(thofe who are burnt with ftripes), have alfo been used by Tertullian as common appellations of flaves. Sometimes the flagellations inflicted upon flaves, or the fear they entertained of incurring them, ferved Plautus as incidents for the conduct of his plots. Thus, in his Epidicus, a flave, who is the principal character in the play, concludes, upon a certain occafion, that his mafter has difcovered his whole fcheme, because he has fpied him, in the morning, purchafing a new fcourge at the shop in which they were fold. The fubject of flagellations has been an inexhaustible fund of pleafantry for Plautus. In one place, a flave, intending to laugh at a fellow flave, afks him how much he thinks he weighs, when he is fufpended naked, by his hands, to the beam, with an hundred weight (centupondium) tied to his feet; which was a precaution taken, as commentators inform us, in order to prevent the flave who was flagellated from kicking the man (virgator) whofe of fice it was to perform the operation. And, in another place, Plautus, alluding to the thongs of ox-leather with which whips were commonly made, introduces a flave engaged in deep reflection on the furprizing circumftance of dead bullocks, that make incurfions upon living men. Vivos homines mortui incurfant boves! Nor was it upon their flaves only that mafters, among the Romans, inflicted the punishment of flagellation: they fometimes found means to ferve in the fame manner the young men of free condition, who infinuated themfelves into their houfes, with a defign to court their wives. As the most favourable difguife on fuch occafions was to be dreffed in flaves clothes, becaufe a man thus habited was enabled to get into the houfe, and go up and down without being noticed, rakes, engaged in amorous purfuits, ufually chofe to make ufe of this kind of drefs. When the husband happened to difcover them, he ufualty feigned to mistake the man for a run-away flave, or fome itrange flave who had got into his houfe to commit theft, and treated him accordingly. Indeed, the opportunity was a molt favourable one for revenge; and if to this confideration we add that of the fevere temper of the Romans, and the jealous difpofition that has always prevailed in that country, we thall eafily conclude that fuch an opportunity, when obtain ed, was feldom fuffered to efcape. A Roman fpark, caught in the above dif guife, and engaged in the laudable purfuit of feducing his neighbour's wife, was, with a centupondium to his feet, fadly rewarded for his fpirit and ingenuity. A misfortune of this kind actually befell Salluft the hiftorian. He was caught in a familiar intercourfe with Fauftina, wife to Milo, and daugh ter of the Dictator Sylla. The husband caufed him to be foundly lafhed (iorit bene cælum); nor did he releafe him till he had made him pay a confiderable fum of money. The fat is related by Aulus Gellius, who has extracted it from Varro. To this circumfiance the violent part was very probably owing which Salluft afterwards took againft Milo, while the latter was under profecution for flaying the tribune Clodius, and the tumult he raised on that occafion, by which Cicero was prevented from delivering the fpeech he had piepared. "An allufion is made to the above facts in one of Horace's Satyrs. He fuppofes in it, that his flave, availing himself of the opportunity of the Satur nalia, to fpeak his mind freely to him, gives him a lecture on the bad courfes in which he thinks him engaged, and uses, among others, the following arguments: "When you have stripped off the marks of your dignity, your equeftrian ring, and your whole Roman drefs, and, from a man invefted with the office of judge, fhew yourfeif at once under the appearance of the flave Dama; difgraced as you are, and hiding your perfumed head under your cloak, you are not the man whom you feign to be: you are at leaft introduced full of terror, and your whole frame shakes through the ftrug gles of two oppofite paffions. In fact, what advantage is it to you, whether you are cut to pieces with rods, or flaughtered with iron weapons?' Tu cum projectis infignibus, annulo equestri Romanoque habitu, prodis ex judice Dama, Turpis, odoratum caput obfcurante lacerna Non es quod fimulas; metuens induceris, atque Altercante libidinibus tremis offa pavore. Lib. 11. Sat. 7. of "The above uncontrouled power inflicting punishments on their flaves, enjoyed by mafters in Rome, was at laft abused by them to the greateft degree. The finallef faults committed