the battle with the Sabines, to kill Acron and to conquer many other enemies, we may set against these distinctions the battle with the Centaurs and the war with the Amazons.

But as to Theseus' enterprize with respect to the Cretan tribute, when he voluntarily offered to go among the young men and virgins, whether he might have expected to become food for some wild beast, or to be sacrificed at Androgeus's tomb, or (which was the lightest of all the rumoured evils) to submit to a vile and dishonourable slavery, it is not easy to express his courage and magnanimity, his regard for justice and the public good, and his love of glory and virtue. On this occasion, it appears to me, that the philosophers have not ill defined Love to be a remedy, provided by the gods for the safety and preservation of youth'.' For Ariadne's love seems to have been the work of some god, who designed thus to preserve this eminent man. Neither should we blame her for her passion, but rather wonder that all were not alike affected toward him. And, if she alone was sensible of that tenderness, I may justly pronounce her worthy the love of a god, as she showed so high a regard for virtue and excellence in her attachment to so great a man.

Both Theseus and Romulus were born with political talents: yet neither of them preserved the proper character of a king, but deviated from the due medium; erring, according to their different tempers, the one on the side of democracy, the other on that of absolute power. For a prince's

1 See PLAT. Conviv.

* Plutarch here enters into the notion of Socrates, who teaches that it is the love of virtue and real excellence, which alone can unite us to the Supreme Being. But, though this maxim is good, it is not applicable to Ariadne. For where is the virtue of that princess, who fell in love with a stranger at first sight, and hastened to the completion of her wishes through the ruin of her kindred and of her country?

first concern is, to preserve the government itself; and this is effected, not less by avoiding what is improper, than by cultivating what is suitable to his dignity. He, who relaxes or stretches his authority, continues not a prince or a king, but degenerates into a republican or a tyrant,' and thus incurs either the hatred or the contempt of his subjects. The former seems to be the error of mildness and humanity of disposition, the latter of selfishness and severity.

If then the calamities of mankind are not to be entirely attributed to fortune, but we are to seek the cause of them in their different manners and passions, here we shall find that unreasonable anger, with quick and unadvised resentment, is to be imputed both to Romulus in the case of his brother, and to Theseus in that of his son. But if we consider whence their anger took it's rise, the latter seems the more excusable, from the greater cause which he had for resentment, as yielding to the heavier blow. For, as the dispute began when Romulus was in cool consultation for the common good3, one would think he could not suddenly have given way to such a passion : Whereas Theseus was urged against his son, by emotions which few men have been able to withstand, proceeding from love, jealousy, and the false suggestions of his wife. What is more, the anger of Romulus discharged itself in an action.

3 Plutarch does not seem to have had a just idea of the contest between Romulus and Remus. The two brothers were not so solicitous about the situation of their new city, as which of them should have the command in it, when it was built. (L). Besides, an insult (and that too of evil augury for the rising walls) had been offered by Remus, in contemptuously leaping over the fosse. *

Of these calumnies Plutarch makes no mention, in his Life of Theseus; the calamities to which they gave birth being too notorious, as subjects of tragedy, to require more particular specification. Or may we here trace the national partiality, so generally ascribed to the Grecian biographer? *

of most unfortunate consequence; but that of Theseus proceeded no farther than words, reproaches, and imprecations, the usual revenge of old men. The rest of the young man's misery seems to have been owing to fortune. Thus far, then, Theseus appears to deserve the preference. But Romulus has, in the first place, this eminent advantage, that he rose to distinction from very small beginnings. For the two brothers were reputed slaves and sons of herdsmen; and yet, before they attained to liberty themselves, they bestowed it upon almost all the Latins; gaining at once the most glorious titles, as destroyers of their enemies, deliverers of their kindred, kings of nations, and founders of cities: not transplanters, like Theseus, who filled indeed one city with people, but did it by ruining many others, which bore the names of ancient kings and heroes. And Romulus subsequently effected the same, when he compelled his enemies to demolish their habitations, and incorporate with their conquerors. He had not however a city ready built to enlarge, or to fill with inhabitants from other towns; but he created one, gaining to himself lands, a country, a kingdom, children, wives, alliances; and this without destroying, or ruining any one. On the contrary, he was a great benefactor to persons who, having neither house nor habitation, willingly became his citizens and people. He did not indeed, like Theseus, destroy robbers and ruffians; but he subdued nations, took cities, and triumphed over kings and generals.

As for the fate of Remus, it is doubtful by what hand he fell; most writers ascribing it to others, and not to Romulus. But he confessedly saved his mother from destruction; and placed his grandfather, who was living in mean and dishonourable subjection, upon the throne of Eneas: He

likewise voluntarily did him many kind offices, and never even inadvertently offered him any injury. On the other hand Theseus I think, in forgetting or neglecting the command about the sail, can scarcely by any excuses, or before the mildest judges, avoid the imputation of parricide. Sensible how difficult the defence of this affair would be to those who should attempt it, a certain Athenian writer feigns that, when the ship approached, Ægeus ran in great haste to the citadel for the better view of it, and missing his step fell down; as if he were destitute of servants, or went (in whatever hurry) unattended to the

sea.

Moreover, Theseus's rapes, and offences with respect to women, admit of no plausible excuse : because, in the first place, they were frequentfor he carried off Ariadne, Antiope, and Anaxo the Trozenian, and, after the rest, Helen; though she was a girl not yet come to maturity, and he so far advanced in years, that it was time for him to think no more even of lawful marriage. The next aggravation is, the cause; for the daughters of the Trozenians, the Lacedæmonians, and the Amazons were in no respect more suitable for child-bearing, than those of the Athenians sprung from Erechtheus and Cecrops. These things therefore, expose him to the suspicion of a wanton and licentious appetite. On the other hand Romulus, having carried off at once almost eight hundred women, did not take them all, but only Ersilia (as it is said) for himself, and distributed the rest among the most respectable citizens. And afterward, by the honourable and affectionate treatment which he procured them, he turned that injury and violence into a glorious exploit, performed with a political view to the good of society. Thus he united and cemented

the two nations together, and opened a source of future kindness and of additional power. Time bears witness to the conjugal modesty, tenderness, and fidelity, which he established; for during two hundred and thirty years no man attempted to leave his wife, nor any woman her husband 5. And, as the very curious among the Greeks can tell you, who was the first person that killed his father and mother, so all the Romans know that Spurius Carvilius was the first who divorced his wife, alleging her barrenness". The immediate effects, as well as length of time, attest what I have said. For by means of these alliances, the two kings shared the kingdom, and the two nations came under the same government. But the marriages of Theseus procured the Athenians no friendship with any other state; on the contrary, they generated enmity, wars, the destruction of their citizens, and at last the loss of Aphidnæ; which merely through the compassion of the enemy', whom the inhabitants supplicated and honoured like gods, escaped the fate that befel Troy by means of Paris. The mother of Theseus however, deserted and given up by her son, not only risked, but actually suffered, the misfortunes of Hecuba, if her captivity indeed be not a fiction, as much besides may very well be. As to the stories

Dion. Halic. (ii. 8.) with greater exactness acquaints us, that it was A. U. C. 520, in the consulate of M. Pomponius Ma tho and C. Papirius Masso.

6 Carvilius made oath before the censors, that he had the highest regard for his wife; and that it was solely in compliance with the sacred engagement of marriage, the design of which was to have children, that he divorced her. But this did not prevent his character from being ever afterward odious to the people, who thought he had set a most pernicious example. (Aul. Gell. iv. 3., and xvii. 21.)

7 Castor and Pollux.