legion at this field doe not meane by these words velut cuneo erupit any thing else but a close and ioynct squadron not the forme of battle called pointed and which bursting forth with an vnexpected force had the operation not the figure of a wedge or of a long three square with an obtuse angle forward All authoritie is against it Nor onely in this place of the best authors is the Latin word cuneus interpreted and vnderstood so for TITVS LIVIVS himselfe doth Latin the Mâ—â—â—â—â—ONIAN Phalaux by the same At the same time they encountred euery where all ouer Out flew the auxiliaries among whom according to CAMDEN bands of LONDONERS were and with no lesse brauerie of courage and with as great violence as the legionaries charged their cruell aduersaries home the archers vndertook the chariotéers their cauallarie attacked the other The bloudie confusion of this tumult is well set forth by DIO and XIPHILINE The violent giuing in of the ROMANS vpon the BOADICIANS at their sodein rushing forth did easily rowt and disorder their rancks though their files could not choose but be very deepe in regard of their necessitie to contract their length for fighting narrow which made their vast multitudes rather mischieuous to themselues and combersome then vsefull A maine reason of BOADICIA'S ouerthrow For the weight and worke of the day was brought hereby to rest but vpon a few and the ROMANS in regard of their discipline skill and experience had extreamely the oddes while they only dealt vpon the euen Nor had she patience to watch them nor art to draw them out of their fortifide ground Venerable Moderâtion thy coolings how necessary for the ouer-boylings of prosperitie That defect a common cause of greater fiercenesse then good fortune And in the case of my dearest countrey during this whole warre there was nothing from first to last so vnfortunately absent The victory of the ROMANS as much as out of TACITVS may be gathered seemes to haue begunne at the cornets of horse who with their armed staues or lances charged in flanck and front and euery where as their enemies came to hand or were strongest The fight neuerthelesse continued hot and doubtfull till the euening nor was the face therof simple or vniforme but diuers The light-armed of the one side lay fiercely at the light-armed of the other the well-armed oppose their likes horse encounter horse the Roman archers let flye at the chariots of the Britanns they againe driue headlong vpon the Romans and tumble them ouer But for want of armour wherewith to mock the shot they are enforced with the storms of Roman arrowes to fall off againe The foot trampled vnder-foot by the horse and the horse beaten back by the foot Many close together make vp with a ioynct force against the waggons of warr they on the other side beare many downe before them and compell others to flye Here the Archers aduauncing ouer-forwardly beyond the protection of their cauallarie are glad to saue themselues by flat running away there other keep aloofe for feare of the peircing arrowes These things while they were not acted in one place onely but in three at once according to the triple distinction of the Roman host in DIO the conflict was long maintained on both parts with equall boldnesse and brauerie This is the table of the battle or maine meddlie betweene the BRITANNS and the ROMANS as it stands drawn with immortall words among the Greekes which singularly helpe to open the most weighty chronicle of TACITVS where the acts of this great and bloudy businesse are all of them trussed vp together in a lesser roome then the short contents of a chapter Briefs in heroicall arguments as they are the iniurious eclipse of mightie actions so in all other kindes of learning where they are insisted vpon by truants as principall they proue to be the very bane it selfe of wits and studies On the contrary whatsoeuer in narrations is for the size thereof aboue the iust length doth iustly heare tedious and whatsoeuer for the nature of it is petie and poore and beneath the maiestie of storie is worthely base and odious In this famous conflict where the naturall libertie of BRITAIN and the title of the empire lay at stake the ROMANS by dashing in with the whole breadth of their battalia so violently as they did vpon the enemies though they draue innumerable of them downe to the earth tare their rancks in pieces and strucke those other with amazement and dismay whom their weapons could not reach yet they plunged themselues so farre off withall from their ground or stand of aduantage into the depths of the surmounting multitudes as they were after a sort enclosed and compelled to fight all In the end notwithstanding though so late first that it was at least vpon the setting of the Sunne the ROMANS were euery where throughout the field victorious while the barbarous sinnes of the BRITANNS committed in the time of their prosperitie fought not lesse against the guiltie then the armed foe There is no regard nor heed to be taken in this place what our domesticke poets faine in fauour of Queene BOADICIA and her side as if they were ouercome by the treason of some BRITANN Captaines who reuolted to PAVLLINVS or the like goodly or honourable excusals For they haue no warrantie in vnexceptionable moniments But after the BRITANNS in the head of their battle beganne to shrincke and turne that alone was a blow to all behinde who being many scores of thousands remained vntoucht during the fight because they could neuer come vp to handie-stroakes for want of roome in the narrowings of the field So they who first did fall to running away were among their owne fellowes as vnresistable as enemies while they fearefully sought to open passages for their owne escape bringing a strong necessitie for all to disband and scatter and wholly to relye on flight for present safetie The Ladie Generall constrained to obey the authoritie of her disaster got free out and fled But the ROMAN partie most bold in attempting was also now most nimble in pursuit making execution of the ouertaken flyers and slaughter of the very labouring beasts and cart-horse Yea such was their hatred and heat of reuenge that their swords made no difference betweene sex and sex but slew euen the women who were seated aloft vpon the waines and carts as vpon scaffolds at the backe of their armie to giue their applause A most certaine signe of the wrath of God for the punishment of insolencie and pride that the councell which the BOADICIANS followed for a supposed triumph was conuerted to the piteous encrease of their miserie For the carriages thus planted and possessed were like a wall against euasion A vulgar writer describing the effect of this obstacle hath prettie smooth verses wherein he saith that the women who were mounted in that manner to behold who bare himselfe stoutly and to controll the coward did now
it might not at first haue beene erected in honour of that most heroicall championesse of BRITAIN BOADICIA since DIO and XIPHILINE affirme they funerally enterred her with much magnificence The bones of men digged vp at times neere this place vnder little banckes conuince it to haue beene sepulchral but armours of a large and antique fashion vpon which the spade or pickaxe are sometimes said to hit doe cleare the owners from hauing beene in the number of those BRITANNS whom pagan HENGIST wickedly slew for they came not armed but weaponlesse They are not the friends of honour who carrie not a reuerence to the memorials of the noble dead or contemne antiquities the rewards and records of vertue My iealousie touching the cause of STONAGE concludes not others freedome to censure what they please §. XXXIII A recapitulation of the premisses touching the affaires of Britain hitherto BEfore IVLIVS CAESAR the ROMANS knew vs not and he came twice ouer hither in armes with vnlike successes made MANDVBRATIVS king of the TRINOBANTS or of LONDON-land as his father was but left not a ROMAN behinde AVGVSTVS remained exorable to the peace of BRITAIN TIBERIVS was no way troublesome CALIGVLA would haue beene CLAVDIVS made it his chiefe businesse arriued conquered part and planted ROMANS and ciuilitie NERO CAESAR hazarded all for want of iustice The BRITANNS generally discontented and BVNDVCA the dowager Queene of king PRASVTAGVS shamefully wronged she becomes their captaine and wrought many wonders while SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS CAESARS lieuetenant was busie to winne the ile of MONA for the vses of the ROMAN Empire Downe went the ROMANS at CAMALODVNVM downe went CAMALODVNVM it selfe downe went the infanterie of the legion which PETILIVS CEREALIS led vp against her and SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS was himselfe so terrified after his returne from MONA that he left LONDON to the spoile which she sackt and fired and tooke VERVLAMIVM destroying in these three places vpon the poinct of fourescore thousand with a most firme resolution to leaue nothing ROMAN in BRITAIN that according to her words in DIO to her armie the example might with the terrour of it secure succession And while as yet the tide of her gallantrie was vp shee pursued SVETONIVS himselfe as the capitall obiect of her quarel vpon whom the defense of the ROMAN cause relyed here But the wanton and bloudie abuse of her fortune pluckt infelicitie vpon her for while in confidence of a continuall happinesse by reason of her excessiue numbers shee was ouer-forward to fight shee encountred him in a set battle vpon tearmes of great disaduantage in regard of the place was discomfited fled and died BRITAIN hereupon like a recouered sicke bodie relapsing came backe to former sufferings and to worser farre till NERO therein pittyfull remoued SVETONIVS whose implacabilitie in regard he tooke it as his iniurie that the rebellion hapned during his lieuetenancie in BRITAIN endangered the prouince to a new insurrection as it was suggested by his enemies at court With the death and buriall of BOADICIA DIO CASSIVS concludes and seals vp the warlike troubles and all other the businesses of our BRITAIN vnder NERO and so doe also I. There cannot be a fitter stop nor a fuller For the hither parts of our iland were neuer afterwards able to come into the like hope of freeing themselues if meerely to change lords be to be free because their sinewes by so dreadfull a defeat were vtterly dissolued A most weightie