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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09832	The hystories of the most famous and worthy cronographer Polybius discoursing of the warres betwixt the Romanes [and] Carthaginenses, a riche and goodly worke, conteining holsome counsels [and] wonderfull deuises against the incombrances of fickle fortune. Englished by C.W. Wherevnto is annexed an abstract, compendiously coarcted out of the life & worthy acts, perpetuate by our puissaunt prince king Henry the fift.; Historiae. English	Polybius.; Watson, Christopher, d. 1581.	1568 (1568)	STC 20097; ESTC S114792	81,252	276

¶ The Hystories of the most famous and worthy Cronographer Polybius Discoursing of the warres betwixt the Romanes Carthaginenses a riche and goodly Worke conteining holsome counsels wonderfull deuises against the incombrances of fickle Fortune Englished by C. W. ¶ Wherevnto is annexed an Abstract compendiously coarcted out of the life worthy acts perpetrate by oure puissaunt Prince king Henry the fift Imprinted at London by Henry Bynneman for Thomas Hacket And are to be sold at his shoppe in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Key The Phisnomie of Polybius WHome Nature Birth and Science lore haue made the childe of fame This portrature through Grauers Arte doth shewe to thee the same A Greeke by birth of noble bloud Polybius eke he hight His workes deserue immortall praise and fame vpholdes his right Reade with aduise doe iudge with skill and trouth will cause thee than To say as thou of right maist say he was a worthy man Whome though the Fates with cruell hande haue cut from mortall breath Yet we enioy through worthy Fame hys deedes in spight of Death B. G. The life of Polybius collected oute of his Historie THe famous and worthie Grecian Polybius was borne in the Citie of Megalopolis in Arcadie which is a prouince of Achaia situate in the midste of the plentifull Peloponesus or Moria which toke the domination of Arcas sonne to lupiter He was a noble man and of high parentage as it may be gathered by diuers tokēs He surmounted all the mē of his age in foure points as this his worke manifestly witnesseth in Eloquence Geographie writing of Histories and in martial prowesse bysides diuers other rare qualities for which his singular giftes he was made tutor of P. Cor. Scipio which after was named Scipio Africanus Maior He pende the Roman Histories more credibly than any other In so much that Titus Liuius peragon of all the Latin Chronographers folowed him through all his workes as one whiche for fauour or dreade had neuer corrupt the sinceritie of the Historie But of the fortie bookes in which he wrote them tearing time and blinde ignorance capital foes to vertue and good literature haue deuoured them all in the odious pitte of cankred obliuion except fiue bokes which remain vnpoluted with certaine suppliments and vnperfecte patches to the great obliteration of such famous facts as were perpetrate in that time Phocylides I Lapso redde manum miserum seruato virumque To the right worshipful Thomas Gaudy Esquier Christopher Watson wysheth Argantos age Policrates prosperitie Augustus amitie and after the consummation of this terrestriall Tragedie a seate amongest the celestial Hierarchie c. IT was the cōmon guise in ancient time generally is imbraced at this instāt ryght worshipfull that such as did or do yelde the fruites of their studie to bee patronized vnder the rampiers of any noble Philomos or Mecoenas as they vsed and vse though vsurpedly to terme them neuer stinted to trauaile with tooth naile to hunt for hauty stately and currant termes wherwith they florished forth such vertues as their patrons practised so that vsually for hope either of gaine or fauor a thousand times more laud thā they deserued was attributed vnto thē whose tristing vain and Gnatonicall humour I hartily abhorre in so much that least I might incurre the suspition of certain in that Getical kind of gabbing I will speake no worde in your laude and that not vnaduisedly for weying the insufficiencie of my wit in performance but of the naked truth if I shold attempt to pen your panigrick eke dreading least it should be obiect to me which was to a certaine writer not vnsēblable to my self in this matter purposing to pen the praises of Hercules to desist frō such a foly wherby rather dishonor thā fame might be purchased to him considering that there is no such simple sot whiche alredy reputeth hym not inthronised amōgst the heroicall estates Waying the case then as it standeth I count it a mere mockerie here as the fashion was and is to tell you of youre rare and vertuous qualities of which youre very ennimies if you as I doubte haue any can saye nothyng but good Thus then al vain words set apart I desire your worship benignely to accept this as a token of the intier affection I bear towards you which taken as I meane it shal deserue to furnishe some voyde corner in the lowest parte of your Librarie From my chamber in your house at Gaudy Hall To the Reader WEre it as perillous to deale Cardes at play As it is quarellous to deale Bokes this day One and fortie men amongst one and fiftie Would flee one and thirtie to flee one vnthriftie And yet Cardes so dealt should haue in reuealing Foredeale of Bokes in this hard time of dealing