thother Phrygia the Lydians Carians Phenicians and Babylonians He ouercame the Bactrians Indians and Cilicians Moreouer also the Saques Paphlagonians Magadides and many other Nations Likewise he made himselfe Lord of the Greeks dwelling in Asia and passing the sea he vanquished the Cyprians and Egiptians He besieged and tooke Babylon which it was incredible that it might either be built by mans workmanship or distroyed by humane power And neuerthelesse he assailed it as an enemie spoiled it as vanquishour and disposed of it as Lord. He brought vnder his obedience so many Nations which were not of his language nor vnderstood not one an other and stretched his dominion ouer so many Regions by the feare of his name In such sort that he astonied all the world and none durst resist him This notwithstanding he made himselfe so much beloued that they desired neuer to haue any other Lord and they reuerenced him as a father gouerning so great an Empire and of such largenes by a meruailous order which he set downe when he was in peace Prouiding for his residence counsail audiences his gards the estate of his house the seruice exercise and health of his person the traine and followers of his Court diuision of his prouinces and gouernments of garrisons in fortresses and frontiers his reuenew iustice and souldiery Showing himselfe religious venerable magnificent liberal and worthie to be imitated in all actions by the Princes that followed after him It is said that Alexander hauing found the sepulcher of Cyrus vncouered and defaced caused him to be put to death which had done it And hauing read the inscription which was in Persian letters and words he willed hit also to be written in Greeke vnderneath and the substance of the inscription being this O Man whatsoeuer thou art and whence soeuer thou comest for I am assured that thou wilt come I am Cyrus he which conquered the Empire for the Persians and I pray thee do not enuie me this little earth which couereth my poore bodie These words moued greatly the hart of Alexander to compassion when he considered the vnstabilitie of things XENOPHON vnderstanding Cyrus to haue bin a Prince so admirable in his deedes and excellent in gouernment of men he chose him to expresse in his person the image of a iust and moderate raigne writing of his institution which is one of the best bookes that is to be read in Greeke Plato acknowledging him for a worthy and valiant Prince said that he failed greatly in bringing vp of his children for beginning from his youth to make warre and being busied all his life therein he neuer thought on the gouernment of his house but left his two sonns CAMBISES and SMERDES to the Ladies of the Court and to the Eunuches to bring vp who brought them vp as children that were borne happie not suffering any to gainsay them in any sort and constrayning all to praise whatsoeuer they did or said As Cyrus then was a Maister of a great multitude of men and beasts and of many other things he did not consider that they to whom he was to leaue so many good things were not brought vp in the auncient Persian discipline but in the corrupt discipline of the Medes which was the cause of making them such as commonly they are which are brought vp with so much libertie Succeeding their father then after his decease first th one slew the other not being able to endure an equal and then like a mad man through dronkennesse and ignorance he lost his estate by reason of the contempt which men had of his follie Then DARIVS the first of that name came to the Empire who was no kings sonne nor brought vp in Courtly delights who gouerned himself by the Lawes bringing in a common equalitie and making friendship amongst them all whom he won with good deedes So being beloued of his subiects he conquered no fewer Countries then Cyrus had left him ordayning thorough out all the Countries landes and Lordships vnder his obedience twentie gouernments called in the Persian language Satrapies and taxing the annuall tributes which euery of them ought to pay in siluer after the waight of the Babylonian talent or in gold according to the Euboick for during the raigne of Cyrus and his sonne Cambyses there was no tribute imposed but the Countries brought certaine presents and gaue certaine gratuites and giftes to the king by reason of which imposition the Persians said that DARIVS was a Merchant CAMBISES a Lord and CYRVS a father because that Darius was too good a husband drew profit out of euery thing Cambises proude and cruel but Cyrus soft kind gentle and gratious hauing procured all good things vnto the Persians The first Satrapie comprehended the Iouians the Magnetians which are in Asia the Eolians Carâ—ans Lycians Melyans and Pamphylians all which made but a tribute of fortie talents of siluer The second was of the Mysians Lydians Alysonians Cabalians and Higennians which paied fiftie talents of siluer The third of the Hellespontins Phrygians Paphlagonians Mariandines and Syrians taxed at CCClx. talents The fourth of the Cilicians which were bound to furnish euery yeare CCClx. white horses which was for euery day in the yeare a seueral horse paying moreouer fiue hundred talents wherof a hundred and fortie were appointed for the finding of the said horses and the other three hundred three score went into the kings cofers The fifth began at the Citie of Possidea situated in the mountains of Cilicia and Syria and stretched out vnto Egipt except Arabia which was exempted This parcel of land wherin were comprehended Phenicia Palestina and the Isle of Cypres yeelded CCCL talents The sixth consisted in all Egipt and the bordering Africans with Cyrene and Barce which contributed with them so that the annual reuenew was of seuen hundred Talents besides the fishing of the poole Meris and without reckoning of the Wheat which was prouided for six score thousand Persians and their auxiliaries keeping garrison within the white wals of Memphis The seuenth was of the Sattagidians Gaudarians Dadiques Aparites which was Clxx. taleÌ„ts The eight contained the towne of Sourses and an other portion of the Cysses yeelding CCC The ninth consisted in the Citie of Babylon and the rest of Assyria finding a thousand talents of siluer fiue hundred gelded boies Of the tenth ordained for Ecbatane the rest of Media with the xj consisting of the Paricanians Orthocorimbantes were receiued CCCCL talents The twelfth reached from the Bactrians to the Egles and was charged with CCClx. talents The thirteenth began at Pactica with the Armenians and other bordering lands and was bounded with the greater sea being taxed at CCCC talents The fourteenth consisted in the Sagarties Sarangres Thamanees Thiries Meces and in the people of the Islands of the red sea the tribute amounting vnto six hundred talents In the fifteenth were the Saces and Caspians which yeelded CCL In the sixteenth the Parthians Chorasmians Sogdians
honestie In somuch that Plato and Aristotle haue not better plaied the Philosophers in their schooles then he did in publike assemblies and iudgements But as this age was admirable in power and wisdom and in all arts so was it also full of wickednes extraordinarie changes As if it had bin of necessitie that the same age must bring forth horrible monsters notable wonders for it is commonly seen that where mens wits are most excellent there are found together men notably vicious vertuous the authours of great good things of euil as if vertue and vice which are things so contrary repugnant had their extremities neer one an other In such sort that where th one is the other estsoons accompanieth it they leaue not one the other for euen as noble generous natures being duly instructed becom perfectly good are causes of great good things In like maner those that are euill brought vp become exceeding euill and do great mischiefes by reason that the exorbitant wickednesse and extreme vices proceede not of weake and simple natures but of the noble and generous being depraued by institution As appeared in this season replenished with all good artes and excellent wits by the extraordinarie mutations which happened therin Wherof the Orator AESCHINES complayning cried out that they led not then the life of men but that they seemed to be born to that end that their posterity might tel of thē strange and vnlooked-for maruailes And DEMOSTHENES answering him acknowledged the fortune of his time to be verie aduerse and hard and that there was neither Greeke nor Barbarian but had suffered much for not onely euery one in particuler but publickly the kings Cities and Nations receiued great calamities First of all what troubles raised king Philip thorough out all Greece corrupting by giftes the Magistrates and Gouernours of Townes and nourishing amongst the Greekes diuisions and parcialities In such sort that he himselfe confessed that he had much more inlarged his kingdom by gold and siluer then by armes And albeit the Athenians hauing alwaies in suspition his greatnes were exhorted continually by DEMOSTHENES to take vpon them the protection of the common libertie and to punish with death those Citizens whom they should find to go about to betray the common wealth Notwithstanding this great Orator could not with all his diligence refraine the euill inclination of some particulars which sought but how to sell their Countrie Such abundance of Traitours there were found in that season Afterwards as Philip being become proud by many prosperities for the greatnes of his power placed himselfe amongst the twelue Gods he was killed by Pausanias a Macedonian gentleman to whom he had denied iustice at the mariage of his daughter Cleopatra which he solemnized with great triumphe beholding the plaies which were made and euen in the midst of his guard betweene the two Alexanders the one being his sonne and thother his sonne in law whom he had made king of Epirus The fault of which murther was for the most part imputed to the Queene Olympias who being diuorced from him stirred vp the youngman boyling before with anger to do it But there was also some suspition which touched Alexander doubting least he would leaue the kingdom to an other Who likewise after he had turned all topsie turuie in Europe and in Asia because of his insolencie was poisoned by his most familiar friends Olympias wife of the one and mother to the other was massacred by Cassandra for the great arrogancie which was in her and cruelties which she had committed Seneca calleth Alexander a furious young man hauing in steed of vertue a fortunate temeritie and that from his youth he was a theese and a distroier of people being the ruine both of his enemies and friends who placed his soueraign felicitie in astonishing and making himselfe feared of all men Furour saith he stirred vp the wicked man to vndoe other men and made him to march thorough vnknowen places Account you him wise that began with the ruines of Greece in the which he had bin bred and brought vp taking from euery one that which was his good He constrained Lacedemon to serue and Athens to be silent Not content with the ruine of so many Cities which Philip either bought or ouercame he ouerthrew others also and beareth armes thorough out the world without satisfying his crueltie