Chapter XII: Book VII: 835 (3)

Now, if we take into account the above injury alone, can any one justly pronounce that man happy, whose life was thus endangered by the caprice of an enemy, and that enemy, besides, not an Africanus? What victories over enemies could possibly be counterbalanced by such a price as this? What honours, what triumphs, did not Fortune cancel, in suffering a censor to be dragged through the middle of the city—indeed, that was his only resource for gaining time[1224]—dragged to that Capitol, whither he himself, in his triumph, had forborne to drag in a similar manner even the very captives whom he had taken in his conquests? This crime, too, must be looked upon as all the greater, from its having so nearly deprived Macedonicus of the honours of his funeral, so great and so glorious, in which he was borne to the pile by his triumphant children, he himself thus triumphing, as it were, in his very obsequies. Most assuredly, there is no happiness that can be called unalloyed, when the terror of our life has been interrupted by any outrage, and much more by such an outrage as this. As for the rest, I really am at a loss whether we ought most to commend the manners of the age,[1225] or to feel an increased degree of indignation, that, among so many members of the family of the Metelli, such wicked audacity as that of C. Atinius remained unpunished.

CHAP. 46.—THE MISFORTUNES OF AUGUSTUS.

In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class,[1226] if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejection from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle,[1227] and the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in opposition to his own requests; the hatred produced by the proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate[1228] with some among the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal share of influence, he himself being entirely borne down by the power of Antony; his illness[1229] at the battle of Philippi; his flight, and his having to remain three days concealed in a marsh,[1230] though suffering from sickness, and, according to the account of Agrippa and Mecænas, labouring under a dropsy; his shipwreck[1231] on the coast of Sicily, where he was again under the necessity of concealing himself in a cave; his desperation, which caused him even to beg Proculeius[1232] to put him to death, when he was hard-pressed by the enemy in a naval engagement;[1233] his alarm about the rising at Perusia;[1234] his anxiety at the battle of Actium;[1235] the extreme danger he was in from the falling of a tower during the Pannonian war;[1236] seditions so numerous among his soldiers; so many attacks by dangerous diseases;[1237] the suspicions which he entertained respecting the intentions of Marcellus;[1238] the disgraceful banishment, as it were, of Agrippa;[1239] the many plots against his life;[1240] the deaths of his own children,[1241] of which he was accused, and his heavy sorrows, caused not merely by their loss;[1242] the adultery[1243] of his daughter, and the discovery of her parricidal designs; the insulting retreat of his son-in-law, Nero;[1244] another adultery, that of his grand-daughter;[1245] to which there were added numerous other evils, such as the want of money to pay his soldiers; the revolt of Illyria;[1246] the necessity of levying the slaves; the sad deficiency of young men;[1247] the pestilence that raged in the City;[1248] the famine in Italy; the design which he had formed of putting an end to his life, and the fast of four days, which brought him within a hair’s breadth of death. And then, added to all this, the slaughter of Varus;[1249] the base slanders[1250] whispered against his authority; the rejection of Posthumius Agrippa, after his adoption,[1251] and the regret to which Augustus was a prey after his banishment;[1252] the suspicions too respecting Fabius, to the effect that he had betrayed his secrets; and then, last of all, the machinations of his wife and of Tiberius, the thoughts of which occupied his last moments. In fine, this same god,[1253] who was raised to heaven, I am at a loss to say whether deservedly or not, died, leaving the son of his own enemy his heir.[1254]

CHAP. 47. (46.)—MEN WHOM THE GODS HAVE PRONOUNCED TO BE THE MOST HAPPY.

In reference to this point, two oracles of Delphi may come under our consideration, which would appear to have been pronounced as though in order to chastise the vanity of man. These oracles were the following: by the first, Pedius was pronounced to be the most happy of men, who had just before fallen in defence of his country.[1255] On the second occasion, when it had been consulted by Gyges, at that time the most powerful king in the world, it declared that Aglaüs of Psophis[1256] was a more happy man than himself.[1257] This Aglaüs was an old man, who lived in a poor petty nook of Arcadia, and cultivated a small farm, though quite sufficient for the supply of his yearly wants;[1258] he had never so much as left it, and, as was quite evident from his mode of living, his desires being of the most limited kind, he had experienced but an extremely small share of the miseries of life.

CHAP. 48. (47.)—THE MAN WHOM THE GODS ORDERED TO BE WORSHIPPED DURING HIS LIFE-TIME; A REMARKABLE FLASH OF LIGHTNING.

While still surviving, and in full possession of his senses, by the command of the same oracle, and with the sanction of Jupiter, the supreme Father of the gods, Euthymus,[1259] the pugilist, who had always, with one exception, been victorious in the Olympic games, was deified. He was a native of Locri, in Italy. I find that Callimachus,[1260] considering it a more wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same day, ordered sacrifices to be offered up to him, which was accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his death. Nothing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable, as this mark of approval given by the gods.

CHAP. 49. (48.)—THE GREATEST LENGTH OF LIFE.

Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of us from the moment of his birth,[1261] tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to make mention of this subject, while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides other particulars with reference to the phœnix and the Nymphs of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives[1262] one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius,[1263] the king of the Tartessii; ten more to Cinaras,[1264] the king of Cyprus, and two hundred to Ægimius.[1265] Theopompus gives one hundred and fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus; according to Hellenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in Ætolia, have completed their two hundredth year; and his account is confirmed by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation, who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Arcadia have lived three hundred years; Alexander Cornelius, that there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years. Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred.[1266] All these statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaintance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another; others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each. Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have lived as many as one thousand years.

Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades[1267] reigned eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned sixty years,[1268] and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and eight.[1269] Quintus Fabius Maximus was an augur for sixty-three years.[1270] M. Perperna, and more recently, L. Volusius Saturninus, survived all those whose suffrages each had solicited on the occasion of his consulship;[1271] Perperna lived ninety-eight years, and left after him only seven of those whose names, when censor, he had enrolled. Connected with this fact, it also suggests itself, and deserves to be remarked, that it has happened only once, that five successive years have ever passed without the death of a senator taking place; this was the case from the occasion on which the censors Flaccus and Albinus performed the lustration, in the year of the City 579, until the time of the succeeding censors.[1272] M. Valerius Corvinus completed one hundred years, forty-six of which intervened between his first and sixth consulship.[1273] He occupied the curule chair twenty-one times,[1274] a thing that was never the case with any one besides. The pontiff Metellus also attained the same age.[1275]

Among women also, Livia, the wife of Rutilius, exceeded her ninety-sixth year; during the reign of Claudius, Statilia, a member of a noble family, died at the age of ninety-nine; Terentia, the wife of Cicero, lived one hundred and three years, and Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, one hundred and fifteen; she had fifteen children.[1276]

Lucceia, an actress in the mimes, performed on the stage when one hundred years old, and Galeria Copiola returned to the stage, to perform in the interludes,[1277] at the votive games which were celebrated for the health of the deified Augustus, in the consulship of C. Poppæus and Q. Sulpicius.[1278] She had made her first appearance when eight years of age, just ninety-one years before that time, when M. Pomponius was ædile of the people, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo.[1279] When Pompeius Magnus dedicated his great theatre, he brought her upon the stage, as being quite a wonder, considering her old age. Asconius Pedianus informs us, that Sammula also lived one hundred and ten years. I consider it less wonderful that Stephanio, who was the first to dance on the stage in comedy descriptive of Roman manners, should have[1280] danced at the two secular games, those celebrated by the deified Augustus, and by Claudius Cæsar, in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval that elapsed between them was no more than sixty-three years;[1281] indeed, he lived a considerable time after the last period. We are informed by Mutianus, that, on the peak of Mount Tmolus, which is called Tempsis, the people live one hundred and fifty years, and that T. Fullonius, of Bononia, was set down as of the same age, in the registration which took place under the censorship of Claudius Cæsar; and this appeared to be confirmed by comparing the present with former registrations, as well as many other proofs that he had been alive at certain periods—for that prince greatly interested himself in ascertaining the exact truth of the matter.

CHAP. 50. (49.)—THE VARIETY OF DESTINIES AT THE BIRTH OF MAN.

The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes[1282] used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus[1283] that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos[1284] transmitted to us, and called by them “tartemorion,”[1285] from the division of the signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life, in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years. They maintain that, reckoning from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which periods they call by the name of “anaphoræ;”[1286] they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun.[1287] To theirs the school of Æsculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period. These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years which is termed the “climacteric,”[1288] and never hardly, when born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year. First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty; and to this consideration may be added the experience of the very last census, which was made four years ago, under the direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son.[1289] I shall not search through the registers;[1290] I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum,[1291] one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus, and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty, and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium,[1292] in which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M. Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian tribe,[1293] was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.

Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas[1294] were born on the same night,[1295] and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus[1296] and C. Licinius Calvus were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come into the world at the same moment.

CHAP. 51. (50.)—VARIOUS INSTANCES OF DISEASES.

P. Cornelius Rufus,[1297] who was consul with M. Curio, lost his sight while he was asleep and dreaming that that accident had befallen him. On the other hand, Jason, of Pheræ, when he was labouring under an abscess and had been given up by the physicians, determined to end his life in battle, where he received a wound in the chest, and found, at the hands of the enemy, a remedy for his disease.[1298] Q. Fabius Maximus,[1299] the consul, having engaged in battle with the Allobroges and the Arverni, at the river Isara, on the sixth day before the ides of August, and having slain there one hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy, found himself cured, during the engagement, of a quartan fever.

