If you will crofs the Tanais, you may travel over Scythia, and obferve how extenfive a territory we inhabit. But to conquer us is quite another bufiness: you will find us at one time, too nimble for your purfuit; and at another time, when you think we are fled far enough from you, you will have us furprife you in your camp for the Scythians attack with no lefs vigour than they fly. It will therefore be your wisdom to keep with ftrict attention what you have gained: catching at more you may lofe what you have. We have a proverbial faying in Scythia, That Fortune has no feet, and is furnished only with hands to diftribute her capricious favours, and with fins to elude the grafp of thofe to whom he has been bountiful. You give yourself out to be a god, the fon of Jupiter Ammon: it fuits the character of a god to beflow favours on mortals, not to deprive them of what they have. But if you are no god, reflect on the precarious condition of humanity. You will thus fhew more wisdom, than by dwelling on thofe fubjects which have puffed up your pride, and made you forget yourfelf.

You fee how little you are likely to gain by attempting the conquest of Scythia. On the other hand, you may, if you please, have in us a valuable alliance. We command the borders of both Europe and Afia. There is nothing between us and Bactria but the river Tanais; and our territory extends to Thrace, which, as we have heard, borders on Macedon. If you decline attacking us in a hoftile manner, you may have our friendship. Nations which have never been at war are on an equal footing; but it is in vain that confidence is repofed in a conquered people: there can be no fincere friendship between the oppreflors and the oppreffed; even in peace, the latter think themfelves entitled to the rights of war against the former. We will, if you think good, enter into a treaty with you, according to our manner, which is not by figning, fealing, and taking the gods to witness, as is the Grecian custom; but by doing actual fervices. The Scythians are not used to promife, but perform without promifing. And they think an appeal to the gods fuperfluous; for that thofe who have no regard for the esteem of men will not hesitate to

offend the gods by perjury.-You may therefore confider with yourself, whether you had better have a people of fuch a character, and fo fituated as to have it in their power either to serve you or to annoy you, according as you treat them, for allies or for enemies. 2. Curtius.

35. JUNIUS BRUTUS over the dead Body of LUCRETIA, who had stabbed berfelf in confequence of the Rape of TARQUIN.

Yes, noble lady, I fwear by this blood which was once fo pure, and which nothing but royal villainy could have polluted, that I will purfue Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and fword: nor will I fuffer any of that family, or of any other whatfoever, to be king in Rome.Ye gods, f call you to witness this my oath!

There, Romans, turn your eyes to that fad fpectacle!the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife he died by her own hand! See there a noble lady, whom the luft of a Tarquin reduced to the neceffity of being her own executioner, to atteft her innocence. Hofpitably entertained by her as a kinfman of her husband, Sextus, the perfidious gueft, became her brutal ravisher. The chafte, the generous Lucretia could not furvive the infult. Glorious woman! but once only treated as a flave, he thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, difdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, fhall men, with fuch an example before our

eyes, and after five-and twenty years of ignominious fervitude, fall we, through a fear of dying, defer one fingle inftant to affert our liberty? No, Romans; now is the time; the favourable moment we have fo long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome: the Patricians are at the head of the enter prize: the city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things neceffary. There is nothing wanting to fecure the fuccefs, if our own courage does not fail us. And fhall those warriors who have ever been fo brave when foreign enemies were to be fubdued, or when conquefts were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themfelves from flavery?

Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now com

mands;

mands; the foldiers, you imagine, will take the part of their general. Banish fucha groundless fear: the love of liberty is natural to all men. Your fellow citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppreffion with as quick a sense as you that are in Rome; they will as eagerly feize the occafion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be fome among them who, through bafenefs of fpirit, or a bad education, will be difpofed to favour the tyrant: the number of thefe can be but fmall, and we have means fufficient in our hands to reduce them to reafon. They have left us hoftages more dear to them than life; their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers,, are here in the city. Courage, Romans, the gods are for us; thofe gods, whofe temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned by facrifices, and libations made with polluted hands, polluted with blood, and with numberlefs unexpiated crimes committed against his fubjects.

Ye gods, who protected our forefathers! ye genii, who watch for the preservation and glory of Rome! do you infpire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious caufe, and we will to our laft breath defend your worship from all profanation. Livy.

$36. Speech of ADHERBAL to the RoMAN SENATE, imploring their Affiftance against JUGURTHA.

Fathers!

