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but in his 20th year he went to Italy, and there began his 

 career as an hiftorical painter. He was patronized by the 

 duke of Tufcany, and painted feveral large compositions 

 for that prince, who honoured and rewarded him liand- 

 fomely. On his return to Antwerp he found Rubens in 

 pofleflion of full fame ; and foon perceived how difficult it 

 was for him to meet with that degree of ellimation at 

 home which he had received abroad. A noble emulation, 

 however, (limulated him to enter the litis with that great 

 mailer ; and though he certainly was not adequate to the 

 combat, yet he exhibited confiderable prowefs, which even 

 Rubens acknowledged. 



As he died at the age of 40, his works are not numerous. 

 The principal ones, among thofe executed after his return 

 from Italy, were painted for the court-lioufe of Ghent. 



He likewife painted pictures of low fubjefts, fuch as 

 mountebanks and their attendants, foldicrs playing at cards, 

 &c. &c. ; which he did as paftime, or merely to acquire 

 money, but they are not among his belt performances. On 

 the hiftorical pictures he produced, his reputation refts for 

 fupport, and is upheld to a confiderable rank. 



ROME, 1 in Geography and Hi/lory. The 



Roman Empire, ifje. J ancient city of Rome, fituated on 

 the river Tiber, ineaft longitude 13°, and about 41 J c of north 

 latitude, though in its origin one of the moll humble of cities, 

 was deilined to become the capital of the largeft empire in the 

 ancient world. In modern hiftory it has been famous for being 

 the centre of an ecclefiailical tyranny, under which, for many 

 centuries, the greater part of what may be denominated the 

 civilized world was held in fubjeftion. The city of Rome, 

 without difpute, was founded by Romulus ; but we may 

 trace the origin of its inhabitants, that is, of the ancient 

 Romans, to ./Eneas, the hero celebrated in Trojan ilory. 

 When the Greeks became mailers of Troy, jEucas, with 

 the forces under his command, retired into the fortrefs, 

 which, for fome time, they defended with great bravery ; 

 but being at length compelled to yield, he conveyed away 

 his gods, his father, wife, and children, and fled, with a 

 numerous crowd of Trojans attached to him, to the ftrong 

 places of mount Ida. Here, however, his enemies followed 

 him, and he was obliged to negociate a peace, the terms of 

 which forced him to quit the Trojan territories altogether : 

 the Greeks, on their part, engaged not to moled him iu his 

 retreat. ./Eneas accordingly equipped a fleet, in order to feek 

 n, fettlemcnt in fome foreign land. The Trojan having crof^-d 

 the Hellefpont, arrived in the peninfula of Pallene, where he 

 built a city, calling it, from himfelf, ./Eneia, and left in it a 

 part of his followers. From thence he failed to Delos, and 

 thence to Cythera, where he erefted a temple to Venus. 

 He built another, to the fame goddefs, in Zacynthus, and 

 in this ifland he inilituted games, named " tlie races of 

 Venus and ./Eneas." Wherever the Trojan hero went he 

 left memorials of himfelf, and in the time of Dionyfius 

 thefe were (lillexilling in the places already mentioned, and 

 in many others, as at Leucas, Aftium, Dodona, &c. 

 which were accordingly regarded as indifputable proofs of 

 the reality of ./Eneas' voyage to Epirus : and " that he 

 came into Italy," fay" Dionyfius, " we have the concurrent 

 tellimony of all the Romans ; the ceremonies they ob- 

 ferve in their facrifices and feftivals bear witnefs to it ; 

 alfo the Sibylline books, the Pythian oracles, and many 

 other things that nobody can reafonably rejeft as fable." 



