made, that all the Athenians should take up arms, and obey the orders of Phocion, he took no care to act in pursuance of it, till Nicanor had brought his troops out of Munychia, and carried his trenches round the Piræus. Then Phocion would have led the Athenians against him; but by this time, they were become mutinous, and looked upon him with contempt.

to secure Munychia before the news of his fa- to any of those things. Nay, when Philo ther's death got abroad. This scheme was car-medes, of the borough of Lampra, got an edict ried into execution; and, a few days after, the Athenians being informed of the death of Antipater, accused Phocion of being privy to that event, and concealing it out of friendship to Nicanor. Phocion, however, gave himself no pain about it; on the contrary, he conversed familiarly with Nicanor; and, by his assiduities, not only rendered him kind and obliging to the Athenians, but inspired him with an ambition to distinguish himself by exhibiting games and shows to the people

Meantime Polyperchon, to whom the care of the king's person was committed,* in order to countermine Cassander, wrote letters to the Athenians, importing, "That the king restored them their ancient form of government;" according to which, all the people had a right to public employments. This was a snare he laid for Phocion. For, being desirous of making himself master of Athens (as soon appeared from his actions,) he was sensible that he could not effect any thing while Phocion was in the way. He saw, too, that his expulsion would be no difficult task, when all who had been excluded from a share in the administration were restored; and the orators and public informers were once more masters of the tribunals.

As these letters raised great commotions among the people, Nicanor was desired to speak to them on that subject in the Piræus; and, for that purpose entered their assembly, trusting his person with Phocion. Dercyllus, who commanded for the king in the adjacent country, laid a scheme to seize him; but Nicanor getting timely information of his design, guarded against it, and soon shewed that he would wreak his vengeance on the city. Phocion then was blamed for letting him go when he had him in his hands; but he answered, "He could confide in Nicanor's promises, and saw no reason to suspect him of any ill design." "However," said he, "be the issue what it may, I had rather be found suffering than doing what is unjust."

This answer of his, if we examine it with respect to himself only, will appear to be entirely the result of fortitude and honour; but, when we consider that he hazarded the safety of his country, and, what is more, that he was general and first magistrate, I know not whether he did not violate a stronger and more respectable obligation. It is in vain to allege that Phocion was afraid of involving Athens in a war; and for that reason would not seize the person of Nicanor; and that he only urged the obligations of justice and good faith, that Nicanor, by a grateful sense of such behaviour, might be prevailed upon to be quiet, and think of no injurious attempt against the Athenians. For the truth is, he had such confidence in Nicanor, that when he had accounts brought him from several hands of his designs upon the Piræus, of his ordering a body of mercenaries to Salamis, and of his bribing some of the inhabitants of the Piræus, he would give no credit

The son of Alexander, who was yet very young. Nicanor knew that Polyperchon's proposal to restore the democracy was merely a snare, and he wanted to make the Athenians sensible of it,

At this juncture arrived Alexander, the son of Polyperchon, with an army, under pretence of assisting the city against Nicanor; but, in reality, to avail himself of his fatal divisions, and to seize it, if possible, for himself. For the exiles who entered the town with him, the foreigners, and such citizens as had been stig. matized as infamous, with other mean people, resorted to him, and altogether made up a strange disorderly assembly, by whose suffrages the command was taken from Phocion, and other generals appointed. Had not Alexander been seen alone near the walls in conference with Nicanor, and by repeated interviews, given the Athenians cause of suspicion, the city could not have escaped the danger it was in. Immediately the orator Agnonides singled out Phocion, and accused him of treason; which so much alarmed Callimedon and Pericles, that they fled out of the city. Phocion, with such of his friends as did not forsake him, repaired to Polyperchon. Solon of Platæ, and Dinarchus of Corinth, who passed for the friends and confidants of Polyperchon, out of regard to Phocion, desired to be of the party. But Dinarchus falling ill by the way, they were obliged to stop many days at Elatea. In the mean time, Archestratus proposed a decree, and Agnonides got it passed, that deputies should be sent to Polyperchon, with an accusation against Phocion.