It is known to you that king Micipfa, my father, on his death-bed, left in charge to Jugurtha, his adopted fon, conjunctly with my unfortunate brother Hiempfal and myself, the children of his own body, the adminiftration of the kingdom of Numidia, directing us to confider the fenate and people of Rome as proprietors of it. He charged us to use our beft endeavours to be ferviceable to the Roman commonwealth, in peace and war; affuring us, that your protection would prove to us a defence against all enemies, and would be inftead of armies, fortifications, and trea

my unfortunate brother, and has driven. me from my throne and native country, though he knows I inherit, from my grandfather Maffiniffa, and my father Micipfa, the friendship and alliance of the Romans.

For a prince to be reduced, by villainy, to my diftrefsful circumftances, is calamity enough; but my misfortunes are heightened by the confideration, that I find myfelf obliged to folicit your affiftance, Fathers, for the fervices done you by my anceftors, not for any I have been able to render you in my own perfon. Jugurtha has put it out of my power to deferve any thing at your hands, and has forced me to be burdenfome before I could be useful to you. And yet, if I had no plea but my undeferved mifery, who, from a powerful prince, the defcendant of a race of illuftrious monarchs, find myself, without any fault of my own, deftitute of every fupport, and reduced to the neceffity of begging foreign affiftance against an enemy who has feized my throne and kingdom; if my unequalled diftreffes were all I had to plead, it would become the greatness of the Roman commonwealth, the arbitrefs of the world, to protect the injured, and to check the triumph of daring wickedness over helpless innocence. But, to provoke your vengeance to the utmoft, Jugurtha has driven me from the very dominions which the fenate and people of Rome gave to my ancestors, and from which my grandfather and my father, under your umbrage, expelled Syphax, and the Carthaginians. Thus, fathers, your kindness to our family is defeated; and Jugurtha, in injuring me, throws contempt on you.

O wretched prince! O cruel reverse of fortune! O father Micipfa is this the confequence of your generofity, that he whom your goodness raised to an equality with your own children, fhould be the murderer of your children? Must then the royal houfe of Numidia always be a scene of havock and blood? While Carthage remained, we suffered, as was to be expected, all forts of hardfhips from their hoftile attacks; our enemy near; our only powerful ally, the Roman commonwealth, at a distance; while we were fo circumstanced, we were always in arms, and in action. When that fcourge of Africa was no more, we congratulated ourselves on the profpect of established peace. But inftead of peace, behold the kingdom of Numidia drenched with royal blood, and

the

the only furviving fon of its late king flying from an adopted murderer, and feek. ing that fafety in foreign parts, which he cannot command in his own kingdom. Whither-O whither fhall I fly! If I return to the royal palace of my ancestors, my father's throne is feized by the murderer of my brother. What can I there expect, but that Jugurtha fhould haften to imbrue in my blood thofe hands which are now reeking with my brother's? If I were to fly for refuge, or for affiftance, to any other courts, from what prince can I hope for protection, if the Roman commonwealth gives me up? From my own family or friends I have no expectations. My royal father is no more: he is beyond the reach of violence, and out of hearing of the complaints of his unhappy fon. Were my brother alive, our mutual fympathy would be fome alleviation: bat he is hurried out of life in his early youth, by the very hand which should have been the laft to injure any of the royal family of Numidia. The bloody Jugurtha has butchered all whom he fufpected to be in my intereft. Some have been deftroyed by the lingering torment of the cross? others have been given a prey to wild beafts, and their anguish made the fport of men more cruel than wild beasts. If there be any yet alive, they are fhut up in dungeons, there to drag out a life more intolerable than death itself.

Look down, illuftrious fenators of Rome! from that height of power to which you are raifed, on the unexampled diftreffes of a prince, who is, by the cruelty of a wicked intruder, become an outcaft from all mankind. Let not the crafty infinuations of him who returns murder for adoption, prejudice your judgment. Do not liften to the wretch who has butchered the fon and relations of a king, who gave him power to fit on the fame throne with his own fons.-I have been informed that he labours by his emiffaries to prevent your determining any thing against him in his abfence, pretending that I magnify my direfs, and might for him have ftaid in peace in my own kingdom. But, if ever the time comes when the due vengeance from above fhall overtake him, he will then diffemble as I do. Then he who now, hardend in wickedness, triumphs over those whom his violence has laid low, will in his turn feel diftrefs, and fuffer for his impious ing atitude to my father, and his bico-thirty cruelty to my brother.