poinct which XIPHILINE out of DIO truely notes My recapitulation of premisses to which seruice this chapter is singled forth hath together both example and authoritie in LVCIVS FLORVS and manifold vses in it selfe because it is equally good for remembrance and manuduction and those volatil spirits who couet all in a word need looke no further then so Neuerthelesse the true children of historicall knowledge who enioy the blisse of studious leisure they certainly by comparing the riches of narrations deliuered in a iust length with the beggerie of abridgements will clearely behold the notable oddes betweene the one and the other For the spoile and losse of things left out or nakedly told can be no way counteruaild with the carcases and stubbs of facts preserued standing in narratorie moniments Lastly though now and then and throughout this whole historicall webbe of NERO there are sundrie doctrines iudgements and other lights sparingly wouen-in of set purpose which some would shoulder out into marginall spaces or blanckes at the end yet this is the way of that excellent maister and patterne of Historians POLIBIVS who speakes interposiuely and in his owne person often A skill or cunning in the noble craft of writing which most effectually conueighs the profit of directions with the delight of narrations into the sober reader and the better withall prouides for the lasting of what is good §. XXXIIII Free thoughts and notes vpon the whole matter of BOADICIA'S action by way of publick counsell SVch was the issue and euent of that great euill which the deepe contempt of NERO primarely caused as hath already beene fully described A lesson for soueraigne princes by iustice and other the vertues of that super excellent function to sustaine themselues from sodein slidings beneath their proper values On the other side to take the whole matter into consideration without measuring BOADICIA'S enterprize by finall successe for that were not to measure but to depraue the same it may worthily appeare that feminine impotencie of minde was chiefe therein from the beginning to the ending For transported with the desires of reuenge and soueraigntie shee neuer indifferently weighed the qualitie and power of the empire against which shee vndertooke A grand and ruinous errour The ROMANS at this time had the lordship of the world by the speciall purpose and prouision of God For as the noble and eloquent king AGRIPPA speakes in IOSEPHVS it had otherwise beene impossible The speciall deuotion of their monarkes most remarkeable AVGVSTVS CAESAR so religiously reuerent towards that deitie which was adored in the temple of HIERVSALEM that he commanded the first fruits should be sent from all the parts of his dominions where the IEWES abode Nay more hee founded in that place it selfe for a daily sacrifice in fire the perpetuall constant allowance of a bull and two lambs honouring their synagogues as the schooles of iustice and temperance Aske admired PHILO an account for what is written here The same pious institution was not onely continued by his dowager the empresse LIVIA but by her sonne TIBERIVS and euen in NERO'S dayes For the reiection of that customarie holocaust by the seditious of HIERVSALEM was among the causes of the warre which ruin'd it So the ROMAN empire did after a sort hold of true God in chiefe by a kinde of speciall rent seruice and acknowledgement and as al honour glory and power doe properly belong to our Lord IESVS CHRIST so euen TIBERIVS CAESAR vnder whom it pleased him to suffer was most forward for his
for the time of his death affirmes no lesse There was also a tumult in the I le because saith SVETONIVS the fugitiues were not sent backe ADMINIVS as I suppose and his adherents So the detention of tribute seems to haue been in reprisall to force their restitution And here the part of that BERICVS comes aptly in who as DIO saith was expulsed out of BRITAN for sedition The cause not hard to find considering the premises if BERICVS may be thought one of the ADMINIAN faction But of these things let others reason Here certainely our iland first began to feele indeed the weight of conquest CAESAR had a MANDRVBATIVS to induce and train him on and CLADIVS a banished BERICVS The computation of force in AVGVSTVS time fit to hold BRITAIN in obedience according to STRABO'S account was extremely vnder the marke One legion and some horse CAMDEN the king of our antiquaries and not of arms onely reckons vp three whole legions the second the ninth and the fourteenth imposed by CLAVDIVS to retain his martiall purchase Sure I am that when the BRITANS fell from NERO there was another called the twentith all foure of them mentioned in TACITVS where he chronicles the defection and all foure few enough Yet NERO was so farre from augmenting the ROMAN forces here with extraordinaries that but for very shame as SVETONIVS saith he had euen reuoked the ligiers Howbeit STRABO'S estimate supposing equitie and AVGVSTVS might be a full proportion For the odds are not small in the seuerall natures of times which extremely alter the states of power A few vnder a wise and venerable prince are vertually as many as thrice their number vnder a vaine or violent With iniurie no force is not weake with iustice no fewnesse is not strong Sentences verifide vnder NERO in BRITAIN vnder whom euen the deitie of CLAVDIVS was made a greater burthen to the BRITANS as appeares by that of which themselues complaine in TACITVS then CLAVDIVS himself was when aliue Among those pretious coignes which the treasurie of ANTONIVS AVGVSTINVS hath afforded to the world I finde one of CLAVDIVS concerning BRITAN peaceable omitted by all men who haue of purpose handled our affairs What the left hand of the image held vnluckely appeares not in that faire printed copie with which it pleased a great and generous Earle to befriend me It might be a garland a cornucopia a little winged victorie or the like but I could thinke it was some round figure the signe of tribute-money The whole may signifie that CLAVDIVS the conquerour of BRITAIN ciuilised the subdued BRITANS The persons gowned habit a manifest token of it who is otherwise wont to be represented martial and vnclothed And though the rudder or helme of a ship which here BRITANIA holds downward in her right hand as a rest doth ordinarily signifie nothing else in antient ROMAN coigns but that the countrey whose figure appears vpon the metal is an iland whereunto there is no accesse but by water yet here perhà ps it further noteth that not onely the nauigation of BRITAIN florished by his meanes but that tillage formerly neglected did also set vp now prosper if that which coucheth behind be not the halfe part of a ship but the hinder end of an antique plough A coigne put forth into the world after the Southerne BRITANS were prouinciated and the ROMAN gouernment fully setled here Nor improbably when the colonie of old souldiers was drawne and planted at CAMALODVNVM in the twelfth yeare of CLAVDIVS For that was precisely the time as that most modest and antient good friend of mine WILLIAM CAMDEN Clarenceux hath happely and learnedly obserued out of another of CLAVDIVS medalls CAMALODVNVM the place vpon which the raging tempest of rebellion did first discharge the force of it self as the insolencies of that colonie were among the heinous sparkes which firde the wronged natiues This in generall was the case and state of BRITAIN so farre as the ROMANS intermedled from the first entrance of IVLIVS CAESAR thereinto who what hee could not materiallie annex to the main-land attempted to fasten vertuallie to the empire as an out-worke CHAP. XXV THE INTERMITTED NARRATION OF THE REVOLT OF BRITAIN VNDER NERO PROSECVTED AFter the death of consecrated CLAVDIVS BRITAIN with the rest of the ROMAN world comming vnder the scepter of NERO it was nowe of his reigne the seuenth yeare CAESONIVS and PETRONIVS Consuls when the incensed BRITANNS led by a woman and a widowe reuengefullie writ her quarrell in the bloud of thousands of enemies For such they esteemed all who were either free of ROME or of the ROMAN partie The causes of which sodein furie with the bitter effects the estate of things foregoing and following as affording great lessons deserue a narration sutable to the maiestie though not to the length of the introduction And first of all that we may admiringlie know how large a place the euil shooke it must not bee forgotten that presentlie before the terrible blowe all the countreyes nowe comprehended vnder the noble names of ENGLAND and WALES excepting onely the I le of MONA or ANGLESEY were either immediatly ROMAN as prouincial or indirectlie and vpon the by as seeming social A goodlie scope of habitable element one thousand miles in circuit and it self the best and greatest part of BRITAIN full of braue people and of natiue commodities which the ancient equitie of the ROMANS should haue kept and cherished more carefullie For the straightned Ocëan which separates it from the continent doth not separate it from the benefits and blessings of the continent And if the aër of our I le be not alwayes the most pure and transparent yet is it certainly the most temperate But without all other commodities and the names of ours would fill a long inuentarie it was alone enough for an attractiue to the ROMANS that not onely the inferior sorts of oare but siluer also and gold it selfe lay couched in the mines of BRITAIN which their diligence would draw forth into light and vse the vaines of mineral coales a tresure left for vs whose improuident wasts of wood hath made them as pretious as metal The BRITANNS themselues who by the right of theyr first comming hither were natural Lords of the soil a people easily fashionable to the noblest arts and not to that mean one of making cheese the ignorance whereof stands vpon some of them in STRABO as a special note of barbarism Neither were the Romans now in any such numbers here that insolencie might thereupon securely rest it selfe For to defend their owne share they at most employd but foure legions with theyr ordinarie aids consisting partly of GALLS and GERMANS and partly of the ilanders themselues the legions of none but ROMANS only All which together could not very much surmount fortie thousand according to common proportions An handfull of men if compared to the natiues But of this more properly elsewhere §. I. Of the title of
