 Part 5 of Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anna Simon. Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Romulus, Part 2. Now it is agreed that the city was founded on the 21st of April, and this day the Romans celebrate with a festival, calling it the birthday of their country. And at first, as it is said, they sacrificed no living creature at that festival, but thought they ought to keep it pure and without stain of blood, since it commemorated the birth of their country. However, even before the founding of the city, they had a pastoral festival on that day, and called it Perilia. At the present time, indeed, there is no agreement between the Roman and Greek months, but they say that the day on which Romulus founded his city was precisely the thirtieth of the month, and that on that day there was a conjunction of the sun and moon with an eclipse, which they think was the one seen by Antimachus, the epic poet of Teos, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. And in the times of Vero, the philosopher, a Roman who was most deeply versed in history, but lived Terusius, a companion of his, who, besides being a philosopher and a mathematician, had applied himself to the art of casting nativities, in order to indulge a speculative turn of mind, and was thought to excel in it. To this man, Vero gave the problem of fixing the day and hour of the birth of Romulus, making his deductions from the conjunctions of events reported in the man's life, just as the solutions of geometrical problems are derived. For the same science, he said, must be capable not only of foretelling a man's life when the time of his birth is known, but also from the given facts of his life of hunting out the time of his birth. This task then, Terusius performed, and when he had taken a survey of the man's experiences and achievements, and had brought together the time of his life, the manner of his death, and all such details, he very courageously and bravely declared that Romulus was conceived in his mother's womb in the first year of the Second Olympiad, in the month co-ec of the Egyptian calendar, on the twenty-third day, and in the third hour, when the sun was totally eclipsed, and that he was born in the month Thoth, on the twenty-first day at sunrise, and that Rome was founded by him on the ninth day of the month Pharmuti, between the second and third hour. For it is thought that a city's fortune, as well as that of a man, has a decisive time, which may be known by the position of the stars at its very origin. These and similar speculations will perhaps attract readers by their novelty and extravagance, rather than offend them by their fabulous character. When the city was built in the first place, Romulus divided all the multitude that were of age to bear arms into military companies, each company consisting of 3,000 footmen and 300 horsemen. Such a company was called Allegion, because the war-like were selected out of all. In the second place he treated the remainder as a people, and this multitude was called Populus, a hundred of them who were the most eminent he appointed to be councillors, calling the individuals themselves patricians, and their body a senate. Now the word senate means literally a council of elders, and the councillors were called patricians, as some say, because they were fathers of lawful children, or rather, according to others, because they could tell who their own fathers were, which not many could do of those who first streamed into the city, according to others still, from patronage, which was their word for the protection of inferiors, and is so to this day. And they suppose that a certain patron, one of those who came to Italy with Evander, was a protector and defender of the poor and needy, and left his own name in the word which designates subjectivity. But the most reasonable opinion for anyone to hold is that Romulus thought it a duty of the foremost and most influential citizens to watch over them more lowly with fatherly care and concern, while he taught the multitude not to fear their superiors, nor be vexed at their honours, but to exercise good will towards them, considering them and addressing them as fathers, whence their name of patrici. For down to the present time, foreign peoples call the members of their senate chief men, but the Romans themselves call them conscript fathers, using that name which has the greatest dignity and honour, and awakens the least envy. At first then they called them simply fathers, but later when more had been added to their number they addressed them as conscript fathers. By this more imposing title Romulus distinguished the senate from the commonality, and in other ways too he separated the nobles from the multitude, calling the one patrons, that is to say protectors, and the other clients, that is to say dependents. At the same time he inspired both classes with an astonishing good will towards each other, and one which became the basis of important rights and privileges. For the patrons advised their clients in matters of custom, and represented them in courts of justice, in short, where their counsellors and friends in all things, while the clients were devoted to their patrons, not only holding them in honour, but actually, in cases of poverty, helping them to dour their daughters and pay their debts. And there was neither any law nor any magistrate that could compel a patron to bear witness against a client, or a client against a patron. But in later times, while all other rights and privileges remained in fools, the taking of money by those of high degree from the more lowly was held to be disgraceful and ungenerous, so much then on these topics. It was in the fourth month after the founding of the city, as Fabius writes, that the rape of the Sabine women was perpetrated. And some say that Romulus himself, being naturally fond of war, and being persuaded by sundry oracles, too, that it was the destiny of Rome to be nourished and increased by wars till she became the greatest of cities, thereby merely began unprovoked hostilities against the Sabines. For he did not take many maidens, but thirty only, since what he wanted was war rather than marriages. But this is not likely. On the contrary, seeing his city filling up at once with aliens, few of whom had wives, while the greater part of them, being a mixed rabble of needy and obscure persons, were looked down upon and expected to have no strong cohesion, and hoping to make the outrage an occasion for some sort of blending and fellowship with the Sabines after their women had been kindly untreated, he set his hand to the task and in the following manner. First a report was spread abroad by him that he had discovered an altar of a certain guard hidden underground. They called this guard census, and he was either a guard of council, for conciliam is still their word for council, and they call their chief magistrates consuls, that is to say, counsellors, or an equestrian Neptune. For the altar is in the circus maximus, and is invisible at all other times, but at the chariot races it is uncovered. Some, however, simply say that since council is secret and unseen, it is not unreasonable that an altar to the guard of council should be hidden underground. Now, when this altar was discovered, Romulus, appointed by proclamation, a splendid sacrifice upon it, with games and a spectacle open to all people, and many where the people who came together, while he himself sat in front among his chief men, clad in purple. The signal that the time had come for the onslaught was to be his rising and folding his cloak, and then throwing it round him again. Armed with swords, then, many of his followers kept their eyes intently upon him, and when the signal was given, drew their swords, rushed in with shouts, and ravished away the daughters of the Sabines, but permitted and encouraged the men themselves to escape. Some say that only thirty maidens were seized, and that from these the Curie were named. But Valerius Antheus puts the number at 527, and Juba at 683, all maidens, and this was the strongest defence which Romulus could make, namely, that they took only one married woman, Hercilia, and her by mistake, since they did not commit the rape out of wantonness, nor even with the desire to do mischief, but with the fixed purpose of uniting and blending the two peoples in the strongest bonds. As for this Hercilia, some say that she was married to Hercilius, a most eminent Roman, and others to Romulus himself, and that she also bore him children, one daughter, Prima, so called from the Order of Birth, and one son only, whom Romulus named Aeolius, from the great concourse of citizens under him, but later ages Avileus. However, Senodotus of Truson, who gives us this account, is contradicted by many. Among those who ravished away the maidens at that time, it chanced they say that certain men of Minasult were dragging along a damsel who far surpassed the rest in beauty and stature, and when some men of superior rank met them and tried to rob them of their prize, they cried out that they were conducting the girl to Telaeces, a young man but one of excellent repute. The other party then, on hearing this, shouted and clapped their hands in approval, and some of them actually turned back and accompanied them, out of good will and favour to Telaeces, shouting his name as they went along. Hence, indeed, down to the present time, Telaeces is a nuptial cry of the Romans, as Himanias is of the Greeks, for they say that Telaeces was fortunate in his wife. But Sexius Sulla, the Cartaginian, a man who lacks neither learning nor charm, told me that Telaeces was the word which Romulus gave as a watchword for the rape. All those therefore, who took the maidens away, shouted Telaeces, and on this account the custom now prevails at marriages. But most writers are of the opinion, and Juba is one of them, that their cry is an exhortation and incitement to industry, and Telaeces as the Greeks call spinning, Italian words having not yet at that time entirely submerged the Greek. Now, if this is right and the Romans did at that time use the word Telaeces for spinning, as we do, then a more credible reason for the custom might be conjectured as follows. And the Sabines, after their war against the Romans, were reconciled with them, it was agreed that their women should perform no other tasks for their husbands than those which were connected with spinning. It was customary, therefore, at subsequent marriages, for those who gave the bride away, or escorted her to her new home, or simply looked on, to cry Telaeces merrily, in testimony that the woman was led home for no other task than that of spinning. And it continues to be a custom down to the present time that the bride shall not of herself cross the threshold into her new home, but be lifted up and carried in, because the Sabine women were carried in by force, and did not go in of their own accord. And some say also that the custom of parting the bride's hair with the head of a spear is a reminder that the first marriage