he was separated from the prisoner and put to death. last of the Greeks," in the Scipio.

main body of his army, taken Thus fell Philopomen, "the same year with Hannibal and

This event was an irreparable calamity not only to Achaia, but to the whole of Greece. Notwithstanding the efforts of Lycortas and his son Polybias, who served their country with zeal and fidelity, the influence of the Acheans began manifestly to decline. The other Grecian states, blinded by jealousy, and deceived by the false professions of the Romans, rejoiced in the decay of a republic once so formidable. It was a favorite maxim with the Romans, Divide and conquer; and this maxim, they practised with success in this unhappy country. In almost every city, were three parties, the Macedonian, the Roman and the independent party. In this distracted state of society, without a commanding genius to preside, it would scarcely be expected, that a vigorous and determined effort would be made by the Greeks, in defence of their liberties. The Romans, in the mean time, adopted the most cautious line of policy, professing to adhere to the proclamation, which the pro-consul Flaminius had made of "freedom to all the cities and states of Greece." But when Paulus Emilius had defeated Perseus, the king of Macedon, and taken possession of his empire, the mask was immediately thrown off. Etolia first felt the weight of the vindictive arm of the conqueror. For when her senate was assembled to deliberate on the steps they should pursue, after the conquest of Perseus, with whom they had formed an alliance, they were suddenly surrounded by a Roman legion, and 550 of the senators, who were considered friendly to Macedon, were put to death. Emissaries were sent into every part of Greece, to obtain information of the disaffected, and every artifice was employed to obtain possession of their persons, that they might be summarily tried and condemned by the commissioners, sent to settle the affairs of Greece.

The Achean league was the only remaining obstacle to the entire subjugation of the country. It was, therefore, determined by the Roman senate, to dissolve the confederacy. Two commissioners appeared before the general assembly of Achaia, and accused the principal members, including all who had borne any office in the republic, of disaffection to Rome. Many of these, conscious of their integrity, appealed to the Roman senate, where, they

flattered themselves, they should find impartial justice. The appeal was eagerly accepted; and no less than a thousand of the chief citizens were sent to Rome, for trial. But instead of being permitted to plead their cause before the senate, on their arrival, they were treated as guilty of the charge, and banished into different parts of Italy, where they languished in captivity seventeen years. At the expiration of that period, the survivors, amounting to not more than 300, were permitted to return to Achaia. One of these prisoners, Polybius the historian, was suffered to reside at Rome, and treated with the highest distinction by the principal families.

The injustice and cruelty of the Romans to the Achean prisoners, produced a strong sensation throughout the League, and inclined many of its members to avow themselves openly the determined enemies of Rome. Two of its pretors, Critolaus and Diaeus, were particularly active in exciting the Achean cities to revolt; and, without considering either the vast resources of the enemy, or their own inefficiency, rashly enkindled the flames of war, by treating with insult and cruelty, the Roman ambassadors. Aurelius Orestes, Sextus Julius, and Metellus, were successively despatched to Achaia with conciliatory overtures; but the people yielded themselves to the infatuation of their presumptuous leaders, and rejected every overture, with disdain. The Roman general, Metellus, having tried negociation without effect, led his army into Achaia, met, and defeated with the utmost ease, the rash and unskilful Critolaus, who was either killed in the engagement, or destroyed by his own hand, immediately afterwards. But Diaeus, who succeeded him in the presidency of the Acheans, pursued the same infatuated measures, and employed the winter in making feeble preparations for another campaign.

The affairs of Greece having arrived at this crisis, the consul Mummius hastened thither to supersede Metellus, and reap all the glory of adding another province to the Roman republic. He sat down with a numerous army before Corinth, and knowing the impetuous temper of the Achean general, suffered him to gain some slight advantages, that he might the more effectually entrap him. The artifice succeeded. Diaeus and his army fell into the ambuscade; and the celebrated city of Corinth was taken without opposition.

Corinth had long been the richest city of Greece. It abounded with the most exquisite productions of art, and the finest specimens of taste. The most eminent sculptors and artists had either resided there, or conveyed thither, the happiest effects of their genius, assured of meeting with liberal patronage among the refined inhabitants of that luxurious city. Yet this seat of elegant literature, this emporium of taste and learning, was devoted to plunder. The Romans had not yet attained to so high a degree of intellectual refinement, as to value the literary treasures of Corinth; anxious chiefly to secure the gold and silver it contained, the greater part of these works of taste were consigned to the flames. A few specimens only were secured by Polybius, who witnessed the melancholy scene, and who transported them to Rome, to excite the admiration of future generations and distant ages. Pursuant to an express decree of the Roman senate, Corinth was reduced to ashes, 952 years after it was founded, and in the same year, in which Carthage met with a similar fate, 146 B. C.

