ave to the Scythians were dictated
to him by his attendant genius or spirit. The first Minos affirmed
that Jupiter was the author of the ordinances which he gave to the
people of Crete, while Lycurgus attributed his to Apollo. It is not
improbable that in this they imitated the example of Moses,
a tradition of whose reception of the laws on Mount Sinai they may
have received from the people of Phoenicia.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus has an interesting passage relative to
Numa, which throws some light upon his alleged intercourse with the
Nymph Egeria. His words are-- 'The Romans affirm that Numa was never
engaged in any warlike expedition; but that he passed his whole
reign in profound peace: that his first care was to encourage piety
and justice in his dominions, and to civilize his people by good and
wholesome laws. His profound skill in governing made him pass for
being inspired, and gave rise to many fabulous stories. Some have
said that he had secret interviews with the Nymph Egeria; others,
that he frequently consulted one of the Muses, and was instructed by
her in the art of government. Numa was desirous to confirm the
people in this opinion; but because some hesitated to believe his
bare affirmation, and others went so far as to call his alleged
converse with the Deities a fiction, he took an opportunity to give
them such proofs of it, that the most sceptical among them should
have no room left for suspicion. This he effected in the following
manner. He one day invited several of the nobles to his palace, and
showed them the plainness of the apartments, where no rich furniture
was to be seen, nor any thing like an attempt at splendour; and how
even the most ordinary necessaries were wanting for anything like a
great entertainment; after which, he dismissed them with an
invitation to come to sup with him on the same night. At the
appointed hour his guests arrived; they were received on stately
couches; the tables were decked with a variety of plate, and were
loaded with the most exquisite dainties. The guests were struck with
the sumptuousness and profusion of the entertainment, and
considering how impossible it was for any man to have made such
preparations in so short a time, were persuaded that his
communication with heaven was not a fiction, and that he must have
had the aid of the celestial powers to do things of a nature so
extraordin