 Introduction to Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. Introduction, Plutarch's Life and Writings Plutarch was born at Kiranaya, a small town on the northern confines of Biosha, about the middle of the first century of our era, and towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Claudius. He belonged to a family of ample means and generous culture, and was liberally educated. He studied at Athens, the most attractive university town in his day for both Greeks and Romans, and was a disciple of Ammonius of Lampedree, a peripatetic philosopher deeply versed in religious law. Returning to his native town, he was soon called upon to represent it as deputy to the Roman governor of the province of Greece. That he travelled extensively over Greece, visited Asia Minor, Egypt and Italy, and resided much at Rome, may be inferred from his writings, as most that is known about him must be inferred. At Rome he was in charge of certain public business, so that he had not time to learn thoroughly the Latin language, as he himself confesses in the introduction to his Demosthenes. But Greek was the language of literary and polite society at Rome, and cultivated Greeks, especially philosophers, were welcome there. As a Greek philosopher and a popularizer of Platonism, Plutarch read and lectured at Rome, much as he did in the small but select circle of his intimates and friends at home. He made and retained a large acquaintance with the prominent Romans of his day, and was familiar with the questions which most occupied the minds of men at the political centre of the world. Then, after Athenian education, generous travels, diplomatic missions, modest literary celebrity, and considerable residence at Rome, he seems to have retired to his little country home, with his books, notes, lectures, essays, and gentle philosophy, and there, in a leisure not all too much encroached upon by local majestices and certain religious offices at neighbouring Delphi, to have elaborated the sketches of his lectures and essays which have come down to us under the collective name of morals, and to have composed the work on which his fame chiefly rests, the parallel lives of Greeks and Romans. He lived through the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, and, leaving the world as he did about 120 AD, must have rejoiced at the accession of Hadrian to the imperial throne. His world had grown steadily better while he lived, and was now to enjoy its second golden age. The morals were composed for the greater part before the lives, and are an invaluable prelude to and commentary on them, especially if we would know just what manner of man the author of the lives was. They tell us, as the lives do not, of the points of view, moral and religious, from which he contemplated not this man's life or the others, but the whole life of men. Nor is it too much to affirm that of the two halves of Plutarch's writings of his lives and his morals, each constitutes a complement of the other. The one setting forth to us, and so far as this was possible, from ideal points of view, what the ancient world had accomplished in the world of action, and the other of what, in like manner, it had aimed at and accomplished in the world of thought. But even in the lives Plutarch is far more moralist than historian. Greece, after passing under Roman sway, lost sight gradually of her great men of action, and contented herself with the glories of her men of thought. Here surely the dominant Romans could not vie with her. It was to prove that the more remote past of Greece could show its law-givers, commanders, statesmen, patriots and orators, as well as the nearer and therefore more impressive past of Rome, that the parallel lives were written. With Scipio Africanus, the elder, the greatest man of Rome, Plutarch matched Epaminondas, the greatest man of Greece. This pair, or book, of lives is unfortunately lost. With Camillus, who saved Rome from the Gauls, he matched Themistocles, who saved Athens from the Persians. Then followed, as nearly as the order can be determined, for the order of the lives in our collection is not the original one, the Simon and Lecullus, the Lycurgus and Numer, the DeMosthanes and Cicero, the Pelopidas and Marcellus, the Lysander and Sulla, the Philippimen and Flamininus, the Pericles and Fabius Maximus, the Aristides and Cato major, and thirteen other pairs. Eighteen of the twenty-two pairs which have come down to us close with a formal comparison of the two careers and characters. This is often fanciful and forced, abounds in contrasts rather than resemblances, and is seldom of any special historical value, although it often has great literary charm. There are also four single lives in our collection, Artexerxes, Erratus, Galba and Otho, and we get traces of twelve more that are now lost. One of the pairs is a double one, where, to match the two Gracchi, Plutarch selects the two reforming Spartan kings, Aegis and Cleomenes. We have in all, therefore, fifty lives by Plutarch. End of introduction. Recording by Graham Redman Part 1 of Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Robin Cotter. October 2008 Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives Of the Noble Greeks and Romans Translated by Bernadotte Perrin Theseus, Part 1 Just as geographers, Ososias Senesio, crowd on to the outer edges of their maps, the parts of the earth which elude their knowledge, with explanatory notes that what lies beyond is sandy desert without water and full of wild beasts, or blind marsh, or sithian cold, or frozen sea. So in the writing of my Parallel Lives, now that I have traversed those periods of time which are accessible to probable reasoning and which afford basis for a history dealing with facts, I might well save the earlier periods, quote, what lies beyond is full of marvels and unreality, a land of poets and fabulists of doubt and obscurity, unquote. But after publishing my account of Lycurgus, the lawgiver, and Numa the king, I thought I might not unreasonably go back still farther to Romulus, now that my history had brought me near his times. And as I asked myself, it seemed to me that I must make the founder of lovely and famous Athens the counterpart and parallel to the father of invincible and glorious Rome. May I therefore succeed in purifying fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of history. But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity. It seemed to me then that many resemblances made Theseus a fit parallel to Romulus. For both were of uncertain and obscure parentage and got the reputation of dissent from gods, quote, both were also warriors as surely the whole world knoweth, unquote. And with their strength combined sagacity, of the world's two most illustrious cities moreover, Rome and Athens, Romulus founded the one and Theseus made a metropolis of the other and each resorted to the rape of women. Besides, neither escaped domestic misfortunes and the resentful anger of kindred, but even in their last days both are said to have come into collision with their own fellow citizens if there is any aid to the truth in what seems to have been told with the least poetic exaggeration. The lineage of Theseus on the father's side goes back to Eric Theus and the first children of the soil on the mother's side to Pelops. For Pelops was the strongest of the kings in Peloponnesus, quite as much on account of the number of his children as the amount of his well. He gave many daughters in marriage to men of highest rank and scattered many sons among the cities as their rulers. One of these named Pithius, the grandfather of Theseus, founded the little city of Troizen and had the highest repute as a man versed in the lore of his times and of the greatest wisdom. Now the wisdom of that day had some such form and force as that for which Hesiod was famous, especially in the sentious maxims of his works and days. One of these maxims is ascribed to Pithius, namely, quote, payment pledged to a man whose dear must be ample and certain, unquote. At any rate, this is what Aristotle, the philosopher says, and Euripides, when he has Hippolytus addressed as, quote, nursing of the pure and holy Pithius, unquote, shows what the world thought of Pithius. Now Aegeus, king of Athens, desiring to have children, he said to have received from the Pithian priestess the celebrated oracle in which she bade him to have intercourse with no woman until he came to Athens. But Aegeus thought the words of the command somewhat obscure and therefore turned aside to Troizen and communicated to Pithius the words of the god, which ran as follows, quote, loose not the wine skins jutting neck, great chief of the people, until thou shalt have come once more to the city of Athens, unquote. This dark saying Pithius apparently understood and persuaded him or beguiled him to have intercourse with his daughter, Aethra. Aegeus did so and then learning that it was the daughter of Pithius with whom he had consorted and suspecting that she was with child by him. He left a sword and a pair of sandals hidden under a great rock which had a hollow in it and was large enough to receive these objects. He told the princess alone about this and bade her if his son should be born to her from him and if when he came to man's estate he should be able to lift up the rock and take away what had been left under it to send that son to him with the tokens in all secrecy and concealing his journey as much as possible from everybody for he was mightily in fear of the sons of Pallas who were plotting against him and who despised him on account of his childlessness and they were fifty in number these sons of Pallas then he went away. When Aethra gave birth to a son he was at once named Thesius as some say because the tokens for his recognition had been placed in hiding but others say that it was afterwards at Athens when Aegeus acknowledged him as his son he was reared by Pithius as they say and had an overseer and tutor named Conidus to this man even down to the present time the Athenians sacrifice a ram on the day before the festival of Thesius remembering him and honouring him with far greater justice than they honour Solano and Parhacius who merely painted and moulded likenesses of Thesius since it was still a custom at that time for youth who were coming of age to go to Delphi and sacrifice some of their hair to the god Thesius went to Delphi for this purpose and they say there is a place there which still to this day is called the Thesia from him but he sheared only the four part of his head Justice Homer said the Abantas did and this kind of taunture was called Thesias after him now the Abantas were the first to cut their hair in this manner not under instruction from the Arabians as some suppose nor yet in emulation of the Mesians but because there were war like men and close fighters who had learned beyond all other men to force their way into close quarters with their enemies Archilochus is witness to this in the following words quote not many bows indeed will be stretched tight to the world when Aries joins men in the moll of war upon the plain but swords will do their mournful work for this is the warfare wherein those men are expert who lord it over Yuboa and are famous with this spear unquote therefore in order