This gift of life, which is bestowed upon us by nature, is extremely uncertain and frail, whatever portion of it may be allotted to us. The measure is, indeed, but scanty and brief, even when it is the largest, if we only reflect upon the extent of eternity. And then, besides, if we take into account our sleep during the night, we can only be properly said to live half the period of our life; seeing that just one half of it is passed, either in a state resembling death, or else of bodily suffering, if we are unable to sleep. Added to this, we ought not to reckon the years of infancy, during which we are not sensible of our existence, nor yet the years of old age, which is prolonged only for the punishment of those who arrive at it. There are so many kinds of dangers, so many diseases, so many apprehensions, so many cares, we so often invoke death, that really there is nothing that is so often the object of our wishes. Nature has, in reality, bestowed no greater blessing on man than the shortness of life. The senses become dull, the limbs torpid, the sight, the hearing, the legs, the teeth, and the organs of digestion, all of them die before us, and yet we reckon this state as a part of our life. The solitary instance of Xenophilus, the musician,[1300] who lived one hundred and five years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as a kind of miracle; for, by Hercules! all other men are subject, at certain fixed periods, to recurring and deadly attacks by heat or cold, in every part of the body, a thing that is not the case with other animals; and these attacks, too, return not only at regular hours, but on certain days and certain nights—sometimes the third day, sometimes the fourth, sometimes every day throughout the year.

And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties.[1301] Nature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies; quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet during the winter months; some diseases never attack us after the sixtieth year; some again disappear at the age of puberty, especially in females;[1302] while aged persons are but seldom affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack whole nations; others prevail among classes; some among slaves,[1303] others among the higher ranks, and others among other classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south towards the west,[1304] and scarcely ever in an opposite direction; it never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months.

CHAP. 52. (51.)—DEATH.

And now to speak of the premonitory signs of death. Among these are laughter, in madness;[1305] in cases of delirium,[1306] the patient carefully folding the fringe or the plaits of the bedclothes;[1307] insensibility to the attempts of those who would rouse them from sleep; and involuntary discharges from the body, which it is not necessary here to particularize; but the most unequivocal signs of all, are certain appearances of the eyes and the nose, a lying posture with the face continually upwards, an irregular and feeble motion of the pulse,[1308] and the other symptoms, which have been observed by that prince of physicians, Hippocrates. At the same time that there are innumerable signs of death, there are none of health and safety; so much so, that Cato the Censor, when speaking to his son in relation to those who appear to be in good health, declared, as though it had been the enunciation of some oracle,[1309] that precocity in youth is a sign of an early death.[1310]

The number of diseases is infinite. Pherecydes of Scyros died from vast numbers of worms issuing from his body.[1311] Some persons are distressed by a perpetual fever; such was the case with C. Mæcenas; during the last three years of his life, he could never get a single moment’s sleep.[1312] Antipater of Sidon, the poet, was attacked with fever every year, and that only on his birthday; he died of it at an advanced age.[1313]

CHAP. 53. (52.)—PERSONS WHO HAVE COME TO LIFE AGAIN AFTER BEING LAID OUT FOR BURIAL.

Aviola,[1314] a man of consular rank, came to life again when on the funeral pile; but, by reason of the violence of the flames, no assistance could be rendered him, in consequence of which he was burnt alive. The same thing is said to have happened to L. Lamia, a man of prætorian rank. Messala, Rufus,[1315] and many other authors, inform us, that C. Ælius Tubero, who had filled the office of prætor, was also rescued from the funeral pile. Such then is the condition of us mortals: to these and the like vicissitudes of fortune are we born; so much so, that we cannot be sure of any thing, no, not even that a person is dead. With reference to the soul of man, we find, among other instances, that the soul of Hermotinus of Clazomenæ was in the habit of leaving his body, and wandering into distant countries, whence it brought back numerous accounts of various things, which could not have been obtained by any one but a person who was present. The body, in the meantime, was left apparently lifeless.[1316] At last, however, his enemies, the Cantharidæ,[1317] as they were called, burned the body, so that the soul, on its return, was deprived of its sheath, as it were. It is stated also, that in Proconnesus,[1318] the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth, under the form of a raven;[1319] a most fabulous story, however, which may be well ranked with the one that follows. It is told of Epimenides[1320] of Cnossus, that when he was a boy, being fatigued by heat and walking, he fell asleep in a cave, where he slept for fifty-seven years; and that when he awoke, as though it had been on the following day, he was much astonished at the changes which he saw in the appearance of every thing around him: after this, old age, it is said, came upon him in an equal number of days with the years he had slept, but his life was prolonged to his hundred and fifty-seventh year.[1321] The female sex appear more especially disposed to this morbid state,[1322] on account of the misplacement of the womb;[1323] when this is once corrected, they immediately come to themselves again. The volume of Heraclides[1324] on this subject, which is highly esteemed among the Greeks, contains the account of a female, who was restored to life, after having appeared to be dead for seven days.

