of humanity; for we are told that Hercules was the first that ever gave leave to his enemies to carry off their dead; and others report, that the first treaty made for the recovering and burying the bodies of the slain, was that of Theseus with the Thebans, to inter the heroes that lost their lives in the Theban war'. In succeeding ages it was looked on as the greatest impiety to deny what they thought a debt to nature, and was rarely or never done to lawful enemies, except upon extraordinary and unusual provocations; for it was thought below a generous temper, and unworthy Grecians, to vent their malice, when their enemies were deprived of all power to defend themselves. The Athenians seem to have been careful to excess and superstition in procuring an honourable interment for the bodies of their own soldiers that had valiantly lost their lives; insomuch that the ten admirals that gained the famous victory over the Lacedæmonians in the sea-fight at Arginusæ, were put to death chiefly on this pretence, that they were said not to have taken due care in gathering the bodies that floated on the waves; when yet they alleged that they were hindered by a tempest, which might have been dangerous to the whole fleet, had they not provided for their safety by a timely retreat this, no doubt, was one cause why, after a battle upon the Corinthian territory, Nicias, the Athenian general, finding that two of his men were left by an oversight, when they carried off the dead, made a halt, and sent a herald to the enemy for leave to carry them off, hereby renouncing all title to the victory, which belonged to him before, and losing the honour of erecting a trophy; for it was presumed that he who asked leave to carry off his dead could not be master of the field o. After that, Chebrius having put to flight the Lacedæmonians at Naxus, rather than leave any of his soldiers, or their bodies, to the mercy of the waves, chose to desist from prosecuting his victory, when he was in a fair way to have destroyed the enemy's whole fleet °. When they carried their arms into distant countries, they reduced the bodies of the dead to ashes, that those at least might be conveyed to their relations, and reposited in the tombs of their ancestors: the first author of which custom (they say) was Hercules, who having sworn to Licymnius to bring back his son Argius, * Elianus, Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 27. I Plutarchus Theseo. Xenophon Græc. Hist. lib. i. n Plutarchus Nicia. • Diodorus Siculus, lib. xv. if he would give him leave to accompany him in his expedition against Troy; the young man dying, he had no other expedient to make good his oath, but by delivering his ashes to his father": however, we find it practised in the Trojan war, where Nestor advised the Grecians to burn all their dead, and preserve them there till their return into Greece 9: Αὐτοὶ δ' ἀγρόμενοι κυκλήσομεν ἐνθάδε νεκρές Then we will haste with oxen, mules and wains To wheel these bodies down toward the fleet, COWPER. The Lacedæmonians thought this an unprofitable labour, and therefore buried their dead in the country where they died; only their kings they embalmed with honey, and conveyed them home, as we learn from Plutarch, who reports, that when Agesilaus resigned his life at the haven of Menelaus, a desert shore in Africa, the Spartans having no honey to embalm his body, wrapped it in wax, and so carried it to Lacedæmon. The soldiers all attended at the funeral solemnities, with their arms turned upside down, it being customary for mourners, in most of their actions, to behave themselves in a manner contrary to what was usual at other times: in those places where it was the fashion to wear long hair, mourners were shaved; and where others shaved, mourners wore long hair. Their conjecture, therefore, is frivolous, who imagine the soldiers turned the heads of their sheilds downwards, lest the gods, whose images were engraven upon them, should be polluted with the sight of a corse; since not the gods only, but any other figures, were frequently represented there; nor some few only, but the whole company held them in the same posture: besides, not the shields alone, but their other arms, were pointed downwards. Thus Evander's Arcadians, with the rest of Æneas's soldiers in Virgil, follow Pallas's herse: Tam mæsta phalanx, Teucrique sequuntur, The Trojan, Tuscan, and Arcadian train Trail their inverted javelins on the plain. PITT. The Grecian princes, in Statius ", observe the same custom: P Homeri Scholiastes, Iliad. á, v. 52. 