least haue thought of For in great matters that happen seldome Homer sayeth and crieth out in this sorte The goddesse Pallas she vvith her fayer glistering eyes dyd put into his minde suche thoughts and made him so deuise And in an other place But sure some god hath t'ane out of the peoples minde both vvit and vnderstanding eke and haue thervvith assynde some other simple spirite in steede thereof to byde that so they might their doings all for lacke of vvit misguyde And in an other place The people of them selues did either it consider or else some god instructed them and so they ioynde together Many recken not of Homer as referring matters vnpossible and fables of no likelyhoode or trothe vnto mans reason free will or iudgement which in deede is not his meaning But things true likely he maketh to depend of our owne free wil and reason For he oft speaketh these wordes I haue thought it in my noble harte And in an other place Achilles angrie vvas and sorie for to heare him so to say his heauy brest vvas fraught vvith pensiue feare And againe in an other place Bellerophon she could not moue vvith her fayer tongue so honest and so vertuous he vvas the rest among But in wonderous and extraordinarie thinges which are done by secret inspirations and motions he doth not say that God taketh away from man his choyce and freedom of will but that he doth moue it neither that the doth worke desire in vs but obiecteth to our mindes certaine imaginations whereby we are lead to desire and thereby doth not make this our action forced but openeth the way to our will and addeth thereto courage and hope of successe For either we must say that the goddes meddle not with the causes and beginninges of our actions or else what other meanes haue they to helpe and further men It is apparaunt that they handle not our bodies nor moue not our feete and handes when there is occasion to vse them but that parte of our minde from which these motions proceede is induced thereto or caried away by such obiectes and reasons as God offereth vnto it Now the ROMAINE Ladies and gentlewomen did visite all the temples and goddes of the same to make their prayers vnto them but the greatest Ladies and more parte of them were continuallie about the aulter of Iupiter Capitolin emonge which troupe by name was Valeria Publicolaes owne sister The selfe same Publicola who did such notable seruice to the ROMAINES both in peace warres and was dead also certaine yeares before as we haue declared in his life His sister Valeria was greatly honoured and reuerenced amonge all the ROMAINES and did so modestlie and wiselie behaue her selfe that she did not shame nor dishonour the house she came of So she sodainely fell into suche a fansie as we haue rehearsed before and had by some god as I thinke taken holde of a noble deuise Whereuppon she rose and thother Ladies with her and they all together went straight to the house of Volumnia Martius mother and comming in to her founde her and Martius wife her daughter in lawe set together and hauinge her husbande Martius young children in her lappe Now all the traine of these Ladies sittinge in a ringe rounde about her Valeria first beganne to speake in this sorte vnto her We Ladies are come to visite you Ladies my Ladie Volumnia and Virgilia by no direction from the Senate nor commaundement of other magistrate but through the inspiration as I take it of some god aboue Who hauinge taken compassion and pitie of our prayers hath moued vs to come vnto you to intreate you in a matter as well beneficiall for vs as also for the whole citizens in generall but to your selues in especiall if it please you to credit me and shall redounde to our more fame and glorie then the daughters of the SABYNES obteined in formerage when they procured louinge peace instead of hatefull warre betwene their fathers and their husbands Come on goodladies and let vs goe all together vnto Martius to intreate him to take pitie vppon vs and also to reporte the trothe vnto him howe muche you are bounde vnto the citizens who notwithstandinge they haue susteined greate hurte and losses by him yet they haue not hetherto sought reuenge apon your persons by any discurteous vsage neither euer conceyued any suche thought or intent against you but doe deliuer ye safe into his handes though thereby they looke for no better grace or clemency from him When Valeria had spoken this vnto them all thother ladyes together with one voyce confirmed that she had sayed Then Volumnia in this sorte did aunswer her My good ladies we are partakers with you of the common miserie and calamitie of our countrie and yet our griefe exceedeth yours the more by reason of our particular misfortune to feele the losse of my sonne Martius former valiancie and glorie and to see his persone enuironâ—ed nowe with our enemies in armes rather to see him foorth comminge and safe kept then of any loue to defende his persone But yet the greatest griefe of our heaped mishappes is to see our poore countrie brought to suche extremitie that all the hope of the safetie and preseruation thereof is nowe vnfortunately cast vppon vs simple women bicause we knowe not what accompt he will make of vs sence he hath cast from him all care of his naturall countrie and common weale which heretofore he hath holden more deere and precious then either his mother wife or children Notwithstandinge if ye thinke we can doe good we will willingly doe what you will haue vs bringe vs to him I pray you For if we can not preuaile we maye yet dye at his feete as humble suters for the safetie of our countrie Her aunswere ended she tooke her daughter in lawe and Martius children with her and being accompanied with all the other ROMAINE ladies they went in troupe together vnto the VOLSCES campe whome when they sawe they of them selues did both pitie and reuerence her and there was not a man amonge them that once durst say a worde vnto her Nowe was Martius set then in his chayer of state with all the honours of a generall and when he had spied the women comming of farre of he marueled what the matter ment but afterwardes knowing his wife which came formest he determined at the first to persist in his obstinate and inflexible rancker But ouercomen in the ende with naturall affection and being altogether altered to see them his harte would not serue him to tarie their comming to his chayer but comming downe in hast he went to meete them and first he kissed his mother and imbraced her a pretie while then his wife and litle children And nature so wrought with him that the teares fell from his eyes and he coulde not keepe him selfe from making much of them but yeelded to the affection of his bloode as if he
saye Amycla was one of them which nourced Alcibiades But Pericles his tutor gaue him afterwardes a bonde man called Zopyrus to be his master and gouernour who had no better propertie in him then other common slaues This did not Lycurgus For he did not put the education and gouernment of the children of SPARTA into the handes of hyered masters or slaues bought with money neither was it lawfull for the father him selfe to bring vp his owne childe after his owne manner and liking For so soone as they came to seuen yeres of age he tooke and diuided them by companies to make them to be brought vp together and to accustome them to playe to learne and to studie one with another Then he chose out of euery company one whom he thought to haue the best wit and had most courage in him to fight to whom he gaue the charge and ouersight of his owne companie The reste had their eyes waiting allwayes on him they did obey his commaundementes willingly they did abide paciently all corrections he gaue them they did suche taskes and worckes as he appointed them so that all their studie was most to learne to obey Furthermore the olde graye headed men were present many times to see them playe and for the most parte they gaue them occasions to fall out and to fight one with another that they might thereby the better knowe and discerne the naturall disposition of euery one of them and whether they gaue any signes or tokens in time to come to become cowardes or valliant men Touching learning they had as muche as serued their turne for the reste of their time they spent in learning howe to obey to awaye with payne to indure labour to ouercome still in fight According to their groweth and yeres they dyd chaunge the exercises of their bodyes they dyd shaue their heads they went barelegged they were constrained to playe naked together the most parte of their time After they were past twelue yeres of age they ware no lenger coates and they gaue them yerely but one seely gowne This was the cause they were alwayes so nasty sluttishe they neuer vsed to bathe or noynte themselues sauing only at certaine dayes in the yere when they were suffered to rast of this refreshing They laye and slept together vpon beddes of straw which they themselues dyd make of the toppes of reedes or canes that grewe in the riuer of Eurotas which they were forced to goe gather and breake them selues with their handes without any toole or iron at all In the winter they dyd mingle thistle downe with these which is called Lycophonas bicause that stuffe seemeth somewhat warme of it selfe About this time the fauorers and likers of this prety youthe which were commonly the lustiest and best disposed youthes of the cittie beganne to be ofter in their companie and then the olde men tooke the better regarde vnto them and frequented more commonly the places of their daylie exercises where their vse was to fight together helping them when they played how one should mocke another This dyd their olde men notby waye of pastime only but with suche care and harcy loue towards them as if they had bene altogether their fathers masters gouernours while they were boyes in so much as there was neuer time nor place where they had not allwayes some to admonishe reproue or correct them if they dyd a faulte Notwithstanding all this there was euer one of the honestest men of the cittie who had expressely the charge and gouernaunce of these boyes He dyd diuide them in companies and afterwards gaue the ouersight of them to suche a one of the boyes as was discreetest the manliest the most hardie and of the best corage amongest them They called the children that were past infancie two yeres Irenes and the greatest boyes Melirenes as who would saye ready to goe out of boyerie This boye who was made ouerseer of them was commonly twenty yeres of age He was their captaine when they fought and did commaunde them as his seruaunts when they were in the house and willed them which were strongest and the most growen to carie wodde when they should prepare dinner or supper and those which were least and weakest to goe gather erbes which they must steale or lacke them So they went out to steale some in gardens some at the markets other in the halles where the feastes were kept and men did eate together into the which they conueyed them selues as closely and cunningly as they could deuise for if they were taken with the manner they were scourged terriblie bicause they were so grosse and necligent and not fine and cunning in their facultie They stole also all other kinde of meate whatsoeuer they could get or laye hands on They pried and sought all occasions howe to take and steale meate handsomely bothe when men were a sleepe or els that they were careles or did not geue good hede vnto them But he that was taken with the manner had his payment roundely and was punished with fasting besides for they had but a slender pittaunce bicause necessity should driue them to venter boldely and wit should finde out all the deuises to steale finely This was the chiefest cause why they gaue them so small a diet The seconde cause was that their bodies might growe vp higher in height For the vitall spirites not being occupied to concoct and disgest much meate nor yet kept downe or spread abroade by the quantitie or ouerburden thereof doe enlarge them selues into lengthe and shoote vp for their lightnes and for this reason they thought the bodie did growe in height and lengthe hauing nothing to let or hinder the rising of the same It seemeth that the same selfe cause made them fayerer also For the bodies that are leane and slender doe better and more easely yeld to nature which bringeth a better proportion and forme to euery member and contrariwise it seemeth these grosse corpulent and ouersedde bodies doe encounter nature and be not so nimble and pliant to her by reason of their heauy substaunce As we see it by experience the children which women bring a litle before their time and be somwhat cast before they should haue bene borne be smaller and fayerer also and more pure commonly then other that goe their time bicause the matter whereof the bodie is formed being more supple and pliant is the easelier welded by nature which geueth them their shape and forme Touching the naturall cause of this effect let vs geue place to other to dispute it that will without our further deciding of the same But to returne to the matter of the LACEDAEMONIANS children They dyd robbe with so great care and feare to be discouered that they tell of one which hauing stolen a litle foxe dyd hyde him vnder his cloke and suffered him with his teethe and clawes to teare out all his bellie and neuer cryed for feare
Nature in like case also hauing planted in our minds a naturall desire to learne and vnderstand we are in reason to reproue those that vainely abuse this good desire fondly disposing it to learne things vaine and vnprofitable and to cast behinde them in the meane season things honest and necessarie to be learned For as touching our outward sence which with passion receaueth impressiō of the thing it seeth peraduenture it wil be necessarie to consider indifferently the thing seene whether it will fall out beneficiall or hurtefull vnto him but so fareth it not with our vnderstanding for euery man maye at his pleasure turne and dispose that to the thinge he taketh delight in the reason whereof we must allwayes employe to the best parte and that not only to consider and looke vpon the thing but also to reape the benefit and commoditie of the thing we see For like as the eye is most delited with the lightest and freshest cullers euen so we must geue our mindes vnto those sightes which by looking vpon them doe drawe profit and pleasure vnto vs For such effects doth vertue bring that either to heare or reade them they doe printe in our hartes an earnest loue aud desire to followe them But this followeth not in all other things we esteeme neither are we allwayes disposed to desire to doe the things we see wel done but cōtrary oftentimes when we like the worke we mislike the worke man as cōmonly in making these perfumes and purple cullers For both the one the other doe please vs well but yet we take perfumers diers to be men of a meane occupation Therefore Antisthenes aunswered one very wisely that told him Ismenias was an excellent player of the flute But yet he is a naughtie man sayed he otherwise he could not be so conning at the flute as he is Euen so dyd Philippe king of MACEDON faye to his sonne Alexander the great on a time that at a certen feast had song passing sweetely and like a master of musicke Art thou not ashamed sonne to singe so well It is enough for a King to bestowe his leysure somtime to heare musitians singe and he doth much honour to the muses to heare the masters of the science otherwhile when one of them singeth to excell another But he that personally shall bestowe his time exercising any meane science bringeth his paynes he hath taken in matters vnprofitable a witness against him selfe to proue that he hath bene negligent to learne things honest and profitable And there was neuer any young gentleman nobly borne that seeing the image of Iupiter which is in the cittie of PISA desired to become Phidias nor Polycletus for seeing of Iune in the cittie of ARGOS nor that desired to be Anacreon or Philemon or Archilochus for that they tooke pleasure somtime to reade their workes For it followeth not of necessitie that though the worke delight the workeman must needes be praysed And so in like case such things doe not profit those which behold them bicause they doe not moue affection in the hartes of the beholders to followe them neither doe stirre vp affection to resemble them and much lesse to conforme our selues vnto them But vertue hath this singular propertie in all her actions that she maketh the man that knoweth her to affect her so that straight he liketh all her doings and desireth to followe those that are vertuous For as for riches we only desire to haue them in possession but of vertue we chiefly loue the deedes Wherefore we are contented to haue goodes from other men but good deedes we would other should haue from vs For vertue is of this power that she allureth a mans minde presently to vse her that wisely considereth of her and maketh him very desirous in his harte to followe her and doth not frame his manners that beholdeth her by any imitation but by the only vnderstanding and knowledge of vertuous deedes which sodainely bringeth vnto him a resolute desire to doe the like And this is the reason why me thought I should continew still to write on the liues of noble men and why I made also this tenthe booke in the which are conteined the liues of Pericles and Fabius Maximus who mainteined warres against Hanniball For they were both men very like together in many sundry vertues and specially in curtesie and iustice for that they could paciently beare the follies of their people and companions that were in charge of gouernment with them they were maruelous profitable members for their countrie But if we haue sorted them well together comparing the one with the other you shall easely iudge that reade our writings of their liues Pericles was of the tribe of the Acamantides of the towne of CHOLARGVS and of one of the best most auncient families of the cittie of ATHENS both by his father and mother For Xanthippus his father who ouercame in battell the lieutenants of the king of PERSIA in the iorney of Mysala maried Agariste that came of Clisthenes he who draue out of ATHENS Pisistratus ofspring and valliantly ouerthrewe their tyrannie Afterwards he established lawes and ordeined a very graue forme of gouernment to mainteine his citizens in peace and concorde together This Agariste dreamed one night that she was brought a bed of a lyon and very shortely after she was deliuered of Pericles who was so well proportioned in all the partes of his bodie that nothing could be mended sauing that his head was somwhat to long and out of proportion to the rest of his bodie And this is the only cause why all the statues images of him almost are made with a helmet of his head bicause the workemen as it should seeme and so it is most likely were willing to hide the bleamishe of his deformitie But the ATTICAN poets dyd call him Schinocephalos asmuch to saye as headed like an onyon For those of ATTICA doe somtime name that which is called in the vulgar tongue Scilla that is to saye an onyon of barbarie Schinos And Cratinus the Comicall poet in his comedie be intituled Chirones sayed Olde Saturne he and dreadfull dyre debate begotten haue betvvene them Carnally this tyranne here this heauy iollting pate in courte of goddes so termed vvorthely And againe also in that which he nameth Nemesis speaking of him he sayeth Come Iupiter come Iupiter Come iollthead and come inkeeper And Teleclides mocking him also sayeth in a place Somtimes he standes amazed vvhen he perceyues that harde it vvere sufficiently to knovve in vvhat estate his gouernment he leaues And then vvill he be seldome seene by lovve suche heauy heapes vvith in his braynes doe grovve But yet somtimes out of that monstruous pate he thundreth fast and threatneth euery state And Eupolis in a comedie which he intituled Démi being very inquisitiue and asking particularly of euery one of the Orators whom he fayned were returned out of hell when they named
gouernment as is sufficiency which beinge a contentacion in it selfe and desirous of no superfluous thing it neuer withdraweth a man from following his businesse in the common wealth that enioyeth the same For God is he alone who simply and absolutely hath no neede of any thinge at all wherefore the chiefest vertue that can be in man and that commeth nearest vnto God ought to be esteemed that which maketh man to haue neede of least thinges For like as a lusty body and well complexioned hath no neede of superfluous fare and curious apparell euen so a cleane life and sounde house is kept with a litle charge and so shoulde the goodes also be proportioned accordinge to vse and necessity For he that gathereth much and spendeth litle hath neuer enough But admit he hath no desire to spend much then he is a foole to trauell to get more then he needeth and if he do desire it and dare not for niggardlines spende parte of that he laboreth for then is he miserable Now woulde I aske Cato with a goodwill if riches be made but to vse them why do you boast then you haue gotten much together when a litle doth suffice you and if it be a commendable thing as in troth it is to be contented with the breade you finde to drinke of the same tappe workemen and laborers do not to care for purple dyed gownes nor for houses with plastered walles it followeth then that neither Aristides nor Epaminondas nor Manius Curius nor Caius Fabricius haue forgotten any parte of their dueties when they cared not for gettinge of that which they would not vse nor occupy For it was to no purpose for a man that esteemed rootes and parsenippes to be one of the best dishes in the worlde and that did seeth them him selfe in his chimney whilest his wise did bake his bread to talke so much of an Asse and to take paines to wryte by what arte and industry a man might quickely enrich him selfe For it is true that sufficiency and to be contented with a litle is a good and commendable thinge but it is bicause it taketh from vs all desire of vnnecessary thinges and maketh vs not to passe for them And therefore we finde that Aristides sayd when riche Callias case was pleaded that such as were poore against their willes might wel be ashamed of their pouerty but such as were willingly poore had good cause and might iustly reioyce at it For it were a mad parte to thinke that Aristides pouerty proceeded of a base minde slothfulnes since he might quickely haue made him selfe rich without any dishonesty at all by taking only the spoyle of some one of the barbarous people whome he had ouercome or any one of their tentes But enough for this matter Furthermore touching the victories and battells Cato had wonne they did in maner litle helpe to increase the Empire of ROME for it was already so great as it could almost be no greater But Aristides victories are the greatest conquestes and noblest actes that the GREECIANS euer did in any warres as the iorney of MARATHON the battell of SALAMINA and the battell of PLATâ—ES And yet there is no reason to compare king Antiochus with king Xerxes nor the walles of the citie of SPAYNE which Cato ouerthrewe and rased vnto so many thousands of barbarous people which were then ouerthrowen and put to the sword by the GREECIANS as well by lande as by sea In all which seruices Aristides was the chiefest before all other as touching his valliantnes in fighting notwithstanding he gaue other the glory of it that desired it more then him selfe as he did easily also leaue the gold siluer vnto those that had more neede of it then him selfe Wherein he shewed him selfe of a nobler minde then all they did Furthermore for my parte I will not reproue Catoes manner to commende and extoll him selfe so highly aboue all other since he him selfe sayth in an oration he made that to praise himself is as much folly as also to dispraise himselfe but this I thinke his vertue is more perfect that desireth other should not praise him then he that commonly doth vse to praise him selfe For not to be ambitious is a great shew of humanity necessary for him that will liue amongest men of gouernment and euen so ambition is hatefull and procureth great enuy vnto him that is infected withall Of the which Aristides was cleare and Cato farre gone in it For Aristides did help Themistocles his chiefest enemie in all his noblest actes and did serue him as a man would say like a priuate souldier that garded his persone when Themistocles was generall beinge the onely instrument and meane of his glory which was in deede the onely cause that the city of ATHENS was saued and restored againe to her former good state Cato contrariwise crossing Scipio in all his enterprises thought to hinder his voyage and iorney vnto CARTHAGE in the which he ouercame Hanniball who vntill that time was euer inuincible and so in the ende continuing him still in iealouzy with the state and euer accusinge of him he neuer left him till he had driuen him out of the city and caused his brother Lucius Scipio to be shamefully condemned for theft and ill behauiour in his charge Furthermore for temperaunce and modesty which Cato did euer commende so highly Aristides truely kept them most sincerely But Catoes seconde wife who maried a maide that was neither fit for his dignity and calling nor agreeable for his age made him to be thought a lecherous man and not without manifest cause For he can not be excused with honesty that beinge a man past mariage brought his sonne that was maried and his fayer daughter in lawe a steppe mother into his house and but a clearkes daughter whose father did wryte for money for any man that woulde hyer him Take it Cato maried her to satisfie his lust or else for spite to be reuenged of his sonne bicause his sonne coulde not abide his younge filth he had before either of these turneth still to his shame as wel the effect as also the cause Againe the excuse he made to his sonne why he maried was also a lye For if he had grounded his desire in deede to haue gotten other children as he sayd that might be as honest men as his eldest sonne then surely he had done well after the death of his first wife if he had sought him an other wife soone after that had bene of an honest house and not to haue lien with a young harlatry filth til his sonne had spied him and then when he saw it was knowen to goe and mary her and to make alliance with him not bicause it was honorable for him to do it but was easiest to be obtained The ende of Marcus Catoes life the Censor THE LIFE OF Philopoemen IN the city of MANTINEA there was a citizen in old time called Cassander one
