colour in it, and was not entirely without foundation. Polybius boldly took upon him his defence. He represented Philopomen as the greatest captain Greece had produced in the latter times: that he might, perhaps, have occasionally carried his zeal for the liberty of his country a little too far, but that he had rendered the Roman people considerable services upon several occasions; as in their wars against Antiochus and the Etolians. The commissioners, before whom he pleaded so noble a cause, moved with his reasons, and still more with his gratitude for his master, decreed that the statues of Philopomen should continue as they were in every city where they had been erected. Polybius, taking the advantage of Mummius's good disposition, demanded also the statues of Aratus and Achæus; which were granted him, though they had already been carried out of Peloponnesus into Acarnania. The Áchæans were so charmed with the zeal which Polybius had expressed upon this occasion for the honour of the great men of his country, that they erected a statue of marble to himself.

He gave at the same time a proof of his disinterestedness, which did him as much honour amongst his citizens as his defence of the memory of Philopomen. After the destruction of Corinth, it was thought proper to punish the authors of the insult offered to the Roman ambassadors, and their estates and effects were sold by auction. When those of Diaus were put up, who had been the principal in that affront, the ten commissioners ordered the quæstor who sold them to let Polybius select whatever he thought fit out of them, without taking any thing from him upon that account. He refused that offer, as advantageous as it appeared, and would have thought himself in some measure an accomplice of that wretch's crimes, had he accepted any part of his effects; besides which, he believed it infamous to enrich himself out of the spoils of his fellow-citizen. He would not only accept nothing himself, but exhorted his friends not to desire any thing of what had appertained to Diæus and all that followed his example were extremely applauded.

This action made the commissioners a conceive so high an esteem for Polybius, that, upon their leaving Greece, they desired him to go to all the cities which had been lately conquered, and to accommodate their differences, till time had accustomed them to the change which had been made, and to the new laws prescribed them. Polybius discharged that honourable commission with so much mildness, justice, and prudence, that no farther contests arose in Achaia, either in regard to the government in general or the affairs of private persons. In gratitude for so great a benefit, statues were a Polyb. in Excerpt. p. 190, &c.

erected to him in different places; upon the base of one of which was this inscription:" That Greece would have been "guilty of no errors, if she had hearkened from the first to "the counsels of Polybius; but that, after she had committed "these errors, he alone had been her deliverer."

Polybius, after having established order and tranquillity in his country, returned to join Scipio at Rome, from whence he accompanied him to Numantia, at the siege of which he was present. When Scipio was dead, he returned into Greece; and having enjoyed there a the esteem, gratitude, and affection, of his beloved citizens, he died, at the age of four score and two years, of a wound he received by a fall from his horse.

Metellus, upon his return to Rome, was honoured with a triumph, as conqueror of Macedonia and Achaia, and surnamed Macedonicus. The false king, Andriscus, was led before his chariot. Amongst the spoils, he caused what was called the troop of Alexander the Great to be carried in the procession. That prince, at the battle of the Granicus, having lost five-and-twenty of his friends, ordered Lysippus, the most excellent artist in that way, to make in honour of each of them an equestrian statue, to which he added his own. Thèse statues were set up in Dium, a city of Macedonia. Metellus caused them to be transported to Rome, and adorn→ ed his triumph with them.

Mummius obtained also the honour of a triumph; and, in consequence of having conquered Achaia, was surnamed Achaicus. He exhibited a great number of statues and paintings in his triumph, which were afterwards the ornaments of the public buildings at Rome, and of several other cities of Italy; but not one of them entered the conqueror's own house.

SECT. V.

Reflections on the causes of the grandeur, declension, and ruin, of Greece.

After having seen the final ruin of Greece, which has sup plied us through a series of so many ages with such fine examples of heroic virtues and memorable events, we may be permitted to retrace our steps, and consider succintly, and at one view, its rise, progress, and declension. The whole time of its duration may be divided into four ages.

THE FIRST AND SECOND AGES OF GREECE.

I shall not dwell upon the ancient origin of the Greeks, nor the fabulous times before the Trojan war, which make

a Lucian in Macrob. p. 142.

the first age, and constitute, if I may so say, the infancy of Greece.

The second age, which extends from the taking of Troy to the reign of Darius I. king of Persia, was in a manner its youth, in which it formed, fortified, and prepared, itself for those great things which it was afterwards to perform, and laid the foundations of that power and glory, which at length rose so high, and became the admiration of all future ages.

The Greeks, as Monsieur Bossuet observes, whose mental faculties were naturally vigorous, had been cultivated by kings and colonies which came from Egypt, who, settling in several parts of the country, spread universally the excellent polity of the Egyptians. It was from them they learned the exercises of the body, wrestling, the horse, foot, and chariot, races,and the other combats, which they carried to their highest perfection, by means of the glorious crowns given to the victors in the Olympic games. But the best thing taught them by the Egyptians was to be docile and obedient, and to suffer themselves to be formed by laws for the good of the public. They were not private persons, who regarded nothing but their own interests and concerns, and have no sense of the calamities of the state, but as they suffer themselves, or as the repose of their own family is involved in them: the Greeks were taught to consider themselves and their families as part of a greater body, which was that of the state. The fathers brought up their children in this opinion; and the children were taught from their cradle to look upon their country as their common mother, to whom they more strictly appertained than to their parents.