many with faire persuasions If their fauours were vnequal that tended to nourish their partie But before this vnluckie reuolt the TRINOBANTS and some other of the BRITANS stood possessed of so rare a felicitie as to enioy the peace of ROME without any ROMAN iudges among them For the ROMANS medled not but left them ouer to be whollie ruled by their naturall magistrates and peculiar lawes TACITVS witnesseth it and the GREEK historians speaking of their condition before the rebellion doe call them their owne men and free Neither did the ROMANS enuie the immunities and honors of their citie to persons who could not enioy them by any right of birth most magnanimously forgetting what they had at any time done hurtfullie as enemies and receiuing them both into her embraces as bosome-friends and also into her lapp as children CLAVDIVS so earnestlie desirous to bestow the franchise of the souereign citie vpon the RRITANNS whom hee had conquered that SENECA in his irreligious sports vpon that emperour vpbraids it ROME imperiall a gratious common mother of mankinde and not a mistresse only Therefore the fall of ROME as Queene of the earth was the common sorrow of the earth euen in scripture it selfe To the stubborne sharp and stern against aduersaries fierce and braue And if the subiects in the prouinces were vnworthelie violated or villanously entreated it was not because the lawe allowed it For the greatest Magistrate during his whole time abroad might receiue nothing of guift but hay fower beds and wood for fireing towards his prouisions and CICERO glories that hee tooke not all them neither when hee was proconsul in CILICIA There neuer was any common weale which more diligentlie prouided against wrongs and rapines then the ROMAN or which more seuerelie punisht them The times euen of TIBERIVS rarelie happie for the prouinces herein PHILO who himselfe was an eye-witnesse and a partaker of the benefit doth excellently note it in his AVILLIVS FLACCVS But the quiet estate of the ROMAN-BRITANNS and the thriuing condition of their arts and trades vnder NERO was sodeinlie blasted by the scandalous and wretched iniquitie of some of the predominant as it almost euery where happens to the so great hazard of the whole that TRANQVILLVS speakes of BRITANN as lost for the time §. III. The causes of the grand reuolt Boadicia's quarrel the chiefe THe reasons which drewe the BRITANNS to rise and attempt the massacre of the ROMANS were great and many Profound contempt of NERO was the first For that did chieflie embolden the ROMANS to doe wrong and draue the sufferers to despaire of an orderlie redresse To gouerne with the opinion of iustice keepes officers from presuming and the rest of subiects from ruin by rysing DIO a man of a most honourable place and a like minde assignes two principal causes which prepared the BRITANNS for an open hostilitie The confiscation of goods and I blush to write it Seneca's cruel vsuries For whereas CLAVDIVS CAESAR which concernes the first point of the two had graciously forgiuen such forfeitures and seisures as belonged to him in right of his conquering sword NENNIVS the ancient BRITANN writes that they were the tributes themselues or had otherwise bestowed large summes vpon the chiefe among them and for that as for an act of celestiall bounty was honourd as a god while as yet aliue CATVS DECIANVS NERO'S Procurator in BRITANN contended that extremity ought to be pursued notwithstanding any showe of discharge or plea of pardon and notwithstanding good CLAVDIVS had caused a Decree of the SENATE to passe for strengthning the fauours hee had done thereby to inuite the more to yeeld themselues A solemne wise custome of the ROMANS to winn vpon the first with fauour and humanitie as they did of old in GALLIA where they styled the AEDVI their fellowes cosens and brothers On the other side ANNAEVS SENECA NERO'S chiefe counsellour hauing a stocke going here at vse of about two hundred and fiftie thousand pounds sterling sodeinlie calls in his moneyes the loan whereof had been thrust vpon the BRITANNS whether they would or no where a rebellion would sooner discharge debts then exhausted meanes could Yet this is hee ô strange who cryed out when hee was at ritchest How vnknowne a good is pouertie But DIO is suspected by some of the most noble clarks of our age as somewhat too vnequall to the honour and memorie of famous SENECA the sharpest witt of ROME There are other iniuries named which concerned the commons and the rest in generall which toucht by TACITVS in his AGRICOLA did principallie consist in the abusiue assignation of rates and the carriage of corne for the armies But if one onely iniurie had beene forborne the common grieuances now the blathers of rebellion and euermore vsed to bee blowne-out with words to their vttermost widenesse when the discontented meete might perhaps haue sighed-out themselues without any Champion to wage a warre on their behalfe But in the person of a Prince al the nation is strucken and wrongs done to a chiefe are interpreted by friends and followers as their owne Among all the BRITANNS there was not any of this time so eminent as the Dowager of PRASVTAGVS late king of the ICENI Her name in antiquitie is very variouslie written One and the same woman being in TACITVS BOODICIA BOVDICEA and VOADICA who is in DIO BOVNDVICA and perhaps in CAMDENS BRITISH monies BODVO Her husband while hee liued remained in amity with the ROMANS as a social king and hauing first deuised his kingdome ioinctly to NERO and his daughters he deceased The BRITANNS excluded neither sex from the crowne and it was the testators meaning that his daughters hauing CAESAR for their guardian and hee for his fauour hauing a childes part should either bee Queenes of their owne shares or in coparcenerie after their mother For both by her owne words in her oration in TACITVS it seemes that shee reputed the kingdome hers and in DIO it is expresly said that shee gouerned in chiefe as souereign at the time of her taking the field and as farre as can be gathered by all the marks of her spirit euen then also when the king her husband liued But the daughters poore sillie ladies found a sorrie partner-ship where the lion was to make the partition For NERO'S captaines and officers exercised intollerable licence the pallace of PRASVTAGVS their father as also his ritches which were great and long in gathering together with his whole realme not receiued into custodie for the good of the orphans nor NERO'S part laid out as a bequest or legacie but that which was theirs ransackt and spoild as bootie They also of the bloud roial the kinsmen of the king were no better accounted of then as prisoners taken in warre in the nature of bondmen or slaues A most grieuous poinct and yet still worler was feared Princes by the fortuné of their souereigne function doe oftentimes beare the name of the crimes which others
incitement most apt to fire the bloud In which sense TACITVS hath it and SAVILE who was another TACITVS for grauitie and iudgement Some haue turnd the keen edge of that sentence by turning it quite contrarie thus as if they were men who knew not to doe any thing else but onelie to die for their countrey The wrongs and dishonors which the most noble authors sustain oftentimes by many translatours are infinite and intollerable Scarce one booke among one hundred honestlie done and not one of one hundred exactlie But to our present taske The forwardnesse of the Dowager Queene vnlockt all hearts and tongues among themselues and while each one layes open his griefes which in telling kindle or would for companies sake seeme to haue cause as in such cases it euermore happens they all agree together to rise in armes with her As for the sworne couenants betweene the ROMANS and the BRITANNS which DIO calls their Symbasies as also the Senates decree for their confirmation by vertue whereof they had title to a lawfull redresse they were all broken-through as cobwebs The sword their iudge and vmpire Right and common libertie the names of their quarrell confusion spoil and thirst of bloud the sequel Instincted thus and embude by BOADICIA the countrey-TRINOBANTS came in to the plot and so the rest Most cunning and vnauoidable while the cold aër of feare like a counter-circumstance of qualities kept together the heat of counsel In CAMALODVNVM it selfe they had their close correspondents among their countreymen inhabiters §. IX The Druids of Britain parties in this reuolt THe head and members of this blacke agreement were fastned together in a most bloudie knot with speciall rites and ceremonies For a mysterie so deepe and darke was neuer seald vp without most solemn vowes toucht at by TACITVS in the word pepigerant Nor need wee doubt that they were as horrible as could bee deuised considering the DRVIDS were the solemnisers who besides the generall barbarousnesse of their superstition had a special tooth against the ROMANS For if they preuaild their profession must needs goe downe because that wise and ciuil people abhorr'd it as hellish SVETONIVS therefore after his victorie felld their groues distaind with sauage rites The DRVIDS interest a most inward cause of troubles And how much they thought it concernd them to beat off the ROMANS who had forbidden their sect in ROME and GALLIA did well appeare in their bedlam doings at MONA Vpon their altars they vsed to offer in fire the bloud of men and that was their sacrifice to know what should happen they did cut vp an enemie quicke and that was their sooth-say They opened therefore some ROMAN or other aliue to read in his heart-strings how they should speed and intercepted his bloud to offer to their goddesse ANDATE Bloud was the seale of this coniuratorie secret and this a season of all other the most likelie for the wiues and daughters in lawe of the wilde and ruder BRITANNS of which sort BOADICIA'S forces did principallie consist to celebrate those rites in which PLINIE saith they were wont to goe naked their bodies colourd ouer with oad A grizlie ceremonie for a gastlie purpose §. X. Wonders fore-show the ouer-hanging euils TO the euerlasting confusion of the impious all times afford cleare proofes in facts that there is one vniuersal minde of things whose fore-knowledge is seene in fore-warnings and whose goodnesse is declared in giuing them God who is that minde and from whom alone all good things