MUSIC. 
of Sicyon, and native of Ambracia, celebrated by the 
ancients for the invention of an inftrument of forty 
firings, which was called after his name, epigonium. 
When he lived is uncertain; but, as it was in times of 
fimplicity, we may fuppofe that thefe firings did not form 
a fcale of forty different founds, but that they were ei¬ 
ther tuned in unifons and oftaves to each other, or ac¬ 
commodated to different modes and genera. The twelve 
femitones of our three-ftopt ofitave-harpfichords include 
thirty-fix different firings. The magadis of twenty firings, 
mentioned by Anacreon, had probably a feries of only 
ten different founds, the name of the inftrument imply¬ 
ing a feries of o(Staves ; for magadizing was a term ufed, 
when a boy, or a woman, and a man, lung the fame part. 
The Jhnicum of thirty-five firings mentioned by Athenaeus 
mull have been of this kind, like the arch-lute, double¬ 
harp, or double-harpiichord. 
Crexus, perhaps, Ihould have an honourable place here, 
being recorded by Plutarch as the author of a confiderable 
invention; that of “ an inftrumental accompaniment un¬ 
der the long,” (ypacr i? wo tv?j/ oi^-nv ;) whereas, before, 
fays Plutarch, the accompaniment was “ note for note,” 
(Trpocr^opJa.) As Plutarch plainly oppofes this accompa¬ 
niment to that which was in ufe before the time of Crexus, 
it can only be underftood as a kind of bourdon, or drone- 
Lafs, under the voice part: a fenle which appears to be 
fupported by the ufe of the fame phrafe, in a problem of 
Ariftotle, (the 40th,) where he fpeaks of this accompani¬ 
ment and the voice ending together. It could not there¬ 
fore have been a mere ritornello, or echo to the voice part, 
as M. Burette interprets it, taking iiro, to mean after, not 
wider, the voice. 
Phrynis has already been mentioned, p. 359. as the firft 
who gained the prize on the cithara at the Panathenaean 
games. According to Suidas, he was originally king 
Hiero’s cook; but this prince, chancing- to Jhear him play 
upon the flute, placed him for inftrudtion under Ariflo- 
clides, a defeendant of Terpander. Phrynis may be re¬ 
garded as one of the firfl innovators upon the cithara. 
He is faid to have played in a delicate and effeminate ftyle, 
which the comic poets, Ariftophanes and Pherecrates, 
ridiculed upon the ftage. The former in his comedy 
of the Clouds, and the latter in the piece quoted at p. 294. 
Plutarch, who frequently applies the fame ftory and 
apophthegm to different perfons, tells us, that, when 
Phrynis offered himfelf as a candidate at the public games 
in Sparta, he had two firings cut off his lyre by the ma- 
giftrates, in order to reduce them to the ancient number. 
A fimilar difgrace to that which had happened to Ter¬ 
pander before, and to which Tinrotheus was forced to 
iubmit foon after. 
Between the time of Alexander the Great and the 
conqueft of Greece by the Romans, but few eminent 
muficians are upon record. The Grecian ftates never 
enjoyed true liberty and independence after the vidtory 
obtained over them at Cheronea, by Philip, the father of 
Alexander : the chief of thefe ltates remaining, after the 
death of thefe princes, under the Macedonian yoke, till 
they called in the Romans to their affiftance ; who, under 
Flaminius, reffored to them the lhadow of liberty, which 
was gradually diminiflted by the vidtories and devafiations 
of Mummius, Sylla, and other commanders, till the time 
of Vefpafian, who reduced all Greece to a Roman pro¬ 
vince. 
In deferibing the mufic and mufical inftruments of the 
Greeks, thole of the Romans have been included; yet, 
jn order to preferve a kind of hiftorical chain, and becaufe 
we difmiffed the lubjedt of Roman mufic with too much 
brevity at p. 2^5. we fliall here colledt a few paffages from 
the belt hiftonans to fnpply that omillion : for, although 
the Romans were obliged to the Greeks for molt of their 
arts, fciences, and refinements; yet, as there is no coun¬ 
try fo favage, where men affociate together, as to be 
wholly without mufic, it appears that the Romans had in 
very high antiquity a rude and coarfe mufic of their own. 