in their families by flaves, fuch as breaking glaffes, feafoning dishes too much, or the like, expofed them to grievous punishments; and it even was no unufual thing for mafters (as we may judge from the defcription of Trimalcion's entertainment in the Satire of Petronius) to order fuch of their flaves, as had been guilty of faults of the above kind, to be ftripped, and whipped in the prefence of their guefts, when they happened to entertain any at their houles. "Befides all the abovementioned inftruments ufed for punishing flaves, and as if the terrible flagellum had not been of itself fufficiently fevere, new contrivances were ufed to render the fame a fill more cruel weapon: the thongs with which that kind of fcourge was made were frequently armed with nails, or fmall hard bones, and aifo with small leaden weights; thefe weights were fhaped like thofe which were fometimes worn hanging about the fhoes, and were called afragala, as mentioned by Helychius: hence the name of aftragala commonly given to fuch fcourges as were armed with thefe kinds of leaden weights or knobs. "Thefe abufes which mafters, in Rome, made of the power they poffeffed over their flaves, either by mak ing them deliberately fuffer death, or wantonly torturing them in numberless different ways, were at length carried to fuch a pitch, that, in the beginning of the reign of the Emperors, it was found neceffary to reftrain their licence. "Under the reign of Claudius (for it is not clear whether any provifion to that effect was made under Auguftus) it was ordained, that matters, who forfook their flaves when fick, should lofe all right over them in cafe they recovered; and that thofe who deliberately put them to death, fhould be banished from Rome. "Under the Emperor Adrian, the cruelties exercifed by Umbricia, a Roman lady, over her female flaves, caufed new laws to be made on that fubject, as well as the former ones to be put in force; and Umbricia was, by a refcript of the Emperor, banished for five years (1. 2. in fire, Dig. L. I t. 6.). "New laws to the fame ends were likewife made under the following Emperors, among which civilians make particular mention of conftitution of Antoninus Pius (Divn ¿Pins). In fub. fequent times, the church alto employed 5 its authority to prevent the like exceffes; in a canon which was framed in the council held at Elvira, the following provifion was inferted, in order to check the feverity of miftreffes in regard to their female flaves. If a miftrefs, in a fit of anger and madness, fhall lafh her female flave, or caufe her to be lafhed, in fuch a manner that she fhall expire before the third day, by reafon of the torture the has undergone; whereas it is doubtful whether it has defignedly happened, or by chance; if it has defignedly happened, the mistress fhall be excommunicated for feven years; if by chance, fhe fhall be excommunicated for five years only; though, if the falls into fick nefs, fhe may receive the communion.' "But the abufes made by mafters of their power over their flaves, were a diforder of fuch a nature as was not to be cured fo long as the cuftom itself of flavery was allowed to fubfift; and these abufes have been at length remedied only by the thorough abolition of a cuftom which was a continual infult on humanity an advantage this, for which we are indebted to the establishment of Christianity, whatever evils and calamities certain writers may reproach it with having occafioned." The above facts and obfervations are extracted from the fourth chapter of Mr. De Lolme's Memorials of Human Superftition, in which they are introduced by way of a digreffion. Letters to the People of Great Britain, on the Cultivation of their National Hiftory. LETTER V. AFTER having mentioned the pe riod of our history which has been leaft illuftrated, let us proceed to confider in what other parts the neglect chiefly confifts. And, in the first place, as the British empire contains feveral diftinét kingdoms, it will be proper to enquire if the hiftory of any of these kingdoms be more neglected than that of another. In this point of view, it muft occur that England, a country fuperior in wealth, population, and glory, to all the reft put together, must naturally have attracted the chief attention to her history, as in justice the ought. But, while even the history of England has been to much neglected, it is not matter of furprize that the history of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, should meet with very