come in his ordinarie and generall care ouer all and not ouer the elect alone sends signes and wonders Out of this fountaine of pittie towards his creatures it proceeded that many great maruels fore-went the sodein change and not without particular respect to some in BRITAIN for CHRISTIANITIE euen here had friends as then and neuer but for his owne more glory DIO himselfe an ETHNICK ascribes the same to God The OCEAN betweene BRITAIN and GALL at the full tide did ouerflowe of a bloudie colour and at a low water the prints of mens bodies were seene vpon the bare and not the dead bodies themselues which the englished ANNALS of TACITVS mistakingly say The similitudes also of the broaken and shatterd houses of a colonie were seene vnder water in the mouth of the THAMES These in that element Vpon the land the image of victorie in the temple of CLAVDIVS without any known cause fell downe with the backe vpwards as if it gaue way to the enemy women rapt with a sodein furie sung near destruction or Woe and alas at hand Moreouer in the common court-hall of CAMALODVNVM there was heard a strange hollow noise or murmure as of the barbarous by night which DIOS Greek text notes with much lowd laughter and in the theater the place of sports a dreadful lumber mixt with a sound at the same time as if multitudes of spectators were weeping and howling together therein when there was not a man in either Wonderfull things and to wonderfull ends Causes of greatest dread to the ROMANS and of like encouragement to the BRITANNS In these descriptions I haue holpen my selfe by comparing TACITVS and XIPHILINES DIO together and with the most corrected readings in best Criticks which I thought meete to admonish not for boast of industrie but to keepe blame off where I shall be found to differ from the vulgar Though the subiect bee such as well deserues greatest diligence §. XI Boadicia's musters and attire and of the place of the rendeuous ONe hundred and twentie thousand men appeared now for warre at BOADICIA'S musters An admirable effect of a close and sodein conspiracie Those numbers not drawne to an head out of the ICENI and TRINOBANTS alone but also out of what other BRITISH nations soeuer Some other else there were TACITVS notes it in generall words euen at this first assemblie For the earth of the ICENI according to worthie CAMDEN was spred no farther then the compasse of fower shires nor they the greatest and the same at this day inhabited with fewer then fifteen hundred parishes the countrey of the TRINOBANTS the gemme and flower of BRITAIN with lesse then ten aboue sixe hundred and it selfe but two shires now Impossible therfore that so huge a force should rise on a sodein within so narrow a circuit as sixe of our present shires specially where very many thousands held loyall to the death and where so many impediments of free assemblies interposed themselues in the ROMAN forts and garrisons about BVNDVCA the head and life of these reuolted BRITANNS came forth in state attended with the peers and chiefes Her bodie cloathed in a deep and full gathered garment embroidred with diuers colours all ouer about her necke a chaine of great wreathed lincks of gold her shoulders sustaind vpon them a militarie cloake or a thicke wrought mantle buttond before her goodlie tresses flowing in length downe her backe serued for a couer or a golden vaile to all
then obrize gold or paragon stones nor simplie a single peece of money but it selfe an entire treasure For without the least alteration of characters METROPOLIS ETIMINII BALO being the visible remain of the circumferential inscription vpon the reuerse a most easie distinction by supplie of poincts decaid reads METROPOLIS ETIMINAEI BALO that is to say METROPOLIS ETIMINAEI BASILEOS LONDINVM For in the very letter L. and much more in the syllable LO all men though but slightlie conuersant in antiquities will readily confesse that after the name of the king the name of the place in BRITAIN did commence THE MOTHER-CITIE or PRINCIPAL CHIEFE TOVVN OF KING ETIMINIVS LONDON Now if great IOSEPH SCALIGER wittilie straining or as most thinke directlie corrupting SENECA'S play of CLAVDIVS to bring forth his Scoto-Brigantes could not containe himselfe from breaking out into a glorious ioy that he was now the man to whom the noble SCOTTISH nation stood obliged for such a testimonie of their antientie in BRITAIN then might I also who endanger no mans writings but deale sincerely gratulate to my selfe this discouerie And if nothing shall hereafter infirme it Great BRITAIN must no longer incurre the barbarous note of being citie-lesse in CAESARS dayes and then also must LONDON vndoubtedlie owe the best proofe and clearest light as well for dignitie as antiquitie that hath hitherto beene seene among vs vnto me who first of mortals haue duly asserted the honourable name thereof into the title of a ciuill Metropolis till this present hower ouerwhelmed in the rubbidge of BRITAINS ruine For though OCTAVIVS STRADA to whose memorie immortall thankes are due hath afforded the medalia hee hath not medled with the life of the thing the meaning that is onely mine Speciall historie depends vpon the rare argument of the coign for both the which one act of exposition shall serue in their more proper place and time And that LO being the initial letters of the name should in STRADA'S coigne signifie LONDON cannot seeme strange either to the learned or the ignorant when in other coigns concerning BRITAIN the meere single L it selfe imports as much Nor will it be the fortune of any man to finde a towne in BRITAIN whose name beginning with those letters can be fit to beare the stately title of a metropolis but this alone London to say the truth say those famous ANNALS was not ennobled with the surname of a colonie The ROMANS therefore who had setled their housholds in LONDON for as wise SENECA obserues they made their countrey euery place where they ouercame were so many that nothing wanted to erect it into a colonie but an act of the SENATE of ROME to authorise the title and rights their numbers appearing to bee alreadie sufficient for support of the charge and dignitie They therefore and their fellowes the natural BRITANNS together with the ordinarie sequels of their persons and professions who dwelt therein ammounted to an extraordinarie multitude which made the place not more populous then full of houses For the proportion of habitations answeres the proportion of inhabitants How many the LONDONERS were of either kinde is a matter lesse known then how far euery way the buildings went which neither could be narrow nor ignoble but large as forcopious merchants magnificent as for magnifico's For as the most learned CAROLVS SIGONIVS obserues out of CICERO the gentlemen and knights of ROME dealt in merchandise at home and abroad and were members of the colledge of Mercurie whose statelie seate was vpon mount CAPITOLINE it selfe and whose limbs and parts were spread through the ROMAN world One of the suburbs of NERO'S LONDON abutted vpon the fields which are at this day termed of the neighbour Spittle as NERO'S coigns and the coigns of other emperours dig'd vp there among the monuments of the dead doe abundantlie witnesse The very bignesse of LONDON a cause why PAVLLINVS forsooke it the rather as hauing not men enough to keepe it So antient a citie of the BRITANNS the same in like sort so new a seat of the ciuill ROMANS could neither want temples bains aquaeducts courts of counsel and iustice nor other publicke workes to render it complete in it selfe and a farre-off worth the beholding The riuer full of ships for merchants and shippes doe alwayes suppose one the other the riuage full of sea-faring men the inns full of strangers Here was the staple of trade and the capitall mart of BRITAIN the bower of the noble for they had no where else to be so furnisht the blisse of the thriftie for they had no where else to bee so enriched the delight of all Here also or no where rather the publicke storehouses granaries and magazines the safest stowage of gotten spoiles the soldiers packs and baggage the hostages of the BRITISH states the publicke records as at SAMAROBRIVA vnder IVLIVS CAESAR in GALL-BELGICK and whatsoeuer stuffe or prouisions SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS in his aspiring spirit might designe for a triumphall or an ouant showe at ROME His care to reach to LONDON before the cruell rebells an argument of the premisses and of this also that it was the top it selfe of all the ROMAN interest in BRITAIN His purpose moreouer to erect the same into the seate of warre makes it credible that it was not without a wall euen then but euery way defensible had it met with a season more fauourable or with a captaine as firme as the faith of the people Within it the splendor of armes and the furnitures of peace which till the most fierce BOADICIA strucke vp for battle was euery where most deepe and still And whereas the place of store had euermore a strong guard within it as at SAMAROBRIVA before said where a legion lay in defense so here if my diuinations faile mee not either the valorous fourteenth kept or some large portion thereof as in the main stay or seat of the empires part in BRITAIN it selfe also the key or gate of the prouince which lay beyond the riuer from SVRREY-side towards CORNVVALL An argument hereof that though LONDON for the territorie was Trinobantish yet for the iurisdiction was Cantian at leastwise in PTOLOMEAS dayes vnder ADRIAN And the infrequencie of soldiers which is alledged in TACITVS for a cause why SVETONIVS did dislodge from thence was the infrequencie if coniecture hits right of that braue bold legion whose bands and troups were not full as then by reason of absences vpon leaue or farre dispersion of the parts which all came in before the battle though wanting at the musters Thus ritch thus populous thus great thus strong thus goodlie and thus abounding with all the necessaries and pleasures of life SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS possessed LONDON at his returne from MONA for the seruice of CAESAR and of CAESARS ROMAN-BRITAIN §. XX. Nero's lieutenant in Britain abandons London to the rebells NOr did the place seeme of lesse importance to SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS himself who all other businesse set apart vnderwent so much paine and
