322. _Critolaus and the Horatii and Curiatii._--Has any writer on early
Roman history noticed the extraordinary similarity, even in the minutest
particulars, of the combat between the Horatii and Curiatii, followed by
the murder of a sister of the former by her brother, for mourning for
one of the opposite party, to whom she was betrothed, to the similar
circumstances related of Critolaus the Tegean? The chances of two such
transactions resembling each other so closely appear so very small, that
there can be no doubt of one story being a copy of the other: but which
was the original? I have no doubt the Roman historians adopted this tale
from the Greeks, to diversify the barren pages of their early history.
At all events, such a person as Critolaus undoubtedly existed, which is
more than can be averred of the Roman hero. (See _Encyc. Brit._, art.
"Critolaus.")