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nought but the feats of Warre. There needed no licencing of Books among them for they dislik'd all, but their owne Laconick Apothegms, and took a slight occasion to chase Archilochus out of their City, perhaps for composing in a higher straine then their owne souldierly ballats and roundels could reach to: Or if it were for his broad verses,

mentioned, Thales of Miletus. But he has not recorded any further connection between them; and of the Poet Thales he makes no mention in the Life of Solon.

It is of importance to rectify any errour in Hofmann's vast store-house of Learning; the merit of which is not so generally known as it deserves, unless more writers than I apprehend consult him, and unhandsomely conceal their obligations.

took a slight occasion to chase Archilochus out of their City, perhaps for composing in a higher straine then their owne souldierly ballats and roundels could reach to.] The Lacedæ monians, some writers of antiquity say, banished Archilochus for an unpatriotic sentiment in a poem, wherein he had ventured to tell the Citizens of Sparta that it was better for a man to throw away his arms than to lose his life: but others assert it to have been for the indecent licentiousness of his verses that he was expelled the Republic. See Commentatio de Vita & Scriptis Archilochi, prefixed by Liebel to his Edition of this Poet's remains; Sect. 6 & 17. Lipsiæ; 1812.

Strictly, a roundel was a species of Sonnet which returned at the close to the same words with which it began. Rondeau: Fr. In the text by Roundels he meant Songs; as in Chaucer's Legend of good Women :

"And many an Himpne, for your holy daies,
"That highten balades, rondels, virelaies."

p. 337, Speght's edit. 1687.

By "souldierly ballats and roundels" did he intend merely camp-ballads, or such national war-songs as the verses of Tyrtaus?

they were not therein so cautious, but they were as dissolute in their promiscuous conversing; whence Euripides affirms in Andromache, that their women were all unchaste'. Thus much may give us light after what sort Bookes were prohibited among the Greeks. The Romans also for many ages train'd up only to a military roughnes, resembling most the Lacedæmonian guise, knew of Learning little but what their twelve Tables, and the Pontifick College with their Augurs and Flamins taught them in Religion and Law, so unacquainted with other Learning, that when Carneades and Critolaus, with the Stoick Diogenes comming Embassadors to Rome, tooke thereby occasion to give the City a tast of their philosophy, they were suspected for seducers by no lesse a man then Cato the Censor, who

7 Euripides affirms in Andromache, that their women were all unchaste.] The following is the passage to which he has refe

rence:

66

σε Οὐδ ̓ ἂν εἰ βουλοιτό τις,

Σώφρων γένοιτο Σπαρτιατιδων κόρη.” ν. 595.

But we must not forget that this depreciating representation of the female character at Sparta, was to be recited before an Athenian audience; nor the keen rivalry that subsisted between the two States: each striving to outstrip the other in the race of glory, and to obtain a paramount influence in Greece.

In the succeeding sentence, Birch and Maseres read inaccurately, and to the injury of the sense, "after what sort of Bookes."

3 When Carneades and Critolaus, with the Stoick Diogenes comming Embassadors to Rome, tooke thereby occasion to give the City a tast of their philosophy, they were suspected for seducers by

mov'd it in the Senat to dismisse them speedily, and to banish all such Attick bablers out of Italy. But Scipio and others of the noblest Senators withstood him and his old Sabin austerity; honour'd and admir'd the men; and the Censor himself at last in his old age fell to the study of that whereof before hee was so scrupulous. And yet at the same time, Nævius and Plautus, the first Latine Comedians, had fill'd the City with all the borrow'd Scenes of Menander and Philemon. Then began to be consider'd there also what was to be don to libellous Books and Authors; for Nævius was quickly cast into prison for his unbridl'd pen, and releas'd by the Tribunes upon his recantation: We read also that libels were burnt, and the makers punisht by Augustus'. The like severity no doubt was us'd if

no lesse a man then Cato the Censor, &c.] This relation of Cato's dislike to the Athenian Embassadors was taken from Plutarch's Life of the Censor, see v. i. p. 349, Edit. Rualdi, fol. 1624.

MILTON, with his usual exactness, gives the discriminative epithet of Stoic to this Diogenes, lest incurious readers should mistake him for the founder of the Cynics, before whom he flourished many years.

