excellent. Yet he who not in idea and in words, but in fact produced a most inimitable form of government, and by shewing a whole city of philosophers, confounded those who imagine that the so much talked of strictness of a philosophic life is impracticable; he, I say, stands in the rank of glory far before the founders of all the other Grecian states. Therefore Aristotle is of opinion, that the honours paid him in Lacedæmon were far beneath his merit. Yet those honours were very great; for he has a temple there, and they offer him a yearly sacrifice, as a god. It is also said, that when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck with lightning: a seal of divinity which no other man, however eminent, has had, except Euripides, who died and was buried at Arethusa in Macedonia. This was matter of great satisfaction and triumph to the friends of Euripides, that the same thing should befal him after death, which had formerly happened to the most venerable of men, and the most favoured of heaven. Some say, Lycurgus died at Cirrha; but Apollothemis will have it, that he was brought to Elis and died there; and Timæus and Aristoxenus write, that he ended his days in Crete; nay, Aristoxenus adds, that the Cretans shew his tomb at Pergamia, near the high road. We are told, he left an only son named Antiorus: and as he died without issue, the family was extinct. His friends and relations observed his anniversary, which subsisted for many ages, and the days on which they met for that purpose they called Lycurgida. Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, relates, that the friends of Lycurgus, with whom he sojourned, and at last died in Crete, burned his body, and, at his request, threw his ashes into the sea. Thus he guarded against the possibility of his remains being brought back to Sparta by the Lacedæmonians, lest * Aristotle and Plato differ in this from Plutarch. Even Polybias, who was so great an admirer of the Spartan government, allows, that, though the Spartans, considered as individuals, were wise and virtuous, yet in their collective capacity they paid but little regard to justice and moderation. Solon, though a person of a different temper, was no less disinterested than Lycurgus. He settled the Athenian commonwealth, refused the sovereignty when offered him, travelled to avoid the importunities of his countrymen, opposed tyranny in his old age, and when he found his oppositions vain, went into voluntary exile. Lycurgus and Solon were both great men; but the former had the stronger, the latter the milder genius: the effects of which appear ed in the commonwealths they founded. they should then think themselves released from their oath, on the pretence that he was returned, and make innovations in the government. This is what we had to say of Lycurgus.. NUMA. THERE is likewise a great diversity amongst histo rians about the time in which king Numa lived, though some families seem to trace their genealogy up to him. with sufficient accuracy. However, a certain writer called Clodius, in his emendation of chronology, affirms, that the ancient archives were destroyed when Rome was sacked by the Gauls; and that those which are now shewn as such, were forged in favour of some persons who wanted to stretch their lineage far back, and to deduce it from the most illustrious houses. Some say, that Numa was the scholar of Pythagoras ;* but others contend, that he was unacquainted with the Grecian literature, either alleging, that his own genius was sufficient to conduct him to excellence, or that he was instructed by some barbarian philosopher superior to Pythagoras. Some, again, affirm, that Pythagoras of Samos flourished about five generations below the times of Numa: but that Pythagoras the Spartan, who won the prize at the Olympic race in the sixteenth Olympiad (about the third year of which it was that Numa came to the throne) travelling into Italy, became acquainted with that prince, and assisted him in regulating the government. Hence many Spartan customs, taught by Pythagoras, were intermixed with the Roman. But this mixture might have another cause, as Numa was of Sabine extraction, and the Sabines declare themselves to have been a Lacedæmonian colony. It is * Pythagoras the philosopher went not into Italy till the reign of the elder Tarquin, which was in the fifty-first Olympiad, and four.. generations (as Dionysius of Halicarnassus tells us) after Numa. The same Dionysius informs us, that he found in the history of the Sabines, that, while Lycurgus was guardian to his nephew Euromus (Charilaus it should be) some of the Lacedæmonians, unable to endure the severity of his laws, fied into Italy, and settled first at Pometia; from whence several of them removed into the difficult however, to adjust the times exactly, particular ly those that are only distinguished with the names of the Olympic.conquerors; of which, we are told, Hippias, the Elean, made a collection at a late period, without sufficient Vouchers. We shall now relate what we have met with most remarkable concerning Numa, beginning from that -point of time which is most suitable to our purpose. It was in the thirty-seventh year from the building of Rome, and of the reign of Romulus, on the seventh of the month of July (which day is now called None Caprotina) when that prince went out of the city to offer a solemn saerifice at a place called the Goats-Marsh, in the presence of the senate and great part of the people. Suddenly there happened a great alteration in the air, and the clouds burst in a storm of wind and hail. The rest of the assembly were struck with terror and fled, but Romulus disappeared, and could not be found either alive or dead. Upon this, the senators