that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair they cut it off and Alexander of Macedon doubtless understood this to have the beards of their Macedonians shaved since these afforded the readiest hold in battle during the rest of the time then Aethra kept his true birth concealed from Thesias and a report was spread abroad by Pythias that he was begotten by Poseidon for Poseidon is highly honored by the people of Troisin and he is the patron god of their city to him they offer first fruits and sacrifice to his trident as an emblem on their coinage but when in his young manhood Thesias displayed along with his vigor of body prowess also and a firm spirit united with intelligence and sagacity then Aethra brought him to the rock told him the truth about his birth and bade him take away his father's tokens and go by sea to Athens Thesias put his shoulder to the rock and easily raised it up but he refused to make his journey by sea although safety lay in that course and his grandfather and his mother begged him to take it Prud was difficult to make the journey to Athens by land since no part of it was clear nor yet without peril from robbers and miscreants for verily that age produced men who in work of hand and speed of foot and vigor of body were extraordinary and indy fatigable but they applied their powers to nothing that was fitting or useful nay rather they exalted in monstrous insolence and reaped from their strength a harvest of cruelty and bitterness mastering and forcing and destroying everything that came in their path and as for reverence and righteousness justice and humanity they thought that most men praised these qualities for lack of courage to do wrong and for fear of being wronged and consider them no concern of men who were strong enough to get the upper hand some of these creatures Heracles cut off and destroyed as he went about but some escaped his notice as he passed by crouching down and shrinking back and were overlooked in their abjectness and when Heracles met with calamity and after the slaying of Iphetus removed into Lydia and for a long time did slaves service there and they were in the abjectness of Ommpheli then Lydia indeed obtained great peace and security but in the regions of Helus the old villanies burst forth and broke out anew there being none to rebuke and none to restrain them the journey was therefore a perilous one for travelers by land from Peloponnesus to Athens and Pythias by describing each of the miscreants at length what sort of a monster he was brought upon strangers tried to persuade Theseus to make his journey by sea but he as it would seem had long since been secretly fired by the glorious valor of Heracles and made the greatest account of that hero and was a most eager listener to those who told what manner of man he was and above all to those who had seen him and been present at some deed or speech of his and it is altogether plain that he then experienced what Themistocles many generations afterwards experienced when he said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Militiades in like manner Theseus admired the valor of Heracles until by night his dreams were of the hero's achievements and by day his ardour led him along and spurred him on his purpose to achieve the like and besides they were kinsmen being sons of cousins German for Aethra was the daughter of Pithius as Alcmini was of Lycidice and Lycidice and Pithius were brother and sister children of Hippodemia and Pelops accordingly he thought it a dreadful and unendurable thing that his famous cousin should go out against the wicked everywhere and purge land and sea of them while he himself ran away from the struggles which lay in his path his reputed father by journeying like a fugitive over the sea and bringing to his real father as proofs of his birth only sandals and a sword unstained with blood instead of at once offering noble deeds and achievements as the manifest mark of his noble birth in such a spirit and with such thoughts he set out determined to do no man any wrong but to punish those who offered him violence and so in the first place in Epidoria when Peraphities who used a club as his weapon and on this account was called Club Bearer laid hold of him and tried to stop his progress he grappled with him and slew him and being pleased with the club he took it and made it his weapon and continued to use it just as Heracles did with the lion's skin that hero wore the skin to prove how great a wild beast he had mastered and so Theseus carried the club to show that although it had been vanquished by him in his own hands it was invincible on the Isthmus too he slew Sinus Epinebender in the very manner in which many men had been destroyed by himself and he did this without practice or even acquaintance with the monster's device but showing that Valar is superior to all device and practice now Sinus had a very beautiful and stately daughter named Peragune this daughter took to flight when her father was killed and Theseus went about in search of her but she had gone off into a place which abounded greatly in shrubs and rushes and wild asparagus and with exceeding innocence and childish simplicity was supplicating these plants as if they understood her erred vowing that if they would hide and save her she would never trample them down nor burn them when however Theseus called upon her and gave her a pledge that he would treat her honourably and do her no wrong she came forth and after consorting with Theseus bore him Melanippus and afterwards lived with Deonius son of Eurytus theocalean to whom Theseus gave her for Melanippus the son of Theseus Ioxus was born who took part with Ornithus in leading a colony into Keria once it is ancestral usage with the Ioxids men and women not to burn either the asparagus thorn or the rush but to revere and honour them now the Chromionian sow which they called Thea was no insignificant creature but fierce and hard to master this sow he went out of his way to encounter and slay that he might not be thought to perform all his exploits under compulsion and at the same time because he thought that while the brave man ought to attack villainous men only in self-defense he should seek occasion to risk his life in battle with the nobler beasts however some say that Thea was a female robber a woman of murderous and unbridled spirit who dwelt in Chromion who was called sow because of her life and manners and was afterwards slain by Theseus he also slew Cyron on the borders of Megara by hurling him down the cliffs Cyron robbed the passers by according to the prevalent tradition but as some say he would insolently and wantonly thrust out his feet to strangers and bid them wash them and then while they were washing them kick them off into the sea Megarian writers however taking issue with current report and as Simonides expresses it quote waging war with antiquity unquote say that Cyron was neither a violent man nor a robber but a chastiser of robbers and a kinsman and friend of good and just men for Aeacus they say is regarded as the most righteous of Hellenys and Cycrius the Salminian has divine honors at Athens and the virtues of Pellius and Telemon are known to all men well then Cyron was a son-in-law of Cycrius father-in-law of Aeacus and the grandfather of Pellius and Telemon who were the sons of Endius daughter of Cyron and Characlo it is not likely then they say that the best of men made family alliances with the basest leaving and giving the greatest and most valuable pledges it was not they say when these his first journey to Athens but afterwards that he captured Elucis from the Megarians and killed Heracles its ruler and slew Cyron such then are the contradictions in which these matters are involved in Clusus moreover he outwrestled Cercyon the Arcadian and killed him and going on a little farther at Aearius he killed Damastes surnamed Procrustes by complimenting him to make his own body fit his bed as he had been want to do with those of strangers and he did this representation of Heracles for that hero punished those who offered him violence in the manner in which they had plotted to serve him and therefore sacrificed Bucerus wrestled and Teus to death slew sickness in single combat and killed Tirmaris by dashing in his skull it is from him indeed as they say that the name Tirmarian mischief comes for Tirmaris as it would seem used to kill those who encountered him by dashing his head against theirs thus Theseus also went on his way chastising the wicked who were visited with the same violence from him which they were visiting upon others and suffered justice after the manner of their own injustice as he went forward on his journey and came to the river Cephasis he was met by men of the race of the fit Tolide who greeted him first and when he asked to be purified by the bloodshed cleansed him with the customary rites made proprietary sacrifices and feasted him at their house this was the first kindness which he met with on his journey it was then on the 8th day of the month Cronius now called Hecatombeon that he is said to have arrived at Athens when he entered the city he found public affairs full of confusion and dissension and the private affairs of Aegeus and his household condition for Medea who had fled thither from Corinth and promised by her sorceries to relieve Aegeus of his childlessness was living with him she learned about Theseus in advance and since Aegeus was ignorant of him and was well on in years and afraid of everything because of the faction in the city she persuaded him to entertain Theseus as a stranger guest and take him off by poison Theseus accordingly coming to the banquet thought best not to tell in advance who he was but wishing to give his father a clue to the discovery when the meats were served he drew his sword as if minded to carve with this and brought it to the notice of his father Aegeus speedily perceived it dashed down the proffered cup of poison and after questioning his son embraced him and formally recognized him before an assembly of the citizens who received him gladly because of his manly valor and it is said that as the cup fell the poison was spilled where now is the enclosure in the Delphinium for that is where the house of Aegeus stood and the Hermes to the east of the sanctuary is called the Hermes at Aegeus's gate now the sons of palace had before this themselves hoped to gain possession of the kingdom when Aegeus died childless but when Theseus was declared successor to the throne exasperated that Aegeus should be king although he was only an adopted son of Pandion and in no way related to the family of Eric Theus and again that Theseus should be prospective king although he was an immigrant and a stranger they went to war and dividing themselves into two bands one of these marched openly against the city from Svetis with their father the other hid themselves at Genjetis and lay in ambush there intending to attack their enemies from two sides but there is a herald with them a man of Agnes by name Leos this man reported to Theseus the designs of the palan to die Theseus then fell suddenly upon the party lying in ambush and slew them all there upon the party with palace dispersed this is the reason they say why the township of Palin has no intermarriage with the township of Agnes and why it will not