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good End.

Men forced to ufe bad Means for obtaining a good End.

Lycurgus, the most virtuous and perfect Ligislator that ever was, invented this unjust Practice of making the Helotes, who were ' their Slaves, drunk by Force, by so doing

to teach his People Temperancem, to the • End, that the Spartiates, seeing them so demolished and • drowned in Wine, might abhor the Excess of this Vice." And yet they were more to blame, who, of Old, gave Leave, that Criminals", to what fort of Death foever they were condemned, should be dissected alive by the Physicians, that they might make a Discovery of our inward Parts in the Life, and build their Art upon greater Certainty: For, if we must run into Excesses, 'tis more excusable to do it for the Health of the Soul, than that of the Body; as the Romans trained up the People to Valour, and the Contempt of Dangers and Death, by those furious Spectacles of Gladiators and Fencers, who fought it out till the last, cut, and killed one another in their Prefence :

Quid vefani aliud fibi vult ars impia ludi,

Quid mortes juvenum, quid fanguine pasta voluptas ° ?

i. e.

Of such inhuman Sports what further Ufe ?
What Pleasure can the Blood of Men produce?

And this Custom continued till the Emperor Theodofius's

Time.

Arripe dilatam tua, dux, in tempora famam,
Quodque patris fupereft fuccessor laudis habeto :
Nullus in Urbe cadat, cujus fit pæna Voluptas,
Jam folis contenta feris infamis arena,
Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis P.

i. e.

Prince, take the Honours destin'd for thy Reign,
Inherit of thy Father what remain,
Henceforth let none at Rome for Sport be slain.

}

Let

•m Plutarch in the Life of Lycurgus, c. 21. of Amyot's Translation.
This is reported by Celfus, who does not disapprove it. A. Corn. Celi

Medicina in Præfat. p. 7. Edit. Th. I. ab Almeloven. Amft. 1713.
• Prudent. lib. ult. v. 643. P Idem, ibid.

Let none but Beasts Blood stain the Theatre,
And no more Homicides be acted there.

It was, in Truth, a wonderful Example, and of very great Advantage for the Instruction of the People, to fee every Day before their Eyes a hundred, two hundred, nay, a thousand Couples of Men armed against one another, cut one another to Pieces with such Intrepidity, that they were never heard to utter so much as one Syllable of Weakness or Commiferation; never seen to turn back, nor so much as to make one cowardly Motion to evade a Blow, but rather exposed their Necks to the Adversaries Sword, and presented themselves to receive the Stroke. And many of them, when mortally wounded, have sent to ask the Spectators, If they were satisfied with their Behaviour? and then they lay down to give up the Ghost upon the Place. It was not enough for them to Fight and Die bravely, but chearfully too; infomuch that they were hissed and cursed, if they made any Dispute about receiving their Death. The very Maids themselves egged them on.

confurgit ad ictus :

Et quoties victor ferrum jugulo inferit, illa
Delicias ait effe fuas, pectusque jacentis
Virgo modesta jubet confervo pollice rumpi .

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The modest Virgin is delighted so
With the fell Sport, that she applauds the Blow;
And when the Victor bathes his bloody Hand
In's Fellow's Throat, and lays him on the Sand;
Then she's most pleas'd, and shews, by Signs, she'd fairn
Have him rip up the Bosom of the Slain.

The ancient Romans only imployed Criminals in this Leffon; but they afterwards imployed innocent Slaves in the Work, and even Freemen too, who fold themselves to this Effect; nay, moreover, Senators and Knights of

Rome; and alfo Women:

VOL. II.

li

4 Prudent. lib. ult. v. 617.

Nunc

Nunc caput in mortem vendunt, et funus arena,
Atque hoftem fibi quisque parat cum bella quiefcunt.

i. e.

They fell themselves to Death, and, since the Wars
Are ceas'd, each for himself a Foe prepares.

Hos inter fremitus, novosque lusus,
Stat fexus rudis, insciusque ferri,
Et pugnas capit improbus viriles.

i. e.

: Amidst these Tumults and Alarms, The tender Sex, unskill'd in Arms, Challeng'd each other to engage,

And fought, as Men, with equal Rage.

which I should think strange and incredible, if we were not accustomed every Day to fee, in our 'own Wars, many Thousands of Men, of other Nations, staking their Blood and their Lives for Money, often in Quarrels wherein they have no manner of Concern.

I

CHAP. XXIV.

