translating Titus Livius though he was a King I do not hold with age in divers men who for want of discretion and wit was childish again but of perfect men in whom age seemed rather a warrant of their doings For even as he that playeth much upon instruments is not to be commended so well as he that playeth cunningly and artificially so all men that live long are not to be praised so much as he that liveth well For as apples being green are yet sower untill by time they wax sweet so young men without warrant of time and experience of things are oftentimes to be misliked If faults be in old men saith Cicero as many there be it is not in age but in the life and manners of men Some think age miserable because either the body is deprived from pleasure or that it bringeth imbecility or weaknesse or that it is not far from death or calleth from due administration of Common-wealths these four causes saith Cicero make age seem miserable and loathsome What shall we say then of those that in their old age have defended their countries saved their Cities guided the people and valiantly triumphed over their enemies as L. Paulus Scipio and Fabius Maximus men of wonderfull credit in their old years What may be spoken of Fabritius Curius and Cornucanus aged men of great agility of famous memory in their latter days How can Appius Claudius be forgotten who being both old and blind resisted the Senatours to compound with King Pyrrhus for peace though they all and the Consuls of Rome hereunto were much inclined If I should passe from Rome a place where age was much estéemed unto Athens amongst the sage Philosophers if from Athens to Lacedemonia where age altogether bare sway and rule if from thence unto the Ethiopians and Indians where all their lives are ruled and governed by old men If from thence to any part of the world I might be long occupied in reciting the honour and estéemation of age Herodotus doth write that the Aethiopians and Indians do live most commonly a hundred and thirty years The people called Epeii in the Countrey of Aetolia do live two hundred years naturally and as it is by Damiates reported Lictorius a man of that Countrey lived thrée hundred years The Kings of Arcadia were wont to live thrée hundred years the people of Hyperborii lived a thousand years We read in the old Testament that Adam our first father lived nine hundred and thirty years and Eve his wife as many Seth nine hundred and twelve years Seth his son called Enos nine hundred and five Cainan the son of Enos nine hundred and ten Mahalalehel the son of Cainan eight hundred fourscore and fifteen so Enoch the son of Iared lived nine hundred thréescore and five years Enoch his son named Mechuselah lived nine hundred threescore and nine years with divers of the first Age I mean till Noah's time who began the second world after the floud who lived as we read nine hundred and five his son Sem six hundred years and so lineally from father to son as from Sem to Arphaxad from Arphaxad to Sala from Sala to Heber the least lived above thrée hundred years This I thought for better credit and greater proof of old ago to draw out of the Old Testament that other prophane authorities might be beleeved as Tithoniâ—s whom the Poets fain that he was so old that he desired to become a Grashâ—pper But because age hath no pleasure in the world frequenteth no banquets abhorreth lust loveth no wantonness which saith Plato is the only bait that deceives young men so much the happier age is that age doth loath that in time which young men neither with knowledg with wisdome nor yet with counsel can avoid What harm hath happened from time to time by young men over whom lust so ruled that there followed eversion of CoÌ„monwealths treason to Princes Friends betrayed countreys overthrown and Kingdoms vanquished throughout the world Therefore Cicero saith in his book entituled De Senectate at what time he was in the City of Tarentum being a young man with Fabius Maximus that he carried one lesson from Tarentum unto the youth of Rome where Architas the Tarentine said that Nature bestowed nothing upon man so hurtfull to himself nor so dangerous to his Countrey as lust or pleasure For when C. Fabricius was sent as an Embassadour from Rome to Pyrrhus King of Epyre being then the Governour of the City of Tarentum a certain man named Cineas a Thessalian by birth being in disputation with Fabritius about pleasure affirmed that hee heard a Philosopher of Athens affirm that all which we do is to be referred to pleasure which when M. Curius and Titus Coruncanus heard they desired Cineas to perswade King Pyrrhus to yéeld to pleasure and make the Samnites believe that pleasure ought to be esteemed Whereby they knew that if King Pyrrhus or the Samnites being then great enemies to the Romans were addicted to lust or pleasure that then soon they might be subdued and destroyed There is nothing that more hindreth magnanimity or resisteth vertuous enterprises then pleasure as in the Treatise of pleasure it shall more at large appear Why then how happy is old age to despise and contemn that which youth by no means can avoid yea to loath and abhor that which is most hurtfull to it self For Cecellius contemned Caesar with all his force saying to the Emperor that two things made him nothing to estéem the power of the Emperor Age and Wisdome By reason of Age and Wisdome Castritius feared not at al the threatnings of C. Carbo being then Consul at Rome who though he said he had many friends at commandement yet Castriâ—iâ—â— answered and said That he had likewise many years that could not fear his friends Therefore a wise man sometime wept for that man dieth within few years and having but little experience in his old age he is then deprived thereof For the Crow liveth thrise so long as the man doth the Hart liveth four times so long as the Crow the Raven thrice so long as the Hart and the Phoenix nine times longer then the Raven And thus Birds do live longer time then man doth in whom there is no understanding of their years But man unto whom reason is joyned before he commeth to any ground of experience when he beginneth to have knowledge in things he dieth and thus endeth he his toyling Pilgrimage and travel in fewer years then divers beasts or birds do CHAP. XIX Of the manners of sundry People under sundry Princes and of their strange life THe sundry fashions and variety of manners the strange life of people every where thorow the world dispersed are so charactered and set forth amongst the writers that in shewing the same by naming the Countrey and the people thereof orderly their customes their manners their kind of living being worthy of observation I thought briefly to touch and to note
answered nippingly the party saying so many things have so long béen hid in my heart that being putrified there they stink I would all men had such a breath that by long kéeping of silence it might taste therof Cato the wise Roman perceived the vertue of silence to be such that one of the thrée things as he himself would say that he most repented him off was to tel his counsell unto another Plini doth commend of all men one man named Anaxarchus of all women he praysed one woman named Laeena whom the tyrannt Nycocreon with all the torments and punishments that he could possibly devise could not enforce to speak that out which they thought should be kept in but Anaxarchus chose rather to dye by torments then to break concealed words spitting in the tyrant Nicocreons face and saying spare not Anaxarchus carkasse thou troublest no part of my minde Epicharis amongst other conspiratours against that cruel Nero being diversly tormented to open the treason against Nero's person would by no means break counsel no more Laeena for all that tyrany used towards her would betray the secrets of Harmodius and Aristogiton which only was the cause that she had her picture erected in Greece In like manner Pompey the great being sent as an Embassador from the Senators and being charged by the King named Gentius who prevented Pompey in his Message to declare the secrets of the Senators and councel of Rome he stretching forth his arm held his finger in the flame of the candle saying When I draw my finger from the candle I will break the counsel of the Senators and so stedfastly he held his hand and so long that King Gentius wondred no less at his patience then he honoured him for his silence O rare silence O passing patience and that in so great a Commander Isocrates an excellent Orator sometime of Athens lest he should be ashamed of his schollers by their spéech and talk for tongues bewray the heart would never receive unto his school but those onely who would pay double hire first to learn silence and then to learn to speak to speak nothing but that which they knew to be most certain and that which of necessity must be spoken This was the order of Isocrates school Yea silence was of such dignity of such estimation that it possest place in Princes hearts that Tiberius Caesar Emperor of Rome would often say Princes ought not to impart their secrets nor to make any privy to their counsel considering how hard is silence to be observed Silence was of such credit and of such force that Metellus who used to be close in the wars of Macedonia would say that if he knew his own coat to be privy to his secrets he would straight cast off his coat and burn it For in him to whom secrets of life are revealed in the same also is danger of death for in the committing of secrets is life and death also committed Had not that famous Hercules the imp of great Jupiter and off-spring of the gods revealed his counsell and opened his heart unto his wife Deianira Had not that mighty Sampson so great in Gods favour that he was a Iudge in Israel shewed his secrets unto his wife Dalila they had not been conquered by two women whom Serpents Dragons Lyons yea all the whole world could not annoy The just punishment of Princes for frivolous talking Conquerours of the world of Kingdomes of countries and yet conquered by a woman yea by a lesser thing then a woman a little member never séen but alas too often heard the tongue onely Tantalus is punished in hel for that he opened the counsel of the Gods after this sort Dainty meats and pleasant wines before his face and yet may he not touch them he hath sight of all things and yet tasteth nothing the hunarier he is the better and braver his banquet shines before him the more desirous