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morials of his own reign, especially fo remarkable a part of it as that which established him in the empire. This argument our author farther ftrengthens by obferving, upon the authority of Suetonius, that he wrote Commentaries of his own Life, which, as appears from their works, these hiftorians frequently confulted.

Having proved that they neither wanted materials, nor diligence to use them, Mr. Holdfworth proceeds to fhew the improbability that historians thus furnished with the means of information, and employed upon transactions thus remarkable, fhould be fo grofly mistaken, as to reprefent the principal action in a wrong country, two hundred miles diftant from the place where it was really fought. The apology which the fathers Catrou and Rouille offer in excufe of Appian's fupposed mistake, from the resemblance of names, this writer juftly rejects, as his account, to which those of the other two hiftorians are in general conformable, is too full and circumstantial to admit the fuppofition; and therefore if the battle was not fought at their Philippi, every article of this part of their history muft be pure invention and romance.

Laftly, Mr. Holdfworth fhews, that as they could not have been actuated by any motives of prejudice or affection, it is unreasonable to fuppofe they were induced to mifrepresent facts by any defire of indulging an idle and romantic genius. Of this, it is true, Appian has been accufed by Catrou and Rouille; but to their unfupported affertion our author rightly opposes the authority of Photius, who, in his Bibliotheca, mentions him as a lover of truth, and particularly well skilled in military history.-Such is the fubftance of Mr. Holdsworth's arguments upon this head; which we entertain little doubt will be the more agreeable to our readers, as they not only tend to vindicate these hiftorians in the prefent difpute, but to establish their authority in general, by displaying their means of information, and the little temptation they were under to mifrepresent facts.

In the fifth letter it is proposed to reconcile Virgil's two Philippi to history. This our author imagines may be done by fuppofing, that Virgil means by his two battles of Philippi, not two battles fought on the fame individual spot, but at two distant places of the fame name; the former at Philippi near Pharfalus in Theffaly, the latter at Philippi near the confines of Thrace. To fet this matter in a clearer light, he begs leave to fhew,

First, That there were two Philippi, near which the two battles were fought.

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• Secondly, That both Philippi were in Macedonia, otherwife called Emathia.

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Thirdly, That both were at the foot of mount Haemus.'

In the course of this letter Mr. Holdsworth has difcovered much reading and erudition; but the nature of the enquiries, as our readers will readily perceive, not permitting us to enter into a minute detail of the arguments adduced upon each article, we must content ourselves with extracting what he advances upon the first.

And firft, that there were two Philippi.

Every body allows the famous city of that name on the confines of Thrace and Macedonia, in ancient times called Datum, and afterwards Crenides, till it took the name of Philippi, from Philip the father of Alexander. Befides this famous city, there was another town of less note, of the fame name, in Theffaly, formerly called Thebae, and furnamed Philippopolis, and by contraction Philippi, from Philip the fon of Demetrius. This place lay in that part of Theffaly called Phthiotis, and therefore was ufually called the Phthian, or Theffalian Thebes, to diftinguish it from Thebes in Boeotia. -See Polybius, Strabo, Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus, Livy, and Pliny.

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Polybius, in the fifth book of his History, giving an account of king Philip's war againft the Aetolians, tells us, "That his principal view in that expedition, was to take from them Thebae Phthiotides, and therefore encamping near the Enipeus, he went and laid fiege to that town; which he defcribes as a place of great importance. That it was about three hundred furlongs (thirty-feven miles and a half) from Lariffa; that it lay convenient to command Magnesia and Theffaly, adjoining to that part of Magnefia which belonged to the Demetrians, and to that part of Theffaly inhabited by the Pharfalians and Pheraeans. That the Aetolians, who were at that time masters of it, used from thence to make incurfions on the Demetrians, Pharfalians, and Lariffeans:" cap. xcix. And then adds, "That when Philip had made himself mafter of the place, he reduced the inhabitants under his yoke, placed there a colony of Macedonians, and, instead of its former name Thebes, called it the city of Philip: Pixie τὴν πόλιν ἀεὶ Θηβῶν καλωνόμασεν :” cap. c.

Diodorus, in the paffage cited above, fays, it was called in his time Philippopolis: and Stephanus Byzantinus, or (as fome will have it) his epitomizer Hermolaus, fays it was called Philippi. At leaft (which is enough for our purpose) the poets certainly call it fo, particularly Lucan, in feveral places of his Pharfalia.

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For inftance, when Sext. Pompeius, a little before the battle of Pharfalia, goes to confult the Theffalian witch, Erictho, about their fuccefs, Lucan represents her fitting on a rock, which overlooked the Theffalian plain, and spreading her enchantments over Philippi, that the battle might not be transferred to any other place.

Hanc fidi fcelerum fuetique miniftri,
Effractos circum tumulos ac bufta vagati,
Confpexêre procul praeruptâ in caute fedentem,
Quà juga devexus Pharfalica porrigit Haemus.
Illa magis magicifque Deis incognita verba
Tentabat, carmenque novos fingebat in ufus,
Namque timens, nè Mars alium vagus iret in orbem,
Aemathis et tellus tam multâ caede careret,
Pollutos cantu, dirisque venefica fuccis
Confperfos vetuit tranfmittere bella Philippos;
Tot mortes habitura fuas, ufuraque mundi
Sanguine."
Lucan VI. 573, etc.

Again, when the foldiers who followed Cato into Lybia, after the defeat at Pharfalia, were going to defert, upon the news of Pompey's death, Cato reproaches them with cowardice, and fays, "Caefar will easily believe by this behaviour, that they were the first who turned their backs at the battle of Philippi;" which must be Pharfalia.

