relating it and from his oath: indeed a religious feeling almost
amounting to ecstasy seems to have taken hold of all present; for no one
contradicted him, but all dismissed their suspicions entirely from their
minds and prayed to Quirinus, worshipping him as a god.
This account resembles the Greek legends of Aristeas of Proconnesus, and
that of Kleomedes of Astypalaea. The story goes that Aristeas died in a
fuller's shop, and that when his friends came to fetch his body it had
disappeared; then some persons who had just returned from travel said
that they had met Aristeas walking along the road to Kroton. Kleomedes,
we are told, was a man of unusual size and strength, but stupid and
half-crazy, who did many deeds of violence, and at last in a boy's
school struck and broke in two the column that supported the roof, and
brought it down. As the boys were killed, Kleomedes, pursued by the
people, got into a wooden chest, and shut down the lid, holding in
inside so that many men together were not able to force it open. They
broke open the chest, and found no man in it, dead or alive. Astonished
at this, they sent an embassy to the oracle at Delphi, to whom the
Pythia answered,
"Last of the heroes is Kleomedes of Astypalaea."
And it also related that the corpse of Alkmena when it was being carried
out for burial, disappeared, and a stone was found lying on the bier in
its place. And many such stories are told, in which, contrary to reason,
the earthly parts of our bodies are described as being deified together
with the spiritual parts. It is wicked and base to deny that virtue is a
spiritual quality, but again it is foolish to mix earthly with heavenly
things.
We must admit, speaking with due caution, that, as Pindar has it, the
bodies of all men follow overpowering Death, but there remains a living
spirit, the image of eternity, for it alone comes from heaven. Thence it
comes, and thither it returns again, not accompanied by the body, but
only when it is most thoroughly separated and cleansed from it, and
become pure and incorporeal. This is the pure spirit which Herakleitus
calls the best, which darts through the body like lightning through a
cloud, whereas that which is clogged by the body is like a dull, cloudy
exhalation, hard to loose and free from the bonds of the body. There is
no reason, therefore, for supposing that the bodies of good men rise up
into heaven, which is contrary to nature; but we must believe that men's
virtues and their spirits most certainly, naturally and rightly proceed
from mankind to the heroes, and from them to the genii, and from thence,
if they be raised above and purified from all mortal and earthly taint,
even as is done in the holy mysteries, then, not by any empty vote of
the senate, but in very truth and likelihood they are received among the
gods, and meet with the most blessed and glorious end.
XXIX. Some say that the name Quirinus, which Romulus received, means
Mars; others that it was because his people were called Quirites.
Others, again, say that the spear-head or spear was called by the
ancients _Quiris_, and that the statue of Juno leaning on a spear is
called Juno Quirites, and that the dart which is placed in the Regia is
addressed as Mars, and that it is customary to present with a spear
those who have distinguished themselves in war, and therefore that it
was as a warrior, or god of war, that Romulus was called Quirinus. A
temple dedicated to him is built on the Quirinal Hill which bears his
name, and the day of his translation is called the People's Flight, and
the Nonae Caprotinae, because they go out of the city to the Goat's
Marsh on that day to sacrifice, for in Latin a goat is called _Capra_.