he ie to eat the further he is from his victuals Ixion for his telling tales of Juno is no lesse tormented in turnling of his whéel in Hell than is Sisiphus in rowling of his stone or Danaes daughters in filling of their empty tubs The pain of Prometheris in Caucasus the punishment of Titius is duely appointed and of the Gods say the Poets provided truly to those that be braggers and boasters of secrets I must not in this place forget a worthy history of King Demetrius Antigonus son who being sent by his father to Pontus where Mithridates was King being sworn by his father to keep counsel of a vision that he sowed gold in Pontus and that Mithridates should reap it was therefore commanded with his army to passe unto the Kingdom of Pontus and without any word to kill Mithridates His son Demetrius very sorry for the great friendship which was of late sprung betwixt Mithridates and him obeying his father went unto Pontus and commanded his people to stay untill he went to know where Mithridates was who when he came in place he wrote with the end of his spear upon the earth in the dust Flee Mithridates and streight turning to his souldiers he spake nothing to him according to his oath for kéeping silence but wrote a warning to flee wherby he kept his fathers counsel one way and maintained faithfull friendship with King Mithridates another way A young man of Helespont prating much in presence of Guathena a strumpet in Gréece she demanded of him whether he knew the chief city of Helespont to the which the young man said Yea forsooth What said she me thinketh you know not the name of it for it is Sigaeum the City of silence a just reproach for such vain praters Aelianus doth write when the Cranes from Sicilia take their flight to flee over mount Caucasus they stop their mouths with stones to passe with silence the dangers of the Eagles CHAP. XVIII Of Age and the praise thereof BY on that wise man would say often that age was the Haven of rest for that it was the end of misery the gate of life and the performance of all pilgrimages And since age is wished of all men what folly is it to hit any man in the téeth with that which he chiefly desireth Wherefore when king Archelaus had appointed a great feast for his friends amongst other discoveries then at the table Euripides declared the great love which he bare unto Agathon an old tragicall Poet. Agesilaus demanding why should an old man be so well esteemed of Euripides he said Though the spring time be pleasant yet the harvest is fertile though flowers and hearbs grow green in the spring yet wax they ripe in harvest The age of man are compared unto the four seasons of the year his growing time unto the spring his lusty time unto the Summer his wit time unto the Harvest and his old time unto the Winter which doth make an end of all things Frederick Emperour of Rome after he had appointed an old
at the change of every dish every man again commanded by a law to go to his woman And thus from meat to women from women to meat they beastly and brutishly entertained their Epicurial lust wherein these Gorgons reposed their chief felicity Certainly if Quéen Semitamis of Babylon had been matched with Heliogabulus Emperour of Rome it had béen as méet a match if time had served as one beast should be for another for he was not so filthy but she was as shameless not onely in procuring divers to lie with her but in alluring her own son Ninus to lust and as writers report being a beast matched her self with a beast a horse Had Pasiphae Quéen of Creet been well matched she had forsaken King Minos and come to the Emperour Caligula where she might have been as bold with others as she was with Minotaurus father Had the Empresse Mestalina been deservedly according to her life married she had been more meet for Nero then for Claudius for his life and her life did well agree together for she passed all the Courtesans of Corinth all the strumpets of Athens and all the whores of Babilon for she was onely mistresse and ruler of all the stews and brothel houses in Rome What wickednesse procéedeth from lust what ungodly incest is brought to passe by lust what secret vengeance commeth by lust Lust assured Queen Cleopatra to use her brother Ptolomy as her husband Lust deceived King Cynar to lie with his daughter Myrrha Lust brought Macarius to his sister Canaces bed By lust did Menepron defile his own mother Lust stayeth the purpose of all men hindereth and hurteth all kind of persons Lust stayed King Antiochuâ— of Syria in Chalâ—idea a whole winter for one maid he fancied there Lust stayed Hannibal in Capua a long season to his great hurt Lust stayed Julius Caesar in Alexandria a long time unto his infamy Lust was the first cause of wars between the Romans and the Sabines for Romuâ—us had hardly built Rome but he lusted to ravish the women and to steal the Sabine maids to Rome whereby the war first began The great wars between King Cambyses of Persia and King Amasis of Egypt wherein was a great slaughter and murther of men grew by lust to one woman The ten years betwixt the Thebans and the Phoceans was for the lust of one young man in Phoca towards a young woman in Thebes The cruel conflicts that was between the Troyan Prince Aeneas and stout Turnus was the lust which either of them did bear to Lavinia King Latinus Daughter What bloud what tyranny was between the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwéen Ptolomy and Alexander the one King of Egypt the other King of Assyria and all for one woman Cleopatra Augustus the Emperour made long wars for Octavia his sister whom Antonius abused to the spoyl and murther of many Romans Had Hesione King Priamus sister not lusted to go with Telamon from Troy to Greece had likewise Helen the wife of Menelaus not lusted to come with Paris from Greece to Troy the bloudy wars and ten years siege between the Greeks and the Troyans had never been writâ—en by Homer Had not lust ruled the five cities called Pentapolis where Sedom and Gomorrha were they had not been consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven to the destruction of all the people saving Lot his children If lust had not ruled all the world the deluge of Noah had not drowned the whole earth and all living creatures saving Noah his wife and children Thus lust from time to time was the onely Monster and scourge of the World And in this our Age lust is nothing diminished but much encreased and though we shall not be plagued again with Water according to promise yet to be punished with Fire most sure we be unlesse we detest and abhor this vice There is a History in Justine worthy to be noted of Princes that will not punish these offences Pausanias a Noble Gentleman of Macedonia being a very fair young man whom Attalus by lust abused and Attalus not contented to handle the young man so wickedly and ungodly did bring him also to a banquet where Attalus would have used him as before making all men privy how Pausanias was his paramour as a woman The young man being ashamed of it often complained unto Philip King of Macedonia and after many and divers complaints having no redresse but being rather flouted and scoffed at by Philip Pausanias took it so grievously that after this sort he requited his shame and injuries At the marriage of Cleopatra King Philips daughter with Alexander King of Epirus in great triumphs and pomps King Philip in the midst of his joys walking between his own son Alexander the great who then was but young and Alexander King of Epirus his son in law being married then to his daughter Cleopatra Pausanias thrust him into the heart saying Minister Iustice and punish Lust Thus died that mighty Prince as well for the bearing of Attalus fault as also for his own wickednesse using the same sin sometime with a brother in law of his natural brother to his first wife Olympias Lust and intemperancy do never escape without just punishment and due vengeance Amnon the son of King David for that he misused his own sister Tamar was afterward slain Absalom for that he did lie with his fathers Concubines died for it David was plagued for Uriah's wife The two Elders that would ravish Susanna were put to death This sin is the onely enemy of man For all sin saith St. Paul is without the body but uncleannesse and lust sinneth against the body Had not Olofernes séen the beauty of Judith yea marked the comelinesse of her slippers he had not lost his head by it Had not Herod séen Herodias daughrer dancing he had not so rashly granted her John Baptists head Had not Eve séen the beauty of the Apple she had not eaten thereof We read in Genesis that when the sons of men viewed the beauty of women many evils happened thereby By sight was Potiphars wife moved with lust toward Joseph her servant By sight and beauty was Solomon allured to commit Idolatry with false Gods By sight was Dina the daughter of Iacob ravished by Shechem These evils procéed from sudden sights therefore saith the Prophet Turn away thine eys lest they sée vanities The Philosopher likewise saith That the first offer or motion is in the eye from sight proceedeth motion from motion election from election consent from consent sin from sin death Wherefore with the Poet I say resist the violence of the first assault I mean the eys The evil that happened thereby too long it were to write Lust again hath its entrance by hearing as Justine in his twelfth Book doth testifie of Thalestris Quéen somtime of the Amazons who having heard the great commendations the fame and renown of Alexander the great ventered her life to hazard to come from Scythia to Hircania which
