not meet with the least resistance, the slaughter was prodigious. The vain confidence of the Sabines was, obviously, 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 toward the corps placed in am buscade, 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 Fidenæ been so near, which proved an asylum to some, particularly to those that fled when the camp was taken. Such, as did not take refuge there, were either destroyed or taken pri

soners.

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 into 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, died soon afterward; thus finishing his life in circumstances esteemed the happiest and most glorious, that man can attain 72. The people, as it

"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 high offices which he had borne, there was not found money enough in his house to defray 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 honour sometimes paid to the rich. (L.) It is not overlooked by Livy and Dion. Halic. The amount of

they had done nothing to requite his merit in his life-time, decreed that his funeral should be solemnised at the public charge; and, to make it the more honourable, every one contributed a piece of money called Quadrans. The women

likewise, out of particular regard to his memory, continued the mourning for him a whole year. His body also, by an order of the citizens, was interred within the city", near the place called Velia, and all his family were to have a burying place there. At present, indeed, none of his progeny are interred in that ground; the attendants only carry thither the corpse, and set it down; when one of them 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 walls.T tion SAE of gaga Pa Alordia¶ 0919.dw la pomadammodo 191qqai dɔum sj po SOLON AND PUBLICOLA (meis

SENDOO 25 fombroɔ and

COMPARED.

Amir 194to yieve bas que bad nolo? Hoidw ..THERE is something singular in this parallel, and what has not occurred to us in any other of the Lives which we have written, that Publicola

the contribution, in that age of poverty, must have been considerable: but Sallust has told us, that they were in suppliciis deorum magnifici, domi parci. (Bell. Catil. ix.).*

73This was, at first, the general practice, but in after times the Twelve Tables prohibiting it's continuance, the dead were interred by the side of the public ways, and the distinction of being buried within the walls was reserved (as in Greece) for those, who had rendered eminent services to the commonwealth Dion. Halic. says, it was exclusively bestowed upon Publicola ; but Plutarch elsewhere states that Fabricius enjoyed the same privilege, as did all (according to Pyrrho of Liparay who had attained the honour of a triumpha The claim, asserted by Publicola's descendents, is not mentioned either by Livy or Dion. Haliclona 2 1500

should exemplify the maxims of Solon, and that Solon should proclaim beforehand 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 his glorious death; yet he does not mention him in his poems as particularly distinguished by his virture, his children, or his employments. But Publicola, in his life-time, attained the highest reputation and authority among Romans, by means of his virtues; and, after his death, his family was reckoned among the most illustrious: the houses of the Publicola, the Messala, and Valerii, emiment 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 every other mark of honour, died that death, which Solon had so passionately coveted, and declared so happys Solon again, in his answer to Miminermus, concerning the period of human life, thus exclaims: netti eved ow dordw e9vil ods

- 19et friendship's faithful heart attend my bierjudinoo st foga Heave the sad sigh, and drop the pitying tear! sidesbia

And Publicola had this felicity. For he was lamented, n not only by his friends and relations, but

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

75

It appears, from this passage, that Plutarch wrote the Life of Publicola about the beginning of Trajan's reign. of gibros ll

Cicero (Tusc. i.49., and de Senect. 20.) 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 im

by the whole city; thousands attended his funera 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:

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 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

mortality upon 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 chief 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 sooth the pains of a dying man, and comfort him with the reflection that he has not been wanting in the offices of humanity. (L.)

Mimnermus, the inventor of the pentameter verse (Athen. xiii. 8.) was a poet and musician of Colophon, and distinguished chiefly by his Elegies, of which only a few fragments are extant. Horace, who sets him above Callimachus (Ep. II. ii. 101.) represents him as placing all his happiness în amore jocisque (Ep. I. ii. 65.); so that, whatever poetry may have suffered by the loss of his works, morality has probably been a gainer by it.*

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 quæstors or treasurers was that, if the consul were a worthy man, he might have, leisure to attend to more important affairs; if unworthy, that he might not have greater opportunities of injustice, when both the government and the treasury were under his direction.

Publicola's aversion from tyrants was stronger than that of Solon. For the latter made every attempt to establish arbitrary power punishable by law; but the former made it death, without the formality of trial. Solon, indeed, justly and reasonably plumes himself upon having refused 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, that 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 before him to have discovered, when he says of a republic,

The reins nor loosely held nor strictly tied,
Safely the car of slippery power you guide.

But the annulling of debts' was peculiar to Solon,

"Bye, we apprehend that Plutarch here rather means the senate or council of Four Hundred, than the council of Areopagus. The Four Hundred had the pre-cognisance of all that was to come before the people, and nothing could be proposed to the general assembly, till digested by themselves; 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 lower orders; the Areopagus being a check upon the former, as the senate was a curb upon the latter. (L.)

M. Ricard understands this passage of the Areopagus.*