perill to reach and keepe it But LIPSIVS not without cause complaines of the many wants and imperfections of narration in this noble piece of the CORNELIAN Annals the blame whereof hee principallie casts as commonly elswhere vpon transcribers who while they should haue giuen vs true copies haue otherwise vsed their pleasures in them contrarie to faith and office For in a matter which had somewhat in it of a wonder to tell vs nothing but the name of the vertue by which PAVLLINVS wrought to bring himselfe from MONA to LONDON yeelds slender satisfaction But if some part of his aduentures and some particulars of his carriage had been withall vnfolded the competent reader whose properlie the iudgement is could of himselfe haue gathered out of them whither it was constancie or rashnesse in the ROMAN Generall to march through the midle of his enemies Which heroicke action as now it stands declared may rather seeme of one who had gotten a ring or receipt to qualifie him with a gliding inuisibilitie then his who followed right reason the onely true guide of valour Moreouer also it would not haue beene impertinent but very satisfactorie and vsefull to haue reuealed what kindes of soldiers and how many went with him in guard along where they rested vpon the way and among what seuerall nations as XENOPHON in his excellent bookes of CYRVS his Ascense hath done But the law of ANNALS requires no such exactnesse being properlie nothing else but summaries or narrow registers I for my part am glad to behold so many poincts and glimmerings of facts remaining in TACITVS for accomplishing our countreyes historie in this most memorable parcell In him therefore wee finde the subiect matter of PAVLLINVS his main deliberation at LONDON his doubtfulnesse what to resolue his generall musters there his scantnesse of numbers the capitall motiue of his warinesse his finall determination and execution thereof The question in counsell was whither hee should choose and vse London for the seat of warre or otherwise abandon it Before the proposure whereof it must necessarily precede that he resolued with himselfe not to issue out to fight with Boadicia And both these poincts were principally grounded vpon the knowledge of weakenesse in the ROMAN partie discouerd after his entrance at the musters To perswade a stay the reasons were great and many The preseruation of so famous a place the honour of the Roman name the certaintie of aid from Nero the danger of a retreat the necessitie of giuing a stop to Boadicia's furie But without some competent proportions of forces he was warnd by the fresh disaster of PETILIVS CEREALIS not to hazard battle To authorise a departure there wanted not arguments and those most weightie For wheras SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS had here appointed the generall assemblie of his side now vpon a view taken his troups and companies were not found full but infrequent and thin The main prop therefore of resistance failed which whither it were by CATVS DECIANVS his example fraud or basenesse or otherwise did howsoeuer happen A more compulsorie cause was want of corne which DIO notes For neither without store of men could so great a citie be defended nor men be kept aliue without food The fortune of LONDON thus hanging in ballance and swaying mainly downwards for the present the newes of BOADICIA'S terrible approach drane them whither they would or no to a round and present resolution That seeing LONDON could not be made good against the preuailing rebells who were now in their ruffe and vtmost brauery the excellencie of the place could be no colour why they should wilfullie perish with it The honour of the Roman name was doublie safe both by the monstrous oddes now against them and by a meere necessitie Besides that whensoeuer they got the vpper-hand againe honour would acknowledge old clients and willinglie returne with aduantage And though aid would certainlie arriue to relieue them besieged it would bee more acceptable at Rome so to order things here in Britain as not to need reliefe and if there should bee need Nero's succours would not come lesse contentedlie to find their fellowes in an open field then shut vp within ditches and fortifications as in a kinde of dishonourable pinfold The danger of a retreat nothing comparable to the mischiefe of a stay And London was not lost gratis but did a seruice worth it selfe if the ritches and pleasures thereof could performe that for the present which their armed powers were vnable to doe The stop of Boadicia's furie much better to be made with onelie the fortunes of a place then besides the losse of the best towne with the remains also of all the Roman-Britann powers together in one Nor could any goods perish which were but sackt or pillaged and not quite destroid for one victorie would recouer both all their owne things and their enemies It was therefore a loan or licence rather then a desperate debt or shipwracke to permit the rebells to make spoile and bootie and meerely a stale or golden ball such as Atalanta stoopt vnto Therefore while the greedie Boadicians spent their time in sharing among themselues the wealth of the most famous merchant-towne of Britain the Roman partie should haue opportunitie to gather head elsewhere without the shame of an open flight and with the certaintie of making a secure retreat Nor though Boadicia perceiuing the scope should be willing to suspend the sackage and plie the pursuit yet would she not dare to vrge it because the cardinall mysterie of her greatnesse was licence to rob and steale This benefit among the rest not the least that euen time it selfe would abate the edge and quantitie of the present mischiefe nothing violent being permanent wayes would also be found how to sunder the combined thereby to weaken the mightie knot and if nothing else yet this would vndoubtedlie happen that euery one as he had gotten most would most affect to be gone each to enioy his purchase the end and fruit of their partakings nor should Boadicia bee alwayes able to hold them together And to imagine the very least yet the commoditie to assemble and enable the Roman partie would vndoubtedly follow whereby the necessitie to fight should bring no necessitie vpon them of being ouercome in fight but a iuster hope of preuailing by the meanes of more prouisions Thus was LONDON heauily condemned to bee left for the time to the lusts or mercie of the rebells In execution of which sad sentence the ROMAN Generall caused it to be proclaimed through the city that hee must rise and leaue the place though not the people for whosoeuer would depart and partake with him the fortune of warre vnder the ROMAN name and standard should be receiued the rest vpon this warning were otherwise to prouide for themselues so well as they could either by abode or absence The LONDONERS the comfort of whose liues and hopes relyed vpon the issue of this counsell of warre tooke desperation
VERVLAM therefore is now but a part of the common calamitie which was then the onely all Nor did any thing more vnmaske the couetous corrupt and inwardly most vitious intents of the BOADICIANS then the iniurie done hereunto For in CAMALODVNVM the maine bodie and stocke of the people were ROMANS and LONDON likewise was full of them which ministred some colour for mercilesse carriage but why they should deale in that manner with VERVLAM the magistrates and comminaltie wherof were BRITANNS no tollerable cause can be well assigned True it is they had the dignitie and benefit to be free of ROME but were not otherwise ROMAN A principall difference betweene the persons of a colonie and those of a municipium this that in a colonie they were euermore drawne out of the corporation it selfe of the people of ROME as members before but in the other they were not any part of that imperiall bodie till fauourably receiued by municipiall priuiledge into the freedome men generally forein else and but by admission capable The VERVLANIANS therfore were BRITANNS though now they smarted as ROMANS found their riches to be their vndoing It might be supposed if histories were places for supposals that king COGIDVNVS of whom there is already sufficient spoken was Lord of the soile about which being vpon the frontire of the reuolted TRINOBANTS the towne for that cause suffered mischiefe in hatred and despite of his constant friendship to his great benefactors the ROMANS And here among many other the like in the CORNELIAN Annals the infelicitie of the text corrupted by transcription breeds confusion Nor doth the surgerie of Criticks so heale it but that new galls and blisters may still arise What TACITVS would principallie say is not obscure For hee hath told vs that the Britanns omitting castles and garrisons as tedious and troublesome to conquer ranged loose about and made bootie or hauock of that which was most of worth abroad And although a very commodious sense seemes to lurke vnder the disordered shufflings of the vulgar text which is that the Boadicians carried their pillage and robberies into places of safety whither woods or bogges or whatsoeuer else and full of gladnesse for their cheuisance did then come againe to fetch more which euery man will repute reasonable to suppose yet those learned maisters frame other coniectures best to be seene in their owne writings The most iudicious of them agree in this to be the sense that the Boadicians sought for that which was most gainefull to themselues and withall vnsafe for the owners to defend a people forward to boot-hale and consume but backeward to the duties of warre A censure they well deserued and extends to all others who propounding to themselues no laborious nor honest meanes of life long for ciuill confusions that they might haue what to lauish though for but neuer so short a while and with whatsoeuer lasting miserie of the innocent and industrious Natiôns marke it wel The ruins of VERVLAM soone afterwards re-ëmpeopled and reflourishing a wall of flints and brickes eaten downe into the earth with age and weather and deepe double trenches about which remaine at this day looke sadly with an ouer-growne face vpon the towne of Saint ALBAN and retaine the antient name That the syllable VER the first in the word should be somewhat sounding honorable in the BRITISH tongue because VER-GOBRET was the name of a chiefe magistracie among the GALLS whose language was the