Nothing now remained, but to decide on the punishment of the vanquished Greeks. All the citizens of Corinth who were not massacred during the pillage of the city, were sold with their wives and children; the fortified cities of Achaia were dismantled; popular assemblies were prohibited, and republican governments abolished, throughout Greece; Roman pretors were stationed in every city; all the states were consolidated into one province, which paid an annual tribute to the Republic of Rome; and long continued to form a department of that flourishing empire, under the general name of Achaia. But though the victorious arms of that republic thus triumphed over the civil liberties of Greece, and annihilated her ancient governments, that subjugated country retained, for ages, its literary pre-eminence. It was still the resort of men of taste and letters. A Grecian education was considered necessary to form the Roman orator, poet, or artist. The philosophers of Greece were held in the highest repute, and their writings were sought with the utmost avidity. Nor did the literati of Rome esteem themselves thoroughly furnished, till they had visited Greece, and paid enthusiastic homage to her stately ruins.]

From the foundation of the commonwealth of Athens, by Cecrops, to the death of Cleopatra, the last of Alexander's successors, was upwards of 1400 years. During this period,

the Greeks founded and overturned the greatest empires; they excelled all other nations in architecture, statuary, painting, poetry and oratory; they gave the world its first hero; they exhibited the greatest variety of character, and the most astonishing displays of genius; and they may be considered as justly meriting the first rank among the nations of the earth. Their history, therefore, and their language open a more variegated, rich, beautiful and sublime field of study, than those of any other nation.

CHAPTER XI.

KINGDOM OF ROME.

[ALL nations seem willing to derive merit from the splendor of their original; and where history is silent, they generally supply the defect with fable. The Romans were particularly desirous of being thought descended from the gods, as if to hide the meanness of their real ancestry. They pretended to derive their origin from Eneas, the son of Anchises, and the goddess Venus. Having escaped from the flames of Troy, and passed through unnumbered toils, calamities and dangers, Eneas was considered as having arrived in Italy. Here, at length, he was exalted to a throne, where his posterity were supposed to have reigned more than 400 years.

Romulus, the reputed descendant from this line of kings, is universally acknowledged as the founder of the Roman state.

Having slain his brother Remus, he laid the foundation of a city, that was destined to become the mistress of the world, and for many ages, to give laws to mankind. It was called Rome, after the name of the founder, and built upon the Palatine hill; though afterwards it covered seven hills.

The city was, at first, almost square, containing about a thousand houses. It was nearly a mile in compass, and commanded a small territory round it, of about eight miles over. Small as it appears, however, it was, notwithstanding, worse inhabited; and the first method, to increase its numbers, was opening a sanctuary for all malefactors, slaves, and such as were desirous of novelty. These came in great multitudes, and contributed to increase the number of our legislator's new subjects. To have a just idea, therefore, of Rome in its infant state, we have only to

imagine a collection of cottages, surrounded by a feeble wall, built rather to serve as a military retreat, than for the purposes of civil society; filled, rather with a tumultuous and vicious rabble, than with subjects, inured to obedience and control. We have only to conceive men bred to rapine, living in a place, that seemed calculated merely for the security of plunder; and yet to our astonishment, we shall soon find this tumultuous concourse, uniting in the strictest bonds of society; this lawless rabble, putting on the most sincere regard for religion; and, though composed of the dregs of mankind, setting examples to all the world, of valor and virtue.

Scarcely was the city raised above its foundation, when its rude inhabitants began to think of giving some form to their constitution. Romulus left them at liberty to choose whom they would for their king; and they, in gratitude, concurred to elect their founder. He was, accordingly, acknowledged as chief of their religion, sovereign magistrate of Rome, and general of the army. Besides a guard to attend his person, it was agreed, that he should be preceded, wherever he went, by twelve men, called lictors, armed with axes, tied up in a bundle of rods. They were to serve as executioners of the law, and to impress his subjects with an idea of his authority.

The senate, consisting of 100 men, who were to act as counsellors to the king, was composed of the principal citizens of Rome, men, whose age, wisdom, or valor, gave them a natural ascendency over their fellow subjects. As they were supposed to have a parental affection for their people, they were called fathers; and their descendants, patricians. To them, belonged all the dignified offices of the state, as well as of the priesthood. The rest of the people were called plebeians; and these two orders were forbidden to intermarry. The plebeians who composed the third order of the legislature, assumed to themselves, the power of authorizing those laws, which were passed by the king, or

senate.

The first care of the new-created king was to attend to the interests of religion. The precise form of their worship is unknown. The religion of that age principally consisted in firm reliance upon the credit of their soothsayers, who pretended, from observation on the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts, to direct the present, and dive into futurity. Romulus, by an express law, commanded,