after the maner of sauage beastes which bite being not pressed with honger He hath alreadie gathered many Kingdomes into one alreadie the Greekes and Persians do feare one king and notwithstanding passing beyond the Ocean he is sorie and loath to bound his victories by the footsteps of Hercules and of Bacchus but will force nature and can not stay as heauie things which do not cease to roule vntill they meete with some stop or hinderance He saith that Philip and Alexander and other such like renowmed thorough the ruine of people haue bin no lesse plagues vnto men then the deluge by which the earth was drowned or then the burning which consumed by heat and drougth a great part of lyuing creatures Lucan thinketh that he gaue a pernicious example to the world shewing the meanes how to reduce so many Countries vnder one Lord calling him the fat all euil of the world and a lightning which strook all Nations whose insatiable ambition could not be staied but by death Therefore the Scythians spake thus vnto him What neede hast thou of riches which constraine thee alwaies to desire Thou art the first which of abundance hast made indigence to the end that by possessing more thou mightst more earnestly desire that which thou hast not Who would euer haue thought that the Greekes should haue ruled Asia and that so meane a king as that of Macedon could haue ouerthrowen the Monarchie of Persia of inestimable largenesse and power both by land and sea In like maner the Lordship of DIONISE in Sicile was ouerthrowen by DION with little meanes against the opinion and expectation of all the world which was the greatest and mightiest that was then in Europe for who could haue beleeued that he which arriued in Sicile onely with two ships of burden should haue ouercome a Lord that had in his disposition fower hundred vessels with oares a hundred thousand foote and ten thousand horsemen with prouision and munition of armes corne and money as much as was needfull for intertainment of so great power and who aboue all the forenamed things had vnder his obedience one of the greatest and most mightie Cities which was then in all Greece which had-so many ports so many arsenals or store-houses so many impregnable castles and who besides all this was allied with many great and mightie confederates But that which gaue DION the victorie in this interprise was principally his magnanimitie and greatnesse of courage with the loue and good will which was borne him of those whom hee came to set free And that which holpe him
which they called Pilum and threw it when they began their fight Some wâ—â—te that besides their pauois they caried also a pike namely the Greek souldiers But that seemeth impossible because they must needes haue enough to do to help themselues with one of these weapons apart and to vse them both together were an vneasie and a verie difficult thing for the pike alone requireth both hands and the pauois on thother side serueth only for defence to couer themselues because it was not verie maniable And the target also could not well be handled but would be in a maner vnprofitable except at the beginning of the battaile they holp themselues with their pike hauing their target at their back and that comming so neere together that the pike serued them to no farther vse then they abandoned it to take their Target wherwith and with their sword the souldiers holp themselues in the presse The GREEKS did not lade themselues with such heauie armour as the Romains but they gaue themselues therwithall much more to carrie the pike especially the Macedonian Phalanges which carried pikes called Sarisses of ten cubites long wherwith they assaied to break the rankes of their enemies without going out of their owne But seeing that the ROMAINS conquered all the world we may well think that they were the best armed of all The fashion of this time is to arme the footman with good Curets and a cask or headpeece which seemeth to be sufficient for the defence of a manâ— and is better then the harneis of the auncients Touching weapons to offend we carrie a sword somewhat longer then theirs Our other armes are the pike the halbard partisan harquebuze and many others not so vsuall amongst souldiers and the target although there is little reckoning made thereof except it be for an assault and besides there are few that vse it but the Captaines The Harquebuze hath bin found out but few yeares sithence and is verie good so it be handled by such as are skilfull and readie yet now adaies euery one will be a harquebuzier whether it be to get the more pay or to be the lesseloden or els to fight the farther off The Halbards are a new kind of weapon lately inuented by the Switzers which are verie good if they be strong and will cut well and not light ones such as the Italians vse And in like sort are their Partisans which being stronger and better steeled then they are would serue well against naked men but against those that are armed can do no great seruice Amongst other armes which are lesse in vse are the long bow and the crosbow which may do verie great harme to men that are not well armed both by reason of their readines in shooting which is verie sodaine and also for the surenes of their blowes which are seldome in vaine Concerning the Pike if the Switzers haue not bin the inuentours therof yet at least wise they haue first brought it in vse because that they being poore at the first and desirous to liue in libertie were constrained to fight against the ambition of the Princes of Germanie who by reason of their riches and power intertained many horsemen which the Switzers could not do and for this cause made their warres on foote Then were they constrained to defend themselues against the Cauallerie of their enemies to hauerecourse to the auncient maner and therhence to chose some kind of armes for defence against horsemen which necessitie made them either to maintain or bring in vse againe the orders of the time past without which footmen are altogether vnprofitable wherefore they took pikes as verie seruiceable weapons not only to sustaine the assault of men at armes but also to ouercome them By meanes of which armes and by the affiance which they haue in their good order they haue taken on them such boldnes that fifteen or twentie thousand of them durst vndertake to stand against a world of horsemen The example of the force which these people haue showed to be in armes of footmen are the cause that sithence the voiage of king Charles the eight other Nations haue imitated them namely the Spaniards and Almaines then the Italians and Frenchmen following the order which the said Switzers keepe and the maner of the armes which they beare but for order there are few like vnto them We must labour then to gett this order or if it be possible to forme or finde out some more safe by meanes whereof we may defend vs from euery one and be preferred before all others To do this it seemeth to such as are most expert in this matter that we ought verie well to arme the bodies of our souldiers to the ende that the rankes may be so much the harder to be broken especially such as serue before in steede of a wall or vantmure and all the rest if it be possible euery one according to his weapon And it must not be thought strange that we lode these men with so much Armour for it is to arme them surely in such sort as they ought to be armed that meane to stande to it and not as they which arme them selues lightly who beeing euill couered and armed thinke rather on flying then of ouercomming taking example by the Romaines who armed their souldiers which were ordered in batalions as heauily as possibly they could to make them the firmer against their enemies and that feeling their bodies so loden with harneis they should not looke to saue themselues by flight but either to die in the place or to get the victorie Vegetius complayneth of the souldiers of his time that they went too lightly armed and followed not the Auncients which were alwaies wont to ouercome their enemies because they were euermore well armed and that such as were ill armed were ordinarily ouercome in all their battailes The souldiers also must harden their bodies vnto paine learne to helpe themselues with those armes and weapons which they beare to keepe their order in marching thorough the Countrie and the maner of encamping or lodging together in a campe which are the principall points that an Armie ought to know The Nations which heretofore haue had ordinances or companies of footmen haue alwaies made one principall number of the men which they leuied which although it hath bin diuersly named yet hath it bin euer almost equal in number because they haue all ordained it of six or eight thousand men which number by the Romains was called a Legion because they leuied their men by election of the Greekes Phalanx of the Gaules Caterue of the Switzers and Almaynes Hourt that is to say a Battalion which the Italians and Spaniards do also vse But they haue of late began to call it a Regiment The greatest disorder that they can commit which ordaine a battalion is in this that they take no heed but only to make the head strong in which they place the Captaines and all the valiantest and best armed
while they are young or by honour which is nurse of all arts whatsoeuer and the rewards which are proposed for the learned and expert therein THE Babylonians dwelling in spacious plaines and hauing nothing to hinder them the whole sight of the heauens they placed all their studie in obseruing of the Starres The like hath bin done by the Egiptians who haue alwaies their aire cleare without cloudes And by reason of the yearely ouerflowing of the riuer Nilus which couereth and watereth their Countrie they were constrained to bestow some time on Geometrie The Phenicians being giuen to marchandize inuented Arithmeticke and dwelling neere the Sea began first nauigation which the Castilians Portugals and Englishmen bordering likewise on the sea haue brought to perfection It was vnseemly amongst the Arcadians not to be skilfull in Musick which they learned not for pleasure and delight but for necessitie to thend to make sweete and gentle by custome that which was rude in them by nature by reason of the coldnes of the aire whereof we participate in our birth and by their continuance of trauaile in tillage pasturage and brutishnes of life Eloquence flourished at Athens and at Rome because that by means therof they were aduanced to honours and wealth In Augustus time who took pleasure in Poetrie euery one made Verses and all were Musitians vnder Nero. The nations which desired to be great and grow vp by armes haue directed their Lawes and exercises to dominion honouring and recompensing valiant men and dishonouring and punishing the cowardes Such were the Scythians Egiptians Persians Thracians Lacedemonians Candians Gaules Iberians Macedonians and Indians accounting all noble and gentle that made profession of armes and the artisans base and seruile At this day in Turkie where all is reduced vnto force euery one applieth armes being assured that in well doing they shall be aduanced in pay reuenew and publick charge as also the punishment is certaine there for cowardize The