should be acquainted with idlenesse at any time even in the night time used this art to hold a silver ball when he went to bed in his hand having a silver bason upon the ground that when the ball should fall he being fast asléep the shrill sound thereof should wake him and make him mindfull of his enemies so fearfull was this noble prince of idlenesse that to shake off sléep and slothfulnesse he studied and travelled how he might avoid it For Alexander the great being called the son of Jupiter and fully perswaded with himself that he was of the linnage of the Gods had special regard of sléep and lust whereto he being so much subject knew himself to be a man wherefore he oftentimes wrastled with nature in that behalf In the self-same place of Marcellinus it is read that Julius Caesar the greatest and most renowned Emperour that ever reigned in Rome followed this order and practised this policy least he should be idle at any time For first to suffice nature he slept a certain time appointed Secondly he would be occupied in the affairs of his country Thirdly he travelled in his private study Thus least he should be idle nay rather least he should lose any time he divided every night into thrée parts first to nature secondly to his country thirdly about his own businesse The mighty Prince Philip of Macedon as we read in Brusonius was of such care and diligence that when his souldiers slept he alwaies watched Again he never slept untill his friend Antipater were first awake So that betwéen King Philip and Antipater diligence was as much honoured and embraced as slothfulnesse was feared and hated Epaminondas that renowned Prince of Thebes being studious and profitable to profit his country so hated idlenesse that finding one of his Captains in the Camp in the day time sléeping he slue him streight with his own hand and being reprehended by his Nobles and Counsellours for that cruell fact he answered them in few words I left him as I found him comparing idle and drowsie men to dead men for men are born to travell and watch and not to take pleasure and stéep How did Scipio in Affrica overthrow the Tents of Siphax how vanquished he his host of souldiers slew his army and how took he King Siphax captive himself Livius saith that the diligence of Scipio and the sloathfulnesse of Siphax being a sleep when he should be waking was the cause thereof Had Demosthenes loved idlenesse he had never been able to prevent that famous Prince Philip King of Macedon he was so carefull and diligent to the state of Athens that that worthy Captain and great Conquerour Philip was wont to say that he doubted more the diligence of Demosthenes then he feared all the force of Athens Had Cicero slept during the conspiracy of Catelin he had never been able worthily to boast of himself O happy Rome that ever I was thy Consul Studious travel saved oftentimes Rome from divers enemies Quintilian reciteth a worthy history of a famous scholler named Hippias who to avoid idlenesse after long studying of his book would exercise himself in something or other least he might seem to be idle insomuch that he applied himself to divers faculties at void hours and used to practise the faculty of a Goldsmith of a Tailor of a Shoo-maker insomuch that at length he became his own Taylor his own Shoemaker yea to make his own rings so artificially as though he had been brought up in the school of Praxiules What is so hard but diligence will attempt it What is so déep but travel will wade through it What is so strange but study will know it Labour and diligence are of Wise men much commended by the example of the Bée that is busie and carefull and knoweth how to profit her self and others If the little Ants be so praised for that they toyl in the Summer to provide against the Winter If the silly simple Worms do provide things necessary for them and theirs How much more ought man who is born to profit his countrey his Prince his friends and his parents to consider the commodity of diligence and the danger of idlenesse But it is before mentioned vices are covered with the names of vertues as the idle man is noted to be a quiet man the ignorant termed an innocent Caelius doth write of a certain Emperor named Attalus which so well loved idlenesse that he gave the government of the Empire to his friend Philopenes for that he would be idle We read again of one Vatia a great ruler and Mastrate in Asia that loved idlenesse so well that the people used a proverb when they saw any man idle to say He is an idle scholler of Vatiaes The Emperor Licinius and Valentianus were such enemies to learning and so ignorant as Egnatius doth report that they called Learning the onely poison of the world and named them that were learned the Asses of Cuma Who hated learning so much as Heraclides and Philonides which were so ignorant that they were as Caelius doth testifie had of the common people in great derision These blind men did call others Asses of Cuma when they themselves were far inferiour to any Asse in the world For divers Asses had more reason then Philonides or Heraclides had We read that Ammonius a great philosopher of Alexandria had an Asse which would keep company with Origen and Porphirius to frequent the school of Amonius to hear him read Philosophy and to his schollers the Asse was taught to know the reader as the schollers were to know the school at the time of reading The sacred Scripture commends tons the Asse of Balaam who was likewise taught to speak and to shew the prophet Balaam the will of God But the idle and ignorant will neither learn to know time place nor person neither to profit themselves nor others These lasie members these idle and ignorant beasts are the children of Morpheus sléeping alwaies in the cave of Pamedes to whom it well may be spoken as Aurelian sometime an Emperour of Rome spake unto one Bonosius that he was born to drink and not to live The Romans used to punish idlenesse so sharply that the Husbandman that had his ground barren and his Pastures Meadows or Fields untilled any other man should be there placed and he put out The Gentleman that had not his horse ready and in good liking with all things thereunto belonging should be suspected to be an idle member unto his country and should be hated and eschued by the people The common people might use no kind of private pleasure as plaies pastime or any other idle sport but at times appointed The gates of Rome were opened day and night to come and to go for the good of the Commonalty as Plutarch writes the life manners of all men were strictly examined whether they lived idle or no. And if any did resist the order of the Magistrates his head
power hurt Rome so much as their hidden hatred betwéen themselves did Again Alexander the great Cyrus the valiant Xerxes the famous most mighty Conquerors with all their strength of wars could not annoy Greece half so much as their inward Envy betwéen the Cities of Gréece What caused Julius Caesar to war against his son in law Pompey Ambition What made Adrian the Emperor to despise the worthy fame of Traâ—an Envy What moved Cato surnamed of Vtica to kill himself Envy to Caesar Hidden hatred working for private gain and rash counsel of flattery which is heard most often in the envious mouth have destroyed Kingdoms Envy first entred into the hearts of Princes arrested the worthiest Conquerors waded into the bowels of the wise and blushed not to attaint the learned Philosophers in the middest of Athens Hercules in killing the great Dragon that watched in the garden of Hesperides in destroying the ravening birds Stimphalides in conquering the raging and furious Centaurs in vanquishing terrible monsters as Gâ—rcon and Cerbeâ—us in overcomming the Lion the Boar and the Full in overtaking the gilded Hart and lastly for his conquest of the huge and prodigious Hydâ—a in the fens of Lerna won no lesse envy of some then he justly deserved fame of others Theseus to imitate the haughty attempts of Hercules overcame Thebes slew Minoâ—â—mus in the dens of Labyrinthus subdued Caâ—on the Tyrant with divers other large enterprises as one more willing to envie the fame of Hercules then desirous to deserve fame by lenity and quietnesse So might I speak of Julius Caesar that envied Alexander the great and Alexander likewise that envied Achilles And thus alwayes Envy was fostered by Princes With the wise and learned envy bare great sway as betwixt Plato and Xenophon the best and gravest philosophers in their time betwixt Demonsthenes and Aeâ—â—ines betwixt Aristotle and Isocrates one despising the other Such slaughter grew of Envy that one brother killed another the son the father and the father likewise the son as Romulus slew his brother Remus through envy lest he might be King in Rome Cambyses King of Persia killed his brother Mergides as Herodotus doth write through envy Envy caused Anachaâ—sis the Philosopher to be slain by his own brother Cadvidus King Jugurth murthered both his brethren Hiempsalis and Adherbales that he onely might reign King in Numidia Cain did kill his brother Abel the scripture doth testifie because his sacrifice was not accepted Thus envy was known and seen to be betwixt brethren betwixt parents and their children The like we read that envy committed horrible and terrible murthers as well betwixt the husband and the wife as in the children towards their Parents as in short examples is verified Clicenmestra slew her own husband Agamemnon and she again was slain by her son Orestes Queen Semiâ—ams killed likewise her husband King Ninus and she was killed even so by her son called Ninus Agrippina murthered her husbaÌ„d Tiberius she was also murthered by hâ—r son Nero O cruel tyranny that envy should ever cause such unnatural murther as one brother to kill another the father to destroy his son the son to slay his fathsr the husband to murther his wife the wife to make away her husband We read in Pliny of a certain King in Thebes named Athamas that gave both his sons the one named Learchus the other Euriclea to be devoured by ravenous Lions So many monstrous tyrants have been brought up in the school of envy so many deformed Centaures that all countries have been full of them When Antiphiles saw Apelles in great favour with King Ptolomy he so envied the matter that he told the King in spight to Apelles that Apelles was the very cause of the long wars between the Tyrians and Egypt to discredit Apelles for very envy that he was great with the King but the matter being known and his envy weighed Apelles was rewarded by the King with a hundred Talents and Antiphiles for his envy commanded afterward all the daies of his life to be the slave and bonomen of Apelles Themistocles was so grieved to see Miltiades so honoured for his great conquest and triumph in Marathon that being demanded why he was so sad he answered Mitiades triumphs will not suffer Themistocles to be joyfull There was no countrey but envy bare sway in it there was never any great vertue but it was accompanied with envy Caesar was envied in Rome by Cato Turnus was envied in Rutilia by Drances Ulisses was envied in Gréece by Ajax Demetrius was envied in Macedonia after King Cassander died What envy M. Crassus bare toward Pompey is sufficiently known What hidden hatred Pollio had toward Cicero