"Credet faciles fibi terga dediffe,

Credet ab Emathiis primos fugiffe Philippis." Lib. IX. 271,

There are many other instances in Lucan, to this purpose, which I may have occafion to produce hereafter; but I muft not omit one here, which is very remarkable, that though he gives his poem the title of Pharfalia, yet the first time he fpeaks of that fatal battle, he mentions it by the name of Philippi:

." Video Pangaea nivofis Cana jugis, latosque Haemi fub rupe Philippos." Lib. I. 680.

It is farther obfervable, that Lucan's poem is named indifferently both from Pharfalia and Philippi, by Statius in his Sylvac, where he introduces Calliope celebrating that author. When he has spoken to him prophetically of his more puerile performances, the concludes with his nobleft work, and names the fubject of it from Philippi and Pharfalia, as fynonymous

terms:

"Mox coeptâ generofior juventâ

Albus offibus Italis Philippos,
Et Pharfalica bella detonabis."

• And

• And it is still more remarkable, that Sidonius Apollinaris fpeaks of the fame poem, by the title of Philippi only, when he celebrates the three authors who were natives of Corduba, the two Senecas, and Lucan:

"Pugnam tertius ille Gallicani
Dixit Caefaris, ut gener, focerque
Cognata impulerint in arma Romain,
Tantum dans lachrymis fuis Philippis,
Ut credat Cremerae levem ruinam.”

Sidon. Carm. IX. ver. 236. etc.?

The fixth letter unfolds the reafons why Virgil chofe to call both battles by one name. As this is, perhaps, the most important part of the differtation, we would willingly infert the whole letter, were we not afraid of extending this article too far. Our readers, therefore, must be contented with what information a fummary account can afford them.

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Virgil then, according to Mr. Holdfworth, chofe to call both battles by one name, on account of that very ambiguity of expreffion which has fince induced fo many of the moderns to believe that they were decided upon the fame spot and this for a purpose which could not have been effected by the use of the hiftorical diftinction. Few of our readers, we suppose, need to be informed, that the Romans were every way remarkably fuperftitious, and that to omens in particular they paid a most extravagant attention. The poet, therefore, having in the preceding lines enumerated the feveral wonders and phoenomena which followed the death of Cæfar, proceeds in these to infer the continuance of the civil wars, and the vengeance denounced by the gods against his murderers; and then, in conformity to the fuperftition of his countrymen, and perhaps in compliment to Auguftus, takes advantage of the æquivocal expreffion, to hint how ominous and providential it appeared, that the fame Aemathia, and the fame name Philippi (or, to use the English expreffion, a Philippi), fhould be twice fatal to the Romans.

"ERGO inter fefe paribus concurrere telis
Romanas acies iterum vidêre PHILIPPI;

Nec fuit indignum Superis bis fanguine noftro

AEMATHIAM, et laetos Haemi pinguefcere campos."

In fupport of this explication, which every one must acknowledge to be ingenious, Mr. Holdfworth, among other arguments, adduces the teftimony of Tully to prove the fuperftition of the Romans with regard to every thing ominous. But the use he has made of the account which Appian gives us of the famous vifion that appeared to Brutus, is fo artful and appo

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appofte to his hypothefis, that it would be unjust to suppress it, or indeed to give it in any words but his own.

But the most memorable ftory, and which most nearly concerns our prefent purpose, is that of the vifion which ap peared twice to Brutus; firft in Afia just before his paffage into Europe, and again at Philippi, a little before the battle. As Appian relates the first appearance, the phantom feemed to lay a particular ftrefs on the name Philippi. 'Ognouas de coi nai év DIMITTоis, I will appear to thee again, and that at Philippi; or, I will meet thee once more at a Philippi. Taking the words in their ominous and emphatical fenfe, they appear in a ftronger light; the ambiguity in the name Philippi, gives them a greater force; and as this story must be fresh in every body's mouth, when Virgil wrote his Georgics, 'tis not improbable that he thence took his first hint of his two Philippi.'

Before we leave this letter, we must not forget to mention, that both Lipfius and Gerard Voffius feem to have confidered this difficult paffage of Virgil in the fame light as Mr. Holdsworth has done; though, as he rightly obferves, their curfory remarks would only ferve to explain the two first lines.

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Of the seventh letter, which clofes the differtation, the title is, Paffages in other Poets explained in the fame manner as Virgil. And L. Florus reconciled with the other Hiftorians." Of the former part we shall at prefent fay nothing, as we shall have occafion to speak fomething concerning it hereafter; but the latter, where he examines the evidence of the hiftorian Florus with relation to these battles, we have no reason to poftpone.

Thus much for the poets. But there is one thing more to be confidered before I have done, and that is, the authority of one ancient hiftorian against the others. This argument feems, I know, to fome whom I have converfed with on this subject, to have more weight with it than any thing I have before mentioned; and, if unanswered, may destroy, or at least weaken, whatever I have urged with regard to the poets. For, notwithstanding they may be allowed to fpeak figuratively, yet certainly they ought rather to be understood in a ftrict literal fenfe, when that is moft agreeable to hiftory. The author here meant is L. Florus, who, in his Account of the Civil Wars between J. Caefar and Pompey, speaks of their last famous battle, that is, the battle of Pharfalia, as fought on the plains of Pharfalia. Sic praecipitantibus fatis, praelio fumpta eft Theffalia et Philippicis campis urbis, imperii, generis humani fata commiffa funt," lib. IV. c. ii. Again, in the following chapter, when he comes to the renewal of the war by

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