ries. The lord of a manor has a right, as he pleases, and whenever he pleases, to take the game and deer of his tenants, though the lands on which they are fed do not belong to him; and even to hinder the proprietors from touching any of them, though bred in their grounds. Thus the whole body of the Lacedæmonian state, consisting of every individual in it, had publicly trans ferred to the youth a right of going into their gardens and halls, and taking such provisions as they liked best. And these boys were no more criminal for using this liberty, than the citizens of Athens for going into the gardens and orchards of Cimon, and taking thence what they wanted; because every particular man in Sparta was supposed to have unanimously given the boys, who after all were their own children, the same permission that Cimon granted the Athenians, that were only his citizens. As to the Scythians, amongst whom theft was severely punished, the reason of the difference is very evident. For the law, which is the sole judge of the property and use of our substance, had granted no privilege to any one private man over the substance of another; whereas the law of the Lacedæmonians had done just the contrary. It would have been a real theft to have gone into the gardens of Pericles, Themistocles, or Alcibiades, and taken the fruit thence, but there was none in gathering it from the o:chards of Cimon and Pelopidas, because they had associated all their fellow-citizens into the enjoyment of that part of their estates. There was no cause to apprehend that this Spartan custom should teach the youth to steal upon other occasions. For the institutions of Lycurgus, which prohibited the use of gold and silver money, and obliged all the citizens to live and eat together, had made the robbery of goods and money either useless or impossible. And thus we do not find, that there ever was a discovery made of so much as one robbery at Lacedæmon for so many ages. The THE FOURTH PIECE, TAKEN FROM THE HISTORY OF THE GREEKS. THE PROSPEROUS TIMES OF THEBES, AND DELIVERANCE OF SYRACUSE. AS I design to be short, I have joined these two pieces of history together, though very separate in themselves; and for the same reason, relating little besides, I shall content myself with laying open the characters of those, who had the greatest share in them. 1. The Prosperous Days of Thebes. No part of history, in my opinion, shews better of what real merit is capable, and of what service great officers are to a state, than what happened at Thebes in a very short space of time. This city was very weak in itself, and but lately in a manner reduced to slavery. Lacedæmon on the other hand had long possessed the superiority, and domineered over all Greece. Two Thebans, by their courage and wisdom, brought down the formidable power of Sparta, and raised their country to the highest point of empire and glory. I shall just touch upon this event, without entering into particulars. These two Thebans were Pelopidas and Epaminondas, both descended from the most illustrious families in the city. The first was born to a great estate, which he augmented very much by inheriting the estate of another very wealthy and flourishing family. Poverty was in a manner hereditary to the other, but he rendered it still more familiar and easy by a serious application to philosophy, and a plain manner of living, to which he always adhered with entire constancy and uniformity. The one shewed the use that was to be made of riches, and the other of poverty. Pelopidas distributed his riches to all such as stood in need of them, and deserved his assistance; shewing, VOL. III. says says Plutarch, that he was the master, and not the slave of wealth. As he could never prevail upon his friend Epaminondas to accept of his offers, and make use of his substance; he learnt of him to live like a poor man in the midst of plenty. He purposely visited the houses of the poor, that he might know of them how to want. He should be ashamed, he said, of spending more at his table or on his dress than the meanest Theban. And he was only thus severe upon himself, that he might have wherewithal to maintain a greater number of honest men, who wanted assistance. They were both equally designed by nature for great things, but with this difference, that Pelopidas applied himself most to the exercise of the body, and Epaminondas to the cultivation of the mind. The one employed all his leisure in wrestling and hunting, and the other in conversation and study of philosophy. But what has most of all been admired in them by men of judgment is, that strict friendship and unalterable union in which they lived during the whole course of their lives, though almost always employed together either in the command of the army, or the government of the commonwealth; an union founded upon the mutual esteem they had for each other, and increased by the love of their country, which made each of them look upon the success of the other, as his own. This good understanding and agreement, so seldom or almost never found amongst ministers of state, as may be seen in the case of the great men of Athens, could arise only from a real greatness of soul, and a solid virtue, which not consulting glory, or riches, the fatal sources of dissention and envy, and considering only the interest and happiness of their country, was far superior to the little weakness of that mean jealousy, which feels uneasiness at the merit of others. The first and most glorious proof Pelopidas gave of his courage and prudence was the bold design he laid and executed, though then very young, of delivering his country from the yoke of the Lacedæmonians, who had made themselves masters of the citadel of Thebes by surprise. He took care in a little time to form a considerable conspiracy against the tyrants. But though this affair had been carried on with all possible secrecy, within a moment before the execution, a messenger, who had made all imaginable speed, enquired for Archias the chief of the tyrants, who were then feasting together, and gave a letter into his hands, which he said required immediate dispatch, and was about serious affairs. And indeed it was afterwards known, that it contained a circumstantial account of the whole conspiracy. [a] Archias smiling, To-morrow then, says he, for serious business; and put the letter under the cushion on which he lolled. But there was no to-morrow for him; for he was killed that night with all the tyrants, and the citadel recovered. The change which soon after happened in their affairs, and the war which humbled the pride of Sparta, and deprived them of their empire by sea and land, might properly be said to be the work of that night, in which Pelopidas, without either taking castle or fort, with an handful of men, unloosed, to use that expression, and broke the bonds of the Lacedæmonian sway, which seemed morally impossible to have been either broken or unloosed. He had afterwards a share in all the victories which Thebes gained over the Lacedæmonians. After such happy and successful expeditions, all the towns in Thessaly apply to Pelopidas for assistance against the tyrant that oppressed them. He immediately sets forward on his march, and gives them liberty by his presence. The two competitors for the crown of Macedon made choice of him to decide their quarrel, He prescribes them conditions of peace, and takes hostages of them for the security of their engagements; so great was then the fame of the power of Thebes, and [α] Καὶ ὁ Ἀρχίας μειδιάσας· Οὐκῶν εἰς αὔριον (ἔφη) τὰ σπεδαία C 2 the the confidence they placed in his justice. He afterwards went ambassador to the king of Persia, and was received with the greatest marks of distinction and respect; and whilst the deputies of the other republics were employed in serving their private advantage, he was engaged solely in promoting the general interest of Greece; and without asking any thing for his country, studied only to procure the liberty of all the Greeks, and their entire independency. Contented with having obtained that, and little affected with the magnificent presents offered him by the king, he accepted only of such as, without enriching him, barely expressed the good-will and favour of the prince. So many great actions terminated in a very glorious death indeed, but not altogether such as might be desired for so great a man; for Pelopidas pursuing too briskly the tyrant of Phere, who fled before him, and had covered himself behind the company of his guards, was at last overpowered by numbers, after having acted prodigies of valour. He should have remembered that great men are accountable to their country for their lives, and ought to die for that alone, and not for themselves. He As to Epaminondas [b], he has deservedly been considered as the greatest man Greece ever produced, or perhaps the world. [c] It would be hard to say, whether he was a better general or man. He had all the great qualities of the most famous captains, as Diodorus Siculus observes, and none of their vices. was alike averse to ambition and avarice. He sought to procure his country the command, and not to command himself. Riches were so far from being a temptation, that he never suffered them to approach him; it seems as if he should have thought himself disho [b] Thebanum Epaminondan, haud scio an summum viruin Græciæ. Cic. 1. 2. de Orat. n. 139. [c] Fuit incertum, vir melior an dux esset. Nain & imperium non 5 sibi semper, sed patriæ quæsivit: & pecuniæ adeo parcus fuit, ut sumptus funeri defuerit. Justin. 1. 6. c. 8. noured |