CHAP. III.

Whether the words neceffitudo and neceffitas have diftinct meanings,

T is a circumstance worthy of ridicule, that

many grammarians affert there is a great and material difference between neceffitudo' and neceffitas; that neceffitas is a certain urgent and com pelling power, neceffitudo a certain law and bond of religious connexion, and this is its only fignification. But as there is no difference whether you

Neceffitudo.]Cicero confirms the obfervations of Gellius by his ufage of these words. In his oration de Harufpicum refponfis, he has, "ordo rerum et neceffitudo for neceffity; and in that for Rofcius, we find magnam neceffitatem poffidet paternus maternufque fanguis;" and in that for Sylla yet more clearly, "Si noftram neceffitatem familiaritatemque violaffet." In both which places intimacy of union must be understood. Yet fome old grammarians ftill extant, insist upon the distinction of the words,

Neceffarius was commonly used for a relation. See for example Apuleius, p. 4. Price's edition.

Hunc talem quanquam neceffarium et fumme agnitum, &c. The following from Seneca is no bad commentary on the chapter before us :

Officium effe filii, uxoris, et earum perfonarum quafi neceffitudo fufcitat et ferre opem jubet. See alfo Feftus, at the word neceffarius.

fay fuavitudo or fuavitas, fanctitudo or fanctitas acerbitudo or acerbitas, acritudo or (as Accius in his Neoptolemus) acritas, fo there can be no reason why neceffitudo and neceffitas fhould be confidered as diftinct. In old books you usually find neceffitudinem applied to fignify that quod neceffum eft, but neceffitas is feldom used pro 3 jure officioque obfervantia affinitatifve, although they who are united by this jus affinitatis familiaritatifve are called necessarii, relations. I have, however, in that speech of Caius Cæfar, wherein he recommends the Plautian rogation, met with the ufage of neceffitudo in the sense of jus affinitatis. His words are thefe, equidem mihi videor pro noftrá neceffitate, non labore, non opera, non induftriâ defuiffe. I have written thus much upon these two words, fince I read the fourth book of Sempronius Afellio, an old writer of hiftory, in which he thus fpeaks of Paulus Africanus, the fon of Paulus: "Nam fe patrem fuum audiffe dicere Lucium Emilium Paulum minus bonum imperatorem fignis

5

4

2 Quod.]-That which is necessary.

Pru.]-For the law and duty of reverence and affinity,

4. Equidem.]-I seem indeed, according to the nature of our relationship, to have omitted no labour, pains, or induftry.

Nam, &c.]" For Lucius Æmilius Paulus had heard his father fay, that a good general would never engage standard to ftandard, unless the greateft neceffity obliged him, or the fairest opportunity prefented itself."

collatis

collatis decertare; nifi fumma neceffitudo aut fumma ei occafio data effet."

CHAP. IV.

The pleasant and wife reply of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, to her fon.

N many of the records left us of Alexander's

IN

exploits, and a little while ago in a book of Marcus Varro, entitled "Oreftes," or "De Infania,” I read that Olympias, the wife of Philip, wrote a very witty answer to her fon Alexander.

I

* Olympias wrote.]-Plutarch relates two different accounts of the conduct of Olympias on this point. He writes thus, Eratofthenes fays that Olympias, when she brought Alexander on his way to the army, in his first expedition, told him in private the fecret of his birth, and exhorted him to behave himself with courage fuitable to his divine extraction. Others again affirm, that fhe wholly declined this vanity, and was wont to fay, Will Alexander never cease to make Juno jealous of me " For the credit of the lady's understanding it is to be hoped that the latter is the true acA fcandalous story is told by fome authors, of an intrigue with Nectanebus, king of Egypt; but this is refuted by chronological reasons. Dion Chryfoftom, in his fourth oration de Regno, relates a curious dialogue between Alex

count.

ander.

1

ander. When the youth thus addreffed his mother, "King Alexander, the fon of Jupiter Ammon, fends

ander and Diogenes on this fubject," Are you that Alexander," faid the philofopher, "who is faid to be fpurious?" At this Alexander blushed, and grew angry, but reftrained himself. He began, however, to repent that he had condefcended to converse with a clownish, infolent man, as he then thought him. Diogenes, obferving that he was ruffled, refolved to humour him, as a child at play with dice; and when he asked, "What could induce you to call me fpurious?" "Becaufe," replied Diogenes, "I hear that your mother gives it out. Is it not Olympias, who says of you, that you are not the offspring of Philip, but of a dragon, or of Ammon, or I know not what god, or man, or animal? In which cafe you must be fpurious." At this Alexander smiled, and was fingularly pleafed; confidering Diogenes not only as not clownish, but as peculiarly elegant in his manner of paying a compliment. Dion relates further, that when Alexander asked the philofopher, whether he believed this account or not, he replied that it was as yet uncertain; suggesting that it remained for him to prove his origin by his actions.

The following extract from Leland's Demofthenes feems alfo to deferve a place here:

"Flattery, and indulgence to the weakness of Alexander, who, when intoxicated with his fucceffes, conceived the vanity of being thought the son of Jupiter, seem to have given rise to the fiction of an enormous ferpent discovered by Philip in ftrict intercourfe with his queen. The fight of a ferpent in her bed, fome of the ancients do not allow to have been fo very extraordinary, in a country where they were tame and harmless; and as Olympias, who was remarkably devoted to the celebration of the enthufiaftic rites of Orpheus and Bacchus, is faid to have danced in these ceremonies with great tame ferpents twining round her, fometimes interwoven with the ivy of the facred fpears, or with the chaplets of her attendants,

fends health to his mother Olympias," Olympias replied to him in this manner: "I beseech you," fays the," my fon, be at peace, do not fummon me to a court of judicature, nor accufe me before Juno; for fhe will furely bring a grievous punishment upon me, when fhe finds it confeffed in your letters that I am her husband's harlot.” This polished wit in a wife and prudent woman, addreffed to her ferocious fon, feemed tenderly,

attendants, in order to infpire fpectators with the greater awe and horror. Yet henceforward, faith Plutarch, his af fection fenfibly abated; and whether he feared her as a forcerefs, or imagined that she held a commerce with fome god, and was afraid of offending a fuperior rival, his correfpondence with her became lefs frequent; and having fent to confult the Delphian oracle on this alarming occafion, he received for anfwer, that he was to pay peculiar honours to Jupiter Ammon, and mult expect to lose that eye which had prefumptuoufly intruded on the fecret communication of a divinity with his wife. According to Juftin, Olympias herself firft fuggefted the account of the ferpent; and is faid by Eratofthenes, an ancient hiftorian, to have informed her fon, as he was preparing his expedition into Afia, of the fecret of his birth. But this information was poffibly nothing more than clearing up the fufpicions of his legitimacy; and affuring him that he was really the fon of Philip, whofe actions might, with all propriety, have been urged as an incitement to his fon to approve himself worthy of fo great a father. This fentiment feems to have been confirmed by the well known answer of Olympias to her fon's letter, in which he ftyled himself the fon of Jupiter for when the queen complained that Alexander made mifchief (if I may be allowed the expreffion) between her and Juno, I cannot conceive it in any other light but that of raillery on his fantastical vanity.

and