The Greeks, disciplined thus by degrees, believed they were capable of governing for themselves, and most of the cities formed themselves into republics, under different forms of government, which had all of them liberty for their vital principle; but that liberty was wise, reasonable, and subservient to the laws. The advantage of this government was, that the citizens loved their country the better from transacting their affairs in common, and from being all equally capable of its honours and dignities. Besides this, the condition of private persons, to which all returned when they quitted their office, prevented them from abusing an authority, of which they might soon be deprived; whereas, power often becomes haughty, unjust, and oppressive, when under no restraints, and when it is to have a long or continual duration.

The love of labour removed the vices and passions, which generally occasion the ruin of states. They led a laborious and busy life, intent upon the cultivation of their lands and of their arts, and not excluding the husbandman nor the ar

a Universal History.

tist from the first dignities of the state; preserving between all the citizens and members of the state a great equality, void of pomp, luxury, or ostentation. He who had commanded the army for one year, fought the next in the rank of a private officer, and was not ashamed of the most common functions either in the armies by land or sea.

The reigning character in all the cities of Greece was a particular affection for poverty, a mediocrity of fortune, simplicity in buildings, furniture, dress, equipage, domestics, and table. It is surprising to consider the small recompense with which they were satisfied for their application in public employments, and for the services which they had rendered the state.

What might not be expected from a people formed in this manner, educated and nurtured in these principles, and imbued from their earliest infancy with maxims so proper to exalt the soul, and to inspire it with great and noble sentiments? The effects exceeded every idea and every hope that could possibly have been conceived of them.

THE THIRD AGE OF GREECE.

We now come to the glorious times of Greece, which have been, and will for ever be, the admiration of all ages. The merit and virtue of the Greeks, shut up within the compass of their cities, had hitherto but faintly dawned, and shone with but a feeble ray. To produce and place them in their full light, some great and important occasion was necessary, wherein Greece, attacked by a formidable enemy, and exposed to extreme dangers, was compelled in some measure to quit her home, and to show herself abroad in her true character in open day. And this was supplied by the Persians, in their invasions of Greece, first under Darius, and afterwards under Xerxes. All Asia, armed with the whole force of the East, overflowed on a sudden, like an impetuous torrent, and came pouring, with innumerable troops, both by sea and land, against a little spot of Greece, which seemed under the necessity of being entirely swallowed up and overwhelmed at the first shock. Two small cities, however, Sparta and Athens, not only resist those formidable armies, but attack, defeat, pursue, and destroy the greatest part of them. Let the reader call to mind, which is all I have here in view, the prodigies of valour and fortitude which shone forth at that time, and continued to do as long after on like occasions.

To what were the Greeks indebted for such astonishing successes, so much above all probability, unless to the principles I have mentioned, which were profoundly engraven

in their hearts by education, example, and practice; and were become by long habit a second nature in them?

Those principles, we cannot repeat it too often, were the love of poverty, contempt of riches, disregard of self-interest, attachment to the public good, desire of glory, love of their country; but above all, such a zeal for liberty as no danger was capable of intimidating, and such an irreconcileable abhorrence for every one who in the slightest degree attempted to encroach upon it as united their counsels, and put an end to all dissension and discord in a moment.

There was some difference between the republics as te authority and power, but none in regard to liberty; on that side they were perfectly equal. The states of ancient Greece were exempt from that ambition which occasions so many wars in monarchies, and had no thoughts of aggrandizing themselves, or of making conquests, at the expense of each other. They confined themselves to the cultivation, improvement, and defence, of their own territories, but did not endeavour to usurp any thing from their neighbours. The weaker cities, in the peaceable possession of their domain, did not apprehend invasion from the more powerful. This occasioned such a multitude of cities, republics, and states, of Greece, which subsisted to the latest times in a perfect independence, retaining their own forms of government, with the laws, customs, and usages, derived from their forefathers.

When we examine with some attention the conduct of these people, either at home or abroad, their assemblies, deliberations, and motives for the resolutions they take, we cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom of their government; and we are tempted to demand of ourselves, from whence could arise this greatness of soul in the burghers of Sparta and Athens; whence these noble sentiments, this consummate wisdom in politics, this profound and universal knowledge in the art of war; whether as relating to the invention and construction of machines for the attack and defence of places, or to the drawing up of an army in battle, and disposing all its movements, add to this, that supreme ability in maritime affairs, which always rendered their fleets victorious, which so gloriously acquired them the empire of the sea, and obliged the Persians to renounce it for ever by a solemn treaty?

We see here a remarkable difference between the Greeks and Romans. The latter, immediately after their conquests, suffered themselves to be corrupted by pride and luxury. After Antiochus had submitted to the Roman yoke, Asia, subdued by their victorious arms, conquered its conquerors by its riches and voluptuousness; and that change of man