Numa Pompilius   

Phrygians have received and still recount of Attis, the Bithynians
of Herodotus, the Arcadians of Endymion, not to mention several others
who were thought blessed and beloved of the gods; nor does it seem
strange if God, a lover, not of horses or birds, but men, should not
disdain to dwell with the virtuous and converse with the wise and
temperate soul, though it be altogether hard, indeed, to believe,
that any god or daemon is capable of a sensual or bodily love and
passion for any human form or beauty. Though, indeed, the wise Egyptians
do not plausibly make the distinction, that it may be possible for
a divine spirit so to apply itself to the nature of a woman, as to
imbreed in her the first beginnings of generation, while on the other
side they conclude it impossible for the male kind to have any intercourse
or mixture by the body with any divinity, not considering, however,
that what takes place on the one side must also take place on the
other; intermixture, by force of terms, is reciprocal. Not that it
is otherwise than befitting to suppose that the gods feel towards
men affection, and love, in the sense of affection, and in the form
of care and solicitude for their virtue and their good dispositions.
And, therefore, it was no error of those who feigned, that Phorbas,
Hyacinthus, and Admetus were beloved by Apollo; or that Hippolytus
the Sicyonian was so much in his favour, that, as often as he sailed
from Sicyon to Cirrha, the Pythian prophetess uttered this heroic
verse expressive of the god's attention and joy:
"Now doth Hippolytus return again,
And venture his dear life upon the main."
It is reported, also, that Pan became enamoured of Pindar for his
verses, and the divine power rendered honour to Hesiod and Archilochus
after their death for the sake of the Muses; there is a statement,
also, that Aesculapius sojourned with Sophocles in his lifetime, of
which many proofs still exist, and that, when he was dead, another
deity took care for his funeral rites. And so if any credit may be
given to these instances, why should we judge it incongruous, that
a like spirit of the gods should visit Zaleucus, Minos, Zoroaster,
Lycurgus, and Numa, the controllers of kingdoms, and the legislators
for commonwealths? Nay, it may be reasonable to believe, that the
gods, with a serious purpose, assist at the councils and serious debates
of such men, to inspire and direct them; and visit poets and musicians,
if at all in their more sportive moods; but for difference of opinion
here, as Bacchylides said, "the road is broad." For there is no absurdity
in the account also given, that Lycurgus and Numa, and other famous
lawgivers, having the task of subduing perverse and refractory multitudes,
and of introducing great innovations, themselves made this pretension
to divine authority, which, if not true, assuredly was expedient for
the interests of those it imposed upon.
Numa was about forty years of age when the ambassadors came to make
him offers of the kingdom; the speakers were Proculus and Velesus,
one or other of whom it had been thought the people would elect as
their new king; the original Romans being for Proculus, and the Sabines
for Velesus. Their speech was very short, supposing that, when they
came to tender a kingdom, there needed little to persuade to an acceptance;
but, contrary to their expectations, they found that they had to use
many reasons and entreaties to induce one, that lived in peace and
quietness, to accept the government of a city whose foundation and
increase had been made, in a manner, in war. In presence of his father
and his kinsman Marcius he returned answer that "Every alteration
of a man's life is dangerous to him; but madness only could induce
one who needs nothing, and is satisfied with everything, to quit a
life he is accustomed to; which, whatever else it is deficient in,
at any rate has the advantage of certainty over one wholly doubtful
and unknown. Though, indeed, the difficulties of this government cannot
even be called unknown; Romulus, who first held it, did not escape
the suspicion of having plotted against the life of his colleague
Tatius; nor the senate the like accusation, of having treasonably
murdered Romulus. Yet Romulus had the advantage to be thought divinely