The two parties came up to Polypercon at the same time, as he was upon his march with the king,† near Pharuges, a town of Phocis, situated at the foot of Mount Acroriam, now called Galate. There Polyperchon placed the king under a golden canopy, and his friends on each side of him; and, before he proceeded to any other business, gave orders that Dinarchus should be put to the torture, and afterwards despatched. This done, he gave the Athenians audience. But, as they filled the place with noise and tumult, interrupting each other with mutual accusations to the council, Agnonides pressed forward and said, "Put us all in one cage, and send us back to Athens, to give account of our conduct there." The king laughed at the proposal; but the Macedonians who attended on that occasion, and the strangers who were drawn thither by curiosity, were desirous of hearing the cause; and therefore made signs to the deputies to argue the matter there. However it was far from being conducted with impartiality. Polyperchon often in

* Pericles here looks like an erroneous reading. Afterwards we find, not Pericles, but Charicles, mentioned along with Callimedon. Charicles was Pho

cion's son-in-law.

This was Aridæus, the natural son of Philip. After some of Alexander's generals had raised him to the throne for their own purposes, he took the name of Philip, and reigned six years and a few months.

terrupted Phocion, who at last was so provoked, that he struck his staff upon the ground, and would speak no more. Hegemon said, Polyperchon himself could bear witness to his affectionate regard for the people; and that general answered, "Do you come here to slander me before the king?" Upon this the king started up, and was going to run Hegemon through with his spear; but Polyperchon prevented him; and the council broke up immediately.

The guards then surrounded Phocion and his party, except a few, who, being at some distance, muffled themselves up, and fled. Clitus carried the prisoners to Athens, under colour of having them tried there, but, in reality, only to have them put to death, as persons already condemned. The manner of conducting the thing made it a more melancholy scene. The prisoners were carried in carts through the Ceramicus to the theatre, where Clitus shut them up till the Archons had assembled the people. From this assembly neither slaves, nor foreigners, nor persons stigmatized as infamous, were excluded; the tribunal and the theatre were open to all. Then the king's let ter was read; the purport of which was "That he had found the prisoners guilty of treason; but that he left it to the Athenians, as freemen, who were to be governed by their own laws, to pass sentence upon them."

before execution; and insisted, that the rack and its managers should be sent for immediat > ly. But Agnonides, observing that Clitus was displeased at that proposal, and looking upon it himself as a barbarous and detestable thing, said, "When we take that villain Callimedon, let us put him to the torture; but, indeed, my fellow-citizens, I cannot consent that Phocion should have such hard measure." Upon this, one of the better disposed Athenians cried out, "Thou art certainly right; for if we torture Phocion, what must we do to thee?" There was, however, hardly one negative when the sentence of death was proposed; all the people gave their voices standing; and some of them even crowned themselves with flowers, as if it had been a matter of festivity. With Phocion, there were Nicocles, Thudippus, Hegemon, and Pythocles. As for Demetrius the Phalerean, Callimedon, Charicles, and some others, who were absent, the same sentence was passed upon them.

