t 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 dishonorable 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 there was, slipped and fell down; as if he
had no servants, or none would attend him on his way to the shore.

LYCURGUS

Those authors who are most worthy of credit deduce the genealogy of
Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, as follows:

Aristodemus.
|
Patrocles.
|
Sous.
|
Eurypon.
|
Eunomus.
|
_________________________________________________
Polydectes by his first wife. Lycurgus by Dionassa his second.

Sous certainly was the most renowned of all his ancestors, under whose
conduct the Spartans made slaves of the Helots, and added to their
dominions, by conquest, a good part of Arcadia. There goes a story of
this king Sous, that, being besieged by the Clitorians in a dry
and stony place so that he could come at no water, he was at last
constrained to agree with them upon these terms, that he would restore
to them all his conquests, provided that himself and all his men should
drink of the nearest spring. After the usual oaths and ratifications,
he called his soldiers together, and offered to him that would forbear
drinking, his kingdom for a reward; and when not a man of them was able
to forbear, in short, when they had all drunk their fill, at last comes
king Sous himself to the spring, and, having sprinkled his face only,
without swallowing one drop, marches off in the face of his enemies,
refusing to yield up his conquests, because himself and all his men had
not, according to the articles, drunk of their water.

Al