was slaine at that time moe Captaines than in all the other warres of GREECE together all which were at the length brought to ende and determined by the good wisedome and conduction of one onely man And therefore some thought that this great ouerthrowe was geuen by the gods and sayd that at the departure of Lysanders fleete out of the hauen of LAMPSACVS to get set apon the fleete of the enemies they perceaued ouer Lysanders galley the two fires which they call the starres of Castor and Pollux the one on the toneside of the galley and the other on thother side They say also that the fall of the stone was a token that did signifie this great ouerthrow For about that time as many hold opinion there fell out of the ayer a maruelous great stone in the place they call the goates riuer which stone is seene yet vnto this day holden in great reuerence by the inhabitauntes of the citie of CHERRONESVS It is sayd also that Anaxagoras did prognosticate that one of the bodies tyed vnto the vaulte of the heauen should be pluckt away and should fall to the ground by a slyding shaking that should happen For he sayd that the starres were not in their proper place where they were first created considering that they were heauy bodies and of the nature of stone howebeit that they did shine by reflection of the fire elementory had bene drawen vp thither by force where they were kept by the great violēce of the circuler motion of the element euen as at the beginning of the world they had bene stayed let from falling downe beneath at that time when the separation was made of the colde and heauy bodies from the other substaunce of the vniuersal world There is an other opinion of certaine Philosophers where there is more likelyhoode then in that For they say that those which we call falling starres be no fluxions nor deriuacions of the fire elementorie which are put out in the ayer in a manner so soone as they be lighted nor also an inflammation or cōbustion of any parte of the ayer which by her to ouermuch quantity doth spread vpwardes but they are celestiall bodies which by some slackenes of strength or falling from the ordinary course of heauen are throwen and cast downe here beneath not alwayes in any parte of the earth inhabited but more ofter abroade in the great Occean sea which is the cause that we do not see them Notwithstanding Anaxagoras words are confirmed by Damachus who writeth in his booke of religion that the space of three score and fifteene yeares together before that this stone did fall they saw a great lumpe of fier continually in the ayer like a clowde inflamed the which taried not in any one place but went and came with diuerse broken remouings by the driuing whereof there came out lightnings of fire that sell in many places and gaue light in falling as the starres do that fall In the end when this great body of fire fell in that parte of the earth the inhabitants of the contrie after that they were a litle boldened from their feare and wonder came to the place to see what it was and they found no manner of shew or appearaunce of fire but only a very great stone lying vpon the ground but nothing in comparison of the least parte of that which the compasse of this bodie of fire did shew if we may so name it Sure herein Damachus wordes had neede of fauorable hearers But againe if they be true then he vtterly comuteth their argumentes that maintaine that it was a peece of a rocke which the force of a boysterous winde did teare from the toppe of a mountaine and caried in the ayer so long as this hurle winde continued but so soone as that was downe and calme againe the stone fell immediatly Neither doe we say that this lightning bodie which appeared so many dayes in the element was very fire in deede which comming to dissolue and to be put out did beget this violent storme and boysterous wind in the element that had the force to teare the stone in sunder to cast it downe Neuertheles this matter requireth better discourse in some other booke then this But now to our story Whē the three thowsand ATHENIANS that were taken prisoners at that ouerthrow were condemned by the counsell to be put to death Lysander calling Philocles one of the Captaines of the ATHENIANS asked him what paine he would iudge him worthy of that gaue the citizens so cruell wicked counsell Philocles being nothing abashed to see him selfe in that miserie aunswered him Accuse not them that haue no iudge to heare their cause but since the goddes haue geuen thee grace to be conqueror doe with vs as we would haue done with thee if we had ouercome thee When he had sayd so he went to washe him selfe and then put on a fayer cloke vpon him as if he should haue gone to some feast and went lustely the formest man to execution leading his contrie men the way as Theophrastus wryteth After this done Lysander with all his fleete went by all the cities of the sea coast where he commaūded so many ATHENIANS as he founde that they should get them to ATHENS letting them vnderstand that he would not pardone a man of them but put them all to death as many as he found out of their city And this he did of policie to bring them all within the precinct of the walles of ATHENS bicause he might so much the sooner famish them for lacke of vittells for otherwise they would haue troubled him sore if they had had wherewithall to haue maintayned a long siege But in all the cities as he passed by if they were gouerned by the authority of the people or if that there were any other kinde of gouernment he left in euery one of them a LACEDAEMONIAN Captaine or gouernor with a counsell of tenne officers of them that had bene before in league and amity with him the which he did as well in the cities that had euer bene confederates and frendes vnto the LACEDAEMONIANS as in them that not long before had bene their enemies So he went sayling all alongest the coastes fayer and softely making no haste stablishing in manner a generall principality ouer all GREECE For he did not make them officers that were the richest the noblest or honestest men but such as were his frendes out of those tribes which he had placed in euery citie to them he gaue authority to punish and reward such as they liked of and would be present him selfe in persone to helpe them to put those to death whome they would execute or otherwise expulse or banish their contrie But this gaue the GREECIANS small hope of good or gratious gouernment vnder the rule of the LACEDAEMONIANS Wherefore me thinkes that Theopompus the comicall Poet doted when he compared the
bicause mans life is so short and experience is hard and daungerous specially in matters of vvarre vvherein according to the saying of Tamathus the Athenian Captaine a man can not fault tvvice bicause the faultes are so great that most commonly they bring vvith them the ouerthrovv of the state or the losse of the liues of those that do them Therefore vve must not tary for this vvit that is vvon by experience vvhich costeth so deere and is so long a comming that a man is ofttimes dead in the seeking of it before he haue attained it so as he had neede of a seconde life to imploy it in bicause of the ouerlate comming by it But vve must make speede by our diligent and continuall reading of histories both old and nevv that vve may enjoy this happinesse vvhich the Poet speaketh of A happie wight is he that by mishappes Of others doth beware of afterchappes By the vvay as concerning those that say that paper vvill beare all things if there be any that vnvvorthily take vpon them the name of historiographers and deface the dignity of the story for hatred or fauor by mingling any vntrueth vvith it that is not the fault of the historie but of the men that are partiall vvho abuse that name vnvvorthily to couer and cloke their ovvne passions vvithall vvhich thing shall neuer come to passe if the vvriter of the storie haue the properties that are necessarily required in a storie vvriter as these That he set aside all affection be voyde of enuy hatred and flattery that he be a man experienced in the affaires of the vvorld of good vtterance and good iudgement to discerne vvhat is to be sayd and vvhat to be left vnsayd vvhat vvould do more harme to haue it declared than do good to haue it reproued or condemned forasmuch as his chiefe drift ought to be to serue the common vveale and that he is but as a register to set dovvne the iudgements and definitiue sentences of Gods Court vvhereof some are geuen according to the ordinarie course and capacitie of our vveake naturall reason and other some goe according to Gods infinite povver and incomprehensible vvisedom aboue and against all discourse of mans vnderstanding vvho being vnable to reach to the bottome of his iudgements and to finde out the first motions and groundes thereof do impute the cause of them to acertaine fortune vvhich is nought else but a fained deuice of mans vvit dazeled at the beholding of such brightnesse and confounded at the gaging of so bottomlesse a deepe hovvbeit nothing commeth to passe nor is done vvithout the leaue of him that is the verie right and trueth it selfe vvith vvhom nothing is past or to come and vvho knovveth and vnderstandeth the very originall causes of all necessitie The consideration vvhereof teacheth men to humble them selues vnder his mightie hande by acknovvledging that there is one first cause vvhich ouerruleth nature vvhereof it commeth that neither hardinesse is alvvaies happie nor vvisedom alvvaies sure of good successe These so notable commodities are euery vvhere accompanied vvith singular delight vvhich proceedeth chiefly of diuersitie and nouelty vvherein our nature delighteth and is greatly desirous of bicause vve hauing an earnest inclination tovvards our best prosperity and aduauncement it goeth on still seeking it in euery thing vvhich it taketh to be goodly or good in this vvorld But forasmuch as it findeth not vvherevvith to content it selfe vnder the cope of heauen it is soone vveary of the things that it had earnestly desired affore so goeth on vvādring in the vnskilfulness of her likings vvherof she neuer ceasseth to make a continuall chaunging vntill she haue fully satisfied her desires by attaining to the last end vvhich is to be knit to her chiefe felicity vvhere is the full perfection of all goodlines and goodnes This liking of varietie can not be better releeued than by that vvhich is the finder out and the preseruer of time the father of all noueltie and messenger of antiquitie For if vve finde a certaine singular pleasure in hearkening to such as be returned from some long voyage and doe report things vvhich they haue seene in straunge contries as the maners of people the natures of places and the fashions of liues differing from ours and if vve be sometime so rauished vvith delight and pleasure at the hearing of the talke of some vvise discreete and vvell spoken old man from vvhose mouth there flovveth a streame of speech svveeter than honnie in rehearsing the aduentures vvhich he hath had in his greene and youthfull yeares the paines that he hath indured and the perills that he hath ouerpassed so as vve perceiue not hovv the time goeth avvay hovv much more ought vve be rauished vvith delight and vvondring to behold the state of mankind and the true successe of things vvhich antiquitie hath and doth bring forth from the beginning of the vvorld as the setting vp of Empires the ouerthrovv of Monarchies the rising and falling of Kingdoms and all things else vvorthie admiration and the same liuely set forth in the faire rich and true table of eloquence And that so liuely as in the very reading of them vve feele our mindes to be so touched by them not as though the thinges vvere alreadie done and past but as though they vvere euen then presently in doing and vve finde our selues caried avvay vvith gladnesse and griefe through feare or hope vvell neere as though vve vvere then at the doing of them vvhere as notwithstanding vve be not in any paine or daunger but only conceiue in our mindes the aduersities that other folkes haue indured our selues sitting safe vvith our contentation and ease according to these verses of the Poet Lucretius It is a pleasure for to sit at ease Vpon the land and safely thence to see How other folkes are toffed on the seaes That with the blustring windes turmoyled be Not that the sight of others miseries Doth any way the honest hart delight But for bicause it liketh well our eyes To see harmes free that on our selues might light Also it is seene that the reading of histories doth so holde and allure good vvits that diuers times it not only maketh them to forget all other pleasures but also serueth very fittely to turne avvay their griefes and somtimes also to remedie their diseases As for example vve find it vvritten of Alphonsus King of Naples that Prince so greatly renovvmed in Chronicles for his vvisedom and goodnesse that being sore sicke in the citie of Capua vvhen his Phisitions had spent all the cunning that they had to recouer him his health and he savv that nothing preuailed he determined vvith him selfe to take no mo medicines but for his recreacion caused the storie of Quintus Curtius concerning the deedes of Alexander the great to be red before him at the hearing vvhereof he tooke so vvonderfull pleasure that nature gathered strength by it and ouercame the vvayvvardnes of his disease VVhereupon
we ought to consider in them the diuersities of manners and passions seeing anger is vnreasonable and wrathe rashe and passionate then can we not clere the one nor excuse the other of extreme rage and passion in the facte committed by the one against his brother and by the other against his naturall sonne Howbeit the occasion and beginning of anger doth muche excuse Theseus who moued with the greatest cause that might be was put into suche choller and passion But if Romulus variaunce with his brother had proceeded of any matter of counsell or cause of the common weales there is none so simple to thincke that his wisdome would so sodainely haue set vpon him Where as Theseus in contrarie manner killed his sonne prouoked by those passions that fewe men can auoyde to wit loue ielousie and false reporte of his wife Moreouer Romulus anger went to the effect whereof the issue fell out very lamentable Theseus anger stretched no further then to roughe wordes and olde folkes curses in their heate For it seemeth cursed fortune and nought els was the cause of his sonnes only mishappe as forespoken and wished for somewhat by his father These be the speciall things maye be alledged for Theseus But for Romulus this was a noble thing in him First his beginning being very lowe and meane and his brother and he taken for bonde men and the children of hoggeheards before they were them selues all free they set at libertie in manner all the LATINES winning at one instant many titles of glorie and honour as distroyers of their enemies defenders of their parents Kings of nations founders of newe citties and no ouerthrowers of the olde where as Theseus of many habitations and houses made onely one and dyd ouerthrowe and plucke downe diuers states bearing the names of auncient Kings princes and halfe goddes of ATTICA All these also dyd Romulus afterwards and compelled his enemies whom he had ouercome to distroye their owne houses and to come and dwell with their conquerours And in the beginning he neuer chaunged nor increased any cittie that was buylt before but buylt him selfe a newe cittie out of the grounde getting all together land countrie kingdome kinred and mariages without losing or killing any man and to the contrarie rather he dyd good to many poore vacabonds who had neither countrie lands nor houses and desired nothing els but to make a people amongest them and to become cittizens of some cittie Also Romulus bent not him selfe to follow theeues and robbers but subdued by force of armes many mightie and puissant people he tooke citties and triumphed ouer Kings and Princes which he had vanquished in battell And touching the murder of Remus it is not certainely knowen of whose hands he dyed The most parte of authors doe charge other with the death of him But it is certaine that Romulus deliuered his mother from apparant death and restored his grandfather to the royall throne of AEneas who before was deposed and brought from a King to seruill obedience without any regarde of honour or dignitie to whom he dyd many moe great pleasures and seruices Besides he neuer offended him willingly no not so muche as ignorantly Contrarylie I thincke of Theseus who fayling by negligence to put out his white sayle at his returne cannot be cleared of parricide howe eloquent an oration soeuer could be made for his excuse yea though it were before the most fauorable iudges that could be Wherefore an ATHENIAN very well perceyuing that it was an harde thing to excuse and defend so fowle a faulte dothe fayne that the good olde man AEgeus hauing newes brought him that his sonnes shippe was at hand dyd ronne in so great haste to his castell to see his sonne arriue a farre of that as he ranne his foote hit against some thing and ouerthrewe him as though he had none of his people about him or that neuer a man seeing him ronne so hastely to the sea side dyd make haste to attende and wayte vpon him Furthermore Theseus faults touching women and rauishements of the twaine had the lesse shadowe and culler of honestie Bicause Theseus dyd attempt it very often for he stale awaye Ariadne Antiope and Anaxo the Troezenian Againe being stepped in yeres and at later age and past mariage he stale awaye Helen in her minoritie being nothing neere to consent to marye Then his taking of the daughters of the TROEZENIANS of the LACEDAEMONIANS and the AMAZONES neither contracted to him nor comparable to the birthe and linadge of his owne countrie which were at ATHENS and descended of the noble race and progenie of Erichtheus and of Cecrops dyd geue men occasion to suspect that his womannishenes was rather to satisfie lust then of any great loue Romulus nowe in a contrarie manner when his people had taken eight hundred or thereabouts of the Sabyne women to rauishe them kept but onely one for him selfe that was called Hersilia as they saye and deliuered the reste to his best and most honest cittizens Afterwardes by the honour loue and good entertainment that he caused them to haue receyue of their husbands he chaunged this violent force of rauishement into a most perfect bonde and league of amitie which dyd so knyt and ioyne in one these two nations that it was the beginning of the great mutuall loue which grewe afterwards betwext those two people and consequently of the ioyning of their powers together Furthermore time hath geuen a good testimonie of the loue reuerence constancie kyndenes and all matrimoniall offices that he established by that meanes betwext man and wife For in two hundred and thirtie yeres afterwards there was neuer man that durst forsake or put awaye his wife nor the wife her husband And as among the GRECIANS the best learned men and most curious obseruers of antiquities doe knowe his name that was the first murderer of his father or mother euen so all the ROMAINES knewe what he was which first durst put away his wife It was one called Spurius Caruilius bicause his wife was barren and had no children The effects also doe agree with the testimonie of the time For the Realme was common vnto Kings of both nations and through the alliance of these mariages that beganne first of rauishements both nations liued peaciblie and in equalitie vnder one ciuill policie and well gouerned common weale The ATHENIANS contrariewise by Theseus mariages dyd get neither loue nor kynred of any one persone but rather they procured warres enmities the slaughter of their citizens with the losse in the ende of the cittie of APHIDNES and yet very hardely and by the mercie of their enemies whom they honored as godds they escaped for him the daunger which the TROIANS suffered afterwards for the self acte done by Alexander Paris So it fell out at the last that his mother was not only in daunger but euen feelingly suffered like miserie and captiuitie which Hecuba dyd