allow heralds to make their customary proclamation there of quote acuiti lioi unquote here you people for they hate the word on account of the treachery of the man Leos but Theseus desiring to be at work and at the same time courting the favor of the people went out against the Marathonian bull which was doing no small mischief to the inhabitants of the Titropolis after he had mastered it he made a display of driving it alive through the city and then sacrificed it to the Delphinian Apollo now the story of Hecale and her receiving and entertaining thesis on this expedition seems not to be devoid of all truth for the people of the townships round about used to assemble and sacrifice the Hecalesia to Zeus Hecalus and they paid honors to Hecale calling her by the diminutive name of Hecaleen because she too when entertaining Theseus in spite of the fact that he was quite a youth caressed him as elderly people do and called him affectionately by such diminutive names and since she vowed when the hero was going to his battle with the bull that she would sacrifice to Zeus if he came back safe but died before his return she obtained the above mentioned honors as a return for her hospitality at the command of Theseus written end of Theseus part one part two of volume one of Plutarch's parallel lives this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Robin Cotter October 2008 volume one of Plutarch's parallel lives of the noble Greeks and Romans translated by Bernadotte Perrin Theseus part two not long afterwards there came from Crete for the third time the collectors of the tribute now as to this tribute most writers agree that because Androgios was thought to have been treacherously killed within the confines of Attica not only did Minos harass the inhabitants of that country greatly in war but heaven also laid it waste for barrenness and pestilence smote it sorely and its rivers dried up also that when their god assured them in his commands that if they appeased Minos and became reconciled to him the wrath of heaven would abate and there would be an end of their miseries they sent heralds and entered into an agreement to send him every nine years a tribute of seven youths and as many maidens and the most dramatic version of the story declares that these young men and women on being brought to Crete were destroyed by the Minotaur in the labyrinth or else wandered about at their own will and being unable to find an exit perished there and that the Minotaur as Euripides says was a hybrid birth of monstrous shape and that two different natures man and bull were joined in him Philochorus however says that the Cretans do not admit this but declare that the labyrinth was a dungeon with no other inconvenience than that its prisoners could not escape and that Minos instituted funeral games in honour of Androgios and as prizes for the victors of these Athenian youth who were in the meantime imprisoned in the labyrinth and that the victor in the first games was the man who had the greatest power at that time under Minos and was his general Taurus by name who was not reasonable and gentle in his disposition but treated the Athenian youth with arrogance and cruelty and Aristotle himself also in his Constitution of Bottia clearly does not think that these youths were put to death by Minos but that they spent the rest of their lives as slaves in Crete and he says that the Cretans once in fulfilment of an ancient vow sent an offering of their first born to Delphi and that some descendants of those Athenians were among the victims and went forth with them and that when they were unable to support themselves there they first crossed over into Italy and dwelt in that country round about Iapigia and from there journeyed again into Thrace and were called Bottians and that this was the reason why the maidens of Bottia in performing a certain sacrifice sing as an accompaniment to Athens let us go and verily it seems to be a grievous thing for a man to be at enmity with the city which has a language and a literature for Minos was always abused and reviled in the attic theaters and it did not avail him either as Esead called him most royal or that Homer styled him a confidant of Zeus but the tragic poets prevailed and from platform and stage showered Obliki down upon him as a man of cruelty and violence and yet they say that Minos was a king and law giver and that Radamanthus was a judge under him and a guardian of the principles of justice defined by him accordingly when the time came for the third tribute and it was necessary for the fathers who had youthful sons to present them for the lot fresh accusations against Degeus arose among the people who were full of sorrow and vexation that he who was the cause of all their trouble alone had no share in the punishment but devolved the kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son and suffered them to be left destitute and bereft of legitimate children these things troubled Theseus who, thinking it right not to disregard but to share in the fortune of his fellow citizens came forward and offered himself independently of the lot the citizens admired his noble courage and were delighted with his public spirit and Egeus when he saw that his son was not to be won over or turned from his purpose by prayers or in treaties cast the lots for the rest of the youths Helenicus however says that the city did not send its young men and maidens by lot but that Minos himself used to come and pick them out and that he now pitched upon Theseus first of all following the terms agreed upon and he says the agreement was that the Athenians should furnish the ship and that the youths should embark and sail with him carrying no war-like weapon and that if the Minotaur was killed the penalty should cease on the two former occasions then no hope of safety was entertained and therefore they sent the ship with the black sail convinced that their youth were going to certain destruction but now Theseus encouraged his father and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotaur so that he gave the pilot another sail a white one ordering him if he returned with Theseus safe to hoist the white sail but otherwise to sail with the black one and so he would wait the affliction. Simonides however says that the sail given by Aegeus was not white but quote a scarlet sail died with the tender flower of luxuriant home oak unquote and that he made this a token of their safety moreover the pilot of the ship was Faraclus, son of Amorcaeus as Simonides says but Philochorus says that Theseus got from Scurus of Salamis Nesithus for his pilot and Fakes for his lookout man the Athenians at that time not yet being addicted to the sea and that Scurus did him this favour because one of the chosen youths Menaceus was his daughter's son and there was evidence for this in the memorial chapels for Nesithus and Fakes which Theseus built at Fellerum near the temple of Scurus and they say that the festival of the Cybernesia pilot's festival is celebrated in their honour when the lot was cast Theseus took those upon whom it fell from the praitoneum and went to the Delfineum where he dedicated to Apollo in their behalf his Suppliance Badge this was a bow from the sacred olive tree wreathed with white wool having made his vows and prayers he went down to the sea on the sixth day of the month of Monachon on which day even now they will send their maidens to the Delfineum to propitiate the god and it is reported that the god at Delphi commanded him in an oracle to make Aphrodite his guide and invite her to attend him on his journey and that as he sacrificed the usual she-goat to her by the seashore it became a he-goat Tregos all at once for which reason the goddess has the surname Epiturgia when he reached Crete on his voyage most historians and poets tell us that he got from Ariadne who had fallen in love with him the famous thread and that having been instructed by her how to make his way through the intricacies of the labyrinth he slew the minotaur and sailed off with Ariadne and the ewes and Ferasides says that theses also stayed in the bottoms of the Cretan ships thus depriving them of the power to pursue and Demon says also that Minos, the general of Minos was killed in a naval battle in the harbor as Theseus was sailing out but as Philochorus tells the story Minos was holding the funeral games and Taurus was expected to conquer all his competitors in them as he had done before and was grudged his success for his disposition made his power hateful and he was accused of too great intimacy with pacifae therefore when Theseus asked the privilege of entering the lists it was granted him by Minos and since it was the custom in Crete for women to view the games Ariadne was present and was smitten with the appearance of Theseus as well as filled with admiration for his athletic prowess when he conquered all his opponents Minos also was delighted with him especially because he conquered Taurus in wrestling and disgraced him and therefore gave back the ewes to Theseus besides remitting its tribute to the city Coletimus, however, gives a rather peculiar and ambitious account of these matters beginning a great way back there was, he says, a general Hellenic decree that no trireme should sail from any port with a larger crew than five men and the only exception was Jason the commander of the Argo who sailed about scouring the sea of pirates Daedalus fled from Crete in a merchant vessel to Athens Minos, contrary to the decrees pursued him with his ships of war and was driven from his course by a tempest to Sicily where he ended his life and when Ducallion his son, who was on hostile terms with the Athenians, sent them a demand that they deliver up Daedalus to him and threatened if they refused to put to death the youth whom Minos had received from them as hostages Theseus made him a gentle reply declining to surrender Daedalus who was his kinsmen and cousin being the son of Meropi the daughter of Eric Theus but privately he set himself to building a fleet part of it at home in the township of Thimo today far from the public road and part of it under the direction of Pythias in Troisen wishing his purpose to remain concealed when his ships were ready he set sail taking Daedalus and exiles from Crete as his guides and since none of the Cretans knew of his design but thought the approaching ships to be friendly Theseus made himself master of the harbour disembarked his men and got to Conossus before his enemies were aware of his approach then joining battle with them at the gate of the labyrinth he slew Ducallion and his bodyguard and since Ariadne was now of affairs he made a truce with her received back the youthful hostages and established friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans who took oath never to begin hostilities there are many other stories about these matters and also about Ariadne but they do not agree at all some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus others that she was conveyed to Noxos by sailors and there lived with Onaris the priest of Dionysus and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman quote, dreadful indeed was his passion for Aigle child of Panopias unquote this verse paces Stratus expunged from the poems of Hesiod according to Herias the Megarian just