for the present they ordained, that the whole people of Rome should sacrifice with garlands on their heads. Camillus then held an assembly for the election of consuls, when Marcus Emilius was chosen out of the nobility, and Lucius Sextius from the commonalty, the first plebeian who ever attained that honour.

His

This was the last of Camillus' transactions. The year following, a pestilence visited Rome, which carried off a prodigious number of the people, most of the magistrates, and Camillus himself. death could not be deemed premature, on account of his great age, and the offices which he had borne; yet was he more lamented than all the rest of the citizens conjunctively, who died of that distemper 91.

THEMISTOCLES AND CAMILLUS COMPARED.†

THE lives of Themistocles and Camillus exhibit striking features of resemblance. To their merit both were exclusively indebted for their renown: both distinguished themselves by their brilliant achievements; both rescued their respective countries from the polluting grasp of barbarian invaders; both raised them from their ruins, and were considered as their second founders. At the same time however we discover, as well in their character as in their conduct civil, political, and military, several marked distinctions. Themi

91 Though it carried off a censor, an ædile curule, and three tribunes of the people. Livy's panegyric is more ample than this of Plutarch, but not more expressive.

stocles born in obscurity, and under all the disadvantages of a very moderate fortune, quickly announced to the world his high destination. Camillus, though inheriting patrician blood, and consequently placed in the track of honours, derived not much advantage from that circumstance; as, through the depression of his house's fortunes, he was obliged to owe every thing to the exertion of his own powerful energies. Themistocles, in his early life little elevated above his companions, showed himself negligent of those delicate and polite attentions which, even coupled (as they frequently are) with mediocrity of talent, are so fascinating in general society. But he soon displayed a strong faculty of reasoning, profound judgement, and an eminent capacity for the art of governing. His was however a stormy youth, ruffled by those tempests which rise from a boiling spirit, agitated by the passions of that impetuous age. Camillus, an uniform example of honour and virtue, began almost from his infancy to cultivate his great natural endowments, and to direct them to the public good. In his very first campaign, made in his fourteenth year, an exploit of extraor dinary gallantry points him out to his admiring country, as one intimately connected with her future destiny. He does not disappoint her fond expectations: the maturity of his intellect outruns his boyhood, and he stands unreproached by history with a single instance of those irregularities, which often so unfortunately characterise the season of youth.

A zealous regard for religion was common to both. In all state-emergencies, their first step is by vows and sacrifices to entreat the protection of the gods. In this however the Greek appears to have acted chiefly from the cool policy of his head, the Roman from the honest piety of his heart.

Well aware of the influence of religious feeling upon the human mind, Themistocles dexterously introduces it, upon occasions of pressing exigency, to revive the drooping spirit of Athens: the first care of Camillus after the expulsion of the Gauls, correspondent with the rest of his conduct, is to rebuild the temples, which they had destroyed. His life is wound up with a bright display of re ligion; for a short time before his death he dedicated a temple of Concord, in acknowledgement of the happy reconciliation of the senate and the people, which it had been his ambition and his glory to effect. Themistocles likewise, after the battle of Salamis, erected a temple to Diana Orthobule (the Prudent'), but for this apparent act of devotion he was, reproached even by his contem poraries, as a monument erected by his vanity in commemoration of those counsels, by which he had saved Greece. If Camillus be open to any censure in this respect, it is that he forgot to fulfil his vow of consecrating to Apollo the tenth part of the spoils of Veii; a vow indeed, of which we shall perhaps be disposed to regard the fulfilment as impracticable, when we consider the tumult and distraction consequent upon taking a place by

storm.

Camillus had, likewise, great benevolence of disposition. He could not see an opulent eity consigned to the ravages of a licentious soldiery without compassion, and watered the laurels he had gathered, with his tears. Of this honourable sensibility, which graces the check of the warrior, we find no traces in Themistocles. Devoted to ambition and a thirst for glory, he is uniformly, and often criminally selfish. Hence his jealousy of several eminent Athenians, particularly of Aristides, whom he drives into banishment; whereas Camillus divides with his collegues the honour, in

many instances exclusively due to himself, of his most heroic achievements. To this remark his first triumph, after the taking of Veii, forms the sole exception.The facility, with which the Athenian seems to forget his country amidst the splendors of the Persian court, is no great proof of his patriotism; and though he prefers death by his own hand to the alternative of meeting her in the field, it is possible that he might fear to risk his military reputation at the head of an effeminate mob of troops against their habitual conquerors, the welldisciplined and well-officered veterans of Greece, Camillus, exiled by the unjust resentments of the people, quits Rome with the deepest regret; though in his first bitter moment of suffering he it utters cagainst her an inconsiderate imprecation, is obvious that he still cherishes a strong attachment to her in his heart; and that he only wishes her involved in distress, in order to have an opportunity of inflicting upon her the noblest of revenges, that of effecting her deliverances Tolos

*

an

At the epochs of their respective banishments, the superiority of Camillus to Themistocles pears the most striking. This sentence the latter seems to have incurred by the heavy contributions, which he exacted from the allies of Athens, as well as by his continual parade of his toils and services. That of Camillus arose from less dishonourable causes. His unfortunate neglect of the vow mentioned above might, from it's consequences, have a little weight upon the occasion: but the chief ground of his exile was the inflexibility, with which he constantly withstood the popular, but ruinous, project of transferring half the population of Rome to Veil. Themistocles, in banishment, sunk from his high reputation: obsequious in his first address to the great king,' the haughty republican degenerated into the servile satrap; and his expulsion

from Athens proved the limit of his exploits, and the sepulchre of his glory. Camillus, at Ardea, preserves all the dignity and patriotism of his character. Upon the first rumour of the Roman disasters, he arms the inhabitants of that place, and attacks the enemies of his country with considerable success: but he rigidly refuses to place himself at the head of his countrymen, collected at Veii, till their choice is sanctioned by the concurrence of their brethren shut up in the capitol. Upon the notification of that concurrence, he instantly rushes to the rescue of Rome, and irre sistibly compels it's ferocious invaders to retire.

1

With regard to their military prowess however, we feel ourselves disposed, at the first view, to assign the palm to Themistocles. The most splendid actions of the Roman general "hide their diminished heads," when placed by the side of the battle of Salamis. That deluge of barbarians, which threatened to convert the beautiful plains of Greece into a solitude so frightful, that no Greek should in future desire to inhabit it; a fleet of twelve hundred vessels, not to mention the countless myriads of land-forces acting in it's support, defeated by one less than it's sixth part in number, gives an unrivalled brilliancy to this wonderful conflict. But, if to this bright day, almost the single gem in Themistocles' crown of glory, we oppose Camillus' sixty years of victory unsullied by defeat, the latter may hardily challenge comparison with his rival, if not assert his superiority. We must admit, indeed, that upon the event of the action of Salamis hung the salvation of Greece; and, if the merit of an exploit is to be measured by it's consequences, no single deed can vie in lustre with that memorable effort. To this we must likewise add, as farther sources of credit to Themistocles, his dexterity in selecting the most favourable spot