66 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.” 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 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 in general are 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 cum 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 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, physics, 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 Pytheas, 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 (he lived in the reign of Augustus,) the young nobility Etinim quid attinet, aut humano dolori indulgeri, aut divino numini invidiam fieri, quod immortalitatem suam nobiscum partiri no luerit? Mater Julia Procilla fuit rare castitatis. In hujus sinu indulgentiaque educatis, per omnem honestarum artium cultium, pueri tiam, adolescentiamque transegit. Tacit. in Agricol. c. iv. #Voss. in Histor. Græc. of Rome went to Marseilles for education; and he prefers that place to the city of Athens itself; which is saying a great 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 in 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 neighbourhood 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 their 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 amongst the senators at the public shows. It is certain, that *Cujus ego civitatis disciplinam atque gravitatem, non solum Græciæ sed haud scio an cunctis gentibus, anteponendam juredicam ; quæ tam procul a Græcorum omnium regionibus, disciplinis, linguaque divisa, cum in ultimis terris cincta Gallorum gentibus barbariæ fluctibus alluator, sic opti matum consilio gubernatur, ut omnes cjus instituta laudare facilius possint quam emulari. Orat pro Flacco. n. 63. Strab. 1. iv. p. 180. Justin. 1. xliii. c. 6. | Liv. 1. xxi. n. 20, 25, 26. Lib. xxvi, n, 19. Lib. xxvii, n. 36: during the war with Hannibal, Marseilles aided the Romans with all manner of good offices; the ill successes 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, caused the 15 senators, who were in supreme authority, to come 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 had the right on their side: that the two heads of these 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 upon them neither to assist, nor receive the one into their city or ports, to the prejudice of the other. They suffered a long siege, in which they showed 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, 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 part 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 Macedo *Cæs. in Bel. Civ. 1. i. Intelligere se divisum esse populum in partes duas ; neque sui judicii, neque suarum virium discernere utra pars just orem liabeat causam principes vero earum 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 portibus recipere. nia, 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, giving himself out for 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 shoot of the royal line might remain: that after the death of Perseus, he had been nurtured and brought up at Adramytta, till he was 12 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 him (Philip) as soon as he should attain to the 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 manners 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 the advantage of * A. M. 3852. Ant. J. C. 152. Epiton. Liv. 1. xlviii-1. Zonar ex Dione, l. i. c. 11. Florus, l. ii. c. 14. the negligence of his guards, and made his escape from Rome. Having found means to raise a considerable army amongst 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 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, ke gave the senate advice of them; and, without loss of time, visited the cities of the allies, in order to the immediate raising of troops for the defence of Thessaly. The Achæans, who continued at that time the most powerful 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. * However, it was well known at Rome, from Scipio's letters, that Macedonia had occasion for a speedy support. The prætor, P. Juventius Thalna, had orders to repair thither as soon as possible with an army, which he did without loss of time. But looking upon Andriseus as only a pageant king, he did not think it incumbent upon him to take any great precautions against him, 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 this 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. Nothing was seen every where but violence, confiscations of estates, and murders. Taking the advantage of the terror occasioned by the defeat of the Roman army, he soon recovered all he had lost |