Fare
thee well; and tell the Romans that by courage and self-control they
will attain to the highest pitch of human power. I will ever be for you
the kindly deity Quirinus."
This tale was believed by the Romans from the manner of Proculus in
relating it and from his oath: indeed a religious feeling almost
amounting to ecstasy seems to have taken hold of all present; for no one
contradicted him, but all dismissed their suspicions entirely from their
minds and prayed to Quirinus, worshipping him as a god.
This account resembles the Greek legends of Aristeas of Proconnesus, and
that of Kleomedes of Astypalaea. The story goes that Aristeas died in a
fuller's shop, and that when his friends came to fetch his body it had
disappeared; then some persons who had just returned from travel said
that they had met Aristeas walking along the road to Kroton. Kleomedes,
we are told, was a man of unusual size and strength, but stupid and
half-crazy, who did many deeds of violence, and at last in a boy's
school struck and broke in two the column that supported the roof, and
brought it down. As the boys were killed, Kleomedes, pursued by the
people, got into a wooden chest, and shut down the lid, holding in
inside so that many men together were not able to force it open. They
broke open the chest, and found no man in it, dead or alive. Astonished
at this, they sent an embassy to the oracle at Delphi, to whom the
Pythia answered,
"Last of the heroes is Kleomedes of Astypalaea.
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