70 



A T T I C U S. 



AUICUt 



Herod cv 



capital Atiiia's in treating of" which, we have given a 

 full (It-tail of its history. Besides Athens, it contain- 

 ed Eleusis, Sunium, and Marathon, (r) 



ATTICUS, TiBKiui s Ci. ai mis lluioiiKs, an 

 opulent and munificent citizen of Athens. He was 

 descended from a noble family of large possessions in 

 the district of Marathon, whose lineage was traced 

 back as far as Miltiades, the great hero of the place. 

 His grandfather, Hipparchus, having been proscrib- 

 ed, and his property confiscated, Julius Atticus, the 

 father of Herodes, found himself in a state of pover- 

 ty, or rather feigned himself to be so : for when the 

 good Nerva reigned, he discovered an immense trea- 

 sure in his own house. Filled, it is pretended, with 

 terror, rather than joy at this discovery, he imme- 

 diately wrote a letter to the emperor in these words : 

 " I have discovered, O emperor, a treasure in my 

 house ; what do you order to be done with it ?" The 

 answer of Nerva was equally laconic : " Use what 

 you have found." Julius wrote back, that it was 

 * more than he could use." " Abuse it then," re- 

 plied the emperor; " for it is your own." Julius 

 after this resumed the proper rank of his family : and 

 this fortune, together with other possessions, pater- 

 nal and maternal, which soon accumulated in the per- 

 son of his son, rendered him the richest individual that 

 Attica ever produced. 



Herodes possessed excellent talents, which fitted 

 him to shine in any situation. His attention, how- 

 ever, was principally directed, according to the taste 

 of the age, to the study of rhetoric, in which he 

 made distinguished proficiency under Scopelian, and 

 other masters of repute : and such was the force and 

 propriety of his eloquence, that when yet a youth, 

 he was selected to be the head of a deputation to the 

 emperor Hadrian, who was then at Sirmium in Pan- 

 nonia. The situation, however, was new. Young 

 Herodes failed in his attempt to deliver a speech, ana 

 was so mortified at his misfortune, that he had some 

 thoughts of throwing himself into the Danube. But 

 this precipitate resolution was soon succeeded by a 

 more rational remedy. Far from being disgusted by 

 the accident with his favourite pursuit, he, on the 

 contrary, redoubled his perseverance ; and attained 

 to such eminence in eloquence and philosophy, that 

 lie still lives, in biography, among the orators and 

 wise men of Greece and Rome. His great celebri- 

 ty attracted the attention of Titus Antoninus, who 

 appointed him to the high and honourable office of 

 preceptor in eloquence to his two sons, M. Aurelius 

 and L. Verus. From this station Herodes ascended 

 to the summit of greatness, and was created consul 

 A. D. 14\5. He was also constituted president of 

 the Panhellenic and Panathcnsean festivals, on which 

 occasion he was crowned. 



At a wry early period, he obtained the government 

 of the free cities in Asia, where he distinguished 

 himself by many acts of munificence. Having ob- 

 served that the chief city of Troas vvas badly sup- 

 plied with water, he obtained from Hadrian a grant 

 of three millions of sesterces for the construction of 

 an aqueduct ; but such was his natural attachment to 

 grand designs, that he laid out seven millions instead 

 f three, in the execution of it. Of this profusion 



Hadrian complained to the father of Herodes, who, 

 on that occasion, is noted by the ancient writers for 

 one of the most magnificent replies ever made to an 

 emperor. " Hadrian," said the father. " be not dis- 

 composed by small matters : whatever he has spent 

 above the three millions my son shall defray out of 

 my fortune. " 



The death of his father occasioned a considerable 

 quarrel between Herodes and his fellow citizens. 

 Julius had lived more like a prince than a private 

 man among the Athenians. His enormous wealth 

 enabled him to distribute to that abject people the 

 most ample largesses ever heard of. He sacrificed a 

 hundred beeves in one day, and regaled the whole 

 Athenian people by tribes and classes on several oc- 

 casions. In his last will, he bequeathed to each in- 

 dividual, for life, an annuity of one mina, or about 

 three guineas sterling ; a sum which, in those days, 

 vvas very considerable. This enormous bequest, dic- 

 tated more by patriotism than sound judgment, was 

 but ill relished by Herodes, who resolved to with- 

 hold it. Having for this purpose got the people 

 to an agreement, that, on his paying down five mina- 

 at once, he should be relieved from all future de- 

 mands, he collected all the accounts of old debts due 

 by them to his father and himself, and presented these 

 in part of payment. The people loudly exclaimed 

 against this equitable procedure, and said that they 

 were defrauded of the legacy; and when Herodes 

 built the great stadium with this money, which had 

 been intended for the encouragement of idleness and 

 beggary, the people insisted, m derision, that it was 

 called the Panathenaicum, not in honour of the fes- 

 tival, but as having been built by all the Athenians. 



This stratagem, though it savours of ingenuity, is 

 by no means to be considered as dictated by selfish 

 considerations. There never was a man who had a 

 more thorough contempt for the mere possession of 

 riches than Herodes. The leading object of this ce- 

 lebrated character was to benefit the public by his 

 princely fortune ; and this application of it certainly 

 entitles him to a distinguished rank in the annals of 

 his country. It was a remark of his own, that wealth 

 not applied for the common good, is but dead wealth ; 

 and that the chest of the miser is but a prison for 

 riches. Those men who set so high a value on their 

 money as to confine it to their coffers, he compared 

 to the fanatics, who worshipped the god Mars, after 

 having bound him. It was a noble maxim of this 

 rich philosopher, that we ought to give, not only to 

 relieve need, but also to prevent it. Boundless in his 

 liberality to his friends and the necessitous, and in- 

 fluenced in his generosity by no paltry prejudice of 

 language or country, it was his professed desire to 

 accumulate treasure only in the affections of those 

 around him, to promote learning and the arts, and to 

 decorate the mighty empire to which he belonged. 

 While other nobles were surrounded by musicians, 

 players, and buffoons, the retinue of Herodes was 

 composed of men of genius and learning, who found 

 it their interest to court his notice. His public lec- 

 tures, which he gave for the advantage of the youth, 

 were numerously attended by people from all the 

 neighbouring countries, and were well calculated t. 



