiamque eum tantam inter tot
captivas habuisse, ut in Africd natum quivis negaret.

His disregard of wealth, at a time when he had so man
opportunities to enrich himself by the plunder of the
cities he stormed and the nations he subdued, shews that
he knew the true and. genuine use which a general ought
to make of riches, vz. to gain the affection of his soldiers,
and to attach his allies to his interest, by diffusing his
beneficence on proper occasions, and not being sparing
in his rewards: a quality very essential, and at the same
time as uncommon in a commander. ‘The only use
Hannibal made of money was to purchase success ; firmly
persuaded, that a man whois at the head of affairs is suffi-
ciently recompensed by the glory derived from victory.

© Lab. Xi, 4, P Excerpt. é Polyb. p. 33.
4 Excerpt. 6 Diod, p. 282. ‘Livy. 1, xxy.n. 17. | r Lib. xxxii. c. 4.

412 - HISTORY, &e.

He always led a very regular, austere life ;* and even
in times of peace, and in the midst of Carthage, when he
was invested with the first dignity of the city, we are told
that he never used to recline himself on a bed at meals,
as was the custom in those ages, and that he drank but
very little wine. So regular and uniform a life may serve
as an illustrious example to our commanders, who often
include, among the privileges of war and the duty of
officers, the keeping of splendid tables, and living luxu-
riously.

I do not, however, pretend altogether to exculpate
Hannibal from all the errors with which he is charged.
Though he possessed an assemblage of the most exalted
qualities, it cannot be denied but that he had some little
tincture of the vices of his country ; and that it would be
difficult to excuse some actions and circumstances of his
life. Polybius observes,‘ that Hannibal was accused of
avarice in Carthage, and of cruelty in Rome. He adds,
on the same occasion, that people were very much divided
iN opinion concerning him; and it would be no wonder,
as he had made himself so many enemies in both cities,
that they should have drawn him in disadvantageous co-
lours. But Polybius is of opinion, that though it should
be taken for granted, that all the defects with which he
is charged are true; yet that they were not so much
owing to his nature and disposition, as to the difficulties
with which he was surrounded, in the course of so long
and laborious a war; and to the complacency he was
obliged to shew ‘vo the general officers, whose assistance
he absolutely wanted, for the execution of his various en-
terprises; and whom he was not always able torestrain, any
more than he could the soldiers who fought under them.

* Cibi potionisque, desiderio naturali, non voluptate, modus finitus.
Lw. 1. xxi. n. 4.

Constat Annibalem, nec tum cim Romano tonantem bello Italia
contremuit, nec cim reversus Carthaginem summum imperium tenuit,
aut cubantem coen4sse, aut plus quam sextario vini indulsisse. Justin.
l. xxxii.c. 4. ' Excerpt. é Polyb. p. 34. 37.

END OF VOL. I. ; om
‘ye - 371

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