to be but hauing supped soberly at his ordinarie came home secretly to the house where the bride was and there vntied his wiues girdell tooke her in his armes layed her vpon a bed and talked together a while and afterwards fayer softely stole awaye to the place where he was wonte to sleepe with other young men And so from thenceforth he continued allwayes to doe the like being all the daye time and sleeping most of the night with his companions onles he sometime stale to see his wife being affrayed and ashamed euer to be seene by any of the house where she was And hereunto his younge wife did helpe for her parte to spye meanes and occasions howe they might mete together and not be seene This manner endured a great while and vntill somme of them had children before they boldely met together and sawe eache other on the daye time This secret meeting in this sorte did serue to good purposes not only bicause it was some meane of continencie and shamefastnes but also it kept their bodies in strength and better state to bring forth children It continued also in both parties a still burning loue and a newe desire of the one to the other not as it were luke warme nor wearie as theirs commonly be which haue their bellies full of loue and as muche as they lust but they euer parted with an appetite one from another keeping still a longing desire to deuise howe to mete againe Nowe when he had stablished suche a continencie and so kynde a framed honestie in mariage he tooke no lesse care to driue awaye all foolishe iealousie therein thinking it very good reason to beware there should be no violence nor confusion in mariage and yet as reason would they should suffer those which were worthie to get children as it were in common laughing at the mad follie of them which reuenge such things with warre and bloudshed as though in that case men in no wise should haue no fellowshippe together Therefore a man was not to be blamed being stepped in yeres and hauing a young wife if seeing a fayer young man that liked him and knowen with all to be of a gentle nature he brought him home to get his wife with childe and afterwardes would auowe it for his as if him selfe had gotten it It was lawfull also for an honest man that loued another mans wife for that he sawe her wise shamefast and bringing forth goodly children to intreate her husband to suffer him to lye with her and that he might also plowe in that lustie grounde and cast abroade the seede of well fauored children which by this meanes came to be common in bloude and parentage with the most honorable and honestest persones For first of all Lycurgus did not like that children should be priuate to any men but that they should be common to the common weale by which reason he would also that such as should become cittizens should not be begotten of euery man but of the most honestest men only So Lycurgus thought also there were many foolishe vaine toyes and fansies in the lawes and orders of other nations touching mariage seeing they caused their bitches and mares to be limed and couered with the fayrest dogges and goodliest stalons that might be gotten praying or paying the masters and owners of the same and kept their wiues notwithstanding shut vp safe vnder locke and key for feare least other then them selues might get them with childe although they were sickely feeble brayned and extreme olde As if it were not first of all and chiesly a discommoditie to the fathers and mothers and likewise to those that bring them vp to haue vnperfect and feeble children borne as it were begotten of drie and withered men and then to the contrarie what pleasure and benefit is it to those that haue fayer and good children borne as gotten of like seede and men These things were done then by naturall and ciuill reason neuertheles they saye women were so farre of then from intreatie as euer they were before so as in olde time in SPARTA men knew not what adulterie ment For proofe whereof the aunswer made by Geradas one of the first auncient SPARTANS vnto a straunger maye be alledged that asked him what punishement they had for adulterers My friend q he there be none here But if there were replied the straunger againe Marye sayed he then he must paye as great a bull as standing vpon the toppe of the mountaine Taygetus maye drincke in the riuer of Eurotas Yea marye but howe is it possible q the straunger to finde such a bull Geradas laughing aunswered him againe And howe were it possible also to finde an adulteretin SPARTA And this is that which is found of Lycurgus lawes touching mariages Furthermore after the birthe of euery boye the father was no more master of him to cocker and bring him vp after his will but he him selfe caried him to a certaine place called Lesché where the eldest men of his kinred being set did viewe the childe And if they founde him fayer and well proportioned of all his limmes and stronge they gaue order he should be brought vp and appointed him one of the nine thousand partes of inheritaunce for his education Contrariwise if they founde him deformed misshapen or leane or pale they sent him to be throwen in a deepe pyt of water which they commonly called Apothetes and as a man would saye the common house of office holding opinion it was neither good for the childe nor yet for the common weale that it should liue considering from his birthe he was not well made nor geuen to be stronge healthfull nor lustie of bodie all his life longe For this cause therefore the nurce after their birthe did not washe them with water simply as they doe euery where at that time but with water mingled with wine and thereby did they prooue whether the complexion or temperature of their bodies were good or ill For they suppose that children which are geuen to haue the falling sicknes or otherwise to be full of rewmes sicknesses cannot abide washing with wine but rather drye and pyne awaye as contrarilie the other which are healthfull become thereby the stronger and the lustier The nurces also of SPARTA vse a certaine manner to bring vp their children without swadling or binding them vp in clothes with swadling bandes or hauing on their heades any crosse clothes so as they made them nimbler of their limmes better shaped and goodlier of bodie Besides that they acquainted their children to all kinde of meates and brought them vp without muche tendaunce so as they were neither fine nor licorous nor fearefull to be lefte alone in the darcke neither were they criers wrallers or vnhappy children which be all tokens of base and cowardly natures So that there were straungers that of purpose bought nources out of LACONIA to bring vp their children as they
not say therefore that in time of this association they were lesse to be reckoned of in any thing than them selues Further they added that in ioyning with them the ROMAINES had doubly increased their might and power and had made a bodie of a people which deserued the honour and title of a cittie These were the causes of their contention But to preuent that of this contention there might growe to confusion in the cittie if it should remaine without an head to commaund the Senatours which were a hundred and fiftieth number gaue counsell that euery one of them by turnes one after another should carie the royall state of the King and all the showes and ornaments of his maiestie and should doe the ordinarie sacrifices of the King and dispatche all causes sixe howers in the daye and sixe howers in the night as the King before had vsed Thus they thought it best to deuide the rule that one might haue asmuch power as the other aswell in respect of them selues as also for regarde of the people For they imagined that the chaunging and remouing thus of this regall dignitie and passing it from man to man would clene take awaye enuie among them and make euery of them to rule temperately and vprightly see that in one and that selfe same daye and night euery of them should be a King and priuate persone also The ROMAINES call this manner of regiment in vacation Interregnum as you would saye rule for the time Nowe albeit their gouernment was very modest and ciuill yet they could not for all that keepe them selues from falling into the suspition and slaunder of the people who gaue it out straight that this was a fine deuise of theirs to chaunge by this meanes the rule of the Realme into a fewe noble mens handes to the ende that the whole authoritie and gouernment of all publicke causes should remaine still in them selues bicause it grieued them to be subiect to a king And in the ende the two partes of the cittie came to this agreement that the one parte should choose one of the bodie of the other to be the king This course they liked very well aswell for the pacification of present sturre and dissention amongest them selues as for procuring equalitie of affection and sturring vp a likenes of goodwill in the King that thus indifferently should be chosen whereby he should loue the one parte for that they had chosen him and likewise the other parte for that he was of their nation The SABYNES were the first which referred the election to the ROMAINES choyse and the ROMAINES thought it better to chuse one of the nation of the SABYNES then to haue a ROMAINE chosen by the SABYNES After they had consulted they determined amongest them selues and did choose Numa Pompilius one of the bodye of the SABYNES to be King who was none of the number of them which came to dwell at ROME howbeit he was a man so famous for his vertue that the SABYNES so soone as they named him did receyue him more willingly then they who had chosen him After they had thus published their election the first and chiefest persones of the one the otherside were chosen out to goe vnto him Now Numa Pompilius was borne in one of the chiefest and best citties which the SABYNES had called Cures whereupon the ROMAINES and their fellowes the SABYNES were called afterwardes Quirites and he was the sonne of Pomponius a noble man the youngest of foure brethern being by the secret worcking of the goddes borne on the very daye on the which ROME was first founded by Romulus which was the one and twenty daye of Aprill This man being naturally geuen and inclined vnto all vertue did yet increase the same by studie and all kynde of good discipline and by the exercise thereof and of true pacience and right philosophie he did maruelously adorne him selfe and his manners For he did not only clere his soule and minde of all passions and vices commonly vsed in the worlde but he conquered in him selfe all heates violence couetousnes And would neither seeke nor vsurpe that which was an other mans a thing at that time honoured among the most barbarous people but thought that to be the true and right victorie in man first to conquer and commaund him selfe by iudgement reason then to subdue all couetousnes greedines Hauing therfore this opinion he would in no wise haue in his house any superfluity or finenes He became to euery man that would employe him aswell straunger as his owne countrie man a wise coūsaillour an vpright iudge He bestowed his leysure not to followe his owne delight or to gather goods together but to serue the goddes to behold their celestiall nature and power as much as mans reason vnderstāding could cōprehend Thereby he got so great a name reputation that Tatius which was king of ROME with Romulus hauing but one onely daughter called Tatia made him his sonne in law Howbeit this mariage put him in no such iolity that he would dwel at ROME with his father in lawe but rather kept at home at his own house in the countrie of the SABYNES there to serue cherishe his olde father with his wife Tatia who for her parte also liked better to liue quietly with her husbād being a priuate mā then to goe to ROME where she might haue liued in much honour and glorie by meanes of the King her father She died as it is reported 13. yeres after she was maried After her deathe Numa leauing to dwell in the cittie was better contēted to liue in the country alone solitarie gaue himself to walke much in the fields woddes consecrated to the godds as one desirous to leade alone life farre from the cōpanie of men Whereupon was raised in my opiniō that which is spoken of him of the goddesse Egeria That it was not for any straungenes or melancholines of nature that Numa withdrew him self from the cōuersation cōpany of men but bicause he had found another more honorable holy society of the Nymphe goddesse Egeria who had done him as they saye that honour as to make him her husbād with whō as his beloued darling it is sayed he enjoyed happy dayes by dayly frequenting of her company he was inspired with the loue knowledge of all celestiall things Surely these deuises are much like vnto certain old fables of the Phrygiās which they hauing learned from the father to the sonne doe loue to tell of one Atis of the Bithynians of one Herodotus of the ARCADIANS of one Endymion and of many other such like men who in their liues were taken for sayntes and beloued of the goddes Notwithstanding it is likely that the goddes loue neither birdes nor horse but men and haue sometimes a liking to be familliar with perfect good men and doe not disdaine
come For if the ATHENIANS sayed he knew what hurt this hauen would bring thē they would eate it as they saye with their teethe It is sayed also that Thales did prognosticate such a like thing who after his deathe commaunded they should burie his bodie in some vile place of no reckoning with in the territorie of the MILESIANS saying that one daye there should be the place of a cittie Epimenides therfore being maruelously esteemed of euery man for these causes was greatly honoured of the ATHENIANS and they offered him great presents of money and other things but he would take nothing and only prayed them to geue him a boughe of the holy olyue which they graunted him and so he returned shortely home into CRETA Nowe that this sedition of Cylon was vtterly appeased in ATHENS for that the excommunicates were banished the countrie the citty fell againe into their olde troubles and dissentions about the gouernment of the common weale they were devided into so diuers partes and factions as there were people of sundry places territories within the countrie of ATTICA For there were the people of the mountaines the people of the vallies and the people of the sea coaste Those of the mountaines tooke the cōmon peoples parte for their liues Those of the valley would a fewe of the best cittizens should carie the swaye The coaste men would that neither of thē should preuaile bicause they would haue had a meane gouernmēt mingled of them both Furthermore the faction betwene the poore riche proceeding of their vnequalitie was at that time very great By reason whereof the cittie was in great daunger and it seemed there was no waye to pacifie or take vp these controuersies vnles some tyraunt happened to rise that would take vpon him to rule the whole For all the cōmon people were so sore indetted to the riche that either they plowed their landes yelded them the sixt parte of their croppe for which cause they were called Hectemorij and seruants or els they borowed money of them at vsurie vpon gage of their bodies to serue it out And if they were not able to paye them then were they by the law deliuered to their creditours who kept them as bonde men slaues in their houses or els they sent them into straunge coūtries to be sold many euen for very pouertie were forced to sell their owne children for there was no lawe to forbid the contrarie or els to forsake their cittie countrie for the extreme cruelty hard dealing of these abominable vsurers their creditours Insomuch as many of the lustiest stowtest of them banded together in cōpanies incoraged one another not to suffer beare any lenger such extremitie but to choose them a stowte trusty captaine that might set them at libertie and redeeme those out of captiuity which were iudged to be bondmen seruants for lacke of paying of their detts at their dayes appointed so to make againe a newe diuision of all landes and tenements and wholy to chaunge and turne vp the whole state gouernment Then the wisest men of the cittie who sawe Solon only neither partner with the riche in their oppression neither partaker with the poore in their necessitie made sute to him that it would please him to take the matter in hande to appease and pacifie all these broyles and sedition Yet Phanias Lesbian writeth that he vsed a subtiltie whereby he deceiued both the one and the other side concerning the cōmon weale For he secretly promised the poore to deuide the lands againe the riche also to confirme their couenants bargaines Howsoeuer it fell out it is very certain that Solon frō the beginning made it a great matter was very scrupulous to deale betwene them fearing the couetousnes of the one arrogancie of the other Howbeit in the end he was chosen gouernour after Philōbrotus was made reformer of the rigour of the lawes the tēperer of the state cōmō weale by cōsent agreemēt of both parties The rich accepted him bicause he was no begger the poore did also like him bicause he was an honest man They saye moreouer that one word sentēce which he spake which at that present was rife in euery mans mouthe that equalitie dyd breede no stryfe did aswell please the riche and wealthie as the poore and needie For the one sorte conceyued of this worde equalitie that he would measure all things according to the qualitie of the man the other tooke it for their purpose that he would measure things by the number by the polle only Thus the captaines of both factions persuaded prayed him boldly to take vpon him that soueraigne authoritie sithence he had the whole cittie nowe at his commaundement The neawters also of euery parte when they sawe it very harde to pacifie these things with lawe and reason were well content that the wisest and honestest man should alone haue the royall power in his handes Some saye also that there was such an oracle of Apollo Sitt thou at helme as gouernour to steere to guyde our course and rule the rovvling shippe for thou shalt see full many Athenians there vvill take thy parte and after thee vvill trippe But his familier friendes aboue all rebuked him saying he was to be accompted no better then a beast if for feare of the name of tyranne he would refuse to take vpon him a Kingdome which is the most iust and honorable state if one take it vpon him that is an honest man As in olde time Tynnondas made him selfe King of those of Negrepont with their consent and as Pittacus was then presently of those of METELIN Notwithstanding all these goodly reasons could not make him once alter his opinion And they saye he aunswered his friendes that principalitie and tyrannie was in deede a goodly place howbeit there was no way for a man to get out whē he was once entered into it And in certen verses that he wrote to Phocus thus he sayed I neither blushe nor yet repent my selfe that haue preserude my natiue soyle allvvayes and that therein to hourde vp trashe and pelfe no tyrants thought could once eclypse my prayse No might could moue my minde to any vvronge vvhich might beblot the glory of my name for so I thought to liue in honour longe and farre excell all other men for fame Hereby appeareth plainely that euen before he was chosen reformer of the state to stablish newe lawes he was then of great countenaunce and authoritie But he him selfe writeth that many sayed of him thus after he had refused the occasion of vsurping of this tyrannie Suer Solon vvas a foole and of a bashefull minde that vvould refuse the great good happe vvhich goddes to him assignde The praye vvas in his handes yet durst he neuer dravve the net therefore but stoode abasht and like a dastarde davve
This fowle in deede naturally is very quicke of hearing so is she also very fearefull by nature being in manner famished with their harde allowance they were so much the more waking easier to be afrayed Vpō this occasion therfore they heard the cōming of the GAVLES also beganne to ronne vp downe crie for feare with which noyse they did wake those that were within the castell The GAVLES being bewrayed by these foolishe gese left their stealing vpon them came in with all the open noyse terrour they could The ROMAINES hearing this larum euery man tooke such weapon as came first to his hand they ranne sodainely to rescue that place from whence they vnderstoode the noyse among those the formest man of all was Marcus Manlius a man that had bene Cōsul who had a lusty bodye as stowte a harte His happe being to mete with two of the GAVLES together as one of them was lifting vp his axe to knocke him on the head he preuēted him strake of his hand with his sword and clapt his target on the others face so fiercely that he threwe him backward down the rocke cōming afterwards vnto the walle with others that ranne thither with him he repulsed the rest of the GAVLES that were gotten vp who were not many in nūber neither did any great acte Thus the ROMAINES hauing escaped this daūger the next morning they threw the captaine hedlong down the rocks from the castell who had charge of the watche the night before gaue Manlius in recompence of the good seruice he had done a more honorable then profitable rewarde which was this Euery man of them gaue him halfe a pound of the country wheate which they call Far and the fourth parte of the measure of wine which the GRECIANS call Cotile and this might be about a quarte being the ordinary allowance of euery man by the daye After this repulse the GAVLES beganne to be discoraged partely for that their vitailles fayled them and durst no more forage abroade in the fieldes for feare of Camillus and partly also for that the plague came amongest them being lodged amongest heapes of dead bodies lying in euery place aboue ground without buriall and amongest burnt houses destroyed where the ashes being blowen very high by the winde vehemēcy of heate dyd geue a drie persing ayer that dyd maruelously poyson their bodies when they came to drawe in the breathe of it But the greatest cause of all their mischief was the chaunge of their wonted dyet Who comming out of a freshe countrie where there were excellent pleasaunt places to retire vnto to auoyde the discommoditie of the parching heate of the sommer were nowe in a naughty plaine countrie for them to remaine in in the latter season of the yere All these things together dyd heape diseases vpon them besides the long continuaunce of the siege about the Capitoll for it was then about the seuenth moneth by reason whereof there grewe a maruelous death in their campe through the great numbers of them that dyed daylie and laye vnburied But notwithstanding all the death and trouble of the GAVLES the poore besieged ROMAINES were nothing holpen the more the famine still dyd growe so fast vpō them And bicause they could heare nothing of Camillus they were growen almost vnto a despaire and send vnto him they could not the GAVLES kept so straight watche vpon them in the cittie Whereupon both parties finding them selues in harde state first the watche of either side beganne to cast out wordes of peace amongest them selues and afterwards by cōsent of the heades Sulpitius Tribune of the souldiers came to parle with Brennus In which parle it was articled that the ROMAINES should paye a thousand pounde weight of golde and that the GAVLES should incontinently after the receipt of the same departe out of their cittie and all their territories This decree being passed by othe from both the golde was brought And whē it came to be weyed the GAVLES at the first priuely begāne to deale falsely with them but afterwardes they openly stayed the ballance and would not let them waye no more whereat the ROMAINES beganne to be angrie with them Then Brennus in scorne mockery to despight them more pluckt of his sworde girdell and all and put it into the ballance where the gold was wayed Sulpitius seeing that asked him what he ment by it Brennus aunswered him what canne it signifie els but sorrowe to the vanquished This worde euer after ranne as a common prouerbe in the peoples mouthes Some of the ROMAINES tooke this vile parte of theirs in such scorne that they would needes take the gold from them againe by force and so returne into their holde to abide the siege still as they had done before Other were of opinion to the contrary and thought it best with pacience to put vp this scorne of theirs and not to thincke it was a shame to paye more then they had promised but only to paye it by cōpulsion as they dyd by misfortune of time was to thincke it rather necessary then honorable And as they were debating the matter thus aswell amongest them selues as with the GAVLES Camillus came to ROME gates with his armie and vnderstanding all what had passed betweene them he commaunded the rest of the army to marche fayer and softely after him in good order and he in the meane season with the best choyse men he had went before with all speede Assone as the other ROMAINES within in the cittie had spied him they showted out for ioye and receaued him euery one with great reuerence without any more wordes as their soueraine captaine and prince who had power ouer them all And Camillus taking the golde out of the skales gaue it vnto his men and commaunded the GAVLES presently to take vp their skales and to get them going for sayeth he it is not the ROMAINES manner to keepe their countrie with golde but with the sworde Then Brennus beganne to be hotte and tolde him it was not honorably done of him to breake the accorde that had passed betweene them before by othe Whereunto Camillus stowtely aunswered him againe that accorde was of no validitie For he being created Dictator before all other officers and magistrates whatsoeuer their actes by his election were made of no authoritie and seeing therefore they had delte with men that had no power of them selues to accorde to any matter they were to speake to him if they required ought For he alone had absolute authoritie to pardone them if they repented and would aske it or els to punishe them and make their bodies aunswer the damages and losse his cuntry had by them susteyned These wordes made Brennus madde as a march hare that out went his blade Then they drew their swordes of all sides and layed lustely one at an other as they could within the houses and in open