little attention. It is even fufpected, fufpected, that the history of these countries has met with more difregard, both among their refpective natives, and in England, than its difproportion deferves; and it is certain that the history of Bretagne, of Burgundy, and other ancient kingdoms now conjoined in the French monarchy, has attracted infinitely more notice in France than that of the above kingdoms has found in England. The five volumes folio of original documents, concerning the hiftory of Bretagne alone, lately published in France, may, among many other proofs, eftablish the truth of this affertion. It is, therefore, propofed to con. fider the Welch, Irish, Scotifh hiftory, each in a feparate letter; as being provinces of British history much neglect ed. A native of the British empire, though he may laudably give more attention to that country of it where he was born, muft yet be greatly interefted in the hiftory of every kingdom of the empire; a leaft, far more fo than in any foreign history And a British Antiquary ought to defpife ancient enmities and prejudices, and to contribute with pleature to ferve any denomination of his fellow-fubje&ts. It fhall only be further premifed, that the plan of thefe letters must neceffarily confine them to a few hints, efpecially concerning the leffer kingdoms: for the neglect of English history is their most important province; and, if that began to be remedied, the other British kingdoms would follow the example of courte. This letter fall offer a few remarks on the history of Wales. The ancient hiftorical documents concerning Wales are very few; and it is matter of great er reproach that even thefe few have been neglected. When Nennius and Samuel wrote in conjunction, in the year 88, it is palpable, from their preface, that not one hiftorian had arifen in Wales before them. The complaint of Gildas, who wrote in the year 560, contains very few hiftoric hints. Gildas, Nennius, and Samuel, only go down to the arrival of the Saxons in the fifth century. From that period till 1150, when Geofrey of Monmouth published his monftrous romance, tranf lated from a romance of Bretagne, which he mistook for a history, not a particle of Welch hutory can be found, except in Beda, and the Saxon Chronicle, and Irish Annals. Geofrey only goes down to the death of his pretended Arthur, about the year 542. But Gildas, who lived at this very time, knew nothing of Arthur; and he is now perfectly understood to be a non-existence, a mere phantom of thofe romances which began to appear in the north of France in the time of the crufades. If in the libraries in Wales any hif toric document whatever can be reco. vered, written before the twelfth cen tury, it cannot be too highly valued. As it is, the whole hiftory of Wales, from the beginning to the twelfth cen tury, refts upon Caradoc of Llancarvon, who wrote about the year 1160; a va❤ luable and judicious writer, but who cannot be greatly credited for events that happened many centuries before him, and of which, to the best of my knowledge, there is no other native record. But the fingularity is, that Caradoc, the only original hiftorian of Wales, remains yet to be published! We have only tranflations of his work, groisly interpolated by a fucceffion of abfurd editors, fo that it is impoffible to fay what parts are Caradoc's, what not. The original ought to be published from the oldeft MSS. extant, with a verbal Latin tranflation But thofe gentlemen who are killed in the Welch language, rather chufe to ficken the publick with their dreams concerning the Welch language and antiquities, than to ac quire great fame by publishing the original authors; a phrenzy alfo general in Ireland, but no where else to be found. The Ee Cambro Britannica, pub, lished by Williams at the end of Lloyd's Commentariolum, I cannot believe more ancient than the thirteenth century. And I wish to be informed if, excepting only the laws of Howel Dha in the tenth, there be any fpecimen of the Welch language preceding the twelfth century. The lift of Welch MSS. given by Davis in his Welch Dictionary, and Lluyd in his Archæologia, jumps at once from the fixth to the twelfth century. To the fixth century are afcribed certain bards, Taliefin, Merlin, Aneurim, &c. and after them we find no Welch writer till the twelfth century. Mr. Eyans, who deferves the greatcft praife for his labours, has publifhed fpecimens of the poems afcribed to thefe bards. Unhappily they are all in rhime; while we know