FILIAL, something belonging to the relation or son·
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Filial Piety, the affectionate attachment of children to their parents, including in it love, obedience, and assistance. These are duties prompted equally by nature and by gratitude, independently of the injunctions of religion; for where shall we find the person who has received from any one benefits so many or so great as children have from their parents? And it may be truly said, that if persons are undutiful to their parents, they seldom prove respectable in any other relation. Profane history furnishes many fine examples of this amiable virtue The Roman dictator T. Manlius having exercised great cruelty over the citizens, was cited at the expiration of his office to answer for his conduct. Amongst a number of things laid to his charge, he was accused of treating with barbarity one of his own sons. Manlius, according to Livy, had no other cause of complaint against this son than his having an impediment in his speech; for which reason he was banished from the city, his home, and the company of those of his own age and fortune, and condemned to perform servile works. All were highly exasperated against such inhuman conduct, excepting the son himself, who, under the greatest concern lest he should furnish matter of accusation against his father, resolved upon adopting a most extraordinary method to relieve him. One morning, without apprising any body of his design, he came to the city armed with a dagger, and went directly to the house of the tribune Pomponius, who had accused his father. Pomponius was yet in bed. Young Manlius sent up his name, and was immediately admitted by the tribune, who did not doubt but he was come to discover to him some new instances of his father’s severity. But Manlius, as soon as he was left alone with the tribune, drew out his dagger, and presented it to his breast, declaring he would stab him to the heart on the instant, if he did not swear, in the form he should dictate, never to hold the assembly of the people for accusing his father. Pomponius, who saw the dagger glittering at his breast, and found himself alone, without arms, and attacked by a robust young man, full of confidence in his own strength, took the oath demanded of him, and afterwards confessed with a kind of complacency, and a sincerity which sufficiently showed that he was not sorry for what had happened, that it was this violence which obliged him to desist from his design.Amongst the multitude of persons who were proscribed at Rome under the second triumvirate, were Cicero and his brother Quintus. But the latter found means to conceal himself so effectually at home, that the soldiers could not discover him. Enraged at their disappointment, they put his son to the question, in order to make him disclose the place of his father’s concealment; but filial affection remained proof against the most exquisite tortures. An involuntary sigh, and sometimes a deep groan, was all that could be extorted from the youth. His agonies were increased, but with amazing fortitude he still persisted in his resolution of not betraying his father. Quintus was not far off; and it may be imagined how his heart must have been affected with the sighs and groans of a son expiring in tortures to save his life. He could endure no longer; and quitting the place of his concealment, he presented himself to the assassins, begging of them to put him to death, and dismiss the innocent youth, whose generous behaviour the triumvirs themselves, if informed of the fact, would judge worthy of the highest approbation. But the inhuman monsters, without being in the least affected with ⅛e tears of either the father or the son, answered that they must both die; the father because he was proscribed, and the son because he had concealed his father. Then a new contest of tenderness arose who should die first; but this the assassins soon decided, by beheading them both at the same time.

Cinna, who scrupled not to attempt any thing, however atrocious, which seemed calculated to serve his purpose, undertook to get Pomponius Strabo murdered in his tent; but his son saved his life; and this was the first remarkable action of 1 ompey the Great. The treacherous Cinna had, by many alluring promises, gained over one Terentius, a confidant of Pompey, and prevailed on him to assassinate the general, and seduce his troops. But young Pompey being infoιmed of this design a few hours before it was to be put in execution, placed a faithful guard round the praetorium, so that none of the conspirators could come near it; then watched all the motions of the camp, and endeavoured, by acts of prudence worthy of the oldest commanders, to appease the fury of the soldiers, who hated the general his father. However, some of the mutineers having forced open one of the gates of the camp, in order to desert to Cinna, the general’s son threw himself flat on his back in their way, crying out that they should not break their oath and desert their commander, without treading his body to death. By this means he put a stop to their desertion, and afterwards wrought so effectually upon them by his affecting speeches and engaging demeanour, that he reconciled them to his father.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander, was of such an unhappy disposition, that he never allowed her to have any concern in the affairs of the government. She used frequently to make great complaints on this account; but he always submitted to her ill humour with great mildness and patience. Antipater, one of his friends, having one day written a long letter against her to the king, then absent, Alexander, after reading it, replied, “Antipater does not know that one single tear shed by a mother will obliterate ten thousand such letters as this.” Behaviour like this, and the answer here recorded, show that Alexander was both an affectionate son and an able politician.

Epaminondas is universally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest generals and best men whom Greece ever produced. Before him the city of Thebes was not distinguished by any memorable action, and after him it was more famous for its misfortunes than its virtues, till it sunk into its original obscurity; so that its glory may be said to have arisen and expired with this great man. The victory which he obtained at Leuctra had drawn the eyes .of all the neighbouring states upon Epaminondas; they looked upon him as the support of Thebes, the triumphant conqueror of Sparta, and the deliverer of Greece; in a word, as one of the greatest men and the most excellent captains the world had ever produced. But, in the midst of this universal applause, so capable of making the general of an army forget the man, Epaminondas, little sensible of so affecting and so deserved a glory, observed, “My joy arises from my sense of that which the news of my victory will give my father and my mother.”

Amongst an incredible number of illustrious persons who were falsely accused and put to death by Nero, was one Bareas Soranus, a man of singular vigilance and justice in the discharge of his duty. During his confinement, his daughter Servilia was apprehended, and, being brought before the senate, was there arraigned. The crime laid to fier charge was, that she had converted into money all her ornaments and jewels, and the most valuable part of her dress, to defray the expense of consulting magicians. To this the young Servilia, with tears, replied, that she had indeed consulted magicians, but the whole of her inquiry was to know whether the emperor and senate would afford protection and safety to her beloved and indulgent parent against his accusers. “With this view,” said she, “I presented the diviners, men till now utterly unknown to me,; with my jewels, apparel, and the other ornaments peculiar to my quality, as I would have presented my blood and [7:9:578]my life, could my blood and life have procured my father’s liberty. But whatever this my proceeding was, my unfortunate father was an utter stranger to it; and if it is a crime, I alone am the delinquent.” Notwithstanding this affecting appeal, she was condemned to die along with her father, but in what manner history is silent.

Valerius Maximus likewise mentions a very singular circumstance relating to this subject. A woman of illustrious birth had been condemned to be strangled. The Roman praetor delivered her up to the triumvir, who caused her to be carried to prison, in order that she might be put to death. But the jailor, who was ordered to execute her, being struck with compassion, could not resolve to kill her, and chose therefore to let her perish of hunger. Besides this, he suffered her daughter to see her in prison, taking care, however, that the former brought nothing in the shape of sustenance. As this continued many days, he was surprised that the prisoner should live so long without eating; and suspecting the daughter, he discovered, on narrowly watching her motions, that she nourished her mother with her own milk. Amazed at so pious, and at the same time so ingenious an invention, he mentioned the fact to the triumvir, and the triumvir to the praetor, who believed the thing deserved being mentioned in the assembly of the people. The criminal was pardoned, and a decree was passed that the mother and daughter should be subsisted for the rest of their lives at the public expense.

The same author gives a similar instance of filial piety in a young woman called Xantippe towards her aged father Cimonus, likewise confined in prison, and which is commonly known by the name of the Roman charity. Both these instances appeared so extraordinary to that people, that they could only account for them by supposing that the love of children to their parents was the first law of nature. Putaret aliquis, says our author, hoc contra naturam factum esse, nisi prima naturoe lex esset diligere parentes.