shrubby and hollow places before Rome, they appointed a few horse at day-break to ravage the country up to the very gates, and then to retreat, till they drew the enemy into the ambuscade. But Publicola getting information that very day of these particulars from deserters, prepared himself accordingly, and made a disposition of his forces. Posthumius Balbus his son-in-law, went out with three thousand men, as it began to grow dark, and having taken possession of the summits of the hills under which the Sabines had concealed themselves, watched his opportunity. His colleague Lucretius with the lightest and most active of the Romans, was appointed to attack the Sabine cavalry, as they were driving off the cattle, while himself, with the rest of the forces, took a large compass, and in-closed the enemy's rear. The morning happened to be very foggy, when Posthumius, at dawn, with loud shouts, fell upon the ambuscade from the heights, Lucretius charged the horse in their retreat, and Publicola attacked the enemy's camp. The Sabines were every where worsted and put to the rout. As the Romans met not with the least resistance, the slaughter was prodigious. It is clear that the vain confidence of the Sabines was the principal cause of their ruin. While one part thought the other was safe, they did not stand upon their defence; those in the camp ran towards the corps that was placed in ambuscade, while they, in their turn, endeavoured to regain the camp. Thus they fell in with each other in great disorder, and in mutual want of that assistance which neither was able to give. The Sabines would have been entirely cut off, had not the city of Fidene been so near, which proved an asylum to some, particularly those that fled when the camp was taken. Such as did not take refuge there, were either destroyed or taken prisoners.

The Romans, though accustomed to ascribe every great event to the interposition of the gods, gave the credit of this victory solely to the general; and the first thing the soldiers were heard to say, was, that Publicola had put the enemy in their hands, lame, blind, and almost bound, for the slaughter. The people were enriched with the plunder and the sale of prisoners. As for Publicola, he was honoured with a triumph; and having surrendered the administration to the succeeding consuls, he died soon after; thus finishing his life in circumstances esteemed

the happiest and most glorious that a man can attain to.* The people, as if they had done nothing to requite his merit in his life time, decreed that his funeral should be solemnized at the public charge; and to make it the more honourable, every one contributed a piece of money called Quadrans. Besides, the women, out of particular regard to his memory, continued the mourning for him a whole year. By an order of the citizens, his body was likewise interred within the city, near the place called Velia, and all his family were to have a burying place there. At pre sent, indeed, none of his descendants are interred in that ground: they only carry the corpse and set it down there, when one of the attendants puts a lighted torch under it, which he immediately takes back again. Thus they claim by that act the right, but wave the privilege; for the body is taken away, and interred without the wall.

SOLON AND PUBLICOLA

COMPARED.

THERE is something singular in this parallel, and

what has not occurred to us in any other of the lives we have written, that Publicola should exemplify the maxims of Solon, and that Solon should proclaim before-hand the happiness of Publicola. For the definition of happiness which Solon gave Croesus, is more applicable to Publicola than to Tellus. It is true, he pronounces Tellus happy, on account of his virtue, his valuable children, and glorious death; yet he mentions him not in his poems as eminently distinguished by his virtue, his children, or his employments. For Publicola, in his life-time, attained the highest reputation and authority among the Romans, by means of his virtues; and, after his death, his family was reckon

* He was the most virtuous citizen, one of the greatest generals, and the most popular consul Rome ever had. As he had taken more care to transmit his virtues to his posterity, than to enrich them; and as, notwithstanding the frugality of his life, and the great offices he had borne, there was not found money enough in his house to de→ fray the charges of his funeral, he was buried at the expence of the public. His poverty is a circumstance which Plutarch should have mentioned, because a funeral at the public charge was an honous sometimes paid to the rich.

ed among the most honourable; the houses of the Publicola, the Messalæ, and Valerii,* illustrious for the space of six hundred years,† still acknowledging him as the fountain of their honour. Tellus, like a brave man, keeping his post, and fighting to the last, fell by the enemy's hand; whereas Publicola, after having slain his enemies, (a much happier circumstance than to be slain by them) after seeing his country victorious, through his conduct as consul and as general, after triumphs and all other marks of honour, died that death which Solon had so passionately wished for, and declared so happy. Solon, again, in his answer to Mimnermus, concerning the period of human life, thus exclaims:

Let friendship's faithful heart attend my bier,
Heave the sad sigh, and drop the pitying tear!

And Publicola had this felicity: For he was lamented not only by his friends and relations, but by the whole city; thousands attended his funeral with tears, with regret, with the deepest sorrow; and the Roman matrons mourned for him, as for the loss of a son, a brother or a common parent.

