There were indeed ancient barbarians chargeable with incest, and perhaps some such are still to be found. Strabo, Lucian, Curtius, Plutarch, and Justin mention savages who were infamous for this crime. Yet among more polished nations, it was always abhorred ; and as the Apostle asserts, 1 Cor. V. 1. there were species of that vice, not so muck as named among the Gentiles, Euripides and others have recorded, as an exception against the universal detestation of incest among civilized peo- ple, that the ancient kings of Persia and Egypt were guilty of it ; but these authors expressly add, that " those kings indulged in it from a principle of pride, as they considered it beneath their dignity to marry a vassal or a stranger, and therefore connect- ed themselves with their own royal families." Their subjects however, did not follow the base example of the monarchs. Suetonius and Tacitus mention a few other ia- stances of the same kind at Rome, and stigmatize them with reproach and infamy. In Calig, Suet, 4. 24. — in Nerone, Suet. 6. 5. — in Claudio, Suet. 5. 26. 43. — in Aggripina, Tacitus Annal. 14. — But these cases are so far from behig an evidence of the