may be read in Brusonius the third book the seventh chapter where Pollio saith to Messala that he could not endure the voice of Cicero The like we read of Aristotle who envied Isocrates so much that he was wont to say It were a shame to Aristotle to hold his peace and let Isocrates speak For as there is no light saith Pliny without a shadow so there is no vertue or glory without envy The wavering state of the vulgar which always ruled Rome and Athens was so mutable and uncertain that after wise and sage Socrates was condemned to die being dead the Athenians repented his accusers were banished and Socrates now being dead had his pictures erected which being alive the rude and uncertain people estéemed nothing Even so was Aristides and Themistocles banished into Persia Iphicrates into Thrace Conon into the province of Corporos Chabrias into Egypt and Cares into Sigeum men of excellent vertues of noble service of renowned fame yet by the envious people they were banished their own countreys to range abroad the world Again Homer was envied by Zoilus Pindarus by Amphimanes Simonides by Timocreon yea learned Maro and Horace were envied and backbiten by Maevius and Suffenus What do I speaking of envy Why wast I time to write of envy Wherefore seem I so fond to touch a general subject being so common with all men so nourished in all countreys being known from the beginning of the world and being first practised by the Devil who envying mans state the felicity joy and pleasure hee was in lest man should possesse the place where somtime the Devil reigned as an Angel he deceived man This envy took root then in the first Age for Cain envied so his brother Abel that he slue him for that God accepted the sacrafice of Abel and refused his Joseph was by his own brethren sold into Egypt for envy that he was better beloved of his father then they were Saul did envy King David that he gave his daughter Michal in marriage to David for that she being his daughter might betray her husband to the Philistines Dathan and Abiram had great envy toward Aaron Daniel was much envied in the Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar What should I be long in this The Apostles the Prophets the Martyrs yea Christ himself
place and amended it The second day the Shoomaker came again and found fault in the hose then Apelles answered and said that a Shoemaker ought not to judge of any thing but of the shoe Every man that thinketh himself eloquent for that he hath his tongue at will and can shift matters skilfully in his own judgement is not that eloquent man which Cicero speaketh of nor hath those parts of Rhetorick wherewith hee can perswade to good and disswade from evil The eloquent man doth comfort the afflicted he expelleth fear and terrour from men he stoppeth again the stout and insolent This man is able faith Cicero to win towns countreys castles and kingdomes this eloquence in adversity is solace in prosperity an ornament in youth laudable in age delectable in all men profitable Wherefore not without cause did M. Antonius use to say that oftentimes he saw and heard fine tongued men but he never saw nor heard any eloquent man For though saith Cicero we follow Nature as a Captain unless Art be coupled and united to it we follow a rude and barbarous Captain What Captain was Paulus Aemilius being in wars with King Perseus In a certain clear night when the Moon upon the sudden shifted her self from sight and the night became very dark all the souldiers of Paulus yea Paulus himself being their General and Captain were dismaid and quite discouraged thinking it had béen some prodigious show to pregnosticate mishap to come and being ready to yéeld in heart and courage until Sulpitius began to perswade the rude Souldiers with reason opening the causes unto the Souldiers and declaring the effects of the superiour bodies so eloquently that being before dismaid they were by the eloquence of Sulpitius perswaded to fight valiantly and where through fear of that sudden sight and change of the Moon they were ready to yeeld as captives to King Perseus they were moved and stirred by the eloquence of Sulpitius to become Conquerors and Victors over King Perseus in the self same night The like did Pericles sometimes amongst his souldiers of Athens at what time the sun so darkned that great terrour and fear came upon the souldiers he eloquently perswaded his souldiers and told them as he heard of his master Anaxagoras the cause thereof and quite expelled fear from the souldiers by reason and made them bold again through eloquence In Affrick there was in the time of Anascarimis a Philosopher named Afranio who being demanded what he did hear all the days of his life answered to speak well the second time being asked what he taught unto others answered likewise to speak well at the last he was demanded what he knew in any science he said I know nothing but to speak well so that this old Philosopher Afranio learned nothing taught nothing nor knew any thing but to speak well and most certain it is that he that consumeth all the days of his life to learn to speak well and knoweth nothing else but to speak well spendeth his time very well CHAP. X. Of those Kings and Princes and others who had their Pictures and Images for a shew of their deserved Fame erected THe greatest honour that both Gréeks and Gentiles used toward those that deserved well in the Commonwealth was to advance them by pictures painted and images gloriously graven thinking thereby either to inflame thē further to do good or else to discourage thē again from doing evil by banishing and neglecting their pictures which when Favoritus the Philosopher heard that the City of Athens had rejected his picture because Adrian the Emperour was angry with him said I am right glad thereof for better said he had it béen for Socrates to have had his brazen picture broken and thrown away for some shew of displeasure by the Athenians then to be deprived of his life for nothing by the Athenians for the surest estate of all is not to be known Agesilaus therefore King of the Lacedemonians understanding that the inhabitants of every country in all Gréece had decréed to put up the picture of Agesilaus for a memorial of his vertuous and noble acts to be as monuments of his life after death returning then from Egypt unto Gréece being very sick a little before he died he wrote letters unto Gréece that they should make no pictures no images no painted shews no graven work of his person nor yet of his life saying If I have done well in life the vertue thereof is a sufficient monument when I am dead Cato Senior was of that opinion that he had rather that men should ask why hath not Cato his Picture set up then to asks why hath Cato his picture set up A number of sage Philosophers and wise Princes have lothed and utterly neglected this kind of flattery which then was thought to be the greatest fame and commendation of all things to have their pictures in places set up to make mention of honour and dignity which thereby is meant either for restoring of liberty lost or in defending from tyranny or in saving of Cities or for such things done pictures were erected to advance their fame thereby Thus Aristogiton and Armodius because they delivered Athens from the tyranny of Pysistratus had their pictures with great estimation set up of the people of Athens Likewise Marcellus because he subdued Syracusa vanquished the French men at Padua and gave the repulse unto Hannibal at Nola had his picture set up in the Temple of Pallas with an Epigram written in letters of gold unto his great praise and commendation Eutropius saith that Claudius Emperour of Rome had his picture made with a golden Target in his hand because he vanquished the Goths which were about to spoil the county of Macedonia Numa Pomp. the second King of Rome and Servius Tullius the sixth King had their pictures a long time amongst the Romans in great honour and fame Selostris King of Egypt for his martial feats and vertuous acts was honoured in his country with divers pictures Polydamas that strong Champion in the games of Olympia for that he being without weapons and naked slew a terrible Lyon and held fast by the foot a huge great Bull and with the other hand stayed a running Chariot had his picture therefore erected and set up in Olympia In Athens how many pictures were set up of noble men and learned Philosophers as Conon Euogoras Phocion Isocrates and others which were now up and now down as mutable fortune favoured or frowned the state and life of men being uncertain and changeable As Demosthenes having his picture in Athens had this Epigram written round about the picture If Demosthenes had had courage and strength as he had wit and eloquence neither Philip nor his son Alexander nor all Macedonia had ever vanquished Gréece yet this Demosthenes was exiled and banished Athens divers times So hard was it to please the people then which had the chief government in Athens and Rome that for a small