as on the other hand he inserted into the Inferno of Homer the verse quote, Theseus Perthois children of heaven unquote and all to gratify the Athenians moreover some say that Ariadne actually had sons by Theseus Onopion and Staphalus and among these is Ion of Chios who says of his own native city quote, this once Theseus' son founded Onopion unquote now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths of all men today, but a very peculiar account of these matters is published by Peon the Amethusian he says that Theseus driven out of his course by a storm to Cyprus and having with him Ariadne who was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea set her on shore alone but that he himself while trying to sucker the ship was born out to sea again the women of the island accordingly and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness brought her forged letters perpiting to have been written to her by Theseus ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail and gave her burial when she died before her child was born Peon says further that Theseus came back and was greatly afflicted and left to some of money with the people of the island and joining them to sacrifice to Ariadne and caused new little statuettes to be set up in her honor one of silver and one of bronze he says also that at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day of the month one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of women in travail and that they call the grove in which they show her tomb the grove of Ariadne, Aphrodite some of the Naxians also have a story of their own two Manuses and two Ariadnes one of whom they say was married to Dionysus in Naxos and bore him Staphalus and his brother and the other of a later time having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him came to Naxos accompanied by a nurse named Corsini whose tomb they show and that this Ariadne also died there and his honors paid her unlike those of the former first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels but the sacrifices performed in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning on his voyage from Crete Theseus put in at Delos and having sacrificed to the god and dedicated in his temple the image of Aphrodite which he had received from Ariadne he danced with his youths a dance which they say is still performed by the Delians and they are performing passages in the labyrinth and consisting of certain rhythmic involutions and evolutions this kind of dance as Dichiarcus tells us is called by the Delians the Crane and Theseus danced it round the altar called Keraton which is constructed of horns Kerata taken entirely from the left side of Tinhead they say that he also instituted and begun by him of giving a palm to the victors it is said moreover that as they drew nigh the coast of Attica Theseus himself forgot and his pilot forgot such was their joy and exultation to hoist the sail which was to have been the token of their safety to Aegeus who therefore in despair threw himself down from the rock and was dashed in pieces but Theseus putting into shore sacrificed in person the sacrifices which he had vowed to the gods at Philarum when he set sail and then dispatched a herald to the city to announce his safe return the messenger found many of the people bewailing the death of their king and others full of joy at his tidings as was natural and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands for his good news the garlands then he accepted and twined them about his herald's staff and on returning to the seashore finding that Theseus had not yet made his libations to the gods remained outside the sacred precincts not wishing to disturb the sacrifice but when the libations were made he announced the death of Aegeus there upon with tumultuous lamentation they went up in haste to the city once it is they say that to this day at the festival of the oscophoria it is not the herald that is crowned but his herald's staff and those who are present at the libations cry out allelu lo lo the first of which cries is the exclamation of eager haste and triumph the second of consternation and confusion after bearing his father Theseus paid his vows to apollo on the seventh day of the month of pionepsion for on that day they had come back to the city in safety now the custom of boiling all sorts of pulse on that day is said to have arisen from the fact that the youths who were brought safely back by Theseus put what was left of their provisions into one mess boiled it in one common pot feasted upon it and ate it all up together at that feast they also carry the so-called erisioni which is a bow of olive wreathed with wool such as Theseus used at the time of his supplication and laid in with all sorts of fruit offerings to signify that scarcity was at an end and as they go along they sing erisioni for us brings fakes and bread of the richest brings us honey in pots and oil to rub off from the body strong wine too in a beaker that one may go to bed mellow Some writers, however, say that these rites are in memory of the Heraclidae who were maintained in this manner by the Athenians, but most put the matter as I have done The ship on which Theseus sailed with the youths and returned in safety the thirty-ord galley was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Filarius. They took away the old timbers from time to time and put new and sound ones in their places so that the vessel became a standing illustration for the philosophers in the mooted question of growth some declaring that it was the same, others that it was not the same vessel It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the uscophoria for it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens on whom the lot fell at that time but picked out two young men of his acquaintance who had fresh and girlish faces but eager and manly spirits and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warm baths out of the sun, by arranging their hair and by smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with ungents. He also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their speech, their dress and their gait, and to leave no difference that could be observed and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to Crete and was undiscovered by any. And when he was come back he himself and these two young men headed a procession to carry the vine-branches. They carry these in honor of Dionysus and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story, or rather because they came back home at the time of the vintage, and the women called Diepnoferoi or supper-carriers take part in the procession and share in the sacrifice in imitation of the mothers of the young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with bread and meat for their children. The tales are told at this festival because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their children, spun out tales for them. At any rate these details are to be found in the history of Daemon. Furthermore sacred precinct was also set apart for Theseus, and he ordered the members of the families which had furnished the tribute to the Minotaur to make contributions towards sacrifice to himself. This sacrifice was super-intended by the Fatalidae, and Theseus thus repaid them for their hospitality. After the death of Aegeus, Theseus conceived a wonderful design, and settled all the residents of Attica in one city. Thus making one people of one city out of those who up to that time had been scattered about and were not easily called together for the common interests of all. Nay, they sometimes actually quarreled and fought with each other. He visited them then, and tried to win them over to his project, township by township, and clan by clan. The common folk and the poor quickly answered to his summons to the powerful he promised government without a king, and a democracy in which he should only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on an equal footing. Some he readily persuaded to this course, and others fearing his power which was already great, and his boldness chose to be persuaded rather than forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after doing away with the town halls and council chambers and magister seas in the several communities, and after building a common town hall and council chamber for all on the ground where the upper town of the present day stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic Festival. He instituted also the Metosia, or Festival of Settlement on the sixteenth day of the month Hecotombion, and this is still celebrated. Then laying aside the royal power as he had agreed, he proceeded to arrange the government, and that too with the sanction of the gods, for an oracle came to him from Delphi in answer to his inquiries about the city as follows. Quote, Theseus offspring of Aegeus, son of the daughter of Pythias, may indeed the cities to which my father has given, bounds and future fates within your citadels confines. Therefore be not dismayed, but with firm and confident spirit, council only, the bladder will traverse the seas and its surges. Quote, And this oracle they say the Sibyl afterwards repeated to the city when she cried, Quote, Bladder may be submerged, but its sinking will not be permitted. Quote, Desiring Desiring still further to enlarge the city, he invited all men thither on equal terms, and the phrase, Come hither all ye people they say was a proclamation of Theseus when he established a people as it were, of all sorts and conditions. However he did not suffer his democracy to become disordered or confused from an indiscriminate multitude streaming into it, but was the first to separate the people into noblemen and husbandmen and handicraftsmen. To the noblemen he committed the care of religious rites, the supply of magistrates, the teaching of the laws and the interpretation of the will of heaven, and for the rest of the citizens he established a balance of privilege, the noblemen being thought to excel in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness, and the handicraftsmen in numbers. And that he was the first to show a leaning towards the multitude, as Aristotle says, and gave up his absolute rule seems to be the testimony of Homer also in the catalog of ships where he speaks of the Athenians alone as a people. He also coined money and stamped it with the effigy of an ox, either in remembrance of the Marathonian bull or of Taurus, the general of Minos, or because he would invite the citizens to agriculture. From this coinage they say ten oxen and a hundred oxen came to be used as terms of valuation. Having attached the territory of Magara securely to Arca, he set up that famous pillar on the Isthmus and carved upon it the inscription giving the territorial boundaries. It consisted of two trimeters of which the one towards the east declared quote, here is not Peloponnesus but Ionia unquote, and the one towards the west quote, here is the Peloponnesus, not Ionia unquote. He also instituted the games here in emulation of Heracles being ambitious that as the Hellenys by that hero's appointment celebrated Olympian games in honor of Zeus, so by his own appointment they should celebrate Isthmian games in honor of Poseidon. For the games already instituted