greatest part of good witts in France applie themselues to the Ciuil Law and to the practize of it for the profit which they find therein and for the honour of innumerable offices of iudgement ordayned both in the soueraigne meane and inferiour iurisdiction being both profitable and honourable The Hetrurians which had their aire grosse and thicke subiect to thunders inuented the diuination by lightning The Arabians Cilicians and Phrygians being great shepheards inuented that diuination which is made by entrailes of beastes or by the voice of birdes Philosophie hath bin professed in Greece full of subtle and sharpe wiâ—ts Architecture began in Asia by the abundance of wealth and leasure of the great Kings there hauing neede of large and ample houses for intertainment and magnificence of their Courts Afterwardes it flourished in Greece whence it was banished and from thence passed into Italie recouering his ripenesse there namely vnder the Emperours who as they had subdued the rest of the world by armes would also surmount them in wonderfull buildings with incredible expences The Ethiopians by the abundance of all good herbes and vigorous simples which grow in their Countrie inuented the naturall Magick obseruing by it the wonders hidden in the secret proprieties of thinges their agreements and contrarieties Plato in his Charmides and his first Alcibiades maintayneth that Zoroaster the Bactrian and Zamolsis the Scithian made profession therof Then it was transported into Persia where it remayned long as we will declare hereafter when we speake of the Persians and of their Mages BVT as following the generall disposition to vertue there haue alwayes bin heere and there some making profession of wisedome as the Druides in Gaule and in great Britayne the Chaldees in Assyria the Brachmanes and Gymnosophistes in the Indies the Mages in Persia the Priestes in Egypt the Philosophers in Greece the Pharisees in Iurie the Theologians or Diuines in Christendome yet antiquitie hath giuen the first praise of Letters to the Ethiopians attributing the inuention to them which they communicated with the Egiptians their neighbours where they haue bin augmented from thence they came to the Libians Babylonians and Chaldeans consequently to the Greeks then to the Romains the Arabians Italians Frenchmen Almains Englishmen Spaniards and Polonians ON which course of letters if we think attentiuely as far forth as is possible to consider all the time past and to call to mind againe the memorie of so many yeres ouerslipped repeating from thence where in histories beginneth the age of people and of Cities that is to say about three or fower thousand yeares since men began to write bookes we shall find that there hath not bin any Authour amongst the Gentiles more auncient then Homer And that letters haue not bin sithence with like earnestnes followed nor in all times and countries equally esteemed but onely in certaine famous ages which we may tearme Heroicall In the which humaine power and wisdom keeping companie one with the other men haue commonly seen the art Militarie Eloquence Philosophy the Mathematicks Physick Musick Poetrie architecture painting caruing and grauing to florish together and to fall together as it hath especially hapâ—ed in the kingdoms of Sesostris Ninus Cyrus Alexander of Augustus and Traian of the Arabians and Sarazens and in this age in the which after they had bin long time a sleepe they haue bin wakened againe and haue recouered their former strength which is not to say that there haue not hapned many other admirable euents in other seasons but these are most notable in the which many extraordinarie maruailes haue met together in matter of armes and of letters and which haue most similitude betweene them as it will appeare in reciting of them WHERFORE is it so come to passe rather at these times then at others and what reason can we giue thereof to th end the better to vnderstand the present consideration being of so great waight and long deduction It seemes to some that we ought not to maruaile that in an infinite space of time as fortune turneth and varieth diuersly there hapneth by casuall chance some accidents like vnto others For be it that there is no certaine number set downe of accidents that may fall out fortune hath fruitful matter enough to produce effects resembling one an other or else be it that humaine chances are comprehended in a determinate number there must needs sometimes happen like cases considering that they are brought to passe by the same causes and by the same meanes Others say that in length of yeares are certaine periods of the whole world and in th one that all arts do grow in reputation and in the other do fall and come to be neglected Others attribute it to honour and to rewards which are more proposed at one time then at an other for 〈…〉 uch as by good intertainment all men are induced to vertue And assayi 〈…〉 nder a reason wherefore many notable personages meete in the same 〈…〉 or little distant th one from thother and
persons appointed for diuine seruice POLICIE conducteth the affaires of peace and warre in the which would not be found any iustice or fidelitie without the feare of God and loue towards men which are especially commaunded in all Religions Wherfore in all Lordships both auncient and moderne the first care hath alwaies bin of Religion and diuine seruice and such as haue had the chargethereof haue alwaies bin reputed the chiefest in aucthoritie much honoured and well intertained being both they and their children exempted from subsidies and militarie labours The PRIESTS or PROPHETS of Egipt inioâ—ed a third part of the reuenew of the kingdom and had great credit both with the king with the coÌ„mon people aswel for that they had the care of diuine things were very learned and teachers of others as because they were called by the king to giue counsaile in great affairs foretelling of future things which they knew by the Sacrifices and by the starres The Roialtie was mingled with sacrificing and none could be king but he were also a PRIEST as Plato saith in his Politiks The CHALDEES in Assyria and Media had such aucthoritie as the Egiptian priests in Egipt being reputed most skilfull and expert in Astrologie by which they did prognosticate of things to come and by sooth-sayings and sacrifices turned away euill fortunes and made good to come The BRACHMANES amongst the Indians held the chiefe place to whom great honour was borne and great giftes were giuen as to men that were acceptable to the Gods and thought to know whatsoeuer was done in Hell They foretold at the beginning of the yeare droughts raines windes and diseases And they indure still at this present in those parts perseuering in the cerimonies of their auncient Religion and holding the chiefe places in honour calling themselues BRAMINS which go before the NAIRES that is to say the Nobles The King of Calecut is their high Priest and head of his Religion going for this cause before all the kings of India and being called SAMORY that is God in earth The MAGES gouerned the Religion and estate of the Persians with such aucthoritie that they interprised sometimes to vsurpe the kingdom during Cambyses his absence in his voiage of Egipt and to make one of them king It was the custome also that the king of Persia should learne their Magicke without the which he might not raigne The DRVIDES of Gaule being ministers of Religion and of iustice discoursed of the starres and of their mouings of the nature of things and immortalitie of soules as also of the diuine aucthoritie and prouidence being greatly respected of all the rest and verie well intertained At Rome the SACERDOTES ARVSPICES AVGVRES FLAMINS SODALES and virgins VESTALES which kept the eternall fire the high Priest and inferiour Priests super-intendeÌ„ts of their cerimonies sacrifices and supersticions had knowledg of the Ciuil law and managed the publike affaires The first kings of Rome were sacrificers and the Emperours to make their greatnes aucthoritie more venerable called themselues high Priests The PRIESTS both men and women ordained both in Greece and elswhere to see to the obseruation of the pagan Religion founded on Oracles were in great aucthoritie and receiued mightie offerings The Roialtie in Lacedemon was a superintendence in warre and preheminence in sacrifices The LEVITES in Iurie separated from the other Iewes to exercise sacrificing and the office of Priesthood in the race of AARON receiued dueties of inestimable value The THALISMANS PARACADIS CADIS Priests and Iudges in the Law of Mahomet MENITSSMARLS and IMANS were wel priuiledged freed from all subsidies At the beginning the CALIPHES in that religion were Kings and Priests one in Bagdet another in Caire Sithence the Sultans haue taken the royal aucthoritie and haue brought in the MVPHTIS accounted as Patriarches in steed of the CALIPHES super-intendents of the Religion and iudging soueraignly in matters of the Law by which are not onely occained the praiers and diuine ceremonies but also the politike and militarie affaires They haue power to retract the ordinances of the Sultans and sentences of their Diuans or Counsailes which are not conformable or seeme repugnant to the ALCORAN Euery Mahometan Prince keepeth one alwaies neere about him or in his principal Citie with great pension The great CHAM of the Tartarians Zauologues keepeth his at â—â—â—â—rcand The SOPHI at Tâ—â—ris There are also in Africk at Fez Caroan â—â—â—â—â—ssen and elswhere The TVRK beareth vnto his greater reuerence then to any man of his Empire The ECCLESIASTICAL persons throughout Germanie Fraunce Poland England and Hungarie hold at this day the chiefe places in the counsaile of Kings and administration of iustice Among the seuen Electors of thempire there are three Ecclesiastical Amongst the Peeres of Fraunce there are six The chiefest of the Counsaile in Poland are the Archbishops and Bishops The Emperour is confirmed consecrated by the POPE The French king consecrated by the Archbishop of Rheimes The king of England by the Archbishop of Canterbury The king of Poland by the Archbishop of Gâ—esâ—e For considering that the Archbishops and Bishops are established amongst the people as messengers of God and interpreters of the Law and will of God to their aucthoritie being great in it selfe haue bin added great honours in the common wealth to the end that the publike couÌ„sailes and constitutions should by their presence be made more venerable The POPE commaundeth ouer the temporall of the Church called S. Peters patrimonie as king and is reuerenced by the rest of the Latin Christendome as head and chiefe of the Religion in those places where he is acknowledged for such But before we make an end of this matter we will set downe the agreements and differences which were betweene the Egiptian Priestes and the Chaldees Mages Brachmanes and the Druides The EGIPTIANS and BABYLONIANS dwelling in spacious plaines and hauing nothing to hinder them from the whole view of the Heaueri bestowed great studie in obseruation of the starres in the which both th one and the other were most skilful and expert The Egiptians said that the CHALDEES came out of Egipt and had learned Astrologie of them The MAGES and BRACHMANES agreed in sobrietie and austeritie of life and the Brachmanes were thought to haue discended of the Mages There was also the like similitude betweene the MAGES and DRVIDES namely those of great Britaine that they seemed to haue deliuered Magick to the Persians and not to haue learned it of them The bodies of the MAGES when they were dead were left to the doggs and birds to pray vpon before they were buried The BRACHMANES voluntarily ended their liues by fire The CHALDEES and EGIPTIANS had faire great and magnificent Temples The MAGES had no temples altars nor images The Mages were common both to the Persians and Parthians The CHALDEES to the Assyrians and Medes The EGIPTIANS and the PERSIANS beleeued the Resurrection and that men beeing raised from the dead