Another wish of Solon's is thus expressed:

The flow of riches though desired,

Life's real goods, if well acquir'd,
Unjustly let me never gain,
Lest vengeance follow in their train.

And Publicola not only acquired, but employed his riches honourably, for he was a generous benefactor to the poor: so that if Solon was the wisest, Publicola was the happiest

*That is the other Valerii, viz. the Maximi, the Corvini, the Potiti, the Lavini, and the Flacci.

† It appears from this passage that Plutarch wrote this life about the beginning of Trajan's reign.

Cicero thought this wish of Solon's unsuitable to so wise a man, and preferred to it that of the poet Ennius, who pleasing himself with the thought of an immortality on earth as a poet, desired to die unlamented. Cicero rejoiced in the same prospect as an orator. The passion for immortality is,indeed,a natural one; but as the chi part of our happiness consists in the exercise of the benevolent affections, in giving and receiving sincere testimonies of regard, the undoubted expressions of that regard must soothe the pains of a dying man, and comfort him with the reflection, that he has not been wanting in the offices of humanity.

of human kind. What the former had wished for as the greatest and most desirable of blessings, the latter actually possessed, and continued to enjoy.

Thus Solon did honour to Publicola, and he to Solon in his turn. For he considered him as the most excellent pattern that could be proposed, in regulating a democracy; and, like him, laying aside the pride of power, he rendered it gentle and acceptable to all. He also made use of several of Solon's laws; for he empowered the people to elect their own magistrates, and left an appeal to them from the sentence of other courts, as the Athenian lawgiver had done. He did not, indeed, with Solon, create a new senate,* but he almost doubled the number of that which he found in being.

His reason for appointing questors or treasurers was, that if the consul was a worthy man he might have leisure to attend to greater affairs; if unworthy, that he might not have greater opportunities of injustice, when both the government and treasury were under his direct

Publicola's aversion to tyrants was stronger than that of Solon. For, the latter made every attempt to set up arbitrary power punishable by law; but the former made it death without the formality of trial. Solon, indeed, justly and reasonably plumes himself upon refusing absolute power, when both the state of affairs and the inclinations of the people would have readily admitted it and yet it was no less glorious for Publicola, when, finding the consular authority too despotic, he rendered it milder and more popular, and did not stretch it so far as he might have done. That this was the best method of governing, Solon seems to have been sensible before him, when he says of a republic,

The reins nor strictly nor too loosely hold,
And safe the car of slippery power you guide.

But the annulling of debts was peculiar to Solon, and was indeed the most effectual way to support the liberty of

*

By Sean, we apprehend that Plutarch here rather means the senate or council of four hundred, than the council of Areopagus. The four hundred had the prior cognizance of all that was to come before the people, and nothing could be proposed to the general assembly till digested by them; so that, as far as he was able, he provided against a thirst of arbitrary power in the rich, and a desire of licentious freedom in the commons; the Areopagus being a check upon the former, as the senate was a curb upon the latter.

the people. For laws intended to establish an equality would be of no avail, while the poor were deprived of the benefit of that equality by their debts. Where they seemed most to exercise their liberty, in offices, in debates, and in deciding causes, there they were most enslaved to the rich, and entirely under their controul.... What is more considerable in this case is, that, though the cancelling of debts generally produces seditions, Solon seasonably applied it, as a strong, though hazardous medicine, to remove the sedition then existing. The measure, too, lost its infamous and obnoxious nature, when made use of by a man of Solon's probity and character.

If we consider the whole administration of each, Solon's was more illustrious at first. He was an original, and followed no example; besides, by himself, without a colleague, he effected many great things for the public advantage. But Publicola's fortune was more to be admired at last. For Solon lived to see his own establishment overturned; whereas that of Publicola preserved the state in good order to the time of the civil wars. And no wonder; since the former, as soon as he had enacted his laws, left them inscribed on tables of wood, without any one to support their authority, and departed from Athens; whilst the latter remaining at Rome, and continuing in the magistracy, thoroughly established and secured the commonwealth.

Solon was sensible of the ambitious designs of Pisistratus, and desirous to prevent their being put in execution; but he miscarried in the attempt, and saw a tyrant set up. On the other hand, Publicola demolished kingly power, when it had been established for some ages, and was at a formidable height. He was equalled by Solon in virtue and patriotism, but he had power and good fortune to second his virtue, which the other wanted.

As to warlike exploits, there is a considerable difference; for Daimachus Platacnsis does not even attribute that enterprize against the Megarensians to Solon, as we have done; whereas Publicola, in many great battles, performed the duty both of a general and a private soldier.

Again, if we compare their conduct in civil affairs, we shall find that Solon, only acting a part, as it were,