BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERS. CHARACTER of SYLLA. [From the First Volume of Dr. FERGUSON's Hiftory of the Progrefs and Termination of the Roman Republic.] THIS HIS refignation throws a his having had recourse to arms. new light on the character of Sylla, and leads to a favourable conftruction of fome of the most exceptionable parts of his conduct. When, with the help of the comment it affords, we look back to the establishments he made while in power, they appear not to be the acts of a determined ufurper, but to be fitted for a republican government, and for the restoration of that order which the violence and corruption of the times had fufpended. "That he was actuated by a violent refentment of perfonal wrongs, cannot be questioned; but it is likewife evident that he felt on proper occafions for the honour and prefer vation of his country, in the nobleft fense of these words. In his first attack of the city with a military force, his actions fhowed, that he meant to rescue the republic from the ufurpations of Marius, not to ufurp the government himself. When he returned into Italy from the Mithridatic war, the fate of parties already engaged in hoftilities, and the violence done to the republic by those who pretended to govern it, will abundantly justify For the maffacre which followed, it may be fhocking to fuppofe, that the evils of human life can require fuch a remedy: but the cafe was fingular, expofed to disorders which required violent remedies, beyond what is known in the history of mankind. A populous city, the capital of a large country, whofe inhabitants ftill pretended to act in a collective body, of whom every mem ber would be a master, none would be a fubject, become the joint fovereigns of many provinces, ready to fpurn at all the institutions which were provided for the purposes of government over themselves, and at all the principles of justice and order which were required to regulate this government of others: where the gangrene fpread in fuch a body, it was likely to require the amputation knife. Men rufhed into crimes in numerous bodies, or were led in powerful factions to any fpecies of evil which fuited their demagogues. Whatever may have been Sylla's choice among the inftruments of reformation and cure, it is likely that the fword alone was that on which he could rely; and he used it like a A 2 perfon perfon anxious to effect its purpofe, not to recommend his art to thofe on whom it was to be practifed. "In his capacity of a political reformer, he had to work on the dregs of a corrupted republic; and although the effect fell fhort of what is afcribed to fabulous legiflators and founders of ftates, yet to none ever were afcribed more tokens of magnanimity and greatnefs of mind. He was fuperior to the reputation even of his own fplendid actions; and, from fimplicity or difdain, mixed perhaps with fuperftition, not from affected modefty, attributed his fuccefs to the effects of his good fortune and to the favour of the gods. While he bestowed on Pompey the title of Great, he himfelf was content with that of Fortunate. He was a man of letters, and paffed the early part of his life in a mixture of diffipation and ftudy. He wrote his own memoirs, or a journal of his life, often quoted by Plutarch, and continued it to within a few days of his death. A work poffibly of little elegance, and even tainted, as we are told, with fuperftition; but more curious furely than many volumes corrected by the labours of retired study. "When tired of his youthful amufements, he fued for the honours of the state; but with fo little appearance of any jealous or impatient ambition, that, if he had not been impelled by provocations into the violent courfe he purfued, it is probable that he would have been contented with the ufual career of a profperous fenator; would have difdained to encroach on the rights of his fellow-citizens, as much as he refented the encroachments that were made on his own; and never would have been heard of but on the rolls of the confuls, and in the record of his triumphs. But fortune deftined him for a part ftill more confpicuous, and in which it may be thought, that although none ever lefs ftudied the unneceffary appearances of humanity or a fcrupulous morality, none ever more effentially ferved the perfons with whom he was connected. "With respect to fuch a perfonage, circumftances of a trivial nature become fubjects of attention. His hair and eyes, it is faid, were of a light colour, his complexion fair, and his countenance blotched. He was, by the most probable accounts, four years old at the time of the fedition of Tiberius Gracchus, and feventeen at the death of Caius Gracchus; fo that he might have perceived at this date the effect of tribunitian feditions, and taken the impreffions from which he acted against them. He ferved the office of queftor under Marius in Africa at thirty-one; was conful for the first time at forty-nine or fifty; was dictator at fifty-fix; refigned when turned of fifty eight; and died yet under fixty, in the year which followed that of his refignation. "There remained in the city, at his death, a numerous body of new citizens who bore his name: in the country a ftill more numerous body of veteran officers and foldiers, who heid eftates by his gift: numbers throughout the empire, who owed their fafety to his protection, and who afcribed the existence of the commonwealth itself to the exertions of his great ability and courage: numbers who, although they were offended with the fevere exercise of his power, yet admired the magnanimity of his refignation. "When he was no longer an objeft of flattery, his corpfe was carried in proceffion through Italy at the public expence. The falces, and every other enfign of honour, were were restored to the dead. Above two thousand golden crowns were fabricated in hafte, by order of the towns and provinces he had protected, or of the private perfons he had preferved, to testify their veneration for his memory. Roman matrons, whom it might be expect ed his cruelties would have effected with horror, loft every other fenti ment in that of admiration, crowded to his funeral, and heaped the pile with perfumes. His obfequies were performed in the Campus Martius. The tomb was marked by his own directions with the following characteristical infcription : "Here lies Sylla, who never was outdone in good offices by his friend, nor in acts of hoftility by his ene." His merit or demerit in the principal tranfactions of his life may be variously estimated. His having flain fo many citizens in cold blood, and without any form of law, if we imagine them to have been innocent, or if we conceive the republic to have been in a state to allow them a trial, must be confidered as monftrous or criminal in the highest degree; but if none of these fuppofitions were juft, if they were guilty of the greatest crimes, and were themfelves the authors of that lawlefs ftate to which their country was reduced, his having faved the republic from the hands of fuch ruffians, and purged it of the vileft dreg that ever threatened to poifon a free ftate, may be confidered as meritorious. To fatisfy himself, who was neither folicitous of praise nor dreaded cenfure, the strong impulfe of his own mind, guided by indignation and the fenfe of neceffity, was probably fufficient." DEATH and CHARACTER of CATO. [From the Second Volume of the fame Work.] T Utica were affembled, pire, all who were obnoxious to Cæfar, or who, from a zeal for the republic, had refufed to fubmit to his power. On the third day after the battle, towards night, a perfon who had efcaped from the field of battle coming to Utica, this unhappy convention of citizens was ftruck with the greatest alarm. Under the effects of their confternation, they met in the ftreets, ran to the gates, and again returned to their habitations. They crowded togetheir in the public places, and feparated by turns, and paffed the night in extreme confufion. Cato reprefented to them, that the accounts they received might be ex pofe their fears. As foon as it was day he called them together, and laid before them the date of the place, of the works, military stores, provifion, arms, and number of men; and having commended the zeal, which they had hithero fhown in defence of the republic, exhorted them now to make the proper ufe of the means they fill had of defending themfelves, or at leaft of making their peace in a body declared, that if they were inclined to fubmit, to the victor, he fhould impute their conduct to neceffity; but if they. were determined to refift, he should referve his fword for the laft stake of A 3 the |