in old time contended with the Greekes in matter of armes and of learning who surmounted the elegancie of the Greek tongue by subtil breuitie of speech being most ingenious to vnderstand al subtilities and conueiances of talke and readie to aunswere to arguments proposed vnto them in discoursing conueniently of great affaires wherof they gaue pertinent resolutions without difficultie or delaie They vsed also wise prouerbs and profound riddels not that they vnderstood the subtilities of Chrisippus or of Aristotle or that they had learned this knowledge of Socrates or Plato or Demosthenes for they neither studied Philosophie nor Rhetorick but they did it by the naturall goodnes of their mother wit and sharp vnderstanding wherein the Indians were taken to be better then the Persians And the Nomades of Syria and Arabia verie apt and exquisite to find out the trueth and to refute falshood who euen at this time without hauing giuen themselues to learning do speake verie sufficiently of Astrologie alleaging verie apparant reasons of their sayings which they haue vnderstood by long obseruation and deliuer them from the father to the sonne successiuely and augment them continually THE ELOQVENCE Of the Greekes ELoquence was borne in Athens where also it was fostered and bred and brought vp to his perfection In somuch that in that Citie were seen at onetime ten excellent Oratours of whom Demosthenes appeared to be the best As touching strangers they vsed not any Rhetoricke to circumuent the Iudges or to turne them from the trueth but decided the causes by the bills or writings of the plaintife and defendant who might make their replication or reioinder without disguysing the deeds with faire words or cloaking the trueth with affections And when it was needfull to deliberate in counsaile of state on publike affaires they speak their opinions in few not holding or troubling the assemblie with affected and tedious words THE GREEKE POESIE THere is no Nation which hath had more sorts of Poesie nor more or better Poets then Greece For besides the Heroicks which haue written of diuers matters of warres of naturall philosophie Astrologie Physick Bucolicks and Georgicks there hath bin a great companie of Tragicks Gomicks Elegiacks Lyricks Iambicks Dithyrambicks and Epigrammatists such as elswhere haue not bin found the like saue amongst the Romains and Italians who wrote after imitation of them Of whom shall be spoken hereafter in comparing them together THE GRECIAN HISTORIE IT is naturall to all Nations to seeke out their antiquities and to preserue the memorie of publike affaires by reason wherof there are histories found euery where But whereas others haue contented themselues with bare Annals or Chronicles discribing simply the times persons places affaires the Grecians haue added therunto the ornaments of eloquēce Especially Herodotus and Thucydides hauing surpassed all others that euer medled with writing of histories except peraduenture they oppose vnto them Salust and Liuie of the Latines who after them haue worthely acquited themselues in this kind of writing THE NOBILITIE OF AVNCI ent Greece THe Greekes in old time and namely the Lacedemonians and Corinthians accounted the Artisans base as we haue said heretofore and onely those noble which exercised armes Herodotus doubteth whether they tooke this custome of the Egiptians seeing the Thracians Scythians Persians Lydians and almost all the Barbarians vsed the same The Egiptians endeuoured to proue that the Athenians were discended of a Colony of Scytes a people of the countrie of Egipt as is told in the Timaeus of Plato and rehearsed by Diodorus the Sicilian because that in the townes of Greece the people was diuided into three parts according to the custome of Egipt For the first order of the citie was of the nobles who being giuen aboue all others to the sciences were the more esteemed being therein like to the Priests of Egipt The second was of those to whom lands had bin diuided and assigned to th end they might the better giue themselues to armes for defence of their Countrie like vnto those of Egipt who were inuested with fees and which did wage the souldiers for the warres at their charges The third order was of the meaner sort of people and of Artisans who being giuen altogether to Mechanicall arts furnished many necessarie workes for the whole Communaltie THE ARTISANS AND WORKES of the Grecians THe Artisans of Greece were no lesse excellent in their workes then the learned in their professions and many of them did write of their misteries of whom the most famous in diuers arts haue bin before recited Neuertheles Herodotus in his second booke speaking of the Labyrinth of Egipt and of the Pyramides saith that if any one would make comparison of the buildings fortresses works which were then in Greece he should find that they were all of lesse labour and expence then this labyrinth And albeit the Temple of Ephesus and that of Samos deserued to be reckoned of yet the Pyramides exceeded tongue and pen considering that one of them was equall to all the buildings of the Greekes and yet notwithstanding the Labyrinth surmounted the Pyramides But that the artificial poole of Meris neer vnto which it was seated yelded yet greater meruails Moreouer Diodorus the Sicilian affirmeth that the best cutters caruers of Images that were in Greece learned their measures and dimensions of the Egyptians who amongst al other nations did not measure the composition of statues by the eie but did them by compas to th end that the statue might be made of many and diuers stones gathered into one body obseruing the measures proportions A thing in deed worthy of admiration namely that many Artisans in diuers places should so well agree in one measure that one onely Image entier and perfect should be made by them being separated one from another somtimes of twenty somtimes of forty stones The end of the fifth Booke OF THE POWER WARFARE LEAR ning Eloquence Poesie and other excellence of the Romains The Sixth Booke WE will now come to the ROMAINS who in their time obtained the excellence in armes in learning and in all workmanships But euen as after the going of Xerxes into Greece which put the Grecians in the greatest feare that euer they were the war hauing had an other end then was expected they not onely found themselues out of danger but also got great glory thereby growing meruailously from that time forward in all felicity riches and excellency of all arts So the Romains after the second Punick warr and voiage of Hanibal into Italy which troubled them much remayning there sixteene yeres with a mighty army in which time he wan many battails on them and came euen to the gates of Rome where he might also haue entered if he had knowen how to vse the victory the Romains then being brought to the greatest extremity that euer they were being vanquished by the Carthaginians and seeming to haue giuen ouer the glory of armes vnto them yet this long and cruel
armes now into Spaine against Sertorius now against the Pyrates vnder colour of pacifying the sea He pretended these causes to th end he might continue his power What led him into Africk and into the North against Mithridates and into Armenia and against all the kings of Asia but onely an infinite desire of increasing in greatnes seeming only to himselfe that he was not great enough What did put Iulius so far forward into these publike euils glorie and ambition and a desire which he had without measure to excell aboue others He could not suffer one to be before him where the common wealth endured two What think you that Marius being once Consul indeed hauing taken away by force the six other Consulships when he defeated the Theutons and the Cymbrians and when he pursued Iugurtha thorough the deserts of Africa did aduenture these dangers by the instinct of vertue These men mouing all things were also moued themselues after the maner of whirle-winds which carrie away whatsoeuer they catch and thereby become more impetuous and can not be stil. Hauing then bin mischieuous vnto many they finally feele in themselues their pernicious mischiefe whereby they haue bin hurtfull vnto many The same Seneca It is all one saith he whether Cato ouercome or be ouercome in the battaile of Pharsalia The good being in him which could not be vanquished when his partie was ouercome was equall with the good which he should haue caried victorious into his Countrie haue pacified the affairs Wherefore should it not be equall seeing that by the same vertue euill fortune is ouercome and good fortune well ordered The vertue can not be greater nor lesser It is alwaies after one sort But Pompey shal lose his armie but the honest pretence of the common wealth and the Senate with the chiefest Lords of Rome following the part of Pompey being placed in the first rank of the battaile shall be ouerthrowen in one onely battaile and the ruines of so great an Empire shall be dispersed ouer all the world one part shall fall into Egipt an other into Africk an other into Spaine This miserable common wealth can not all fall at one time Let them do all they can The knowledge of the places doth not help the king Iuba in his kingdom nor the obstinate vertue of his subiects and the fidelitie of the Vticians being broken with so many euils faileth And should Scipio be abandoned in Africk of the fortune of his name It was already prouided that Cato should receiue no harme And yet he was ouercome Certainly the calamities were verie great in that conuersion of the world and there were strange aduersities mingled with the prosperities There was neither Countrie Citie Lordship or personage any whit renowmed but endured much The ruine of Carthage first presenteth it selfe which Citie seuen hundred yeares after it was founded had bin so flourishing and excellent in all things had borne rule ouer so many seas and lands and Islands and ships and so much riches and so many armes as nâ—ne more and had courage more then any other Fourteene yeares after the Numantines being besieged by Scipio AEmilian seeing that for want of victuals they were not able any longer to endure the siege themselues burned theiâ— Citie of Numantia and killed themselues part by the sword part by fire part by poison Cicero nameth Carthage and Numantia the two astonishments of the people of Rome Shal I tel how Syracusa was spoiled Corinth rased Antioch and Hierusalem taken Athens