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.”

And it also related that the corpse of Alkmena when it was being carried out for burial, disappeared, and a stone was found lying on the bier in its place.  And many such stories are told, in which, contrary to reason, the earthly parts of our bodies are described as being deified together with the spiritual parts.  It is wicked and base to deny that virtue is a spiritual quality, but again it is foolish to mix earthly with heavenly things.

We must admit, speaking with due caution, that, as Pindar has it, the bodies of all men follow overpowering Death, but there remains a living spirit, the image of eternity, for it alone comes from heaven.  Thence it comes, and thither it returns again, not accompanied by the body, but only when it is most thoroughly separated and cleansed from it, and become pure and incorporeal.  This is the pure spirit which Herakleitus calls the best, which darts through the body like lightning through a cloud, whereas that which is clogged by the body is like a dull, cloudy exhalation, hard to loose and free from the bonds of the body.  There is no reason, therefore, for supposing that the bodies of good men rise up into heaven, which is contrary to nature; but we must believe that men’s virtues and their spirits most certainly, naturally and rightly proceed from mankind to the heroes, and from them to the genii, and from thence, if they be raised above and purified from all mortal and earthly taint, even as is done in the holy mysteries, then, not by any empty vote of the senate, but in very truth and likelihood they are received among the gods, and meet with the most blessed and glorious end.

XXIX.  Some say that the name Quirinus, which Romulus received, means Mars; others that it was because his people were called Quirites.  Others, again, say that the spear-head or spear was called by the ancients Quiris, and that the statue of Juno leaning on a spear is called Juno Quirites, and that the dart which is placed in the Regia is addressed as Mars, and that it is customary to present with a spear those who have distinguished themselves in war, and therefore that it was as a warrior, or god of war, that Romulus was called Quirinus.  A temple dedicated to him is built on the Quirinal Hill which bears his name, and the day of his translation is called the People’s Flight, and the Nonae Caprotinae, because they go out of the city to the Goat’s