After the assembly was dismissed, the convicts were sent to prison The embraces of their friends and relations melted them into tears; and they all went on bewailing their fate, except Phocion. His countenance was the same as when the people sent him out to command their armies; and the beholders could not but admire his invincible firmness and magnanimity. Some of his enemies, indeed, reviled At the same time Clitus presented them to him as he went along; and one of them even the people. The best of the citizens, when spit in his face: upon which, he turned to the they saw Phocion, appeared greatly dejected, magistrates, and said, "Will nobody correct and, covering their faces with their mantles, this fellow's rudeness?" Thudippus, when he began to weep. One, however, had the cour- saw the executioner pounding the hemlock, age to say, "Since the king leaves the deter- began to lament what hard fortune it was for mination of so important a matter to the peo-him to suffer unjustly on Phocion's account. ple, it would be proper to command all slaves" What then!" said the venerable sage, " dost and strangers to depart." But the populace, thou not think it an honour to die with Phoinstead of agreeing to that motion, cried out, cion?" One of his friends asking him whether "It would be much more proper to stone all he had any commands to his son; Yes," said the favourers of oligarchy, all the enemies of he, "by all means, tell him from me, to forget the people," After which, no one attempted the ill treatment I have had from the Atheto offer any thing in behalf of Phocion. It was nians." And when Nicocles, the most faithful with much difficulty that he obtained permis- of his friends, begged that he would let him sion to speak. At last, silence being made, he drink the poison before him; "This," said he, said, "Do you design to take away my life" Nicocles, is a hard request; and the thing justly or unjustly?" Some of them answering, Justly;" he said, "How can you know whether it will be justly, if you do not hear me first?" As he did not find them inclinable in the least to hear him, he advanced some paces forward, and said, "Citizens of Athens, I acknowledge I have done you injustice; and for my faults in the administration, adjudge myself guilty of death; but why will you put these men to death, who have never injured you?" The populace made answer, "Because they are friends to you." Upon which he drew back, and resigned himself quietly to his fate.

must give me great uneasiness; but since I have obliged you in every instance through life, I will do the same in this."

When they came all to drink, the quantity proved not sufficient; and the executioner refused to prepare more, except he had twelve drachmas paid him, which was the price of a full draught. As this occasioned a troublesome delay, Phocion called one of his friends, and said, "Since one cannot die on free cost at Athens, give the man his money," This execution was on the nineteenth day of April," when there was a procession of horsemen in Agnonides then read the decree he had pre-honour of Jupiter. As the cavalcade passed pared; according to which, the people were to declare by their suffrages whether the prisoners appeared to be guilty or not; and if they appeared so, they were to suffer death. When the decree was read, some called for an additional clause for putting Phocion to the torture

It was the custom for the person accused to lay some penalty on himself. Phocion chooses the highest, thinking it might be a means to reconcile the Athenians to his friends; but it had not that effect.

by, some took off their chaplets from their
heads; others shed tears, as they looked at the
prison doors; all who had not hearts entirely
savage, or were not corrupted by rage and
envy, looked upon it as a most impious thing,
not to have reprieved them at least for that
the festival.
day, and so to have kept the city unpolluted on

However, the enemies of Phocion, as if
* Munychion.

something had been wanting to their triumph, | virtues of justice and sobriety, they had lost. got an order that his body should not be suf- The people erected his statue in brass, and fered to remain within the bounds of Attica; buried his remains at the public expense. nor that any Athenian should furnish fire for Agnonides, his principal accuser, they put to the funeral pile. Therefore no friend durst death, in consequence of a decree for that purtouch it; but one Conopion, who lived by such pose. Epicurus and Demophilus, the other services, for a sum of money, carried the two, fled from Athens; but afterwards fell into corpse out of the territories of Eleusis, and got the hands of Phocion's son, who punished them fire for the burning of it in those of Megara. A as they deserved. This son of his was, in other woman of Megara; who happened to assist at respects, a worthless man. He was in love the ceremony with her maid-servants, raised a with a girl who was in a state of servitude, and cenotaph upon the spot, and performed the cus- belonged to a trader in such matters; and haptomary libations. The bones she gathered up pening one day to hear Theodorus the atheist carefully into her lap, carried them by night to maintain this argument in the Lyceum, "That her own house, and interred them under the if it is no shame to ransom a friend, it is no hearth. At the same time she thus addressed shame to redeem a mistress," the discourse the domestic gods: "Ye guardians of this place, was so flattering to his passion, that he to you I commit the remains of this good man. went immediately and released his female Do you restore them to the sepulchre of his friend.* ancestors, when the Athenians shall once more listen to the dictates of wisdom."

The time was not long before the situation of their affairs taught them how vigilant a magistrate, and how excellent a guardian of the

The proceedings against Phocion put the Greeks in mind of those against Socrates. The treatment of both was equally unjust, and the calamities thence entailed upon Athens were perfectly similar.†

CATO THE YOUNGER.

