The right of hospitality was in singular estimation among the Marseillians, and practised by them with the most exalted humanity. To maintain the security of the asylum they gave to strangers, no person was suffered to enter the city with arms. Certain persons were placed at the gates, whose business it was to take care of the arms of all who came in, and to return them when they went out.* All entrance was prohibited to such as would introduce sloth and a voluptuous life; and particular care was taken to banish all double-dealing, falsehood, and fraud. They prided themselves especially upon sobriety, modesty, and frugality.f The most considerable portion among them did not exceed one hundred pieces of gold. They were not allowed to lay out more than five in dress, and as many in jewels. Valerius Maximus, who lived in the reign of Tiberius, admires the regulations of government observed at Marseilles in his time. "That city," says he," stedfastly retaining the ancient severity of manners, excluded from their theatre those comedians whose pieces generally turn upon the subject of unlawful love." The reason given for this maxim is still finer and more remarkable than the maxim itself. "Lest," adds the author," a familiarity with such sort of shows should make the people more apt to imitate them."Š They would not admit, in funeral ceremonies, those indecent tears and lamentations with which they are generally attended, and ordered them to cease the same day by a domestic sacrifice, and an entertainment for the friends and relations of the deceased. "For is it consistent to abandon ourselves to immoderate affliction, or to be offended at the Divinity for not having thought fit to share his immortality with us?"|| Tacitus has a passage upon the city of Marseilles highly in its praise; it is in his life of Julius Agricola, his father-in-law. After having spoken of the excellent education he had received from the care and tender affection of Julia Procilla, his mother, a lady of extraordinary virtue, who made him pass the most early years of his youth in the study of those arts and sciences that suited his birth and age; he adds," what had preserved him from the dangers and disorders to which youth is generally exposed, was, besides his own genius and disposition, the good fortune of having from his infancy the city of Marseilles for his school, in the manners of whose inhabitants, the politeness of the Greeks, and the simplicity and reserve of the provinces, were happily united." Arcebat eum ab illecebris peccantium, præter ipsius bonam integramque naturam, quod statim parvulus sedem ac magistram studiorum Massiliam habuerit, locum Græca comitate et provinciali parsimonia mistum ac bene compositum." From what I have said, it may be seen, that Marseilles was become a celebrated school for politeness, wisdom, and virtue, and, at the same time, for all arts and sciences. Eloquence, philosophy, physic, mathematics, law, fabulous theology, and all kinds of literature, were publicly professed there. This city produced the most ancient of the learned men of the west, I mean Pythias, an excellent geographer and astronomer, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, or indeed of Alexander the Great.** They persevered constantly in cultivating the arts and sciences with equal ardour and success. Strabo relates, that in his time, that is, in the reign of Augustus, the young nobility of Rome went to Marseilles for education; and he prefers that place to the city of Athens itself; which is saying a great ↑ Strab. 1. iv. p. 181. Val. Max. 1. ii. c. 6. Lib. ii. c. 6. Eadem civitas servitatis custos acerima est: nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta majore ex parte stuprorum continent actus, ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licentiam sumat. Etenim quid attinet, aut humano dolori indulgeri, aut divino numini invidiam fieri, quod immortalitatem suam nobiscum partiri noluerit? Mater Julia Procilla fuit rare castitatis. In hujus sinu indulgentiaque educatus, per omnem honesta ram artium cultum, pueritiam adolescentiamque transegit.-Tacit. in Agric. c. iv. ** Voss. in Histor. Græc. deal. We have already seen, that it retained that privilege in the time of Tacitus the historian. The Marseillians distinguished themselves no less by the wisdom of their government, than by their capacity and taste for learning. Cicero, in one of his orations, exceedingly magnifies their manner of governing their republic. "I am assured," says he," that not only in Greece, but all other nations, there is nothing comparable to the wise polity established at Marseilles. That city, so remote from the country, manners, and language of all other Greeks situated in Gaul, in the midst of barbarous nations that surround it on all sides, is so prudently directed by the counsels of its elders, that it is more easy to praise, than imitate, the wisdom of its government. They laid it down as a fundamental rule of their politics, from which they never departed, to adhere inviolably to the Romans, to whose manners their own were more conformable, than to those of the barbarians around them. Besides which, their proximity to the Ligurians, of whom they were equally enemies, could not but contribute to unite them by their common interests; that union enabling each party to make powerful diversions on both sides of the Alps. They accordingly rendered the Romans great services at all times, and also received considerable aids from them upon many occasions.