the lawes and customes of their countrie being manifest tokens of a man that aspired to be King and would subuert and turne all ouer hand And as for the good will of the common people towards him the poet Aristophanes doth plainely expresse it in these wordes The people most desire vvhat most they hate to haue and vvhat their minde abhorres euen that they seeme to craue And in another place he sayed also aggrauating the suspition they had of him For state or common vveale muche better should it be to keepe vvithin the countrie none suche lyons lookes as he But if they nedes vvill keepe a lyon to their cost then must they nedes obeye his vvill for he vvill rule the roste For to saye truely his curtesies his liberallities and noble expences to shewe the people so great pleasure and pastime as nothing could be more the glorious memorie of his auncesters the grace of his eloquence the beawtie of his persone the strength and valliantnes of his bodie ioyned together with his wisedome and experience in marshall affayers were the very causes that made them to beare with him in all things and that the ATHENIANS dyd paciently endure all his light partes and dyd couer his faultes with the best wordes and termes they could calling them youthfull and gentlemens sportes As when he kept Agartharchus the painter prisoner in his house by force vntill he had painted all his walles within and when he had done dyd let him goe and rewarded him very honestly for his paines Againe when he gaue a boxe of the eare to Taureas who dyd paye the whole charges of a companie of common players in spite of him to carie awaye the honour of the games Also when he tooke awaye a young woman of MELIA by his authoritie that was taken among certaine prisoners in the warres and kept her for his concubine by whom he had a childe which he caused to be brought vp Which they called a worke of charitie albeit afterwards they burdened him that he was the only cause of murdering of the poore MELIANS sauing the litle children bicause he had fauored and persuaded that vnnaturall and wicked decree which another had propounded Likewise where one Aristophon a painter had painted a curtisan named Nemea holding Alcibiades in her armes and sitting in her lappe which all the people ranne to see and tooke great pleasure to behold it the graue and auncient men were angrie at these foolishe partes accompting them impudent things and done against all ciuill modestie and temperancie Wherefore it seemed Archestratus words were spoken to good purpose when he sayed that GREECE could not abide two Alcibiades at once And on a daye as he came from the counsaill and assembly of the cittie where he had made an excellent oration to the great good liking and acceptation of all the hearers and by meanes thereof had obteined the thing he desired and was accompanied with a great traine that followed him to his honour Timon surnamed Misanthropus as who would saye Loup-garou or the manhater meeting Alcibiades thus accompanied dyd not passe by him nor gaue him waye as he was wont to doe to all other men but went straight to him and tooke him by the hande and sayed O thou dost well my sonne I can thee thancke that thou goest on and climest vp still for if euer thou be in authoritie woe be vnto those that followe thee for they are vtterly vndone When they heard these wordes those that stoode by fell a laughing other reuiled Timon other againe marked well his wordes and thought of them many a time after suche sundry opinions they had of him for the vnconstantie of his life and way wardnes of his nature and conditions Now for the taking of SICILIA the ATHENIANS dyd maruelosly couer it in Pericles life but yet they dyd not medle withall vntill after his death and then they dyd it at the first vnder coller of friendshippe as ayding those citties which were oppressed and spoyled by the SYRACVSANS This was in manner a plaine bridge made to passe afterwardes a greater power and armie thither Howbeit the only procurer of the ATHENIANS and persuader of them to send small companies thither no more but to enter with a great armie at once to conquer all the countrie together was Alcibiades who had so allured the people with his pleasaunt tongue that vpon his persuasion they built castells in the ayer and thought to doe greater wonders by winning only of SICILIA For where other dyd set their mindes apon the conquest of SICILIA being that they only hoped after it was to Alcibiades but a beginning of further enterprises And where Nicias commonly in all his persuasions dyd turne the ATHENIANS from their purpose to make warres against the SYRACVSANS as being to great a matter for them to take the cittie of SYRACVSA Alcibiades againe had a further reache in his head to goe conquer LIBYA and CARTHAGE and that being conquered to passe from thence into ITALIE and so to PELOPONNESY's so that SICILIA should serue but to furnishe them with vittells and to paye the souldiers for their conquestes which he had imagined Thus the young men were incontinently caried awaye with a maruelous hope and opinion of this iorney and gaue good care to olde mens tales that tolde them wonders of the countries insomuche as there was no other pastime nor exercise among the youth in their meetings but companies of men to set rounde together drawe plattes of SICILE and describe the situation of LIBYA and CARTHAGE And yet they saye that neither Socrates the philosopher nor Meton the astronomer dyd euer hope to see any good successe of this iorney For the one by the reuealing of his familliar spirite who tolde him all things to come as was thought had no great opinion of it Meton whether it was for the feare of the successe of the iorney he had by reason or that he knew by diuination of his arte what would followe he coūterfeated the mad man holding a burning torche in his hand made as though he would haue set his house a fyer Other saye that he dyd not coūterfeate but like a mad mā in deede dyd set his house a fyre one night and that the next morning betimes he went into the market place to praye the people that in consideration of his great losse and his grieuous calamitie so late happened him it would please them to discharge his sonne for going this voyage So by this mad deuise he obteined his request of the people for his sonne whom he abused much But Nicias against his will was chosen captaine to take charge of men in these warres who misliked this iorney aswell for his companion and associate in the charge of these warres as for other misfortunes he foresawe therein Howbeit the ATHENIANS thought the warre would fall out well if they dyd not commit it wholy to Alcibiades rashnes and hardines but dyd
other light armed men to the number of thirteene hundred sufficiently furnished of all warlicke and necessarie munition Now after they were arriued on the coaste of ITALIE they landed in the citie of RHEGIO where holding counsell in what sorte they should direct these warres it was resolued in the ende that they should goe straight vnto SICILIA This opinion was followed although Nicias dyd contrarie it when Lamachus gaue his consent thereunto and at his first comming he was the occasion of winning the cittie of CATANA But he neuer after dyd any exployte for he was called home immediatly by the ATHENIANS to come and aunswer certaine accusations layed to his charge For as we tolde you before there was at the beginning certaine light suspitions and accusations put vp against him by some slaues and straungers But afterwards when he was gone his enemies enforced them and burdened him more cruelly adding to his former faulte that he had broken the images of Mercurie and had committed sacriledge in counterfeating in ieast and mockery the holy ceremonies of the mysteries and blue into the â—ares of the people that both the one and the other proceeded of one set conspiracie to chaunge and alter the gouernment of the state of the citie Vpon these informations the people tooke it in so ill parte that they committed all to prisone that were in any sorte accused or suspected thereof and would neuer let them come to their aunswer and moreouer dyd much repent them that they had not condemned Alcibiades vpon so great complaintes and informations as were exhibited against him while his offense was in question before them And the furie and hatred of the people was such towards him that if any of Alcibiades friends and acquaintance came within their daunger they were the worse handled for his sake Thucydides dyd not name his accusers but some other doe name Dioclides and Teucer amongest whom Phrynicus the Comicall poet is one who discouereth it in his verses by bringing in one that speaketh thus to the image of Mercury My good friend Mercury I praye thee take good heede that thou fall not and breake thy necke for so thou mightst me breede both daunger and distrust and though I giltles be some Dioclides falsely might accuse and trouble me Mercury aunswereth Take thou no thought for me my selfe I shall vvell saue and vvill foresee full vvell therevvith that Teucer that false knaue shall not the money get vvhich he by lavve hath vvonne for his promovvters bribing parte and accusation And yet for all this these tokens doe showe no certaintie of any thing For one of them being asked howe he could knowe them by their faces in the night that had broken and defaced these images he aunswered that he knewe them well enough by the brightnes of the moone And hereby it appeareth playnely that he was periured bicause that the same night on the which this fact was committed there was a coniunction of the moone This dyd a litle trouble and staye men of iudgement howbeit the common sorte of people this notwithstanding dyd not leaue to be as sharpe set to receyue all accusations and informations that were brought in against him as euer they were before Now there was among the prisoners whose cause was hanging before them the orator Andocides whom Hellanicus the historiographer describeth to descend of the race of Vlysses whom they tooke to be a man that hated the gouernment of the common people and bent altogether to fauour the small number of the nobilitie But one of the chiefest occasions why he was suspected to be one of them that had broken the images was for that hard by his house there was a fayer great image set vp in olde time by the familie or tribe of the AEgeides and that alone amongest all the rest of so many famous images was lefte whole and vnbroken whereupon it is called at this daye the Mercury of Andocides and is so called generally of euery bodye albeit the inscription sheweth the contrarie Andocides being in prisone chaunced to fall in acquaintaunce with one Timaeus with whom he was more familliar then with all the rest who was also prisoner with him for the self cause This Timaeus was a man not so well knowen as he but besides a wise man and very hardie He persuaded him and put into his head that he should accuse him selfe and certaine other with him for taking the matter vpon him and confessing it he should receyue grace pardone according to the course and promise of the lawe Where contrarilie if he should stande vpon the curtesie of the iudges sentence he might easely endaunger him self bicause iudgements in such cases are vncertaine to all people and most to be doubted and feared toward the riche And therefore he told him it were his best waye if he looked into the matter wisely by lying to saue his life rather then to suffer death with shame and to be condemned apon this false accusation Also he sayed if he would haue regarde to the coÌ„mon wealth that it should in like case be wisely done of him to put in daunger a fewe of those which stood doubtfull whether in trothe they were any of them or not to saue from the furie of the people and terrour of death many honest men who in deede were innocent of this lewde fact Timaeus wordes and persuasions wrought such effect with Andocides that they made him yeld vnto them brought him to accuse him selfe certaine other with him by meanes whereof Alcibiades according to the lawe had his pardone But all suche as he named and accused were euery man put to death sauing suche as saued them selues by ronning awaye Furthermore to shadowe his accusation with some apparaunce of trothe Andocides among those that were accused dyd accuse also certen of his owne seruaunts Now though the people had no more occasion to occupie their busie heades about the breakers of these images yet was not their malice thus appeased against Alcibiades vntill they sent the galley called Salaminiana commaunding those they sent by a speciall coÌ„mission to seeke him out in no case to attempt to take him by force nor to laye holde on him by violence but to vse him with all the good wordes and curteous manner that they possibly could to will him only to appeare in persone before the people to aunswer to certaine accusations put vp against him If otherwise they should haue vsed force they feared muche least the armie would haue mutined on his behalfe within the countrie of their enemies and that there would haue growen some sedition amongest their souldiers This might Alcibiades haue easely done if he had bene disposed For the souldiers were very sorie to see him departe perceyuing that the warres should be drawen out now in length and be much prolonged vnder Nicias seeing Alcibiades was taken from them who was the only spurre that pricked Nicias forward to doe
them three hundred seuen and thirtie thousand foure hundred and two and fiftie men and Marcus AEmylius Lepidus named president of the Senate who had that honour foure times before and dyd put of the counsell three Senatours that were but meane men And the like meane and moderation he his companion Martius Philippus kept vpon viewe and muster taken of the ROMAINE horsemen And after he had ordered and disposed the greatest matters of his charge and office he fell sicke of a disease that at the beginning seemed very daungerous but in the ende there was no other daunger sauing that it was a lingring disease and hard to cure So following the counsell of phisitians who willed him to goe to a cittie in ITALY called VELIA he tooke sea and went thither and continued there a long time dwelling in pleasaunt houses vpon the sea side quietly and out of all noyse But during this time of his absence the ROMAINES wished for him many a time and ofte And when they were gathered together in the Theaters to see the playes and sportes they cried out diuers times for him whereby they shewed that they had a great desire to see him againe Time being come about when they vsed to make a solemne yerely sacrifice and AEmylius finding him selfe also in good perfect health he returned againe to ROME where he made the sacrifice with the other priestes all the people of ROME gathering about him reioycing muche to see him The next daye after he made another particular sacrifice to geue thankes vnto the goddes for recouerie of his healthe After the sacrifice was ended he went home to his house sate him downe to dinner he sodainly fell into a rauing without any perseuerance of sicknes spied in him before or any chaunge or alteration in him and his wittes went from him in suche sorte that he dyed within three dayes after lacking no necessarie thing that an earthly man could haue to make him happy in this world For he was euen honoured at his funeralles and his vertue was adorned with many goodly glorious ornaments neither with gold siluer nor iuorie nor with other suche sumptuousnes or magnificence of apparell but with the loue and good will of the people all of them confessing his vertue and well doing and this dyd not only his naturall country men performe in memorie of him but his very enemies also For all those that met in ROME by chaunce at that time that were either come out of SPAYNE from GENVA or out of MACEDON all those that were young and strong dyd willingly put them selues vnder the coffin where his bodie laye to helpe to carie him to the churche and the olde men followed his bodie to accompany the same calling AEmylius the benefactour sauiour and father of their countrie For he dyd not only intreate them gently and graciously whom he had subdued but all his life time he was euer ready to pleasure them and to set forwardes their causes euen as they had bene his confederates very friends and neere kinsemen The inuentorie of all his goodes after his death dyd scant amownte vnto the summe of three hundred three score and tenne thousand siluer Drachmes which his two sonnes dyd inherite But Scipio being the younger left all his right vnto his elder brother Fabius bicause he was adopted into a very riche house which was the house of the great Scipio Africanus Suche they saye was Paulus AEmylius conditions and life The ende of Paulus AEmylius life THE LIFE OF Timoleon BEFORE Timoleon was sent into SICILE thus stoode the state of the SYRACVSANS After that Dion had driuen out the tyranne Dionysius he him selfe after was slaine immediatly by treason and those that ayded him to restore the SYRACVSANS to their libertie fell out and were at dissention among them selues By reason whereof the cittie of SYRACVSA chaunging continually newe tyrannes was so troubled and turmoiled with all sorte of euills that it was left in manner desolate and without inhabitants The rest of SICILE in like case was vtterly destroyed and no citties in manner left standing by reason of the long warres and those fewe that remained were most inhabited of forreine souldiers straungers a company of lose men gathered together that tooke paye of no prince nor cittie all the dominions of the same being easely vsurped and as easie to chaunge their lorde In so muche Dionysius the tyranne tenne yeres after Dion had driuen him out of SICILE hauing gathered a certen number of souldiers together againe and through their helpe driuen out Niseus that raigned at that time in SYRACVSA he recouered the Realme againe and made him selfe king So if he was straungely expulsed by a small power out of the greatest Kingdome that euer was in the worlde likewise he more straungely recouered it againe being banished and very poore making him selfe King ouer them who before had driuen him out Thus were the inhabitants of the cittie compelled to serue this tyranne who besides that of his owne nature he was neuer curteous nor ciuill he was now growen to be farre more dogged and cruell by reason of the extreme miserie and misfortune he had endured But the noblest cittizens repaired vnto Icetes who at that time as lorde ruled the cittie of the LEONTINES and they chose him for their generall in these warres not for that he was any thing better then the open tyrannes but bicause they had no other to repaire vnto at that time they trusted him best for that he was borne as them selues within the cittie of SYRACVSA bicause also he had men of warre about him to make head against this tyranne But in the meane time the CARTHAGINIANS came downe into SICILE with a great armie and inuaded the countrie The SYRACVSANS being afrayed of them determined to send ambassadours into GRAECE vnto the CORINTHIANS to praye ayde of them against the barbarous people hauing better hope of them then of any other of the GRAECIANS And that not altogether bicause they were lineally descended from them and that they had receyued in times past many pleasures at their handes but also for that they knewe that CORINTHE was a cittie that in all ages and times dyd euer loue libertie and hate tyrannes and that had allwayes made their greatest warres not for ambition of Kingdomes nor of couetous desire to conquer and rule but only to defend and mainteine the libertie of the GRAECIANS But Icetes in another contrarie sorte he tooke apon him to be generall with a minde to make him selfe king of SYRACVSA For he had secretly practised with the CARTHAGINIANS and openly notwithstanding in words he commended the counsell and determination of the SYRACVSANS and sent ambassadours from him selfe also with theirs vnto PELOPONNESVS not that he was desirous any ayde should come from them to SYRACVSA but bicause he hoped if the CORINTHIANS refused to send them ayde as it was very likely they would
them selues of their troubles and most miserable and straight life But we must not wonder though the SYBARITANS being womanish men and altogeather geuen to pleasure did so thinke that those men hated their liues who feared not death for the desire they had to doo good and goodwill they had to doo their duetie Which was contrarie in the LACEDAEMONIANS For they were of opinion that to liue and die willingly was a vertue as these funerall verses doo witnesse The dead vvhich here doe rest did not in life esteeme that life or death vvere of them selues or good or bad to deme But euen as life did end or death vvas brought to passe so life or death vvas good or bad this their opinion vvas And in deede to flye death is no shame so it proceede not of a cowardly hart nether to desire death is commendable if it be with contempt and hate of life This is the reason why Homer saith the valliantest men are euer best armed when they come to battaile The lawe makers among the GREECIANS doo euer punishe him that castes away his target but neuer him that casteth away his sworde or lawnce For euery man must first thinke to defende him selfe before he seeke to hurt his enimie and specially such as haue the whole state of a realme in their handes and be generalles of the feeld For if the comparison be true that Iphicrates the ATHENIAN captaine made that in an armie of men the light horsemē resemble the handes the men of armes the feete the battaill of footemen the stomake brest the captaine the head of a mans body it seemeth then that the venturous captaine putting him selfe in daunger with out cause is not onely careles of his owne life but also of all theirs whose liues depende vpon his saftie As contrarily he being carefull of his owne person cannot but be carefull of his souldiers that serue vnder him Therefore Callicratidas a LACEDAEMONIAN captaine and a woorthie man otherwise did vnwisely aunswere a soothsaier that bad him take hede to him selfe for the signes and tokens of the sacrifices did threaten his death Sparta said he standeth not vpon one man alone It is true that to fight by sea or by land man for man Callicratidas was but one man of him selfe but as captaine or lieuetenaunt generall he had the whole power and force of the armie in his person For he was not a man alone when so manie mens liues were lost with his Now olde Antigonus was of a contrary minde For he being redie to geue battell by sea about the I le of ANDRO's made a better aunswer to one that said vnto him his enemies had moe shippes then him selfe For how many shippes doest thou recken then my selfe said he Therein he did wisely to make great accompt of the worthines of a generall specially when it is ioyned with hardines and experience For the chiefest poynte of seruice is to saue him that saueth all other For when Chares on a time shewed the ATHENIANS openly the sundrie woundes and cuttes he had receiued apō his body his target also thrust through with many piks Timotheus straight said vnto him Chares I am not of thy minde For when I did besege the citie of SAMOS I was ashamed to see a darte throwne from the walles light hard by me for that I shewed my selfe a rashe young man and more venturous then became a generall of so great an armie For when it standeth much apon the whole armie and that it is necessarie the generall thereof doo put him selfe in daunger then he should put him selfe forwarde and occupie both handes and body without respect not regarding their wordes that say a good wise captaine should die for age or at the least old But where there is smal honor to be woone by very good successe and contrariewise muche losse and distruction by great misfortune no man of wisedome or iudgement would wish a generall to fight as a priuate souldier to hazard the losse of a generall I thought good therefore to make this preface before the liues of Pelopidas and of Marcellus both which were woorthie men and died otherwise then they shoulde For they both were valliant souldiers in the fielde and did both of them honor their contrie with famous victories and specially against great and dreadfull enemies For the one was the first as they saie that ouerthrewe Hanniball who was neuer ouercome by any before And the other also ouercame the LACEDAEMONIANS in battell that ruled al GREECE at that time both by sea and by land Yet they both carelesly lost their liues by venturing to boldely when their contrie stoode in greatest neede of suche men and captaines as they were This is the cause why we folowing the resemblaunce that was betweene them haue compared their liues together Pelopidas the sonne of Hippoclus came of one of the noblest houses of the citie of THEBES as Epaminondas did He being brought vp in great wealth his father left him heire of all his landes and goodes being but a young man So he straight shewed him selfe willing to doo good with his monie to those that needed helpe and were worthie to let the worlde see that his monie was not his maister For as Aristotle saith of these rich men the most part of them do not vse their goods for extreame couetousnes other againe doo abuse them as being geuen to ouermuche pleasures So riche men became slaues all their life time some to pleasure other to profit Now al Pelopidas other frendes woulde be beholding to him and take very thanckfully his curtesie and liberalitie towardes them But Epaminondas could neuer be brought to any thing at his handes Howbeit Pelopidas selfe folowed Epaminondas maner for he tooke a pride and pleasure to goe simply appareled to fare meanely to labor willingly and to make warres openly as he did He was euen such another as Euripides the Poet described Capaneus to be when he said of him He rich and vvelthie vvas yet vvas he there vvithall no vvight that purchast vvorldly hate nor insolent at all For he would haue been ashamed that the poorest man of the cittie of THEBES shoulde haue worne meaner apparell apon his backe then himselfe As for Epaminondas his pouertie was not daintie to him bicause his parentes were euer poore and yet for all that he passed it ouer more easely by studie of Philosophie which he gaue him selfe vnto and for that from his youth he liked to leade a spare life without excesse Where Pelopidas matched in a noble house and maryed highly and had two children by his wife neuerthelesse he had no minde to keepe or increase his goodes the more for that but gaue him selfe altogeather to serue the common weale as long as he liued By reason whereof his wealth decaied and his best frendes grewe angrie with him telling him how he did not well to make no more reckoning of a thing that was
