head before the Altar that hee fled vnto. Neither perished
lost first, that it selfe should perish? perhaps the keepers? indeed it is true, they being slaine, it was soone taken away: For the Image kept not the men, but the men kept the Image
But why then was it adored as the preser∣uer of the country and Citizens, when it could not preserue the owne keepers?
L. VIVES.
DId not (a) Aeneas,] so saith Uirgill: There saw I Priam, Hecuba, and all their hundred daughters at the altar, &c. This happened vpon that night when Troy was taken and burned by the Greekes: and Neoptolemus Pirrhus, Achilles his sonne slue Priam at the altar. (b) Himselfe had hallowed,] Wherein he showes the greater indignity, because those gods did not assist him, which he himselfe had made and consecrated in that very place. I thinke it is meant of Vesta in whose temple perpetuall fire was kept: Uirgils Commentators doe not explaine it: let each man take it as he please. (c) Diomedes,] This also is from Uirgill in the said booke: the words are Sinons, and meant of the Palladium, which in the Troyan warre Diomedes and Ulisses stole out of the Temple of Pallas. Nor feared they sacriledge, as to the which they added murther, and yet was (their party) the Grecians, conquerours ouer Troy. The Palladium was an Image of Pallas, whereof there are so many relations ex∣tant, that I should thinke it idle to proceed in recounting all mens opinions thereof. Yet will I extract what seemes most likely, out of Varro, Dionysius Halicarnasseus, Ouid, Plu∣tarch, and Seruius: Chrysas the Daughter of Pallas being married vnto Dardanus, brought with her for hir dowry this Palladium, and the Images of the Great gods: for which, Darda∣nus built a Temple in Samothracia; all which Images afterward in his Grand-childs time, were transported from thence into Ilium, an Oracle forewarning them, that as long as the Palladium was there kept, so long the City should continue vnruined. Wherefore it was placed in the most secret part of all the temple, and another Palladium made like that, was set in open sight, and carelesly respected. Now when Pirrhus had heard of Helenus, a Prophet, one of Priams sonnes, that Troy was inexpugnable, as long as the Palladium was safe, and that hee had told this vnto the Greeke Princes, Ulisses and Diomedes entred the towne in disguise, and getting to the Tower, set vpon the keepers, slew them, and tooke away that false Palladium. But the other, after the sack of Troy, together with the other great gods called the Troi•…•…ns Penates, Sycas deliuered vnto Aeneas, who carried them all into Italy with him. And so from Alba Louga, or (as Uarro thinkes) from Lauinium, the Palla∣dium was remooued vnto Rome, and set vp in the house of Uesta, which being by chance set on fire, Lucius Metellus then chiefe Priest, with the losse of his eyes, fetcht it forth of the midst of the flames. The Palladium was openly seene at the burning of the Temple of V•…•…sta, in the time of Heliogabalus, saith Herodian. There was another Palladium, which Ni∣cias did dedicate, in the Tower of Athens. (d) Uirgins vayle,] For Pallas euer was a Virgin. (e) Yet is not that true,] For it was spoken by the lyer Sinon: though it may bee held for true that then the Grecians hope was ouer-throwne. Neuerthelesse they gotte the Cittie. (f) But why then,] an argument which the Logicians call, à minore: how can that preserue the Citty and the countrie, that cannot preserue the owne keepers and garde, which is a worke of lesse moment, and yet in nature nearer concerning it?