your masters, says Antigonus, besides what I before-. mentioned, upon what terms my son and I live."

The sense the father had of his son's inviolable attachment to him, made him so readily compliment him with the regal dignity, giving him not only a share in the government, but the title of king: and he never had any occasion to repent of his confidence.

JUST. l. 16. PLUT. in DEMET. COR. NEP, DE REG. C. 3.

CYAXARES, uncle of Cyrus the Great, having been an eye-witness of the courage, conduct, and many amiable qualities of his nephew, was desirous of giving a signal testimony of the value he had for his merit. Cyaxares had no male issue, and but one daughter. This favourite princess he offered in marriage to Cyrus, with an assurance of the kingdom of Media for her portion. Cyrus loved the princess, had a grateful sense of it; but nevertheless did not think himself at liberty to accept it, till the bad first obtained the consent of his father and mother: leaving therein a noble example to all future ages of the respectful submission and dependence which all children ought to show to their parents on the like occasion, of what age soever they be, or to whatever degree of power and greatness they may have arrived.

XENOPH. CYRoe. 1. 5.

WHILE Octavius was at Samos, after the famous battle, of Actium, which made him master of the universe, he held a council to examine the prisoners which had been engaged in Antony's party. Among the rest there was brought before him an old man named Metellus, oppressed with years and infirmities, disfigured with a long beard and a neglected head of hair, but especially by his clothes, which by his ill fortune were become very ragged. The son of this Metellus was one of the judges, and he had great difficulty of knowing his father in the deplorable condition in which he saw him. At last, however, having recollected his features, instead of being ashamed to own him, he ran to embrace him, crying bitterly. Afterwards, turning towards the tribunal,

Cæsar, says he, my faiher has been your enemy, aud

I your officer: he deserves to be punished, and I to be rewarded. The favour I desire of you is either to save him on my account, or to order me to be put to death with him." All the judges were touched with compassion at this affecting scene; Octavius himself relented, and granted to old Metellus his life and liberty.

APPIAN.

ALEXANDER the Great, having defeated the numerous army of Darius, king of Persia, had taken his mother, wife, and children prisoners. He behaved to-* wards them all with the utmost delicacy, politeness, and humanity. Having received from Macedonia a great quantity of purple stuffs and rich habits, made after the fashion of that country, he presented them to Sysigambis (Darius's mother) together with the artificers who had wrought them. He likewise commanded the messengers to tell her, that in case she fancied those stuffs, she might make her grandchildren learn the art of weaving them, by way of amusement; and to give them as presents to whomsoever they should think proper. At these words, the tears which fell from her eyes, showed but too evidently how greatly she was displeased at these gifts; the working in wool being considered by the Persian women as the highest ignominy. Those who carried these presents, having told the king that Sysigambis was very much dissatisfied, he thought himself obliged to make an apology for what he had done, and administer some consolation to her. Accordingly, he paid her a visit, when he spoke thus: "Mother, the stuff in which you see me clothed, was not only a gift of my sisters, but wrought by their fingers. Hence I beg you to believe that the custom of my country misled me; and do not consider that as an insult which was owing entirely to ignorance. I believe I have not as yet done any thing which I knew interfered with your manners and customs. I was told, that among the Persians it is a sort of crime for a son to seat himself in his mother's presence, without first obtaining her leave.* You åre C 2

* Filium in conspectu matris nesas esse confedere, nisi cum illa permisit. Q. CURT.

you

sensible how cautious I have always been in this particular, and that I never sat down till had first laid your commands upon me to do so. As the highest testimony of the veneration I have for you, I always called you by the tender name of mother, though this belongs properly to Olympias only, to whom I owe my birth."

