Some of them, as defcribed by Thomafinus, may be feen delineated in the Frontispiece of this volume, A, a. B, b. C, c. reduced to about one fourth of their fize.

SECTION II.

THE use and facred nature of this Contract

THE producing of the teffera was a recognition of the covenant of friendship. And with it the traveller was fure to be received with distinguished marks of civility, and to obtain a hearty welcome at the house of his friend.

So highly was this alliance esteemed, that it was preferred even to relationship. To exprefs, in the moft forcible terms, their veneration for it, and their fenfe of its facred nature, the antient Romans gave to their Sovereign of the Gods the title of JUPITER HOSPITALIS.

* VIRG. Æn. lib. 1. v. 735. So the Greeks ftiled him HOSPITABLE JOVE See HOMER's Odys. lib ix. v. 269. and lib. xiv. v. 55.

THIS excellent ufage established friendship even between individuals of different nations.

CICERO recommended feveral perfons, and promoted their intereft from this confideration. Thus, in his letter to Sulpitius, the governor of Achaia, he introduces Lyfo to his favor, by faying, "Cum Lyfone Patrenfi eft mihi quidem hofpitium vetus, quam ego neceffitudinem fancte colendum puto."*

EVEN war between their respective nations did not difannul the union. Hiftorians have recorded several inftances of combatants laying down their arms in the heat of battle, out of a pious regard to the alliance of hospitality which had been entered into by their progenitors.

LEST any one, befides the perfon to whom it rightfully belonged, should claim its privileges, the little pledge was preserved with the utmost care and secrecy and no one knew the name infcribed on it but the poffeffor.

Epift. ad Famil. 19. lib. 111.

SECTION III.

THE connection was indiffoluble except by a pub

lic difavowal.

THE engagement thus entered into could not be dispensed with, unless publicly difavowed in a juridical manner. One of the ceremonies practised in this folemn act of renunciation, was to break the mark or symbol of hofpitality. By this act, he who came to this open rupture, authentically declared, he would for the future have no more commerce with him who had broken his faith with him.

"ABI, quære ubi jurejurando tuo fatis fit fubfidii! Hic, apud nos, jam, Alfefimarche, confregifti tefferam.'

the

SEE, also, an instance recorded by Livy,t where Badius Campanus renounces friendship of Q. Crispinus.

ISIODORUS declares, " Veteres quando fibi promittebant, ftipulam tenentes frangebant, quam iterum jungentes fponfiones fuas agnofcebant."

PLAUT. Cifterel. Act ii. Sc. 1. v. 27. † Decad. iii. lib. 5. Lib. v

SEC. IV.

Difgrace of violation.

THIS connection was founded upon all that was honorable in character, virtuous, in principle, and generous and affectionate in difpofition. Nothing, therefore, was confidered fo bafe as a violation of it. "Non defuere tamen, qui ferarum more, non hominum, ab omni humanitate alieni erant, ut non benigne hofpites ad menfam admitterent, fed menfæ apponerent."*

PLUTARCH informs us that those who vio lated these bonds, were looked upon as wicked and abominable both among Greeks and Romans and the most injurious thing that could be faid of a man was to charge him with having difregarded the laws of hospitality. "The vengeance of Jupiter, the patron of hospitality and friendship, visited Philip (fays he) for his breach of both, and pursued him through life. For he was beaten by the Romans, and forced to yield himself to their

* CESARIUS, diaļ. 2.

difcretion. In confequence of which he was ftripped of all the provinces he had conquered; gave up all his ships, except five; obliged himself to pay a thousand talents, and deliver his fon as a hostage. He even held Macedonia and its dependencies only at the mercy of the conquerors. Amidst all these misfortunes, he was poffeffed only of one bleffing, a fon of fuperior virtue; and him he put to death, in his envy and jealoufy of the honors the Romans paid him."*

HORACE, fpeaking of a degenerate person, to complete his character, declares him

CICERO, in his invectives against Verres, among other crimes, charges him with having been a frequent violator of the rights of hofpitality. "Num te ejus lachrymæ, num fenectus, num hofpitii jus atque nomen, a fcelere, aliquam ad partem humanitatis revocare potuit? Sed quid ego hofpitii jura in hac tam immani bellua commemoro, qui

PLUTARCH's lives V. 6. p. 196. Langhorne's tranflation.