Titus was formally elected
and declared; and after sacrifice and libation, they sang a set song, of
which these are the closing verses:--

The Roman Faith, whose aid of yore,
Our vows were offered to implore,
We worship now and evermore.
To Rome, to Titus, and to Jove,
O maidens, in the dances move.
Dances and Io-Paeans too
Unto the Roman Faith are due
O Savior Titus, and to you.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

It must be borne in mind that my design has been not to write histories,
but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with
the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter
of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their
characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the
greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. Therefore as
portrait-painters are more exact in the lines and features of the face,
in which the character is seen, than in the other parts of the body, so
I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and
indications of the souls of men, in my portrayal of their lives.

It is agreed on by all hands, that on the father's side, Alexander
descended from Hercules by Caranus, and from Aeacus by Neoptolemus on
the mother's side. His father Philip, being in Samothrace, when he was
quite young, fell in love there with Olympias, in company with whom he
was initiated in the religious ceremonies of the country, and her father
and mother being both dead, soon after, with the consent of her brother
Arymbas, he married her.

Alexander was born on the sixth of Hecatombaeon, the same day that the
temple of Diana at Ephesus was burnt. The statues that gave the best
representation of Alexander's person, were those of Lysippus, those
peculiarities which many of his successors afterwards and his friends
used to affect to imitate,--the inclination of his head a little on
one side towards his left shoulder, and his melting eye,--having been
expressed by this artist with great exactness. But Apelles, who drew him
with thunderbolts in his hand, made his complexion browner and darker
than it was naturally; for he was fair and of a light color, passing
into ruddiness in his face and upon his breast. His temperance, as to
all pleasures, was apparent in him in his very childhood, as he was
with much difficulty incited to them, and always used them with great
moderation; though