of the Greeks in Gaul, and occasioned a wonderful change in them. The Gauls, quitting their ancient rusticity by degrees, began to be civilized, and to assume more gentle manners. Instead of breathing nothing but war, they accustomed them. selves to the observance of the laws of a wise government. They learned to improve their lands, to cultivate vines, and to plant clives. Hence so surprising an alteration ensued, as well in the provinces as the people who inhabited them, that it might have been said, Greece was not come to Gaul, but Gaul had been changed into Greece. The inhabitants of the new city made very wise laws for its policy and government, which was aristocratical, that is to say, in the hands of the elders. The council of the city was composed of 600 senators, who continued in that function dur ing life. Of that number 15 were elected to take care of the current affairs, and three to preside in the assemblies in quality of principal magistrates. The right of hospitality was in singular estimation amongst the Marseillians, and practised by them with the most exalted humanity. To maintain the security of the asylum they gave to strangers, no person was suffered to enter the city with arms. Certain persons were placed at the gates, whose busi ness it was to take care of the arnis of all who came in, and to return them when they went out. All entrance was barred to such as might have been for introducing sloth and a voluptuous life; and particular care was taken to banish all double-dealing, falsehood, and fraud. They piqued themselves || especially upon sobriety, modesty, and frugality. The most considerable portion amongst them did not exceed 100 pieces of gold, that is to say, very near 100 pis toles. They were not allowed to lay out more than five in dress, and as many in jewels. Valerius Maximus ¶, who lived in the reign of Tiberius, admires the regulations of government observ. ed at Marseilles in his time. "That city," says he, "stedfastly "retaining the** ancient severity of manners, excluded from the "theatre those comedians whose pieces generally turn upon the "subject of unlawful love." The reason given for this maxim Adeo magnus et hominibus et rebus impositus est nitor, ut non Græcia in Galliam emigrasse, sed Gallia in Græciam translata`videretur. Justin. + Strab. 1. iv. p. 179. Strab. 1. iv. p. 181. Val. Max. 1. ii. c. 6. **Eadem civitas severitatis custos acerrima est: nullum aditum in scenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta majore ex parte stuprorum continent actus, ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licenti am sunat. is still finer and more remarkable than the maxim itself. Lest," adds the author, "a familiarity with such sort of shows should make the people more apt to imitate them." They would not admit in funeral ceremonies, those indecent cears and lamentations with which they are generally attended, and ordered them to cease the same day by a domestic saErifice, and an entertainment for the friends and relations of he deceased: "for is it consistent to abandon ourselves to immoderate affliction, cr to be offended at the Divinity for "not having thought fit to share his immortality with us?" Tacitus has a passage upon the city of Marseilles highly in its praise; it is in his life of Julius Agricola his father-in law. After having spoken of the excellent education he had received from the care and tender affection of † Julia Procilla his mother, a lady of extraordinary virtue, who made him pass the most early years of his youth in the study of those arts and sci. ences that suited his birth and age, he adds, "what had pre"served him from the dangers and disorders, to which youth "in general are exposed, was, besides his own genius and dis(C position, the good fortune of having from his infancy the city "of Marseilles for his school, in the manners of whose inhabi"tants the politeness of the Greeks, and the simplicity and re66 serve of the provinces, were happily united." Arcebat cum ab illecebris peccantium, præter ipsius bonam integramque naturam, quod statim parvulus sedem ac magistram studiorum Massiliam habuerit, locum Græca comitate et provinciali parsimonia mistum ac bene compositum. From what I have said may be seen, that Marseilles was become a celebrated school for politeness, wisdom, and virtue, and at the same time for all arts and sciences. Eloquence, philosophy, physics, mathematics, law, fabulous theology, and all kinds of literature, were publicly professed there. This city produced the most ancient of the learned men of the west, I mean Pytheas, an excellent geographer and astronomer, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, or indeed of Alexander the Great. They persevered constantly in cultivating the arts and sciences with equal ardour and success. Strabo relates, that in his time (he lived in the reign of Augustus), the young nobility of *Etinim quid attinet, aut humano dolori indulgeri, aut divino numini invidiam fieri, quod immortalitatem suam nobiscum partiri noluerit? Mater Julia Procilla fuit rare castitatis. In hujus sinu indulgentiaque educatis, per omnem honestarum artium cultum, pueritiam, adolescentiamque transegit. Tacit. in Agricol. c. iv. Voss. in Histor. Græc, Rome went to Marseilles for education; and he prefers that place to the city of Athens itself; which is saying a great deal, We have already seen that it retained that privilege in the time of Tacitus the historian. The Marseillians distinguished themselves no less by the wish dom of their government, than by their capacity and taste for learning. Cicero, in one of his orations, exceedingly magni fies their manner of governing their republic. *I am assur ❝ed," says he, that not only in Greece, but in all other na❝tions, there is nothing comparable to the wise polity establish "ed at Marseilles. That city, so remote from the country, "manners, and language of all other Greeks situated in Gaul, "in the midst of barbarous nations that surround it on all sides, ❝is so prudently directed by the counsels of its elders, that it " is more easy to praise, than imitate, the wisdom of its go"vernment." They laid it down as a fundamental † rule of their politics, from which they never departed, to adhere inviolably to the Romans, to whose manners their own were more conformable, than to those of the barbarians around them. Besides which, their neighbourhood to the Ligurians, of whom they were equally enemies, could not but contribute to unite them by their common