And as they go to the sacrifice they call out many of the names of the
country, as Marcus, Lucius, Caius, with loud shouts, in imitation of
their panic on that occasion, and their calling to each other in fear
and confusion. But some say that this is not an imitation of terror, but
of eagerness, and that this is the reason of it: after the Gauls had
captured Rome and been driven out by Camillus, and the city through
weakness did not easily recover itself, an army of Latins, under one
Livius Postumius, marched upon it. He halted his army not far from Rome,
and sent a herald to say that the Latins were willing to renew their old
domestic ties, which had fallen into disuse, and to unite the races by
new intermarriage. If, therefore, the Romans would send out to them all
their maidens and unmarried women, they would live with them on terms of
peace and friendship, as the Romans had long before done with the
Sabines. The Romans, when they heard this, were afraid of going to war,
yet thought that the surrender of their women was no better than
captivity. While they were in perplexity, a female slave named Philotis,
or according to some Tutola, advised them to do neither, but by a
stratagem to avoid both war and surrender of the women. This stratagem
was that they should dress Philotis and the best looking of the other
female slaves like free women, and send them to the enemy; then at night
Philotis said she would raise a torch, and the Romans should come under
arms and fall upon the sleeping enemy. This was done, and terms were
made with the Latins. Philotis raised the torch upon a certain fig-tree
with leaves which spread all round and behind, in such a manner that the
light could not be seen by the enemy, but was clearly seen by the
Romans. When they saw it, they immediately rushed out, calling
frequently for each other at the various gates in their eagerness. As
they fell unexpectedly upon the enemy, they routed them, and keep the
day as a feast. Therefore the Nones are called Caprotinae because of the
fig-tree, which the Romans call _caprificus_, and the women are feasted
out of doors, under the shade of fig-tree boughs. And the female slaves
assemble and play, and afterwards beat and throw stones at each other,
as they did then, when they helped the Romans to fight. These accounts
are admitted by but few historians, and indeed the calling out one
another's names in the daytime, and walking down to the Goats' Marsh
seems more applicable to the former story, unless, indeed, both of these
events happened on the same day.
Romulus is said to have been fifty-four years old, and to be in the
thirty-eighth year of his reign when he disappeared from the world.
COMPARISON OF THESEUS AND ROMULUS.
I. The above are all the noteworthy particulars which we have been able
to collect about Theseus and Romulus. It seems, in the first place, that
Theseus of his own free will, and without any compulsion, when he might
have reigned peacefully in Troezen, where he was heir to the kingdom, no
mean one, longed to accomplish heroic deeds: whereas Romulus was an
exile, and in the position of a slave; the fear of death was hanging
over him if unsuccessful, and so, as Plato says, he was made brave by
sheer terror, and through fear of suffering death and torture was forced
into doing great exploits. Moreover, Romulus's greatest achievement was
the slaying of one man, the despot of Alba, whereas Skeiron, Sinis,
Prokrustes, and Korynetes were merely the accompaniments and prelude to
the greater actions of Theseus, and by slaying them he freed Greece from
terrible scourges, before those whom he saved even knew who he was. He
also might have sailed peacefully over the sea to Athens, and had no
trouble with those brigands, whereas Romulus could not be free from
trouble while Amulius lived. And it is a great argument in favour of
Theseus that he attacked those wicked men for the sake of others, having
himself suffered no wrong at their hands; whereas the twins were
unconcerned at Amulius's tyranny so long as it did not affect
themselves. And although it may have been a great exploit to receive a
wound in fighting the Sabines, and to slay Acron, and to kill many
enemies in battle, yet we may compare with these, on Theseus's behalf,
his battle with the Centaurs and his campaign against the Amazons. As
for the courage which Theseus showed in the matter of the Cretan
tribute, when he voluntarily sailed to Crete with the youths and
maidens, whether the penalty was to be given to the Minotaur to eat, or
be sacrificed at the tomb of Androgeus, or even to be cast into
dishonoured slavery under an insolent enemy, which is the least
miserable fate mentioned by any writer, what a strength of mind, what
public spirit and love of fame it shows! In this instance it seems to me
that philosophers have truly defined love as a "service designed by the
gods for the care and preservation of the young." For the love of
Ariadne seems to have been specially intended by Heaven to save Theseus;
nor need we blame her for her passion, but rather wonder that all men
and women did not share it. If she alone felt it, then I say she
deserved the love of a god, because of her zeal for all that is best and
noblest.
II. Both were born statesmen, yet neither behaved himself as a king
should do, but, from similar motives, the one erred on the side of
democracy, the other on that of despotism. The first duty of a king is
to preserve his crown; and this can be effected as well by refraining
from improperly extending his rights as by too great eagerness to keep
them. For he who either gives up or overstrains his prerogative ceases
to be a king or constitutional ruler, but becomes either a despot or
demagogue; and in the one case is feared, in the other despised by his
subjects. Still the one is the result of kindliness of disposition, and
the other that of selfishness and ferocity.