displeasure conceived yea for nothing they were ready to requite good men with cruel déeds as banishment and death As in Rome Cicero for Clodius sake after sure and sound service often shewed toward his country was afterward inforced to flee unto Greece from Rome where so well he was before estéemed The like I may urge of Aristides Thrasibulus Hippias and Thucidides men sometimes honoured in Athens with pictures for the noble and excellent defence of the City and yet for nothing not long after exiled the pictures taken down and the monuments broken So Popilius Opimius Metellus Scipio and Lâ—vius with others were sometimes in Rome highly honoured with pictures and yet at length the like fortune as these aforenamed Gréeks had did accrue unto them Such is the uncertain pilgrimage of man the wandring ways of the world the mutability of fortune as there hath béen full proof shewed of the same from time to time in all places in banishing in murthering yea again in worshipping and honouring As for example we read that Alexander the great was born in Pella a town in Macedonia and died in Babylon King Cyrus was born in Persia and slain in Scythia Hannibal born in Affrick and buried in Bithinia Cleomenes King of the Lacedemonians born in the City of Sparta yet his grave was made in Egypt Crastus and Pompeius the great born in Rome the one died in Assyria the other in Egypt Paulus Aenilius died in Cinna T. Gracchus in Lucania Augustus Caesar in Nola Trayane the Emperour in the East part of the world with other famous men born within the City of Rome as the Cornelii Scipioes Catots Decii all Noble families who died like pilgrims in the world scattered one from another So in Athens Themistocles Theseus Solon were flourishing with others yet in Syria Cyprus and Persia were they buried King Jugurtha born in Numidia was buried in Rome Again King Aegeus born in Athens Pharao in Egypt Ajax in Gréece Leander in Abidos yet their graves and burial was in the bottome of the sea Mark how puissant Princes of the world and mighty Caeâ—ars were subject unto fortune And sée again the learned and sage philosophers which as I said before had their persons estéemed their pictures erected yet not able to avoid the furious frets of Fortune As Pythagoras born in Samos died in Metapontus Virgil born in Mantua buried in Bâ—undusium Terence born in Carthage brought up in Rome ended his life in Arcadia These Princes and famous men had notwithstanding in divers places their fame spread their name advanced and their pictures every where erected Gorgius Leontinus was the first amongst the Greeks for his wisedome and eloquence that had his picture set up in Delphos in the Temple of Apollo His scholler Isocrates had for his wit and passing eloquence in Olympia his picture erected Demetrius Theophrastus scholler after he had ten years with all diligence and industry governed the state of Athens having three hundred and threescore pictures in Greece erected and set up for his fame and reonwn in administration of the Common-wealth yet were they all broken and taken down through envy afterward and when Demetrius heard of the inconstancy and envy of the people in shewing their malice therein he said though they pull down my pictures yet can they not banish the vertuous cause of the pictures Mithridates King of Pontus made a worthy monument at Sylo unto Plato about the which as Plutarch saith was writtgn this sentence Mithridates made this picture of Plato and dedicated the same unto the Muses Mutius Scaevola had his picture in Rome for that he delivered the the City of Rome from Porsenna King of Hetruscans For the like Cocles was not forgotten of the Romans It were unto small purpose to speak of Lucullus of M. Attilius and Octavius whose fame and renown made their pictures to be monuments thereof And why should I busie my self with infinite names of men since women well deserved the same as Tanaquil Tarquinius wife Cloaelia a Virgin of Rome yea as Quintilian saith Phrine for her beauty was commended by pictures so common were they for all men that I refer those who will read further of this unto Plini where he may at large satiefie himself in this subject I should be ever much charged to recite the places persons and time only this that pictures were erected to advance the fame of Princes and deserving men and to stir them further in such procéedings as were the cause of these their pictures of which as before is spoken they shall find in Plini variety of examples CHAP. XI Of Kings and Heroes who defended divers from death from Serpents Dragons Lyons and of cunning Archers EVen as by these valiant and noble Conquerours not onely Towns Cities and Countries were defended but also Serpents Dragons Licus and other monstrous and wild beasts were slain so divers and sundry captives and prisoners were deliverred from death unto life How many did famous Hercules that off-spring of the Gods save from the gulf of Avâ—ntine where that Cacus both day and night murthered the passers by How many delivered he from the huge monster Chymaera which continually with flashing of fire feared and slew many valiant men For he had three heads one of a Lyon the second of a dragon the third of his owne monstrous proportion Hee againe slew Sphinx a terrible beast in Ethiopia which with his sight destroyed men hee overcame Geron Cerberus and Diomedes and divers other enterprizes as is before rehearsed Perseus after that Neptune had defloured Medusa in the temple of Pallas the Gods being displeased therewith turned every haire of her head unto Snakes whose sight was so venemous that whatsoever he was that beheld her dyed presently Perseus slew the same whereby he delivered divers that should else have perished Cappadox being then tribune of the souldiers in Affrica under the Emperour Dioclesian killed a huge serpent and delivered a young Phrygian made even a prey for her mouth Even so Alcâ—n a noble Archer of Creet shot at a dragon which had his own son in his claws ready to be devoured and slew him and so saved his son unhurt But I will digresse here from the skilfull Archers and speak a little more of the famous and renowned conquerors of wilde beasts of monsters and of serpents as Bellerophon King Glaucus son of Corinth being accused of fornication with Quéen Stenobia King Proetus wife hée was judged to dye and to be devoured of the Monster Chimaera which he valiantly subdued and slew in the dungeon The fame of Lysimachus is spread over all the world for that he killed a Lyon being but a souldier under king Alexander The name of Coraebus shall not be forgotten amongst the Peloponesians for the overthrowing of that terrible monster in Gréece The renowne of Att. Regulus shall alwayes be revived when any man doth think of the great serpent that he slew by the flood Bragada which as Pliny saith was a
suffered in free Cities and Towns free tongues Philip King of Macedonia when certain Embassadours of Athens came to him he required of them if he might stand in any stead to Athens to certifie him of the same to whom Demochares one of the Embassadours answered that the greatest pleasure that he could do to Athens was to hang himself the King most patient in such scoffs and taunts said the reproachfull slander of the Athenians do make King Philip better able to revenge their malice by wars then to move him to answer their back-biting in words A Prince not onely patient in hearing but also wise in answering As sometime the Emperour Alexander Severus in Rome when it was signified unto him after Antonius was dead that the barbarous nations were ready to enter the City of Rome and that he was much rebuked of the people and blamed of the Senators for the slender care he had to the City he as Herodianus affirms answered that it belongeth to Princes to requite the good and not to answer the evill for wisemen will speak evil of no man in the beginning least they should be judged fooles in the end whereunto all things are directed and whereby all things are proved So patient was Anaxagoras when it was told him that his son was dead to answer merrily I know my son was mortal So patient was King Antigoâ—us being certified of his son Alcâ—onus death to answere I looked no other than for his death So patient was Pericles whon he heard that both his sons died in one day to kéep his countenance merry his cheere unchanged and his businesse about the state of his countrie not delayed But Harpalus was of passing patience being bidden of Astiages King of Persia to supper where he had two sons of his ready drest and layd in a silver dish before him on the table to be eaten by their owne father The King nay the tyrant marking the countenance of Harpalus and perceiving him not to be moved much at the matter asked him how he liked his supper he without alteration of colour or change of countenance framed himselfe to answer the king merrily commending much the supper as one that knew that patience was the onely remedy in tyranny A second Iob in patience nay hee passed Iob for Iob knew that his God did suffer Satan to punish him for love he had to Iob but Harpalus perceived that this tyrant did this to him of tyranny and evil will far from christianity for in this vale of misery we count him wise and certain we may cal him most wise that can in prosperity be gentle and in adversity be patient Both these examples were seen in one man in one day at Rome Paulus Aemilius having two sons the hope of Rome and comfort of the father the one dead foure dayes before the triumphs of Macedonia the other three dayes after the triumph returning from Macedonia with that noble victory and such triumphs unto Rome that no man could finde in his heart to tell this noble Romane of the heavinesse in Rome by reeson of the death of his children he perceiving the people of Rome to be sad and he so merry they so heavy with sobs and sighes and he so glad by reason of his triumphs and victories demanded the cause which being at length made known he then comforted them that should comfort him saying I thank the Gods more to give me victory over my enemies to the glory and prayse of Rome then I accuse fortune to spoyl me of my children which by nature were borne to dye and though much it be to my griefe yet wish I the Gods to do the like to the father as they did the sons so that the like conquest and glory may happen to Rome In this was both magnanimity and patience Some men are patient in some things as in a corporal paine some in torments another is patient of injuries done I commend them both but to be patient in all kinde of aflictions and adversity heaven and earth commendeth that man Plyny speaketh of one man Anarchus Augustus most patient in torments Of one Woman Laena to kéep silence So were the Egyptians people of great patience when they had rather dye in torments with patience then to betray any man The Gymnosophistes of India were so patient that from sun rising untill night upon the hot sanâ— they continued without meat and drink saith Plyny going from one seat to an other to behold the heavens the Sun the Moon c. The Lacedemonians were most patient in travel paine winde weather and wars The people of Sparta at what time certaine men of Chios came to pilgrimage understanding the wise men of Sparta called Ephori to be in all things most patient to move them to anger they vomited before them and then went where the Ephori sate in judgement and used it as a common stoole to discharge nature When they came to Chios againe they said that the wise men of Sparta were fooles and blocks because they could not move them to be angry but not more patient then the other were beastly For this kinde of patience was Mithridates king of Pontus renowned so was Agesilaus king of the Lacedemonians so was Masissima king of Numidia So patient was the Emperor Augustus that he suffered a young man of Sycilia to answer him as boldly as he had