the horrid crime by which they had deserved it. "That they, in that year particularly, should have brought themselves to betray into the hands of Tarquin, formerly a proud tyrant, and now an exasperated exile, their country just delivered, their father its deliverer, the consulate which took its rise from the family of the Junii, the Fathers, the people, and whatever belonged either to the gods or the citizens of Rome." The consuls seated themselves in their tribunal, and the lictors, being despatched to inflict punishment, strip them naked, beat them with rods, and strike off their heads. During all this time, the father's looks and countenance presented a touching spectacle, his natural feelings bursting forth occasionally during the office of superintending the public execution. Next after the punishment of the guilty, that there might be a striking example in either way for the prevention of crime, a sum of money was granted out of the treasury as a reward to the informer; liberty also and the rights of citizenship were granted him.

THE GAULS ENTER ROME

In the year 387 B.C., the Gauls under Brennus invaded Italy. At the river Allia, a branch of the Tiber, they defeated the Romans with great slaughter, and might at once have entered the city, but delayed, being amazed at their own success.

AT the enemy's first approach, it was supposed that they would begin the attack, as soon as they should arrive at the city, since, if this were not their intention, they would probably have remained at the Allia. The fears of the citizens were various; first, they imagined that the place would be instantly stormed, because there was not much of the day remaining; then that the design was put off until night, in order to strike the greater terror. At last, the approach of light sunk them in dismay, and the evil itself which they dreaded, closed this scene of unremitted apprehension, the enemy marching through the gates in hostile array. During that night, however, and also the following day, the state preserved a character, very different from that which such a dastardly flight at the Allia had indicated: for there being no room to hope, that the city could possibly be defended by the small number of troops remaining, a resolution was taken, that the young men who were fit to bear arms, and the abler part of the senate, with their wives and children, should go up into the citadel and the Capitol; and having collected stores of arms and corn, should, in that strong post, maintain the defence of the deities, of the inhabitants, and of the honor of Rome. That the Flamen Quirinalis, and the vestal priestesses, should carry away, far from slaughter and conflagration, all that appertained to the gods of the state; and that their worship should not be intermitted until there should be no one left to perform it. That such of this deserted multitude as consisted of plebeians, might bear their doom with the greater resignation, the aged nobles, formerly dignified with triumphal honors and consulships, openly declared, that "they would meet death along with them, and would not burthen the scanty stores of the fighting men, with bodies incapable of carrying arms, and of protecting their country."

Such were the consolations addressed to each other by the aged who were destined to death.

Their exhortations were then turned to the band of young men, whom they escorted to the Capitol and citadel, commending to their valor and youthful vigor the remaining fortune of their city, which, through the course of three hundred and sixty years, had ever been victorious in all its wars. When those who carried with them every hope and every resource, parted with the others, who had determined not to survive the capture and destruction of the city, the view which it exhibited was sufficient to call forth the liveliest feelings, the women at the same time running up and down in distraction, now following one party, then the other, asking their husbands and their sons, to what fate they would consign them? All together formed such a picture of human woe as could admit of no aggravation. A great part, however, of the women followed their relatives into the citadel, no one either hindering or inviting them; because, though the measure of lessening the number of useless persons, in a siege, might doubtless be advisable in one point of view, yet it was a measure of extreme inhumanity. The rest of the multitude, consisting chiefly of plebeians, for whom there was neither room on so small a hill, nor a possibility of support in so great a scarcity of corn, pouring out of the city in one continued train, repaired to the Janiculum.

Meanwhile at Rome, when every disposition for the defence of the citadel had been completed, as far as was possible, the aged crowd withdrew to their houses, and there, with a firmness of mind not to be shaken by the approach of death, waited the coming of the enemy: such of them as had held curule offices, choosing to die in that garb which displayed the emblems of their former fortune, of their honors, or of their merit, put on the most splendid robes worn, when they drew the chariots of the gods in procession, or rode in triumph. Thus habited, they seated themselves in their ivory chairs at the fronts of their houses. Some say that they devoted themselves for the safety of their country and their fellow-citizens; and that they sung a hymn upon the occasion, Marcus Fabius, the chief pontiff, dictating the form of words to them. On

the side of the Gauls, as the keenness of their rage, excited by the fight, had abated during the night; and, as they had neither met any dangerous opposition in the field, nor were now taking the city by storm or force; they marched next day, without any anger or any heat of passion, into the city, through the Colline gate, which stood open, and advanced to the Forum, casting round their eyes on the temples of the gods, and on the citadel, the only place which had the appearance of making resistance. From thence, leaving a small guard to prevent any attack from the citadel or Capitol, they ran about in quest of plunder. Not meeting a human being in the streets, part of them rushed in a body to the houses that stood nearest; part sought the most distant, as expecting to find them untouched and abounding with spoil. Afterwards, being frightened from thence by the very solitude, and fearing lest some secret design of the enemy might be put in execution against them, while they were thus dispersed; they formed themselves into bodies, and returned again to the Forum and places adjoining to it. Finding the houses of the plebeians shut up, and the palaces of the nobles standing open, they showed rather greater backwardness to attack these that were open, than such as were shut; with such a degree of veneration did they behold men sitting in the porches of those palaces, who, beside their ornaments and apparel, more splendid than became mortals, bore the nearest resemblances to gods, in the majesty displayed in their looks, and the gravity of their countenances. It is said, that while they stood gazing as on statues, one of them, Marcus Papirius, provoked the anger of a Gaul, by striking him on the head with his ivory sceptre, while he was stroking his beard, which at that time was universally worn long; that the slaughter began with him, and that the rest were slain in their seats. The nobles being put to death, the remainder of the people met the same fate. The houses were plundered and then set on fire.

v-8

SCIPIO AND ALLUCIUS.

[WHILE Publius Scipio had charge of Roman affairs in Spain], a captive was brought before him by his soldiers-a grown-up maiden of such remarkable beauty, that wherever she moved she attracted the eyes of all. Scipio inquired her country and her parentage, and ascertained, among other things, that she was affianced to a young chief of the Celtiberi, whose name was Allucius. He at once sent for her lover and her parents from their homes, and heard in the meanwhile that the youth was passionately attached to her.

As soon as they arrived, he addressed himself to the lover more particularly than to the parents: "I address myself," said he, "as one young man to another, that there may be less embarrassment between us in this interview. When your betrothed bride was brought to me by our soldiers, I heard that you were very much in love with her a fact which indeed her beauty makes me readily believe, inasmuch as, were I at liberty to indulge the passions natural to my age, especially in a honorable and lawful way, and if public duty did not engross all my thoughts, I might have claimed indulgence, had I become desperately enamored of some lady myself. Your passion, at least, I can favor, and I do. Your betrothed has been treated with the same respect while in my charge as she would have been under the roof of her own parents and your future connections. She has been kept safe for you, that I might present her to you untarnished, a gift worthy alike of myself and you. This one return I bargain for in repayment for this gift of mine. Become the friend of the Roman people. And if you believe me to be a man of honor, as these tribes know my father and my uncle to have been, I would have you learn that there are many like us in the state of Rome, and that no nation can be named at this day upon earth whom you ought less to wish to have for enemies to you and yours, or should prefer as friends."

The young chief, overwhelmed with embarrassment and joy, grasped Scipio's hand, and called upon all the gods to repay his benefactor an obligation which it would never be in