Nunc caput in mortem vendunt, et funus arena, Atque boftem fibi quifque parat cum bella quiefcunt *. They fell themselves to death, and, fince the wars Hos inter fremitus, novofque lufus, Amidst these tumults and alarms, Which I would think ftrange and incredible, were we not accustomed every day to fee, in our own wars, many thousands of men, of other nations, ftaking their blood and their lives for money, often in quarrels wherein they have no manner of concern. I CHAP. XXIV. Of the Roman Grandeur. WILL only fay a word or two of this extenfive fubject, to fhew the fimplicity of thofe who compare the pitiful grandeur of thefe times to that of Rome. In the feventh book of Cicero's Familiar Epiftles, (but let the grammarians expunge the furname of Familiar, if they please, for, in truth, it is not very proper; and they who, inftead of Familar, have fubftituted ad familiares, may gather fomething to justify them for fo doing, • Manil. Aftron. lib. iv. ver. 225, 226. + Statius, Syl. 6. lib. i. ver. 52, 53, 54. I Witnefs the Swifs, who, though of the fame country, and perhaps of the fame family, ferve one against another for pay, in the armies of France, Holland, &c. Out out of what Suetonius fays, in the life of Cæfar, "that he had a volume of letters of his, ad familiares") there is one directed to Cæfar, being then in Gaul, wherein Cicero repeats these words, which were in the end of another letter that Cæfar had writ to him: "as for Marcus "Furius, whom you have recommended to me, I will "make him king of Gaul; and, if you would have me "advance any other friend of yours, fend him to me *." It was no new thing for a mere citizen of Rome, as Cæfar then was, to difpofe of kingdoms; for he took away that of king Deiotarus from him, to give it to a gentleman of the city of Pergamus, called Mithridates. They who writ his life, record feveral cities fold by him; and Suetonius fays, "that he had, at once, from "king Ptolomy, near 6000 talents, or three millions "and fix hundred thousand crowns," which was almoft the fame as felling him his own kingdom. Tot Galate, tot Pontus, tot Lydia nummis ‡. Such fums of money did he raife, as thefe, .' A great king his conquefts, deprived of by a letter from the Ro man senate. Mark Anthony said, "that the grandeur of the people " of Rome was not fo much seen in what they took, as in what they gave ||." Yet, many years before Anthony, they had dethroned one amongst the reft with fo wonderful authority, that, in all the Roman history, I have not observed any thing that more denotes the height of Antiochus poffeffed all Egypt, and was, moreover, ready to conquer Cyprus, and other appendices of that empire; when, being upon the progrefs of his victories, C. Popilius came to him from the Senate, and, at their first meeting, refused to take him by the hand, till he had read his letters, which after the king had perused, their power. Lib. vii. ep. 5. Ciceronis Cæfari imper. + Cic. de Divinat. lib. ii. cap. 37. Claud. in Eutrop. lib. i. cap. 203. Plutarch, in the life of Anthony, cap. 8. I i2 and and told him, he would confider of them, Popilius made a circle about him with the ftick he had in his Why the Romans restored hand, faying, "Return me an answer, that I may carry "it back to the fenate, before thou ftirreft out of this "circle *." Antiochus, aftonifhed at the roughness of fo urgent a command, after a little paufe, replied, "I will obey the fenate's command;" and then it was that Popilius faluted him as a friend to the people of Rome. After having quitted claim to fo great a monarchy, and in fuch a torrent of fuccefsful fortune, upon three words in writing; in earnest he had reafon, as he did, to fend the fenate word, by his ambassadors, "that he had received their order with the fame refpect, as if it had arrived from the immortal gods t." All the kingdoms that Auguftus gained by the right of conqueft, he either reftored to thofe who had loft them, or prefented them to ftrangers. And Tacitus, in reference to this, fpeaking of Cogidunus, king of England, gives us a wonderful inftance of that infinite power: "the Romans, fays he, were, "from all antiquity, accuftomed to leave the kings "they had fubdued, in poffeffion of their kingdom under "their authority, that they might have even kings to be "their flaves :" ut haberent inftrumenta fervitutis et reges ‡. It is likely, that Solyman, whom we have feen make a gift of Hungary, and other principalities, had therein more respect to this confideration, than to that he was wont to alledge, viz. “That he was glutted and overcharged "with fo many monarchies, and fo much dominion, as "his own valour, or that of his ancestors, had acquired.” their conquered kingdoms to their owners. Tit. Liv. lib. xiv. cap. 12. + Idem, ib. cap. 23- ↑ Idem, in Vitâ Julii Agricolæ.. CHAP. T CHA P. XXV, Not to counterfeit Sickness. HERE is a choice epigram in Martial, for he has of all forts, where he pleafantly Gout countertells the ftory of Cælius, who, to avoid feit became a making his court to fome great men of real gout. Rome, to go to their levee, and to attend them abroad, pretended to have the gout; and the better to colour it, anointed his legs, had them fwathed up, and perfectly counterfeited both the gefture and countenance of a gouty perfon; till, in the end, fortune did him the kindness to give him the gout in earnest. Tantum cura poteft et ars doloris, So much has counterfeiting brought about, Inftance of a man, who be came really I think I have read, fomewhere in Appian, a ftory, like this, of one who, to efcape the profcriptions of the triumviri of Rome, and the better to be concealed from the difcovery of those who purfued him, having masked himself in a disguise, did also add this invention, " to counterfeit having but "one eye; but, when he came to have a blind in one eye, after he had counter. feited it. little more liberty, and went to take off the plafter " he had a great while worn over his eye, he found he "had totally loft the fight of it." It is poffible, that the action of fight was dulled, for having been fo long without exercife, and that the optic power was wholly retired into the other eye: for we evidently perceive, that the eye we keep fhut, fends fome part of its virtue to its fellow, which thereby fwells and grows bigger; more Mart. epig. 38. lib. vii. ver, 8, 9. I i 3 over, over, the fitting ftill, with the heat of the ligatures and plafters, might very well have brought fome gouty humour upon this diffembler in Martial. Reading, in Froiffard, the vow of a company of young English gallants, "to carry their Ridiculous "left eyes bound up till they were arvow of fome young English "rived in France, and had performed gallants. "fome notable exploit against us:" I have often been tickled with the conceit of its befalling. them as it did the before-named Roman, and that they found they had but one eye a-piece when they returned to their mistreffes, for whofe fakes they had entered into this ridiculons vow. It is proper to hinder chil dren from counterfeiting perfonal defects, Mothers have reafon to rebuke their children, when they counterfeit having but one eye, fquinting, lameness, or other fuch perfonal defects; for, befides that their bodies, being then fo tender, may be subject to take an ill bent, fortune, I know not how, fometimes feems to delight to take us at our word; and I have heard feveral inftances of people who have become really fick, by only feigning to be fo, I have always used, whether on horfeback, or on foot, to carry a stick in my hand, and fo as to affect doing it with a grace. Many have threatened me, that this affected hobbling would, one day, be turned into neceffity, that is, that I fhould be the firft of my family to have "the gout. Inftance of a But let us lengthen this chapter, and eke it out with another piece, concerning blindness. Pli ny reports of one," that dreaming he was blind, found himself so next day, "without any preceding malady +." The force of imagination might affift in this cafe, as I have faid elsewhere, and Pliny feems to be of the fame opinion; but it is more likely, that the motions the body felt within (whereof the phyficians, if the please, may find out the caufe) which took away hiş fight were the occafion of his dream. Vol. i, chap, 29. ↑ Nat, Hift. lib. vii. cap. 50. Let |