Varro informs us,[1325] that when he was one of the “vigintiviri,” or twenty commissioners,[1326] appointed to superintend the division of the lands at Capua, a man who had been carried to the funeral pile, returned on foot from the Forum to his own house, and that the very same thing happened also at Aquinum. He states also, that Corfidius, who had married his maternal aunt, came to life again, after the funeral had been all arranged, and that he afterwards attended the funeral of the person who had so arranged his own. He gives in addition some other marvellous relations, the whole of which it may be as well to set forth; he says that there were two brothers, members of the equestrian order, and named Corfidius:[1327] it so happened that the elder of these was seen to breathe his last to all appearance, and on opening his will, it was found that he had named his brother his heir, who accordingly ordered his funeral. In the meanwhile, however, he who had been thought to be dead, clapping his hands,[1328] summoned the servants, and told them that he was just come from his brother’s house, who had placed his daughter in his charge; in addition to which, he had mentioned to him the place where he had secretly buried some gold, and had requested that the funeral preparations which had been made, might be employed for himself. While he was stating to this effect, the servants of his brother came in the greatest haste, and informed them that he was dead: the gold too, was found in the place just as he had stated. But throughout the whole of our lives we are perpetually hearing of such predictions as these; they are not, however, worth collecting, seeing that they are almost always false, as we shall illustrate by the following remarkable instance.

In the Sicilian war, Gabienus, the bravest of all Cæsar’s naval commanders, was taken prisoner by Sextus Pompeius, who ordered his throat to be cut; after which, his head almost severed from his body, he lay the whole of the day upon the sea-shore. Towards evening, with groans and entreaties, he begged the crowds of people who had assembled, that they would prevail upon Pompeius to come to him, or else send one of his most confidential friends, as he had just returned from the shades below, and had some important news to communicate. Pompeius accordingly sent several of his friends, to whom Gabienus stated that the good cause and virtuous partisans of Pompeius were well pleasing to the infernal deities, and that the event would shortly prove such as he wished: that he had been ordered to announce to this effect, and that, as a proof of its truthfulness, he himself should expire the very moment he had fulfilled his commission; and his death actually did take place.

We have instances also of men who have been seen after their burial; but, for the present, we are treating of the operations of nature, and not of miracles.

CHAP. 54. (53.)—INSTANCES OF SUDDEN DEATH.

Among the things that are looked upon as more especially singular, though of frequent occurrence, is sudden death, a thing that, in fact, is the greatest happiness of life, and, as we will shew, only a natural occurrence. Verrius has given many instances of it; we will limit ourselves by only making a selection. Besides Chilo, who has been already mentioned,[1329] Sophocles,[1330] and Dionysius,[1331] the tyrant of Sicily, both of them, died of joy, on learning that they had obtained the prize for tragedy. After the defeat at Cannæ, a mother died of joy, on seeing that her son had returned in safety, she having heard a false report of his death.[1332] Diodorus, the professor of logic,[1333] died of mortification, because he could not immediately answer some question which had been put to him by Stilpo, by way of joke.

Two of the Cæsars,[1334] one of whom was at the time prætor, and the other had previously discharged that office, and was the father of the Dictator Cæsar, died without any apparent cause, in the morning, while putting on their shoes; the former at Pisæ, the latter at Rome. Quintus Fabius Maximus died during his consulship, on the day before the calends of January,[1335] and in his place C. Rebilus got himself elected consul for only a few hours.[1336] The same thing happened also to the senator, C. Volcatius Gurges; these were all of them so well, and in such perfect health, that they were actually preparing to go from home. Q. Æmilius Lepidus,[1337] just as he was leaving his house, struck his great toe against the threshold of his chamber door. C. Aufustius, having gone from home, was proceeding to the senate-house, when he stumbled in the Comitium,[1338] and expired. Their ambassador, who had just been pleading the cause of the Rhodians in the senate, to the admiration of every one, suddenly expired at the door of the senate-house, just as he was about to retire. Cn. Bæbius Tamphilus,[1339] who had been prætor also, expired while he was enquiring of a boy[1340] what time it was: Aulus Pompeius[1341] died just after saluting the gods in the Capitol; and M. Juventius Thalna,[1342] the consul, while he was sacrificing. C. Servilius Pansa expired at the second hour of the day,[1343] while he was standing in the Forum, near a shop there,[1344] and leaning on the arm of his brother, Publius Pansa: the judge Bæbius, while he was giving an order for an enlargement of bail:[1345] M. Terentius Corax, while he was making an entry in his note-book in the Forum: only last year too, a member of the equestrian order at Rome, while whispering in the ear of a man of consular rank, before the ivory Apollo, in the Forum[1346] of Augustus;[1347] and, what is more singular than all, C. Julius, the physician, while he was applying, with his probe,[1348] some ointment to the eye of a patient. Aulus Manlius Torquatus, a man of consular rank, died in the act of reaching a cake at dinner; L. Tuscius Valla, the physician, while he was taking a draught of honeyed wine;[1349] Ap. Saufeius, while, on his return from the bath, after drinking some honeyed wine and water, he was swallowing an egg: P. Quinctius Scapula, while he was dining with Aquilius Gallus: Decimus Saufeius, the scribe, while he was breakfasting at his house. Corn. Gallus,[1350] who had filled the office of prætor, and Titus Haterius,[1351] a man of equestrian rank, died in the venereal act; and, a thing that was especially remarked by those of our day, two members of the equestrian order expired in the embraces of the same actor of pantomimes, Mysticus by name, who was remarkable for his singular beauty.