there in honor of Melisertes were celebrated in the night and had the form of a religious rite rather than of a spectacle and public assembly. But some say that the Isthmian games were instituted in memory of Scyron and that Theseus thus made expiation for his murder because of the relationship between them. For Scyron was a son of Canithas and Hanayoki who was the daughter of Pithius and others have it that Sinus, not Scyron, was their son and that it was in his honor rather that the games were instituted by Theseus. However that may be Theseus made a formal agreement with the Carinthians that they should furnish Athenian visitors to the Isthmian games with a place of honor as large as could be covered by the sale of the state galley which brought them thither when it was stretched to its full extent. So Hellenicus and Andron of Halacharnassus tell us. He also made a voyage into the Eucsene Sea as Philochorus and sundry others say on a campaign with Heracles against the Amazons and received Antiope as a reward of his valor. But the majority of writers including Faracides Hellenicus and Herodorus say that Theseus made this voyage on his own account after the time of Heracles and took the Amazon captive. And this is the more probable story, for it is not recorded that anyone else among those who shared his expedition took an Amazon captive. And Bion says that even this Amazon he took and carried off by means of a stratagem. The Amazons, he says, were naturally friendly to men and did not fly from Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, but actually sent him presents, and he invited the one who brought them to come on board his ship. She came on board, and he put out to sea. And a certain Menacrates history of the Bythenaean city of Nicaea says that Theseus with Antiope on board his ship spent some time in those parts and that their chance to be with him on this expedition, three young men of Athens who were brothers Unios, Thos, and Solois. This last he says fell in love with Antiope, unbeknown to the rest and revealed his secret to one of his intimate friends. That friend made overtures to Antiope who positively repulsed the attempt upon her, but treated the matter with discretion and gentleness and made no denunciation to Theseus. Then Solois in despair threw himself into a river and drowned himself and Theseus, when he learned the fate of the young man and what had caused it, was grievously disturbed and in his distress called to mind a certain oracle which he had once received at Delphi, for it had there been enjoined upon him by the Indian priestess that when in a strange land he should be sourced vexed and full of sorrow. He should found a city there and leave some of his followers to govern it. For this cause he founded a city there and called it from the Pythian god Pythopolis and the adjacent river Solois in honour of the young man, and he left there the brothers of Solois to be the city's presidents and law-givers and with them Hermas, one of the men of Athens. From him also the Pythopolitans call a place in the city the house of Hermes incorrectly changing the second syllable and transferring the honour from a hero to a god. End of Theseus Part 2 Part 3 of Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Robin Cotter October 2008 Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the noble Greeks and Romans translated by Bernadotte Perrin Theseus Part 3 Well then such were the grounds for the war of the Amazons which seems to have been no trivial nor womanish enterprise for Theseus. For they would not have pitched their camp within the city nor fought hand-to-hand battles in the neighbourhood of the pinks and the museum had they not mastered the surrounding country and approached the city with impunity. Whether now as Hellenicus writes they came round by the Cimmerian Bosporus which they crossed on the ice they doubted but the fact that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is attested both by the names of the localities there and by the graves of those who fell in battle. Now for a long time there was hesitation and delay on both sides in making the attack but finally Theseus after sacrificing to fear in obedience to an oracle joined battle with the women. This battle then was fought on the day of the month Bodromian on which down to the present time the Athenians celebrate the Bodromia. Clidemus who wishes to be minute writes that the left wing of the Amazons extended to what is now called the Amazonium and that with their right they touched the pinks at Carissa that with his left wing the Athenians fought engaging the Amazons from the museum and that the graves of those who fell were on either side of the street which leads to the gate by the chapel of Chalcodon which is now called the Piraeic Gate Here he says the Athenians were rooted and driven back by the women as far as the shrine of Humanides but those who attacked the invaders from the Palladium and Ardetus and the Lyceum drove their right wing back as far as to their camp and slew many of them as a treaty of peace was made through the agency of Hippolyta for Hippolyta is the name which Clidemus gave to the Amazon whom Thesias married not Antiope but some say that the woman was slain with the Javelin by Mulpadia while fighting at Thesias's side and that the pillar which stands by the sanctuary of Olympian earth was set up in her memory and it is not astonishing that history and events of such great antiquity should wander in uncertainty indeed we are also told that the wounded Amazons were secretly sent away to Chalcus by Antiope and were nursed there and some were buried there near what is now called the Amazonium but that the war ended in a solemn treaty is attested not only by the naming of the place adjoining the Thesium which is called Horkomossium but also by the sacrifice which in ancient times was offered to the Amazons before the festival of Thesias and the Magarians too show a place in their country where Amazons were buried on the way from the marketplace to the place called Russe where the rhomboid stands and it is said likewise that others of them died near Chironia and were buried on the banks of the little stream which in ancient times was called Thermodon but nowadays Haman concerning which names I have written in my life of Dimestines it appears also that not even Thessaly was traversed by the Amazons without opposition for Amazonian graves are to this day shown in the vicinity of Scotusa and Sinocephale so much then is worthy of mention regarding the Amazons the resurrection of the Amazons written by the author of the Thesiad telling how when Thesias married Phaedra Antiope and the Amazons who fought to avenge her attacked him and were slain by Heracles has every appearance of fable and invention Thesias did indeed marry Phaedra but this was after the death of Antiope and he had a son by Antiope Hippolytus or as Pindar says Demophoon as for the calamities which befell Phaedra and the son of Thesias by Antiope since there is no conflict here between historians and tragic poets we must suppose that they happened as represented by the poets uniformly there are however other stories also about marriages of Thesias which were neither honourable in their beginnings nor fortunate in their endings but these have not been dramatised since he is said to have carried off Anaxo, a maiden of Troisin and after slaying Sinus and Cercyon to have ravished their daughters also to have married Paribola the mother of Aeus and Faribola afterwards and Iope the daughter of Iphicles and because of his passion for Aigle the daughter of Panopias as I have already said he is accused of the desertion of many which was not honourable nor even decent and finally his rape of Helen is said to have filled Attica with war and to have brought about at last his banishment and death of which things I shall speak a little later of the many exploits performed in those days by the bravest men Herodorus thinks that Thesias took part in none except that he aided the Lapithae in war with the centaurs but others say that he was not only with Jason at Colchis but helped Melegar to slay the Caledonian boar and that hence arose the proverb not without Thesias that he himself however without asking for any ally performed many glorious exploits and that the phrase lo another Heracles became current with reference to him he also aided a drastis covering for burial the bodies of those who had fallen before the walls of the Cadmia not by mastering the Thebans in battle as Euripides has it in his tragedy but by persuading them to a truce for so most writers say and Philochorus adds that this was the first truce ever made for recovering the bodies of those slain in battle although in the accounts of Heracles it is written that Heracles was the first to give back their dead bodies to these enemies and the graves of the greater part of those who fell before Thebes are shown at Ileuthery and those of the commanders near Ileucis and this last burial was a favour which Thesias showed to a drastis the account of Euripides in his suppliance is disproved by that of Aeschylus in his Ileucinians where Thesias is made to relate the matter the friendship of Perithoas and Thesias is said to have come about in the following manner Thesias had a very great reputation for strength and bravery and Perithoas was desirous of making test and proof of it accordingly he drove Thesias's cattle away from Marathon and when he learned that their owner was pursuing him in arms he did not fly but turned back when however each beheld the other with astonishment at his beauty and admiration of his daring they refrained from battle and Perithoas stretching out his hand the first bade Thesias himself to be judge of his robbery for he would willingly submit to any penalty which the other might assign then Thesias not only remitted his penalty but invited him to be a friend whereupon they ratified their friendship with oaths after this when Perithoas was about to marry D. Damia he asked Thesias to come to the wedding and see the country and become acquainted with the Lapithae now he had invited the centaurs also to the wedding feast and when these were flown with insolence and wine and laid hands upon the women the Lapithae took vengeance upon them some of them they slew upon the spot the rest they afterwards overcame in war and expelled from the country Thesias fighting with them at the banquet and in the war Herodorus however says that this was not how it happened but that the war was already in progress when Thesias came to the aid of the Lapithae and that on his way thither he had his first sight of Heracles having made it his business to seek him out at Trachis already resting from his wandering and labours and he says the interview passed with mutual expressions of honour, friendliness and generous praise notwithstanding one might better side with those historians who say that the heroes had frequent interviews with one another and that it was that the instigation of Thesias that Heracles was initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis and purified before his initiation and tested it on account of sundry rash acts Thesias was already fifty years old according to Hellenicus when he took part in the rape of Helen who was not of a marriageable