Cardes be tooted on but on the one side Bokes on both sides in all places porde and pride Not to content but to contende vpon spiall Of least tittle that can come in triall Waying these things gentle Reader I may be thought to haue attempted a bold enterprise to take vpon me being yet in my nonage such a work as few or none haue done at like yeares also knowing the daunger thereof which is the hasardyng of my good name yet considering the causes that moued me to it I truste there is none which will not beare with me The principall and chiefe cause was an Oration spoken extemporally by a noble and worthie péere of this realm before our victorious gouernor Henry the fift as more at large appeareth in the Epistle to the Questioners The seconde was a feruent zeale whiche I beare towardes my natiue countrey and sundry exhortations written by graue and great lerned clearkes willyng vs to employ our whole laboure and studie that we ouerslip not oure lyfe like sauage brute breasts whom Nature hath formed prone and subiect to the filthy lustes of the belly The thirde and last was that they of riper yeares and exacter knowlege shoulde be pricked as it wer with a spurre by thys my doing to the attemptyng of some worke to remain for an attestation that they liued not brutishely but as men regarding their vocation I cōfesse this my Translation to be vnpolished not exquisitely framed or in a curious stile for as our English Epigramme sayth The plain fashion is best that 's truely exprest or the plain fashion is best that 's plain without plaites which epigrāme persuadeth me not to crepe into your fauour with any tedious ambage or painted preāble seing the mater is of importance inough to alliciate al men to the reading hereof Thus I put forth this my freshmāly enterprise yet not without reson for Time is tickle Chaunce is fickle Man is brickle to your grateful accepting cōcluding thus This work standing clere from all intent of yll In place or lack of good wit accept good wyll For if you carpe this I tell you my minde plaine Bold blinde bayard shal not

Before this time ther were many batailes fought in sundrie places but afterward it chanced that the historie increased and augmented so that it came as it wer into one bodie for the state and condition of the Italians was mixte and intermingled with the Libians Grecians Asians so that they all tend belong to one matter and ende for the which cause haue made and taken the beginning of my worke from this time For whē the Romanes in that battayle had ouercome and vanquished the Carthagmenses they supposed the chief and worst part to be passed and therfore thought they might better venter to atchieue the whole euen at that present they were imboldened to take in hand the conquest of the rest attempting to sayle with theyr whole strength and power into Grecia and Asia But if we once perfectly vnderstoode that customes ordinances fashions of them which labored and trauayled for atchieuing the rule and dominion of the worlde peraduenture it should not be requisit any preciselyer to repete by what power or puissance eyther by what enforcement they were animated to attempte such an enterprise But considering that the olde maners ordinances and fashions eyther of the Romans or the Carthaginenses were knowen to the moste parte of the Grecians I supposed it requisite to prescribe in this booke and in the nexte to disclose theyr power and abylitie with the famous actes done by them before I enter into the Historie least by chaunce some man preparing and indeuoring him selfe to the reading of this worke might be in doute by what counsaile or power eyther by what great hope the Romanes were persuaded to the Conqueste of the whole Worlde and domination of our Seas since in this my beginning and preparation all men may clearely perceiue and vnderstande that the Romans had store and plentie enough of all necessaryes to the mayntenaunce of such a conquest and accomplishing of theyr pretensed purpose This also is the chief and principall beautifying of any worke wyth the famous and worthy actes perpetrate in this time that as Fortune hath caused all things done through the moste parte of the world to tend and belong to one ende and scope so that likewise in one History or Chronicle they may well be written comprised Which thing chiefly incoraged me to take this Historie in hand and so much the rather bicause no man before this my time hath attempted to commit to remembrance that factes perpetrate in the vniuersall and whole worlde for then wolde not I haue attempted thys enterprise But euery one particularly hath mencioned and penned certaine particular warres with the facts done in them but of a coniunct commemoration of things done vniuersally either of their beginnings or for what cause they began or what ende they had there is none as far as I can vnderstande that hathe written to these dayes I thought it expedient and necessarie cōsidering that this my work shoulde come abroade into the handes of my countreymen being politike eloquente fellowes to entreate of the most famous renomed and profitable facts of Fortune which although she hath wroughte many wonderful preclare and notable acts in the dayes of diuers men worthy of admiration yet hath she wrought nothyng which exuperateth yea or that are to be compared with these