But the most perfect state, to all appearance, of security from death, was that of which we have an account given by the ancients, in the case of M. Ofilius Hilarus. He was an actor, and after having been very greatly applauded by the people, was giving, on his birthday, an entertainment. During dinner he called for a cup of warm drink; at the same time, looking at the masque which he had worn during the day, he placed upon it the chaplet,[1352] which he had taken from his own head; and in that position he remained rigidly fixed, without moving, no one being aware of what had taken place, until the person who was reclining next to him reminded him that the drink was getting cold; upon which he was found to be dead.

These are instances of persons dying a happy death;[1353] but, on the other hand, there are innumerable cases also of unfortunate ends. L. Domitius,[1354] a member of a most illustrious family, having been conquered at Massilia by Cæsar, and taken prisoner by him at Corfinium, being weary of life, took poison; but, immediately after, he used every possible exertion to prolong his life. We find it stated in our Annals, that Felix, a charioteer of the red party,[1355] being placed on the funeral pile, some one of the number of his admirers threw himself upon the pile; a most silly piece of conduct. Lest, however, this circumstance might be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man in his art, and so redound to his glory, the other parties all declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the perfumes. Not long ago, M. Lepidus, a man of very noble birth, who died, as I have stated above,[1356] of chagrin caused by his divorce, was hurled from the funeral pile by the violence of the flames, and in consequence of the heat, could not be replaced upon it; in consequence of which, his naked body was burnt with some other pieces of brushwood, in the vicinity of the pile.

CHAP. 55. (54.)—BURIAL.

The burning of the body after death, among the Romans, is not a very ancient usage; for formerly, they interred it.[1357] After it had been ascertained, however, in the foreign wars, that bodies which had been buried were sometimes disinterred, the custom of burning them was adopted. Many families, however, still observed the ancient rites, as, for example, the Cornelian family, no member of which had his body burnt before Sylla, the Dictator; who directed this to be done, because, having previously disinterred the dead body of Caius Marius, he was afraid that others might retaliate on his own.[1358] The term “sepultus”[1359] applies to any mode whatever of disposing of the dead body; while, on the other hand, the word “humatus” is applicable solely when it is deposited in the earth.

CHAP. 56. (55.)—THE MANES, OR DEPARTED SPIRITS OF THE SOUL.

After burial come the different quiddities as to the existence of the Manes. All men, after their last day,[1360] return to what they were before the first; and after death there is no more sensation left in the body or in the soul than there was before birth. But this same vanity of ours extends even to the future, and lyingly fashions to itself an existence even in the very moments which belong to death itself: at one time it has conferred upon us the immortality of the soul; at another transmigration; and at another it has given sensation to the shades below, and paid divine honours to the departed spirit, thus making a kind of deity of him who has but just ceased to be a man. As if, indeed, the mode of breathing with man was in any way different from that of other animals, and as if there were not many other animals to be found whose life is longer than that of man, and yet for whom no one ever presaged anything of a like immortality. For what is the actual substance of the soul, when taken by itself? Of what material does it consist? Where is the seat of its thoughts? How is it to see, or hear, or how to touch? And then, of what use is it, or what can it avail, if it has not these faculties? Where, too, is its residence, and what vast multitudes of these souls and spirits[1361] must there be after the lapse of so many ages? But all these are the mere figments of childish ravings, and of that mortality which is so anxious never to cease to exist. It is a similar piece of vanity, too, to preserve the dead bodies of men; just like the promise that he shall come to life again, which was made by Democritus;[1362] who, however, never has come to life again himself. Out upon it! What downright madness is it to suppose that life is to recommence after death! or indeed, what repose are we ever to enjoy when we have been once born, if the soul is to retain its consciousness in heaven, and the shades of the dead in the infernal regions? This pleasing delusion, and this credulity, quite cancel that chief good of human nature, death, and, as it were, double the misery of him who is about to die, by anxiety as to what is to happen to him after it. And, indeed, if life really is a good, to whom can it be so to have once lived?

How much more easy, then, and how much more devoid of all doubts, is it for each of us to put his trust in himself, and guided by our knowledge of what our state has been before birth, to assume that that after death will be the same.

CHAP. 57. (56.)—THE INVENTORS OF VARIOUS THINGS.

Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it appears only proper to point out those persons who have been the authors of different inventions. Father Liber[1363] was the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession. Ceres[1364] introduced corn, the acorn having been previously used by man for food; it was she, also, who introduced into Attica the art of grinding corn[1365] and of making bread, and other similar arts into Sicily; and it was from these circumstances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She was the first also to establish laws;[1366] though, according to some, it was Rhadamanthus. I have always been of opinion, that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other writers, Gellius,[1367] for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by Mercury: others, again, will have it that they were discovered by the Syrians; and that Cadmus brought from Phœnicia sixteen letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the time of the Trojan war, added these four, Θ, Ξ, Φ, and Χ. Simonides,[1368] the lyric poet, afterwards added a like number, Ζ, Η, Ψ, and Ω; the sounds denoted by all of which are now received into our alphabet.[1369]

Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there were originally eighteen letters,[1370] Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ, and that two, Θ namely and Χ, were introduced by Epicharmus,[1371] and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that a certain person of the name of Menos, in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus,[1372] the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes,[1373] a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years.[1374] From this statement, it would appear that letters have been in use from all eternity. The Pelasgi were the first to introduce them into Latium.

