the Greeks call them; and, thus provided, they roamed about Italy. Numa, they tell us, having mixed the fountain of which they used to drink with wine and honey 65, surprised and caught them. Upon this, they turned themselves into many forms, and quitting their natural figure assumed strange and horrible appearances. But, when they found they could not break or escape from the bond that held them, they acquainted him with many secrets of futurity, and taught him a lustration for thunder and lightning, composed of onions, hair, and pilchards, which is used to this day. Others say, these demi-gods did not communicate the lustration, but that by the force of magic they brought down Jupiter from heaven. The god, resenting this at Numa's hands, ordered "the charm to consist of heads"" Of onions," replied Numa. "Human" "Hairs," said Numa, desirous to fence against the dreadful injunction, and interrupting the god. Living," said Jupiter" Pilchards," said Numa. He was instructed (it seems) by Egeria, how to manage the matter. Jupiter went away propitious, in

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were originally from mount Ida in Phrygia, whence they passed into Europe with king Minos. They settled first in Samothrace, where they taught the inhabitants religious rites. Orpheus is thought to have been their disciple, and the first that carried over a form of worship into Greece. The Dactyli are likewise said to have found out the use of fire, and to have explained the nature of iron and brass to the inhabitants of the country near mount Berecynthus, and the way of working them. For this, and many other useful discoveries, they were worshipped after their death as gods. (L.)

Their name they had from SaxTuλos, a finger,' being ten in number. This name was used as a charm against terrors: and some stones, called after them 'Idæi Dactyli,' were worn as amulets,*

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Ovid says, wine only-and at the same time he also sacrificed a sheep. (Fast. iii. 300.) But can this be true of the Py thagorean Numa?*

Greek ileos, whence the place was called Ilicium and so the charm was effected. These things, fabulous and ridiculous as they are, demonstrate how superstition confirmed by custom operated upon the minds of the people. As for Numa himself, he placed his confidence so entirely in the Deity, that when one brought him word the enemy was coming, he only smiled, saying; " And I am sacrificing.'

He is recorded to have been the first that built temples to Fides" or Faith, and to Terminus 68: he likewise taught the Romans to swear by Faith, as the

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66 This is Plutarch's mistake. Ovid informs us (Fast. iii. 328.) that Jupiter was called Elicius from elicere, to draw out,' because he was drawn out of heaven upon this occasion. (L.) But Plutarch owns himself only slightly acquainted with the Latin language, and it is not therefore surprising that he should occasionally err, in regard to some of it's etymologies.*

67 This was intended to make the Romans pay as much regard to their word, as to a contract in writing. And so excellent, in fact, were their principles, that Polybius gives the Romans of his time this honourable testimony: "They most inviolably keep their word, without being obliged to it by bail, witness, or promise; whereas ten securities, twenty promises, and as many witnesses cannot hinder the faithless Greeks from attempting to deceive and disappoint you." No wonder, then, that so virtuous a people were victorious over those, who were become thus degenerate and dishonest.

68 The Dii Termini were represented by stones, which Numa caused to be placed on the borders of the Roman state, and of each man's private lands. In honour of these deities, he instituted a festival called Terminalia, which was annually celebrated on the 22d or 23d of February, (L.)—or sext. Cal. Mart. This day was anciently the last of the year (Varr. L.L. v.), and therefore was the day doubled by Julius Cæsar's intercalation, whence the year was denominated 'Bissextile.' The victim, sacrificed upon these occasions, was a lamb or a suckling pig. February, either as the last month of the twelve, or as consisting (alone, according to Numa's regulation of the calendar) of an even number (see note 58), was reckoned unfortunate, reserved for the dead, and consecrated to Typhon or the Evil Genius. To remove the Dii Termini was deemed a sacrilege of

