As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts
of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the
margin to the effect, that beyond this lies nothing but the sandy
deserts full of wild beasts, unapproachable bogs, Scythian ice, or a
frozen sea, so in this work of mine, in which I have compared the
lives of the greatest men with one another, after passing through
those periods which probable reasoning can reach to and real history
find a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther
off: "Beyond this there is nothing but prodigies and fictions, the
only inhabitants are the poets and inventors of fables; there is no
credit, or certainty any farther." Yet, after publishing an account of
Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I might, not
without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being brought by my
history so near to his time. Considering therefore with myself-
"Whom shall I set so great a man to face?
Or whom oppose? Who's equal to the place?"
(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as him that peopled
the beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in opposition
with the father of the invincible and renowned city of Rome. Let us
hope that Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit to the
purifying processes of Reason as to take the character of exact
history. In any case, however, where it shall be found
contumaciously slighting credibility and refusing to be reduced to
anything like probable fact, we shall beg that we may meet with candid
readers, and such as will receive with indulgence the stories of
antiquity.
"Both warriors; that by all the world's allowed."
Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigour of mind; and
of the two most famous cities of the world, the one built Rome, and
the other made Athens be inhabited. Both stand charged with the rape
of women; neither of them could avoid domestic misfortunes nor
jealousy at home; but towards the close of their lives are both of
them said to have incurred great odium with their countrymen, if, that
is, we may take the stories least like poetry as our guide to the
truth.
The lineage of Theseus, by his father's side, ascends as high as
to Erectheus and the first inhabitants of Attica. By his mother's side
he was descended of Pelops. For Pelops was the most powerful of all
the kings of Peloponnesus, not so much by the greatness of his
riches as the multitude of his children, having married many daughters
to chief men, and put many sons in places of command in the towns
round about him.
One of whom named Pittheus, grandfather to Theseus,
was governor of the small city of the Troezenians and had the repute
of a man of the greatest knowledge and wisdom of his time; which then,
it seems, consisted chiefly in grave maxims, such as the poet Hesiod
got his great fame by, in his book of Works and Days. And, indeed,
among these is one that they ascribe to Pittheus,
which, also, Aristotle mentions. And Euripides, by calling
Hippolytus "scholar of the holy Pittheus," shows the opinion that
the world had of him.
Aegeus, being desirous of children, and
consulting the oracle of Delphi, received the celebrated answer
which forbade him the company of any woman before his return to
Athens. But the oracle being so obscure as not to satisfy him that
he was clearly forbid this, he went to Troezen, and communicated to
Pittheus the voice of the god, which was in this manner,
Pittheus, therefore, taking advantage from the obscurity of the
oracle, prevailed upon him, it is uncertain whether by persuasion or
deceit, to lie with his daughter Aethra. Aegeus afterwards, knowing
her whom he had lain with to be Pittheus's daughter, and suspecting
her to be with child by him, left a sword and a pair of shoes,
hiding them under a great stone that had a hollow in it exactly
fitting them; and went away making her only privy to it, and
commanding her, if she brought forth a son who, when he came to
man's estate, should be able to lift up the stone and take away what
he had left there, she should send him way to him with those things
with all secrecy, and with injunctions to him as much as possible to
conceal his journey from every one; for he greatly feared the
Pallantidae, who were continually mutinying against him, and
despised him for his want of children, they themselves being fifty
brothers, all sons of Pallas.
Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. Both
of them, born out of wedlock and of uncertain parentage, had the
repute of being sprung from the gods.
"Unto a friend suffice
A stipulated price;" "Loose not the wine-skin foot, thou chief of men,
Until to Athens thou art come again."