was attended with war on fighting, on which topic I have spoken more fully in my Roman questions. Having such matters aside, the rape was committed on the eighteenth day of the month, once called sexilis, but now august, on which day the festival of the consulia is celebrated. Now the Sabines were numerous and warlike people, and dwelt in unwalled villages, thinking that it behoved them, since they were less demonian colonists, to be bold and fearless. Nevertheless, seeing themselves bound by precious hostages and fearing for their daughters, they sent ambassadors with reasonable and moderate demands, namely that Romulus should give back to them their maidens, disavow his deed of violence, and then, by persuasion and legal enactment, establish a friendly relationship between the two peoples. But Romulus would not surrender their maidens, and demanded that Sabines should allow community of marriage with the Romans, whereupon they all held long deliberations and made extensive preparations for war. But there was one exception. Akron, king of the Kinnenensis, a man of courageous spirit and skilled in war, had been suspicious of the daring deeds of Romulus from the beginning, and now that this violence had been done in the women, thinking him a menace to all peoples, and intolerable, unless chastised, at once rose up in arms, and with a great force advanced against him. Romulus also marched out to meet him. But when they were face to face, and had surveyed each other, they challenged mutually to single combat before battle, while their armies remained quiet on their arms. Romulus then, after making avow that if he should conquer and overthrow his adversary, he would carry home the man's armor and dedicated in person to Jupiter, not only conquered and overthrew him, but also routed his army in the battle which followed, and took his city as well. To the captured citizens, however, he did no harm beyond ordering them to tear down their dwellings and accompany him to Rome, where, he promised them, they should be citizens on equal terms with arrest. Now, this, more than anything else, was what gave increase to Rome. She always united and incorporated with herself those whom she conquered. But Romulus, after considering how he might perform his vow in a manner most acceptable to Jupiter, and accompany the performance with a spectacle most pleasing to the citizens, cut down a monstrous oak that grew in the camp, hooted into the shape of a trophy, and fitted and fastened to it the armor of Akron, each piece in its due order. Then he himself, girding his raiment about him and reading his flowing locks with laurel, set the trophy on his right shoulder, where it was held erect, and began a triumphal march, leading off in a peon of victory which his armies sang as it followed under arms, and being received by the citizens with joyful amazement. This procession was the origin and model of all subsequent triumphs, and the trophy was styled a dedication to Jupiter ferritaries, so named from the Roman word ferrira, to smite, for Romulus vowed to smite his foe, and overthrow him. And such spoils were called a perna, because as Varus says, opus is the Roman word for richness, but it would be more plausible to say that they were so called from the deed of valor involved, since opus is the Roman word for deed or exploit, and only to a general who with his own hand has performed the exploit of slaying an opposing general has the privilege of dedicating this spolia opiuma been granted. Furthermore only three Roman leaders have attained this honor. Romulus first, for slaying Akron the Kinninensian, next Cornelius Cossus, for curling Ptolemnius the Tuscan, and lastly Claudius Marcellus, for overpowering Brithomartus, king of the Gauls. Cossus indeed and Marcellus already used the full horse chariot for their entrance into the city, carrying the trophies themselves, but Dionysius is incorrect in saying that Romulus used the chariot, for it is a matter of history that Tarquin, the son of Demoratus, was first of the kings to lift triumphs up to such pomp and ceremony, although others say that Publicola was first to celebrate a triumph riding on a chariot, and the statues of Romulus bearing the trophies are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot. After the capture of the Kinninensians, while the rest of the Sabines were still busy with their preparations, the people of Fidani, Crustamerium, and Entemni banded together against the Romans, and in a battle which ensued they were likewise defeated and surrendered to Romulus their cities to be seized, their territory to be divided, and themselves to be transported to Rome. Romulus distributed among the citizens all the territory there is acquired, accepting that which belonged to the parents of the ravaged maidens, this he severed its onus to keep for themselves. At this the rest of the Sabines were enraged, and after appointing Taceus their general marched upon Rome. The city was difficult of access, having as its fortress the present capital, on which a guard had been stationed, with Tarpeas as its captain, not Tarpea, a maiden, as some say, thereby making Romulus a simpleton. But Tarpea, a daughter of the commander, betrayed the citadel to the Sabines, having set her hard on the golden armlets which she saw them bearing, and she asked as payment for her treachery that which they wore on their left arms. Taceus agreed to this, whereupon she opened one of the gates by night, and let the Sabines in. Antigonus was not alone then, in saying that he loved men who offered to betray, but hated those who had betrayed, nor yet Caesar, in saying of the Thracian, Rheumatelcus, that he loved treachery, but hated a traitor. But this is a very general feeling towards the base on the part of those who need their services, just that they need certain wild creatures for their venom and goal. For while they feel the need of them, they put up with them, but uphold their vileness when they have obtained from them what they want. This too was the feeling which Taceus then had towards Tarpea, when he ordered his Sabines, mindful of their agreement, not to begrudge the girl anything they wore on their left arms. And he was first to take from his arm not only his armlet, but at the same time his shield, and cast them upon her. All his men followed his example, and the girl was smitten by the gold, and buried under the shields, and died from the number and weight of them. And Tarpea's also was convicted of treason, when prosecuted by Romulus, as, according to Juba, supecious Galba relates. Of those who write differently about Tarpea, they are worthy of no belief at all who say that she was a daughter of Taceus, the leader of the Sabines, and was living with Romulus under compulsion, and acted and suffered as she did, at her father's behest. Of these, Antigonus is one, and Semelus, the poet, is altogether absurd in supposing that Tarpea betrayed the capital not to the Sabines, but to the Gauls, because she had fallen in love with her king. These are his words. And Tarpea, who dwelled hard by the Capitolian steep, became the destroyer of the walls of Rome. She longed to be the wedded wife of the Gallic chieftain, and betrayed the homes of her fathers. And a little after, speaking of her death, her, the boy, and the myriad tribes of Gauls, did not exulting cast amid the currents of the Poe, but hurled the shields from their belligerent arms upon the hateful maid, and made their ornament her doom. However, Tarpea was buried there, and the hill was called from her Tarpeas, until King Tarquin dedicated the place to Jupiter, when her bones were removed, and the name of Tarpea died out, except that a cliff on the capital is still called the Tarpean Rock, from which they hurl malefactors. The citadel, thus occupied by the Sabines, Romulus angrily challenged them to battle, and Tejas was bold enough to accept, since he saw that the Sabines, if worsted, had a strong place of retreat. For the intervening space in which they were to join battle, being surrounded by many hills, seemed to impose upon both parties a sharp and grievous contest, owing to the difficulties of the field, where flight and pursuit must be narrowly confined and short. It happened, too, since the river had overflowed not many days before, that a deep and blind slime had been left in the valley where the forum is now. Wherefor it was not apparent to the eye, nor yet easy to avoid, and besides it was soft beneath the surface and dangerous. Onto this the Sabines were ignorantly rushing when a piece of good fortune befell them. Kirches, a conspicuous man among them, eager for glory and high design, was advancing on horseback far in front of the rest, when his horse sank in the gulf of mud. For some time he tried to drive him out with blows and cries of encouragement, but since it was impossible he abandoned his horse and saved himself. Accordingly the place to this day is called from him, but the Sabines, having avoided this peril, fought a sturdy fight, and one which was indecisive, although many fell, among whom was hostilius. This man, they say, was husband of Hercilia, and grandfather to the hostilius who was king after Numa. Afterwards, many conflicts raged within a short time, as might be expected, but one is most memorable, namely the last in which Romulus was hit on the head with a stone and almost fell to the ground, abandoning his resistance to the Sabines. The Romans thereupon gave way and began to fly to the Palatine, now that they were repulsed from the plain. But presently Romulus, recovering from his blow, wished to stem the tide of fugitives and renew the battle, and called upon them with a loud voice to stand and fight. But as the waves of flight encompassed him and no man there to face about, he stretched his hands towards heaven and prayed Jupiter to stay his army, and not suffer the Roman cause to fall, but to restore it. No sooner was his prayer ended than many stopped out of reverence for their king, and courage returned to the fugitives. They made their first stand then, where now is the temple of Jupiter's tater, which epithet might be interpreted as stea. Then they closed their ranks again, and drove the Sabines back to where the so-called Rija now stands, and the temple of Vesta. Here as they were preparing to renew the battle, they were checked by a site that was wonderful to behold, and a spectacle that passes description. The ravished daughters of the Sabines were seen rushing from every direction, with shouts and lamentations, through the armed men and the dead bodies, as if in a frenzy of possession, up to their husbands and their fathers, some carrying young children in their arms, some veiled in their dishevelled hair, and all calling with the most endearing names, now upon the Sabines, and now upon the Romans. So then both armies were moved to compassion, and drew apart to give the women place between the lines of battle. Sorrow ran through all the ranks, and abundant pity was stirred by the sight of the women, and still more by their words, which began with argument