† Justin relates a fact, which would be very much to the honour of the Marseillians, if it were well confirmed. Having received advice that the Gauls had taken and burned Rome, they deplored that disaster of the allies, as much as if it had happened to their own city. Nor did they confine themselves to fruitless tears. Out of the gold and silver, either of the public or private persons, they raised the sum in which the Gauls had taxed the conquered, as the price of peace, and sent it to Rome. The Romans, infinitely affected with so noble an act of generosity, granted Marseilles the privilege of immunity, and the right of sitting among the senators at the public shows. It is certain, that during the war with Hannibal, Marseilles aided the Romans with all manner of good offices; the ill success which they experienced in the first years of the war, and which had deprived them of almost all their allies, not being capable of shaking their fidelity in the least. In the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, that city observed a conduct which well denotes the wisdom of its government. Cæsar, against whom they had shut their gates, lled the fifteen senators, who were in supreme authority, to his camp, and represented to them, that he was sorry the war should begin by attacking their city; that they ought rather to submit to the authority of all Italy, than to abandon themselves blindly to the desires of one man; and he added all the motives most capable of persuading them. After having made their report to the senate, they returned into the camp, and gave Cæsar this answer: that they knew the Roman people were divided into two parties: that it did not belong to them to determine which was right: that the two heads of those parties were equally the protectors of their city, and, at the same time, its friends and benefactors. That for this reason, obliged to express their gratitude alike for both, it was incumbent on them neither to assist nor receive the one into their city or ports, to the prejudice of the other. They suffered long siege, in which they displayed all possible valour; but at length, the extreme necessity to which they were reduced by the want of every thing, obliged them to surrender. However enraged Cæsar was at so obstinate a resistance Cujus ego civitatis disciplinam atque gravitatem, non solum Græciæ, sed haud scio an cunctis gentibus anteponendam jure dicam; quæ tam procul a Græcorum omnium regionibus, disciplinis, linguaque divisa, cum in ultimis terris cincta Gallorum gentibus, barbariæ fluctibus alluatur, sic optimatum consilio gubernatur, ut omnes ejus instituta laudare facilius possint, quam æmulari.-Orat. pro Flace. n. 63. † Strab. 1. iv. p. 180. Justin. 1. xliii. c. 5. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 20, 25, 26, Lib. xxvi. n. 19. Lib. xxvii. n. 36. Intelligere se divisum esse populum in partes duas: neque sui judicii, neque suarum virium discernere utra pars justiorem habeat causam: principes vero eorum esse partium Cn. Pompeium et C. Cæsarem patronos civitatis.-Paribus eorum beneficiis, parem se quoque voluntatem tribuere debere, et neutrum eorum contra alterum juvare, aut urbe aut portubus recipere. 209 he could not refuse to the ancient reputation of the city, the favour of saving it from being plundered, and of preserving its citizens.* I should have believed myself wanting in some measure to the glory of the French nation, and to that of a city which holds one of the highest ranks in the kingdom, if I had not collected in this place, some of those favourable reports antiquity makes of it. I hope the reader will pardon this digression; which besides comes into my plan, and is part of the Grecian history. The affairs of Greece, Bithynia, Pergamus, and some other countries, which I thought it necessary to treat in a series, and without interruption, have made me suspend those of Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt; to which it is now time to return. I shall begin with Macedonia. SECTION III.-ANDRISCUS, PRETENDED SON OF PERSEUS, CAUSES HIMSELF TO BE PROCLAIMED KING OF MACEDONIA. FIFTEEN or sixteen years after the defeat and death of Perseus, Andriscus of Adramytta, a city of Troas, in Asia Minor, a person of the meanest birth, pretending to be the son of Perseus, took upon him the name of Philip, and entered Macedonia, in hopes of making the inhabitants of the country acknowledge him for their king. He had invented a story in regard to his birth, which he reported wherever he passed, pretending that he was the son of Perseus by a concubine, and that the prince his father had caused him to be secretly brought up at Adramytta, that in case of ill fortune in the war against the Romans, some branch of the royal line might remain. That after the death of Perseus, he had been nurtured and brought up at Adramytta, till he was twelve years of age; and