demaÌ„ded of him merrily whether ever his mother had been in Rome he being like to the Emperour in countenance and proportion meaning thereby that he might be his father if she had been there the young man perceiving the sleight of Augustus answered boldly and said My mother was never in Rome but my father hath béen divers times in Rome meaning that the Emperour might rather be his brother that way then he to be his son the other way by his mother But because patience is better known by reading of divers Princes anger where they shall see what hurt was done what wickednesse was committed by impatience which might have bin redressed and saved by patience therefore to avoyd prolixity it shall be spoken in the one what wanteth in the other but I will first speak of the humanity and sobriety and other vertues famous in Kings and Princes CHAP. XV. Of humanity and clemency of Princes LIke as pride oppresseth love provoketh disdain kindleth malice confoundeth justice and at length subverteth states even so humanity stirreth up affection augmenteth amity maintaineth love supporteth equity and preserveth Cities and countries Nothing saith the godly Emperour Alexander Severus so joyneth the hearts of subjects unto their Prince as humanity Nothing doth purchase honour so much to the noble man as affability Nothing so much kindleth love amongst the Commons as mutual humanity How gently did Cyrus king of Persia handle Croesus king of Lydya who being vanquished and convicted was by the law as Herodotus doth witnesse appointed to dye he being brought to the place of execution began heavily
overcome in Pharsalia and enforced to flie unto Egypt his treasures substance wealth being brought unto Caesar in a great chest Coesar found divers sealed letters and great counsels which he never opened for silence sake but took them altogether and threw theÌ„ into the fire for that all men might learne how much he esteemed silence this done unto Pompeius at Pharsalia he said unto his souldiers that it behoved a Prince to finde out friends rather then search out foes The noble Emperor knew well by reading of Pompeius letters he might be moved to divers injuries and by opening of secrets he might accuse divers wrongfully therefore he had rather purchase by silence friends then by breaking of counsell enmity How sure and safe is the reward of silence histories of Greek and Latine can well report Had Calisthenes followed the counsel of his master Aristotle either merrily or never to speak unto a Prince he had never found fault with Alexander by speaking to anger Alexander and to harm himself Had not learned Seneca so reproved the Emperour Nero the tyrant of Rome with words he had not béen rewarded with death If the Poet Nevius had not written his mind unto Metellus If Chius had not béen familiar in talk with King Antigonus they had saved life by silence where they purchased death by talking Therefore Phocion that Gréek whom sugred Demosthenes called the rasor of Athens was alwaies afraid as Plutarchus saith lest any sudden sillable or foolish word might escape his tongue imprudently So that silence gaineth life and words causeth death as Miles the ancient Muâ—â—tian at what time with Hercules he found fault for that he was Linus scholler and taught by him on instruments for words speaking of Linus unto Hercules he was slain of his own scheller so that silence unto Princes is most necessary O noble silence O rare vertue O most worthy jewell thou hurtest no man thou betrayest no body Philippides a noble man of Athens who for his singular learning and dexterity of wit King Lisimachus made most account of and was most desirous to please him most ready to advance him unto honour willed him to ask what he would and he should have it Philippides most humbly knéeing upon his knees besought Lisimachus the King in any wise not to open his secret and counsel unto him the king demanded the cause thereof because said he I know not whether I am able to kéep counsel or no. How much it repugneth the nature of man to kéep silence Cicero in his book of Offices doth manifest the same for were it possible saith he unto man to ascend the skies to see the order of the bodies superiours and to view the beauty of the heavens unswéet were the admiration thereof unle he might shew it unto others And again he saith there is no such ease unto men as to have a friend unto whom a man may speak unto as himself giving thereby to understand the grief of silence that nature loves nothing which is solitary It may séem that sileÌ„ce one way is not so beneficial as it is another way most grievous as is proved by the history of Secundus the Philosopher who having company with his own mother in the night time either of them most ignorant of the other his mother in processe of time having knowledge thereof for very grief and sorrow slue her self The Philosopher likewise having understood of his mothers death knowing the cause thereof knew not what to do for that he was ashamed of the filthy act one way and most sorrowfull for the sudden death of his mother another way to die to burn to hang to drown himself he thought it too short a torment for so hainous a fact and knowing his mother being a woman stayed not nor feared not to kill her self to ease her sorrowfull heart he conceived that he being a Philosopher it stood him upon to find out the painfullest torment in all the world to plague himself justly for his grievous offence he therefore vowed unto God never to speak one word ouring life such torment he thought was most painfull unto nature and thus by silence he consumed away his life Since therefore silence is suco a burning disease so heavy in the heart of man so hard to kéep in so dangerous to utter how worthy are they of commendations how do they merit fame and praise that can rule their tongues and keep silence Therefore a noble Senatour of Rome sometime brought his eldest son named Papâ—â—ius unto the Senate house to hear the councel pleading charging him whatsoever he should hear in the house amongst the wise Senatours to keep it in silence for the order was in Rome that a young man should say nothing unlesse he were a Consul a Tribune a Censor or such like Officer wherby he had authority to speak This young Papirius on a time being importuned by his mother and charged on her blessing to tell her the cause and businesse that the Senatours had so often to come together the young man being threatned weighing his fathers charge to avoid words one way said since you are so importunate mother to know the secret of the Senate you must keep counsell for I am charged therewith There is a long debate in the Senate house to agree on this conclusion whether it be more expedient for one man to have two wives in the City of Rome or one woman to have two husbands and most like it is that it will go on the mens side Straightways she went into the City and certified the matrons and women of Rome what the Senatours were about to conclude and appointed certain of them to accompany her the next morning unto the Senate where when she came as one dismaied she began to declaim against the purpose and decrées of the Senatours proving what inconvenience might arise for a man to have two wives laying before them the dissention that should be in that house where two women should be married to one man and what comfort and consolation it were for a woman to have two husbands the one to be at home in Rome to see his children brought up and to sée the city defended when the other should be far from home at the wars in other countries The Senatours being amazed at her talk not knowing to what it tended young Papirius demanded licence to speak which being granted he declared the cause of her comming how and after what sort as is before mentioned The Senatours commended much Papiâ—ius wit as well for his obedience to his mother as for silence toward the Senate recompensed his wisedom with the Consulship of Rome Silence was so observed in Rome and honoured of Romans that Demetrius the Phylosopher would often say that the birds can flie where they will and the grashoppers sing where they wil but in the city we may neither do nor speak Euripides a learned Gréek it being objected to him that his breath did stink
that eat lice in Scithia called Budmi or them that eat Serpents called Ophiophagi or those that féed on mens bodies called Anthropophagi yea or those that eat their own parents as the Caspians did Vnto what purpose should I name the Astomians a people in India without mouths who onely live with the air that commeth unto their nosethrils where they receive breath they can neither eat nor drink as Plini saith in his seventh book they live the longer with the sweet smell and odours of flowers Vnto what end likewise should I speak of those blind Andabates that fight without eyes or of those great eared people the Fanesii whose ears shadowed and covered their whole body or of the Monopods which in like manner shadow their whole body with one foot or of the Arimaspians people in Scythia having but one eye in the midst of their forehead like the great Ciclop Poliphemus which Ulisses destroied yea of millions more whose deformity to deprint whose uglinesse to write were too much charge to the writer and too much tediousnesse to the reader I might speak of people in some part of India who live two hundred years and more whose hair upon their heads in their young age is white and in their old age black called Pandorae I might likewiâ—e recite a people in Lybia whose horses may not be guided nor governed with bridles be the bitts never so strong but with rods most gently are they tamed be the rods never so weak Herodotus a famous Gréek writer is not ashamed to shew how the women Selencridae brought forth egs whence men were born of such heighth length and stature that I am partly abashed to alledg his authority therein Again the people called Sorbotae of Aethiope are said to be eight cubits long Why should I speak of the Troglodites who live in caves of the ground féeding on Serpents being people of wonderfull swiftnesse and out-run any horse in Aethiope and cannot speak but hisse Why should I speak of the Massagetes of the people Nasomones I will according to promise omit the prolixity therof touching all countreys by the way or some of the chief as of Egypt with brags and vaunts of their antiquity Of the Ethiopians and the people of Caria with their simplicity and slavery