and reproach, and ended with supplication and entreaty. Wherein, pray, they said, have we done you wrong or harm that we must suffer in the past and must still suffer now such cruel evils. We were violently and lawlessly ravished away by those to whom we now belong, but though thus ravished, we were neglected by our brethren and fathers and kinsmen until time had united us by the strongest ties with those whom we had most hated, and made us now fear for those who had treated us with violence and lawlessness, when they go to battle and mourn for them when they are slain. For ye did not come to avenges upon our ravishes while we were still maidens, but now ye would tear wives from their husbands and mothers from their children, and the sucker we're with you would now sucker us, wretched women that we are, is more pitiful than your former neglect and abandonment of us. Such is the love which we have here enjoyed, such the compassion shown to us by you. Even if you were fighting on other grounds, it were meat that ye should cease for our sakes, now that ye are become fathers-in-law and grandsires and have family ties among your enemies. If, however, the war is on our behalf, carries away with your sons-in-law and their children, and so we store to us our fathers and kindred, but do not rob us of our children and husbands, let us not, we beseech you, become prisoners of war again. Many such appeals were made by Hesilia, and the other women added therein treaties, until a truce was made, and the leaders held a conference. Meanwhile the women brought their husbands and their children and presented them to their fathers and brothers. They also carried food and drink to those that wanted, and bore the wounded to their homes for tender nursing. Here they also made it evident that they were mistresses of their own households, and that their husbands were attentive to them, and showed them all honour with good will. Thereupon agreements were made that such women as wish to do so might continue to live with their husbands, exempt as a foreset from all labour and all drudgery except spinning. Also that the city should be inhabited by Romans and Sabines in common, and that the city should be called Rome from Romulus, but all its citizens queried from the native city of Teces, and that Romulus and Teces should be joint kings and leaders of the army. The place where these agreements were made is at this day called Commissium, from the Roman word coniere, or coere, to come together. End of Romulus Part 2. Part 6 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, recording by Anna Simon. Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadette Perrin. Romulus Part 3. The city thus doubled in its numbers, a hundred of the Sabines were added by election to the Patricii, and the legions were enlarged to 6,000 footmen and 600 horsemen. The people, too, were arranged in three bodies, the first called Remnenses, from Romulus, the second Tecienses, from Teces, and the third Lucerenses, from the grove into which many bit took themselves for refuge when a general asylum was offered, and then became citizens. Now the Roman word for grove is Lusus. That these bodies were three in number, their very name testifies, for to this day they called them tribes, and their chief officers tribunes, and each tribe had ten freetrees, or brotherhoods, which, as some say, were named after the thirty Sabine women. But this seems to be false, since many of them bear their names of places. However, they did make many other concessions to the women, to do them on a, some of which are as follow, to give them the right of way when walking, not to utter any indecent word in the presence of a woman, that no man should be seen naked by them, or else that he be liable to prosecution before the judges of homicide, and that their children should wear a sort of necklace, the bella, so called from its shape, which was that of a bubble, and a robe bordered with purple. The two kings did not at once hold council in common with one another, but each at first sat with his own hundred councillors apart, then afterwards they united them all into one body, as at the present time. Taceous dwelt where now is a temple of Manita, and Romulus beside the so-called Steps of Fershaw. These are near the descent into the Circus Maximus from the Palatine. There also it is said, grew the sacred Cornal Tree, of which the following tale is told. Romulus once, in trial of his strength, cast thither from the Evantine Hill a spear, the shaft of which was made of Cornal wood. The head of the spear sank deep into the ground, and no one had strength to pull it up, though many tried, but the earth, which was fertile, cherished the wooden shaft, and sent up shoots from it, and produced a Cornal trunk of good size. Those who came after Romulus preserved this with religious care as one of the most sacred objects, and walled it in. And if any visitor thought that it was not green nor flourishing, but likely to wither away and die, he immediately proclaimed it loudly to all he met, and these, as though helping to save a house on fire, would cry, Water! Water! and run together from all sides, carrying full buckets still place. But when Caeser, as they say, was repairing the steps about the enclosure, and the workmen dug here and there in the neighborhood, the roots were inadvertently destroyed, and the tree withered away. The Sabines then adopted the Roman months, about which I have written sufficiently in my life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, made use of their oblong shields, and changed his own armor and that of the Romans, who before that carried round shields of the Argyve pattern. Feasts and sacrifices they shared with one another, not discarding any which the two peoples had observed before, but instituting other new ones. One of these is the Metronalia, which was bestowed upon the women to commemorate their putting a stop to the war, and another is the Carmentalia. This Carmenta is thought by some to be a fate presiding over human birth, and for this reason she is honored by mothers. Others, however, say that the wife of a vendor, the Arcadian, who was a prophetess and inspired to utter oracles in verse, was therefore surnamed Carmenta, since Carmena is their word for verses, her own proper name being Nicostrati. As to her own name there is general agreement, but some more probably interpret Carmenta as meaning bereft of mind, because of her ecstasies and her inspiration, since Carreira is the Roman word for to be bereft, and mens for mind. Of the Parilia I have spoken before. As for the Luprachalia, judging by the time of its celebration it would seem to be a feast of purification, for it is observed on the inauspicious days of the month of February, which name can be interpreted to mean purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called Fibrata. But the name of the festival has the meaning of the Greek Lychia, or Feast of Wolves, which makes it seem of great antiquity and derived from the Arcadians in the following of Vivander. Indeed, this meaning of the name is commonly accepted, for it can be connected with the she-wolf of the story. And besides, we see that the Luperzi begin their course around the city at that point where Romulus is said to have been exposed. However, the actual ceremonies of the festival are such that the reason for the name is hard to guess, for the priests slaughter goats, and then, after two youths of noble birth have been brought to them, some of them touch their forts with a bloody knife, and others wipe the stain off at once with wool dipped in milk. The youths must laugh after their forts are wiped. After this they cut the goats' skins into strips and run about with nothing on but a girdle, striking all who meet them with the thongs, and young married women do not try to avoid their blows, fencing that they promote conception and easy childbirth. A peculiarity of the festival is that the Luperzi sacrifice a dog also. A certain Butis, who wrote fabulous explanations of Roman customs in elegiac verse, says that Romulus and Remus, after their victory over Amulius, ran exultantly to the spot where, when they were babes, the she-woolf gave them suck, and that the festival was conducted in imitation of this action, and that the two youths of noble birth run, quote, smiting all those whom they meet as once with brandished weapons down from albass heights, Remus and Romulus ran, end quote, and that the bloody sword is applied to their forts as a symbol of the peril and slaughter of that day, while the cleansing of their forts with milk is in remembrance of the nourishment which the babes received. But Ciaesus Sidius writes that before the founding of the city, Romulus and his brother once lost their flocks, and after praying to Faunus, ran forth and quested them naked, that they might not be impeded by sweat, and that this is the reason why the Luperzi run about naked. If the sacrifice is a purification, one might say that the dog is sacrificed as being a suitable victim for such rights, since the Greeks, in their rites of purification, carry forth puppies for burial, and in many places make use of the rights called pyrus culochismoi. And if these rites are performed in grateful remembrance of the she-wolf that nourished and preserved Romulus, it is not without reason that the dog is slain, since it is an enemy to wolves, unless indeed the animal is thus punished for annoying the Luperzi when they run about. It is said also that Romulus first introduced the consecration of fire, and appointed holy virgins to guard it, called vestals. Others attribute this institution to Numa, although admitting that Romulus was in other ways eminently religious, and they say further that he was a diviner, and carried for purposes of divination the so-called litus, a crooked staff with which those who take auguries from the flight of birds mark out the regions of the heavens. This staff, which was carefully preserved in the Palatine, is said to have disappeared when the city was taken at the time of the Gaelic invasion. Afterwards, however, when the barbarians had been expelled, it was found under deep ashes unharned by the fire, although everything about it was completely destroyed. He also enacted certain laws, and among them one of severity, which forbids a wife to leave her husband, but permits a husband to put away his wife for using poisons, for substituting children, and for adultery. But if a man for any other reason sends his wife away, the law prescribes that half his substance shall belong to his wife, and the other half be consecrated to Ceres, and whosoever puts away his wife shall make a sacrifice to the gods of the lower world. It is also a peculiar thing that Romulus ordained no penalty for parasites, but called all murder, parasite, looking upon one as abominable, and upon the other as impossible. And for many ages his judgment of such a crime seemed to have been right, for no one did any such deed at Rome for almost six hundred years. But after the war with Hannibal, Lucius Hostius