in our dayes Whiche worthie acts can not be vnderstād by reuoluing the writers of priuate Histories vnlesse there chaunce to bée some such mā which passyng by a gorgious and brauely builded citie or beholding the parts therof drawn forth incontinently supposeth that he hath a perfecte knowledge of the situation sigure and course of the vniuersall worlde which is incongruent and impossible And verily as I iudge they no lesse erre and dissent from the truthe which thinke by readyng a particular or priuate historie to obtaine the exact knowledge of the vniuersal thā those which beholding the partes of a liuely and beautifull bodie disperpled and seperate into sundry members and thinke them selues perfectly to know the good shape and feture of the same ioyned together But if a man would take and vnite the distincte seperate and seuered partes setting them according to theyr due disposition coniunction and perfectnesse then afterwarde shew it them againe vndoutedly they would confesse to haue erred gon astray like to one in a dreame for it is possible that seing the seperate parts they might conceiue a certaine imagination but to obtaine a sure knowledge it is impossible Wherefore we may well gather that a particular Historie is nothing to be compared with the knowledge of the vniuersall in the reuoluing of which it is impossible that a man shall not take both swéet profit and wonderfull pleasure by reason of the varietie and worthinesse of matter contained therin This booke shall begin at the nauigation of the Romanes out of Italye which consequently foloweth those things that were last written by Timeus and was the hundreth twenty nynth Olimpiad But now it is expedient that I disclose how at what time the Italyans prepared and made them selues ready to take shippe into Scicilia also with what strength and puissance they attempted that voiage which was the first land that they entered without Italye after they hadde appeased the ciuill discorde domesticall dissention and bloudy warres in theyr owne country Also the original of this profection must be explaned wythout obscuritie or dissimulation least in fetching the cause too farre the entrance and beginning be made ambiguous or doutful Also ther must be such a beginning as is agreable with the times facts so that one part may declare expounde an other although in the repeating of these things it were expedient that the actes done in them shoulde be briefly discoursed For the beginning being vnknowne dark it is very harde to make the consequent to be credited but if the principle or entrance be true the auditors will haue a firmer opinion of the reste It was the nintenth yere after that warre in whiche Simon the Athenian subdued Xerxes the sixtenth yeare before the battaile foughte against the Leu●trans in which the Lacedemonians made a treatie concerning peace with the king of the Persians Aboute what time Dionisius the elder hauyng vanquished and suppressed the Grecians inhabiting the coasts of Italy which bordered vpon Ellepora beseiged Regia a citie of Callabria at which instante the French men possessed all Rome sauing the Capitole at which tyme the Romanes taking truce with them recouered their auncient libertie and fréedome of their countrey began to warre agaynst theyr neighbours bordering marching to their region and hauing ouercome and put in subiection all the Latins they warred on the Tuscanes then with the Frenchmen immediatly after with the Samuits Not long after that the Tarentines supposing them selues to be in danger for certaine offences which they hadde committed agaynste the Romane Legats receiued home king Pyrrhus a yeare before the Frenchmen entered Italye wyth

to wander and forage abrode in the countrey so that many of the Africans reuolted to thē diuers Cities yelded willingly Then they brought their hoste to Tunes intēding to besiege Matho and his accomplices Annibal pitched his tents on that side of the towne which is towards Carthage and Amilcar on the opposite They brought with them Spendius and the other which they had taken and hanged them all in the sight of their enimies When Amilcar was departed to his station Matho perceiuing Annibal to come into his tentes with his souldiers verie rashly thought it not best to pretermit such an oportunitie but issued out against the Carthaginenses toke many of them compelling the rest to returne sacking their tentes carying away their stuffe In this cōbate Annibal the Carthaginean captain was taken aliue incōtinently led to the gallowes of Spendius where they toke and hanged vp Annibal murdered thirtie noble men of Carthage about the dead corps of Spendius so that fortune declined equally to both partes giuing them time to be reuenged of their enimies Amilcar being warned to late of this vnhappie chaunce could not helpe them the plot was so impassible wherfore he remoued from Tunes and brought his armie to the riuer Machera where he encamped along the banke The Carthaginenses hearing tell of the wretched chance happened to their men begon to dispaire but incontinently recouering theyr spirites they studied diligently to preserue the state of their Citie Then they sent their Senatours legates to Amilcar which led with them Hanno and a new crew of men commaunding that in any case they should take vp the olde rancor debate that