III. If we are not to attribute their misfortunes to chance, but to
peculiarities of disposition, then we cannot acquit Romulus of blame in
his treatment of his brother, nor Theseus in that of his son; but the
greatest excuse must be made for the one who acted under the greatest
provocation. One would not have thought that Romulus would have flown
into such a passion during a grave deliberation on matters of state;
while Theseus was misled, in his treatment of his son, by love and
jealousy and a woman's slander, influences which few men are able to
withstand. And what is more, Romulus's fury resulted in actual deeds of
unfortunate result; whereas the anger of Theseus spent itself in words
and an old man's curses, and the youth seems to have owed the rest of
his suffering to chance; so here, at any rate, one would give one's
vote for Theseus.
IV. Romulus, however, has the credit of having started with the most
slender resources, and yet of having succeeded. The twins were called
slaves and the sons of a swineherd before they achieved their liberty;
yet they freed nearly all the Latin race, and at one and the same time
gained those titles which are the most glorious among men, of slayers of
their enemies, preservers of their own house, kings of their own nation,
and founders of a new city, not by transferring the population of old
ones, as Theseus did, when he brought together many towns into one, and
destroyed many cities that bore the names of kings and heroes of old.
Romulus did this afterwards, when he compelled his conquered enemies to
cast down and obliterate their own dwellings, and become fellow-citizens
with their conquerors; yet at first he did not change the site of his
city nor increase it, but starting with nothing to help him, he obtained
for himself territory, patrimony, sovereignty, family, marriage, and
relatives, and he killed no one, but conferred great benefits on those
who, instead of homeless vagrants, wished to become a people and
inhabitants of a city. He slew no brigands or robbers, but he conquered
kingdoms, took cities, and triumphed over kings and princes.
V. As for the misfortune of Remus, it seems doubtful whether Romulus
slew him with his own hand, as most writers attribute the act to others.
He certainly rescued his mother from death, and gloriously replaced his
grandfather, whom he found in an ignoble and servile position, on the
throne of Aeneas. He did him many kindnesses, and never harmed him even
against his will. But I can scarcely imagine that Theseus's
forgetfulness and carelessness in hoisting the black sail can, by any
excuses or before the mildest judges, come much short of parricide:
indeed, an Athenian, seeing how hard it is even for his admirers to
exculpate him, has made up a story that Aegeus, when the ship was
approaching, hurriedly ran up to the acropolis to view it, and fell
down, as though he were unattended, or would hurry along the road to the
shore without servants.
VI. The crimes of Theseus in carrying off women are without any decent
excuse; first, because he did it so often, for he carried off Ariadne
and Antiope and Anaxo of Troezen, and above all when he was an old man
he carried off Helen, when she was not yet grown up, and a mere child,
though he was past the age for even legitimate marriage. Besides, there
was no reason for it, for these Troezenian, Laconian, and Amazonian
maidens, besides their not being betrothed to him, were no worthier
mothers for his children than the Athenian daughters of Erechtheus and
Kekrops would have been, so we must suspect that these acts were done
out of mere riotous wantonness.
Now Romulus, though he carried off nearly eight hundred women, yet kept
only one, Hersilia, for himself, and distributed the others among the
unmarried citizens; and afterwards, by the respect, love, and justice
with which he treated them, proved that his wrongful violence was the
most admirable and politic contrivance for effecting the union of the
two nations. By means of it he welded them into one, and made it the
starting-point of harmony at home and strength abroad. The dignity,
love, and permanence with which he invested the institution of marriage
is proved by the fact that during two hundred and thirty years no man
separated from his wife or woman from her husband; but, just as in
Greece, very exact persons can mention the first instance of parricide
or matricide, so all the Romans know that Spurius Carvilius was the
first who put away his wife, upon a charge of barrenness. Events also
testify to the superior wisdom of Romulus, for, in consequence of that
intermarriage, the two kings and the two races shared the empire,
whereas, from the marriage of Theseus, the Athenians obtained no
alliance or intercourse with any nation, but only hatreds and wars and
deaths of citizens and at last the destruction of Aphidnae, and they
themselves escaped from the fate which Paris brought upon Troy, only by
the mercy of their enemies and their own entreaties and supplications.