interests; that union enabling each party to make powerful diversions on both sides of the Alps. They according ly rendered the Romans great services at all times, and also received considerable aids from them upon many occasions. Justin ‡ relates a fact, which would be very much to the ho nour of the Marseillians, if it were well confirmed. Having received advice, that the Gauls had taken and burned Rome, they deplored that disaster of their allies as much as if it had happened to their own city. Nor did they confine themselves to fruitless tears. Out of the gold and silver, either of the public or private persons, they raised the sum in which the Gauls had taxed the conquered, as the price of peace, and sent it to Rome. The || Romans, infinitely affected with so noble an act of generosity, granted Marseilles the privilege of immu nity, and the right of sitting amongst the senators at the public * Cujus ego civitatis disciplinam atque gravitatem, non solum Græ ciæ sed haud scio an cunctis gentibus, anteponendam jure dicam : qua tani procul a Græcorum omnium regionibus, disciplinis, linguaque di visa, cum in ultimis terris cincta Gallorum gentibus, barbariæ fluctibus alluator, sic optimatum consilio gubernatur, ut omnes ejus instituta Jaudare facilius possint, quam emulari. Orat. pro Flacco, n. 63. + Strab. 1. iv. p. 180. Justin. I. xliii. c. 6. Liv. 1. xxi. n. 20, 25, 26. Lib. xxvi. n. 19. Lib, xxvii. n. 36. hows. It is certain, that during the war with Hannibal, Mar illes aided the Romans with all manner of good offices; the successes which they experienced in the first years of the ar, and which had deprived them of almost all their allies, ot being capable of shaking their fidelity in the least. In the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey, that city observ. a conduct which well denotes the wisdom of its government. æsar*, against whom they had shut their gates, caused the 5 senators, who were in supreme authority, to come to his amp, and represented to them, that he was sorry the war ould begin by attacking their city; that they ought rather to bmit to the authority of all Italy, than to abandon themselves indly to the desires of one man; and he added all the motives ost capable of persuading them. After having made their reort to the senate they returned into the camp, and gave Cear this answert: that they knew the Roman people were diided into two parties: that it did not belong to them to deterine which had the right on their side that the two heads of hese parties were equally the protectors of their city; and at e same time its friends and benefactors: that for this reason, bliged to express their gratitude alike for both, it was incum ent upon them neither to assist, nor receive the one into their ity or ports, to the prejudice of the other. They suffered a ong siege, in which they showed all possible valour; but at ength, the extreme necessity to which they were reduced, by e want of every thing, obliged them to surrender. However nraged Cæsar was at so obstinate a resistance, he could not efuse to the ancient reputation of the city, the favour of saving from being plundered, and of preserving its citizens. I should have believed myself wanting in some measure to he glory of the French nation, and to that of a city which holds ne of the highest ranks in the kingdom, if I had not collected n this place part of those favourable reports antiquity makes of it. I hope the reader will pardon this digression; which beides comes into my plan, and is part of the Grecian history. The affairs of Greece, Bithynia, Pergamus, and some other Countries, which I thought it necessary to treat in a series, and * Cæs. in Bel. Civ. I. i. + Intelligere se divisum esse populum in partes duas : neque sui juicii, neque suarum virium discernere utra pars just orem habeat cauam: principes vero earum esse partium Cn. Pompeium et C. Cæsarem patronos civitatis-Paribus eorum beneficiis, parem se quoque volunatem tribuere debere, et neutrum eorum contra alterum juvare, aut arbe aut portibus recipere. VOL. VII. X without interruption, have made me suspend those of Macedo nia, Syria, and Egypt; to which it is now time to return. ! shall begin with Macedonia. SECTION III. ANDRISCUS, PRETENDED SON OF PERSEUS, CAUSES HIM SELF TO BE PROCLAIMED KING OF MACEDONIA, FIFTEEN or sixteen years * after the defeat and death of Perseus, Andriscus of Adramytta, a city of Troas in Asia Minor, a person of the meanest birth, giving himself out for the son of Perseus, took upon him the name of Philip, and entered Macedonia in hopes of making the inhabitants of the country acknowledge him for their king. He had invented a story in regard to his birth, which he reported wherever he passed, pretending that he was the son of Perseus by a concubine, and that the prince his father had caused him to be secretly brought up at Adramytta, that in case of ill fortune in the war against the Romans, some shoot of the royal line might remain: that after the death of Perseus, he had been nurtured and brought up at Adramytta, till he was twelve years of age, and that the person who passed for his father finding himself at the point of death, had revealed the secret to his wife, and intrusted her with a writing, signed by Perseus with his own hand, which attested all that has been said; which writing she was to deli ver him (Philip) as soon as he should attain to the years d discretion. He added, that her husband having conjured her absolutely to conceal the affair till then, she had been most faith ful in keeping the secret, and had delivered that important writing to him at the appointed time; pressing him to quit the country before the report should reach the ears of Eumenes, the declared enemy of Perseus, lest he should cause him to be put to death. He was in hopes that he should be believed up his own word, and make Macedonia rise in his favour. When he saw that all continued quiet, he retired into Syria, to the court of Demetrius Soter, whose sister Perseus had espoused That prince, who immediately perceived the fraud, caused him to be seized and sent to Rome. As he did not produce any proof of his pretended nobility, and had nothing in his mien or manners that expressed the prince, n great notice was taken of him at Rome, and he was treated with great contempt, without much trouble to keep a strict guard upon him, or to confine him close. He took the advantage of A M. 3852. Ant. J. C. 152. Epiton, Liv. 1. xlviii-1. Zonar ex Dione, 1, i. c. II. Florus, l. ii. c, 14. |