same with the BRITANNS and their most heroicke champion was called VER-CINGETORIX is more easie to image then to prooue But that it signified the same with Mawr is probable if the sense of Ver or VAWR in some BRITISH dialect bee likewise equiualent to Great in English as MAWR is Great an apt addition in these particulars HVMFREY LHVID one of the most learned late antiquaries of the BRITANNS will haue it that the prettie streame which runs thereby was denominatiue of the place and VERLAM to haue been Werlhan the fane or temple vpon the water Werr hee supposing that to be the name thereof the same towne also afterwards called CAER municip by occasion of the ROMAN franchise It is no great matter whither of the opinions be truer or if neither Here also sword and fire the instruments of wrath furie deuoured what rapine left nor fewer thousands then tenne of those eightie which the BOADICIANS slew in all could probably perish therin §. XXIII The most sauage behauiours of the Boadicians in the vse of their victories throughout THus farre the motions and actions of that mightie bodie of enemies assembled together vnder a most glorious title the recouerie of common libertie and commanded in chiefe by BOADICIA prospered after their manner The same being now at the vtmost height aswell for successe as wickednesse fell sodeinly to ground No wonder at all considering how hatefull they had made themselues in the sight of God and man by abusing their power and fortunes quite blotting out all the splendours of their fauourable cause with the foulenesse of their carriage There was no taking to mercy saith TACITVS no quarter allowed no hope of ransome nor any trade of tearmes as in other warres but blades halters fire gallowes and vtter vengeance to all that was ROMAN or towards it the Boadician BRITANNS not onely striuing to be euen with their oppressours for the wrongs they had done but also to get before-hand with them by worse and greater But not to accuse this course too far because their purpose was absolutely to root out all that was ROMAN the vnkindely kindes of their sauage practise in the workes of reuenge and extirpation are hardly credible BOADICIA a most martiall bold and mighty Lady but not woman enough for led by infernall superstitions or no lesse then infernall passions her BRITANNS tooke the most noble and honourable dames among their enemies stript them naked sliced away their pappes stitcht them to their mouthes as to make them seeme feeding and finally staked their bodies through in length Villanies at which barbaritie it selfe would blush and which in themselues most horrible DIO'S credit makes credible The men whom they far more cruelly saued then they could haue simplie slaine had their bellies ript open aliue saith SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS in XIPHILINE their boweles cut out some gored vpon burning stakes and others boild to death in seething water Man is to man a diuell at times no where rather verifide then here The forms and paines of these murthers not to be out-gone for their invention and execution sauage wit found how to aggrauate by religious impiety and irreligious contumely For it being not absurd to think that they might aslo eate what thus was drest the inference familiar from the shambles to the kitchin these certainly whether sacrifices or games were most spitefully presented while they offred in their temples or reueld at their feasts but specially in the groue of their goddesse ANDATE the patronesse of their proceedings as ANDRASTA
it to be cut and printed GABRIEL SYMEONI also an Italian author formerly published the same Out of whose extant worke it is deriued hither into mine A strange inuention for an imperiall signet And my memorie fails me if it be not also in the printed collections of ROMAN seals imitated out of sundry rings as they were seuerally set with cornelians aggats onycles and other the cheaper sort of pretious stones engrauen for the vse of signature The argument of this cachet so the French call it is the famous fable of MARSYAS who was flayed aliue for presuming to challenge the harpe of APOLLO into a triall against the musicke of his pipe What NERO meant by assuming it or in what cases hee was accustomed to seale therewith is meerely matter of coniecture not of certaintie For whether it were to terrifie those who durst compare or contend in skill with him or to iustifie his most high veneration of musicall agons in regard they were the peculiar glory of so great a deitie as APOLLO or whither it were that hee arrogantly vsurped a resemblance or whatsoeuer my part is sufficiently discharged in hauing deliuered not what I may deuise but what I finde true To please the meaner sort of people was the poore chiefe poinct of his policie For in their affections he reposed his safetie and in their applause his glory Therefore to entertaine all their senses with their proper delights there being no other way so sure of winning them he layes hold of their eares with songs and tunes of their eyes with publike games and showes and finally of the residue of the fiue with the most voluptuous and impudent permissions of all sorts of gluttonous and venereous excesses in publicke That banquet or Bacchanal which SOPHONIVS TIGELLINVS prouided in the poole of AGRIPPA or as DIO hath the place in the amphitheater where nothing was chaste nothing frugall nothing honest hath the fame of the maddest and most wilde of all that euer were in his dayes Lasciuious naked women immeasurable cheare wine words and nothing barrd but abstinence or modestie which though it was the cause why the meeting ended in quarels blowes and bloud yet this was freedome in their estimation being indeed nothing else but an ouerflow of authorised corruptions and villanies But some few dayes after the feast there succeeded an act more prodigious the coupling of NERO to PYTHAGORAS Doryphorus as an husband CARDAN excuseth him vpon those flatterers who while they did put him into a frolicke for the honour of the goddesse ISIS perswaded a sacrilege in stead of a ceremonie and so deceiued him A fiction and a toy but not amisse for the scope of CARDANS writing to vent a wittie wonder of his owne deuising as if NERO were a Worthie That most inherent fire of lust which all religion and all good lawes striue to quench in the hurtfull heats thereof by making adulteries rapes and vnnaturall violations capitall and other licentious intemperance shamefully criminall NERO inflames and enrageth with example leaue The destroyer of health and happinesse nor in any thing so mischieuous to manners as in this his most loathsome soule and monstrous practise CHAP. XXIX THE BVRNING OF ROME BY NERO. THe citie of ROME filled and polluted thus with his incredible vices behold as if to purge the same it sodeinly conceiued fire and vehemently prospered towards an vniuersall blaze That NERO was the author of it seemes branded vpon him for a truth though CORNELIVS TACITVS whose historicall iustice is admired reports it as a matter vncertaine because his authors differ among themselues some affirming some denying it and he himselfe doth elsewhere professe to deliuer nothing for vndoubted veritie without common concent of good bookes A rule of narration much more tender seuere and scrupulous then that often times of his censures His inward iudgement notwithstanding doth not obscurely incline to the affirmation I for my part will forbeare to deriue vp this most depraued affection of NERO so high as to his first times though among his publicke entertainements of the people hee presented one of the gowned playes of AFRANIVS or such an one whose argument and dramaticall persons were ROMANS entituled The fire giuing leaue to the actors when according to the plot the house of the stage was on a flame to share the gorgeous furnitures among themselues as bootie And howsoeuer perhaps hee did not as then reflect vpon the burning of ROME yet might it afterwards very well seeme a presage thereof or a modle Enuie to mankinde wantonnesse of will and the absurd desire of glorie his most inward incentiues to a fact so strange He pronounced king PRIAMVS an happie man saith XIPHILINE because hee beheld the end of his kingdome and countrey together And when in ordinarie discourse one chanced to vtter in his hearing a tragicke Greeke verse importing when I am dead let the fire take all or let the earth and fire be confounded together hee presently replide not when I am dead quoth he but while as yet I am aliue Voices hard to say out of which of the hel 's inspired And here his desire of conuerting ROME into embers doth first of all seeme to haue kindled About which worke he neuerthelesse went not so closely that his guiltinesse did not glimmer through He abode within his birth-place ANTIVM From thence hee slily lets slip into diuerse parts of ROME a few odde fellowes counterfaiting druncken saith DIO and would doe some other mischiefe who began the consuming euill Yea some of NERO'S own chamber as it is in the CAESARS of credible SVETONIVS were seene to carrye course flaxe or toa and torches about the meanes of fiery mischiefe and yet most of those great and consularie lords into whose grounds they came neuer laid hand vpon them Hee wanted a citie on fire ouer which to sing the burning of TROY Thus hee had it And there is abundantly enough euen in the CORNELIAN Annals to conuince NERO'S conscience of the deed though their noble author pursuing his rule of vncertainty euen interprets those very reasons with a temper Many threatned thicke at such as would haue quencht the flames others openly hurld firebrands crying they knew what they did or there was one who would beare them out Besides hee himselfe did not set forward from ANTIVM to ROME till the fire had laid hold of that part of his house which ioignd the palace and the gardens of MAECENAS Finally no art nor bountie of his could induce the commons to belieue in NERO'S innocencie For doe what he could the general perswasion went that he commanded ROME to bee set on fire These and sundry other the like things the CORNELIAN Annals affirme Alone sufficient to proue NERO the principall partie though all other testimonies which neuerthelesse speake plainly and come home to the question were euerlastingly silent §. I. Of the hugenesse and goodlinesse of NERO'S Rome MArble ROME such as AVGVSTVS left it and specially
