BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 229 



him, that he had been Pontit'ex, twice Consul, Dictator, 

 Master of the Horse, one of the Quindecimvirs deputed for 

 Division of Lands, and that in the first Punic War he led 

 many Elephants in triumph : moreover, that he had accom- 

 plished ten of the greatest and best Things; in seeking which 

 the Wise spend their whole time: for his desire was to be 

 among the foremost of Warriors, an excellent Orator, a very 

 powerful Commander (Imperator) ; to have the conduct of 

 the most important Affairs, to be in the highest place of 

 Honour, to be eminent for Wisdom, to be accounted a prin- 

 cipal Senator, to attain to great Wealth by good Means, to 

 leave many Children behind him, and to be the noblest per- 

 sonage in the City. That these perfections fell to him, and 

 to none but him since the Foundation of Rome, it were long 

 and useless now to confute : but it is abundantly answered 

 by one instance ; for this same Metellus became Blind in his 

 old Age ; having lost his Eyes in a Fire, when he would have 

 saved the Palladium 1 out of the Temple of Vesta : an act 

 worthy of being remembered ; but the event was unhappy. 

 In regard of which it is not proper to term him Unfortunate 

 (Infelix); and yet he cannot be called Fortunate (Felix). 

 The People of Rome granted to him a Privilege, which no 

 Man before him in the World was known to have : that he 

 should be conveyed in a Chariot to the Senate-house as often 

 as he went to sit at the Council: a great and elevated Pre- 

 rogative, but it was allowed him as a Compensation for his 

 Eyes. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 



Of another Metellus. 



A SON likewise of this Q. Metellus, who gave out those 

 Commendations concerning his Father, is reckoned among 



1 It was one of the figments of Roman divinity, that this image of the 

 tutelary Pallas had existed in ancient Troy; from whence, with ^Eneas, 

 it had transferred the empire to the imperial city of Rome. A similar 

 image existed at Ephesus (Acts of the Apostles, xxix. 35), and it has 

 been supposed that the fall from the sky, of at least the materials of the 

 image, may not have been imaginary. The descent of an aerolite was, 

 probably, as common in ancient times as in modern. Warn. Club, 