is reported to have been the first parasite. So much, then, may suffice concerning these matters. In the fifth year of the reign of Taceus some retainers and kinsmen of his, falling in with ambassadors from Larentum on their way to Rome, attempted to rob them of their money, and when they would not stand in the liver, slew them. It was a bold and dreadful crime, and Romulus thought its perpetrators ought to be punished at once. But Taceus tried to put off and turn aside the course of justice. This was the sole occasion of open variance between them. In all other matters they acted in the utmost concert and administered affairs with unanimity. The friends of the slain ambassadors, shut out as they were from all lawful redress through the efforts of Taceus, fell upon him as he was sacrificing with Romulus at Lavinium and killed him, but escorted Romulus on his way with loud praises of his justice. Romulus brought the body of Taceus home and gave it honourable burial, and it lies near the so-called Armillustrium on the Aventine hill, but he took no steps whatsoever to bring his murderers to justice. And some historians write that the city of Larentum in terror delivered up the murderers of Taceus, but that Romulus let them go, saying that murder had been requited with murder. This led some to say and suspect that he was glad to be rid of his colleague, but it caused no disturbance in the government, nor did it lead the Sabines into faction, nay, some through the good will they had for him, others through their fear of his power, and others because they regarded him as a benevolent god, all continued to hold him in reverence to the end. Romulus was held in reverence also by many foreign peoples, and the earlier Lettens sent ambassadors and established friendship and alliance with him. Fideny, a neighbouring city to Rome, he took, as some say, by sending his horsemen of a sudden with orders to cut away the pivots of the gates, and then appearing himself unexpectedly. But others say that the man of Fideny first made an incursion driving off Bouty and devastating the territory and outskirts of the city, and that Romulus set an ambush for them, killed many of them, and took their city. He did not, however, destroy or raise it to the ground, but made it a colony of Rome, and sent the twenty-five hundred colonists on the Ides of April. After this a plague fell upon the land, bringing sudden death without previous sickness upon the people, and afflicting the crops with unfruitfulness and the cattle with barrenness. There was a rain of blood also in the city, so that many superstitious fears were added to their unavoidable sufferings, and when similar calamities visited the people of Larentum, all agreed at once that it was the miscarriage of justice for the death of Tejas and the slain ambassadors, which brought the wrath of heaven down upon both cities. The murderers, therefore, were delivered up on both sides and punished, and the mischief visibly abated. Romulus also purified the cities with listeral rides, which they say are celebrated to this day at the Carentine Gate. But before the pestilence had ceased, the people of Cammeria attacked the Romans and overran their territory, thinking them incapable of defending themselves by reason of their distress. Romulus, therefore, at once marched against them, overcame them in battle, and killed six thousand of them. He also took their city, transplanted half of the survivors to Rome, and sent to Cammeria as colonists from Rome twice the number he had left there, and this on the first of August. So many citizens had he to spare after dwelling in Rome less than sixteen years. Among other spoils he brought also a bronze four-horse chariot from Cammeria, and dedicated it in the Temple of Vulcan. For it he had a statue made of himself, with a figure of victory crowning him. The Romans stayed thus gathering strength, its weaker neighbors submitted to it, and were satisfied to be let alone. But the powerful ones, out of fear and jealousy, thought they ought not to tolerate, but to resist and check the growing power of Romulus. And of the just-cons, the people of Veyi, who possessed much territory and dwelt in a great city, were the first to begin war where they demand for phytony, which is said to belong to them. Now this was not only unjust, it was actually ridiculous, that they who had not come to the aid of the people of phytony when they were in the perils of war, but suffered them to perish, then demanded their houses and land from those who had come into possession of them. Finally Romulus gave them contemptuous answers upon which they divided themselves into two armies, attacked phytony with one, and confronted Romulus with the other. Before phytony then, they overpowered two thousand Romans and slew them, where they were defeated by Romulus with the loss of eight thousand men. Once more a battle was fought near phytony, and here all agree that the victory was chiefly due to Romulus himself, who displayed every possible combination of skill and bravery, and seemed endowed with strength and swiftness far beyond the lot of man. But there is a statement made by some writers which is all together fabulous, nay rather wholly incredible, namely that of the fourteen thousand Tuscans who fell in this battle more than half were slain by Romulus with his own hand, for even the Messenians seemed to have been boastfully extravagant in saying that Aristomenus thrice offered sacrifice for a hundred lessidimonian enemies slain. After the rout of the enemy Romulus suffered the survivors to escape and moved upon their city itself, but they could not hold out after so great a reverse, and suing for peace made a treaty of friendship for a hundred years, giving up a large portion of their territory, called Septum Pagem, or the Seven Districts, abandoning their saltworks along the river, and delivering up fifty of their chief men as hostages. Romulus also celebrated a triumph for this victory on the Ices of October, having in his train, besides many other captives, the leader of the Vientus, an elderly man who seems to have conducted the campaign unwisely, and without the experience to be expected of his years. Wherefall to this very day in offering a sacrifice for victory, they lead an old man through the forum to the capital, wearing a boy's toga with a bulla attached to it, while the herald cries, Sardians for sale! For the Tuscans are said to be colonists from Sardis, and Ve is a Tuscan city. This was the last war waged by Romulus. Afterwards, like many, nay, like almost all men who've been lifted by great and unexpected strokes of good fortune, to power and dignity, even he was emboldened by his achievement to take on a heartier bearing, to renounce his popular ways, and to change to the ways of a monarch, which were made hateful and vexatious first by the state which he assumed, for he dressed in a scarlet tunic, and wore over it a toga bordered with purple, and set on a recumbent throne when he gave audience, and he had always about him some young men called Salaris from their swiftness in doing service. Others, too, went before him with staves, keeping off the populace, and they were girded with thongs with which to bind it once those whom he ordered to be bound. To bind, in the Latin language, was formerly ligera, though now it is allegera, whence the one-bearers are called lictores, and the ones themselves bacula, from the use, in the time of Romulus of Bacteriae, which is the Greek word for staves, but it is likely that the sea in the word lictores, as now used, has been added, and that the word was formerly litores, which is the Greek leiturgoi, meaning public servants. For the Greeks still call a public hall leiton, and the people Laos. But when his grandfather Numitor died in Alba, and its throne devolved upon Romulus, he courted the favour of the people by putting the government in their hands, and appointed an annual ruler for the Albans. In this way he taught the influential man at Rome also to seek after a form of government which was independent and without a king, where all in turn were subjects and rulers. However by this time not even the so-called patricians had any share in the administration of affairs, but a name and garb of honour was all that was left them, and they assembled in their council chamber more from custom than for giving advice. Once there they listened in silence to the commands of the king, and went away with this advantage only over their multitude that they learned earlier what he had decreed. The rest of his proceedings were of lesser importance, but when of his own motion merely he divided the territory acquired in war among his soldiers, and gave back their hostages to the Vaentis, without the consent or wish of the patricians, he was thought to be insulting their senate outright, wherefore his suspicion and columny fell upon their body when he disappeared unaccountably a short time after. He disappeared on the knowns of July as they now call the month, then Quintilus, leaving no certain account nor even any generally accepted tradition of his death aside from the date of it which I have just given, for on that day many ceremonies are still performed which bear a likeness to what then came to pass. Nor need we wonder at this uncertainty, since although Scipio Africanus died at home after dinner there is no convincing proof of the manner of his end, but some say that he passed away naturally being of a sickly habit, some that he died of poison administered by his own hand, and some that his enemies broken to his house at night and smothered him, and yet Scipio's dead body lay exposed for all to see, and all who beheld it formed therefrom some suspicion and conjecture of what had happened to it, whereas Romulus disappeared suddenly, and no portion of his body or fragment of his clothing remained to be seen, but some conjectured that the senators, convened in the temple of Vulcan, fell upon him and slew him, then cut his body in pieces, put each a portion into the folds of his rope, and so carried it away. Others think that it was neither in the temple of Vulcan, nor when the senators alone were present that he disappeared, but that he was holding an assembly of the people outside the city near the so-called Goats Marsh, when suddenly strange and unaccountable disorders with incredible changes filled the air. The light of the sun failed, and night came down upon them, not with peace and quiet, but with awful peals of thunder and furious blasts, driving rain from every quarter, during which their multitude dispersed and fled, but the nobles gathered closely together, and when the storm had seized and the sun shone out, and the multitude now gathered together again in the same place as before, anxiously sought for their king, the nobles would not suffer them to inquire into his disappearance, nor busy themselves about it, but exhorted them all to honour and revere Romulus, since he had been caught up into heaven, and was to be a benevolent God for them instead of a good king. The multitude, accordingly, believing