Pluto stande in dread that he vvould bravvle in hell although his bones vvere drie and dead on earth he vvas so fell Furthermore touchinge the disposition of his body he was maruelous stronge and lusty and all bicause he did vse to labor and toyle euen from his youth and to liue sparingly as one that was euer brought vp in the warres from his youth so that he was of a very good constitucion both for strength of body as for health also As for vtterance he esteemed it as a seconde body and most necessarie gift not onely to make men honest but also as a thinge very requisite for a man that should beare sway and authoritie in the common wealth He practised to speake well in litle villages neere home whether he went many times to plead mennes causes in courtes iudiciall that would retaine him of counsell so as in shorte time he became a perfect pleader and had tongue at will and in processe of time became an excellent orator After he was thus well knowen they that were familiar with him began to perceiue a graue manner and behauiour in his life and a certaine noble minde in him worthie to be employed in matters of state and great importance and to be called into the common wealth For he did not onely refuse to take fees for his pleading and following the causes he mainteined but furthermore made no reckening of the estimacion he wanne by that manner and practise as though that was not the only marke he shot at But his desire reached further rather to winne him selfe fame by seruice in the warres and by valliant fightinge with his enemie then with such a quiet and pleasing manner of life Insomuch as when he was but a younge striplinge in maner he had many cuttes apon his brest which he had receiued in diuerse battells and encounters against the enemies For he him selfe wryteth that he was but seuenteene yeare old when he went first vnto the warres which was about the time of Hanniballs chiefe prosperitie when he spoyled and destroyed all ITALIE So when he came to fight he would strike lustely and neuer sturre foote nor geue backe and woulde looke cruelly vppon his enemie and threaten him with a fearefull and terrible voyce which he vsed him selfe and wisely taught other also to vse the like for such countenaunces sayed he many times doe feare the enemies more then the sworde ye offer them When he went any iorney he euer marched a foote and caried his armour apon his backe and had a man waytinge on him that caried his vittells with him with whom he was neuer angry as they say for any thing he had prepared for his dinner or supper but did helpe to dresse it him selfe for the most parte if he had any leasure when he had done the duety of a priuate souldier in fortifying the campe or such other nedefull businesse All the while he was abroade in seruice in the warres he neuer drancke other then cleane water vnlesse it were when he founde he was not well and then he woulde take a litle vineger but if he saw he were weake he woulde then drinke a litle wine Now it fortuned that Manius Curius the ROMAINE who had triumphed thrise hadde a prety house and lande hard by Cato where he kept in times past which Cato for a walke would visite oft And he considering how litle lande he had to his house and what a litle house he had withall and how poorely it was built wondered with him selfe what maner of man Curius had bene that hauing bene the greatest man of ROME in his time and hauing subdued the mightiest â—aâ—â—es and people of all ITALIE and driuen kinge Pyrrus also out of the same yet him selfe with his owne handes did manure that litle patche of grounde and dwel in so poore and small a farme Whether notwithstaÌ„ding after his three triumphes the SAMNYTES sent their Ambassadors to visite him who founde him by the fyers side seething of perseneapes and presented him maruelous deale of golde from their state and communalty But Curius returned them againe with their gold and told them that such as were contented with that supper had no neede of gold nor siluer and that for his parte he thought it greater honor to commaunde them that had gold then to haue it him selfe Cato remembring these thinges to him selfe went home againe and beganne to thinke vpon his house of his liuinge of his family and seruauntes and also of his expences and to cut of all superfluous charges and fell him selfe to labor with his owne handes more then euer he hadde done before Furthermore when Fabius Maximus tooke the city of TARENTVM againe Cato serued vnder him being very younge where he fell into familiar acquaintaÌ„ce with Nearchus the PYTHAGORIAN philosopher in whom he tooke maruelous delight to heare him talke of Philosophy Which Nearchus held the same opinion of pleasure that Plato did by callinge it the sweete poyson and chiefest bayte to allure men to ill and saying that the body was the first plague vnto the soule and that her onely health remedy and purgation stoode apon rules of reason good examples and contemplations that driue sinful thoughts and carnall pleasures of the body farre of from her Cato moreouer gaue him selfe much to sobriety and temperaunce and framed him selfe to be contented with litle They say he fell in his very olde age to the study of the Greeke tongue and to reade Greeke bookes and that he profited somwhat by Thucydides but much more by Demosthenes to frame his matter and also to be eloquent Which plainly appeareth in all his bookes and writinges full of authorities examples stories taken out of Greeke authors and many of his sentences and moralls his adages quicke answers are translated out of the same word for word Now there was a noble man of ROME at that time one of great authoritie and a deepe wise man besides who coulde easily discerne buddes of vertue sprowtinge out of any towardly youth who was of a good and honorable disposition to helpe forwarde and to aduaunce such His name was Valerius Flaccus a neere neighboure vnto Cato who was informed by his seruaunts of Catoes straunge life how he would be doing in his ground with his owne hands and how he would be gone euery day betimes in the morning to litle villages thereabout to pleade mens causes that prayed his counsaill that when he had done he would come home againe and if it were in winter that he would but cast a litle coate on his shoulders and being sommer he would go out bare naked to the wast to worke in his ground among his seruaunts and other workemen would besides sit and eate with them together at one borde and drinke as they did Moreouer they told him also a world of such maners facions which he vsed that shewed to be a
but a litle peece only for his parte and gotte maruelous riches by his vsery Moreouer he lent money to any of his slaues that would therwith buy other young slaues whom they taught and brought vp to do seruice at Catoes charge and cost and then they solde them againe at the yeares ende and some of them Cato kept for his owne seruice and gaue his slaues as much for them as any other offered Therfore to allure his sonne in like manner to make profitte of his money he tolde him it was no wise mans parte to diminishe his substance but rather the parte of a widowe Yet this was a token of a most greedy couetous minde that he durst affirme him to be diuine and worthy immortall praise that increased his wealth and patrimony more then his father left him Furthermore when Cato was growen very olde Carneades the ACADEMICKE and Diogenes the STOICKE were sent from ATHENS as Ambassadors to ROME to sue for a release of a fyne of fiue hundred talentes which they had imposed on the ATHENIANS apon a condemnation passed against them for a contempt of appearaunce by the sentence of the SICYONIANS at the sute of the OROPIANS Immediatly when these two Philosophers were arriued in the citie of ROME the younge gentlemen that were geuen to their bookes did visite and welcome them and gaue great reuerence to them after they had heard them speake and specially to Carneades whose grace in speaking and force of perswading was no lesse then the same ranne vppon him and specially when he was to speake in so great an audience and before such a state as would not suppresse his praise ROME straight was full as if a winde had blowen this rumor into euery mans eare that there was a GREECIAN arriued a famous learned man who with his eloquence woulde leade a man as he lust There was no other talke a while through the whole city he had so inflamed the younge gentlemens mindes with loue and desire to be learned that all other pleasures and delightes were set a side and they disposed them selues to no other exercise but to the study of Philosophy as if some secrete and diuine inspiration from aboue had procured them to it Whereof the Lordes and Senators of ROME were glad and reioyced much to see their youth so well geuen to knowledge and to the study of the Greeke tongue and to delite in the company of these two great and excellent learned men But Marcus Cato euen from the beginning that young men beganne to study the Greeke tongue and that it grewe in estimacion in ROME did dislike of it fearing least the youth of ROME that were desirous of learninge and eloquence woulde vtterly giue ouer the honor and glory of armes Furthermore when he sawe the estimacion and fame of these two personages did increase more and more and in such sorte that Caius Aquilius one of the chiefest of the Senate made sute to be their interpreter he determined then to conuey them out of the citie by some honest meane and culour So he openly found fault one day in the Senate that the Ambassadors were long there and had no dispatche considering also they were cunninge men and coulde easily perswade what they would And if there were no other respect this onely might perswade them to determine some aunswere for them and so to send them home againe to their schooles to teach their children of GREECE and to let alone the children of ROME that they might learne to obey the lawes and the Senate as they had done before Now he spake this to the Senate not of any priuate ill will or malice he bare to Carneades as some men thought but bicause he generally hated Philosophy and of an ambition despised the muses knowledge of the Greeke tongue Which was the more suspected bicause he had sayd the auncient Socrates was but a busie man and a sturrer vp of sedition and sought by all meanes possible to vsurpe tyranny and rule in his contrie by peruerting and chaunging the manners and customes of the same and alluringe the subiectes thereof to a dislikinge of their lawes and auncient customes And he laughed at Socrates schoole that taught the arte of eloquence saying his schollers waxed old and were still so long a learning that they ment to vse their eloquence and pleade causes in an other worlde before Minos when they were dead Therefore to plucke his sonne from the study of the Greeke tongue he sayd to him with a strayned voyce and in a bigger sound then he was wont to doe as if he had spoken to him by way of prophecy or inspiration that so longe as the ROMAINES disposed them selues to study the Greeke tongue so longe woulde they marre and bring all to nought And yet time hath proued his vaine wordes false and vntrue For the citie of ROME did neuer florishe so much nor the ROMAINE Empire was euer so great as at that time when learninge and the Greeke tongue most florished Howebeit Cato did not onely hate the Philosophers of GREECE but did dislike them also that professed phisicke in ROME For he had either hearde or red the aunswere Hippocrates made when the king of PERSIA sent for him and offered him a great summe of golde and siluer if he woulde come and serue him who sware he would neuer serue the barbarous people that were naturall enemies to the GREECIANS So Cato affirmed it was an othe that al other phisitions sware euer after wherefore he commaunded his sonne to flie from them all alike and sayed he hadde wrytten a litle booke of phisicke with the which he did heale those of his house when they were sicke and did keepe them in health when they were whole He neuer forbad them to eate but did alwayes bringe them vppe with erbes and certaine light meates as mallard ringedoues and hares for such meates sayd he are good for the sicke and light of disgestion sauing that they make them dreame and snorte that eate them He boasted also how with this maner of phisicke he did alwayes keepe him selfe in health and his family from sickenes Yet for all that I take it he did not all that he bragged of for he buried both his wife and his sonne also But he him selfe was of a stronge nature and a lusty body full of strength and health and liued long without sickenesse so that when he was a very olde man and past mariage he loued women well and maried a younge maiden for that cause onely After his first wife was dead he maried his sonne vnto Paulus AEmylius daughter the sister of Scipio the seconde AFRICAN Cato him selfe beinge a widower tooke paines with a prety younge maide that waited in his house and came by stelth to his chamber howebeit this haunt coulde not long continue secret in his house and specially where there was a younge gentlewoman maried but needes must be spied So one day when
LACEDAEMONIANS againe labored all that they could possible to let them But in this great broyle one perceiued Pyrrus a horse backe to haue lept the trenche past ouer the strength of the cartes and make force to enter into the city Wherfore those that were appointed to defende that parte of the trench cried out straight and the women fell a shreeking and running as if all had bene lost And as Pyrrus passed further striking downe with his owne handes all that stoode before him a CRETAN shot at him strake his horse through both sides who leapinge out of the prease for paine of his wounde dying caried Pyrrus away and threw him vppon the hanging of a steepe hill where he was in great daunger to fall from the toppe This put all his seruauntes and frendes about him in a maruelous feare and therewithall the LACEDAEMONIANS seeing them in this feare and trouble ran immediatly vnto that place and with force of shotte draue them all out of the trenche After this retyre Pyrrus caused all assault to cease hoping the LACEDAEMONIANS in the end would yeelde consideringe there were many of them slaine in the two dayes past and all the rest in maner hurt Howbeit the good fortune of the citie whether it were to proue the valliantnes of the inhabitantes them selues or at the least to shew what power they were of euen in their greatest nede and distresse when the LACEDAEMONIANS had small hope left brought one Aminias Phocian from CORINTHE one of king Antigonus Captaines with a great band of men and put them into the city to aide them and straight after him as soone as he had entred king Areus arriued also on thother side from CRETA and two thowsand souldiers with him So the women went home to their houses makinge their reckening that they should not neede any more to trouble them selues with warres They gaue the olde men liberty also to goe and rest them selues who being past allage to fight for necessities sake yet were driuen to arme them selues and take weapon in hande and in order of battell placed the newe come souldiers in their roomes Pyrrus vnderstanding that newe supplies were come grewe to greater stomake then before and inforced all that he could to winne the towne by assault But in the end when to his cost he founde that he wanne nothing but blowes he gaue ouer the siege and went to spoyle all the contry about determining to lye there in garrison all the winter He coulde not for all this auoide his destenie For there rose a sedition in the city of ARGOS betwene two of the chiefest citizens Aristeas and Aristippus and bicause Aristeas thought that kinge Antigonus did fauor his enemy Aristippus he made hast to sende first vnto Pyrrus whose nature and disposition was such that he did continually heape hope vppon hope euer taking the present prosperity for an occasion to hope after greater to come And if it fell out he was a loser then he sought to recouer him selfe and to restore his losse by some other newe attempts So that neither for being conqueror nor ouercomen he would euer be quiet but alwayes troubled some and him selfe also by reason whereof he sodainly departed towardes ARGOS But king Areus hauing layed ambushes for him in diuerse places and occupied also the straightest and hardest passages by the which he was to passe gaue a charge vppon the GAVLES and MOLOSSIANS which were in the tayle of his army Now the selfe same day Pyrrus was warned by a Soothsayer who sacrificing had founde the liuer of the sacrificed beast infected that it betokened the losse of some most neere vnto him But when he heard the noyse of the charge geuen he thought not of the forwarning of his Soothsayer but commaunded his sonne to take his household seruauntes with him and to go thither as he him selfe in the meane time with as great hast as he could made the rest of his army marche to get them quickely out of this daungerous way The fraye was very hotte about Ptolomie Pyrrus sonne for they were all the chiefe men of the LACEDAEMONIANS with whome he had to doe led by a valliant Captaine called Eualcus But as he fought valliantly against those that stoode before him there was a souldier of CRETA called Oraesus borne in the citie of APTERA a man very ready of his hande and light of foote who running alongest by him strake him such a blowe on his side that he sell downe dead in the place This prince Ptolomie being slaine his company began straight to flie and the LACEDAEMONIANS followed the chase so hottely that they tooke no heede of them selues vntill they sawe they were in the plaine field farre from their footemen Wherefore Pyrrus vnto whom the death of his sonne was newly reported being a fire with sorow and passion turned so dainly vpon them with the men of armes of the MOLOSSIANS and being the first that came vnto them made a maruelous slaughter among them For notwithstanding that euery where before that time he was terrible and inuincible hauing his sword in his hande yet then he did shewe more proofe of his valliantnes strength and corage then he had euer done before And when he had sette spurres to his horse against Eualcus to close with him Eualcus turned on the toe side and gaue Pyrrus such a blowe with his sword that he missed litle the cutting of his bridle hande for he cut in deede all the raines of the bridle a sunder But Pyrrus straight ranne him through the body with his speare and lighting of from his horse he put all the troupe of the LACEDAEMONIANS to the sword that were about the body of Eualcus being all chosen men Thus the ambition of the Captaines was cause of that losse vnto their contry for nothing considering that the warres against thē were ended But Pyrrus hauing now as it were made sacrifice of these poore bodies of the LACEDAEMONIANS for the soule of his dead sonne and fought thus wonderfully also to honor his funeralls conuerting a great parte of his sorow for his death into anger and wrath against the enemies he afterwardes held on his way directly towardes ARGOS And vnderstanding that king Antigonus had already seased the hills that were ouer the valley he lodged neere vnto the city of NAVPLIA and the next morning following sent a heraulde vnto Antigonus and gaue him defyance calling him wicked man and chalenged him to come downe into the valley to fight with him to trye which of them two should be king Antigonus made him aunswer that he made warres as much with time as with weapon furthermore that if Pyrrus were weary of his life he had wayes open enough to put him selfe to death The citizens of ARGOS also sent Ambassadors vnto them both to pray them to departe sith they knew that there was nothing for them to see in the city of ARGOS and that they would let