OLYMPIAS, Alexander's own mother, was of such an unhappy disposition, that he would never let her. have any concern in the affairs of the government, She used frequently to make very severe complaints on that account; but he always submitted to her ill-humour with great mildness and patience, Antipater, one of his friends, having one day wrote a long letter against her, the king after reading it, replied, Antipater does not know that one single tear shed by a mother will obliterate ten thousand; such letters as this. A behaviour like this,, and such an answer, show at one and the same time, that, Alexander was both an affectionate son, and an able politician,

1. Q. CURT.

EPAMINONDAS, without all doubt, was one of the the greatest generals, and one of the best men which Greece ever produced. *. Before him the city of Thebes was not distinguished by any memorable action, and after him it wasnot famous for its virtues, but its misfortunes, till it sunk into its original obscurity; so that it saw its glory take birth and expire with this great man. The victory he obtained at Leuctra had drawn the eyes and admiration of all the neighbouring people upon Epaminondas, who looked, upon him as the support of Thebes, as the triumphant conqueror of ali Sparta, as the deliverer of all Greece: in a word, as the greatest man, and the most excellent captain that ever was in

* Epaminondas princeps, meo judicio, Græciæ. ACAD. QUEST. 1. 1. n. 4. Fuit incertum, vir melior an dux esset....Ut manefestum sit, patriæ gloriam et natam et extinctum cam eo fuisse.

JUSTIN. 1. 6. c. 8. CoR. NEr. in EPAM.

the world. In the midst of this universal applause, so capable of making the general of an army forget the man for the victor, Epaminondas, little sensible to so affecting and so deserved a glory, My joy, said he, arises from my sense of that which the news of my vio tory will give my father and my mother.

PLUT. IN CORIOL. P: 215.

NOTHING in history seems so valuable to me, says Rollin, as such sentiments which do honour to human 'nature, and proceed from a heart which neither false glory nor false greatness have corrupted. I confess it with grief, I see these noble sentiments daily expire amongst us, especially in persons where birth and rank raise them above others, who too frequently are neither good fathers, good sons, good husbands, nor good friends; and who would think it a disgrace to express for a father and mother the tender regard of which we have here so fine an example from a pagan.

AMONG an incredible number of illustrious men who were falsely accused and put to death by Nero, the cruel emperor of Rome, was one Bareas oranus, a man, as Tacitus informs us, of singular vigilance and justice in the discharge of his duty. During his confinement, his daughter Servilia was apprehended and brought info the senate, and there arraigned. The crime laid to her charge was, that she had turned into money all her ornaments and jewels, and the most valuable part of her dress, to defray the expense of consulting magicians. To this the young Servilia, with a flood of tears, replied, That she had indeed consulted magicians, but the whole of her inquiry was to know whether the emperor and senate would afford protection and safety to her dear and indulgent parent against his accusers. this view, said she, I presented the divmers, men till now utterly unknown to me, with my jewels, apparel, and the other ornaments peculiar to my quality, as i would have presented my blood and life, could my blood and life have procured my father's liberty. But whatever this my proceeding was, my unfortunate father

With

" 3

was an utter stranger to it, and if it is a crime, 1 alone am the delinquent."

She was, however, together with her father, condemned to die, but in what manner history is silent. TACIT. ANN.. 1. 16. c. 20.

VALERIUS MAXIMUS likewise relates a very singular fact upon this subject. A woman of illustrious birth had been condemned to be strangled. The Roman prætor delivered her up to the triumvir, who caused her to be carried to prison, in order to her being put to death. The gaoler who was ordered to execute her, was struck with compassion, and could not resolve to kill her. He chose therefore to let her die of hunger. Besides which, he suffered her daughter to see her in prison; taking care, however, that she brought her nothing to eat. As this continued many days, he was surprised that the prisioner lived so long without eating; and suspecting the daughter, upon watching her, he discovered that she nourished her mother with her own milk. Amazed at so pious, and at the same time so ingenious an invention, he told the fact to the triumvir, and the triumvir to the prætor, who believed the thing merited relating in the assembly of the people. The criminal was pardoned; a decree was passed that the mother and daughter should be subsisted for the rest of their lives at the expense of the public, and that a temple sacred to piety should be erected near the prison.

VAL. MAX. 1. 5. 4. PLIN. HIST. 1. 7. 36.

THE same author gives a similar instance of filial piety in a young woman named Xantippe to her aged father Cimonus, who was likewise confined in prison, and which is universally known by the name of the Roman Charity. Both these instances appeared so very extraordinary and uncommon to that people, that they could only account for them, by supposing that the love of children to their parents was the first law of nature. Putaret aliquis hoe contra naturam factum esse, nisi prima naturæ lex esset diligere parentes. VALER. Ibid. ́