9 Iliad., v. 332. Agesilao. $ Servius in Æneid. xi, 92. t Loc. citat. u Thebaid, vi. -versis ducunt insignibus ipsi Grajugenæ reges.. The Grecian chiefs the sad procession led With ensigns downward turn'd.. Their tombs were adorned with inscriptions showing their names, and sometimes their parentage and exploits; which honour the Spartan lawgiver granted to none beside women who died in childbed, and soldiers that lost their lives in battle: these were buried with green boughs, and honoured with an oration in their praise. Such of them as had excelled the rest, and were judged complete and perfect warriors, had a farther honour of being interred in their red coats, which were the soldiers habit at Sparta ". Their arms were likewise fixed upon their tombs; whence Leonidas, the Spartan king, is introduced in the epigram refusing Xerxes's purple robe, and desiring no other ornament to beautify his tomb than his buckler: Πολὺ Λεωνίδιῳ κατιδὼν δέμας αὐτοδάϊκτον Ξέρξης, ἐχλαίνε φάρει πορφυρέω Κἠκ νεκύων δ' ἤχησεν ὁ τὰς Σπάρτας μέγας "Ηρως" While Xerxes mov'd with pitying eye beheld Th' unhappy Spartan, who himself had kill'd; H. H. This custom was not peculiar to Sparta, but practised all over Greece; where, besides their arms, it was usual to add the badge of whatever other profession they had borne. Elpenor, appearing in the shades below to Ulysses, entreats him to fix the oar he used to row with upon his tomb, and to cast his arms into the funeral pile *: Αλλά με κάκκαι σὺν τεύχεσιν ἄσσα μοι ἐςὶν, w Elianus, Var. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 6 ▾ Plutarchus Lycurgo. * Odyss. 2. v. 74. Ταῦτά κι μοι τελέσαι, πήξαι τ' ἐπὶ τύμβῳ ὁρισμὸν, A tomb along the watry margin raise, There, high in air, memorial of my name, Fix the smooth oar, and bid me liye to fame. POPE. Misenus, Æneas's trumpeter, has both his arms, oar and trumpet, fixed upon his grave : At pius Æneas ingenti mole sepulchrum Imponit, suaque arma viro, remumque, tubamque. This done, to solemnize the warrior's doom, The pious hero rais'd a lofty tomb; The towering top his well known ensigns bore, PITT. It was customary for the Spartan matrons, when there had been a fight near home, to examine the bodies of their dead sons; and such as had received more wounds behind than before, they conveyed away privately, or left them in the common heap; but those who had a greater number of wounds in their breasts, they carried away with joy and triumph, to be reposited amongst their ancestors they were carried home upon their bucklers; whence that famous command of the mother to her son, related in Plutarch, Tv, ini rãs, either bring this (meaning his buckier) home with you, or be brought upon it: to which custom Ausonius alludes: Arma super veheris quid, Thrasybule, tua ? Why are you thus upon your buckler borne, The Athenians used to place the bodies of their dead in tents, three days before the funeral, that all persons might have opportunity to find out their relations, and pay their last respects to them : : upon the fourth day, a coffin of cypress was sent from every tribe, to convey the bones of their own relations; after which went a covered hearse, in memory of those whose bodies could not be found: all these, accompanied with the whole body of the people, were carried to the public burying-place, called Ceramicus, and there interred: one oration was spoken in commendation of them all, and their monuments adorned with pillars, inscriptions, and all other ornaments usual about the tombs of the most honourable persons. The oration was pronounced by the fathers of the deceased persons, who had behaved themselves most valiantly. Thus, after the famous battle of Marathon, the fathers of Callimachus and Cynægirus were appointed to make a Apophthegmat.. b Epigram. xxiv. y Virgil Æneid. vi. v. 232. a Elianus Var. Hist. lib. xii. cap. 21. the funeral oration. And upon the return of the day on which the solemnity was first held, the same oration was constantly repeated every year. This was their ordinary practice at Athens; but those valiant men who were slain in the battle of Marathon, had their bodies interred in the place where they fell, to perpetuate the memory of that wonderful victory. It may be observed farther, that in their lists the names of the soldiers deceased were marked with the letter, being the initial of Paris, i. e. dead; those of the living with, the first in rngusvoi, i. e. preserved: which custom was afterwards taken up by the Romans f. CHAP. XII. Of their Booty taken in War, their Gratitude to the Gods after Victory, their Trophies, &c. THEIR HEIR booty consisted of prisoners and spoils. The prisoners that could not ransom themselves were made slaves, and employed in the service of their conquerors, or sold. The spoils were distinguished by two names, being either taken from the dead, and termed oxïλ«, or from the living, which they called puga: they consisted of whatever moveables belonged to the conquered, whose whole right and title, by the law of arms, passed to the conquerors. Homer's heroes no sooner gain a victory over any of their rivals, but, without farther delay, they seize their armour. Instances of this are as numerous as their combats. But, however this practice might be usual among the great commanders, who rode in chariots to the battle, fought by themselves, and encountered men of their own quality in single combat; yet inferior soldiers were not ordinarily permitted such liberty, but gathered the spoils of the dead, after the fight was ended; if they attempted it before, Polemo in Argumento ray Erir&φίων λόγων. d Cicero de Oratore. c Thucydides, lib. iii. f Ruffinus in Hieronymum, Paulus Diaconis, De notis Literarum, Isidorus Hispal. lib. i. cap. 23. Plato de Legibus, lib. i. |