besieged and sacked Marsâ—illes borne in triumph how Rome saw her Senate flying her treasures taken away Alexandria found Cesar fighting in her and her king the yong Ptolomey dead how Thebes in Egipt was destroied Thirteen towns in Peloponesus swalowed vp with an earthquak wherwith Caria Rhodes also were shaken How ther came extraordinary inundations of the sea of riuers and of raines of tempestuous winds Monsters hideous in all nature signes in the aire comets eclipses of the sun and of the moone and other horrible things in the celestiall motions whereof ensued famins plagues and other diseases which were before vnknowen Cicero writeth that there appeared then not onely fierie impressions by night in the heauen flashes of of lightning and tremblings of the earth but moreouer that the thunder fell on the high towers of the Temples many Images of the Gods were remoued out of their places many statues of famous men throwen downe the tables of brasse wherein the Lawes were ingrauen were melted The Image also of Romulus the founder of Rome who was made as he were sucking and waiting at the tears of the wolfe striken with thunder Shall I tell of fower-score thousand Romains and their allies defeated by the Cymbrians and a hundred fortie thousand Cymbrians slaine by the Romains the armies of the Heluetians and Germains ouerthrowen the bondmen vp in armes and allies mutining And not onely the good townes and mightie armies did suffer but also the rich seignories and noble kingdomes were distroied the free nations either trauailed with warres or were brought vnder subiection As the Spanish French British Germain Pannonian Illyrian Armenian and Thracian Italie it selfe after it had about some fiue hundred yeares valiantly defended it selfe was in the end subdued Moreouer there were scarce any famous men either in armes or learning but either receiued notable iniuries or suffered violent death Scipio Africanus being returned out of the Senate was found the next day stifled in his bed which was thought to haue bin done by his neerest kinred Hannibal being driuen out of Italie and banished Africa poisoned himselfe in the Court of king Prusias The king Mithridates being besieged by his sonne Pharnaces slew himselfe and Pharnaces was in a moment ouercome by Cesar. Antiochus the great was depriued of the greatest part of Asia whereof he thanked the Romains And the king Prusias cald himselfe their slaue Perseus the last king of Macedonia was ouercome led in triumphe and died in captiuitie and one of his sonnes was the scribe of the magistrates Tigranes king of Armenia prostrated himselfe before Pompey and asking pardon he lifted him vp and put the Diademe on his head which he had throwen downe Ptolemey king of Cypres threw himselfe head-long into the sea knowing that by the instance of Clodius the Tribune Cato was sent thitherto carie away his treasures Syphax Iugurtha and Iuba being great kings in Africke ended vnhappely Sertorius was slaine by treason Marius flying from Rome in extreme danger of his life hid himselfe in the marish about Minturnes and went to sea in a squiffe without victuals to the fortune of the windes and the waues afterwards being returned he died being three score and ten yeares olde and almost mad His sonne slew himselfe at Preneste Sylla died eaten with wormes and lyce Crassus being ouercome beyond Euphrates by the Parthians was slaine as he parlied on safeguard Pompey was beheaded in the shore of Alexandria Cesar
Mark Varro being a friend to them both and a great Philosopher and Mathematician after the manner of the Chaldees by the cunning of Astrologicall calculation cast the natiuity of Rome from the day wherein Romulus first began it which was the ninth of Aprill betweene two and three of the clocke in a pastorall feast called Palilia and rehearsing her passed aduentures foretold those that were to come The same Varro a very learned man and one who read the Romaine histories as much as any Romain that euer was writeth that the continuance of Rome was foreseene and knowen by the twelue Vultures which at the foundation thereof flew ouer Romulus namely that it should be of twelue hundred yeres euery vulture signifying an age or a hundred yeres and that in his time be had heard of one Vectius Augur that Rome should attaine to twelue hundred yeares seeing it had escapeâ— one hundred and twentie in which te 〈…〉 it was taken spoyled and destroyed many and sundry times The times of the continuance therof were diuided into ages after the similitude of mans life wherof the first which is called infancy or childhood weâ— vnder Romulus who founded it and brought it vp The puerilitie or boytâ—ie vnder the other Kings who augmented and instructed it in good manners customes lawes and disciplines But being growen vp vnder Tarquine it would no longer endure the yoâ—â— of subiection vnder proude domination and from that time forwarde chose rather to be obedient vnto lawes then vnto Kings Then the striplings age being ended in the ende of the Punicke warre and the strength more setled it entered into the age of manhood for hauing distroyed Carthage which of long time had bin her enemie she stretched out her seigniory by land and by sea into many countries till such time as wanting matter of foraine warre shee abused her strength employing it to her owne destruction Then was her first olde age when being afflicted with ciuile warres and oppâ—â—ssed with inwarde euils she fell againe into a Monarchy and came to another childhood or infancie And remained in vigour till the time of Traian of the Antonines and of Theodosius the first and then became aged vnder Honorius and Arcadius and the 471. yeares after that the Monarchie had begunne in Augustus it finished in Augustulus being vtterly lost in respect of Italy A COMPARISON OF ROME with Babylon and Constantinople TO this purpose it is obsermed that ROME and BABYLON had almost a like beginning increase continuance and ending such affaires being disposed by the ineffable mysteries and profound iudgements of God and not happening casually or by humaine power In such sort that vnder a like disposition of time BABILON fell and ROME arose Thone suffered the Lordship of strangers and thother despised that of her owne citizens Thone as it were dying left the heritage and the other growing acknowledged her selfe heire And then when the Empire of the East died the Empire of the west was borne And as BABYLON eleuen hundred threescore and foure yeres after it was built was by Arbaces the Median dispoiled of her kingdome and depriued of her king In like maner ROME after she had as many yeres endured was assailed and taken by Alaricus king of the Gothes After this maner was the beginning of BABILON and ROME alike their power alike their greatnes alike their time alike their good and euil alike their downefal alike and alike their destructioÌ„ We may say as much of CONSTANTINOPLE the heire of them both which about xj hundred sixtie and foure yeres after it was built by Constantine who called it new Rome was taken spoiled and depriued of the Greeke Empire and of her Emperour by Mahomâ—â— king of the Turkes wherein hath bin obserued a singular me 〈…〉 that as it was built by Constantine the sonne of Helen so it was also conquered by the Turkes vnder another Constantine the sonne of Helene A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAIN common wealth with the Lacedemonian and Carthaginian AS a Common wealth which is well ordained to endure a long time ought not to be single or of one kinde onely but must also haue the vertues and properties of others assembled in hit to th end that nothing therein be vnduely or vnproportionably increased which may make it to fal into the euill that is next it and consequently come to ruine for this cause Lycurgus instituting the LACEDEMONIAN common wealth mingled therein a Monarchie Aristocratie Democratie so conueniently that it remained almost seuen yeres in the same maner retayning still the integritie of his first institution In the which the king the Ephori and the Senate had their preheminences and powers in such sort intermingled and balanced togither that one could not well discerne vnder what kind of gouernment it was established The CARTHAGINIAN common wealth was thus ordained from the beginning It had kings the Aristocratie â—e power of Senatours and the commons hauing also their preheminence in things appertaining to them In such sort that as touching the assembling of the three estates it resembled the Lacedemoniâ—n Also the ROMAIN had these three estates so equally and conueniently tempered that one could not say whether it were an entier Aristocratie or a Democratie or a Monarchie Considering the power of the Consuls one would haue iudged it Monarchical and â—oial regarding that of the Senators Aristocratical and respecting that of the people Democratical But the Seigniory being seized on by the Emperours they first tooke from the people the authoritie of medling in publicke affaires and transported it to the Senate then reduced that of the people and of the Senate to their absolute power The Lacedemonian was sufficient onely to conserue their owne and to keepe their libertie but insufficient to augment and to enlarge their Empire wherein the Romain was most excellent For the Lacedemonians assaying to conquer the principalitie of Greece they sodanly put their liberty in danger where the Romains after they had brought Italy vnder their obedience subdued in a little time a great part of the world being abondantly furnished with all preparations requisite for such an enterprise Touching the Carthanginian then when it began to haue wars with the Romain it was in declining and the Romain in his vigour seeing that all common weales haue a certaine augmentation and vigour and afterwardes a diminution For Rome florished then especially in order of gouernment The people in Carthage had vsurped to much authoritie in the Counsails At Rome the Senate conducted the greatest part of the affaires which prospered the more for being gouerned by the wisest and by such conduct they finally ouercame the Carthaginians Besides that the Italians are of a more excellent nature then the Lybians both in shape of body and in hardinesse of courage and that the Romains were serued by their owne nation which were taught to war with the best discipline in the world The Carthaginians vsed none but straungers and mercenaries putting all
