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217 tude for so great a benefit, statues were 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 at first to the counsels of Polybius; but that, after her faults, 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 the esteem, gratitude, and affection of his beloved citizens, he died at the age of eighty-two years, of a wound he received by a fall from his horse.*

Metellus, on 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. Among 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 twenty-five of his friends, ordered Lysippus, the most celebrated artist in that way, to make each of them an equestrian statue, to which he added his own. These statues were set up in Dium, a city of Macedonia. Metellus caused them to be transported to Rome, and adorned 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 made 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.

SECTION V.-REFLECTIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE Grandeur, DECLENSION, AND RUIN OF GREECE.

AFTER having seen the final ruin of Greece, which has supplied us through a series of so many ages with such fine examples of heroic virtues and memorable events, we may be admitted to return to the place from whence we began, and consider, by way of abridgment, and at one view, the rise, progress, and declension of the principal states that composed it. Their whole 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 the first age, and may be called 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 those early years it formed, fortified, and prepared itself for those great things it was afterwards to act, and laid the foundation of that power and glory, which at length rose so high, and became the admiration of all future ages.

The Greeks, as Monsieur Bossuett observes, who had naturally great wit, 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 had no sense of the calamities of the state but as they suffered themselves, or as the repose of their own family was involved in them: the Greeks were taught to consider themselves and their families as part of a greater body, which was Universal History

*Lucian. in Macrob. p. 142.

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, instructed 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 laws. The advantage of this government was, that their 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 employments, 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 lands and of arts, and not excluding the husbandman or the artist 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.

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

What might not be expected from a people formed in this manner, educated and nurtured in these principles, and endued from their earliest infancy with maxims so proper to exalt the soul, and to inspire it with great and noble sentiments? The effects exceeded all idea, and all 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 but faintly dawned, and shone with but a feeble ray, till this age. 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 open day such as she was. And this was supplied by the Persians in their inva sions 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 come pouring, with innumerable troops, both by sea and land, against a little spot of Greece, which seemed about to be entirely swallowed up and overwhelmed at the first shock. Two small cities, however, Sparta and Athens, not only resisted those formidable armies, but attacked, defeated, pursued, and destroyed 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 out at that time, and continued to do so 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 had 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, attention to the public good, de sire of glory, love of their country, and above all, such a zeal for liberty, which

no danger was capable of intimidating, and such an irreconcileable abhorrence for whoever conceived the least thought against 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 to authority and power, but none in regard to liberty; on that side they were perfectly equal. The states of ancient Greece were exempted 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 neighbours, but did not endeavour to usurp any thing from them. The weaker cities, in the peaceable possession of their territory, 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 took, we cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom of their government; and we are tempted to ask ourselves, from whence could arise this greatness of soul in the citizens of Sparta and Athens; whence these noble sentiments, this consummate wisdom in politics, this profound and universal knowledge in the art of war, whether for the invention and construction of machines for the attack and defence of places, or the drawing up and disposing all the motions of an army in battle; add to this, that superior 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 conquerers by riches and voluptuousness; and that change of manners was very sudden and rapid, especially after Carthage, the haughty rival of Rome, was destroyed. It was not so with the Greeks, nothing was more exalted than the victories they had gained over the Persians; nothing more soothing than the glory they had acquired by their great and illustrious exploits. After so glorious a period, the Greeks long persevered in the same love of simplicity, frugality, and poverty; the same remoteness from pomp and luxury; the same zeal and ardour for the defence of their liberty, and the preservation of their ancient manners. It is well known how much the islands and provinces of Asia Minor, over which the Greeks so often triumphed, were abandoned to effeminate pleasures and luxury; they, however, never suffered themselves to be infected by that contagious softness, and constantly preserved themselves from the vices of conquered people. It is true, they did not make those countries provinces, but their commerce and example alone might have proved very dangerous to them. The introduction of gold and silver into Sparta, from whence they were banished under severe penalties, did not happen till about eighty years after the battle of Salamin; and the ancient simplicity of manners was adhered to long afterwards, notwithstanding that violation of the laws of Lycurgus. As much may be said of the rest of Greece, which did not grow weak and degenerate, but slowly and by degrees. This is what remains to show.

THE FOURTH AGE OF GREECE.

The principal cause of the weakening and declension of the Greeks, was the disunion which rose up among themselves. The Persians, who had found them invincible in arms, as long as their union existed, applied their whole attention and policy in sowing the seeds of discord among them. For that

reason they employed their gold and silver, which succeeded much better than their steel and arms had done before. The Greeks, attacked invisibly in this manner by bribes secretly conveyed into the hands of those who had the greatest share in their governments, were divided by domestic jealousies, and turned their victorious arms against themselves, which had rendered them superior to their enemies.

Their decline of power from these causes, gave Philip and Alexander an opportunity of subjecting them. Those princes, to accustom them to servitude, covered their design with the pretence of avenging them upon their ancient enemies. The Greeks fell blindly into that gross snare, which gave the mortal blow to their liberty. Their avengers became more fatal to them than their enemies. The yoke imposed on them by the hands which had conquered the universe, could never be removed; those little states were no longer in a condition to shake it off. Greece, from time to time animated by the remembrance of her ancient glory, roused from her lethargy, and made some attempts to reinstate herself in her ancient condition; but those efforts were ill concerted, and as ill sustained by her expiring liberty, and tended only to augment her slavery; because the protectors, whom she called in to her aid, soon made themselves her masters. So that all she did was to change her fetters and make them the heavier.