whither to the warres then the common people hauing no bodie to gainesay them turned and altered the gouernment of the citie topsie turuey and confounded all the auncient lawes and customes which they had obserued of long time and that by the procurement and setting on of Ephialtes For they tooke away all hearing of causes in maner from the court of Areopagus put all authoritie of matters iudiciall into the handes of the people and brought the state of the citie into a pure Democratia to say a common weale ruled by the sole and absolute power of the people Pericles being then in great credit who altogether fauored the peoples faction Wherefore Cimon at his returne finding thauthority of the Senate and counsell so shamefully defaced and troden vnder foote was maruelously offended withall and sought to restore thauncient state of iudgement againe as it was before and set vp the gouernment of the nobility called Optimacia that was established in the time of Clisthenes But then beganne his enemies againe with open mouth to crye out vpon him reuiuing the olde former naughty rumor that ranne of him before that he kept his owne sister furthermore accusing him that he did fauor the LACEDAEMONIANS And amongest other thinges there ranne in the peoples mouthes the verses of the Poet Eupolis which were made against Cimon No vvicked man he vvas but very negligent And therevvithall to vvyne much more then vnto money bent He stale somtimes avvay at Sparta for to sleepe And left poore Elpinicè his vvife at home alone to vveepe And if it be so that being thus negligent geuen to wyne he haue gotten so many cities and wonne such sundry great battells it is out of doubt then that if he had bene sober carefull there had neuer bene before him nor since any GRAECIAN Captaine that had passed him in glorie of the warres In deede it is true that from the beginning he euer loued the manner of the LACEDAEMONIANS for of two twynnes which he had by his wife Clitoria he named th one of them Lacedaemonius and thother Eleus as Stesimbrotus wryteth saying that for that cause Pericles did euer twit them in the teeth with their mothers stocke Howbeit Diodorus the Geographer wryteth that both those two and an other third called Thessalus were borne of Isodice the daughter of Euryptolemus the sonne of Megacles How soeuer it was it is certaine that Cimons credit grew the greater by the fauor and countenaunce which the LACEDAEMONIANS gaue him who had hated Themistocles of long time and for the malice they bare him were glad that Cimon being but a yoūg man did beare more sway in ATHENS then he Which the ATHENIANS perceiued well enough and were not offended withall at the beginning bicause the goodwill of the LACEDAEMONIANS towardes him did bring them great commodity For when the ATHENIANS beganne to growe of great power and to practise secretly that the confederats of the GRAECIANS should forsake the LACEDAEMONIANS to ioyne with them the LACEDAEMONIANS were not angrie withall for the honor and loue they bare vnto to Cimon who did alone in maner manedge all th affayres of GRAECE at that time bicause he was very curteous vnto the confederates and also thankefull vnto the LACEDAEMONIANS But afterwardes when the ATHENIANS were aloft and of great power and that they saw Cimon stucke not for a litle matter with the LACEDAEMONIANS but loued them more then they would haue had him they beganne then to enuy him bicause in all his matters he had to do he euer highly praised and extolled the LACEDAEMONIANS before them But specially when he would reproue them of any fault they had committed or that he would perswade them to do any thing the LACEDAEMONIANS sayd he I warrant ye do not so That as Stesimbrotus sayth made him maruelously to be maliced of the people But the chiefest thing they accused him of and that most did hurt him self out vpon this occasion The fourth yeare of the raigne of Archidamus the sonne of Zeuxidamus king of SPARTA there fortuned the wonderfullest and most fearefull earthquake in the citie of LACEDAEMON and thereabouts that ouer was heard of For the earth in many places of the contrie opened and fell as into a bottomlesse pit The mountaine Taygetum shooke so terribly that points of rockes fell downe from it All the citie was layed on the ground and ouerthrowen fiue houses only excepted the rest being wholy destroied And it is said also that a litle before this earthquake came the young men of that citie were playing with the young boyes exercising thē selues starke naked vnder a great galery couered ouer as they were sporting together there started vp a hare hard by them The young men spying her ranne after the hare starke naked and oyled as they were with great laughter They were no sooner gone thence but the top of the gallery fell downe apon the boyes that were left and squashed them all to death And in memorie of the same the tombe where they were afterwardes buried is called vnto this day Sismatias as much to say as the tombe of those which the earthquake had slaine But king Archidamus foreseeing straight vppon the sodaine the daunger that was to come by that he saw present perceiuing his citizens busie in sauing their householde stuffe and that they were running out of their houses made the trompetters to sound a hotte alarome vpon it as if their enemies had come stealingly vpon them to take the citie to th ende that all the inhabitantes should presently repayre vnto him settinge all busines aparte with armor and weapon That sodaine alarome doubtlesse saued the citie of SPARTA at that time for the ILOTAE which are their slaues and bondmen in the contrie of LACONIA and the contrie clownes of litle villages there aboutes came running armed out of all partes to spoyle and robbe them vpon the sodaine that were escaped from this earthquake But when they found them well armed in order of battell they returned backe againe as they came and then beganne afterwardes to make open warres vpon them when they had drawen certaine of their neighbors vnto their confederacie specially the MESSENIANS who made hotte warres vpon the SPARTANS Whereupon the LACEDAEMONIANS sent Periclidas vnto ATHENS to demaunde ayde whome Aristophanes the Poet mocking sayed VVith visage pale and vvanne he on the aulter sate In skarlet govvne requiring ayde to succor their estate Against whom Ephialtes also spake very much protesting that they should not ayde nor relieue a city that was an enemy vnto ATHENS but rather suffer it to fall to the ground and to spurne the pride and arrogancy of SPARTA vnder their feete But Cimon as Cricias saieth being more carefull for the benefit of SPARTA then for thenlarging and encreasing of his contry brought it to passe by his perswasion that the ATHENIANS sent him thither with a great power to helpe them And
most at his happe that he should goe into SYRIA and it appeared plainely that he thought it was the happiest turne that euer came to him for he would euer be talking of the iorney were he in neuer so great or straunge company Furthermore being among his frendes and familiars he would geue out such fonde boastes of it as no young man could haue made greater vauntes which was cleane contrary to his yeres and nature hauing liued all his life time as modestly and with as small ostentacion as any man liuing But then forgetting him selfe too much had such fond conceites in his heade as he not only hoped after the conquest of SYRIA and of the PARTHIANS but flattered him selfe that the world should see all that Lucullus had done against king Tigranes and Pompey against king Mithridates were but trifles as a man would say to that he intended For he looked to conquer the BACTRIANS the INDIANS and the great Occean sea toward the East though in the decree passed by the people there was no mention made of any warres against the PARTHIANS Nowe euery man sawe Crassus ambition and greedy desire of honor insomuch as Caesar selfe wrote vnto Crassus out of GAVLE commending his noble intent and forwardnes and wished him to goe thorow therewith But Atteius one of the Tribunes being bent against Crassus to withstand his departure hauing diuers other confederats with him to further his purpose who much misliked that any man of a brauery and lustines should make warre with any nation or people that had no way offended the ROMANES but were their frends and confederates Crassus fearing this conspiracy prayed Pompey to assist and accompany him out of the city bicause he was of great authority and much reuerenced of the people as it appeared then For though multitudes of people were gathered together of purpose to let Crassus of his departure and to crie out apon him yet when they saw Pompey goe before him with a pleasant smyling countenaunce they quieted them selues and made a lane for them suffering them to passe on and sayd nothing This notwithstanding Atteius the Tribune stepped before them and commaunded Crassus he should not departe the city with great protestations if he did the contrary But perceiuing Crassus still held on his way notwithstanding he commaunded them one of the officers to lay hold of him to arrest him howbeit the other Tribunes would not suffer the officer to doe it So the sergeaunt dismissed Crassus Then Atteius running towards the gate of the city got a chafingdish with coles set it in the middest of the streete When Crassus came against it he cast in certaine perfumes and made sprinckelinges ouer it pronouncing horrible curses and calling apon terrible and straunge names of goddes The ROMANES say that those manner of curses are very auncient but yet very secret and of so great force as he that is once cursed with that curse can neuer escape it nor he that vseth it doth ouer prosper after it And therefore fewe men doe vse it and neuer but apon vrgent occasion But then they much reproued Atteius for vsing of these dreadfull ceremonies and extreame curses which were much hurtefull to the common wealth although he for his contries sake had thus cursed Crassus Crassus settinge forward notwithstandinge sayled on and arriued at BRVNDVSIVM when winter stormes had not left the seas and he had lost many of his shippes howbeit he landed his army and marched through the contry of GALATIA There he found king Deiotarus a very old man and yet building a new city and to taunte him pretily sayd vnto him What O king beginne you to builde now in the afternone To whom the king of the GALATIANS againe smiling made aunswere And truely Syr Captaine you goe not very earely me thinkes to make warre with the PARTHIANS For in deede Crassus was three score and vpward and yet his face made him seeme elder then he was But to our story againe Crassus being comen into the contry had as good lucke as he looked for for he easily built a bridge apon the riuer of Euphrates and passed his armie ouer it without any let or trouble So entring into MESOPOTAMIA receiued many cities that of good will yeelded them selues vnto him Howbeit there was one city called ZENODOTIA whereof Appolonius was tyran where Crassus lost a hundred of his men thereupon he brought his whole armie thither tooke it by force sacked their goodes and sold the prisoners by the drumme The GREEKES called this citie ZENODOTIA and for winning of the same Crassus suffered his men to call him Imperator to say soueraigne Captaine which turned to his shame and reproach and made him to be thought of a base minde as one that had small hope to attaine to great thinges making such reconing of so small a trifle Thus when he had bestowed seuen thowsand of his footemen in garrison in those cities that had yeelded vnto him and about a thowsand horsmen he returned backe to winter in SYRIA Thither came his sonne Publius Crassus to him out of GAVLE from Iulius Caesar who had geuen him such honors as Generalles of ROME did vse to geue to valliant souldiers for reward of their good seruice and brought vnto his fathers thowsand men of armes all choise men This me thinkes was the greatest fault Crassus committed in all his enterprise of that warre For when he should presently haue gone on still and entred into BABYLON and SELEVCIA cities that were euer enemies vnto the PARTHIANS he tracted time gaue them leasure to prepare to encounter his force when he should come against them Againe they found great fault with him for spending of his time when he lay in SYRIA seeming rather to leade a merchauntes life than a chiefetaines For he neuer saw his army nor trained them out to any marshall exercise but fell to counting the reuenue of the cities and was many dayes busily occupied weying of the gold and siluer in the temple of the goddesse Hierapolis And worse then that he sent to the people princes and cities about him to furnishe him with a certaine number of men of warre and then he would discharge them for a summe of money All these things made him to be both ill spoken of despised of euery body The first token of his ill lucke that happened to him came from this goddesse Hierapolis whom some suppose to be Venus other say Iuno and others that she is the mother and chiefe cause that giueth beginning of moisture to euery thing that commeth forth and hath a being and taught men the original cause also of euery good thing For as Crassus the father sonne both were comming out of the temple Crassus the younger fell first on his face and the father afterwardes apon his sonne Likewise as he was gatheringe his garrisons together callinge them out of the cities into the fielde
this warre against ignoraunt men that had no skill to fight but yet for their ouermultitude might intrenche him rounde about and preuent him in diuers thinges then he beganne to feare and suspect him more and thereuppon retyred into a great citie well walled about and of great strength Agesilaus beinge offended that he mistrusted him thus tooke it inwardlie but being ashamed to turne againe vnto the third and also to departe without any exployte done he followed him and enclosed him selfe within those walles The enemies pursuinge him hard came vnto the citie and beganne to entrenche it rounde to keepe him in Then the EGYPTIAN Nectanebos fearing a longe siege determined to geue them battell Thereto the hyered GRAECIANS gaue consent as desiringe no better matche and the rather also for that there was but small store of corne within the citie But Agesilaus perswadinge the contrarie would in no wise consent to it whereuppon the EGYPTIANS thought worse of him then before and plainely called him traytor to their kinge Howebeit he did pacientlie beare all their accusations expectinge time to performe an exployte he entended which was this The enemies had cast a deepe trenche without to compasse them in When this trenche drewe neere to ende and that both endes lacked not much of meetinge tarryinge till night came on he commaunded the GRAECIANS to arme and to put them selues in readinesse then he came vnto the EGYPTIAN and sayed vnto him Loe here is an excellent occasion presented to saue thee which I would not acquaint thee withall till I saw it brought to the perfection I looked for fearing least otherwise we shoulde haue lost it Nowe sith the enemies them selues haue with their owne handes geuen vs the way to saue our selues by this trenche they haue cast the which as muche as is finished thereof dothe hinder their great multitude to helpe them selues and that which is yet left vnfinished dothe geue vs oportunitie to fight with them of euen hande determine to shewe thy valure and followinge vs saue they selfe and thy people For the enemies which we shall assayle before vs shall neuer be able to abide vs and the other by meanes of the trenche which defendeth vs on our side can no way hurte vs Nectanebos hearinge his wordes wondered at his great wisedome and so thrustinge in amonge the GRAECIANS did assayle the enemies the which were soone ouerthrowen and put to flight as many as durst resist and make heade against them Agesilaus hauinge wonne Nectanebos againe to trust him he once againe deceiued his enemies with the like subtiltie wherewith he had first beguiled them and which they knewe not howe to auoyde For one while he made as though he fled and intised them to followe him sodainely againe he woulde turne this waye and that waye In fine he brought all this great multitude into a straight sluce walled about of either side with great broade ditches full of runninge water so that when they were euen in the middest of it he sodainely stopped their passage with the fronte of his battell which he cast to the breadthe of the sluce and thus made his number of fighting men equall with the multitude of his enemies which could neither compasse him in behinde nor flanke him on the sides They hauing in this sorte made some small resistaunce in the ende turned their backes and fled and left a great number slaine in the fielde the residue after that last ouerthrowe forsooke their Captaines and fled straglingly here and there Thus the affaires of this EGYPTIAN king after that time had good successe and was quietly stablished in his kingdom making much of Agesilaus and doing him all honor possible prayed him to tarie with him all that winter Howbeit he would needes hasten home to his contrie which was in warre with others knowing that his citie of SPARTA was without money bicause they were driuen to geue pay vnto straungers Thereuppon Nectanebos in th ende tooke his leaue of him very honorably presenting him a gift besides all other honors he did him of two hundred and thirtie siluer tallentes in readie money to defray the charges of the warre in his contrie Howbeit the sea being rough in the winter quarter he died by the way hauing notwithstanding recouered land with his shippes in a desert place of the coast of LYBIA which was called the hauen of Menelaus after he was foure score foure yeare old of the which he had raigned one and fortie yeares king of SPARTA and thirty yeares thereof and more he was alwayes taken and reputed for the greatest person and in manner Chiefetaine generall of all GRAECE vntill the battell of LEVCTRES Now the LACEDAEMONIANS hauing a custome to burie the dead bodies of their citizens that died out of their contrie in the same place where they departed the bodies of their kinges excepted the SPARTANS which were at that time about Agesilaus annoynted his bodie with waxe for lacke of honny and caried him home to SPARTA in this maner His sonne Archidamus succeded him in the kingdom whose issue successiuely raigned continually after him vnto the time of Agis who was the fift king in succession after Agesilaus whom in deede Leonidas put to death bicause he sought to restore the LACEDAEMONIANS auncient discipline and forme of life The end of the life of Agesilaus THE LIFE OF Pompey THe ROMANES seeme to haue loued Pompey from his childhoode with the selfe affection that Frometheus in the tragedie of AEschylus appeareth to haue borne vnto Hercules after that he was deliuered by him when he sayd So great a hate I bare not to the father But that I loue the sonne of him much rather For the ROMANES neuer shewed more bitter hate against any other Captaine than they did vnto Strabo Pompeys father Truely so long as he liued they feared his greatnesse obtained by armes for in deede he was a noble Captaine but being striken with a thunderbolt and dead they tooke him from the beare whereon his bodie lay as they caried him to buriall and did thereto great villannie Contrariewise neuer any other ROMANE but Pompey had the peoples earnest goodwilles so soone nor that in prosperitie and aduersity continued lenger constant then vnto Pompey One only cause procured the fathers hate and that was an vnsatiable and greedy desire of money But Pompey his sonne was for many occasions beloued As for temperance of life aptnesse to armes eloquence of tongue faithfulnes of word and curtesie in conuersation so that there was neuer man that requested any thing with lesse ill will then he nor that more willingly did pleasure any man when he was requested For he gaue without disdaine and tooke with great honor Furthermore being but a childe he had a certaine grace in his looke that wan mens good willes before he spake for his countenaunce was sweete mixed with grauetie being come to mans state there appeared in his
deliuered it ouer vnto the Treasorers custody to be accountable for it vnto the state In an other castell called Coenon he founde certaine secret letters sent from Mithridates which pleased him maruelously to reade bicause thereby he plainly vnderstoode the kinges nature and inclination For in them were mencioned that he had poysoned besides many other Ariarathes his owne soone and Alcaus the SARDIANIAN bicause he had wonne the bell at the horse race before him There was also interpretinge of dreames that either him selfe or his wiues had dreamed and also loue letters betwext Moniâ—e and him Theophanes wryteth also that there was found an oration of Rutilius in the which he entised and perswaded Mithridates to put all the ROMANES to death that were in ASIA Howbeit in reason men thinke that this was a shamefull lye maliciously deuised by Theophanes who hated Rutilius bicause he was but a counterfeate to him or peraduenture to gratifie Pompey whose father Rutilius in his histories describeth to be as wicked a man as euer liued Thence Pompey departed towardes the city of AMISVS There his ambition brought him to commit such factes as he him selfe did condemne before in Lucullus for that his enemy being yet aliue he tooke vpon him to establish lawes to geue giftes and distribute such honors as Captaines that had obtained victory were wont to doe when they had ended all warre and trouble For he him selfe Mithridates being yet the stronger in the realme of BOSPHORVS and hauing a great puissant army about him did all that which he reproued an other for appointing prouinces and geuing out giftes to euery man according as he deserued to gratifie twelue barbarous kinges with diuers other Princes Lordes and Captaines that came to him thither Wryting also to the king of PARTHIA he disdained to geue him that title which others were wont to doe in the direction of their letters calling him king of kinges Furthermore he had a wonderfull great desire to winne SYRIA and to goe through the contry of Aâ—â—â—IA euen vnto the redde sea bicause he might enlarge his conquestes and victories euery way euen vnto the great sea Oceanum that compasseth all the whole earth For in LIBYA he was the first ROMANE that conquered all in the great sea On thother side in SPAYNE he enlarged thEmpire of ROME and brought the confines thereof vnto Mare Atlantieum And thirdly hauing lately the ALBANIANS in chase he came almost vnto Mare Hyrcanium Thus be put him selfe in iorney intending his circuite vnto the redde sea specially bicause he sawe Mithridates so ill to follow worse to ouercome by force when he fled then when he fought any battell and that made him say that he would leaue a sharper enemy behinde him then him selfe and that he ment famine For he appointed souldiers with sufficient number of shippes to lye in waite for the marchauntes that sailed to the contrie of BOSPHORVS to cary them any vittells or other marchaundises prohibiting them vpon paine of death that should attempt it Then he went forward with the best parte of his army and in his way founde the bodies of dead ROMANES which Mithridates had ouerthrowen vnder the leading of Triarius their Captaine and were yet vnburied So he caused them all to be taken vp and honorably buried Lucullus hauing forgotten or otherwise neglected to doe it in my conscience that was the chiefest cause why his men did hate him Pompey now hauing by Afra 〈…〉 〈…〉 the ARABIANS dwelling about mount Amanus went him selfe in person into SYRIA and made a gouernment and prouince of it being won to the ROMANE empire for that it lacked a lawfull king and conquered all IVRIE also where he tooke king Aristobulus and builded certaine cities there and deliuered others also from bondage which by tyrannes were forcibly kept whom he chasticed well enough Howbeit he spent the most parte of his time there deciding of controuersies pacifying of contencions and quarrells by arbitrement which fell out betwext the free cities Princes and kinges and sent of his frends into those places where he could not come him selfe For on a time when he was chosen arbitrator betwext the PARTHIANS and the ARMENIANS touching the title of a contrie which both parties claimed he sent three commissioners thither to iudge definitiuely betwext them both If Pompeys fame and renowne were great no lesse was his vertue iustice and liberality which in deede did hide many faultes his frendes and familiars about him did commit For truely he was of so gâ—â—â—â— a nature that he could neither keepe them from offending nor yet punishe them when they had offended Notwithstanding he did vse them so well that complained vnto him or that had to deale with him in any matter that he made them contented paciently to beare their couetousnes straight dealing One of his chiefest familiars about him whom he loued best was called Demetrius a bondman infanchised who otherwise was very discrete in his doings but being somewhat too bolde of his good fortune of him they make this mencion Cato the Philosopher being at that time a young man yet of good iudgement and of a noble minde in Pompeys absence went to see the city of ANTIOCH Now for him selfe his maner was alwayes to goe a foote all his frendes besides that did accompany him to honor him were a horsebacke He perceiuing a farre of a great sorte of people comming towardes him all in vvâ—â—â— and of one side of the streete litle children and on the other boyes round about them as in a ring at the first he was angry withall thinking they had done it for his sake to honor him that they made this procession which he in no wise would haue had done Thereuppon he commaunded his frendes to light from their horses and to goe a foote with him But when they came neere to the gate of the city the maister of the ceremonies that led this processions hauing a garland on his head and a rodde in his hand came vnto them and asked them where they had left Demetrius and when he would come Catoes frendes laughed to heare this question then sayd Cato alas poore city and so passed by it Notwithstanding Pompey him selfe was cause that Demetrius had the lesse ill will borne him then otherwise he should haue had bicause they sawe howe boldly he would vse Pompey and howe well he would take it without offence It is reported that when Pompey oftentimes had bidden some to dinner or supper while he was entertaining and welcomming of them and would tary till they were all comes Demetrius would be set at the hord and presumptuously haue his head couered euen to the very eares And furthermore before he returned into ITALIE out of this iorney he had already purchaced the goodliest houses of pleasure and fayrest walkes that were about ROME and had sumptuous gardens also the which the people commonly called Demetrius gardens