this and rejoicing in it, went away to worship him with good hopes of his favour, but there were some, it is said, who tested the matter in a bitter and hostile spirit, and confounded the protrusions with the accusation of imposing a silly tale upon the people, and of being themselves the murderers of the king. At this pass, then, it is said that one of the protrusions, a man of noblest birth, and of the most reputable character, a trusted and intimate friend also of Romulus himself, and one of the colonists from Elba, Julius Proculus by name, went into the farm and solemnly swore by their most sacred emblems before all the people that, as he was travelling on the road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him, fair and stately to the eye as never before, and a raid in bright and shining armour. He, himself, then, affrighted at the sight, had said, O king, what possessed thee, or what purpose hadst thou, that thou hast left as protrusions a prey to unjust and wicked accusations, and the whole city soaring without end at the loss of its father? Whereupon Romulus had replied, It was the pleasure of the gods, O Proculus, from whom I came, that I should be with mankind only a short time, and that after founding a city, destined to be the greatest on earth, for empire and glory, I should dwell again in heaven. So, farewell, and tell the Romans that if they practise self-restraint and add to it vela, they will reach the utmost heights of human power, and I will be your propitious deity, Curnus. These things seem to the Romans worthy of belief, from the character of the man who related them, and from the oath which he had taken. Moreover, some influence from heaven also, akin to inspiration, laid hold upon their emotions, for no man contradicted Proculus, but all put aside suspicion and columny, and prayed to Curnus, and honoured him as a god. Now, this is like the fables which the Greeks tell about Aristias of Proconesis and Cleomedus of Estipaleia. For they say that Aristias died in a fuller shop, and that when his friends came to fetch away his body, it had vanished out of sight, and presently certain travellers returning from abroad said they had met Aristias, journeying towards Croton. Cleomedus, also, who was of gigantic strength and stature, of uncontrolled temper, and like a madman, is said to have done many deeds of violence, and finally, in a school for boys, he smote with his fist the pillar which supported the roof, broke it in two, and brought down the house. The boys were killed, and Cleomedus, being pursued, took refuge in a great chest, closed the lid down, and held it so fast that many men with their united strength could not pull it up. But when they broke the chest to pieces, the man was not to be found alive or dead. In their dismay, then, they sent messengers to consult the oracle Adelphi, and the Pythian priests gave them this answer. Last of the heroes, he, Cleomedus, asked the Pelian. It is said also that the body of Alcmini disappeared as they were carrying her forth for burial, and a stone was seen lying on the buyer instead. In short, many such fables are told by writers who improbably ascribe divinity to the mortal features in human nature, as well as to the divine. At any rate, to reject entirely the divinity of human virtue were impious and base, but to mix heaven with earth is foolish. Let us therefore take the safe course, and grant with pinda that, quote, our bodies all must follow death supreme behest, but something living still survives, an image of life, for this alone comes from the gods. End, quote. Yes, it comes from them, and to them it returns, not with its body, but only when its most completely separated and set free from the body, and becomes altogether pure, fleshless, and undefiled. For a dry soul is best, according to Heracletus, and it flies from the body as lightning flashes from a cloud. But the soul which is contaminated with body, and surfeted with body, like a damp and heavy exhalation, is slow to release itself, and slow to rise towards its source. We must not therefore violate nature by sending the bodies of good men with their souls to heaven, but implicitly believe that their virtues and their souls, in accordance with nature and divine justice, ascend from men to heroes, from heroes to demigods, and from demigods, after they have been made pure and holy, as in the final rites of initiation, and have freed themselves from mortality and sense, to gods, not by civic law, but in very truth, and according to right reason, thus achieving the fairest and most blessed consummation. To the surname of Cranus bestowed on Romulus some give the meaning of Mars, others that of citizen, because the citizens were called Churrides, but others say that the ancients called the spearhead, or the whole spear, Churris, and gave the epithet Churritus to the Juno whose statue leans upon a spear, and the name Mars to his spear consecrated in the regia, and the spear as a prize to those who performed great exploits in war, and that Romulus was therefore called Quernus as a marshal, or spear-wielding god. However, that may be a temple in his honor is built on the hill called Curnalis after him, and the day on which he vanished is called People's Flight, and Cappartine knowns, because they go out of the city and sacrifice at the goat's marsh, and Capra is their word for she goat, and as they go forth to the sacrifice they shout out many local names, like Marcus, Lucius, and Chaos, in imitation of the way in which on the day when Romulus disappeared they called upon one another in fear and confusion. Some, however, say that this imitation is not one of flight, but of haste and eagerness, and explain it as referring to the following occasion. After the Gauls had captured Rome and been driven out by Camulus, and when the city was still too weak to recover itself readily, an expedition was made against it by many of the Lettons, under the command of Livius Postumius. This general stationed his army not far from Rome, and sent the herald with the message that the Lettons wished to renew their ancient relationship and affinity with the Romans by fresh intermarriages between the two peoples. If, therefore, the Romans would send them a goodly number of virgins and their widows, they should have peace and friendship, such as they had formerly made with the Sabines on the like terms. On hearing this message the Romans hesitated between going to war, which they feared, and the surrender of their women, which they thought no more desirable than to have them captured. But while they were in this perplexity, a serving-maid called Philotus, or as some say, Titula, advised them to unite them, but by the use of a stratagem to escape alike the war and the giving of Hossages. Now, the stratagem was this, that they should send to the enemy Philotus herself, and with her other comely serving-maids arrayed like free-born women. Then in the night Philotus was to display a signal fire at which the Romans were to come in arms and deal with their enemies while asleep. This was done with the approval of the Lethans, and Philotus displayed the signal fire from a certain wild victory, screening it behind with coverlets and draperies, so that its light was unseen by the enemy, but visible to the Romans. When, accordingly, they beheld it, they sell it forth at once in great haste, and because of their haste, calling upon one another many times at the gates. They fell upon their enemies, when they least expected it, and massed them, and now celebrate this festival in memory of their victory. And the knowns on which it falls are called Caprotein from the Wild Victory, the Roman name for which is Caprificus, and they feast the women outside the city in booths made of victory boughs. Then the serving-maids run about in companies and play after which they strike and throw stones at one another, in token that on that earlier day they assisted the Romans and shared with them in their battle. These details are accepted by many historians, but they are calling out one another's names in the daytime, and they are marching out to the Goats Marsh as for sacrifice seem to be more consonant with a former story, unless, to be sure, both actions happen to take place on the same day in different periods. Romanus is said to have been fifty-four years of age, and in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, when it disappeared from among men. End of Romanus Part Three. Part Seven 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. Volume One of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Comparison of Theseus and Romulus. One. Such, then, are the memorable things about Romulus and Theseus, which I have been able to learn. And it appears, first of all, that Theseus, of his own choice, when no one compelled him, but when it was possible for him to reign without fear at treason as heir to no inglorious realm, of his own accord, reached out after great achievements. Whereas Romulus, to escape present servitude and impending punishment, became simply courageous out of fear, as Plato phrases it, and through the dread of extreme penalties proceeded to perform great exploits under compulsion. In the second place, the chief deed of Romulus was the slaying of a single tyrant of Alba, whereas for mere by-adventures and preliminary struggles, Theseus had Skyron, Sinus, Procrestes, and Cornedes, by slaying and chastising whom. He freed Greece from dreadful tyrants before those who were saved by him knew who he was. Theseus might have traveled to Athens by sea without any trouble, and suffering no outrage at the hands of those robbers, whereas Romulus could not be without trouble while Amelius lived. And there is strong proof of this. For Theseus, although he had suffered no wrong at their hands himself, sallied out on behalf of others against those miscreants, while Romulus and Remus, as long as they themselves were not harmed by the tyrant, suffered him to wrong everybody else. And surely, if it was a great thing for Romulus to be wounded in a battle with the Sabines and to slay Acron, and to conquer many enemies in battle, with these exploits we may compare, on the part of Theseus, his battle with the Sintars, and his campaign against the Amazons. But as for the daring which he showed about the Cretan tribute, whether that was food for some monster, or a sacrifice on the tomb of Androgeus, or whether, and this is the mildest form of the story, he offered himself for inglorious and dishonorable servitude among insolent and cruel men, when he volunteered to sail away with maidens and young boys. Words cannot depict such courage, magnanimity, righteous zeal for the common good, or yearning for glory and virtue. It is, therefore, my opinion, that the philosophers give an excellent definition of love, when they call it, administration of the gods for the care and preservation of the young, for Ariadne's love seems to have been, more than anything else, a god's work, and a device whereby Theseus should be saved. And we should not blame her for loving him, but rather wonder that all men and women were not thus affected towards him, and if she alone felt this passion, I should say, for my part, that she was properly worthy of a god's love, since she was fond of virtue, fond of goodness, and a lover of the highest qualities in man. Although Theseus and Romulus were both statesmen by nature, neither maintained, to the end, the true character of a king, but both deviated from it and underwent a change, the former in the direction of a democracy, the latter in the direction of a tyranny, making thus the same mistake through opposite affections. For the ruler must preserve, first of all, the realm itself, and this is preserved no less by refraining from what is unbecoming than by cleaving to what is becoming. But he who remits or extends his authority is no longer a king or a ruler, he becomes either a demagogue or a despot, and implants hatred or contempt in the hearts of his subjects. However, the first error seems to arise from kindness and humanity, the second from selfishness and 70. 