age wherefore some writers thinking to correct this heaviest accusation against him say that he did not carry off Helen himself but that when Idus and Elynsias had carried her off he received her in charge and would not surrender her to the Dioscury when they demanded her or if you will believe it that her own father Tindarius entrusted her to Thesias for fear of Enosphorus the son of Hippocoon who sought to take Helen by force while she was yet a child but the most probable account and that which has the most witnesses in its favour is as follows Thesias and Perithois Sparta in company seized the girl as she was dancing in the temple of Artemis Orthea and fled away with her their pursuers followed them no farther than to Gia and so the two friends when they had passed through Peloponnesus and were out of danger made a compact with one another that the one on whom the lot fell should have Helen to wife but should assist the other in getting another wife with this mutual understanding of the thoughts and Thesias won and taking the maiden who was not yet ripe for marriage conveyed her to Aphidne here he made his mother a companion of the girl and committed both to Aphidnes a friend of his with strict orders to guard them in complete secrecy then he himself to return the service of Perithois journeyed with him to Epirus in quest of the daughter of Eodenius the king of the Molotians this man called his wife for Saphony his daughter Quora and his dog Cerberus with which beast he ordered that all suitors of his daughter should fight promising her to him that should overcome it however when he learned that Perithois and his friend were come not to woo but to steal away his daughter he seized them both Perithois he put out of the way at once by means of the dog as he kept in close confinement meanwhile Menaceus the son of Petios grandson of Ornius and great grandson of Eric Theus the first of men as they say to affect popularity and ingratiate himself with the multitude stirred up and embittered the chief men in Athens these had long been hostile to Thesias and thought that he had robbed each one of the country nobles of his royal office and then shut them all up in a single city where he treated them as subjects and slaves the common people also he threw into commotion by his reproaches they thought they had a vision of liberty he said but in reality they had been robbed of their native homes and religions in order that in the place of many good kings of their own blood they might look obediently to one master who was an immigrant and an alien while he was thus busying himself the Tyne Deridae came up against the city and the war greatly furthered his seditious schemes indeed some writers say outright that he persuaded the invaders to come at first then they did no harm but simply demanded back their sister when however the people of the city replied that they neither had the girl nor knew where she had been left they resorted to war who had learned in some way or other of her concealment at Aphidne told them about it for this reason he was honored during his life by the Tyne Deridae and often afterwards when the Lassa demonians invaded Attica and laid waste all the country round about they spared the academy for the sake of Akademis but Dicararchus says that Eschidemis and Marathas of Arcadia were the army of the Tyne Deridae at that time from the first of whom the present academy was named Academia and from the other the township of Marathon since in accordance with some oracle he voluntarily gave himself to be sacrificed in front of the line of battle to Aphidne then they came one pitched battle and stormed the town the son of Scyron who was at that time in the army of the Dioscury was slain and that from him a place in Magara where he was buried is called Alakas but Herius writes that Alakas was slain at Aphidne by Theseus himself and cites in proof these verses about Alakas quote whom once in the plane of Aphidne where he was fighting Theseus Ravisher or Herd Helen slew unquote however it is not likely that Theseus himself was present when both his mother and Aphidne were captured at any rate Aphidne was taken and the city of Athens was full of fear but Menaceus persuaded its people to receive the Tyne Deridae into the city and show them all manner of kindness since they were waging war upon Theseus alone they demanded the first act of violence but were benefactors and saviours of the rest of mankind and their behaviour confirmed his assurances for although they were masters of everything they demanded only an initiation into the mysteries since they were no less closely allied to the city than Heracles this privilege was accordingly granted them after they had been adopted by Aphidnes as Pilius had adopted Heracles and also obtained honours like those paid to gods and were addressed as Anacus either on account of their stopping hostilities or because of their diligent care that no one should be injured although there was such a large army within the city for the phrase Anacus Echin is used of such as care for or guard anything and perhaps it is for this reason that kings are called Anactus there are also those who say that the Tindara day were called Anacus because of the appearance of their twin stars in the heavens since the Athenians use Anicus and Anakethan for Anno and Anothan signifying above or on high they say that Aethra the mother of Theseus who was taken captive at Aphidne was carried away to Lassodamon and from thence to Troy with Helen that Homer bears witness to this when he mentions as followers of Helen quote Aethra of Pithius born and climbing large-eyed and lovely unquote but some reject this verse of homers as well as the legend of Municus who was born in secret to Leodice from Demophoon and whom Aethra helped to rear in Ilium but a very peculiar and holy divergent story about Aethra is given by Easter in the thirteenth book of his attic history some write he says that Alexander Paris was overcome in battle by Achilles and Petroclas in Thessaly along the banks of the Sperchius but that Hector took and plundered the city of Troisin and carried away Aethra who had been left there this however is very doubtful now while Heracles was the guest Aedoneus the Moletian the king incidentally spoke of the adventure of Thessius and Perithoius telling what they had come there to do and what they had suffered when they were found out Heracles was greatly distressed by the inglorious death of the one and by the impending death of the other as for Perithoius he thought it useless to complain but he begged for the release of Thessius and demanded that this favor be granted him Aedoneus yielded to his prayers Thessius was set free and returned to Athens where his friends were not yet altogether overwhelmed all the sacred precincts which the city had previously set apart for himself he now dedicated to Heracles and called them Heraclia instead of Thessia for only accepted as Philochorus writes but when he desired to rule again as before and to direct the state he became involved in factions and disturbances he found that those who hated him when he went away had now added to their hatred contempt and he saw a large part of the people were corrupted and wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing silently what they were told to do attempting then to force his wishes upon them he was overpowered by demagogues and factions and finally despairing of his cause he sent his children away privately into Euboea to Elephanor the son of Chalcodon while he himself, after invoking curses upon the Athenians at Gargetis where there is to this day the place called Eritreion sailed away to the island of Scyros where the people were friendly to him as he thought and where he had ancestral estates now Lycomedes was at that time king of Scyros to him therefore Thessia supplied with the request that his lands should be restored to him since he was going to dwell there though some say that he asked his aid against the Athenians but Lycomedes, either because he feared a man of such fame or as a favor to Menaceus led him up to the high places of the land on pretense of showing him from thence his lands through him down the cliffs and killed him some however say that he slipped and fell down of himself while walking there after supper as was his custom at the time no one made any account of his death but Menaceus reigned as king at Athens while the sons of Thessias as men of private station accompanied Elephanor on the expedition to Ilium but after Menaceus died there they came back by themselves and recovered their kingdom in after times however to honor Thessias as a demigod especially by the fact that many of those who fought at Marathon against the Medes thought they saw an apparition of Thessias in arms rushing on in front of them against the Barbarians and after the Median wars in the Arkonship of Phaedo when the Athenians were consulting the oracle at Delphi they were told by the Pythian priestess to take up the bones of Thessias to give them honorable burial at Athens and guard them there but it was difficult to find the grave and take up the bones because of the inhospitable and savage nature of the Dolopians who then inhabited the island however Simon took the island as I have related in his life and being ambitious to discover the grave of Thessias saw an eagle in a place where there was the semblance of a mound pecking as they say to bring up the ground with his talons by some divine ordering he comprehended the meaning of this and dug there and there was found a coffin of a man of extraordinary size a bronze spear lying by its side and a sword when these relics were brought home on his trireme by Simon the Athenians were delighted and received them with splendid processions and sacrifices as though Thessias himself and now he lies buried in the heart of the city near the present gymnasium and his tomb is a sanctuary and a place of refuge for runaway slaves and all men of low estate who are afraid of men in power since Thessias was a champion and helper of such during his life and graciously received the supplications of the poor and needy the chief sacrifice which the Athenians make in his honor on the eighth day of the month Pionepsian the day on which he came back from Crete with the youths but they honor him also on the eighth day of the other months either because he came to Athens in the first place from Troisen on the eighth day of the month Hecotombeon as Diodorus the topographer states or because they consider this number more appropriate for him than any other since he was said to be a son to pay honors to Poseidon on the eighth day of every month the number eight as the first cube of an even number and the double of the first square fitly represents the steadfast and immovable power of this god to whom we give the epithets of secure and earth-stayer End of Thessias From whom and for what reason the great name of Rome so famous among mankind was given to that city writers are not agreed some say that the Pulaskians after wandering over most of the habitable earth and subduing most of mankind settled down on that side some say that the Pulaskians after wandering over most of the habitable earth and subduing most of mankind settled down on that side and that from their strength in