maner That the women in those parts of long time haue bene commonly possest with the spirite of Orpheus and the diuine fury of Bacchus whereupon they are called Clodones Mimallones as much as warlicke fierce and doe many things like vnto the women of EDONIA and THRACIA dwelling about the mountaine AEmus Hereby it appeareth that this word Threskeuin signifying in the Greeke tongue too superstitiously geuen to the ceremonies of the gods came from them For Olympias aboue other womē louing to be inspired with such diuine madnes fury did celebrate their solemne sacrifices with a certaine horrible barbarous maner For in these daunces to Bacchus she caried a great number of tame snakes about her the which gliding apon the Iuie wherewith the women were dressed in those ceremonies winding thē selues about the litle iauelings they had in their hands the garlands about their heades therby they made men the more afraid of them Whereupon Philip after this dreame sent Ghaero MEGALOPOLITAN vnto the oracle of Apollo at DELPHES to inquier what it signified Answere was geuen him that he should do sacrifice vnto Iupiter Hammon honor him aboue all gods that he had lost one of his eyes with the which he peeping in at a crany of his chamber dore saw the god in forme of a snake lye by his wife Furthermore Olympias as Eratosthenes writeth bidding her sonne farewel whē he went to conquer ASIA after she had secretly tolde him alone by whom he was begotten she prayed him to be valliant to shew himselfe worthy his sonne that begat him Others tel also that she was angry with this report saying will Alexander neuer leaue to make me suspected of Iuno So it is that Alexander was borne on the sixt day of the moneth of Hecatombaeon in english Iune which the MACEDONIANS call Lous On the very same day the temple of Diana in the city of EPHESVS was burnt as Hegesias MAGNESIAN doth witnesse whose crie exclamation was so terrible cold that it was enough to haue quenched that fire It is not to be wondred at that Diana suffred her temple to be burnt being like a midwife busie about Alexanders birth But this is true that all the priests magitians and soothsayers which were at that time in EPHESVS iudging that this did prognosticate some maruelous great misfortune to come like men bestraught of their wits they ran vp downe the city smiting of their faces crying that some great plague mischief was borne that day vnto ASIA Shortly after that king Philip had wonne the city of POTIDAEA three messengers came to him the same day that brought him great newes The first that Parmenio had wonne a notable battell of the ILLYRIANS the second that his horse only wan the bell price at the Olympian games the third that his wife had brought him a sonne called Alexander Philip being maruelous glad to heare these newes the soothsayers did make his ioy yet greater assuring him that his sonne which was borne with three victories all together should be inuincible Now for his stature personage the statues and images made of him by Lysippus doe best declare it for that he would be drawen of no man but him only Diuers of his successors frends did afterwards counterfeat his image but that excellent workeman Lysippus only of all other the chiefest hath perfectly drawen and resembled Alexanders maner of holding his necke somwhat hanging downe towards the left side also the sweete looke cast of his eyes But when Apelles painted Alexander holding lightning in his hand he did not shew his fresh colour but made him somewhat blacke and swarter then his face in deede was for naturally he had a very fayre white colour mingled also with red which chiefly appeared in his face in his brest I remember I red also in the cōmentaries of Aristoxenus that his skin had a maruelous good sauor that his breath was very swete insomuch that his body had so swete a smell of it selfe that all the apparell he wore next vnto his body tooke thereof a passing delightfull sauor as if it had bene perfumed And the cause hereof peraduenture might be the very temperature constitucion of his body which was hot and burning like fire For Theophrastus is of opinion that the sweete sauor commeth by meanes of the heate that dryeth vp the moisture of the bodie By which reason also it appeareth that the drie hot contries pearched with heate of the sunne are those that deliuer vnto vs the best spices bicause that the sunne drieth vp the moysture of the outward parts as a matter of corruption This natural heate that Alexander had made him as it appeareth to be giuen to drinke to be hasty Euen from his childhood they saw that he was giuen to be chast For though otherwise he was very hot hasty yet was he hardly moued with lust or pleasure of the body would moderately vse it But on thother side the ambition desire he had of honor snewed a certaine greatnes of minde noble corage passing his yeares For he was not as his father Philip desirous of all kind of glory who like a Rethoritian had a delite to vtter his eloquence stamped in his coynes the victories he had wonne at the Olympian games by the swift running of his horse coches For when he was asked one day bicause he was swift of foote whether he would assay to run for victory at the Olympian games I could be content said he so I might run with kings And yet to speake generally he misliked all such contention for games For it seemeth that he vtterly misliked all wrestling other exercise for prise where men did vse all their strength but otherwise he him self made certen festiual daies games of prise for common stage plaiers musitians singers for the very Poets also He delighted also in hunting of diuers kindes of beastes and playing at the staffe Ambassadors being sent on a time from the king of PERSIA whilest his father was in some iorney out of his realme Alexander familliarly entertaining of them so wan them with his curteous entertainment for that he vsed no childish questions vnto them nor asked them trifling matters but what distance it was frō one place to an other which way they went into the high contries of ASIA of the king of PERSIA him selfe how he was towards his enemies what power he had that he did rauish them with delight to heare him insomuch that they made no more account of Philips eloquence sharpe wit in respect of his sonnes corage noble minde to attempt great enterprises For when they brought him newes that his father had taken some famous city or had won some great battell he was nothing glad to heare it but would say to his playfellowes sirs my father will
leaue to exercise their office for the time But thou the riche men that were of great liuings chaunged their apparell and walked very sadly vp and downe the market place and layed secret wayre to take Tiberius hauing by â—â—d men to kill him which caused Tiberius him selfe openly before them all to weare a shorte dagger vnder his longe gowne properly called in Latine Dolon When the day came that this lawe should be established Tiberius called the people to giue their voyces and the riche men on thother side they make away the pots by force wherein the papets of mans voyces were throwen so that there was like to fall out great sturre vpon it For the section Tiberius was the strongerside by the number of people that were gathered about him for that purpose had it not bene for Manlius Fabtius both the which had ben Consuls who went into him besought him with the teares in their eies holding vp their hands that he would let the lawe alone Tiberius thereuppon foreseeing the instant daunger of some great mischief as also for the reuerence he bare vnto two such noble persons he stayed a litle asked them what they would haue him to doe They made aunswer that they were not able to counsel him in a matter of so great waight but they praied him notwithstanding he would be contented to referre it to the iudgement of the Senate Thereuppon be graunted them presently But afterwards perceiuing that the Senate sate apon it had determined nothing bicause the rich men were of too great authoritie he entred into another deuise that was nether honest nor meete which was to deprime Octauius of his Tribuneship knowing that otherwise he could not possibly come to passe the law But before he tooke that course he openly intreated him in the face of the people with curteous words and tooke him by the hand and prayed him to stand no more against him to doe the people this pleasure which required a manner iust reasonable onely requested this smal recompence for the great paines they tooke in seruice abroad for their contry Octauius denied him plainely Then said Tiberius openly that both of them being brethren in one selfe place and authoritie contrary one to another in a matter of so great waight this contencion could not be possibly ended without ciuill warre and that he could see no way to remedy it vnles one of them two were deposed from their office Thereuppon he bad Octauius begin first with him he would rise from the benche with a good will and become a priuate man if the people were so contented Octauius would doe nothing in it Tiberius then replyed that he would be doing with him if he altered not his mind apon a better breathe and consideracion and so dismissed the assemblye for that daye The next morning the people being againe assembled Tiberius going vp to his feare attempted agayne to perswade Octauius to leaue of In fine finding him still a man vnremoueable he referred the matter to the voyce of the people whether they were contended Octauius should be deposed from his office Nowe there were fiue and thirtie trybes of the people of the which seuenteene of them had already passed their voyces agaynst Octauius so that there remayned but one trybe more to put him out his office Then Tiberius made them staye for proceeding any further and prayed Octauius agayne imbracing him before all the people with all the intreatye possible that for selfe will take he would not suffer such an open shappe to be done vnto him as to be put out of his office neither also to make him the occasion and instrument of so pitifull a deede They saye that Octauius at this last intreatie was somewhat moued and wonne by his perswasions and that weeping be stayed a longe tyme and made no aunswer But when he looked apon the riche men that stoode in a great company together he was ashamed I thinke to haue their all willes and rather betooke him selfe as the losse of his office and so bad Tiberius doe what he would Thereuppon he beeing depriued by voyces of the people Tiberius commaunded one of his infranchised bondmen to pull him out of the pulpit for orations for he vsed his infranchised bondmen in steede of Sengeaunes This made the sight so much more lamentable to see Octauius thus shamefully plucke away by force Yea furthermore the common people would haue norme apon him but the riche men came to rescue him and woulde not suffer him to doe him further home So Octauius saued him selfe tonning away alone after he had bene rescued thus from the fury of the people Moreouer there was a faithfull seruaunt of Octauius who stepping before his Maister to saue him from hurt had his eyes pulled out against Tiberius minde who ranne to the rescue with all speede when he heard the noyse After that the lawe Agraria passed for diâ—ision of landes and three Commissioners were appoynted to make inquirie and distribution thereof The Commissioners appoynted were these Tiberius him selfe Appius Clodius his father in lawe and Caius Graecchus his brothers who was not at that ryme in ROME but in the campe with Scipio AFRICAN at the seege of the citie of NVMANTIA Thus Tiberius very quietly passed ouer these matters and no man durst withstand him and furthermore he subtituted in Octauius place no man of qualitie but onely one of his followers called Mutius Wherewith the noble men were so sore offended with him that fearing the more use of his greatnes they being in the Senate house did what they could possible to doe him despyte and shame For when Tiberius demaunded a tent at the charge of the common wealth when he should goe abroad to make diuision of these landes as they vsually graunted vnto others that many tymes went in farre meaner commissions they flatly denyed him and through the procurement of P. Nasica who being a great landed man in his contry shewed himselfe in this action his mortall enemie taking it greeuously to be compelled to depart from his land onely graunted him nyne of their obuli a day for his ordinarye allowance But the people on thother side were all in an vprore against the riche Insomuch as one of Tiberius friendes beeing deade vppon the sodaine vppon whose body beeing deade there appeared very ill signes the common people ranne sodainely to his buriall and cryed out that he was poysoned And so taking vppe the beere whereon his bodie laye vppon their showlders they were present at the fire of his funeralls where immediatly appeared certaine signes to make them suspect that in deede there was vehement cause of presumption he was poysoned For his belly burst whereout there issued such aboundance of corrupt humors that they put out the first fire and made them fetche another the which also they could not make to burne vntil that they were compelled to cary the bodie into some other
suffred But on the other side this did reuiue the old grudge and malice of the people for the wickednes of the ambitious noble men who hauing thēselues before slaine Tiberius Gracchus that was Tribune within the Capitoll it selfe had also cast his body into the riuer did now make an honorable show openly in the market place of the body of a sergeaūt Antyllius who though he were wrōgfully slaine yet had himselfe geuen thē the cause that slue him to do that they did all the whole Senate were about the beere to bewaile his death to honor the funeralls of a hyerling to make the people also kill him that was only left the protector defender of the people After this they went againe vnto the Capitoll there made a decree wherby they gaue the Consul Opimius extraordinary power authority by absolute power to prouide for the safety of the common wealth to preserue the city to suppresse the tyrans This decree being established the Consul presently commaunded the Senators that were present there to go arme thē selues appointed the ROMANE Knights that the next morning betimes euery man should bring two of their men armed with thē Fuluius on the other side he prepared his force against them assembled the cōmon people together Caius also returning from the market place stayd before the image of his father looked earnestly apon it without euer a word speaking only he burst out a weeping and fetching a great sigh went his way This made the people to pitie him that saw him so that they talked among them selues that they were but beasts cowards at such a straight to forsake so worthy a man Therupon they went to his house stayed there all night watched before his gate not as they did that watched with Fuluius that passed away the night in guseling and drinking drunke crying out and making noyse Fuluius him selfe being dronke first of all who both spake and did many thinges farre vnmeete for his calling For they that watched Caius on thother side were very sorowfull and made no noyse euen as in a common calamitie of their contrie deuising with them selues what would fall out apon it waking and sleeping one after an other by turnes When the day brake they with Fuluius did awake him who slept yet soundly for the wine he dranke ouer night and they armed them selues with the spoiles of the GAVLES that hong rounde about his house whom he had ouercome in battell the same yeare he was Consul and with great cries and thundering threats they went to take the mount Auentine But Caius would not arme him selfe but went out of his house in a long gowne as if he woude haue gone simply into the market place according to his wonted maner sauing that he caried a short dagger at his girdel vnder his gowne So as he was going out of his house his wife stayed him at the dore and holding him by the one hand and a litle child of his in her other hand she sayd thus vnto him Alas Caius thou doest not now goe as thou wert wont a Tribune into the market place to speake to the people neither to preferre any new lawes neither doest thou goe vnto an honest warre that if vnfortunately that shoulde happen to thee that is common to all men I might yet at the least mourne for thy death with honor But thou goest to put thy selfe into bloodie butchers handes who most cruelly haue slaine thy brother Tiberius and yet thou goest a naked man vnarmed intending rather to suffer then to doe hurt Besides thy death can bring no benefit to the common wealth For the worser part hath now the vpper hand considering that sentence passeth by force of sword Had thy brother bene slaine by his enemies before the citie of NVMANTIA yet had they geuen vs his bodie to haue buried him But such may be my misfortune that I may presently go to pray the riuer or sea to geue me thy bodie which as thy brothers they haue likewise throwen into the same Alas what hope or trust is left vs now in lawes or gods sithence they haue slaine Tiberius As Licinia was making this pitiefull mone vnto him Caius fayer and softly pulled his hand from her and left her geuing her neuer a word but went on with his frends But she reaching after him to take him by the gowne fell to the ground and lay flatling there a great while speaking neuer a word vntill at length her seruaunts tooke her vp in a swoone and caried her so vnto her brother Crassus Now Fuluius by the perswasion of Caius when all their faction were met sent his younger sonne which was a prety fayer boy with a Heraulds rodde in his hand for his safetie This boy humbly presenting his duetie with the teares in his eyes before the Consul and Senate offred them peace The most of them that were present thought verie well of it But Opimius made aunswere saying that it became them not to send messengers thinking with fayer wordes to winne the Senate but it was their duetie to come thē selues in persons like subiects offendors to make their triall so to craue pardon to seeke to pacifie the wrath of the Senate Then he commaunded the boy he should not returne againe to them but with this condicion he had prescribed Caius as it is reported was ready to go and cleare him selfe vnto the Senate but the residue would not suffer him to go Wheruppon Fuluius sent his sonne backe againe vnto them to speake for them as he had done before But Opimius that was desirous to fight caused the boy to be taken and committed him in safe custodie then went presently against Fuluius with a great number of footemen well armed of CRETAN archers besides who with their arrowes did more trouble hurt their enemies then with any thing else that within a while they all began to flie Fuluius on the other side fled into an old hottehouse that no body made reckoning of and there being found shortly after they slue him and his eldest sonne Now for Caius he fought not at all but being mad with him selfe and grieued to see such bloodshed he got him into the temple of Diana where he would haue killed him selfe had not his very good frends Pomponius and Licinius saued him For both they being with him at that time tooke his sword from him and counselled him to flie It is reported that then he fell downe on his knees and holding vp both his hands vnto the goddesse he besought her that the people might neuer come out of bondage to be reuenged of this their ingratitude treason For the common people or the most parte of them plainly turned their coats when they heard proclamacion made that all men had pardon graunted them that woulde returne So Caius fled apon it and his enemies followed him so neere that they
