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them all, except four, to Hercules, and called them (as Philochorus relates) instead of Thesea, Heraclea. But desiring to preside in the commonwealth, and direct it as before, he found himself encompassed with turbulence and sedition: for those who were his enemies before his departure, had now added to their hatred a contempt of his authority; and he beheld the people so generally corrupted that, instead of silently executing his commands, they wished to be flattered into their duty. Upon attempting to reduce them by force, he was overpowered by the prevalence of faction finding his affairs therefore desperate, he privately sent his children into Euboea to Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon; and after uttering solemn execrations against the Athenians at Gargettus, where there is still a place thence called Araterion, he himself sailed to Scyros". There he imagined he should find hospitable treatment, as he had a paternal estate in that island. Lycomedes was then king of the Scyrians. To him therefore he applied, and desired to be put in possession of his lands, as intending to settle there. Some say, he asked assistance of him against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either jealous of the glory of Theseus, or willing to oblige Menestheus 98, having led him to the highest cliffs of the country on pretence of thence showing him his lands, threw him down headlong from the rocks, and

96 This consecration of Theseus is represented by Euripides, in his Hercules Raving, as promising to his deliverer. *

97 This island is opposite to Euboea. The ungrateful Athenians were in process of time made so sensible of the effects of his curse, that to appease his ghost they appointed solemn sacrifices and divine honours to his memory.

18 Or, as others state, having detected him in his endeavours to corrupt the loyalty of his subjects, and the chastity of his wife. *

killed him. Others say he fell of himself, missing his step, as he took a walk according to his custom after supper. At that time his death was disregarded, and Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens; while the sons of Theseus attended Elephenor, as private persons, to the Trojan war. But, Menestheus dying in the same expedition, they returned and recovered the kingdom. In succeeding ages, the Athenians honoured Theseus as a demi-god; induced to it as well by other reasons, as because, when they were fighting the Medes at Marathon, a considerable part of the army thought they saw the appa rition of Theseus completely armed, and bearing down before them upon the barbarians.

After the Median war, when Phædon was archon", the Athenians consulting the oracle of Apollo were ordered by the priestess to take up the bones of Theseus, and lay them in an honourable place at Athens, where they were to be preserved with

99 Codrus, the seventeenth king of Athens, contemporary with Saul, devoted himself to death for the sake of his country, in the contest with the Dorians and Heraclidæ, B. C. 1070; having learned, that the oracle had promised victory to those, whose chief should fall in battle. His subjects, upon this account, conceived such veneration for him, that they esteemed none worthy to bear the royal title after him: and therefore committed the management of the state to elective magistrates, to whom they gave the title of Archons;' choosing Medon, the eldest son of Čodrus, to this new dignity. These were at first for life, and of this description there were thirteen, who governed for the space of 316 years. After the death of Alcmeon, the last of them, the office was made decennial, still however continuing in the same family, till the death of Eryxias (or, according to others, of Thesias) the seventh of this second class of supreme magistrates. In him the family of Codrus (the Medontidae) ending, the Athenians created annual Archons, and instead of one appointed nine every year. Of these state-officers see a farther account, in the Notes on the Life of Solon.

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the greatest care But it was difficult to take them up, or even to discover the grave, on account of the savage and inhospitable disposition of the barbarians who dwelt in Scyros 101. Nevertheless, Cimon having taken the island (as is related in his Life) and being very desirous to find out the place where Theseus was buried, by chance saw an eagle, on a certain eminence, breaking the ground, we are told, and scratching it up with his talons. This he considered as divine direction; and, digging there, found the coffin of a man of extraordinary size, with a lance of brass and a sword lying by it. When these remains were brought to Athens in Cimon's galley, the Athenians received them with splendid processions and sacrifices; and were as much transported, as if Theseus himself had returned to the city. He lies interred in the middle of the town, near the Gymnasium: and this is a place of refuge for servants and all persons of mean condition, who fly from men in power 102; as Theseus, while he lived, was a humane and benevolent patron, who graciously received the petitions of the indigent. The chief sacrifice is offered to him on the eighth of Pyanepsion, the day upon which he returned with the young men from Crete. They sacrifice to him likewise on each eighth day of

100 How nearly superstition and infidelity are allied! Who does not recollect, in a more modern instance, the solecistic mummery of bones transferred by atheists to a Pantheon; and that divinity conferred by apotheosis upon mortals, which was denied to God! *

101 This account of the Scyrians can hardly be admitted by those, who recollect that Achilles had been sent, seven centuries before the age of Cimon, to the court of Lycomedes; and that Scyros, from it's proximity to Euboea, must necessarily have had some intercourse with Greece. *

102 Could he have had a nobler monument?*

the other months, either because he first arrived from Træzene on the eighth of Hecatomboon, as Diodorus the geographer relates; or else thinking this number above all others most proper, because he was said to be the son of Neptune, whose solemn feasts are observed on the eighth day of every month. For the number :. eight, as the first cube of an even number and the double of the first square properly represents the firmness and immoveable power of this god, who thence has the names of Asphalius and Gaieochus.

103

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103 This doctrine of numbers, derived through Pythagoras from the Egyptians, was a great favourite with Plutarch. *

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Different opinions about the origin of Rome; and of the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. Most probable account of their birth. They are suckled by a wolf. Their first employments; and quarrel with Numitor's herdsmen. Remus addresses that prince with great intrepidity. Faustulus arrested by Amulius' guards. Amulius slain by Romulus and Remus. Foundation of Rome. Dispute between the brothers. Remus slain by Romulus. Ceremonies observed in marking out the walls of the city. Epoch of it's foundation. Distribution of the people; establishment of the senate. Right of patronage. Rape of the Sabines. Origin of the Talassio. Embassy of the Sabines. Romulus' victory over the Caninenses. Origin of the triumph. Conquests of Romulus; war of the Sabines. Battle in Rome between the Romans and Sabines. Romulus, pressed by the enemy, invokes Jupiter Stator. The Sabine women declare in favour of the Romans. The two nations unite. Form of public deliberations. Festivals of the Romans. Vestals and the sacred fire. Laws of Romulus. Death of Tatius. Fidena taken. The Camerini defeated. War with Veii. Romulus abuses his power. The pa tricians discontented. He suddenly disappears. Conjectures about his death. The people restrained from insurrection by

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