The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius[1375] were the first who constructed brick-kilns and houses at Athens; before which, caves in the ground served for houses. Gellius[1376] is inclined to think that Toxius, the son of Cælus, was the first inventor of mortar, it having been suggested to him by the nest of the swallow. Cecrops[1377] gave to a town the name of Cecropia, after himself; this is now the citadel of Athens. Some persons will have it, that Argos had been founded before this period by King Phoroneus; others, again, that Sicyon had been previously built; while the Egyptians declare that their own city, Diospolis, had been in existence long before them. Cinyra,[1378] the son of Agriopas,[1379] invented tiles and discovered copper-mines,[1380] both of them in the island of Cyprus; he also invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil. Wells were invented by Danaus,[1381] who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.

The first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes, or else, according to Theophrastus, in Phœnicia. Walls were first built by Thrason;[1382] according to Aristotle, towers were first erected by the Cyclopes,[1383] but according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii. The Egyptians invented weaving;[1384] the Lydians of Sardis the art of dyeing wool.[1385] Closter, the son of Arachne, invented the spindle for spinning wool;[1386] Arachne herself, linen cloth and nets;[1387] Nicias of Megara, the art of fulling cloth;[1388] and Tychius, the Bœotian, the art of making shoes.[1389] The Egyptians will have it that the medical art was first discovered among them, while others attribute it to Arabus, the son of Babylonis and Apollo; botany and pharmacy are ascribed to Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra.[1390]

Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was the first to fuse and temper copper, while Theophrastus ascribes the art to Delas, the Phrygian.[1391] Some persons ascribe the working of copper to the Chalybes, others to the Cyclopes. Hesiod says, that iron was discovered in Crete, by the Idæan Dactyli.[1392] Erichthonius, the Athenian, or, as some people say, Æacus, discovered silver.[1393] Gold mines, and the mode of fusing that metal, were discovered by Cadmus, the Phœnician, at the mountain of Pangæus,[1394] or, according to other accounts, by Thoas or Eaclis, in Panchaia;[1395] or else by Sol, the son of Oceanus, whom Gellius mentions as having been the first who employed honey in medicine. Midacritus[1396] was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris.[1397] The Cyclopes invented the art of working iron.[1398] Choræbus, the Athenian, was the first who made earthen vessels;[1399] but Anacharsis, the Scythian, or, according to others, Hyperbius, the Corinthian, first invented the potter’s wheel. Dædalus[1400] was the first person who worked in wood; it was he who invented the saw, the axe, the plummet, the gimlet, glue, and isinglass;[1401] the square, the level, the turner’s lathe, and the key, were invented by Theodorus, of Samos.[1402] Measures and weights were invented by Phidon, of Argos,[1403] or, according to Gellius, by Palamedes. Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, was the first to strike fire from the flint, and Prometheus taught us how to preserve it, in the stalk of giant-fennel.[1404]

The Phrygians first taught us the use of the chariot with four wheels;[1405] the Carthaginians the arts of merchandize,[1406] and Eumolpus, the Athenian,[1407] the cultivation of the vine, and of trees in general. Staphylus, the son of Silenus,[1408] was the first to mix water with wine; olive-oil and the oil-press, as also honey, we owe to Aristæus, the Athenian;[1409] the use of oxen and the plough to Buzyges, the Athenian,[1410] or, according to other accounts, to Triptolemus.[1411]

The Egyptians were the first who established a monarchical government, and the Athenians, after the time of Theseus, a democracy. Phalaris,[1412] of Agrigentum, was the first tyrant[1413] that existed; the Lacedæmonians were the introducers of slavery;[1414] and the first capital punishment inflicted was ordered by the Areiopagus.[1415] The first battles were fought by the Africans against the Egyptians, with clubs, which they are in the habit of calling phalangæ. Prœtus and Acrisius[1416] were the first to use shields, in their contests with each other; or, as some say, Chalcus, the son of Athamas. Midias, the Messenian, invented the coat of mail, and the Lacedæmonians the helmet, the sword, and the spear.[1417] Greaves and crests were first used by the Carians; Scythes, the son of Jupiter, it is said, invented the bow and arrows, though some say that arrows were invented by Perses, the son of Perseus.[1418] Lances were invented by the Ætolians; the javelin, with the thong[1419] attached, by Ætolus,[1420] the son of Mars; the spear of the light infantry[1421] by Tyrrhenus; the dart[1422] by Penthesilea, the Amazon; the axe by Pisæus; the hunting-spear, and the scorpion to hurl missiles, by the Cretans;[1423] the catapulta, the balista,[1424] and the sling, by the Syrophœnicians.[1425] Pisæus, the Tyrrhenian, was the first to invent the brazen trumpet,[1426] and Artemon, of Clazomenæ, the use of the testudo.[1427] The battering-horse, for the destruction of walls, which is at the present day styled the “ram,” was invented by Epeus, at Troy.[1428] Bellerophon was the first who mounted the horse;[1429] bridles and saddles for the horse were invented by Pelethronius.[1430] The Thessalians, who are called Centauri, and who dwell along Mount Pelion, were the first to fight on horse-back. The people of Phrygia were the first who used chariots with two horses; Erichthonius first used four.[1431] Palamedes, during the Trojan war, was the first who marshalled an army, and invented watchwords,[1432] signals, and the use of sentinels. Sinon, at the same period, invented the art of correspondence by signals. Lycaon was the first to think of making a truce, and Theseus a treaty of alliance.