O murdered, butchered brother! O deareft to my heart-now gone for ever from my fight!-But why fhould I lament his death? He is indeed deprived of the bleffed light of heaven, of life, and kingdom, at once, by the very perfon who ought to have been the first to hazard his own life in defence of any one of Micipfa's family? But as things are, my brother is not fo much deprived of these comforts, as delivered from terror, from flight, from exile, and the endlefs train of miferies which render life to me a burden. He lies full low, gored with wounds, and feftering in his own blood; but he lies in peace: he feels none of the miferies which rend my foul with agony and distraction, whilft I am fet up a fpectacle to all mankind of the uncertainty of human affairs. So far from having it in my power to revenge his death, I am not mafter of the means of fecuring my own life: fo far from being in a condition to defend my kingdom from the violence of the ufurper, I am obliged to apply for foreign protection for my own person.

Fathers! Senators of Rome! the arbi ters of the world!to you I fly for refuge from the murderous fury of Jugurtha By your affection for your children, by your love for your country, by your own virtues, by the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, by all that is facred, and all that is dear to you-deliver a wretched prince from undeferved, unprovoked injury, and fave the kingdom of Numidia, which is your own property, from being the prey of violence, ufurpation, and cruelty. Salluft.

$37. Speech of CANULEIUS, a Roman Tribune, to the Confuls; in which he demands that the Plebeians may be admitted into the Confulship, and that the Law probibiting Patricians and Plebeians from intermarrying may be repealed.

What an infult upon us is this! If we are not fo rich as the patricians, are we not citizens of Rome as well as they? inhabitants of the fame country members of the fame community? The nations bordering upon Rome, and even strangers more remote, are admitted not only to marriages with us, but to what is of much greater importance, the freedom of the city. Are we, because we are commoners, to be worfe treated than, ftrangers ?-And, when we demard that the people may be free to bellow their offices and dignities on

who.n

whom they please, do we afk any thing unreasonable or new? do we claim more than their original inherent right? What occafion then for all this uproar, as if the univerfe were falling to ruin!-They were just going to lay violent hands upon me in the fenate-house.

What? muft this empire then be unavoidably overturned? muft Rome of neceffity fink at once, if a plebeian, worthy of the office, fhould be raised to the confulthip? The patricians, I am perfuaded, if they could, would deprive you of the common light. It certainly offends them that you breathe, that you speak, that you have the shapes of men. Nay, but to make a commoner a conful, would be, fay they, a moft enormous thing. Numa Pompilius, however, without being fo much as a Roman citizen, was made king of Rome: the elder Tarquin, by birth not even an Italian, was nevertheless placed upon the throne: Servius Tullius, the fon of a captive woman (nobody knows who his father was) obtained the kingdom as the reward of his wifdom and virtue. In those days, no man in whom virtue fhone confpicuous was rejected, or defpifed, on account of his race and defcent. And did the state profper less for that were not thefe ftrangers the very beft of all our kings? And fuppofing now, that a plebeian fhould have their talents and merit, must not he be suffered to go

vern us?

But," we find that, upon the abolition "of the regal power, no commoner was "chofen to the confulate." And what of that! Before Numa's time there were no pontiffs in Rome, Before Servius Tullius's days there was no Cenfus, no divifion of the people into claffes and centuries. Who ever heard of confuls before the expulfion of Tarquin the Proud? Dictators, we all know, are of modern invention; and fo are the offices of tribunes, ædiles, questors. Within thofe ten years we have made decemvirs, and we have unmade them. Is nothing to be done but what has been done before? That very law forbidding marriages of patricians with plebeians, is not that a new thing? was there any fuch law before the decemvirs enacted it and a moft fhameful one it is in a free eftate. Such marriages, it feems, will taint the pure blood of the nobility! why, if they think fo, let them take care to match their fifters and daughters with men of their own fort. No plebeian will

do violence to the daughter of a patrician; those are exploits for our prime nobles. There is no need to fear, that we shall force any body into a contract of marriage. But, to make an exprefs law to prohibit marriages of patricians with plebeians, what is this but to shew the utmost contempt of us, and to declare one part of the community to be impure and unclean?

They talk to us of the confufion there will be in families, if this ftatute should be repealed. I wonder they do not make a law against a commoner's living near a nobleman, or going the fame road that he is going, or being prefent at the fame feaft, or appearing in the fame marketplace: they might as well pretend, that these things make confufion in families, as that intermarriages will do it. Does not every one know, that the child will be ranked according to the quality of his father, let him be a patrician or a plebeian ? In fhort, it is manifeft enough, that we have nothing in view but to be treated as men and citizens; nor can they who oppofe our demand, have any motive to do it, but the love of domineering. I would fain know of you, confuls and patricians, is the fovereign power in the people of Rome, or in you? I hope you will allow, that the people can, at their pleasure, either make a law or repeal one. And will you then, as foon as any law is propofed to them, pretend to lift them immediately for the war, and hinder them from giving their fuffrages, by leading them into the field?