fell under a violent suspicion, and a report was propagated against them among the people, that having long been weary of the yoke of kingly gov ernment, and desirous to get the power into their own hands, they had murdered the king. Particularly as he had treated them for some time in an arbitrary and imperious manner. But they found means to obviate this suspicion, by paying divine honours to Romulus as a person that had been privilegéd from the fate of other mortals, and was only removed to a happier scene. Moreever, Proculus, a man of high rank, made oath that he saw Romulus carried up to heaven in complete armour, and heard a voice commanding that he should be called. Quirinus.. Fresh disturbances and tumults arose in the city about: the election of a new king, the later inhabitants being not. yet thoroughly incorporated with the first, the commonalty fluctuating and unsettled in itself, and the patricians full of animosity and jealousies of each other. All, in-deed, agreed that a king should be appointed, but they differed and debated, not only about the person to be fixed: upon, but from which of the two nations he should be elected. For neither could they who with Romulus built, country of the Sabines, and, uniting with that people, taught them their customs; particularly those relating to the conduct of war, to fortitude, patience, and a frugal and abstemious manner of living. This colony, then, settled in Italy 120 years before the birth of Numan the city, endure, that the Sabines, who had been admitted citizens, and obtained a share of the lands, should attempt to command those from whom they had received such - privileges; nor yet could the Sabines depart from their claim of giving a king in their turn to Rome, having this good argument in their favour, that, upon the death of Tatius, they had suffered Romulus peaceably to enjoy the throne, without a colleague. It was also to be considered, that they did not come as inferiors to join a superior people, but by their rank and number added strength and dignity to the city that received them. These were the - arguments on which they founded their claims. Lest this dispute should produce an utter confusion, whilst there was no king, nor any steersman at the helm, the senators made an order that the hundred and fifty members who composed their body,* should each, in their turns, be attired in the robes of state; in the room of Quirinus, offer the stated sacrifices to the gods, and dispatch the whole public business, six hours in the day, and six hours at night. This distribution of time, seemed well contrived, in point of equality amongst the regents, and the change of power from hand to hand prevented its being obnoxious to the people, who saw the same person in one day and one night reduced from a king to a private man. This occasional administration the Romans call an Interregnum. But though the matter was managed in this moderate and popular way, the senators could not escape the suspicions and complaints of the people, that they were changing the government into an oligarchy, and, as they had the direction of all affairs in their hands, were unwilling to have a king. At last it was agreed between the two parties, that one nation should choose a king out. of the whole body of the other. This was considered as *According to our author in the life of Romulus, the number of the senators was 200. Indeed, Dionysius says, that writers differed in this particular, some affirming, that 100 senators were added to the original number upon the union of the Sabines with the Ro, mans; and others, that only fifty were added. Livy gives the most probable account of the manner of the Interregnum. The senators, he says, divided themselves into decuries or tens.. These decuries drew lots which should govern first; and the decury, to whose lot it fell, enjoyed the supreme authority for five days; yet, in such a manner, that one person only of the governing decury had the en signs of sovereignty at a time. the best means of putting a stop to the present c and of inspiring the king with an affection parties, since he would be gracious to these, bed had elected him, and to those as his kindred an men. The Sabines leaving the Romans to the they preferred a Sabine king of their own eled Roman chosen by the Sabines. Consulting, among themselves*, they fixed upon Numa F a Sabine, who was not of the number of those migrated to Rome, but so celebrated for virtue Sabines received the nomination even with g plause than the Romans themselves. When the quainted the people with their resolution, they most eminent personages of both nations amb to intreat him to come and take upon him the ment. Numa was of Cures, a considerable city of the from which the Romans, together with the inc Sabines, took the name of Quirites. He was t a person of distinction named Pomponius, and the of four brothers. It seemed to be by the directi gods, that he was born the twenty-first of April, day that Rome was founded by Romulus. His naturally disposed to virtue; and he still farther s by discipline, patience, and philosophy; not on ing it of the grosser and more infamous passions, of that ambition and rapaciousness which was honourable amongst the barbarians; persuaded fortitude consists in the conquest of appetites by On this account, he banished all luxury and splen his house; and both the citizens and strangers him a faithful counsellor, and an upright judge. his hours of leisure, he spent them not in the pu pleasure, or schemes of profit, but in the worshi gods, and in rational inquiries into their nature a power. His name became at length so illustri Tatius, who was the associate of Romulus in th dom, having an only daughter named Tatia, besto |