The art of divination by means of birds[1433] we owe to Car, from whom Caria derives its name; Orpheus extended it to other animals. Delphus taught us the art of divining by the inspection of entrails; Amphiaraüs[1434] divination by fire; and Tiresias, the Theban, presages from the entrails of birds. We owe to Amphictyon[1435] the interpretation of portents and of dreams, and to Atlas,[1436] the son of Libya, the art of astrology, or else, according to other accounts, to the Egyptians or the Assyrians. Anaximander,[1437] the Milesian, invented the astronomical sphere; and Æolus, the son of Hellen, gave us the theory of the winds.

Amphion was the inventor of music;[1438] Pan, the son of Mercury, the music of the reed, and the flute with the single pipe; Midas, the Phrygian,[1439] the transverse flute;[1440] and Marsyas, of the same country, the double-pipe.[1441] Amphion invented the Lydian measures in music; Thamyris the Thracian, the Dorian, and Marsyas the Phrygian, the Phrygian style.[1442] Amphion, or, according to some accounts, Orpheus, and according to others, Linus, invented the lyre.[1443] Terpander, adding three to the former four, increased the number of strings to seven; Simonides added an eighth, and Timotheus a ninth.[1444] Thamyris was the first who played on the lyre, without the accompaniment of the voice; and Amphion, or, as some say, Linus, was the first who accompanied it with the voice. Terpander was the first who composed songs expressly for the lyre; and Ardalus, the Trœzenian, was the first who taught us how to combine the voice with the music of the pipe.[1445] The Curetes taught us the dance in armour,[1446] and Pyrrhus, the Pyrrhic dance, both of them in Crete.

We are indebted to the Pythian oracle for the first heroic verse.[1447] A very considerable question has arisen, as to what was the origin of poetry; it is well known to have existed before the Trojan war. Pherecydes of Scyros, in the time of King Cyrus, was the first to write in prose, and Cadmus, the Milesian, was the first historian.[1448]

Lycaon[1449] first instituted gymnastic games, in Arcadia; Acastus funereal games,[1450] at Iolcos;[1451] and, after him, Theseus instituted them at the Isthmus.[1452] Hercules first instituted the athletic contests at Olympia.[1453] Pythus invented the game of ball.[1454] Painting was invented in Egypt by Gyges, the Lydian,[1455] or, according to Aristotle, in Greece, by Euchir, a kinsman[1456] of Dædalus; according to Theophrastus, again, it was invented by Polygnotus, the Athenian.

Danaüs was the first who passed over in a ship from Egypt to Greece.[1457] Before his time, they used to sail on rafts,[1458] which had been invented by King Erythras,[1459] to pass from one island to another in the Red Sea. There are some writers to be found, who are of opinion that they were first thought of by the Mysians and the Trojans, for the purpose of crossing the Hellespont into Thrace. Even at the present day, they are made in the British ocean, of wicker-work covered with hides;[1460] on the Nile they are made of papyrus, rushes, and reeds.

We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel;[1461] Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias,[1462] Semiramis,[1463] and Archemachus, Ægæon. According to Damastes,[1464] the Erythræi[1465] were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides,[1466] Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks;[1467] and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty.[1468] Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phœnicians, the passage-boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians, the cutter.[1469]

We are indebted to the Phœnicians for the first observation of the stars in navigation; the Copæ invented the oar, and the Platæans gave it its broad blade.[1470] Icarus was the person who invented sails,[1471] and Dædalus the mast and yards; the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, transports for horses,[1472] and the Thracians, long covered vessels,[1473]—before which time they used to fight only from the prow or the stern. Pisæus, the Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships;[1474] Eupalamus, the anchor; Anacharsis, that with two flukes; Pericles, the Athenian, grappling-irons, and hooks like hands;[1475] and Tiphys,[1476] the helm and rudder. Minos was the first who waged war by means of ships; Hyperbius, the son of Mars, the first who killed an animal; and Prometheus, the first who slew the ox.[1477]

CHAP. 58. (57.)—THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH MANKIND FIRST OF ALL AGREED. THE ANCIENT LETTERS.

There was at the very earliest[1478] period a tacit consent among all nations to adopt the letters now used by the Ionians.[1479] (58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same with the modern Latin,[1480] is proved by the ancient Delphic inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library, having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva; this inscription is as follows:

ΝΑΥΣΙΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΑΝΕΘΕΤΟ ΤΗΙ ΔΙΟΣ ΚΟΡΗΙ.