Of the Roman GRANDEUR.

WILL only say a Word or two of this infinite Argument, to shew the Simplicity of those who compare the pitiful Grandeurs of these Times to that of Rome. In the feventh Book of Cicero's Familiar Epistles, (but let the Grammarians put out that Surname of Familiar, if they please, for, in Truth, it is not very proper; and they who, instead of familiar, have substituted ad familiares, may gather something to justify them for so doing,

+ Manil. Aftron. lib. iv. v. 225, 226.

• Statius, Syl. 6. lib. i. v. 52, 53, 54

out

Witness the Swiss, who, though of the fame Country, and perhaps of the same Family, ferve one against another, for Pay, in the Armies of France, Holland, &c.

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That

out of what Suetonius says, in the Life of Cafar,
• he had a Volume of Letters of his, ad familiares')
there is one directed to Cafar, being then in Gaul, where-
in Cicero repeats these Words, which were in the End of
another Letter that Cæfar had writ to him: As for Mar-
cus Furias, whom you have recommended to me, I will
• make him King of Gaul; and, if you would have me
advance any other Friend of yours, fend him to me."
It was no new Thing for a mere Citizen of Rome, as Ce-
far then was, to dispose of Kingdoms, for he took away
that of King Deiotarus from him, to give it to a Gentle-
man of the City of Pergamum, called Mithridates". And
they who writ his Life, record several Cities by him fold;
and Suetonius says, 'That he had, at once, from King
Ptolomy, near 6000 Talents, or three Millions and fix
• hundred thousand Crowns,' which was almost the same
as felling him his own Kingdom.

Tot Galata, tot Pontus, tot Lydia nummis *.

i. e.

Such Sums of Money did he raise, as these,
From Pontus, Lydia, and the Galates.

A great King deprived of bis Conquests, by a Letter from the Ro

man Senate.

:

Mark Anthony faid, 'That the Grandeur of the People of
• Rome was not so much seen in what they
• took, as in what they gave '.' Yet, many
Years before Anthony, they had dethroned
one amongst the rest with so wonderful Au-
thority, that, in all the Roman History, I
have not observed any Thing that more de-
notes the Height of their Power. Antiochus possessed all
Egypt, and was, moreover, ready to conquer Cyprus, and
other Appendixes of that Empire; when, being upon the
Progress of his Victories, C. Popilius came to him from
the Senate, and, at their first Meeting, refused to take him
by the Hand, till he had read his Letters, which after the
King had perused, and told him, he would confider of
them,

Ii2

u Lib. vii. Ep. 5. Ciceronis Cæfari Imper. w Cic. de Divinat. lib. ii. c. 37

* Claud. in Eutrop. lib. i. c. 203.

Plutarch, in the Life of Anthony, c. 8.

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them, Popilius made a Circle about him with the Stick he had in his Hand, saying, 'Return me an Answer, that I may carry it back to the Senate, before thou stirrest out of this Circle 2.' Antiochus, astonished at the Roughness of so urgent a Command, after a little Pause, replied, I will obey the Senate's Command;' and then it was that Popilius faluted him as a Friend to the People of Rome. After having quitted Claim to so great a Monarchy, and in such a Torrent of successful Fortune, upon three Words in Writing; in Earnest he had Reason, as he did, to fend the Senate Word, by his Ambassadors, that he had received their Order with the same Respect, as if it had arrived from the immortal Gods *.'

All the Kingdoms, that Augustus gained by the Right

of Conquest, he either restored to those who Why the Romans restored had lost them, or presented them to Strantheir conquered gers. And Tacitus, in Reference to this, Kingdoms to speaking of Cogidunus, King of England, gives their Owners. ⚫us a wonderful Instance of that infinite Power: 'The Romans, fays be, were, from all Antiquity, ac' customed to leave the Kings they had fubdued, in Pof• session of their Kingdoms under their Authority, that they might have even Kings to be their Slaves: Ut haberent instrumenta servitutis, et Reges. 'Tis likely, that Solyman, whom we have feen make a Gift of Hungary, and other Principalities, had therein more Respect to this Confideration, than to that he was wont to alledge, viz. • That he was glutted and overcharged with so many 'Monarchies, and fo much Dominion, as his own Va'lour, or that of his Ancestors, had acquired.'

2 Tit. Liv. lib. xiv. c. 12. a Idem, ibid. c. 23. Vitâ Julii Agricola.

b Idem, in

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CHAP.

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