Hear me, confuls: whether the news of the war you talk of be true, or whether it be only a falle rumour, fpread abroad for nothing but a colour to fend the people out of the city, I declare, as tribune, that this people, who have already fo often spilt their blood in our country's caufe, are again ready to arm for its defence and its glory, if they may be restored to their natural rights, and you will no longer treat us like fangers in our own country: but if you account us unworthy of your alliance by intermarriages; if you will not fuffer the entrance to the chief offices in the state to be open to all perfons of merit indifferently, but will confine your choice of magiftrates to the fenate alone-talk of wars as much as ever you pleafe; paint, in your ordinary difcourfes, the league and power of our enemies ten times more dreadful than you do now-I declare that this people, whom you fo much defpife, and to whom you are nevertheless indebted

223

for

The story of Cicero's death continued fresh on the minds of the Romans for many ages after it; and was delivered down to pofterity, with all its circumftances, as one of the most affecting and memorable events of their hiftory: fo that the fpot on which it happened, feems to have been vifited by travellers with a kind of religious reverence. The odium of it fell chiefly on Antony; yet it left a ftain of perfidy and ingratitude alfo on Auguftus; which explains the reafons of that filence, which is obferved about him, by the writers of that age; and why his name is not fo much as mentioned either by Horace or Virgil. For though his character would have furnished a glorious fubject for many noble lines, yet he was no fubject for court poets, fince the very mention of him must have been a fatire on the prince, especially while Antony lived; among the fycophants of whofe court it was fashionable to infult his memory, by all the methods of calumny that wit and malice could invent: nay, Virgil, on an occafion that could hardly fail of bringing him to his mind, inftead of doing juftice to his merit, chofe to do an injufti e rather to Rome itself, by yielding the fuperiority of eloquence to the Greeks, which they themselves had been forced to yield to Cicero.

Livy, however, whofe candour made Auguftus call him a Pompeian, while, out of complaifance to the times, he seems to extenuate the crime of Cicero's murder, yet after a high encomium of his virtues, declares, that to praise him as he deferved, required the eloquence of Cicero himself. Auguftus too, as Plutarch tells us, happening one day to catch his grandfon reading one of Cicero's books, which, for fear of the emperor's difpleafure, the boy endeavoured to hide under his gown, took the book into his hands, and turning over a great part of it, gave it back again, and faid, "This was a learned man, my child, "and a lover of his country."

In the fucceeding generations, as the particular envy to Cicero fubfided, by the

death of those whose private interests and perfonal quarrels had engaged to hate when living, and defame him when dead, fo his name and memory began to shine out in its proper luftre; and in the reign even of Tiberius, when an eminent fenator and historian, Cremutius Cordus, was condemned to die for praifing Brutus, yet Paterculus could not forbear breaking out into the following warm expoftulation with Antony on the fubject of Cicero's death: "Thou haft done nothing, Antony; haft "done nothing, I fay, by fetting a price "on that divine and illuftrious head, and "by a deteftable reward procuring the "death of fo great a conful and preferver "of the republic. Thou haft snatched " from Cicero a troublesome being, a de

clining age, a life more miferable under "thy dominion than death itself; but fo "far from diminishing the glory of his "deeds and fayings, thou haft increased "it. He lives, and will live in the me

mory of all ages; and as long as this "fyftem of nature, whether by chance or "providence, or what way fo ever formed, "which he alone of all the Romans com

prehended in his mind, and illuftrated by his eloquence, fhall remain intire, it will draw the praises of Cicero along with it: and all pofterity will admire "his writings against thee, curfe thy act "against him

From this period, all the Roman writers, whether poets or hiftorians, seem to vie with each other in celebrating the praises of Cicero, as the moft illuftrious of all their patriots, and the parent of the Roman wit and eloquence; who had done more honour to his country by his writings, than all their conquerors by their arms, and extended the bounds of his learning beyond those of their empire. So that their very emperors, near three centuries after his death, began to reverence him in the class of their inferior deities; a rank which he would have preferved to this day, if he had happened to live in papal Rome, where he could not have failed, as Erafmus fays, from the innocence of his life, of obtaining the honour and title of a faint.

As to his perfon, he was tall and flender, with a neck particularly long; yet his features were regular and manly; preferving a comelinefs and dignity to the laft, with a certain air of chearfulness and ferenity, that imprinted both affection and respect. His confti.ution was naturally weak, yet was fo confirmed by his management of