./Eneas tirft landed in Italy, after eroding the Ionian fea, 

 at Cape Minerva, in Japygia ; from thence he went to 

 Drepanum in Sicily, to which place El/mus and jEgyitus, 

 who had efcaped from Troy a little before him, had 

 brought a Trojan colony. ./Eneas augmented this colony, 



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by leaving a part of his own followers ; and then crofting 

 the Tyrrhenian fea, he bent his courfe for Italy. He gave 

 the name of Palinurus to the cape at which he firft landed, 

 from one of his pilots, who died there. From this place he 

 failed to feveral other parts, till at length the Trojan prince, 

 and his faithful attendant'!, finilhed their long voyages on 

 the coafl of Latium, a fmall territory on the eafl fide of the 

 river Tiber, which now contains a part of the prefent Cam- 

 pagna di Roma. Latinus was the king of the country, 

 and the people of it were called Latins. Here ./Eneas and 

 his followers undertook to raife a lecond Troy, hoping that 

 they had arrived at the end of their adventures. 



When ./Eneas arrived in Italy, Latinus was engaged in a 

 war with the Rutuli, but his fuccefs was very doubtful : he 

 accordingly affigned to ./Eneas and his followers a track of 

 land for their fettlement, upon condition that they fhould 

 join their arms to his againll the Rutuli, who were to be 

 coniidered as their common enemy. ./Eneas accepted the 

 conditions offered, and complied with his engagement 

 fo faithfully, that Latinus repofed in him the moft un- 

 bounded confidence, and gave him in marriage his only 

 daughter, Lavinia, thus fecuring to him the fucceffion to 

 the throne of Latium ; hence ./Eneas changed the name of 

 his camp from Troy, and called it Lavinium, in honour of 

 his wife. The Trojans followed the example of their 

 leader, by making alliances with Latin families j fo that in 

 a very fhort time they became one nation, united by the 

 clofell bonds. 



There was, however, a caufe for confiderable ftrife ex- 

 cited by this union : Turnus, nearly related to the queen, 

 and who had been brought up by Latinus, had entertained 

 hopes of having Lavinia for his wife ; when, therefore, he 

 faw that princefs given to ^Eneas, he inftantly joined the 

 Rutuli ; but in the firft battle after this confederacy, both 

 Turnus and Latinus were fiain : the confequence of this 

 was, that ./Eneas came into quiet pofleflion of the kingdom 

 of Latium, which he governed with great wifdom, and 

 tranfmitted to pofterity. His reign was, however, fhort ; 

 but during that period he eftablifhed the worfhip of the 

 gods of his own country, and to the religion of the Latins 

 he added that of Troy. The tws palladiums, which had 

 been the proteftors of that city, became the tutelary deities 

 of Lavinium, and, in after ages, of the whole Roman empire. 

 He introduced, likewife, the worihip of Vefta, and ap- 

 pointed certain virgins, called, from her, Vcftals, to keep a 

 (ire burning in honour of the goddefs. Many other deities, 

 who had been reverenced in Troy, became probably known 

 to the Latins by means of ./Eneas, which might be the 

 occafion of his being deiignated by the appellation of the 

 pious ./Eneas. This hero was, at length, obliged to head 

 the united forces of the Latins and Trojans againft the 

 Rutuli, who had formed an alliance with Mezcntius, king of 

 the Tyrrhenians. A battle enfued, which lafted till night, 

 when ./Eneas, being pufhed to the banks of the Numicus, 

 which was a boundary of Lavinium, and being forced into 

 that river, was unfortunately drowned. The Trojans had, 

 however, addrefs enough not only to conceal his body, 

 but to pretend that, inilead of his having been drowned, he 

 was fuddenly taken up to heaven, where, in the character 

 of a deity, he was overlooking the conduft of his fubjefts : 

 who, in honour of the newly-formed god, ereftcd to him 

 a temple, under the title of " Jupiter Indiges." 



Upon the death of jEneas, he was fucceeded by his foil 

 Eurylcon, named alfo Afcanius and lulus, who contended 

 with Mezentius, and in the end obliged him to fue for peace, 

 which was granted, upon condition that for the future 

 the river Tiber fhould be the boundary between the Latin 

 3 M 2 .tnd 