speaketh soberly in his owne praise so that none could take offence thereat and neuer but on iust occasion in regard of some matter of consequence and is otherwise very modest and sparing to speake of him selfe Contrariwise the vnmeasurable repetitions of the selfe same things which Cicero vsed commonly in his orations showed an excessiue desire of glory And moreouer he praised not only his owne deedes but also the orations which he had written or pronounced as if he had bin to contest with some scholasticall Rhetorician and not to redresse and reforme the people of Rome For to desire glory for his faire speaking or which is worse to beg it is an act of a base minde And therefore in this part we must confesse that Demosthenes is more graue and more magnanimous who himselfe said that al his eloquence was but a rote gotten by long exercise which had yet need of Auditours that would heare it paciently and that he esteemed them foolish and impertinent as indeed they are which glorifie themselues THE ROMAINE KNOW ledge in Lawe COncerning the knowledge of the LAWS which held the second place in Rome next after eloquence it hath bin wholy Romain and Italian For in other wel ordered coūtreyes and common weales it is not found that there were any that made onely profession of ciuile Law The Athenians and Lacedemonians from whom the Lawes were brought vnto Rome neuer vsed any such neither the Egyptians Assyrians Persians Carthaginians Macedonians Parthians and others whose seigniories were mightie and wel gouerned These men vnderstanding the rights and customes which particular men vsed in the citie and the stiles of pleading they gaue counsaile touching meane matters and showed how causes were to be handled and Processe to besued out the maner of prosecuting actions of proposing exceptions demaunding delaies licences and defaults framing of complaints answeres replyes saluations aduertisments of making inquestes and informations iudging definitiuely and executing of iudgements whose authoritie came to be so great at Rome and thoroughout Italy that there was made no testament obligation bargaine transaction contract rescission or other deed of importance without communicating of it to them And they came not onely to them about cases concerning the ciuile Law but also for all affaires and dueties They gaue counsaile to the Emperours to the senate to the assemblies of people and in their friendes causes They were called on and vsed both in peace and war By reason where of they were called Prudentes wisemen and there art Iurisprudentia the wisdome of the Lawe for as much as their profession could not be conducted without great wisedome without hauing seene heard red and knowen much without knowledge of antiquitie without vnderstanding the common disposition of mankind the nature of right and of equitie without obseruing the maners of many nations and especially of their owne They wrote infinitely in their professions their bookes being abolished by the Emperour Iustinian after he had caused the Pandects to be gathered that are yet remaining Which hath bin a great losse both to this art and to the Latin tongue none of the auncient writers being left but certaine ragges and shreddes euill sowed togither and disposed Their true office was to expounde the meaning of the Pretorian edicts constitutions of the Senate decrees of the people ordinances of princes and other lawes to show the reason of ech of them to aduertise which of them ought to be kept or renewed or abrogated according to the times places parsons and other circumstances A COMPARISON OF THE LATIN tongue with the Greeke ALl the Latin authours haue complained of the want of their tongue confessing it to be poore in respect of the Greeke in the which more persons had written of mo things Cicero in his Tusculanes sayth that the Greek tonge is richer then the Latin in his first De finibus that the Latin was so far from being poore that it is richer thē the Greek albeit that writing of philosophy he findeth enough to do to make new words correspondent to the Greek peculiar to euery art or speculation affected by the philosophers being the first or at lest he that hath inuented most tourning some by translations others in such termes as he could Theodore Gaza a Greek by nation but very well seene both in the Greeke and Latin tongues as any that hath bin sithence the restitution of learning affirmeth that the Latin tongue is sufficient to represent euery Greeke word and sentence and that they which cannot tourne the Greeke into Latin doe indeuour to shadowe their ignorance by the poorenes of the tongue Notwithstanding Quintilian doth not dissemble that scarsitie whereinto the auncients were falne by the scrupulous seueritie which they vsed in their speach And without difficultie acknowledgeth Latin to bee rougher in pronounciation and harder to ioine or deriue wordes wherein the Greeke is happy and pleasant The Greeke and the Latin haue their sillables long and short and versification alike which other tongues haue not so well The Greeke hath articles and the Latin hath not but vseth names without any welt or garde as one may say or any kind of addition and we must not meruaile thereat considering that Homer who in verse excelleth all others put articles vnto few names as if they were handles for vessels that had need of them or plumes vpon morions Cicero in his Oration for the Poet Archias sayth that the Greeke writings were read amongst all nations and the Latin were shut vp in very straight limits On the contrary Plutarch in his Platonicall questions affirmeth that in his time almost all the world vsed the Romain language The Cardinall Adrian who hath written of the Latin tongue giueth it foure times the most auncient the auncient the perfect and the vnperfect fetching the most auncient from the beginning of Rome to the time of Liuius Andronicus and the auncient from this Liuie vnto Cicero in whose time it was perfect And the vnperfect after Cicero for incontinently vnder Augustus it began to lose his naturall puritie and elegancy and perished by little and little with the maiesty of the Empire Till at last they left speaking it in steed therof succeeded the Italian which is spoken at this day Likewise the Greeke florished with the learning and power of Greece till the time of Philip and Alexander when it fell from his natural propriety and elegancie diminishing from that time forward with the liberty of the countrey and engendring by proces of yeres the vulgar Greeke of this present being mingled with the Romaine Turkish and Arabian sithence that the countrey hath bin possessed by the Turkes Mahometists whereof we haue largely spoken in the discourse of Tongues The end of the seuenth Booke OF THE RELIGION POWER KNOW ledge other excellence of the Arabians or Sarasens and other Mahometists The Eigth Booke AS the progresse which armes learning and pietie haue had hitherto hath bin summarily declared in the
deceiued by a false opinion which they haue of things they think there is no faith nor friendship nor honestie remayning among men telling to the yonger sort many wonders of their former age To whom it hapneth no otherwise then it doth vnto those that embarke themselues on the sea and beginning to saile according to the measure as they are distant from land it seemeth vnto them that the bank or shore the hills trees and houses do leaue them thinking in like maner that in their old age both pleasure humanitie and iustice do forsake them and vanish away Moreouer those which are extremely vicious being not able to go any farther nor yet to stand at a stay wherethey be are constrained to returne by little and little either for shame which is naturally in men or els for necessitie because that in such manifest wickednes they are eschewed of all men or els by the diuine prouidence which bringeth them back againe For in the auncient histories are found such execrable vices as there can not be more which haue raigned for a time and haue afterwards bin detested in whose place haue suoceeded most commendable vertues Whereon we will resolue with Seneca speaking thus to this purpose Hoc maiores nostri questi sunt ait hoc nos querimur hoc posteri nostri queruntur euersos esse mores regnare nequitiam in deterius res humanas et in omne nefas labi At ista stant loco eodem stabunt que paululum duntaxat vltro citroque mota vt fluctus quos aestus accedens longius extulit recedens maiore littorum vestigio tenuit Nunc in adulterio magis quam in alio peccabitur abrumpetque fraenos pudicitia nunc conuiuiorum vigebit furor et foedissimum patrimoniorum exitium culina nunc cultus corporum nimius formae cura praeseferens animi deformitatem Nunc in petulantiam audaciam erumpet male dispensata libertas nunc in crudelitatem priuatam ac publicam ibitur bellorumque ciuilium insaniam qua omne sanctum et sacrum profanetur Habebitur aliquando ebrietati honor et plurimum meri cepisse virtus erit Non expectant vno loco vitia sed mobilia inter se dissentientia tumultuantur pellunt inuicem fuganturque Ceterum idem semper de nobis pronunciare debemus malos esse nos malos fuisse Inuitus adiiciam futuros esse A COMPARISON OF THE LEARNING of theis daies with the Auncient in Philosophie Eloquence Law Policie Phisick Poetry Astrologie Cosmographie and the other Mathematicks ALwaies the great vnderstandings and good wits fit for Learning haue bin rare yea euen in the learned ages and amongst the most ingenious Nations Consequently the excellencie of learning hath bin also rare and therefore the more admirable To the attayning whereof there is requisite a happie nature a laborious diligence a constant perseuerance which must be aduaunced honoured and rewarded by the Princes who notwithstanding commonly haue small care of learning and fauour it slenderly The students if they be poore they applie themselues to questuarie or gainfull arts wherby to haue meanes to liue when they haue reasonably profited in them The rich giue themselues to pleasure seeking the easie and superficial apparance and not the painfull profoundnes and depth of knowledge The greatest part of Teachers vse but rehersings and repetitions by rote acquiting themselues lightly of their charges They which write for the most part do nothing but tye together and all heape one on another Grammars Rhetoricks Logicks Institutions Introductions Abridgements Annotations Corrections Translations Epistles Orations Eclogues Dialogues Common places Elegyes Odes Vulgar rymes and such other versifications Moreouer we must learne out of bookes in the schooles the Latin Greek Hebrew Chaldiack and Arabian which were mother tongues amongst the Auncients they learned them from their cradle when they began to speak In which we must now consume much time and the best of our age which were better emploied in the knowledge of things and vnderstanding of the sciences Besides there is one inconuenience in learning which is not smal that they are all their life time brought vp in the shadow of schooles without knowing of their behauiour amongst men and without hauing experience of matters although knowledge without practize be vnperfect Which is the cause that we haue not at this day such eminent persons in Philosophie as Pythagoras Thales Plato Aristotle and Theophrastus In Eloquence as Demosthenes and Cicero In Phisick as Hippocrates Galene and Auicen In Law as Seruius Sulpicius Papinian and Vlpian In Historie as Herodotus Thucydides Polybius Salust Liuie and Tacitus In the Mathematicks as Euclide Eudoxus Archimedes and Ptolomeus albeit there haue bin in them verie excellent men of this age For sithence they were extinguished in Egipt and left off by the Greeks and Arabians they were neuer more famous then they are at this present especially Astrologie and Cosmographie for the Auncients scarcely vnderstood th one halfe of heauen of the earth and of the sea knowing nothing in the West beyond the Canaries and in the East beyond Catygare At this day all lands and seas are knowen