CHAPTER VIII. As soon as that part of the river was reached by us which once more exhibited to our admiration the immutable and incorruptible city, far more appropriately to be called the eternal also than its prototype, in which art and industry had collected their riches century after century, and on returning to which, both now and at all times, my wonder returned very little diminished by repetition, Acilius pointed out such edifices as were sufficiently near us for his remarks. The palace of Scipio Africanus was distinguished by seven recumbent lions lying between the eight front columns which supported its portico. So huge were the proportions of both, that I could distinguish their chains binding these monsters to the pavement. Along the frieze and upon the cornices, scaly serpents, larger in girth than a horse's carcase, seemed to struggle within the talons and under the beaks of golden eagles equally large. The whole building was African, ponderously severe, barbarously magnificent. On the same level, at no great distance, arose another palace, light, graceful, festive, elegant; and notwithstanding its solidity, so airy and symmetrical, that it seemed to have as much relationship with the skies which glowed behind it, as with the earth on which it stood. "It was built," said Acilius, "at their own request, by Grecian architects, in honour of its in TITUS Q. FLAMINIUS. 41 habitant; and there you will always find guests and travellers from Greece thronging its colonnades. Pericles is now returned for the congress at Athens, but had your own advent been some little earlier, among other sages, patriots, and warriors, you might have encountered Pericles there. Our gratitude and reverence are not much less than theirs; we would therefore forget, if forgetfulness were possible, that although few men have ever equalled this its inhabitant in the most glorious incident by which his life was distinguished, fewer still have ever surpassed him in the most ignoble. Titus Q. Flaminius stands among mankind to show us the whole range of our humanity, how comprehensive it is, and its two extremities how wide apart. LUGWARDINE. My knowledge of Flaminius is imperfect and indistinct. I remember little else correctly than that he was the conqueror of Philip. ACILIUS. Rome would not have given him the consulship prematurely, and have intrusted the war against Macedonia to one scarcely thirty years old, because his temper was mild, his habits were noble, or his tastes refined, unless she had seen in him other and rarer qualities. For in this For in this age of illustrious men, the people might have selected whom they pleased, and yet wisely. Rome had not to contend with some effeminate Asiatic, but with the phalanxes of Macedonia com manded by Philip. This was a struggle for the mastery between one nation which had conquered the world, and another which aspired to conquer it. Happily for Flaminius, the war was protracted long enough to exhibit his highest qualifications as a statesman and a general, but no longer. After having proved his skill, his courage, his prudence, and his magnanimity, it ended in one great battle decisive of its object. There was comparatively little of that carnage which has made so many generals resemble wolves among sheep, or butchers within their shambles. Our high priest offered to the infernal deities no more than a single hecatomb, but its victims were all costly. The two most warlike nations of mankind fought in a fair field, with numbers fairly proportioned, for its supremacy. Rome was victorious; Greece was freed from its subjection to Macedonia; Philip, ceasing to contend, gave his son as a hostage. This was such glory as placed Flaminius on the left hand of his great contemporary, Scipio Africanus, much as their palaces stand at present. Yet far higher felicity was before him. Greece had been freed from Macedonia; but in what sense, and to what extent? Liberty, from which were derived her earliest honours, her happiness at all times, her moral and intellectual superiority, her name proudest among the nations of mankind,—in what sense, and to what extent, had it been restored? This passion, the more intense because, during so many ages, it had been confined to her bosom alone; this motive to all her noblest virtues, all her loftiest enterprises, and many of her fiercest crimes; with TITUS Q. FLAMINIUS. - 43 which she still panted like a Sibyl stimulated and maddened by the divinity within, but sometimes relapsing heartless and hopeless too, like her, should it again smoulder under another domination, merely changing Macedonian tyranny for Roman patronage? Or would Rome content her ambition with such a superintendency as she exercised elsewhere, approving or disapproving, permitting or forbidding, remonstrating in little matters, but threatening if they became great? The Isthmian games are at hand, and then the conqueror will speak! Such were the questions and expectations debated by multitudes, all converging to the same centre, from many nations once the most powerful and illustrious upon earth, small as they were. Would Flaminius place his garrisons in the cities of Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrius, watching and overawing Greece, while he permitted her magistrates to resume their functions? Would he acquiesce in what the Roman senate, and those ten commissioners sent from Rome, proposed? Or rather as the Ætolians maintained, would he not impose still heavier chains than those of Philip, more strong though better polished, releasing the feet but shackling the hands and neck? CHAPTER IX. THE Isthmian games begin—all Greece is assembled -the Roman proconsul presides. After the first acclamations of victory, that decree will be heard which has the same force as if uttered by destiny, and is waited for with the same awe. The highest hope at present is, not that Greece may become free, but less humiliated by her subjection. After the trumpet has ceased to sound, and while the herald walks forth, how terrible is the suspense! He proclaims, in the name of Rome, that "Titus Quinctius Flaminius, having conquered Philip and the Macedonians, restores liberty and their national laws to all the states and cities of Greece. Their taxes are remitted; their garrisons are withdrawn; they will choose their own magistrates; they are the friends and allies of Rome." LUGWARDINE, No other man can have attained to such happiness as this. Some of your historians have said that the assembled people did not, at first, either believe or understand what they heard, through the trepidation excited by their own eagerness,—that their hearts beat so audibly as to intercept the herald's words, that they demanded a repetition of the decree, and that when he had confirmed it with a still louder voice, their acclamations killed or stunned the birds which |