from Giraldus Cambrenfis, who wrote about the year 1180, that rhime was totally unknown to the Welch poetry even of his time, and that alliteration only was ufed. Nor will it require arguments to fhew that rhime, in its progrefs from the Italian monks of the fixth and feventh centuries, could not reach Wales till a late period. In Scandinavian poetry rhime is quite unknown till the twelfth century; and all barbaric countries are very tenacious of ancient cuftoms. Nay, the rhimes of the mock Taliefin, &c. are exactly of the fame form (not couplets, but continued ftrings of rhimes) with thofe of pieces which Mr. Evans afcribes to the fourteenth century! The mode of repeated rhimes is clearly artificial, and late; and any. one, verfed in the literature of the middle ages, muft infer thefe pieces to be pofterior to the twelfth century Difference of dialect Mr. Evans takes for a proof of antiquity, while it may depend on their being written in North or South Wales, or in Cornwall. It was quite the fashion, in the middle ages, for the bards to affume the names and characters of renowned perfons in their poems; and to this we muft afcribe the mock Offian, without rhime, and the ridiculous mock Welch bards of the fixth century, with rbime! PHILISTOR. Camden fireet, Iflington, Mr. URBAN, May 15. ON N the taking down the ancient priory and late parochial church of Saint James, Clerkenwell, which the labourers have been for fome time paft, and are at prefent, employed upon, I have been almoft a daily attendant, in hopes, if any thing curious or worthy of remark fhould occur, it might not pafs unnoticed. That part in which divine fervice was lately performed, viz. the pews, ftone, brick, lead, iron, glafs, &c. has been fold for about 825 1.; the other part, anciently called the Old Veftry, as the leaft decayed, is as decently fitted up as poffible for prayer and preaching till the church is re-built. The bells were first removed, which, after fome enquiry, I found were placed in a back-yard behind Mr. Blackorow's house; and, as I thought fomething remarkable might be on them, having belonged to fo ancient a fabric, I applied, and had admiffion to the part where they were depofited; one of them only can be deemed of antiquity, and may be well thought, by the infcription on it (fee plate I. fig. 1), to have be. longed to the muntery before its diffo lution; as much as I can make out of it, it is a kind of invocation to St. Ni cholas. While taking the infcription, I was informed, that in a certain room in Mr. B's houfe the death-warrant for the decollation of K. Charles I. was figned. Of this houfe, Weever, in his Funeral Monuments," p. 430, fays, "within the clofe of this nunnery (now called Clerkenwell Clofe) is a fpacious fair houfe, built of late by Sir Thomas Challoner, knight, deceased;" which name (fuppofed a fon of the former, but without the title) is found in the lift of thofe who figned the warrant for his execution. On Monday, April 27, I attended a gentleman of flington to obferve the removing the monument of Sir William Wefton, the laft Lord Prior of St. John of Jerufalem, and, after great labour of the workmen in remov❤ ing the carved fione ornaments, duft, and rubbish, the lead coffin was difcovered, which was depofited within a few inches of the furface. under a stone, on which was laid the emaciated figure, as reprefented in the plate, fig. 2; the form of the 'coffin was as drawn, fig. 3, and on the breast part was a cross raised in the lead, as reprefented. On raising the cover, the skeleton appeared, but without any appearance of its having been wrapped in cerecloth, or habit of his order, nor did it feem at first that even any embalment had been used, but, on a more careful infpection, there was found a quantity of a dark-coloured mucilaginous fubftance between the thighs and lower parts of the body, of an unctuous feel, but quite inodorous; the bones were laid in the faime order as when the corpfe was deposited in the lead coffin, which did not appear had ever been inclofed in one of wood; the fingers and toes were fallen off, but the other parts retained their proper fitua tion, and fome teeth remained in each jaw. On measuring the skeleton, it was exactly fix feet in length, wanting one inch. The broken fragments of the monument, with the figure, are re moved to the quadrangle, one fide of which is a part of the ancient cloister of which I fent you a drawing, and which appeared in your vol. LV. p. 935. Yours, &c. MATTHEW