greatest of oaths; which they still continue to observe. In our times they sacrifice animals in the fields, both on public and private occasions, to Terminus as the god of boundaries; but, formerly, the offering was an inanimate one: for Numa argued, that there should be no effusion of blood in the rites of a god, who is the guardian of peace and the witness of justice. It is indeed certain that Numa was the first, who marked out the bounds of the Roman territory; Romulus being unwilling, by defining his own, to show how much he had encroached upon the neighbouring countries: for bounds, if preserved, are barriers against lawless power; if violated, are evidences of injustice. The territory of the city was originally far from being extensive, but Romulus added to it a considerable district gained by the sword. All this Numa divided among the indigent citizens, that poverty might not drive them to rapine; and, as he turned the application of the people to agriculture, their temper was subdued together with the ground. For no occupation implants so speedy and so effectual a love of peace, as a country-life; where, without diminishing the courage and bravery necessary to defend property, the temptations to injustice and avarice are removed. Numa, therefore, introduced among his subjects an attachment to husbandry, as a charm of peace; and contriving a business for them, which would rather form their manners to simplicity, than raise them to opulence, he divided the country into several portions, which he called pagi or boroughs,' and appointed over each of them a governor or overseer. Occasionally, also, he inspected them himself: and,

so heinous a nature, that any man might kill the transgressor with impunity.

In the phrase, Medius fidius.*

judging of the disposition of the people by the condition of their farms, some he advanced to posts of honour and trust; and, on the other hand, he reprimanded and endeavoured to reform the negligent and the idle 70.

But the most admired of all his institutions, is his distribution of the citizens into companies, according to their arts and trades. For the city consisting, as we have observed, of two nations or rather factions, who were by no means willing to unite or to blot out the remembrance of their original difference, but maintained perpetual contests and party-quarrels; he took the same method with them as is used to incorporate hard and solid bodies, which while entire will not mix at all, but when reduced to powder unite with ease. To attain his purpose, he divided (as I said) the whole multitude into small bodies, who gaining new distinctions lost by degrees the great and original one, in consequence of their being thus broken into so many parts. This distribution was made according to the several trades, of musicians, goldsmiths, masons, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, braziers, and potters". He collected the other artificers also into companies, who had their respective halls, courts, and religious ceremonies, peculiar to each society. By

To neglect the cultivation of a farm, was considered among the Romans as a censorium probrum; a fault, that merited the -chastisement of the censor.?

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Many political economists blame these guilds, as introducing a selfish corporate spirit; as hostile to industry, by the formalities and qualifications they enjoin, which arrest it's progress; and as causing intrigues and jealousies, so often fatal to real talent. But, in this instance at least, they were of service; and perhaps chiefly so, by destroying other principles of association, of a still more dangerous nature, in the heterogeneous mass of Roman population. For these, he judiciously substituted the strong cement of peculiar religious rites.*

these means he first took away the distinction of Sabines and Romans, subjects of Tatius and subjects of Romulus, both name and thing; the very separation into parts mixing and uniting the whole together.

He is celebrated also in his political capacity, for having corrected the law, which empowered fathers to sell their children", excepting such as had married by their father's command or consent; for he reckoned it a great hardship, that a woman should marry a man as free, and then live with him as a slave.

He attempted likewise the reformation of the calendar, which he executed with some degree of skill, though not with absolute exactness. In the reign of Romulus, it had neither measure nor order, some months consisting of fewer than twenty days 7, while some were extended to

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Romulus had allowed fathers greater power over their children, than masters had over their slaves. For a master could sell his slave but once; whereas a father could sell his son, let him be of what age or condition soever, three tines.(L.) This power of selling children existed likewise in Greece, till the time of Solon; and, when he set limits to it, by directing that it should not affect such as had attained manhood, he made exceptions with regard to daughters or sisters surprised in any heinous offence. Numa's mitigation of this privilege was but of short duration; for the Decemvirs, in their fourth Table, revived it to it's original extent (Dion. Halic. ii. 8.); and though, as Gravina informs us (Espr. des Lois Rom., Art. Droit Paternel), it was gradually moderated by the influence of civilisation and literature, instances occur, even in the time of Cicero, which prove that the right itself continued to subsist in all it's rigour,* But Macrobius informs us (Saturn. i. 12. &c.), and with him Solinus (Polyhist. i.) agrees, that Romulus settled the number of days with more equality, allotting to March, May, Quintilis (or July), and October, one and thirty days each; to April, June, Sextilis (or August), September, November, and December, thirty; making up in all three hundred and four days. Numa, better acquainted with the celestial motions, added (or, more probably, transposed) the two months of January and February. [Neither Romulus indeed, nor any other man, could be so ignorant as to

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