The mother of Theseus, not nearly but quite, suffered the fate of
Hekuba, who was abandoned and given up by her son, unless the story of
her captivity is false, as I hope it is, together with much of the
rest.
Also the religious part of their histories makes a great distinction
between them. For Romulus's success was due to the great favour of
Heaven, whereas the oracle given to Aegeus, to refrain from all women in
foreign parts, seems to argue that the birth of Theseus took place
contrary to the will of the gods.
LIFE OF LYKURGUS.
I. With regard to Lykurgus the lawgiver there is nothing whatever that
is undisputed; as his birth, his travels, his death, and, besides all
this, his legislation, have all been related in various ways; and also
the dates of his birth do not in any way accord. Some say that he was
contemporary with Iphitus, and with him settled the conditions of the
Olympic truce; and among these is Aristotle the philosopher, who adduces
as a proof of it the quoit which is at Olympia, on which the name of
Lykurgus is still preserved. Others, among them Eratosthenes and
Apollodorus, by computing the reigns of the kings of Sparta,[A] prove
that he must have lived many years before the first Olympiad. Timaeus
conjectures that there were two men of the name of Lykurgus in Sparta at
different times, and that the deeds of both are attributed to one of
them, on account of his celebrity. The elder, he thinks, must have lived
not far off the time of Homer; indeed some say that he came into the
presence of Homer. Xenophon gives an idea of his antiquity when he
speaks of him as living in the time of the Herakleidae. By descent of
course the last kings of Sparta are Herakleidae, but he appears to mean
by Herakleidae the earliest of all, who were next to Herakles himself.
[Footnote A: In the Spartan constitution there were two kings, who were
believed to be descended from two brothers, Eurysthenes and Prokles, the
two sons of Aristodemus. When the descendants of Herakles returned to
Peloponnesus, and divided that country amongst them, Lacedaemon fell to
the lot of Aristodemus, who left his two sons joint heirs to the
monarchy. The kings of Sparta had little real power, and to this no
doubt they owed the fact of their retaining their dignity when every
other Hellenic state adopted a democratic form of government.]
However, in spite of these discrepancies, we will endeavour, by
following the least inconsistent accounts and the best known
authorities, to write the history of his life. Simonides the poet tells
us that the father of Lykurgus was not Eunomus, but Prytanis. But most
writers do not deduce his genealogy thus, but say that Soüs was the son
of Prokles, and grandson of Aristodemus, and that Soüs begat Euripus;
Euripus, Prytanis, and Prytanis, Eunomus. Eunomus had two sons,
Polydektes by his first wife, and Lykurgus by his second wife Dionassa,
which makes him, according to Dieutychides, sixth in descent from
Prokles, and eleventh from Herakles.
II. The most remarkable of his ancestors was Soüs, in whose reign the
Spartans enslaved the Helots, and annexed a large portion of Arcadia. It
is said that Soüs once was besieged by the Kleitorians, in a fort where
there was no water, and was compelled to conclude a treaty to restore
the territory in dispute, if he and his men were permitted to drink at
the nearest spring. After this had been agreed upon, he called his men
together, and offered his kingdom to any one who could refrain from
drinking. But as no one could do this, but all drank, last of all he
himself came down to the spring, and in the presence of the enemy merely
sprinkled his face with the water, and marched off, refusing to restore
the disputed territory, on the ground that all did not drink. But though
he gained great fame by this, yet it was not he but his son Eurypon who
gave the name of Eurypontidae to the family, because Eurypon was the
first to relax the despotic traditions of his family and render his
government more popular with the people. But as a consequence of this
the people were encouraged to demand more freedom, and great confusion
and lawlessness prevailed in Sparta for a long time, because some of the
kings opposed the people and so became odious, while others were found
to yield to them, either to preserve their popularity, or from sheer
weakness of character. It was during this period of disorder that the
father of Lykurgus lost his life. He was endeavouring to part two men
who were quarrelling, and was killed by a blow from a cook's chopper,
leaving the kingdom to his elder son Polydektes.
