148 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



and carried the bones to Sparta. After which, lays our author, the 

 Spartans were, upon every occafion, fuperior in light to the Te- 

 geatae *. 



This account of the flature of Oreftes is much more to be depended 

 upon than what the above mentioned author, Philoftratus, tells us t» 

 that the ftature of the heroes who fought at Troy was ten cubits, 

 and that the body of Ajax, which was difcovered by the wafhing of 

 the fea, was, as I have faid, eleven cubits : So far is certainly true, 

 that the body of Ajax was difcovered in later times ; for it is rela- 

 ted by a much more credible author, I mean Paufanias, who fays 

 he had an account of it from one that faw it, and related to him a 

 circumftance concerning it, tending to fliow that it was of prodigi- 

 ous fize If. 



What Herodotus relates of the body of Oreftes, he does not give 

 us as a mere hearfay, like many other ftories which he tells, or as a 

 ftory for which it w^as neceffary to give his authority, but as aa 

 hiftorical fad well known, of the truth of which he does not ap- 

 pear to have had the leaft doubt ; for, though he made it a law 



of 



* Lib. i. Cap. 67. and 68. The reader will here obferve how agreeably He- 

 rodotus varies and diverfifies his narrative with dialogue. It is one of thofe many 

 beauties of his compofjtion, which, in my opinion, give his ftyle the preference to 

 that of every other hiftorian- The Sacred Hiftorians of the Old Teftament diverfify 

 their ftyle in the fame manner ; which makes fome of the narratives there, particu- 

 Lirly the ftory of Jofeph, a very pathetic drama. 



t Heroic. Prooem. Cap. i. N. 2. 



:J: Paufanias, Lib. i. Cap. 35. The circumftance he mentions is the fize of the 

 bone of the knee, which, he fays, was as large as the dilk with which a young ath- 

 lete exercifed himfelf. The pafl'age is fufpe£led by fome to be corrupted j but there 

 is no doubt that Paufanias meant to give a proof of the extraordinary fize of Ajax. 