THE family of Cato had its first lustre and distinction from his great grandfather, Cato the Censor, a man whose virtue, as we have observed in his Life, ranked him with persons of the greatest reputation and authority in Rome. The Utican Cato, of whom we are now speaking, was left an orphan, together with his brother Cæpio, and his sister Porcia. He had also another sister called Servilia, but she was only sister by the mother's side. The orphans were brought up in the house of Livius Drusus, their mother's brother, who at that time had great influence in the administration; to which he was entitled by his eloquence, his wisdom, and dignity of mind: excellencies that put him on an equality with the best of the Ro

mans.

Cato, we are told, from his infancy discovered in his voice, his look, and his very diversions, a firmness and solidity, which neither passion nor any thing else could move. He pursued every object he had in view with a vigour far above his years, and a resolution that nothing could resist. Those who were inclined to flatter were sure to meet with a severe repulse, and to those who attempted to intimidate him, he was still more untractable. Scarce any thing could make him laugh, and it

*Cato the Censor, at a very late period of life, married Salonia, daughter of his own steward. There was a family, however, from the second match, which flourished when that which came from the first was extinct.

Servilia was not his only sister by the mother's side; there were three of them; one, the mother of Brutus, who killed Cæsar: another, married to Lucullus; and a third to Junius Silanus. Cæpio, too, was nis brother by the mother's side.

was but rarely that his countenance was softened to a smile. He was not quickly or easily moved to anger; but it was difficult to appease his resentment, when once excited.

His apprehension was slow, and his learn ing came with difficulty; but what he had once learned he long retained. It is, indeed, a common case for persons of quick parts to have weak memories, but what is gained with labour and application is always retained the longest: for every hard-gained acquisition of science is a kind of annealing upon the mind. The inflexibility of his disposition seems also to have retarded his progress in learning; for to learn is to submit to a new impression; and those submit the most easily who have the least power of resistance. Thus young men are more persuasible than the old, and the sick than such as are well; and, in general, assent is most easily gained from those who are least able to find doubts and difficulties. Yet Cato is said to have been very obedient to his preceptor, and to have done whatever he was com manded; only he would always inquire the reason, and ask why such a thing was enjoined. Indeed, his preceptor Sarpedon (for that was his name) was a man of engaging manners, who chose rather to govern by reason than by

violence.

While Cato was yet a child, the Italian allies demanded to be admitted citizens of Rome.

* It appears, from the ancient comedy, that it was no uncommon thing for the young men of Athens to take their mistresses out of such shops; and, after they had released them from servitude, to marry them.

† Socrates was put to death eighty-two years before.

Popedius Silo, a man of great name as a sol- Sylla and the father of Cato, induced him somedier, and powerful among his people, had a times to send for the young man and his brofriendship with Drusus, and lodged a long time ther Cæpio, and to talk familiarly with them, in his house during this application. As he a favour, which, by reason of his dignity, he was familiar with the children, he said to them conferred on very few. Sarpedon thinking one day, "Come, my good children, desire such an intercourse a great advantage to his your uncle to assist us in our solicitation for scholar, both in point of honour and safety, the freedom. Cæpio smiled, and readily gave often took Cato to pay his respects to the dichis promise; but Cato made no answer. And tator. Sylla's house at that time looked like as he was observed to look with a fixed and nothing but a place of execution; such were unkind eve upon the strangers, Popedius con- the numbers of people tortured and put to death tinued, And you, my little man, what do you there. Cato, who was now in his fourteenth say? Will not you give your guests your inter-year, seeing the heads of many illustrious perest with your uncle, as well as your brother?" sonages carried out, and observing that the byCato still refusing to answer, and appearing bystanders sighed in secret at these scenes of his silence and his looks inclined to deny the blood, asked his preceptor, "Why somebody request, Popedius took him to the window and did not kill that man?" "Because," said he, threatened, if he would not promise, to throw "they fear him more than they hate him.” him out. This he did in a harsh tone, and at "Why then," said Cato, "do not you give me the same time gave him several shakes, as if a sword, that I may kill him, and deliver my he was going to let him fall. But as the child country from slavery?" When Sarpedon heard bore this a long time without any marks of such a speech from the boy, and saw with what concern or fear, Popedius set him down, and a stern and angry look he uttered it, he was said softly to his friends, "This child is the greatly alarmed, and watched him narrowly glory of Italy. I verily believe, if he were a afterwards, to prevent his attempting some rash man, that we should not get one vote among action. the people."