VOJ..XVI. Wo. 1118. 
SGI 
and had imitated the Etrufcan mufical eftablilhments, both 
in their army and temples. 
Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, fpeaking of the antiquity 
of the Pelafgians, the inhabitants of Falerii and Fefcennia, 
two ancient cities of Etruria, built in the Greek form, 
fays, “ the manner of their religious ceremonies was the 
fame as thofe of Argos. Holy women ferved in the tem¬ 
ple, and a girl unmarried, called canephoros, or balket- 
bearer, began the facrifice, befides chorufes of virgins, 
who hymned the goddefs in fongs of their country.” 
Now, as the Romans had an earlier communication with 
the Etrufcans than with the Greeks, this paffage renders 
it very probable that they were obliged to the people of 
Etruria for their religious ceremonies, and for vocal mufic. 
And the fame author informs us, that “ the Arcadians 
were the firft who brought into Italy the ufe of Greek 
letters, and injirumental mufic, performed on the lyre, and 
thofe inftruments called the trigon and the lydian; for 
the lhepherd’s pipe was the only inftrument in ufe before 
that time.” 
Plutarch mentions it as a prevailing opinion, that the 
Greek language which was fpoken by the Romans in the 
time of Romulus, was not corrupted by Italian words. 
From thefe accounts it appears that the Romans had not 
only vocal and inftrumental mufic, as well as other arts 
and fciences, from Greece, but even their alphabet, lan¬ 
guage, religion, and all the learning of which they were 
poffeffed during the time of their kings, and the firft ages 
of their republic ; thefe having been originally Greek, 
though the Romans had them through Etrufcan ftrainers. 
The firft Roman triumph, according to Dionyfius, was 
that of Romulus over the Casninenfes ; in which, clad iu 
a purple robe, he was drawn in a chariot by four horfes. 
The reft of the army, both horfe and foot, followed, ranged 
in three feveral divifions, hymning their gods in fongs of 
their country, and celebrating their general with extem¬ 
porary verfes. This account affords a very venerable origin 
to the Improvijatori of Italy ; as the event happened in 
the fourth year of Rome, 749 years before Chrift, and 
fourth year of the feventh Olympiad. The fame author 
fays, that the Roman praetors, in worffiipping the Idasan 
goddefs, performed annual facrifices and celebrated an¬ 
nual games in her honour, according to the Roman, not 
Grecian, cuftoms: though the prieft and prieftefs of the 
goddefs were Phrygians. Thefe carried her image in 
proceflion about the city, afking alms in her name, ac¬ 
cording to their cuftom, and wearing figures upon their 
bread, and ftriking their cymbals, while their followers 
played tunes upon their flutes, in honour of the mother 
of the gods. 
Thefe are the chief inftances to be found in ancient 
liiltory of original Roman Mufic; or at leaft of mufic that 
was not immediately derived from Greece. M. Rouffeau, 
fpeaking of the Scolia, or Grecian fongs, fays, “ This 
kind of fongs palled from the Greeks to the Romans, and 
many of the Odes of Horace are Bacchanalian and love 
fongs. But this nation, more military than fenfual, for 
a long while made but a very grofs ufe of mufic and fongs, 
and never approached in thefe particulars the voluptuous 
grace and elegance of the Greeks. It feems as if melody 
always remained in a coarfe and rude ftate among- the 
Romans. Their hymeneal odes were rather noife and 
clamour than fongs, and it is hardly to be prefumed that 
the fatirical fongs of the l'oldiers, in the triumphs of then- 
generals, confilted of a very agreeable melody.” 
Numa began his reign in the middle of the fixteentk 
Olympiad, 715 years before Chrift, about the time when 
Pythagoras was in Italy. And, according to Dionyfius, 
the fixth branch of his religious inftitutions was the efta- 
blilhment of the Salii, whom Numa himfelf appointed 
out of the patricians, choofing twelve young men of the 
molt graceful appearance. Thefe Salii were a kind of 
dancers and fingers of hymns in prajfg of the god of war. 
The feftivals were celebrated about the time of the Pana- 
theuasa at Athens, in the month of March, and at the 
4 55 public' 