war they called their city Rome others say that at the taking of Troy some of its people escaped found sailing vessels were driven by storms upon the coast of Tuscany and came to anchor in the river Tiber that here, while their women were perplexed and distressed at thought of the sea one of them who was held to be of superior birth and the greatest understanding and whose name was Roma proposed that they should burn the ships that when this was done the men were angry at first but afterwards when they had settled of necessity on the Pelotine seeing themselves in a little while more prosperous than they had hoped since they found the country good and their neighbours made them welcome they paid high honours to Roma and actually named the city after her since she had been the occasion of their founding it and from that time on they say it has been customary for the women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with a kiss for those women after they had burned the ships made use of such tender salutations as they supplicated their husbands and sought to appease their wrath others again say that the Roma who gave her name to the city was a daughter of Italus and Lucaria or in another account of Telephus the son of Heracles and that she was married to Aeneas in another version to Escanius the son of Aeneas some tells that it was Romanus a son of Odysseus and Circe who colonised the city others say that it was Romans who was sent from Troy by Diomedes the son of Emethion and others still that it was Romus tyrant of the Latins after he had driven out the Tuscans who passed from Thessaly into Lydia and from Lydia into Italy moreover even those writers who declare in accordance with the most authentic tradition that it was Romulus who gave his name to the city do not agree about this lineage for some say that he was a son of Aeneas and Dexithia the daughter of Forbus who was brought to Italy in his infancy along with his brother Romans that the rest of the vessels were destroyed in the swollen river but the one in which the boys were was gently directed to a grassy bank where they were unexpectedly saved and the place was called Roma from them others say it was Roma a daughter of the Trojan woman I've mentioned who was wedded to Latinus the son of Telemachus and bore him Romulus others that Emilia and others still rehearse what is altogether fabulous concerning his origin for instance they say that Tarchitius king of the Elbans who was most lawless and cruel was visited with a strange phantom in his house namely a phallus rising out of the earth and remaining there many days now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany from which there was brought to Tarchitius a response that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom where her son most illustrious for his vella and of surpassing good fortune and strength Tarchitius accordingly told the prophecy to one of his daughters and bade her consort with a phantom but she disdained to do so and sent a handmaiden to it when Tarchitius learned of this he was wroth and seized both the maidens proposing to put them to death but the goddess Hestia appeared to him in his sleep and forbade him the murder he therefore imposed upon the maidens the weaving of a certain weapon in their imprisonment assuring them that when they had finished the weaving of it they should then be given in marriage by day then these maidens wove but by night other maidens at the command of Tarchitius unraveled their web and when the handmaid became the mother of twin children by the phantom Tarchitius gave them to a certain teraceous with orders to destroy them this man however carried them to the riverside and laid them down there then she wolf visited the babes and gave them sac while all sorts of birds brought morsels of food and put them into their mouths until a cowherd spied them conquered his amazement, ventured to come to them and took the children home with him thus they were saved and when they were grown up they set upon Tarchitius and overcame him at any rate this is what a certain primatian says who compiled a history of Italy but the story which has the widest credence and the greatest number of vouchers was first published among the Greeks in its principal details by Diocles of Papparithus and Fabius Pictus follows him in most points here again there are variations in the story but its general outline is as follows the descendants of Aeneas reigned as kings in Elba and the succession devolved at length upon two brothers Numitar and Amulius Amulius divided the whole inheritance into two parts setting the treasures and the gold which have been brought from Troy over against the kingdom and Numitar chose the kingdom Amulius then in possession of the treasure and made more powerful by it than Numito easily took the kingdom away from his brother and fearing less that brother's daughter should have children made her a priestess of Vesta bound to live unwedded and a virgin all her days her name is variously given as Illia or Rhea or Sylvia not law after this she was discovered to be with child contrary to the established laws for the Vestals she did not however suffer the capital punishment which was her due because the king's daughter, Antho interceded successfully in her behalf but she was kept in solitary confinement that she might not be delivered without the knowledge of Amulius delivered she was of two boys and their size and beauty were more than human where for Amulius was all the more afraid and ordered the servant to take the boys and cast them away and was Fostulus according to some but others give this name to the man who took the boys up obeying the king's orders the servant put the babes into a trow and went down towards the river proposing to cast them in but when he saw that the stream was much swollen and violent he was afraid to go close up to it and setting his burden down near the bank went his way then the overflow of the swollen river took and bore up the trow floating it gently along and carried it down to a fairly smooth spot which is now called Cirmulus which formerly Germanus perhaps because brothers are called Germani now there was a wild fig tree hard by which they called Ruminalis either from Romulus as is generally thought or because cut-shoeing or ruminating animals spent the noontide there for the sake of the shade or best of all from the suckling of the babes there for the ancient romans called the teet Ruma and a certain goddess who was thought to preside over the rearing of young children is still called Rumelia in sacrificing to whom no wine is used and libations of milk are poured over her victims here then the babes lay and the she-wolf the storig here gave them suck and the woodpecker came to help in feeding them and to watch over them now these creatures are considered sacred to Mars and the woodpecker is held in a special veneration and honour by the Latins and this was the chief reason why the mother was believed when she declared that Mars was the father of her babes and yet it is said that she was deceived into doing this and was really deflowered by Emilius himself who came to her in armour and ravished her but some say that the name of the children's nurse by its ambiguity deflected the story into the realm of the fabulous for the Latins not only called she-wolves Lupe but also women of loose character and such a woman was the wife of Fostulus the foster father of the infants Akka Lorencia by name yet the Romans sacrifice also to her and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour and the festival is called Larentalia they pay honours also to another Lorencia for the following reason the keeper of the temple of Hercules being at a loss for something to do as it seems proposed to the god a game of dice with the understanding that if he wanted himself he should get some valuable present from the god but if he lost he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night on these terms the dice were thrown first for the god, then for himself when it appeared that he had lost wishing to keep faith and thinking it right to abide by the contract he prepared a banquet for the god and engaging Lorencia who was then in the bloom of her beauty but not yet famous he feasted her in the temple where he'd spread a couch and after the supper locked her in assured of course that the god would take possession of her and verily it is said that the god did visit the woman and bade her go early in the morning to the forum salute the first man who met her and make him her friend she was met accordingly by one of the citizens who was well on in years and possessed of considerable property but childless and unmarried all his life by name Terusius this man took Lorencia to his bed and loved her well and at its death left her air to many and fair possessions most of which she bequeathed to the people and that it's said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god she disappeared the spot where the former Lorencia also lies buried this spot is now called Velabrum because when the river overflowed as it often did they used to cross it at about this point in ferry boats to go to the forum and the word for ferry is velatura but some say that it is so called at that point on the street leading to the hippodrome from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle and the roman word for sail is vellum it is for these reasons that honors are paid to this second Lorencia amongst the romans as for the babes they were taken up and reared by Fostulus a swine-heart of Amelius and no man knew of it or as some say with a closer approach to probability Numitor did know of it and secretly aided the foster parents in their task and it is said that the boys were taken to Gaby to learn letters and the other branches of knowledge which are meat for those of noble birth moreover were told that they were named from Ruma the Latin word for teal Romulus and Romus or Remus because they were seen sucking the wild beast well the noble size and beauty of their bodies even when they were infants betoken their natural disposition and when they grew up Romulus gave them courageous and manly with spirits which courted apparent danger and a daring which nothing could terrify but Romulus seemed to exercise his judgment more and to have political sagacity while in his intercourse with their neighbors in matters pertaining to herding and hunting he gave them the impression that he was born to command rather than to obey with their equals or inferiors they were therefore on friendly terms but they looked down upon the overseers and chief herdsmen of the king to be no better man than themselves and disregarded both their threats and their anger they also applied themselves to generous occupations and pursuits not a steaming sloth and idleness generous but their rather bodily exercise hunting, running, driving off robbers capturing thieves and rescuing the oppressed from violence for these things indeed they were famous far and near when a quarrel arose between the herdsmen of Numeter and Amulius and some of the lettuce cattle were driven off the brothers would not suffer it but fell upon the robbers, put them to flight and intercepted most of the booty to the displeasure of Numeter they gave little heed but collected and took into