was betwixt him and Amilcar which being vnited together shoulde with one minde indeuour them selues to conquer theyr ennimies willing them to way the cruelty of that time wyth the necessitie and apparaunt daunger the Citie was in The Senatours called the captains together then after many and sundry exhortatiōs smothered repressed the cankered sedition reconcyling making thē obedient to the Carthaginenses Then afterwardes all things were ruled by the two captaines so that warring against Matho after many chances both at Leptis other places they appointed to pitch a fielde and fight it out with their enimies to which both parts came coragiously gathering the friends allies out of euery corner sending for them which were appointed to defend the cities knowing that in this battaile one parte should win the spurres After that bothe armies had prepared all things belonging to the battaile and were ready they orderly inuaded on the other the battaile was maruellous cruell rigorous and mortall but the Carthaginenses in the ende obtained the victorie The moste part of their Enimies were slaine in fight the rest fled to a little Citie adiacent which yelded immediatly So that onely Vtica and Hippona perseuered in their obstinacie acknowledging their wickednesse hoping of no mercy for their facinorous crime by which we may learne a modest meane to be of much efficacie and that it is better to pill straws than to worke such curious geare and crafty conueyaunces that in the ende the same is intollerable But at the laste Amilcar Hanno incamping about them they were forced to yelde agree to all such things as pleased the Carthaginenses According to this maner was the African warre ended in which the Carthaginenses had such prosperous successe that they not onely obtained all Africa but also executed condign punishment vpon the rebelles Matho his copes mates were led about the towne with the youth of the Citie for a triumph then put to paines worthy of their wickednesse This war endured thrée yeares and foure monethes far exceding all other in crueltie and wickednesse that euer I heard of About that time the Romans were allured by the persuasions of the souldiers that fled out of Sardinia to transfrete into the Iland which thing the Carthaginenses somewhat stomaked bicause the Ilād belonged rather vnto them and therefore prepared an army to send into it The Romans hauing gotten that occasion commaunded them to desist from their purpose affirming their preparaunce not to be so much againste the Sardinians as against them The Carthaginenses perceiuing how they were not able at that presēt to match with the Romans louted for the time and eschuing al occasions of battaile did not onely graunt them the Iland but also sent them a thousand two hundreth talents least they should assaile them at that present Thus orderly according to this prescripte maner were these things done Nihil est dulcius bene impensi temporis Memoria Contra vero his molestius nihill Thus endeth the first booke of histories written by the most famous and worthy Grecian Chronographer Polybius intreating in the first part of the warres betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginenses for the domination of Scicilie in the second parte of that warrs betwixt the Carthaginenses and their mercinarie souldiers a rich worthie worke containing holsome counsailes and wonderful deuises against the incombraunce of fickle fortune and comfortable consolations for them that are depressed by hir a worke much profitable to all the Reders thereof but especially to the diligent digesters of the same To the Questioners Those which are desirous to know the causes why I ioyned this abridgement of King Henry the fift his life to this foraine History let them reade the Epistle folowing IF any couet to know why I toke in hande to renouate the triumphante reigne and victorious actes of this Arabical Phoenix and famous conquerour either how I was bolde to coarct them so compendiously whereby his martial prowes may be thought to be appalled or diminished to the reasonable requeste and trusting to their humanitie thus I aunswere them imploying my diligēce and studie in the obscure workes and intricate engins of the famous Aristotle prince of Philosophers to attaine some knowledge continued in that sage Sophye my wittes were so cloyed yea almost dased that of necessitie and constrainte I was forced to seke some recreation Then incontinently came to my memory a sentence of the diuine golden Plato containing these wordes When thou arte fatigate vvith studie recreate and repose thy selfe vvith reuoluing vvorthy Histories Then I be gan to excogitate what Histories of al other were most famous Peragons in the comparison of the rest being desirous to practise some presēt remedy But then tumbled an other thought in my braine which persuaded me to thinke if the varietie of studie reuiued and set on edge an obtuse or blunt wit that the alteration of the language should be of some effycacie force So I raught to our English Chronacles compiled by Edvvard Hall which by fortune behelde the fountaine and effycient of my translation and all the rest lay open at that present in the life of King Henry the fift where was noted in the margent the Oration of Henry Chickley Archbishop of Canterbury which Oration I red ouer and