3. Arian, if the misfortunes of men are not to be attributed altogether to fortune, but to the different habits and passions which will be found underlying them, then no one shall acquit Romulus of unreasoning anger or hasty and senseless wrath in dealing with his brother, nor Theseus in dealing with his son. Although the cause which stirred his anger leads us to be more lenient towards the one who was overthrown by a stronger provocation as by a heavier blow. For since the difference between Romulus and his brother arose from a deliberate investigation of the common welfare, there could have been no good reason for his flying into such a passion, while Theseus was impelled to wrong his son by love, jealousy, and a woman's slanders, the overmastering power of which very few men have escaped. And what is of greater weight? The anger of Romulus vented itself in action and a deed of most unfortunate issue, whereas the wrath of Theseus got no farther than words of abuse and an old man's curse, and the rest of the youth's calamities seem to have been due to fortune. On these counts, therefore, one would give his vote of preference to Theseus for. But Romulus has, in the first place, this great superiority that he rose to eminence from the smallest beginnings, for he and his brother were reputed to be slaves and sons of swineards. And yet they not only made themselves free, but freed first almost all the Latins, enjoying at one and the same time such most honorable titles as slayers of their foes, saviors of their kindred and friends, kings of races and peoples, founders of cities, not transplanters as Theseus was, who put together and consolidated one dwelling place out of many, but demolished many cities bearing the names of ancient kings and heroes. Romulus, it is true, did the latter, compelling his enemies to tear down and obliterate their dwelling, and enroll themselves among their conquerors. But at first, not by removing or enlarging a city which already existed, but by creating one from nothing, and by acquiring for himself at once territory, country, kingdom, clans, marriages and relationships, he ruined no one and killed no one, but was a benefactor of men without homes and hearths, who wished instead to be a people and citizens of a common city. Robbers and miscreants, it is true, he did not slay, but he subdued nations in war, laid cities low, and triumphed over kings and commanders. Five. Besides, there is dispute as to who actually slew Remus, and most of the blame for the deed is put upon others than Romulus. But Romulus did unquestionably save his mother from destruction, and he set his grandfather, who was living in inglorious and dishonorable subjection, upon the throne of Anius. Moreover, he did him many favors of his own accord, and he did him no harm, not even inadvertently. Thesias, on the contrary, for his forgetfulness and neglect of the command about the sale, can hardly, I think, escape the charge of parasite, be the plea of his advocates ever so long and his judges ever so lenient. Indeed, a certain attic writer, conscious that would-be defenders of Thesias have a difficult task, feigns that Aegis, on the approach of the ship, ran up to the Acropolis in his eagerness to catch sight of her, and stumbled, and fell down the cliff, as though he were without a retinue, or was hurrying down to the sea without any servants. Six. Furthermore, the transgressions of Thesias in his rapes of women admit of no plausible excuse. This is true, first, because there were so many, for he carried off Ariadne, Antiope, an axo of treason, and at last Helen, when he was past his prime, and she had not reached her prime, but was an unripe child, while he was already of an age too great for even lawful wedlock. It is true, secondly, because of the reason for them, for the daughters of treasonians and Laconians and Amazons were not betrothed to him, and were no worthier, surely, to be the mothers of his children than the daughters of Erectheus and sea-crops at Athens, but one may suspect that these deeds of his were done in lustful wantonness. Romulus, on the other hand, in the first place, although he carried off nearly eight hundred women, took them not all to wife, but only one, as they say, hercilia, and distributed the rest among the best of the citizens, and in the second place, by the subsequent honor, love, and righteous treatment given to these women, he made it clear that his deed of violence and injustice was a most honorable achievement, and one most adapted to promote political partnership. In this way he intermixed and blended the two peoples with one another, and supplied his state with a flowing fountain of strength and goodwill for the time to come. And to the modesty, tenderness, and stability which he imparted to the marriage relation, time is witness. For in two hundred and thirty years no man ventured to leave his wife, nor any woman her husband. But, just as the very curious among the Greeks can name the first Parasite or Matricide, so the Romans all know that Spirius Carvelius was the first to put away his wife, accusing her of barrenness. And the immediate result of his act, as well as the long lapse of time, witness in favor of Romulus, for the two kings shared the government in common, and the two peoples the rights and duties of citizenship, because of that inner marriage. Whereas from the marriages of Theseus the Athenians got no new friends at all, nor even any community of enterprises whatsoever, but inimities, wars, slaughters of citizens, and at last the loss of Apidni, and an escape from the fate which Troy suffered by reason of Alexander, only because their enemies took compassion on them when they called upon them worshipfully as gods. However, the mother of Theseus was not only in danger, but actually suffered the fate of Hecuba when she was deserted and abandoned by her son. Unless indeed the tale of her captivity is fictitious, and it may well be false, as well as most of the other stories. For example, the tales told of divine intervention in their lives are in great contrast, for Romulus was preserved by the signal favor of the gods, while the oracle given to Aegeus, forbidding him to approach a woman while in a foreign land, seems to indicate that the birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the will of the gods. End of Comparison of Theseus and Romulus Part 8 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. Recording by Graham Redman. Volume 1 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Lycurgus Part 1 Concerning Lycurgus the lawgiver, in general nothing can be said which is not disputed, since indeed there are different accounts of his birth, his travels, his death, and above all of his work as lawmaker and statesman, and there is least agreement among historians as to the times in which the man lived. Some say that he flourished at the same time with Iphetus, and in concert with him established the Olympic truce. Among these is Aristotle, a philosopher, and he alleges as proof the discus at Olympia on which an inscription preserves the name of Lycurgus. But those who compute the time by the successions of kings at Sparta, like Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, prove that Lycurgus was many years earlier than the first Olympiad, and Timeus conjectures that there were two Lycurgus at Sparta at different times, and that to one of them the achievements of both were ascribed, owing to his greater fame. He thinks also that the elder of the two lived not far from the times of Homer, and some assert that he actually met Homer face to face. Xenophon also makes an impression of simplicity in the passage where he says that Lycurgus lived in the time of the Heraclidae, for in lineage, of course, the latest of the Spartan kings were also Heraclidae. But Xenophon apparently wishes to use the name Heraclidae of the first and more immediate descendants of Heracles so famous in story. However, although the history of these times is such a maze, I shall try in presenting my narrative to follow those authors who are least contradicted, or who have the most notable witnesses for what they have written about the man. For instance, Simonides the poet says that Lycurgus was not the son of Unomus, but that both Lycurgus and Unomus were sons of Pritonis, whereas most writers give a different genealogy as follows. Aristodemus begat Procles, Procles begat Suis, Suis begat Euripon, and he begat Pritonis, from whom sprang Unomus, and from Unomus polydectes by a first wife and Lycurgus, who was a younger son by a second wife Dianessa, as Diutichidus has written, making Lycurgus sixth from Procles and eleventh from Heracles. Of these ancestors of Lycurgus, Suis was most famous under whom the Spartans made the helots their slaves and acquired by conquest from the Arcadians a large additional tract of land. It is also related, of this Suis, that when he was besieged by the Clitorians in a rough and waterless place, he agreed to surrender to them the land which he had conquered, if he himself and all his men with him should drink from the adjacent spring. After the oaths to this agreement were taken, he assembled his men and offered his kingdom to the one who should not drink. No one of them, however, could forbear, but all of them drank, whereupon Suis himself went down last of all to the water, sprinkled his face merely while the enemy was still at hand to see, and then marched away and retained his territory on the plea that all had not drunk. But although on these grounds he was held in great admiration, his royal line was not named from him, but were called Europontids from his son, because Europon appears to have been the first king to relax the excessive absolutism of his sway, seeking favor and popularity with the multitude. But in consequence of such relaxation the people grew bold, and succeeding kings were some of them hated for trying to force their way with the multitude, and some were brought low by their desire for favor or through weakness, so that lawlessness and