their company many needy men and many slaves exhibiting thus the beginnings of seditious boldness and temper but once when Romulus was busily engaged in some sacrifice being fond of sacrifices and of divination the herdsmen of Numeter fell in with Remus as he was walking with few companions and a battle ensued after blows and wounds given and received on both sides the herdsmen of Numeter prevailed and took Remus prisoner who was then carried before Numeter and denounced Numeter himself did not punish his prisoner because he was in fear of his brother Amulius who was severe but went to Amulius and asked for justice since he was his brother and had been insulted by the royal servants the people of Alba too were incensed and thought that Numeter had been undeservedly outraged Amulius was therefore induced to hand Remus over to Numeter himself to treat him as he saw fit when Numeter came home after getting Remus into his hands he was amazed at the young man's complete superiority and stature and strength of body and perceiving by his countenance that the boldness and vigor of his soul were unsubdued and unharmed by his present circumstances and hearing that his acts and deeds corresponded with his looks but chiefly as it would seem because a divinity was aiding and assisting in the inauguration of great events he grasped the truth by happy conjecture and asked him who he was and what were the circumstances of his birth while his gentle voice and kindly look inspired the youth with confidence and hope then Remus boldly said indeed I will hide nothing from thee for thou seems to be more like a king than Amulius thou nearest and wazed before punishing but he surrenders men without a trial formally we believed ourselves my twin brother and I children of phosphorus and lorencia servants of the king but since being accused and slandered before thee and brought in peril of our lives we hear great things concerning ourselves whether they are true or not our present danger is likely to decide our birth is said to have been secret and our nursing and nurture as infants, strangers still we were cast out to birds of prey and wild beasts only to be nursed by them the wolf and the morsels of woodpecker as we lay in a little trough by the side of the great river the trough still exists and is kept safe and its bronze girdles are engraved with letters now almost effaced which may perhaps hereafter prove unavailing tokens of recognition for our parents when we are dead and gone then, numerator hearing these words and conjecturing the time which elapsed from the young man's looks welcomed the hope that flooded him and thought how he might talk with his daughter concerning these matters in a secret interview for she was still kept in the closest custody but Fostulis on hearing that Remus had been seized and delivered up to Numeter called upon Romulus to go to his aid and then told him clearly the particulars of their birth before this also he had hinted at the matter darkly and revealed enough to give them ambitious thoughts when they dwelled upon it he himself took the trough and went to see Numeter full of anxious fear lest he might not be in season naturally enough the guards at the king's gate were suspicious of him and when he was scrutinized by them and made confused replies to their questions he was found to be concealing the trough in his cloak now by chance there was among the guards one of those who had taken the boys to cast them into the river and were concerned in their exposure this man now seeing the trough and recognizing it by its make and description conceived the suspicion of the truth and without any delay told the matter to the king and brought the men before him to be examined in these dire and pressing straits Fostulus did not entirely hold his own nor yet was his secret holy force from him he admitted that the boys were alive and well but said they lived at a distance from Elba as herdsmen he himself was carrying the trough to Ilya who had often yearned to see and handle it in confirmation of her hope for her children as then men naturally fair who are confounded and act with fear or in a passion so it fell out that Amulius fed for he sent in all haste an excellent man and a friend of Numitus with orders to learn from Numitur whether any report had come to him of the children's being alive when accordingly the man was come and beheld Remus almost in the affectionate embraces of Numitur he confirmed them in their confident hope and untreated them to proceed at once to action promptly joining their party himself and furthering their cause and the opportunity admitted of no delay even had they wished it for Romulus was now closed at hand and many of the citizens who hated and feared Amulius were running forth to join him he was also leading a large force with him divided into companies of a hundred men each company headed by a man who bore aloft a handful of hay and shrubs tied round the pole a Latin word for handful is manipulus and hence in their armies they still call a man in such companies manipularis and when Remus incited the citizens to revolt and at the same time Romulus attacked from without the tyrant without taking a single step or making any plan for his own safety from sheer perplexity and confusion was seized and put to death although most of these particulars are related by Fabius and Diocles of Paparithus who seems to have been the first to publish a founding of Rome some are suspicious of their fictitious and fabulous quality but we should not be incredulous to see what a poet fortune sometimes is and when we reflect that the Roman state would not have attained to its present power had it not been of a divine origin and one which was attended by great marvels Amulius being now dead and Metis settled in the city the brothers were neither willing to live in Alba unless as its rulers nor to be its rulers while their grandfather was alive having therefore restored the government to him and paid fitting honors to their mother they resolved to dwell by themselves and to found a city in the region where at the first they were nourished and sustained this surely seems a most fitting reason for their cause but perhaps it was necessary now that many slaves and fugitives were guarded about them either to disperse these and have no following at all or else to dwell apart with them for the residents of Alba would not consent to give the fugitives the privilege of intermarriage with them nor even receive them as fellow citizens is clear in the first place from the rape of the Sabine women which was not a deed of wanton daring but one of necessity owned to the lack of marriages by consent for they certainly honored the women when they had carried them off beyond measure and in the second place when their city was first founded they made a sanctuary of refuge for all fugitives which they called the Sanctuary of the God of Asylum there they received all who came delivering none up they moved to masters nor debtor to creditors nor murderer to magistrates but declaring it to be an obedience to an oracle from Delphi that they made the asylum secure for all men therefore the city was soon full of people for they say that the first houses numbered no more than a thousand this however was later but when they set out to establish their city a dispute at once arose concerning the site Romulus accordingly built Roma Quadrata square and wished to have the city on that site but Remus laid out a strong precinct on the Aventine hill which was named from him Rimonium but now is called Ragnarium agreeing to settle their quarrel by the flight of birds of Omen and taking their seats on the ground apart from one another six vultures they say were seen by Remus and twice that number by Romulus some however say that whereas Remus truly saw his six lied about his twelve but that when Remus came to him then he did see the twelve hence it is that the present time also the Romans chiefly regard vultures when they take auguries from the flight of birds Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules also was glad to see a vulture present itself when he was upon an exploit for it is the least harmful of all creatures injures no grain, fruit tree or cattle and lives on carrion it does not kill or maltreat anything that has life and as for birds it will not touch them even when they are dead since they are of its own species but eagles, owls and hawks smite their own kind when alive and kill them and yet in the words of Escalus how shall a bird that preys on fellow bird be clean besides other birds are so to speak always in our eyes and let themselves be seen continually but the vulture is a rare sight and it is not easy to come upon a vulture's young nay, some men have been led into a strange suspicion that the birds come from some other and foreign land to visit us here so rare and intermittent is their appearance which soothsayrus think should be true of what does not present itself naturally nor spontaneously but by a divine sending when Remus knew of the deceit he was enraged and as Romulus was digging a trench where his city's wall was to run he ridiculed some parts of the work and obstructed others at last, when he leapt across it he was smitten by Romulus himself as some say, according to others by Sila, one of his companions and fell dead there Faustulus also fell in the battle as well as Plestinus who was a brother of Faustulus and assisted him in rearing Romulus and Remus Sila at any rate but took himself to Tuscany and from him the Romans call such Quintus Matellus, for instance when his father died took only a few days to provide gladiatorial contests in his honor and the people were so amazed at his speed in preparing them that they gave him the surname of Sila Romulus buried Remus together with his foster fathers in the Ramonia and then set himself to building his city after summoning from Tuscany men who prescribed all the details in accordance with certain sacred ordinances and writings to him as in a religious rite a circular trench was dug around what is now the Commitium and in this were deposited first fruits of all things the use of which was sanctioned by custom as good and by nature as necessary and finally every man brought a small portion of the soil of his native land and these were cast in among the first fruits and mingled with them they call this trench as they do the heavens by the name of Mundus then taking this as a center they marked out the city in a circle around it and the founder having shot a plow with a brazen plowsher and having yoked to it a bull and a cow himself drove a deep furrow round the boundary lines while those who followed after him had to turn the clots which the plow threw up inwards towards the city and suffer no clot to lie turned outwards with this line they mark out the cause of the wall and it is called by contraction Primerium that is post Muram behind or next the wall and where they proposed to put in a gate there they took to share out of the ground lift the plow over and left a vacant space and this is the reason why they regard all the wall as sacred except the gates but if they held the gates sacred it would not be possible without religious scruples to bring into and sent out of the city things which are necessary and yet unclean and verumulus part one