III. He also died after a short time, and, as all thought, Lykurgus
ought to have been the next king. And he did indeed reign until his
brother's wife was found to be pregnant; but as soon as he heard this,
he surrendered the crown to the child, if it should be a boy, and merely
administered the kingdom as guardian for the child. The Lacedaemonian
name for the guardian of a royal orphan is _prodikus_. Now the queen
made a secret proposal to him, that she should destroy her infant and
that they should live together as king and queen. Though disgusted at
her wickedness, he did not reject the proposal, but pretended to approve
of it. He said that she must not risk her life and injure her health by
procuring abortion, but that he would undertake to do away with the
child. Thus he deluded her until her confinement, at which time he sent
officials and guards into her chamber with orders to hand the child over
to the women if it was a girl, and to bring it to him, whatever he might
be doing, if it was a boy. He happened to be dining with the archons
when a male child was born, and the servants brought it to him. He is
said to have taken the child and said to those present, "A king is born
to you, O Spartans," and to have laid him down in the royal seat and
named him Charilaus, because all men were full of joy admiring his
spirit and justice. He was king for eight months in all; and was much
looked up to by the citizens, who rendered a willing obedience to him,
rather because of his eminent virtues than because he was regent with
royal powers. There was, nevertheless, a faction which grudged him his
elevation, and tried to oppose him, as he was a young man.
They consisted chiefly of the relatives and friends of the queen-mother,
who considered that she had been insultingly treated, and her brother
Leonidas once went so far in his abusive language as to hint to Lykurgus
that he knew that he meant to be king, throwing the suspicion upon
Lykurgus, if anything should happen to the child, that he would be
supposed to have managed it. This sort of language was used by the
queen-mother also, and he, grieved and alarmed, decided to avoid all
suspicion by leaving the country and travelling until his nephew should
be grown up and have an heir born to succeed him.
IV. With this intention he set sail, and first came to Crete, where he
studied the constitution and mixed with the leading statesmen. Some part
of their laws he approved and made himself master of, with the
intention of adopting them on his return home, while with others he was
dissatisfied. One of the men who had a reputation there for learning and
state-craft he made his friend, and induced him to go to Sparta. This
was Thales, who was thought to be merely a lyric poet, and who used this
art to conceal his graver acquirements, being in reality deeply versed
in legislation. His poems were exhortations to unity and concord in
verse, breathing a spirit of calm and order, which insensibly civilised
their hearers and by urging them to the pursuit of honourable objects
led them to lay aside the feelings of party strife so prevalent in
Sparta; so that he may be said in some degree to have educated the
people and prepared them to receive the reforms of Lykurgus.
From Crete Lykurgus sailed to Asia Minor, wishing, it is said, to
contrast the thrifty and austere mode of life of the Cretans with the
extravagance and luxury of the Ionians, as a physician compares healthy
and diseased bodies, and to note the points of difference in the two
states. There, it seems, he first met with the poems of Homer, which
were preserved by the descendants of Kreophylus, and observing that they
were no less useful for politics and education than for relaxation and
pleasure, he eagerly copied and compiled them, with the intention of
bringing them home with him. There was already some dim idea of the
existence of these poems among the Greeks, but few possessed any
portions of them, as they were scattered in fragments, but Lykurgus
first made them known. The Egyptians suppose that Lykurgus visited them
also, and that he especially admired their institution of a separate
caste of warriors. This he transferred to Sparta, and, by excluding
working men and the lower classes from the government, made the city a
city indeed, pure from all admixture. Some Greek writers corroborate the
Egyptians in this, but as to Lykurgus having visited Libya and Iberia,
or his journey to India and meeting with the Gymnosophists, or naked
philosophers, there, no one that we know of tells this except the
Spartan Aristokrates, the son of Hipparchus.