complicated parts, from invective to puff, and
from inuendo to prevarication! we may admire the scrupulous correction
of a lie which they had told, by another which they are telling! and
triple lying to overreach their opponents. Royalists and
Parliamentarians were alike; for, to tell one great truth, "the father
of lies" is of no party![287]

As "nothing is new under the sun," so this art of deceiving the public
was unquestionably practised among the ancients. Syphax sent Scipio word
that he could not unite with the Romans, but, on the contrary, had
declared for the Carthaginians. The Roman army were then anxiously
waiting for his expected succours: Scipio was careful to show the utmost
civility to these ambassadors, and ostentatiously treated them with
presents, that his soldiers might believe they were only returning to
hasten the army of Syphax to join the Romans. Livy censures the Roman
consul, who, after the defeat at Cannae, told the deputies of the allies
the whole loss they had sustained: "This consul," says Livy, "by giving
too faithful and open an account of his defeat, made both himself and
his army appear still more contemptible." The result of the simplicity
of the consul was, that the allies, despairing that the Romans would
ever recover their losses, deemed it prudent to make terms with
Hannibal. Plutarch tells an amusing story, in his way, of the natural
progress of a report which was contrary to the wishes of the government;
the unhappy reporter suffered punishment as long as the rumour
prevailed, though at last it proved true. A stranger landing from
Sicily, at a barber's shop, delivered all the particulars of the defeat
of the Athenians; of which, however, the people were yet uninformed. The
barber leaves untrimmed the reporter's beard, and flies away to vent the
news in the city, where he told the Archons what he had heard. The whole
city was thrown into a ferment. The Archons called an assembly of the
people, and produced the luckless barber, who in confusion could not
give any satisfactory account of the first reporter. He was condemned as
a spreader of false news, and a disturber of the public quiet; for the
Athenians could not imagine but that they were invincible! The barber
was dragged to the wheel and tortured, till the disaster was more than
confirmed. Bayle, referring to this story, observes, that had the barber
reported a victory, though it had proved to be false, he would not have
been p