confusion prevailed at Sparta for a long time, and it was owing to this that the father of Lycurgus, a reigning king, lost his life, for as he was trying to separate some rioters, he was stabbed to death with a butcher's knife, leaving the kingdom to his elder son Polydectes. Polydectes also died soon afterwards, and then, as was generally thought, the kingdom devolved upon Lycurgus, and until his brother's wife was known to be with child, he was king. But as soon as he learned of this, he declared that the kingdom belonged to her offspring, if it should be male, and himself administered the government only as guardian. Now the guardians of fatherless kings are called Prodecoi by the Lacedaemonians. Presently, however, the woman made secret overtures to him, proposing to destroy her unborn babe on condition that he would marry her when he was a king of Sparta, and although he detested her character, he did not reject her proposition, but pretended to approve and accept it. He told her, however, that she need not use drugs to produce a miscarriage, thereby injuring her health and endangering her life, for he would see to it himself that as soon as her child was born it should be put out of the way. In this manner he managed to bring the woman to her full time, and when he learned that she was in labor, he sent attendance and watches for her delivery, with orders if a girl should be born to hand it over to the women, but if a boy to bring it to him no matter what he was doing, and it came to pass that as he was at supper with the chief magistrates, a male child was born, and his servants brought the little boy to him. He took it in his arms, as we are told, and said to those who were at table with him, a king is born unto you, O man of Sparta. Then he laid it down in the royal seat, and named it Carilaus or People's Joy, because all present were filled with joy, admiring as they did his lofty spirit and his righteousness, and so he was king only eight months in all, but on other accounts also he was revered by his fellow citizens, and more than those who obeyed him because he was guardian of the king, and had royal power in his hands, were those who clave to him for his virtues, and were ready and willing to do his bidding. There was a party, however, which envied him, and sought to impede the growing power of so young a man, especially the kinsmen and friends of the queen mother, who thought she had been treated with insolence. Her brother, Leonidas, actually railed at like Kurgis once quite boldly, assuring him that he knew well that like Kurgis would one day be king, thereby promoting suspicion and paving the way for the accusation, in case anything happened to the king, that he had plotted against his life. Some such talk was set in circulation by the queen mother also, in consequence of which like Kurgis was sorely troubled and fearful of what might be in store for him. He therefore determined to avoid suspicion by traveling abroad, and to continue his wanderings until his nephew should come of age and beget a son to succeed him on the throne. With this purpose he set sail and came first to Crete. Here he studied the various forms of government and made the acquaintance of their most distinguished man. Of some things he heartily approved and adopted some of their laws that he might carry them home with him and put them in use. For some things he had only contempt. One of the men regarded there as wise statesmen was Thales, whom like Kurgis persuaded out of favor and friendship, to go on a mission to Sparta. Now Thales passed as a lyric poet and screened himself behind this art, but in reality he did the work of one of the mightiest law-givers. For his oads were so many exhortations to obedience and harmony, and their measured rhythms were permeated with ordered tranquillity, so that those who listened to them were insensibly softened in their dispositions in so much that they renounced the mutual hatreds which were so rife at that time, and dwelt together in a common pursuit of what was high and noble. Thales, therefore, after a fashion, was a forerunner in Sparta of Lycurgus and his discipline. From Crete Lycurgus sailed to Asia with the desire, as we are told, of comparing with the Cretan civilization, which was simple and severe, that of the Ionians which was extravagant and luxurious, just as a physician compares with healthy bodies, those which are unsound and sickly. He could then study the difference in their modes of life and forms of government. There, too, as it would appear, he made his first acquaintance with the poems of Homer, which were preserved among the posterity of Criophilus, and when he saw that the political and disciplinary lessons contained in them were worthy of no less serious attention than the incentives to pleasure and license which they supplied, he eagerly copied and compiled them in order to take them home with him. For these epics already had a certain faint reputation among the Greeks, and a few were in possession of certain portions of them, as the poems were carried here and there by chance, but Lycurgus was the very first to make them really known. The Egyptians think that Lycurgus visited them also, and so ardently admired their separation of the military from the other classes of society, that he transferred it to Sparta, and by removing mechanics and artisans from participation in the government made his civil polity really refined and pure. At any rate this assertion of the Egyptians is confirmed by some Greek historians, but that Lycurgus visited Libya and Iberia also, and that he wandered over India and had conferences with the gymnast's office no one has stated so far as I know, except Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, the Spartan. The Lacedaemonians missed Lycurgus sorely, and sent for him many times. They felt that their kings were such in name and station merely, but in everything else were nothing better than their subjects, while in him there was a nature fitted to lead and a power to make men follow him. However not even the kings were averse to having him at home, but hoped that in his presence their subjects would treat them with less insolence, returning then to a people thus disposed, he at once undertook to change the existing order of things and revolutionized the civil polity. He was convinced that a partial change of the laws would be of no avail whatsoever, but that he must proceed as a physician would with a patient who was debilitated and full of all sorts of diseases. He must reduce and alter the existing temperament by means of drugs and purges, and introduce a new and different regimen. Full of this determination, he first made a journey to Delphi, and after sacrificing to the god and consulting the oracle, he returned with that famous response in which the Pithian priestess addressed him as, beloved of the gods, and rather god than man, and said that the god had granted his prayer for good laws, and promised him a constitution which should be the best in the world. Thus encouraged, he tried to bring the chief man of Sparta over to his side, and exhorted them to put their hands to the work with him, explaining his design secretly to his friends at first, then little by little engaging more and uniting them to attempt the task. And when the time for action came, he ordered thirty of the chief men to go armed into the marketplace at break of day to strike consternation and terror into those of the opposite party. The names of twenty of the most eminent among them have been recorded by her mippers, but the man who had the largest share in all the undertakings of Lycurgus and cooperated with him in the enactment of his laws bore the name of Arthmiadas. When the tumult began, King Carillaus, fearing that the whole affair was a conspiracy against himself, fled for refuge to the brazen house. But he was soon convinced of his error, and having exacted oaths for his safety from the agitators, left his place of refuge, and even joined them in their enterprise, being of a gentle and yielding disposition, so much so indeed that Arcaillaus, his royal colleague, is said to have remarked to those who were extolling the young king, how can Carillaus be a good man when he has no severity even for the bad? Among the many innovations which Lycurgus made, the first and most important was his institution of a senate or council of elders, which as Plato says, by being blended with the feverish government of the kings, and by having an equal vote with them in matters of the highest importance, brought safety and due moderation into councils of state. For before this the civil polity was veering and unsteady, inclining at one time to follow the kings towards tyranny, and at another to follow the multitude towards democracy. But now by making the power of the senate a sort of ballast for the ship of state and putting her on a steady keel, it achieved the safest and the most orderly arrangement. Since the twenty-eight senators always took the side of the kings when it was a question of curbing democracy, and on the other hand always strengthened the people to withstand the encroachments of tyranny. The number of the senators was fixed at twenty-eight because according to Aristotle two of the thirty original associates of Lycurgus abandoned the enterprise from lack of courage. But Svirus says that this was originally the number of those who shared the confidence of Lycurgus. Possibly there is some virtue in this number being made up of seven multiplied by four, apart from the fact that being equal to the sum of its own factors it is the next perfect number after six. But in my own opinion Lycurgus made the senators of just that number in order that the total might be thirty when the two kings were added to the eight and twenty. So Ego was Lycurgus for the establishment of this form of government, that he obtained an oracle from Delphi about it which they call a ritra, and this is the way it runs. When thou hast built a temple to Zeus, Silanius, and Athena, Silania, divided the people into Philae and into Obai, and established a senate of thirty members including the Archeghitae, then from time to time Appeladzine between Babica and Naceun, and there introduce and rescind measures, but the people must have the deciding voice and the power. In these clauses the Philae and the Obai refer to divisions and distributions of the people into clans and freight trees or brotherhoods. By Archeghitae the kings are designated, and Appeladzine means to assemble the people with a reference to Apollo the Pythian God who was the source and author of the polity. The Babica is now called Chimares and the Naceun Enus, but Aristotle says that Naceun is a river and Babica a bridge. Between these they held their assemblies, having neither halls nor any other kind of building for the purpose. For by such things Lycurgus thought good council was not promoted, but rather discouraged, since the serious purposes of an assembly were rendered foolish and futile by vain thoughts as they gazed upon statues and paintings or scenic