[“Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus.”][1481]

CHAP. 59. (59.)—WHEN BARBERS WERE FIRST EMPLOYED.[1482]

The next point upon which all nations appear to have agreed, was the employment of barbers.[1483] The Romans, however, were more tardy in the adoption of their services. According to Varro, they were introduced into Italy from Sicily, in the year of Rome 454,[1484] having been brought over by P. Titinius Mena: before which time the Romans did not cut the hair. The younger Africanus[1485] was the first who adopted the custom of shaving every day. The late Emperor Augustus always made use of razors.[1486]

CHAP. 60.—WHEN THE FIRST TIME-PIECES WERE MADE.

(60.) The third point of universal agreement was the division of time, a subject which afterwards appealed to the reasoning faculties. We have already stated, in the Second Book,[1487] when and by whom this art was first invented in Greece; the same was also introduced at Rome, but at a later period. In the Twelve Tables, the rising and setting of the sun are the only things that are mentioned relative to time. Some years afterwards, the hour of midday was added, the summoner[1488] of the consuls proclaiming it aloud, as soon as, from the senate-house, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and the Græcostasis;[1489] he also proclaimed the last hour, when the sun had gone down from the Mænian column[1490] to the prison. This, however, could only be done in clear weather, but it was continued until the first Punic war. The first sun-dial is said to have been erected among the Romans twelve years before the war with Pyrrhus, by L. Papirius Cursor,[1491] at the temple of Quirinus,[1492] on which occasion he dedicated it in pursuance of a vow which had been made by his father. This is the account given by Fabius Vestalis; but he makes no mention of either the construction of the dial or the artist, nor does he inform us from what place it was brought, or in whose works he found this statement made.

M. Varro[1493] says that the first sun-dial, erected for the use of the public, was fixed upon a column near the Rostra, in the time of the first Punic war, by the consul M. Valerius Messala, and that it was brought from the capture of Catina, in Sicily: this being thirty years after the date assigned to the dial of Papirius, and the year of Rome 491. The lines in this dial did not exactly agree with the hours;[1494] it served, however, as the regulator of the Roman time ninety-nine years, until Q. Marcius Philippus, who was censor with L. Paulus, placed one near it, which was more carefully arranged: an act which was most gratefully acknowledged, as one of the very best of his censorship. The hours, however, still remained a matter of uncertainty, whenever the weather happened to be cloudy, until the ensuing lustrum; at which time Scipio Nasica, the colleague of Lænas, by means of a clepsydra, was the first to divide the hours of the day and the night into equal parts: and this time-piece he placed under cover and dedicated, in the year of Rome 595;[1495] for so long a period had the Romans remained without any exact division of the day. We will now return to the history of the other animals, and first to that of the terrestrial.

Summary.—Remarkable events, narratives, and observations, seven hundred and forty-seven.

Roman authors quoted.—Verrius Flaccus,[1496] Cneius Gellius,[1497] Licinius Mutianus,[1498] Massurius Sabinius,[1499] Agrippina, the wife of Claudius,[1500] M. Cicero,[1501] Asinius Pollio,[1502] M. Varro,[1503] Messala Rufus,[1504] Cornelius Nepos,[1505] Virgil,[1506] Livy,[1507] Cordus,[1508] Melissus,[1509] Sebosus,[1510] Cornelius Celsus,[1511] Maximus Valerius,[1512] Trogus,[1513] Nigidius Figulus,[1514] Pomponius Atticus,[1515] Pedianus Asconius,[1516] Fabianus,[1517] Cato the Censor,[1518] the Register of the Triumphs,[1519] Fabius Vestalis.[1520]

Foreign authors quoted.—Herodotus,[1521] Aristeas,[1522] Bæton,[1523] Isigonus,[1524] Crates,[1525] Agatharchides,[1526] Calliphanes,[1527] Aristotle,[1528] Nymphodorus,[1529] Apollonides,[1530] Phylarchus,[1531] Damon,[1532] Megasthenes,[1533] Ctesias,[1534] Tauron,[1535] Eudoxus,[1536] Onesicritus,[1537] Clitarchus,[1538] Duris,[1539] Artemidorus,[1540] Hippocrates[1541] the physician, Asclepiades[1542] the physician, Hesiod,[1543] Anacreon,[1544] Theopompus,[1545] Hellanicus,[1546] Damastes,[1547] Ephorus,[1548] Epigenes,[1549] Berosus,[1550] Petosiris,[1551] Necepsos,[1552] Alexander Polyhistor,[1553] Xenophon,[1554] Callimachus,[1555] Democritus,[1556] Diyllus[1557] the historian, Strabo,[1558] who wrote against the Euremata of Ephorus, Heraclides Ponticus,[1559] Aclepiades,[1560] who wrote the Tragodoumena, Philostephanus,[1561] Hegesias,[1562] Archimachus,[1563] Thucydides,[1564] Mnesigiton,[1565] Xenagoras,[1566] Metrodorus[1567] of Scepsos, Anticlides,[1568] Critodemus.[1569]