epistles to the CORINTHIANS touching their preparatorie abstinence and sufferings who were to contend for one of those glorious rewards doth marueilously suite with NERO who practised in priuate and in publicke vnder all the seuerest lawes of those exercises PLINIE notes two speciall poincts of his patience for conseruation of his voice to lye on his backe with a leaden plate on his breast and to fast certaine dayes in euery moneth with nothing else but oile and syues and not so much as a bit of bread There wanted nothing but prayer to haue cast out that diuell of vanity The Apostle vseth the proper word of those PRIZES Agons and CORINTH it-selfe where he preacht and taught and as IOSEPH SCALIGER noteth out of DIONYSIVS the Areopagite not onely hee but PETER also stood vpon that isthmus or necke of land where the games in honour of NEPTVNE were celebrated So the place and practise were neither vnknowne nor probably vnseene of that heauenly man But hee neuer noted more industry in the champions and aduenturers for gaining the customarie reward then NERO Augustus vsed in his owne person being the first of men who most dishonested sacred maiesty with improper maisteries yea and that also mischieuously and to compasse vading ornaments not immortall CHAP. XLIIII NERO'S ATTEMPT FOR CVTTING THROVGH THE CORINTHIAN Isthmus ONe great worke hee entred vpon during his abode in ACHAIA which seemed worthy of an emperour For it was the enterprise of digging through the isthmus or neck of land which like a naturall bridg ioing'd the main of GREECE to the most renowned penile thereof PELOPENNESVS The least breadth of the straicts from the two opposite hauens LECHEAE CHENCHREAE was by PLINIES commensuration fiue miles and to conueigh merchandise about by sea from but one side of that barre to the other tooke vp in nauigation aboue fiue hundred PHILOSTRATVS accounts the circuit exactly sixe thousand and twenty stadies eight of those stadies one mile of ours which admitting that scale produceth another a farre greater summe of miles then PLINIES Therefore many princes had thought of making a nauigable channell betweene sea and sea But king DEMETRIVS being one of them abandon'd it because the skilfull PHILOSTRATVS saith they were AEGYPTIAN philosophers informed him that the sea in the one bay was so much higher then the sea in the other that if the partition were remoued all the neare ilands vpon the lower leuell would be surrounded and which seemes to mee the most probable obiection of all that the cut it selfe would be of no vse the current or waterfall would bee so impetuous swift and strong Reasons which preserued those two huge peniles of AMERICA naturally combined at the creation of the world by a farre broader necke of earth then that which annexed PELOPONNESVS to GREECE from being sundred by the pickaxe and spade though that necke alone is the cause of fetching a circuit from Nombre de Dios to PANAMA many thousands of miles about So mightie a space there is between at sea IVLIVS CAESAR thought of this disvnion CALIGVLA went somewhat further for he sent to suruey the ground but NERO made it a serious businesse for auspication and example he himselfe plaid the pioner in person at the sound of a trumpet which gaue signall to the Praetorian Guards for their generall falling to worke and digging vp the first of the soile with his owne hands carried it off in a basket vpon his shoulders So infinite was the desire hee had to get immortality of fame howsoeuer Here MVSONIVS the BABILONIAN Sage and second in fame to APOLLONIVS for philosophy was found with his shouell or spade among NERO'S labourers condemned as it seemes to the worke and was so farre from being troubled or ashamed either of his bonds or obedience that hee most ciuilly askt of his fellow Philosopher DEMETRIVS who tooke him in the manner what if he should finde him fingring an harpe and singing as NERO did DEMETRIVS himselfe reported this of MVSONIVS And what there was in it for PHILOSTRATVS to mislike but CAESARS barbarousnesse I cannot see For it seemes to mee an example of a wise and manly patience vnenforced For if he could haue approued NERO'S courses the words import that hee should not haue needed to digge in the Isthmus PAVSANIAS saith that those princes died violently who formerly attempted it and DIO tells vs what wonders hapned at this action for a terrour to NERO who proceeded in contempt the rather Bloud gushed forth of the wounded earth hollow groanes and horrible noise were heard and many sprights or wandring ghosts appeared Presages of some extreame infelicitie But the reason which PAVSANIAS brings to show the offense of such an attempt is wise and pious and more worth then all those wonders It is hard saith hee for man to force the workes of God which is as much in effect as to say had God almighty the most wise creator of the world seene it good hee would haue made it otherwise at first But neither these reasons nor examples weighed so much afterward with that most magnificent HEROD of ATHENS the famous Sophist but that hee both thought the worke a thing of immortall renowne and wisht also for the leaue of doing Which neuerthelesse hee fear'd to aske though it was in far better times then NERO'S The labourers medled not with the stonie entrails of the Isthmus and hauing therefore only pared away the crust or mould aloft the place at this present maintaines the antient and originall situation not to be changed PHILOSTRATVS saith that the trench was cut halfe a mile vp into the land from the hauen LECHAEVM when the worke was abandoned NERO conquered the GREEKS by his bribes and power in their OLYMPIAN and PYTHIAN exercises but himselfe was conquered by the Isthmus which remained inexpugnable It is a princely thing for princes to desire to excell all men in doing nobly as they excell all men in sublimity of place but to erre as this prince did in the obiect of endeauors and in the meanes of atchieuement is miserable and vnlearned CHAP. XLV THE END OF HEROICK CORBVLO AND THE EMPLOIMENT OF VESPASIAN AGAINST THE REBELLIOVS IEWES ALl extraordinary eminencies in subiects by an old axiom as well of single as of popular tyranny are fearefully beheld as dangers and cautelously preuented as imminent though neuer any tyrant was able to kill his successor Here therefore while NERO demurred about his vndecent victories DOMITIVS CORBVLO perished Hee had deserued most excellently at NERO'S hands and for that cause was by him entituled his benefactor and father But iealousie preuailing now aboue the memory of his deserts hee was sent for into GREECE after the most honorable manner but being arriued and waiting for admission to his presence it was denied and word sent out that hee must dye without any cause remembred in histories to haue beene assigned but onely the will of NERO. His great heart full of indignation readily yeelded vsing
none other words but these I am wel enough serued and so ranne himselfe vpon his sword But it was not long before the vngratefull prince stood in need of such another magnanimous leader For while NERO was yet in ACHAIA there arriued the terrible newes of the reuolt of the IEWISH nation and of the flights and defeats of his armies which had beene led in vaine against IERVLEM by GESSIVS FLORVS the CLAZOMENIAN and afterward by CESTIVS GALLVS the President of SYRIA CAESAR to seeme a right CAESAR appeared vnshaken at the relation but remained inwardly afflicted VESPASIAN then in ACHAIA with him was perswaded with many sweet words and promises to beare the stresse of that seruice God almighty beginning euen then to make some new purueyance saith FLAVIVS IOSEPHVS for the reliefe and better estate of the common-weale of ROME For the forces which were necessarily entrusted to this captaine for deduction of the rebells to obedience gaue him meanes in time to attaine the empire which his wisedome and naturall piety restored From ITALIE also his lieuetenant or vice-roy HELIVS CAESARIANVS whom hee trusted aboue all the free Peeres of the ROMAN world as holding himselfe most assured of faith and seruice there interrupts the solaces of his patron with frequent packets calling vpon him to returne the state of publicke affaires requiring it For HELIVS who lorded it intollerably felt the ground of committed power tremble vnder him and the more stirring spirits whom hee improperly backt grow perilous That maiesticall seat was not for a seruant to possesse subordinately nor long inordinately for his ill-aduised maister But when letters and messages were vnable to plucke him from off the vanities of his glorious quest for he wrote in answere that he had not as yet done enough to make him returne worthy of himselfe HELIVS sped to him with such admirable celerity in person that he might rather seeme to haue flown then onely to haue plide the switch or saile The cause of such hast was the iust feare of a new and great conspiracie CHAP. XLVI NERO'S SVCCESSE AT THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO NERO in the meane time made that iourney to the oracle of APOLLO at DELPHI where he liked his entertainment so ill that as DIO writes hee seised into his hands the whole CIRRAEAN Hundred which antiently belonged to the Temple of APOLLO as part of the land alotted in mortmain for sustentation of the priests sharing it as an escheat among his impious soldiers nor resting there prophaned the place it selfe out of which the oracles issued by butchering men vpon the mouth of the vent or caue What the vsage was which could kindle NERO'S anger and disdeigne against his owne most honor'd APOLLO whose name effigies himself vsurped so confidently that he stamped it in his coigns DIO professeth not to know certainly I partly thinke that I haue found it out He came in pompe to visit the Delphian deitie his head crown'd with a garland the reward and ensigne of his victorie his body attired in a long flowing garment such as parties at the musicke prize accustomed to weare in their agon with an harpe in his hands His welcome notwithstanding was so cold because he was promiscuously cruell and had a minde immusicall and base that the god of wisedome saith THEMISTIVS in his fifth Oration would by no meanes brooke his sight but trussed vp his locks in an effeminate hair-lace decrowned him at his exit for he seemed vnto him saith that renowned Greeke Orator not as LYCVRGVS