which requireth secrecy and fidelity I confesse that a womans wit commonly is too weake to keepe a secret safely but yet Brutus good educacion and the companie of vertuous men haue some power to reforme the defect of nature And for my selfe I haue this benefit moreouer that I am the daughter of Cato wife of Brutus This notwithstanding I did not trust to any of these things before vntill that now I haue found by experience that no paine nor griefe whatsoeuer can ouercome me With those wordes she shewed him her wounde on her thigh and tolde him what she had done to proue her selfe Brutus was amazed to heare what she sayd vnto him and lifting vp his handes to heauen he besought the goddes to geue him the grace he might bring his enterprise to so good passe that he might be founde a husband worthie of so noble a wife as Porcia so he then did comfort her the best he coulde Now a day being appointed for the meeting of the Senate at what time they hoped Caesar woulde not faile to come the conspirators determined then to put their enterprise in execucion bicause they might meete safelie at that time without suspicion and the rather for that all the noblest and chiefest men of the citie woulde be there Who when they should see suche a great matter executed would euerie man then set to their handes for the defence of their libertie Furthermore they thought also that the appointment of the place where the counsell shoulde be kept was chosen of purpose by diuine prouidence and made all for them For it was one of the porches about the Theater in the which there was a certaine place full of seates for men to sit in where also was set vp the image of Pompey which the citie had made and consecrated in honor of him when he did beawtifie that parte of the citie with the Theater he built with diuers porches about it In this place was the assembly of the Senate appointed to be iust on the fifteenth day of the moneth of March which the ROMANES call Idus Martias so that it seemed some god of purpose had brought Caesar thither to be slaine for reuenge of Pompeys death So when the day was come Brutus went out of his house with a dagger by his side vnder his long gowne that no bodie sawe nor knewe but his wife onelie The other conspirators were all assembled at Cassius house to bring his sonne into the marketplace who on that day did put on the mans gowne called Toga Virilis and from thence they came all in a troupe together vnto Pompeys porche looking that Caesar woulde straight come thither But here is to be noted the wonderfull assured constancie of these conspirators in so daungerous and waightie an enterprise as they had vndertaken For many of them being Praetors by reason of their office whose duetie is to minister iustice to euerie bodie they did not onelie with great quietnesse and curtesie heare them that spake vnto them or that pleaded matters before them and gaue them attentiue eare as if they had had no other matter in their heades but moreouer they gaue iust sentence and carefullie dispatched the causes before them So there was one among them who being condemned in a certaine summe of money refused to pay it and cried out that he did appeale vnto Caesar Then Brutus casting his eyes vppon the conspirators sayd Caesar shall not lette me to see the lawe executed Notwithstanding this by chaunce there fell out many misfortunes vnto them which was enough to haue marred the enterprise The first and chiefest was Caesars long tarying who came verie late to the Senate for bicause the signes of the sacrifices appeared vnluckie his wife Calpurnia kept him at home and the Soothsayers bad him beware he went not abroade The seconde cause was when one came vnto Casca being a conspirator and taking him by the hande sayd vnto him O Casca thou keptest it close from me but Brutus hath tolde me all Casca being amazed at it the other went on with his tale and sayd why howe nowe howe commeth it to passe thou art thus riche that thou doest sue to be AEdilis Thus Casca being deceiued by the others doubtfull wordes he tolde them it was a thowsand to one he blabbed not out all the conspiracie An other Senator called Popilius Lana after he had saluted Brutus and Cassius more frendlie then he was wont to doe he rounded softlie in their eares and told them I pray the goddes you may goe through with that you haue taken in hande but withall dispatche I reade you for your enterprise is bewrayed When he had sayd he presentlie departed from them and left them both affrayed that their conspiracie woulde out Nowe in the meane time there came one of Brutus men post hast vnto him and tolde him his wife was a dying For Porcia being verie carefull and pensiue for that which was to come and being too weake to away with so great and inward griefe of minde she coulde hardlie keepe within but was frighted with euerie litle noyse and crie she hearde as those that are taken and possest with the furie of the Bacchantes asking euery man that came from the market place what Brutus did and still sent messenger after messenger to knowe what newes At length Caesars comming being prolonged as you haue heard Porciaes weakenesse was not able to holde out any lenger and thereuppon she sodainlie swounded that she had no leasure to goe to her chamber but was taken in the middest of her house where her speache and sences failed her Howbeit she soone came to herselfe againe and so was layed in her bedde and tended by her women When Brutus heard these newes it grieued him as it is to be presupposed yet he left not of the care of his contrie and common wealth neither went home to his house for any newes he heard Nowe it was reported that Caesar was comming in his litter for he determined not to stay in the Senate all that day bicause he was affrayed of the vnluckie signes of the sacrifices but to adiorne matters of importaunce vnto the next session and counsell holden faining him selfe not to be well at ease When Caesar came out of his litter Popilius Laena that had talked before with Brutus and Cassius and had prayed the goddes they might bring this enterprise to passe went vnto Caesar and kept him a long time with a talke Caesar gaue good eare vnto him Wherefore the conspirators if so they shoulde be called not hearing what he sayd to Caesar but coniecturing by that he had tolde them a litle before that his talke was none other but the verie discouerie of their conspiracie they were affrayed euerie man of them and one looking in an others face it was easie to see that they all were of a minde that it was no tarying for them till they were apprehended but rather that they
his friendes There both their armies being armed they called them both Emperors Nowe as it commonly hapneth in great affayres betwene two persons both of them hauing many friends and so many Captaines vnder them there ranne tales and complaints betwixt them Therefore before they tell in hand with any other matter they went into a litle chamber together and bad euery man auoyde and did shut the dores to them Then they beganne to powre out their complaints one to the other and grew hot and lowde earnestly accusing one another and at lenght fell both a weeping Their friends that were without the chamber hearing them lowd within and angry betwene them selues they were both amased and affrayd also lest it would grow to further matter but yet they were commaunded that no man should come to them Notwithstanding one Marcus Phaonius that had bene a friend and follower of Cato while he liued tooke vpon him to counterfeate a Philosopher not with wisedom and discretion but with a certaine bedlem and frantick motion he would needes come into the chamber though the men offered to keepe him out But it was no boote to let Phaonius when a mad moode or toye tooke him in the head for he was a hot hasty man sodaine in all his doings and cared for neuer a Senator of them all Now though he vsed this bold manner of speeche after the profession of the Cynick Philosophers as who would say doggs yet this boldnes did no hurt many time bicause they did but laugh at him to see him so mad This Phaonius at that time in despite of the doorekeepers came into the chamber and with a certaine scoffing mocking gesture which he counterfeated of purpose he rehearsed the verses which old Nestor sayd in Homer My Lords I pray you harken both to mee For I haue seene moe yeares than suchye three Cassius fel a laughing at him but Brutus thrust him out of the chamber called him dogge and counterfeate Cynick Howbeit his comming in brake their strife at that time and so they left eche other The selfe same night Cassius prepared his supper in his chamber and Brutus brought his friendes with him So when they were set at supper Phaonius came to sit downe after he had washed Brutus tolde him alowd no man sent for him and bad them set him at the vpper end meaning in deede at the lower ende of the bed Phaonius made no ceremonie but thrust in amongest the middest of them and made all the companye laugh at him So they were merry all supper tyme and full of their Philosophie The next daye after Brutus vpon complaynt of the SARDIANS did condemne and noted Lucius Pella for a defamed person that had bene a Praetor of the ROMANES and whome Brutus had giuen charge vnto for that he was accused and conuicted of robberie and pilferie in his office This iudgement much misliked Cassius bicause he him selfe had secretly not many dayes before warned two of his friends attainted and conuicted of the like offences and openly had cleered them but yet he did not therefore leaue to employ them in any manner of seruice as he did before And therefore he greatly reproued Brutus for that he would shew him selfe so straight and seueare in such a tyme as was meeter to beare a litle then to take thinges at the worst Brutus in contrary manner aunswered that he shoulde remember the Ides of Marche at which tyme they slue Iulius Caesar who nether pilled nor polled the contrye but onely was a fauorer and suborner of all them that did robbe and spoyle by his countenaunce and authoritie And if there were any occasion whereby they might honestly sette aside iustice and equitie they should haue had more reason to haue suffered Caesars friendes to haue robbed and done what wronge and iniurie they had would then to beare with their owne men For then sayde he they could but haue sayde they had bene cowards and nowe they may accuse vs of iniustice beside the paynes we take and the daunger we put our selues into And thus may we see what Brutus intent and purpose was But as they both prepared to passe ouer againe out of ASIA into EVROPE there went a rumor that there appeared a wonderfull signe vnto him Brutus was a carefull man and slept very litle both for that his dyet was moderate as also bicause he was continually occupied He neuer slept in the day tyme and in the night no lenger then the tyme he was driuen to be alone and when euery bodye els tooke their rest But nowe whilest he was in warre and his heade euer busily occupied to thinke of his affayres and what would happen after he had slumbered a litle after supper he spent all the rest of the night in dispatching of his waightiest causes and after he had taken order for them if he had any leysure left him he would read some booke till the third watche of the night at what tyme the Captaines pety Captaines and Colonells did vse to come vnto him So being ready to goe into EVROPE one night very late when all the campe tooke quiet rest as he was in his tent with a litle light thinking of waighty matters he thought he heard one come in to him and casting his eye towards the doore of his tent that he saw a wonderfull straunge and monstruous shape of a body comming towards him and sayd neuer a word So Brutus boldly asked what he was a god or a man and what cause brought him thither The spirit aunswered him I am thy euill spirit Brutus and thou shalt see me by the citie of PHILIPPES Brutus beeing no otherwise affrayd replyed againe vnto it well then I shall see thee agayne The spirit presently vanished away and Brutus called his men vnto him who tolde him that they heard no noyse nor sawe any thinge at all Thereuppon Brutus returned agayne to thinke on his matters as he did before and when the daye brake he went vnto Cassius to tell him what vision had appeared vnto him in the night Cassius beeing in opinion an EPICVRIAN and reasoning thereon with Brutus spake to him touching the vision thus In our secte Brutus we haue an opinion that we doe not alwayes feele or see that which we suppose we doe both see and feele but that our senses beeing credulous and therefore easily abused when they are idle and vnoccupied in their owne obiects are induced to imagine they see and coniecture that which they in truth doe not For our minde is quicke and cunning to worke without eyther cause or matter any thinge in the imagination whatsoeuer And therefore the imagination is resembled to claye and the minde to the potter who without any other cause than his fancie and pleasure chaungeth it into what facion and forme he will. And this doth the diuersitie of our dreames shewe vnto vs. For our imagination doth vppon a small
maruelouslie desired this matter might be brought to passe by his meanes he secretlie sent vnto Aristomachus to accuse Aratus and shewed howe he had bene alway a mortall enemy vnto tyrans and therefore counselled him rather to put him selfe into his hands as in deede he did For Lysiadas brought Aristomachus vnto the counsell of the ACHAIANS There all the counsell plainlie shewed their good wills and the confidence they had in Aratus for when he spake against it that they should not receiue Aristomachus they reiected him with great anger But afterwards also when Aratus was wonne and that he began to moue the contrarie to the counsell they straight agreed to receiue the ARGIVES and the PHLIASIANS in league with them and also the next yeare following they chose Aristomachus Lieutenaunt generall of all their tribe Aristomachus seeing him selfe in credit nowe with the ACHAIANS would needes inuade the contrie of LACONIA with a maine armie and sent for Aratus being then at ATHENS Aratus wrote vnto him and wished him in any wise not to meddle with that iorney bicause he would not haue the ACHAIANS to deale with Cleomenes king of LACEDAEMON that was a coragious and stowt young Prince and maruelouslie growen in short time Howbeit Aristomachus being selfe willed in that poynt Aratus obeyed him and was there in person all that iorney So Cleomenes being come to them vppon the sodaine with his armie neere vnto the citie of PALANTIVM Aristomachus woulde needes fight with him But Aratus disswaded him from it Whereupon Lysiadas afterwards accused him to the ACHAIANS and the next yere following he contended with him suing to be Generall howbeit he was reiected by most voyces and Aratus chosen Generall the twelfth time The selfe same yeare he was ouerthrowen in battell by Cleomenes neere vnto the mountaine Lycaeum and being fled wandered vp and downe in the night that euerie man thought the had bene slaine and it ranne for good payment among all the GRAECIANS Howbeit he saued himselfe and hauing gathered his men together againe nor contenting him that he had scaped with life but wiselie taking the oportunitie and occasion offered no man knowing it nor mistrusting his comming he sodainlie went to assaile the MANTINIANS which were confederats of Cleomenes and hauing taken the citie of MANTINEA he left a great garrison in it and made the straungers that were there free of the citie Thus Aratus was he alone that being ouercome wanne the ACHAIANS that which they them selues could scarcelie haue wonne if they had bene conquerors Afterwards the LACEDAEMONIANS inuading the territories of the MEGALOPOLITANS with a great armie Aratus sodainlie went thithes to aide them but would hazard battell no more nor geue Cleomenes vantage who desired only no fight and still constantlie resisted MEGALOPOLITANES that prouoked him to come into the field For besides that in nature he was not meete for a set battell at that time also he was the weaker in men and had to doe with a venterous young man that was all fire where his corage and ambicion on the other side was coole quiet enough Furthermore he considered that as king Cleomenes sought honor by valliant ventering which he had not before euen so it was his parte wiselie to keepe that which he had long since gotten and to stande vppon his gard and safetie This notwithstanding the light armed men being put out into the fielde and hauing chased the LACEDAEMONIANS euen into their campe entring in with the hand ouer head Aratus would neuer bring out his citizens but stayed them in a great valley that lay betwene them both and would not let them come on any further Wherewithall Lysiadas being mad with him selfe and falling out with Aratus he called for the horsemen sayd that he would yet helpe them that followed the chase and prayed them not to lose the victorie so cowardly of the which they were so sure nor to forsake him at a pinche fighting for defence of their contrie So hauing gotten a great number of choyse horsemen together he went with great furie and gaue charge of the right wing of his enemies battell and hauing dispersed them and put them to flight he vnaduisedlie followed them with great corage into euill fauoured crooked wayes among trees and great broade ditches Whereuppon Cleomenes came and so lustely set on him that he slue him dead in the place valliantly fighting and defending him selfe The other men of armes flying also rushed in againe into the battell of the footemen and so disordered their rankes that they made all their armie flie for feare For this cause they greatly blamed Aratus bicause he had forsaken Lysiadas and being forced vnto it by the ACHAIANS that went without his leaue he followed them at length and fled him selfe also vnto the city of AEGIVM There the ACHAIANS sitting in counsell they decreed that they would furnish Aratus with no more money neither would they pay his straungers any more bad him pay them at his owne charge if he would enterteine them for the warre Aratus perceiuing they did him great wrong stoode euen indifferent to deliuer vp his commission of Lieutenancy and to discharge him selfe of his office but after he had bethought him selfe better he bare it pacientlie and led the ACHAIANS directlie to the citie of ORCHOMENE There he valliantlie fought with Megistonus king Cleomenes father in lawe and had the vpper hande of him for he slue three hundred of his men and tooke Megistonus selfe prisoner Furthermore where before euerie second yeare they did vse to choose him their Lieutenant generall when his turne came about againe they called him to geue him the office but he refused it and Timoxenus was chosen in his roome Now the cause alleaged for his refusall was sayd to be for that he misliked of the common people But that soundeth like a lye for the trueth of it to my seming was for that he saw the state of the ACHAIANS to decline For king Cleomenes proceeded no more sayer and softlie as he did at the first when he was controlled and brideled by the Ephori but hauing slaine them and equallie deuided the landes through all LACEDAEMONIA and made the straungers free citizens of SPARTA being then absolute Lorde of LACEDAEMON the straight set vpon the ACHAIANS with all the power he coulde and sought to conquer them And therefore Aratus deserueth iust reproofe for that he forsooke his contrie in such extreame trouble daūger that being as the maister of a shippe he gaue an other the sterne to steare when it had bene most honorable meetest for him to haue taken it in hand though they would not haue giuen it him to haue saued his contry Or otherwise if he had in dede vtterly dispaired of the good successe of the ACHAIANS he should then haue put it rather into Cleomenes handes and not to haue poysoned PELOPONNESVS againe with the maners of the barbarous people
Sempronius Longus the sonne of that Sempronius whome Annibal ouercame in that great ouerthrow at the battell by the riuer of Trebia They two were the first as it is reported that deuided the noble men and Senators from the people in the showe place to see pastime This separation was verie odious to the people of ROME and they were maruelouslie offended with the Consuls for it bicause they tooke it that increasing the honor of the state of the Senators they thereby did discountenaunce and imbase them Some say also that Scipio AFRICAN afterwardes repented him selfe that he had taken away the olde custome and brought in a newe At that time there fell out greate variaunce betwext Masinissa and the CARTHAGINIANS touching their borders and confines Whereuppon the Senate sent Scipio thither with two other commissioners who after they had hearde the cause of their quarrell they left the matter as they founde it and would proceede no further it And this they did bicause that the CARTHAGINIANS being troubled with ciuil warres at home should take vpon them no other warres abroade neither shoulde haue leasure to attempt any alternacion otherwise For the ROMANES had great warre with king Antiothus Annibal CARTHAGINIAN was there with him who still stirred vp the olde enemies against the ROMANES and practised to raise vp new enemies against them in all thinges to counsell the CARTHAGINIANS to cast away the yoke of bondage which the ROMANES had brought them into vnder the title of peace to proue the frendship of the kings Howbeit shortly after the ROMANES hauing obtained victorie and driuen king Antiochus out of GRAECE they intended also to conquer ASIA and therefore all their hope was in Scipio AFRICAN as a man that was borne to ende warres of great importaunce Howbeit Lucius Scipio and Caius Lalius were Consuls either of them made sute for the gouernment of ASIA The matter being consulted vpon the Senate stoode doubtfull what iudgement they should geue betwext two so famous men Howbeit bicause Laelius was in better fauour with the Senate and in greater estimacion the Senate beganne to take his parte But when P. Cornelius Scipio AFRICAN the elder brother of Lucius Scipio prayed the Senate that they would not dishonor his house so and tolde them that his brother had great vertues in him and was besides verie wise and that he him selfe also woulde be his Lieutenaunt he had no sooner spoken the wordes but the Senators receiued him with great ioy and presentlie did put them all out of doubt So it was ordayned in open Senate that Lucius Scipio should goe into GRAECE to make warre with the AETOLIANS and that from thence he shoulde goe into ASIA if he thought good to make warre with king Antiochus and also that he shoulde take his brother Scipio AFRICAN with him bicause he shoulde goe against Annibal that was in Antiochus armie Who can but wonder at the loue and naturall affection of Publius Cornelius Scipio AFRICAN the which he first shewed from his youth vnto his father Cornelius and afterwardes also vnto his brother Lucius Scipio considering the great thinges he had done For notwithstanding he was that AFRICAN by name that had ouercomen Annibal that had triumphed ouer the CARTHAGINIANS and excelled all others in praise of martiall discipline yet of his owne good nature he made him selfe inferiour to his younger brother bicause he might haue the honour of obtayninge the gouernment of that prouince from his fellowe Consul Laelius that was so well beloued and of so great estimacion Lucius Scipio the Consul brought great honor to his contrie by that warre for that he followed the sownde and faithfull counsell of his brother For first of all goinge into GRAECE he tooke truce for sixe monethes with the AETOLIANS through the aduise of his brother AFRICAN who counselled him that setting all thinges a parte he shoulde straight goe into ASIA where the warre was ryfest Afterwards also he wanne Prusias king of BITHYNIA from Antiochus frendshippe who before was wauing vp downe doutfull which side to take and all through his brother AFRICANS meanes and practise So the authoritie of the AFRICAN was verie great and all those that woulde obtaine any thing of the Consul came first to the AFRICAN to be their meane and intercessor Nowe when he came into ASIA Antiochus Ambassador and Heraclides BIZANTINE came vnto him to offer to make peace and after they had openly tolde their message perceiuing that they could not obtaine reasonable condicions of peace they priuately talked with Scipio AFRICAN as they were commaunded and practised the best they coulde to make him king Antiochus frende For they tolde him that Antiochus would sende him his younger sonne which he had taken and furthermore that he woulde willinglie make him his companion in the gouernment of all his realme only reseruing the name and title of the king Howebeit P. Scipio excelling no lesse in faithfulnesse and bountie then in many other vertues after he had aunswered them to all other matters he tolde them that for his sonne he woulde take him for a maruelous frendlie gifte and that for a priuate good turne he would doe the best he could to requite him with the like Howbeit that he would counsell the king aboue all things to leaue of thought of warre and to receiue those offers and condicions of peace which the Senate and people of ROME would offer him Shortly after Antiochus sent P. Scipio his sonne according to his promise who as it is reported had bene taken prisoner from the first beginning of the warre as he went from CHALCIDE vnto ORICVM or as other wryters say as he passed by in a pinnase Yet some holde opinion that he was taken as he went to discouer the counsell of the enemies and that he was then sent againe vnto his father lying sicke at the citie of ELEA This great curtesie of king Antiochus was maruelous well thought of of the AFRICAN and not without cause for to see his sonne after he had bene away so long it did greatlie lighten his spirites and diseased bodie But P. Scipio to shewe some token of a thankefull minde prayed the Ambassadors that came vnto him greatlie to thanke king Antiochus for the exceeding pleasure he had done him to sende him his sonne Afterwardes he gaue Antiochus aduise also that he should not geue battell till he vnderstoode of his returne from ELEA to the campe So Antiochus being perswaded by the authoritie of so worthie a man he kept close in his campe for a certaine time and determined to drawe the warre out at length hoping in the ende that he might come to speake with the Consul by the AFRICANS meanes But afterwardes the Consul camping hard by MAGNESIA did so vexe and prouoke the enemie that the king came out to battell and sette his men in battell ray It is reported that Annibal him selfe was present at the battell being one