SKINNER. Mr. URBAN, June 11. AWRITER, who ftyles himself A Conftant Reader, p. 410, in fome obfervations on a Differtation concern ing the authenticity of the Parian Chro nicle, lately published, feems to diflike the fcheme of detecting fuppofititious books, forged inferiptions, and pious frauds, merely because it has a tendency to "give us an unfavourable opinion of mankind ;” that is, he would rather be impofed upon, than detect a cheat; he would fooner fuffer a thoufand culprits to escape, than bring them to a fair and open trial. This wonderful benevolence, if it is not weaknefs and folly, is an encouragement to knaves and impoftors, who are always ready to take advantage of the lenity and credulity of mankind. It is abfolutely neceffary for the welfare of fociety, that frauds of every kind should be detected and expofed. To prefume that the chronicle of the Arundelian marbles is a fraud, would be begging the question. But, if I am not deceiv. ed, the author of the Differtation abovementioned has proved that its origin is extremely fufpicious. It would be impoffible, in a few pages of your Magazine, to exhibit a view of his arguments in their FULL FORCE; yet, I think, it may be agreeable to fome of your learned readers to know upon what grounds the authenticity of this celebrated infcription is difputed. Having given us a general account of the marbles, their arrival in England, and their prefent fituation, the author of the Differtation obferves, that his DOUBTS, respecting the authenticity of the Chronicle, faid to have been written 264 years before the Chriftian æra, arife from the following confiderations: 1. The characters have no certain or unequivocal marks of antiquity.They are, he fays, plain and fimple in their form, and fuch as an ordinary ftone cutter of the prefent age would probably make, if he were employed to engrave a Greek infcription, according to the alphabet now in ufe. A fac fimile is annexed. 2. It is not probable that the Chronicle was engraved for PRIVATE USE. This point is attempted to be proved by fhewing, that it is utterly improbable that any one would have engraved a fyftem of chronology on stone at a time when the common mode of writing was on parci.ment, or paper made of the Egyptian papyrus. 3 It does not appear to have been engraved by PUBLIC AUTHORITY. The author of the Chronicle, it is ob ferved, fpeaks in the firit perfon fingu lar, and does not mention the leaft circumftance relative to the hiftory of Paros. 4 The Greek and Roman writers, for a long time after the date of this work, complain that they had no chronological account of the affairs of an cient Greece. This pofition is confirmed by the teftimony of Julius Afri. canus, Juftin Martyr, Plutarch, Jofephus, Vario, Diodorus Siculus, and others. 5. The Chronicle is not once mentioned by any writer of antiquity.This argument, as it is presented under different views by the author, and freed from all objections, is remarkably ftrong, if not decifive. 6. Some of the facts feem to have been taken from authors of a later date. In feveral paffages, we confess, there is an appearance of imitation, or a ftronger refemblance than fuch as may be fuppofed to arife from accident. 7. Parachronifms appear in fome of the epochas, which we can scarcely fuppofe a Greek chronologer in the CXXIXth Olympiad would be liable to commit. 8. The hiftory of the difcovery of the marbles is obfcure and unfatisfactory.-The firft oftenfible poffeffors feem to have been knaves and cheats. And, as to the Chronicle itself, it is found-nobody can tell us wHEN or WHERE. Laftly, The literary world has been frequently impofed upon by spurious books and infcriptions; and therefore, fays the author of the Diflertation, we fhould be extremely cautious with regard to what we receive under the venerable name of Antiquity.-This point is illuftrated by a great variety of examples, and very properly exposes the forgeries which have difgraced the republick of letters in ancient and modern times. Yours, &c. O. X. Mr. URBAN, Lichfield, May 17. THE HE following is copied from Drewrey's Derby Newspaper. As a wellwifher to the grand defign of enlarging and beautifying our Cathedral (which is carrying on with amazing rapidity), 1 fend Mr. Pegge's letter to your Magazine, in order that the noble intentions of our Dean and Chapter may be more univerfally known: your giving it a place in your next publication will oblige many of your readers, as well as your old correfpondent, R. G. The |
