Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
The Comparison of
Romulus with Theseus
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
The Comparison of
Romulus with Theseus
By Plutarch
This is what I have learned of Romulus and Theseus, worthy of memory. It
seems, first of all, that Theseus, out of his own free-will, without any
compulsion, when he might have reigned in security at Troezen in the enjoyment
of no inglorious empire, of his own motion affected great actions, whereas
the other, to escape present servitude and a punishment that threatened
him (according to Plato's phrase), grew valiant purely out of fear, and
dreading the extremest inflictions, attempted great enterprises out of
mere necessity. Again, his greatest action was only the killing of one
King of Alba; while, as mere by-adventures and preludes, the other can
name Sciron, Sinnis, Procrustes, and Corynetes; by reducing and killing
of whom, he rid Greece of terrible oppressors, before any of them that
were relieved knew who did it; moreover, he might without any trouble as
well have gone to Athens by sea, considering he himself never was in the
least injured by those robbers; whereas Romulus could not but be in trouble
whilst Amulius lived. Add to this, the fact that Theseus, for no wrong
done to himself, but for the sake of others, fell upon these villains;
but Romulus and Remus, as long as they themselves suffered no ill by the
tyrant, permitted him to oppress all others. And if it be a great thing
to have been wounded in battle by the Sabines, to have killed King Acron,
and to have conquered many enemies, we may oppose to these actions the
battle with the Centaurs and the feats done against the Amazons. But what
Theseus adventured, in offering himself voluntarily with young boys and
virgins, as part of the tribute unto Crete, either to be a prey to a monster
or a victim upon the tomb of Androgeus, or, according to the mildest form
of the story, to live vilely and dishonourably in slavery to insulting
and cruel men; it is not to be expressed what an act of courage, magnanimity,
or justice to the public, or of love for honour and bravery, that was.
So what methinks the philosophers did not ill define love to be the provision
of the gods for the care and preservation of the young; for the love of
Ariadne, above all, seems to have been the proper work and design of some
god in order to preserve Theseus; and, indeed, we ought not to blame her
for loving him, but rather wonder all men and women were not alike affected
towards him; and if she alone were so, truly I dare pronounce her worthy
of the love of a god, who was herself so great a lover of virtue and goodness,
and the bravest man.
Both Theseus and Romulus were by nature meant for governors; yet
neither lived up to the true character of a king, but fell off, and ran,
the one into popularity, the other into tyranny, falling both into the
same fault out of different passions. For a ruler's first aim is to maintain
his office, which is done no less by avoiding what is unfit than by observing
what is suitable. Whoever is either too remiss or too strict is no more
a king or a governor, but either a demagogue or a despot, and so becomes
either odious or contemptible to his subjects. Though certainly the one
seems to be the fault of easiness and good-nature, the other of pride and
severity.
If men's calamities, again, are not to be wholly imputed to fortune,
but refer themselves to differences of character, who will acquit either
Theseus of rash and unreasonable anger against his son, or Romulus against
his brother? Looking at motives, we more easily excuse the anger which
a stronger cause, like a severer blow, provoked. Romulus, having disagreed
with his brother advisedly and deliberately on public matters, one would
think could not on a sudden have been put into so great a passion; but
love and jealousy and the complaints of his wife, which few men can avoid
being moved by, seduced Theseus to commit that outrage upon his son. And
what is more, Romulus, in his anger, committed an action of unfortunate
consequence; but that of Theseus ended only in words, some evil speaking,
and an old man's curse; the rest of the youth's disasters seem to have
proceeded from fortune; so that, so far, a man would give his vote on Theseus's
part.
But Romulus has, first of all, one great plea, that his performances
proceeded from very small beginnings; for both the brothers being thought
servants and the sons of swine-herds, before becoming freemen themselves,
gave liberty to almost all the Latins, obtaining at once all the most honourable
titles, as destroyers of their country's enemies, preservers of their friends
and kindred, princes of the people, founders of cities, not removers, like
Theseus, who raised and compiled only one house out of many, demolishing
many cities bearing the names of ancient kings and heroes. Romulus, indeed,
did the same afterwards, forcing his enemies to deface and ruin their own
dwellings, and to sojourn with their conquerors; but at first, not by removal,
or increase of an existing city, but by foundation of a new one, he obtained
himself lands, a country, a kingdom, wives, children, and relations. And,
in so doing, he killed or destroyed nobody, but benefited those that wanted
houses and homes and were willing to be of a society and become citizens.
Robbers and malefactors he slew not; but he subdued nations, he overthrew
cities, he triumphed over kings and commanders. As to Remus, it is doubtful
by whose hand he fell; it is generally imputed to others. His mother he
clearly retrieved from death, and placed his grandfather, who was brought
under base and dishonourable vassalage, on the ancient throne of Aeneas,
to whom he did voluntarily many good offices, but never did him harm even
inadvertently. But Theseus, in his forgetfulness and neglect of the command
concerning the flag, can scarcely, methinks, by any excuses, or before
the most indulgent judges, avoid the imputation of parricide. And, indeed,
one of the Attic writers, perceiving it to be very hard to make an excuse
for this, feigns that Aegeus, at the approach of the ship, running hastily
to the Acropolis to see what news, slipped and fell down, as if he had
no servants, or none would attend him on his way to the
shore.
And, indeed, the faults committed in the rapes of women admit of
no plausible excuse in Theseus. First, because of the often repetition
of the crime; for he stole Ariadne, Antiope, Anaxo the Troezenian, at last
Helen, when he was an old man, and she not marriageable; she a child, and
he at an age past even lawful wedlock. Then, on account of the cause; for
the Troezenian, Lacedaemonian, and Amazonian virgins, beside that they
were not betrothed to him, were not worthier to raise children by then
the Athenian women, derived from Erechtheus and Cecrops; but it is to be
suspected these things were done out of wantonness and lust. Romulus, when
he had taken near eight hundred women, chose not all, but only Hersilia,
as they say, for himself; the rest he divided among the chief of the city;
and afterwards, by the respect and tenderness and justice shown towards
them, he made it clear that this violence and injury was a commendable
and politic exploit to establish a society; by which he intermixed and
united both nations, and made it the foundation of after friendship and
public stability. And to the reverence and love and constancy he established
in matrimony, time can witness, for in two hundred and thirty years, neither
any husband deserted his wife, nor any wife her husband; but, as the curious
among the Greeks can name the first case of parricide or matricide, so
the Romans all well know that Spurius Carvilius was the first who put away
his wife, accusing her of barrenness. The immediate results were similar;
for upon those marriages the two princes shared in the dominion, and both
nations fell under the same government. But from the marriages of Theseus
proceeded nothing of friendship or correspondence for the advantage of
commerce, but enmities and wars and the slaughter of citizens, and, at
last, the loss of the city Aphidnae, when only out of the compassion of
the enemy, whom they entreated and caressed like gods, they escaped suffering
what Troy did by Paris. Theseus's mother, however, was not only in danger,
but suffered actually what Hecuba did, deserted and neglected by her son,
unless her captivity be not a fiction, as I could wish both that and other
things were. The circumstances of the divine intervention, said to have
preceded or accompanied their births, are also in contrast; for Romulus
was preserved by the special favour of the gods; but the oracle given to
Aegeus commanding him to abstain, seems to demonstrate that the birth of
Theseus was not agreeable to the will of the gods.
THE END
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