embellishments or extravagantly decorated roofs of council halls. When the multitude was thus assembled, no one of them was permitted to make a motion, but the motion laid before them by the senators and kings could be accepted or rejected by the people. Afterwards, however, when the people by additions and subtractions perverted and distorted the sense of motions laid before them, Kings Polydorus and Theopompus inserted this clause into the retora. But if the people should adopt a distorted motion, the senators and kings shall have power of adjournment. That is, should not ratify the vote, but dismiss outright and dissolve the session on the ground that it was perverting and changing the motion contrary to the best interests of the state, and they were actually able to persuade the city that the God authorized this addition to the Reacher, as Tertius reminds us in these verses. Phoebus Apollos, the mandate was which they brought from Pytho, voicing the will of the God, nor were his words unfulfilled. Sway in the council and honor's divine belong to the princes under whose care has been set Sparta's city of charm. Second to them are the elders, and next come the men of the people, duly confirming by vote unperverted decrees. Although Lycurgus thus tempered his civil polity, nevertheless the oligarchical element in it was still unmixed and dominant, and his successors seeing it swelling and foaming, as Plato says, imposed as it were a curb upon it namely the power of the effers. It was about a hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus that the first effers, elatus and his colleagues, were appointed in the reign of Theopompus. This king, they say, on being reviled by his wife because the royal power when he handed it over to his sons would be less than when he received it, said, May, but greater in that it will last longer. And in fact, by renouncing excessive claims, and freeing itself from jealous hate, royalty at Sparta escaped its perils, so that the Spartan kings did not experience the fate which the Messenians and Argives inflicted upon their kings, who were unwilling to yield at all or emit their power in favour of the people. And this brings into the clearest light the wisdom and foresight of Lycurgus when we contrast the factions and misgovernment of the peoples and kings of Messenia and Argos who were kinsmen and neighbours of the Spartans. They were on an equality with the Spartans in the beginning, and in the allotment of territory were thought to be even better off than they, and yet their prosperity did not last long, but what with the insolent temper of their kings and the unreasonableness of their peoples, their established institutions were confounded, and they made it clear that it was in very truth a divine blessing which the Spartans had enjoyed in the man who framed and tempered their civil polity for them. These events, however, were of later date. A second and very bold political measure of Lycurgus is his redistribution of the land, for there was a dreadful inequality in this regard. The city was heavily burdened with indigent and helpless people, and wealth was wholly concentrated in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to banish insolence and envy and crime and luxury, and those yet more deep-seated and afflictive diseases of the state, poverty, and wealth, he persuaded his fellow-citizens to make one parcel of all their territory, and divide it up anew, and to live with one another on a basis of entire uniformity and equality in the means of subsistence, seeking preeminence through virtue alone, assured that there was no other difference or inequality between man and man than that which was established by blame for base actions and praise for good ones. Suiting the deed to the word, he distributed the rest of the Laconian land among the peri-oikai or free-provincials in 30,000 glots, and that which belonged to the city of Sparta in 9,000 glots to as many genuine Spartans. But some say that Lycurgus distributed only 6,000 glots among the Spartans, and that 3,000 were afterwards added by Polydoras, others still that Polydoras added half of the 9,000 to the half distributed by Lycurgus. The lot of each was large enough to produce annually 70 bushels of barley for a man and 12 for his wife, with a proportionate amount of wine and oil. Lycurgus thought that a lot of this size would be sufficient for them, since they needed sustenance enough to promote vigor and health of body and nothing else. And it is said that on returning from a journey sometime afterwards, as he traversed the land just after the harvest, and saw the heaps of grain standing parallel and equal to one another, he smiled and said to them that were by, all Lyconia looks like a family estate newly divided among many brothers. Next he undertook to divide up their movable property also, in order that every vestige of unevenness and inequality might be removed, and when he saw that they could not bear to have it taken from them directly he took another course and overcame their avarice by political devices. In the first place he withdrew all gold and silver money from currency and ordained the use of iron money only. Then to a great weight and mass of this he gave a trifling value, so that ten miners worth required a large storeroom in the house and a yoke of cattle to transport it. When this money obtained currency many sorts of iniquity went into exile from Lassodiman, for who would steal or receive as a bribe or rob or plunder that which could neither be concealed, nor possessed with satisfaction, nay, nor even cut to pieces with any profit? For vinegar was used as we are told to quench the red hot iron, robbing it of its temper and making it worthless for any other purpose when once it had become brittle and hard to work. In the next place he banished the unnecessary and superfluous arts, and even without such banishment most of them would have departed with the old coinage since there was no sale for their products. For the iron money could not be carried into the rest of Greece, nor had it any value there, but was rather held in ridicule. It was not possible, therefore, to buy any foreign wares or bric-a-brac. No merchant seamen brought freight into their harbours, no rhetoric teacher set foot on Laconian soil, no vagabond soothsayer, no keeper of harlots, no gold or silversmith, since there was no money there. But luxury, thus gradually deprived of that which stimulated and supported it, died away of itself, and men of large possessions had no advantage over the poor, because their wealth found no public outlet, but had to be stored up at home in idleness. In this way it came about that such common and necessary utensils as bedsteads, chairs, and tables were most excellently made among them, and the Laconian Cotone, or drinking cup, was in very high repute for usefulness among soldiers in active service, as Cretias tells us. For its colour concealed the disagreeable appearance of the water which they were often compelled to drink, and its curving lips caught the muddy sediment and held it inside, so that only the purer part reached the mouth of the drinker. For all this they had to thank their lawgiver, since their artisans were now freed from useless tasks, and displayed the beauty of their workmanship in objects of constant and necessary use. With a view to attack luxury still more, and remove the thirst for wealth, he introduced his third and most exquisite political device, namely the institution of common messes, so that they might eat with one another in companies of common and specified foods, and not take their meals at home reclining on costly couches at costly tables, delivering themselves into the hands of servants and cooks, to be fattened in the dark, like voracious animals, and ruining not only their characters but also their bodies, by surrendering them to every desire and all sorts of surfeit, which call for long sleeps, hot baths, abundant rest, and as it were daily nursing and tending. This was surely a great achievement, but it was a still greater one to make wealth an object of no desire, as Theophrastus says, and even unwealth by this community of meals and simplicity of diet. For the rich man could neither use nor enjoy nor even see or display his abundant means when he went to the same meal as the poor man, so that it was in Sparta alone of all the cities under the sun that men could have that far-famed sight, a Plutus blind, and lying as lifeless and motionless as a picture. For the rich could not even dine beforehand at home, and then go to the common mess with full stomachs, but the rest kept careful watch of him who did not eat and drink with them, and reviled him as a weakling, and one too effeminate for the common diet. It was due therefore to this last political device above all that the wealthy citizens were incensed against Lycurgus, and banding together against him denounced him publicly with angry shouts and cries. Finally many pelted him with stones so that he ran from the marketplace. He succeeded in reaching sanctuary before the rest laid hands on him, but one young man, Alcanda, otherwise no mean nature but hasty and passionate, pressed hard upon him, and as he turned about, smote him with his staff and put out one of his eyes. Lycurgus, however, was far from yielding in consequence of this calamity, but confronted his countrymen and showed them his face besmeared with blood and his eye destroyed, whereupon they were so filled with shame and sorrow at the sight that they placed Alcanda in his hands and conducted him to his house with sympathetic indignation. Lycurgus commended them for their conduct and dismissed them, but took Alcanda into the house with him, where he did the youth no harm by word or deed, but after sending away his customary servants and attendants ordered him to minister to his wants. The youth, who was of a noble disposition, did as he was commanded, without any words, and abiding thus with Lycurgus and sharing his daily life, he came to know the gentleness of the man, the calmness of his spirit, the rigid simplicity of his habits, and his unwearied industry. He thus became a devoted follower of Lycurgus, and used to tell his intimates and friends that the man was not harsh nor self-willed, as he had supposed, but the mildest and gentlest of them all. Such then was the chastisement of this young man, and such the penalty laid upon him, namely to become, instead of a wild and impetuous youth, a most decorous and discreet man. Lycurgus, moreover, in memory of his misfortune, built a temple to Athena Optilitus, so called from Optilus, which is the local Doric word for I. Some writers, however, of whom one is Dioscorides, who wrote a treatise on the Spartan civil polity, say that although Lycurgus was struck in the eye, his eye was not blinded, but he built the temple to the goddess as a thank-offering for its healing. Be that as it may, the Spartan practice of carrying staves into their assemblies was abandoned after this unfortunate accident. End of Lycurgus Part 1 Recording by Graham Redman