that the person who passed for his father, finding himself at the point of death, had revealed the secret to his wife, and entrusted her with a writing, signed by Perseus with his own hand, which attested all that has been said; which writing she was to deliver to him, Philip, as soon as he should attain to years of discretion. He added, that her husband having conjured her absolutely to conceal the affair till then, she had been most faithful in keeping the secret, and had delivered that important writing to him at the appointed time, pressing him to quit the country, before the report should reach the ears of Eumenes, the declared enemy of Perseus, lest he should cause him to be put to death. He was in hopes that he should be believed upon his own word, and make Macedonia rise in his favour. When he saw that all continued quiet, he retired into Syria, to the court of Demetrius Soter, whose sister Perseus had espoused. That prince, who immediately perceived the fraud, caused him to be seized, and sent to Rome.† As he did not produce any proof of his pretended nobility, and had nothing in his mien or manner that expressed the prince, no great notice was taken of him at Rome, and he was treated with great contempt, without much trouble to keep a strict guard upon him, or to confine him close. He took advantage of the negligence of his guards, and made his escape from Rome. Having found means to raise a considerable army among the Thracians, who entered into his views, for the sake of delivering themselves, by his means, from the Roman yoke, he made himself master of Macedonia, either by consent or force, and assumed the marks of the royal dignity. Not content with this first conquest, which had cost him little, he attacked Thessaly, and subjected a part of it to his obedience. The affair then began to seem more important to the Romans. They elected Scipio Nasica to go thither, and appease this tumult in its birth, deeming him well qualified for that commission. He had, indeed, the art of managing men's minds, and of bringing them into his measures by persuasion; and, if he should find it necessary to decide this affair by arms, he was very capable of forming Cæs. in Bel. Civ. 1. ii. †A. M. 3852. Ant. J. C. 152. Epitom. Liv. 1. xlviii.—50. Zonar ex Dion. 1. i. c. 11. Florus, 1. ïíc. 14. VOL. IV. 14 a project with wisdom, and executing it with valour. As soon as he arrived in Greece, and had been fully informed of the state of affairs in Macedonia and Thessaly, he gave the senate advice of them; and without loss of time, visited the cities of the allies, in order to raise troops immediately for the defence of Thessaly. The Achæans, who continued at that time the most pow erful people of Greece, supplied him with the greatest number, forgetting past subjects of discontent. He presently took from the false Philip all the places he had possessed himself of in Thessaly, and drove him back into Macedonia. It was well known, however, at Rome, from Scipio's letters, that Macedonia had occasion for a speedy support. The prætor, P. Juventius Thalma, had orders to repair thither as soon as possible with an army, which he did without loss of time. But looking upon Andriscus as only a pageant king, he did not think it incumbent upon him to take any great precautions against him, and engaged precipitately in a battle, wherein he lost his life, with part of his army; the rest saving themselves only by favour of the night. The victor, elated with his success, and believing his authority sufficiently established, abandoned himself to his vicious inclinations, without any moderation or reserve; as if the being truly a king, consisted in knowing no law nor rule of conduct but his passions. He was covetous, proud, insolent, and cruel. Violence, confiscations of estates, and murders were committed on all sides. Taking advantage of the terror occasioned by the defeat of the Roman army, he soon recovered all he had lost in Thessaly. An embassy sent to him from the Carthaginians, who were at that time actually at war with the Romans, very much augmented his courage.* Q. Cæcilius Metellus lately elected prætor, had succeeded Juventius. Andriscus had resolved to advance to meet him, but did not think it proper to remove far from the sea, and halted at Pydna, where he fortified his camp. The Roman prætor soon followed him. The two armies were in sight of each other, and skirmished every day. Andriscus gained an advantage sufficiently considerable in small combat of the cavalry. Success generally blinds and proves fatal to people of little experience. Andriscus, believing himself superior to the Romans, sent off a strong detachment to defend his conquests in Thessaly. This was a gross error; and Metellus, whose vigilance nothing escaped, did not fail to take advantage of it. The army that remained in Macedonia was beaten, and Andriscus obliged to fly. He retired among the Thracians, from whom he returned soon after with another army. He was so rash as to hazard another battle, which was still less successful than the former. He lost more than twenty-five thousand men in these two battles and nothing was wanting to the Roman glory, but to seize