so the Carthaginians were false and deceitfull the Babylonians wicked and corrupted the Persians drunkards and gluttons the Sycilians wary and trusty so was the cruelnesse of the Caspians the filthinesse of the Lesbians the drunkennesse of the Scythians the fornication of the Corinthians the rudenesse of the Boetians the ignorance of the Cymmerians the beastlinesse of the Sibarites the hardinesse of the Lacedemonians the delicacy of the Athenians and the pride and glory of the Romans Thus we read that the Spaniards be the greatest travellers and the greatest dispisers the Italian proud and desirous to revenge the Frenchman politick and rash the German a warriour the Saxon a dissembler the Swevian a light talkative person the Britain a busie body the Cimbrian seditious and fierce the Bohemian ungentle and desirous of news the Vandal a mutable wrangler the Bavarian a flouter and a scoffer These qualities are incident to the aforesaid nations by nature But because in this place it were somewhat to the purpose to declare the glory and state of Rome which of all the world was estéemed and feared and for that Rome had more enemies then all the whole world beside to shew briefly how they flourished how their fame spread and their glory grew I think it not expedient to meddle with the antiquity thereof in the time of Janus and Cameses but to touch upon their fame by managing of wars in the time of Romulus who being begotten of Mars and Rhea a Vestal virgin was the first builder of the city and also king thereof This King Romulus warred on the Sabins after he had elected a hundred Senatours to discern and judge the causes of the City to defend Iustice and practice the same and to punish vice and wrongs according to the law of Plato who willed every Common-wealth to be governed with reward unto the vertuous and punishment to the vicious Again he appointed certain souldiers unto the number of one M. to be in a readinesse alwaies to defend the City After Romulus succéeded Numa Pompilius the second king a man very religious and pittiful he in his time made laws to observe rites sacrifices and ceremonies to worship their Gods he made Bishops and Priests he appointed the Vestal virgins and all that belong thereto Thirdly came Tulius Hostillius to be king in Rome whose felicity was onely to teach the youth of Rome the discipline of warfare and stirred them wonderfully to exercise and practice the same Then fourthly succeeded An. Martius with the like industry and care of the further and surer state of the City in raising the high walls of Rome and raising a bridge upon the river Tyber in amending and beautifying all the stréets of Rome The fifth King was Tarquinius Priâ—cus who though he was a stranger born at Corinth yet he increased the policy of the Romans with the wisedome of Greece he triumphed over the people of Tusk and inlarged the fame of Rome much more then it was to this came next Servius Tulâ—ius who was the sixth and Tarquinius Superbus the seventh and last King of Rome who for his misgovernment and lust in the City against the chast matrons for the pride and infringement of the liberty having withall ravished Lucrecia Collatinus wife was at length after long rule and government banished Rome The first alteration and change of state was then after these seven Kings governed Rome two hundred years and a half which was the first infancy of Rome Then Collatinus and Brutus after these Kings were exiled in reward of restoring liberty and for honest life were the first Consuls in Rome they I say altered the government of the City from a Monarchy to a kind of government called Aristocratia which continued in Rome from the time of Brutus and Collatinus untill the time of Appius Claudius and Quinâ—us Fulvius which was two hundred years In this season during this two hundred years was Rome most assailed of all kind of enemies stirred unto wars of all nations for the space of two hundred years and a half Then Appius Claudius forgetting the law which he himself made in Rome against fornication forgetting the ravishment of Lucrecia and the banishment of Tarquinius for breaking of the same against all right and reason willingly and wilfully ravished Virginia the daughter of Virginius and after that her own father slue her in the open fight of Rome the cause being known unto all the City the people were straight in arms to revenge the wrongs and injuries against the laws Even as the Kings before named were exiled and banished Rome for the ravishment of Lucretia so now the ten Commissioners called Decem. viri were likewise excluded and rejected for
consecrated to his temple Aesculapius revenged it after this sort When Antonius and Caesar were at wars after that the Army and Host of Antonius were vanquished and Caesar a victor he brought Turulius to be murthered unto that place in the Grove where he neglected Aesculapius Ceres when the City of Mileton was taken by Alexander the great and her temple therein spoiled and robbed by the souldiers she threw flames of fire into their faces and made as 〈◊〉 blind as neglected her Godhead and Majesty Dionisius K. 〈◊〉 Siracusa for that he spoiled the temple of the Goddesse Proserpina robbed this Goddesse of her golden garmēts flouting scoffing at her rites ceremonies nothing esteeming her sacrifice again for that he cōmāded his soldiers to pluck take away Aesculapius beard in Epidaurus a City in Peloponesus in Gréece because his father Apollo had none he was brought by the Gods from a King in Siracusa to be a poor School-master in Corinth and wretchedly to end his life by the just indignation of the Goddesse Proserpina Juno shewed her anger upon Fulvius Flacchus for that when he was Censor of Rome he caused the Marble Tiles to be brought from the Temple of Juno in Lacinia unto the Temple of Fortune in Rome He having his sons in Illyria at the wars the one of them by the wrath of Juno was slain the other by her command was plagued and tormented to death he himself having news hereof died for sorrow and grief and the Senatours knowing the cause returned the Marble Tiles by their Embassadours unto Lacinia again The wrath of Juno was the cause of the unhappy successe of that noble Consul Varro in the wars of Canna Hercules forgot not to revenge the contempt and despising of his ceremonies and rites by Pontius which once he and his name received as their God but being by Appius perswaded who then was Censor in Rome to neglect he was destroyed he and all his name which were in number above thirty and Appius for his counsel was made blind Thus the Gentiles and Heathens thought that nothing could escape unrevenged of their Gods This made Masinissa King of Numidia to send back the Ivory téeth that the Master of his Ships brought from the Temple of Juno in Meleta unto Meleta again This made the Senatours of Rome to send back again the money which Pleminius the messenger of Scipio took away from the temple of Proserpina again fearing the anger and displeasure of the Goddesse Thus were the people blinded with vain ceremonies of the Priests Bishops and Magistrates Thus were the rude people deceived by dissimulations of the Potentates as Numa Pompilius one of the first Idolaters that was in Rome would make the people beléeve that he had warnings and admonitions from the Nymph Aegeria to whom he said he had accesse in the night time to be instructed in the ceremonies of Rome Lycurgus the law-giver amongst the Lacedemonians perswaded the people that what law soever he made it was done by the Oracle of Apollo Zaleucus made the Locresians believe that his doings and proceedings were done by the counsel of Minerva Pisistratus deceived the people of Athens through dissimulations by a woman named Phia whom hee dressed like Pallas he was brought often times by this woman into the Castle of Pallas and the rude people thought that she was Pallas her self and judged thereby that Pisistratus might do what he would and have what he craved of Pallas Minos King of Créet was wont every ninth year to go unto a secret place by himself and there staying to consult with Jupiter what law he should make to the people of Creet as he informed the people and so deceived them craftily Thus we see how Licurgus amongst the Lacedemonians Zaleuchus amongst the Locresians Pisistratus amongst the Athenians Numa amongst the Romans and Minos in Créet have deceived the ignorant people with counterfeit talking with Gods making them to beléeve that the Gods counselled them Thus by craft they invented false Gods framed ceremonies and observed vain orders Sertorius that famous Sabin and ruler long in Rome was wont upon the high rocks of Lusitania to consult with a white Hart of whom he was warned to avoid things and to do things to take things and to refuse things insomuch that to blind the people he would attempt nothing till he had consulted on the Rock with this white Hart. L. Sylla when at any time he went unto wars would in open sight of the souldiers imbrace a certain remembrance a sign which he brought from Delphos with him to Italy requiring that to kéep promise as Apollo had commanded him Scipio would never take any publick affairs in hand before he had gone to the Capitol to the secret Alter of Jupiter and there continued a while to deceive the people Thus were they thought to be the Of-springs of Gods by the common souldiers whom they deceived with false shews and to this effect that the people should flatter and obey them in all things And as Liberius did use to féed Julius Caesar with flattery saying that mortal men ought to deny nothing unto those to whom the Gods do grant all things so did these forenamed Princes hunt for such honour as Caesar or Alexander had Mahomet a great Prophet and a mighty God amongst the Gentiles whose laws till this day the most part of the world observe had such a beginning as aforesaid and dissembled with the people that a Dove that he taught to come every day upon his shoulders to féed on certain grains of wheat which he alwaies did bear in his ears was the holy Ghost and perswaded the people that his doings and laws were appointed by the holy Ghost which dayly came to instruct him and to make orders amongst the people We read in divers places of the scriptures that the men of Iuda did build altars and make Idols upon every high hill and under boughs of trées The Idolatry of the people of Israel with the daughters of Moab using their sacrifice and worshipping their false Gods was such that God the true Messias did loath and abhor them Such Idolatry I say grew among the Israelites that Jeroboam commanded two Golden Calves to bee made and to be worshipped saying Behold O Israel behold thy Gods which brought thée out of the land of Egypt These were those Iews whom God most estéemed and they least regarded it these were his own people and yet they sought other Gods saying to Aaron Make us Gods to go before us Manasses King of Iuda erected and made altars to Baal to go before him Holophernes said that there was no God but Nabuchadonosor Nabuchadonosor commanded that all people and nations should knéel and worship the Golden Image Solomon having received so great wisedom of God that no Prince in Israel had the like fell in his latter years to Idolatry to worship the Gods of strange women Antiochus commanded Idols to be worshipped altars