Another time, when a relation invited young Cato, with other children, to celebrate his birth-day, most of the children went to play together in a corner of the house. Their play was to mimic a court of justice, where some were accused in form, and afterwards carried to prison. One of them, a beautiful boy, being condemned, and shut up by a bigger boy, who acted as officer, in one of the apartments, called out to Cato; who, as soon as he understood what the matter was, ran to the door, and, pushing away those who stood there as guards and attempted to oppose him, carried off the child, and went home in great anger; most of the children marching off with him.

These things gained him great reputation, of which the following is an extraordinary instance: when Sylla chose to exhibit a tournament of boys, which goes by the name of Troy, and is considered as a sacred exhibition, he selected two bands of young gentlemen, and assigned them two captains, one of which they readily accepted, on account of his being the son of Metella, the wife of Sylla; but the other, named Sextus, though he was nephew to Pompey the Great, they absolutely rejected, and would not go out to exercise under him. Sylla then asking them, "Whom they would have?" they unanimously cried "Cato;" and Sextus himself readily yielded the honour to him, as a boy of superior parts.

When he was but a child, he was asked one day," Whom he loved most?" and he answer ed, "His brother." The person who put the question, then asked him "Whom he loved next?" and again he said "His brother" "Whom in the third place?" and still it was "His brother:" and so on till he put no more questions to him about it. This affection increased with his years, insomuch that when he was twenty years old, if he supped, if he went out into the country, if he appeared in the forum, Cæpio must be with him. But be would not make use of perfumes as Cæpio did: indeed, the whole course of his life was strict and austere: so that when Cæpio was sometimes commended for his temperance and sobriety, he would say, "I may have some claim to these virtues, when compared with other men; but when I compare myself with Cato, I seem a mere Sippius." Sippius was the name of a person remarkably effeminate and luxurious.

After Cato had taken upon him the priesthood of Apollo, he changed his dwelling, and took his share of the paternal estate, which amounted to a hundred and twenty talents. But though his fortune was so considerable, his manner of living was more frugal and simple than ever. He formed a particular connexion with Antipater of Tyre, the Stoic philosopher: and the knowledge he was the most studious of acquiring, was the moral and the political. He was carried to every virtue with an impulse like inspiration; but his greatest attachment was to justice, and justice of that se* Children's plays are often taken from what is most vere and inflexible kind which is not to be familiar to them. In other countries, they are commonly formed upon trifling subjects; but the Roman wrought upon by favour or compassion.* He children acted trials in the courts of justice, the com- cultivated also that eloquence which is fit for mand of armies, triumphal processions, and, in later popular assemblies; for as in a great city there times, the state of emperors. Suetonius tells us, that should be an extraordinary supply for war, so Nero commanded his son-in-law, Rusinus Crispinus, in the political philosophy he thought there the son of Popea, a child, to be thrown into the sea, should be a provision for troublesome times. because he was said to delight in plays of the last-men-Yet he did not declaim before company, nor

The friendship which had subsisted between

tioned kind.

The invention of this game is generally ascribed to Ascanius. It was celebrated in the public circus, by companies of boys, who were furnished with arms suitable to their strength. They were taken, for the most part, out of the noblest families in Rome.

*Cicero, in his oration for Murena, gives us a fine satire upon those maxims of the Stoics which Cato mad. the rule of his life, and which, as he observes, were only fit to flourish within the portico.