The Romans at length totally subjected her; but it was by degrees, and with much artifice. As they continually pushed on their conquests from province to province, they perceived, that they should find a barrier to their ambitious projects in Macedonia, formidable by its neighbourhood, advantageous situation, reputation in arms, and very powerful in itself, and by its allies. The Romans artfully applied to the small states of Greece, from whom they had less to fear, and endeavoured to gain them by the attractive charms of liberty, which was their darling passion, and of which they knew how to awaken in them their ancient ideas. After having with great address made use of the Greeks to reduce and destroy the Macedonian power, they subjected all those states, one after another, under various pretexts. Greece was thus swallowed up at last in the Roman empire, and became a province of it, under the name of Achaia.

She did not lose with her power that ardent passion for liberty, which was her peculiar character.* The Romans, when they reduced Greece into a province, reserved to the people almost all their privileges; and Sylla, who punished them so cruelly sixty years after, for having favoured the arms of Mithridates, did not abridge those of their liberty, who escaped his vengeance.† In the civil wars of Italy, the Athenians were seen to espouse with warmth the party of Pompey, who fought for the republic. Julius Cæsar revenged himself upon them no otherwise than by declaring, that he pardoned them out of consideration for their ancestors. But, after Cæsar was killed, their inclination for liberty made them forget his clemency. They erected statues to Brutus and Cassius, near those of Harmodius and Aristogiton, the ancient deliverers of Athens, and did not take them down till solicited by Antony, when he became their friend, benefactor and magistrate.

After having been deprived of their ancient power, they, still retained another sovereignty, which the Romans could not take from them, and to which they were obliged to pay homage. Athens continued always the metropolis of the sciences, the school of polite arts, and the centre and standard of refined taste in all the productions of the mind. Several cities, as Byzantium, Cæsa ria, Alexandria Ephesus, and Rhodes, shared that glory with Athens, and by her example, opened schools which became very famous. Rome, haughty as she was, acknowledged this glorious empire. She sent her most illustrious citizens to be finished and refined in Greece. They were instructed there in all the parts of sound philosophy, the knowledge of mathematics, the science Diod. 1. xlii. p. 191. et 1. xlvii. p. 379

* Strab. xi.

+ Plut. in Sylla.

221 of natural things, the rules of manners and duties, the art of reasoning with justice and method: all the treasures of eloquence were imbibed there, and the method taught of treating the greatest subjects with propriety, force, elegance and perspicuity.

A Cicero, already the admiration of the bar, conceived he wanted something, and did not blush to become the disciple of the great masters whom Greece then produced. Pompey in the midst of his glorious conquests, did not think it a dishonour to him, in passing Rhodes, to hear the celebrated philosophers, who taught there with great reputation, and to make himself in some measure their disciple.

Nothing shows more clearly the respect retained for the ancient reputation of Greece, than a letter of Pliny the Younger. He writes in this manner to Maximus, appointed governor of that province by Trajan. "Call to mind, my dear Maximus, that you are going into Achaia, the true Greece, the same Greece where learning and the polite arts had their birth; where even agriculture was invented, according to the common opinion. Remember that you are sent to govern free cities and free men, if ever any such there were; who, by their virtues, actions, alliances, treaties, and religion, have known how to preserve the liberty they received from nature. Revere the gods their founders; respect their heroes, the ancient glory of their nation, and the sacred antiquity of their cities, the dignity, great exploits, and even foibles and vanity of that people. Remember, it is from those sources that we have derived our law; that we did not impose our laws upon them, after we had conquered them, but that they gave us theirs, at our request, before they were acquainted with the power of our arms. In a word, it is to Athens you are going; it is at Lacedæmon you are to command. It would be inhuman and barbarous to deprive them of that faint image, that shadow which they retain of their ancient liberty."*

While the Roman empire was declining, that empire of genius, of the mind, always supported itself, without participating in the revolutions of the other. Greece was resorted to for education and improvement from all parts of the world. In the fourth and fifth centuries, those great lights of the church, St. Bazil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Johannes Chrysostom, went to Athens to imbibe, as from their source, all the profane sciences. The emperors Tit. Antonius, M. Aurelius, Lucius Verres, &c. who could not go to Greece, brought Greece in a manner home to them, by receiving the most celebrated philosophers into their palaces, that they might be intrusted with the education of their children, and to improve themselves by their instructions. Marcus Aurelius, even while he was emperor, went to hear the philosophers Apollonius and Sextus, and to take lessons from them as a common disciple.

By a new kind of victory, unknown before, Greece had imposed its laws on Egypt and the whole east, from whence she had expelled barbarism, and introduced a taste for the arts and sciences in its room; obliging, by a kind of right of conquest, all those nations to receive her language and adopt her customs: a testimonial highly glorious to a people, and which argues a much more illustrious superiority, than that not founded in merit, but solely on the force of arms. Plutarch observes somewhere, that no Greek_ever thought of learning Latin, and that a Roman who did not understand Greek was held in no great estimation.

ARTICLE III.

It seems, that after the subjugation of Macedonia and Greece to the Romans, our history, confined for the future to two principal kingdoms, those of Egypt and Syria, should become more clear and intelligible than ever. I am,

* Lib. vii. c. 24

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