did at his comming a God in humane shape but a wilde bruit beast vnder the semblant of a man And this it was which probably enraged NERO and this the disgrace to which IVLIANVS Augustus for so Saint HIEROME calls him who could haue called him the Apostata alludes in the person of APOLLO at the Satyricall banquet of the CAESARS IVLIANVS owne words there are such as these Then NERO enters next with an harpe in his hands and a garland of laurell vpon his head Here SILENVS looking aside at APOLLO said This is the man who would needes be thought to be thy fellow It is so answered King PHAEBVS but I shall soone depriue him of his crowne of bayes for neither did he make me his example in all and euen in those things in which he attempted to be my paralell hee was no true imitator At this word COCYTVS pluckt his crowne from his head and drew him headlong to hell Thus far that emperour But APOLLO was otherwise quit with NERO by his old deceitfull way of riddles For NERO enquiring after his final fortune the mocking spirit had aduised him thus BEWARE OF THE THREESCORE AND THIRTEENTH YERE which hee as SVETONIVS saith vnderstood to be meant of his owne ages date but it proued GALBA'S who dethroned him So securitie disarmed his person and the wrong end of the double text ran through him Superstition is worthily fed with illusion and irreligion as worthily punisht with credulity CHAP. XLVII THE CHOICE ANTIQVITIES AND ALL THE PRIME MONIMENTS OF THE GREEKS CVLL'D AND CARRIED AWAY FOR ROME BY NERO'S AVTHORITIE THe defacings of GREECE that temple of ciuill glory and of Greekish countreys by selection and transportation of their monimentall rarities chiefly vpon occasion of NERO'S voiage which gaue him meanes to behold them and cause to couet their possession were most offensiue For besides the murthers rauishments extortions and other the euils of such a tempest as NERO'S emulous presence they were euery where rob'd of their principall pieces of art Inualuable all because they belonged to the immortality of memory their ciuill felicitie irreparable also because their indiuiduall antientnesse could not be supplied if their artificiall excellencies might Their temples sanctuaries Therms Hyppodroms and all other their publicke and priuate buildings OLYMPIA in ELIS and DELPHI in BAEOTIA the capitall seat of APOLLO himselfe were subiect to his generall pillage onely RHODES excepted A fortune not of the situation which disioign'd it from the Continent of ASIA but to charter-fauour For CRATON or ACRATVS as TACITVS calls him who had NERO'S commission could not meddle there because that noble Sea-state liuing free to her owne lawes by permission of the ROMANS was by speciall words exempted In thankfulnesse of which priuiledge grounded vpon their former good hap to haue had him their patron vnder CLAVDIVS it may wel be that this RHODIAN coign was publish't It represents a victory to flatter NERO perhaps when they as the rest of the empire concurred in the applause of his Olympian reuels DIO PRVSIAS surnamed of his golden eloquence CHRYSOSTOMVS though otherwise a stranger at RHODES sauing only as euery countrey was a philosophers home and philosophers would be thought the common doctors and superuisors of mankinde made a famous free oration there in TRAIANS time to rectifie the decaying opinions and practise of honour among them A most noble argument and as nobly handled The RHODIANS who abounded in brazen statuas
standing consecrated to the euerlasting names of their represented Worthies were iniuriously growne for sparing cost to rase out old inscriptions to gratifie new deserts Against this bad encroaching custome DION bent his engins of reason and speech and obiected NERO'S priuiledge That College of Honour for which your Lordship in your excellently honest zeale to our countrey openly moued meetes euery where with aids and supports of authority and reason and DIOS oration alone were able to introduce that sacred noursery of braue encouragements diuturnitie of remembrance for publicke merit by statuarie plasticke fusorie and other the arts of magnificence A secret little vnderstood but neuer to be too soone enured among the noble It was for such a minde as NERO'S which enuide immortality of good renown to others and was deficient to his owne to violate the wonders of workemanship the greater wonder of deseruing such memorials Images to life and the names of Worthies in arts and armes should be aduanced in the most conspicuous ciuill places For there is no vse to be instituted of them but ciuill and for ciuill causes only If any will contend that these iniuries to the depressed GREEKS were not all of them done by NERO'S authoritie at this present I will not striue but turne about from hence with a short stop to his returning home CHAP. XLVIII NERO'S RETVRNE HELIVS being arriued where CAESAR was preuailed so far that he sodeinly returned in such tempestuous weather as it gaue iust hope that the seas would take to heart the cause of the land and deuoure him with waues whom waters could not wash white nor deserued a graue-roome on earth The train-sent of a conspiracie which HELIVS did beat vpon seems to haue beene the fatall purpose of that rebellion in GALLIA the force whereof shouldred NERO before it was long out of his imperiall seat For as the seas moue of themselues with a kinde of horror before some terrible tempest and as certaine signes doe alwayes foregoe euery great sicknesse in humane bodies so maine mutations are neuer in the world without their sensible tokens effects of heauenly prouidence It hapned so now in GALLIA before the deadly stroake of change And herein I doe not meane of those prodigies only which PLINIE commemorates as fore-runners of downefall and whereof himselfe was a witnesse Such were riuers flowing backe to their springs oliue-gardens and meadowes in the lands of VECTIVS MARCELLVS NERO'S attourney generall transported ouer the high-way betweene and setling themselues on the further side the decay of that cypresse tree which had lasted from the dayes of ROMVLVS till then the paire of hermaphrodite mares foaled in GALLIA among the TREVIRI which serued to draw NERO'S coach or the like reputed wonders But I also meane those prëambulatorie notes by which it may suspiciously appear that some mighty businesse is in hand when secret murmurs and other markes of approaching mischiefe discouer somewhat euen to an halfe open-eye and when common bodings mis-giue CHAP. XLIX NERO'S DOINGS AFTER HIS RETVRN IN the meane space as if nothing else were needfull the vnwise prince doth wholly tend to enter ROME in a fidling triumph by breaking downe her walls no contemptible omen of his owne dismantlings as hee had done before at NAPLES ANTIVM ALBANVM according to the custome of the Hieronickes or sacred victories For with that adiunct the GREEKS adorned their deserts who returned victors from their generall prizes CHAP. L. THE LAST ACT OF NERO'S PERSECVTION OF CHRISTIANS BVt whosoeuer triumpht in sport the champions of eternall verity triumpht in bloud For after NERO'S return the two principal lights of the Christian name were by his commandement led to their martyrdome both vpon one day both with one glory of profession though in a diuers kinde of suffering the one by crucifixion reuerst the other by decollation So the fire of persecution which had vnequally flamed ouer the world after about foure yeares from the first rising therof went forth in two most shining blazes as dying lamps expire with enlarged flames The summ of Christianitie being their care their deaths being the summ of iniquitie EVSEBIVS dates the Persecution not where it began but where it gaue the sorest blow Which if some had well considered they might haue spared the reproofe of EVSEBIVS as if he had mis-placed the time CHAP. LI. HOLY MEN THE INVISIBLE STAYES OF THE WORLD ANd though the Persecutor obserued it not yet did he therby cut away at once the two main anchors at which the ship of empire and the last hope of his safety did inuisibly ride Their prayers and their presences mightily preserued the estate of peace according as they also did in the opinion of PAVLVS OROSIVS vnder CLAVDIVS AVGVSTVS that indulgent father of the world The persons of Saints are like secret pledges of common quiet apparently seene in the case of the fiue cities for which ABRAM interceded and their meditations are as shields for the earth against the wrath of heauen God taught his most potent office of praier in persecution for preseruation of the ciuill estate by his prophet IEREMY to the Iewes in their captiuity at BABILON and these blessed Apostles enured it in their writings and examples during their corporall abode in ROME These cables and stayes being thus cut off NERO could not but be ouer-whelmed with the vengeance due to his crimes among which the greatest was the wilfull effusion of Christians bloud vnder iniurious calumnious titles For IOSEPH SCALIGER voucheth an old pagan scholiast affirming that they suffer'd as sorcerers or magitians and to say the truth what could it appeare to NERO who knew not things diuine but an effect of some notable enchantment that women who in his dayes were inuited and authorised to all sorts of lewdnesse should be wonne to the quite contrary The sacred annals assigne deuout chastity as a cause among the causes of that Persecution His own perswasion was firme in this saith SVETONIVS that there was no such vertue for he himself was defiled all ouer and had deflowred the Vestal virgin RVBRIA He could not therefore but be much the readier to ascribe so strange a conuersion to witchcraft Again the famous case and bloudy downfall of Simon Magus that most blasphemous impostor in the fight of ROME and of NERO as in SVETONIVS vnder the fabulous name of an ICARVS procured by the prayers and adiuration of the Apostle as in DAMASVS HIEROME AVGVSTINE EPIPHANIVS ARNOBIVS and others had the rather seald an opinion of magick arts in Christians according to the malice and ignorance of the times IANVS GRVTERVS to whose diligence the common-weale of ciuill letters is not a little indebted in his vsefull volumn of Inscriptions hath a testimony touching a place in ROME called The Simon Magus where that memorial which was whatsoeuer it was being taken away by the barbarous the same was restored by CASTALIVS INNOCENTIVS Audax at that time iudge in sacred causes The