Andriscus, who had taken refuge with a petty king of Thrace, to whose fidelity he had committed himself. But the Thracians did not stand much upon breach of faith, and made that the means of their interest. That prince delivered up his guest and supplicant into the hands of Metellus, to avoid drawing upon himself the wrath and arms of the Romans. Andriscus was sent to Rome. : Another adventurer, who also called himself the son of Perseus, and took upon him the name of Alexander, had the same fate with the first, except being seized by Metellus: he retired into Dardania, where he effectually concealed himself. It was at that time Macedonia was entirely subjected to the Romans, and reduced into a province. A third usurper, some years after, appeared again, and set himself up as the son of Perseus, under the name of Philip. His pretended royalty was but of short duration. He was overcome, and killed in Macedonia by Treellius, afterwards surnamed Scrofa, from having said that he would disperse the enemy, "ut Scrofa Porcos." * A. M. 3856. Ant. J. C. 148. SECTION IV.-TROUBLES IN ACHAIA. METELLUS AND MUMMIUS SETTLE THOSE TROUBLES. THE LATTER TAKES CORINTH, AND DESTROYS IT. METELLUS, after having pacified Macedonia, continued there some time. Great commotions had arisen among the Achæans of the league, occasioned by the temerity and avarice of those who held the first offices. The resolutions of their assemblies were no longer guided by reason, prudence, and equity, but by the interest and passions of the magistrates, and the blind caprice of an untractable multitude. The Achæan league and Sparta had sent ambassadors to Rome, upon an affair about which they were divided. Damocritus, notwithstanding, who was the supreme magistrate of the Achæans, had caused a war to be declared against Sparta. Metellus had sent to desire that hostilities might cease, till the arrival of the commissioners from Rome who were appointed for terminating their differences. But neither he, nor Diæus, who succeeded him, paid any regard to that request. Both of them entered Laconia with their troops, and laid waste the country." * The commissioners having arrived, the assembly was summoned to Corinth; Aurelius Orestes was at the head of the commission. The senate had given them orders to weaken the body of the league; and for that end, to separate as many cities as they could from it. Orestes notified to the assembly the decree of the senate, whereby Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Heraclea near Mount Eta, aud Orchomenos of Arcadia, were secluded from the league, under pretence that those cities did not originally compose a part of the body of the Achæans. When the deputies quitted the assembly, and reported this decree to the multitude, they grew furious, and fell upon all the Lacedæmonians they found in Corinth; tore those out of the house of the commissioners who had taken refuge there; and would have treated themselves no better, had they not escaped their violence by flight. Orestes and his colleagues, on their return to Rome, gave an account of what had passed. The senate was highly incensed at it, and immediately deputed Julius, with some other commissioners, into Achaia; but instructed them to complain with moderation, and only to exhort the Achæans not to give ear to bad counsels, lest by their imprudence they should incur disgrace with the Romans; a misfortune which they might avoid, by punishing those who had exposed them to it. Carthage was not yet taken, so that it was necessary to act with caution in regard to allies so powerful as the Achæans. The commissioners met on their way a deputy sent by the seditious to Rome: they carried him back with them to Ægium, where the diet of the nation had been summoned to assemble. They spoke in it with great moderation and kindness. They did not let slip a single word in their discourse concerning the ill treatment of the commisioners, or excuse it better than the Achæans themselves would have done; and were as reserved in regard to the cities which they wished to separate from the league. They confined themselves to exhorting them not to aggravate their first fault, nor to irritate the Romans any farther; and to leave Lacedæmonia in peace. Such moderate remonstrances were extremely agreeable to all persons of sense in the assembly. But Diæus, Critolaus, and their faction, all chosen out of the vilest, most impious, and most pernicious persons in each city, blew up the flame of discord; insinuating, that the lenity of the Romans proceeded only from the bad condition of their affairs in Africa, where they had been defeated in several engagements, and from the fear they were in lest the Achæan league should declare against them. The commissioners, however, were treated with sufficient deference. They were told, that Thearidas should be sent to Rome; that they had only to repair to Tegea, a city on the banks of the Eurotas, to treat there with the Lacedæmonians, and to incline them to peace. They went thither accordingly, and A. M. 3857. Ant. J. C. 147. Pausan. in Achaic. p. 421-428. Polyb. Legat. exliii. cxliv. Id. in Excerpt de Virt. et Vit. p. 181-189. Justin. 1. xxxiv. c. 1. Flor. 1. ii. c. 16. |