and sayled Thales Pythagoras Aristotle Hipparchus Artemidorus Eratosthenes Strabo Plinie Macrobius Capella Virgill and generally all the auncient Authours saue Ptolomey Auicen and Albertus magnus thought that of the fiue Zones of heauen there were but two inhabited and that the three others by excessiue heat or extreme cold remained desert At this day there is nothing more certain then that they all are inhabited Plinie Lactantius and S. Augustin thought there were no Antipodes But now we rule ouer them and trafick with them ordinarily They which in times past beheld the heauens found but few mouings and could scarce perceiue ten But now as if the knowledge both of the one and the other world had bin by some destinie reserued for our age they haue bin obserued in greater number and more admirable and two other principall ones added vnto them to serue for a certaine demonstration of many things appearing in the starres and to discouer the hidden misteries of nature Cosmographie and Astrologie are so beautified that if Ptolomey the father of them both were aliue againe he would scarce know them being increased in such sort by the late obseruations and nauigations REGIOMONTANVS is reputed the best Mathematician this age and thought to be little inferiour to Anaximander the Milesian or Archimedes the Syracusan His Master Purbachius the Cardinal of CVSA and COPER NICVS being Germains al of them haue excelled in these sciences Also IOVIANVS PONTANVS hath taken great paines in Astrologie being no lesse happie in prose then in verse and apt for any kind of writing Volateran said that he made verses with more art then nature But yet so laboured after the imitation of the Auncients that he hath not had his peere in this age Crinitus speaking of him and of MARVLLVS his disciple affirmeth that both the
one and thother is absolute in his kind and that they two may be compared with the Auncients deseruing verie well to be taken for good example and admired as notable relicks of antiquitie Fracastorius giueth such testimonie of PONTANVS Vidimus et Vatem egregium cui pulchra canenti Parthenope Placidusque cauo Sebethas ab antro Plauserunt vmbraeque sacri manesque Maronis Qui magnos stellarum ortus cantauit hortos Hesperidum caelique omnes variabilis oras SYNCERVS VIDA and FRACASTORIVS haue likewise deserued much in the Latine Poesie PETRARCH and ARIOSTO in the Italian RONSARD and BELLAY in the French GEORGIVS AGRICOLA a Germain hath so wel acquited himself in serching the nature of Mettals as Aristotle Theophrastus Plinie and other Auncients seeme to haue vnderstood nothing in comparison of him The Earle IOHN of MIRANDVLA was the honour of his age and might well haue bin compared to all the Egiptian Chaldean Persian Greek Romain and Arabian antiquitie if he had liued But it is now time to make an end of this discourse by which is euidently showen the vicissitude in all humane affaires armes learning languages arts estates lawes and maners and how they cease not to arise and fall amending or empairing by turnes And if the memorie and knowledge of that which is past be the instruction of the present and aduertisement for that which is to come it is to be feared least the power wisedome sciences bookes industrie workmanshipps and knowledges of the world being come to so great excellencie doe fall againe as they haue done in times past and come to decay by confusion succeeding after this order and perfection rudenesse after ciuisitie ignorance after knowledge and barbarousnes after elegancie I foresee alreadie in my mind many strange Nations differing in fashions colours and habites rushing into Europe as did in old time the Gothes Hunnes Lombardes Vandales and Saracens which will distroy our Townes Cities Castles Palaces and Temples will change the maners lawes languages and religion burne the Libraries spoiling whatsoeuer good things they shall find in these Countries inuaded by them to the end to abolish the honour and vertue thereof I foresee warres arising in all Countries both ciuile and foreine factions and diuisions springing which will profane both diuine and humane whatsoeuer famines and pestilences threatning mortall men the order of nature the rules of the celestiall motions and the agreement of the elements breaking off deluges and inundations comming on the one side and excessiue heates and violent earthquakes on the other and the world drawing towards an end bringing with it a confusion of all thinges and reducing them againe to their auncient and former Chaos But howbeit theis things proceed after the opinion of the Naturalists from the fatall law of the world and haue their natural causes yet notwithstanding the euents of them do principally depend on the pronidence of God who is aboue nature and who alone doth know the prefixed time wherein theis things shall come to passe Wherefore men of good mindes ought not to be amazed or astonished therewith but rather to take courage vnto them trauailing carefully euery one in that vocation whereunto he is called to th end to preserue to their power so manie goodly things lately inuented or restored whose losse would be almost irrepairable and to deliuer them ouer to such as come after vs as we haue receiued them of our auncestours and namely GOOD LETTERS as long as it shall please God that they endure Whom we will pray to preserue from indignitie such as make profession of them worthily that they may perseuere in this honest studie amending the Arts and clearing of the trueth to his praise honour and glorie For this occasion the better to encourage them shal be added an Inquisition on that common saying of men wherby they haue alwaies maintained and do maintaine that nothing can be said which hath not bin said heretofore that thereby they may vnderstand that the trueth is not wholy discouered nor all the learning taken vp by our forefathers The end of the eleuenth Booke WHETHER IT BE TRVE OR NO that there can be nothing said which hath not bin said before And that we must by our owne Inuentions augment the Doctrine of the Auncients not contenting our selues only with Translations Expositions Corrections and Abridgements of their Writings The Twelfth and Last Booke THE beginnings of the Artes haue bin small and the greatest difficultie was in the first inuenting of them then by the industrie of the learned they were by little and little augmented Correcting such thinges as were euill obserued and supplying such as were omitted but yet without making any thing entierly absolute wherevnto there might nothing be added Nothing is begon and ended at one time but by succession of time things are increased amended and become better polished Almost all the Artes haue bin inuented by Vse and Experience and afterwardes gathered and made by obseruation and reason and then consequently reduced into better forme and more certain by Diuisions Definitions Argumentations and Demonstrations by generall precepts and rules drawen from nature not from opinion and tending to the same ende not by staying and resting on that which men had formerly done said or written nor by only imitating of them after the maner of slouthfull and cowardly persons but by the adding of somewhat of their owne by some that came after according as the matters from time to time discouered and cleared themselues the honour commonly remayning to the last commers as the most exquisite and accomplished By whose example we ought to trauaile courageously with hope to make our selues better then them aspiring continually to perfection which as yet is not seene any where considering that there remayne more thinges to be sought out then are alreadie inuented and founde And let vs not be so simple as to attribute so much vnto the Auncients that wee beleeue that they haue knowen all and said all without leauing anything to be said by those that should come after them They haue not bin so arrogant as to looke that none should meddle or deale with those matters which they had handeled But on the contrarie considering the difficultie of knowledge and the weaknes of mans vnderstanding they haue exhorted others to trauaile therein speaking rather to stir them vp and prouoke them thereunto then to keepe them back or stay them from writing Let vs not thinke that nature hath giuen them all her good gifts that she might be barren in time to come but that as she hath in times past brought foorth certaine notable personages who haue manifested many of her secrets so she can againe bring foorth such as by the influence of heauen and a singular inclination by liuelynes of vnderstanding and perseuerance of labour shall attaine thither whither long experience diligent obseruation and subtilitie of reason haue not pierced till this present She is the same that she was in the
had the principall charge vnder him who put him in a golden cage and cast him on a chariot meaning to carry him to Bactria then seeing that Alexander approached caused him to bee killed with darts and Iauelins and left him dead in the midst of the way Such was the end of a king so mighty in people in possessions and reuenews who called him selfe Lord of all the world from the East vnto the West hauing raigned onely sixe yeres in all delicacies exceeding the common magnificence of Princes Which luxurious maner of liuing was cause of his vtter ouerthrow as humane things being variable haue their fatall inclination so ordained by the diuine prouidence to fall then when they are mounted highest and that the Lords thinke themselues to be most assured sleeping therefore in carelesnes and ouerweening conceits For he suffered himselfe to slide so farre into deliciousnes and superfluous riches that he slept alwaies in a chamber betweene two great chambers most richly furnished in such sort that the Kings bed being sumptuously spred in his chamber and couered with a vine of gold in manner of a grate or lettis enriched with precious stones gathered togither in manner of hanging clusters of grapes the beds head was placed towards the wal of one of the great chambers in which ther was fiue thousand talents of gold and this great roome was called the kings beds head whereunto right opposite was the wall of the other great chamber against his beds foote in the which there was alwaies three thousand talents of siluer and was called the kings beds foote which summes are esteemed after our maner to be worth thirty millions of Crownes Going to war he caried with him in his host for his pastime and delight cccxxxix women as Concubines singers dauncers and such as were skilfull in all kinde of Musicke xlvj workmen to set flowers in order and to make garlands nosegaies chapelets and other sweete smelling things cclxxvij cookes xxix potters making euery day vessels of earth to serue the kitchin xiij bakers of tarts and such other licorous and delicate bakemeates Cellerers cupbearers bruers and minglers of wines makers of spiced cupps and of all artificiall lycours and drinkes xvij of th one sort and lxx of the other Perfumers and makers of sweete smelling sauours and odours both wet and dry xl If then the king of Persia vsed so much delicacy being in warr and nourished himself with so many delights in the field what did he wheÌ„ he