• The Censor himself at last in his old age fell to the study of that whereof before he was so scrupulous.] He took this from Cicero, de Senectute, who makes Cato say of himself—" ut ego "feci qui Græcas litteras senex didici." c. 8. But the correctness of this statement has been questioned.

See Bayle, art.

PORCIUS (Marcus). note I. Des Maizeaux's Edit. 1737.

1 Libels were burnt and the makers punisht by Augustus.] There is in Bayle, a disquisition on this topic, under CASSIUS SEVERUS, note H.

ought were impiously writt'n against their esteemed Gods. Except in these two points, how the world went in Books, the Magistrat kept no reckning. And therefore Lucretius without impeachment versifies his Epicurism to Memmius, and had the honour to be set forth the second time by Cicero so

* Lucretius-had the honour to be set forth the second time by Cicero.] The knowledge of this circumstance is derived from the following passage in the Chronicon of Eusebius: " in suis versi"bus, duris quidem, sed valde Latinis, & Tullii limâ dignissimis." Some writers have contended and perhaps more plausibly, that St. Jerome meant no more than that this poem for the purity of its language was deserving of Tully's revisal and correction: see Bayle, art. LUCRETIUS, note D.

Jerome's tale of his flagellation by the "tutoring apparition," for his over-fond attention to Cicero, sufficiently indicates this Saint's enthusiastic admiration of the Roman Oratour; therefore it is not without a semblance of probability that this story rests on no better ground than an interpolation commendatory of Tully, in the free translation which Jerome made of the second book of this Chronology; of which Cave says that "not much "of the work itself, and less of the original Greek, arriving to " us, and most of what remains so alter'd and interpolated by St. "Jerome, that it is hard to say which is his, and which Eusebius's. —In Vit. Euseb. p. 329; as quoted in Hewlett's Vindication of the Parian Chronicle, p. 86. (n.)

It was a shrewd remark by Voltaire, that the atheism of Lucretius was printed ad usum Delphini, and he might have added that Lucan was the only Poet of any celebrity omitted in that body of Roman Classics. Hence perhaps the inducement to Rowe to give a new version of the Pharsalia. May, Lucan's earlier translator and continuator, probably entered with willingness on the office of Historiographer to our Commonwealth. Certainly no one could hope to earn the thanks of Louis XIV. by disseminating the republican principles of the Poet of Corduba. On the contrary, in an edition of Suetonius's Lives of the Cæsars,

great a Father of the Commonwealth; although himselfe disputes against that opinion in his own writings. Nor was the satyricall sharpnesse, or naked plainnes of Lucilius, or Catullus, or Flaccus, by any order prohibited. And for matters of State, the Story of Titus Livius, though it extoll'd that part which Pompey held, was not therefore supprest by Octavius Cæsar of the other faction. But that

Parisiis, 12mo. 1644, e typographiâ regiá, the vignettes represent infant forms in the act of stabbing with daggers the Roman emblem of Liberty.

> The story of Titus Livius, though it extoll'd that part which Pompey held, was not therefore supprest by Octavius Cæsar of the other faction.] The Decades in which this portion of Roman History was narrated, not having reached modern times, it must, I conclude, have been the argument which Tacitus put into the speech of Cremutius Cordus to the Senate when arraigned for having praised Brutus, and styled Cassius the last of the Romans, that MILTON derived his knowledge of the moderation shown by Augustus toward Livy and his work. "Titus Livius, elo"quentiæ ac fidei præclarus imprimis, Cn. Pompeium tantis "laudibus tulit, ut Pompeianum eum Augustus appellaret: neque "id amicitiæ eorum offecit." Annal. iv. 34.

MILTON latinized continually, both in his English poetry and English prose; so that it may well bear a doubt, whether he annexed here to Faction the deteriorating idea we now represent by this word? or, whether he did not rather employ it in the favourable import of Factio,-to signify a Party? like Bacon: "The Fac"tion between Lucullus, and the rest of the Nobles of the Senate, "which they called Optimates, held out awhile against the Fac"tion of Pompey and Cæsar: but when the Senate's authority "was pulled down, Cæsar and Pompey soone after brake. The "Faction or Party of Antonius and Octavianus Cæsar, against "Brutus and Cassius, held out likewise for a time." Works, I. 516, 4to. 1765.

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