filver, that, in confequence of it, no taxes were levied upon the Roman people for the support of the republic till the consulfhip of Hirtius and Panfa, a period of one hundred and twenty years, notwithstanding it was all that time engaged in carrying on expensive wars in almost every quarter of the known world. While the reader is informed of this circumstance, how muft his indignation be excited against that, in this inftance, barbarous race of conquerors, for permitting the wretched father, after having been dragged in triumph through the ftreets of Rome, to perish by the pangs of famine in a common jail. That indeed was the fate of the father! But harder ftill the doom of his infant fons ! the first of whom died (poffibly of a broken heart) fome time before his miferable parent; while the other, though bearing the august name of Alexander, was denied the education and accomplishments fuitable to his noble birth, and finally attempted to have his high spirit broken, by being placed out, by this generous and grateful republic, to the degrading occupation of a joiner or turner.

The particulars of the fplendid triumph decreed Æmilius, for his important conquest

of

of Macedon, are minutely detailed by Plutarch, with an extract from which I fhall close this extended account of the difperfion of the fpoils obtained by the irruption of the Greeks into the Higher Afia.

The celebration of this triumph, the grandeft that Rome ever witneffed, took up the fpace of three days; the firft of which was wholly occupied by the proceffion of two hundred and fifty waggons, loaded with captives, and the beautiful productions of the moft celebrated artists of Greece, paintings exquifitely finished, ftatues that seemed to fpeak, and all the other rare and sumptuous ornaments found in the palace of the Macedonian fovereign. On the second day were difplayed the various kinds of arms worn by the Macedonians and the conquered Greeks, their allies, confifting of helmets, shields, coats of mail, javelins, and spears, the former moftly of brafs, the latter of fteel, all highly polished for the occafion, and glittering in the beams of the fun. Amidst thefe, the fplendid accoutrements of the renowned Macedonian phalanx, in a more particular manner, excited the intereft and admiration of the Roman people, while they reflected on the viciffitudes

viciffitudes of war, that often obfcure the glory of the proudeft conquerors. The recorded feats of that once-invincible band rushed upon their memories, and the very clashing of their armour ftruck the gazing throng with awe and difmay. After this difplay, they were feafted with a fpectacle which gave birth to very different fenfations; it was part of the contents of the treasury of the fubjugated kingdom, the filver currency of Mace don, borne by three thoufand men, in large vafes that held each the amount of three taIents, and every one of which required four men to carry it. The number of the vafes were seven hundred and fifty, and therefore the total fum amounted to two thousand two hundred and fifty talents, in coined filver only, while a far greater amount in bullion followed in the form of elegant vafes, cornucopiæ, goblets, phials, and cups of all fizes, of which the distinguishing excellence was not fo much that they were filver, but that they were the work of Greek artists, equally admirable for the fublimity of the defign and the beauty of the execution. The exhibition of the golden fpoil was referved for the laft and most splendid day of the festival; and the

order

order of the march on that day was as 'follows:

It was ushered in with a full chorus of trumpets, founding notes not fuch, fays our author, as were generally heard on these public folemnities, fprightly and festive, but notes of the more martial and animating kind, fuch as rouze the foul of the young warrior, bring the blood into his glowing cheek, and drive him, in an agony of transport, on the terrified enemy. The band of trumpeters was followed by a hundred and twenty oxen, with gilded horns, and decorated with garlands for facrifice: these were led by a train of young men, adorned with fashes curiously wrought, and bearing the facrificial inftruments, who were accompanied by children carrying pateras, fome of filver and fome of gold. After these came, as on the preceding day, three thousand foldiers, who carried the coined money in gold in feventy-feven veffels of three talents weight; which, eftimating the amount according to the proportional value which gold then bore to filver, which may fairly be stated as one to twelve, and would, probably, in that early period of the Roman empire, be under-rated at the decuple, the general rate of calculation,

*

an enor

calculation, fwells the total to an mous fum, fuch as Rome till then had been a ftranger to. The bullion, or gold plate, was next difplayed; and, firft, was borne an enormous article of facred pomp weighing ten talents, called the confecrated phial, made of folid gold, and set with precious ftones. The drinking-veffels that bore the name of Antigonus, of Seleucus, and of Thericles, becaufe either ufed by thofe heroes or devoted to their memory, and all the coftly utenfils of gold that decorated the table and fide-board of the luxurious Perfeus, confifting of dishes, vases, and goblets, to an immenfe amount, were next exhibited in long and brilliant fucceffion. After thefe, came the chariot of the captive monarch, in which was feen his fumptuous armour, and on the and on the top of which glittered his ravished diadem. The infant-children and their attendants followed, a spectacle that melted the most obdurate hearts; and last was feen the unfortunate king, arrayed in fables, and having the appearance of a man bereaved of his fenfes, through the magnitude of his misfortunes and the severity of his sufferings. But all momentary impreffions of compaffion were chafed away from the breafts of those barbarous