remained in peace at Persepoli or in Babylon a city abounding in all superfluities and in all vices that proceed of great plenty Yet notwithstanding in the flower of his fortune he being dronken with prosperity and aboundance of goods was spoyled of his riches which had bin heaped togither by many kings his predecessours losing his life and his kingdome which was clymed to the top of the worldy power and felicity where ariseth the spring of pride arrogancy ouerweening and extreme insolency And there is the slippery path whereon standeth the enuy of fortune and where soueraigne felicity falleth headlong into great calamity By this so magnificent victory ouer him ALEXANDER brought vnder his obedience almost al the countries of the East and transported the Monarchy out of Asia into Europe So the Macedonians tooke away the Empire of the East from the Persians and the Parthians from the Macedonians by the conduct of Arsaces a Captaine of an vncertaine birth but of a most approued vertue and no lesse memorable amongst them then Cyrus among the Persians and Alexander among the Macedonians by whose name they called the succeeding Kings because of the reuerence which they bare vnto him They became so mighty that for a time they ruled ouer all Asia possessing not onely the vnmeasurable plaines but also the abrupt dounfals of the mountaines and placing the bounds of their Empire where either the heate or the cold staied them with snowes or immoderate and burning heates They possessed eighteene kingdomes deuiding in this maner their prouinces as hauing respect to the two Seas that is the red Sea towards the South and the Caspian toward the North where of eleuen which were called the superiour or higher began at the confines of Armenia and at the bankes of the Caspian Sea extending euen to the Scythians Thother seauen were termed the inferiour or lower They seemed to diuide the world with the Romaines th one ruling in the East and thother the West Their dominion from ARSACES to ARTABANVS endured cccc yeres which was brought backe againe into Persia by ARTAXERXES and after cccxviij yeres was taken againe from the Persians by the Arabians or Sarazens Amongest whom the CALIPHES residing at Bagdet raigned in the East ccccxviij yeres after them the first TVRKS from the yere of Christ M.L.I. vntill M.cc.xj when the Tartarians came out of their countrey who in a little time seised on the greatest part of the north the East the south of whoÌ„ came the inuincible TAMBERLAN who made the whol habitable earth afraid And since they being retired the Persians who are reputed the ciuâ—lest people of the East being ingenious valiant and there are amongst them excelleÌ„t Philosophers Physitions Astrologers very good Artisans in all misteries occupations Their king is called SOPHI which is as much to say as wise and the Interpreter of God because that ISMAEL the first that was so named vnder the colour of expositions new ceremonies brought in by him into the religion of Mahomet got no longe time since a great Empire in the East hauing driuen away the race of Vsun-Cassanus king of Persia to whom he was allied by his mothers side and made many Princes and Lords of the East his vassals or tributaries The chiefe prouinces vnder his obedience were Armenia the great Persia Media Assyria with iiij capital or head Cities Tauris in Armenia Samach in Persia Scyras in Media Bagdet which was somtimes Babylon in Assyria There are gentlemen amongst them after the maner of Italy France Spaine which vse barded horses in the wars vnto which they go welarmed bearing great lances and good cymeters being also very good archers The Sophi is opposite on the one side to the Ottoman to the Zagathain on thother Thus haue the kingdoms of Asia of the East varied But before we go out of this quarter we must speak of the MAGES which were far different from other natioÌ„s in their religion wisdom They had no temples Images nor altars neither was it permitted by their law to make any esteeming them fools which had them accounting it impiety to inclose the Gods within wals which ought to haue al open free whose temple and house was the whol world For this cause they perswaded Xerxes warring in Greece to burne al the Temples which he should find there And when they would sacrifice they went vp into high mountaines where it was not lawful for him that
sacrificed to pray onely for himselfe but hee must also pray for the prosperity of the king and generally of all the Persians being himselfe by this means comprised in the praier Euery one of thē when they would sacrifice brought his offering into a place that was not contaminated then hauing his attire on his head made for the most part of mirtle he called on that God to whom he sacrificed They would neither pisse spit nor void their noses into the riuers but reuerenced them aboue all things They suffered their dead bodies to be bitten praied on by doggs and birds before they would bury them others anointed them ouer with waxe then put them into the earth They and the Egyptians did not burne them because the Persians said it was not fit that a God should feed on a dead man the Egyptians thought the fire to be a liuing creature eating cōsuming whatsoeuer he seased on dying with his meat whē he was ful in their Law it was not permitted to cast the dead bodies to birds and beasts to deuoure them or to any liuing Creatures and therefore they embalmed them with salt that they should not be eaten of wormes The Egyptians would neuer kill any thing that had life The Mages killed with their handes euery liuing creature sauing man whom also the DRVIDES of Gaule did not spare to kill and sacrifice diuining by southsayings as the MAGES whom they resembled in many thinges shewing themselues so cerimonious in obseruing of Magick that they seemed to haue taught it to the Persians and not to haue learned it of them as Pliny sayth These Mages gaue out that the Gods appeared vnto them and foretold them of things to come affirming that the aire was full of spirits which did subtilly insinuate themselues into mens eyes that there were two princes namely one good God which they called Herosmades and the other euill whom they termed Arinan They clothed themselues with white garments liued of herbes cheese and course bread slept on the ground caried canes or reades in steed of staues They assembled in a holy place to communicate and talke togither Their authority was so great that Cambises when he went out of Persia left the gouernment of his house to one of them who in the absence of the king conspired with a brother of his against him and went about to make himselfe king Their Magicke consisted wholy in the religion and seruice of the Gods To whom they offered praiers vowes and sacrifices as if they onely were exalted beleeuing the resurrection of men and that they should be immortall Aristotle witnesseth that they were auncienter then the PROPHETS of Egypt Clearehus affirmeth that the BRACHMANES or GYMNOSOPHISTS of India came from thē ZOROASTER without doubt was the first inuentor whom somethinke by the etimologie of his name to haue bin an obseruer of the starres and to haue vnderstood natural things Plato in his first Alcibiades saith that the Magick of ZOROASTER is a knowledge of diuine mysteries which was wont to bee taught vnto the children of the kings of Persia to th end they might learne by example of the whole worlds common wealth to gouerne their owne And in his Charmides he sayth that the Magick of ZAMOLSIS was the physick of the minde causing it to vse temperance as the other is cause of bodily health Pithagoras Empedocles Democritus and the same Plato sayled and went far to learne it and hauing learned it did celebrate it at their retourne and kept it secret and many other vertuous amongest the auncients haue trauailed carefully therein getting great authority and reputation thereby For obseruing by it the meruailes hidden in the secretes of the world in the bosome of Nature and mysteries of God they haue discouered the concords of the world and agreement of the heauen with the earth accommodating the superiour thinges to the inferiour after they had once knowen their vertues howe they agree in doing and suffering which the Greekes call Sympathies and Antipathies which hath moued Plotinus to call such MAGES making profession of naturall MAGICKE the ministers of Nature It is at this day much vsed in CHINA and CATHAY which are Countries inhabited by most ingenious and industrious people where they are not permitted to come to Offices and Honours in the Common wealth without being learned namely in this MAGICKE which signifieth to speak simply according to the auncient Persian language perfect and soueraigne wisedome and MAGVS an expounder and obseruer of the diuinity Sithence that men haue abusiuely transferred this name to inchaunters who do wickedly abuse the simple making them beleeue that they know the secret and future things by strange words by signes and characters by diuelish deceits and impostures and other superstitious obseruations of Necromantie Geomantie Hydromantie Aeromantie Pyromantie such other of long time reproued both by diuine and humane lawes Wherhence may be vnderstood that there are two sorts of MAGICK th one natural thother superstitious The natural in contemplating the vertues of celestial and terrestiall things considering the conuenances contrarieties discouereth the powers which are hidden in nature mingling th one with thother in due proportion vnder certain constellation and applying the actiue to the passiue draweth them one to another by the similitude of nature So the elements do draw th one the other so the loadstone draweth the yron to it amber the chaffe and brimstone fire the sunne many flowers leaues the Moone waters Mars the winds many herbes drawe vnto them many liuing creatures and haue meruailous secret properties by the which this Magicke naturally worketh great miracles The other superstitious Magick is by inuocation of euil spirits which is a manifest Idolatry and hath alwaies bin forbidden by wel ordered common weales Such were the MAGICIANS of PHARAO which counterfeited diuelishly whatsoeuer MOSES ARON diuinely had wrought til such time as the rod of MOSES turned into a serpent did eate vp theirs which they had tourned also into serpents Such was SIMON MAGVS and such the Pythonisse was that called vp the soule of Samuel the prophet such also was Circe such a one was Medea Plutarch writeth that the spirit of Antony being bound by magicall verses and loue drenches that his liberty being lost he was fixed in the face of Cleopatra The Euthydemus of Plato compareth Oratorie and Magicke or Enchauntery togither and sayth that as Oratory is a delighting and appeasing of the Iudges and assemblies of men so that Enchanting is an asswaging of vipers spiders scorpions other venimous and cruel beastes as also of diseases The vanity of this superstitious Magick appeared especially in the Emperour Nero who gaue him selfe to it as much as euer any man did hauing neither want of goods of power nor of vnderstanding and desiring nothing more then to command the Gods and the dead Notwithstanding after he had called vnto him Tyridates king of Armenia