Whereby straight he was informed that he was not onely delivered from all dangers but also should be sought for by all Greece to the encrease of his fame and augmentation of his honour Brutus clean contrary after much good successe and prosperous fortune after he murthered Caesar at length he was in his sleep by a vision warned to make himself ready to die at Philippi where he was enforced in the wars between Augustus Caesar and him to kill himself Thus were they allured and entised to uncertain dreams to order and rule all their doings For as the Poet Ennius saith what they studied and pondered in the day time the same dreamed they in the night time Dreams moved the Heathen to tyranny for L. Sylla the Firebrand of Italy was warned in his sleep by Bellona the Goddesse of wars to murther kill and destroy all that ever he might find in his way giving him in his hand fire in token he should overcome Rome and Italy Likewise Eumenes King of the Lacedemonians having wars with Antipater King of Macedonia was fully perswaded by a dream to obtain victory for he dreamed that two Alexanders were with great hosts and armies of men ready in the field to fight the one having the Goddesse Minerva as a leader the other having the Goddesse Ceres as their Captain and after long conflicts and much slaughter on both parties he thought that the souldiers of Ceres had the victory and that they were crowned with ears of corn in the honour of Ceres which is the Goddess of corn And because the country of Lacedemonia was more fertil then Macedonia the wise Sages declared the dream said that Eumenes should have the victory over Macedonia Besides these dreams they had a kind of credit in fowls of the ayr in beasts of the field in wind and weather and in divers other things where Soothsaying Oracles and consultations were had When Xerxes the great King of Persia with so many Myriades of men had purposed and decreed with himself to destroy all Greece a Mare being a stout and a proud beast brought forth a Hare a most fearfull and timerous creature whereby the flight of Xerxes from Greece with shame and reproach was presaged And afterward before he would lay siege to Athens resolving with himself to destroy Sparta all the country of Lacedemonia a strange warning happened to this Prince at supper for his Wine before his face was converted into Bloud as it was filled in the cups not once but twice or thrice whereat he being amazed consulted with Wise men of whom he was then admonished to forsake his first intent and to give over the enterprize which he took in hand against the Greeks Midas being yet in his cradle the Ants were séen to carry grains and victuals to féed him withal whose parents being desirous to know the effect thereof were certified by the Soothsayers that he should be the wealthiest and richest man in the world and the most monied Prince that over should reign in India Plato that noble and divine philosopher while he was an infant in like sort in his cradle the Bees with honey fed his sugred and swéet lips signifying his eloquence and learning in time to come They were not Bees of mount Himettum but rather of Helicon where the Muses and Ladies of learning delighted to dwell This was that Plato of whom his master Socrates before he knew him dreamed that he held fast in his hand a young Swan which fled from him away and mounted the skies whose sweet voice and songs as a wonderfull melody and harmony replenished the whole skies They thought it a sufficient admonition to see any thing happen between birds or beasts as a sure and certain shew of their own fortune to come M. Brutus when he was in Camp against Caesar and Antonius and saw two Eagles fighting together the one comming from Caesars Tent the other from his own he knew well when the Eagle that came from his side took flight and was vanquished that he should lose the victory Cicero understood well enough his death to be at hand when the Raven held him fast by the hem of his Gown and made a noise and ever plucked at him till the souldiers of M. Antonius came to the very place where he at that time vvas beheaded by Herennius and Popilius For in the night before Cicero dreamed that he vvas not onely banished from Rome but that he vvandred divers strange countries vvhere Caâ—us Marius a noble Roman as he thought met him demanding of Cicero vvhy and vvhat vvas the cause of his sad countenance and vvherefore he travelled such strange countreys the cause being knovvn to Marius he took him fast by the right hand and brought him to the next Officer vvhere he thought in his sléep that he should have died Thus you sée that Xerxes by a Hare had warning King Mydas was by Ants admonished Plaro by Bées Brutus by an Eagle Cicero by a Raven Themistocles by an Owl of death Pericles by the head of a Ram was fully perswaded and taught by the soothsayers that he should win the people of Athens from Thucidides with whom then he was in controversie And was not Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus with all the Princes of Gréece certified by the Dragon that climbed a trée where he slew a she Sparrow and eight young ones beside that they should be nine years in wars with the Troyans and that in the tenth they should destroy and quite vanquish Ilium Was not Julius Caesar admonished by his wife Calphurnia in a dream that if he would go to the Senate that day he should die And was not that mighty Monarch Alexander warned by a vision to take more regard to his life then he did and to take héed of Antipater who afterward poysoned him Was not Alcibiades that noble Greek certified by a dream of his miserable death by which he and his Concubine Timandra might divers times see before hand what followed after had they had but so great a desire in following of good things as they were bent and prone to seek after evil such prodigious sights such strange miracles were seen that might well allure them to a more perfect and upright life The Sun the Moon the Stars and all the host of Heaven wrought great miracles to reduce Princes from evil enterprizes and to give warning unto others to avoid the tyranny of wicked Princes For the Heavens appeared bloudâ— at that time when Philip King of Macedonia with tyranny invaded Greece At what time Augustus Caesar after his uncle Julius was murthered came to Rome as the second Emperor there were seen stars wandering about the circle of the sun great lightnings and strange impressions like men fighting in the skies yea and birds fell down dead in the City of Rome and Livi writeth that an Ox spake under the plough these words to the ploughman that not onely corn should be dear but also men should
forget what I would and I have things in memory which feign I would they were out of memory Seneca doth so report of himself that he was of such a perfect memory that he could rehearse after one by hearing two hundred verses yea to a greater marvell of his memory he could recite two thousand names of men being repeated once before him with as good a memory as he that first named them The like we read of Aelius Adrianus a Captain that having a great army of souldiers under him if any were absent in any place about any businesse he had in memory the name of the person the name of the place and the cause of the businesse Of this excellent memory to their perpetuall fame was King Cyrus and Scipio the one a Persian the other a Roman which had this fame by memory that either of them could severally call their souldiers by name every one after another which is most rare yea most marvellous having so many alwaies under them as both Rome and Persia were chiefly in their days by them defended to be able to name so many souldiers as either of them both had in their armies Their memory was such then that they may not be forgotten now Julius Caesar was much renowned for that Pliny reported that he could do such things by memory as in reading in talking in hearing and in answering at one time that no fault could be found in either of these four qualities at one time practised whereby he deserveth no lesse praise by his memory then fame by his acts Divers excelled in time past in memory as Hortensius a noble Oratour of Rome was able to speak in any place any thing which he premeditated privately without study openly he had more trust in his memory then in books Carmides of Greece was so famous for that faculty that he never heard any reading but he could repeat it word by word without writing were the writing or reading never so long he would not misse a syllable Cineas a noble and a famous Oratour one of the counsellours of King Pyrrhus being sent from Epire unto the Senatours of Rome as an Embassadour he but once hearing the names of the Senatours before he came unto the Senate house he named them orderly by name every one after another that all the Senatours were in a great admiration of his memory in repeating so many names in opening so many matters in concluding so many things which when he came unto King Pyrrhus he recited not onely his doings and orations but also their answers and replies every word by word as then was spoken done or written by the Senatours This Cineas was not so excellent of memory but also of passing eloquence of whom King Pyrrhus was wont to say that he got more Cities Towns and Kingdomes by the eloquence of Cineas then with all the force and strength of the Epirots beside It is written in Laertius in his eighth book that Pythagoras had charge of God Mercury to ask what he would saving immortality and he should have have it and he willed to keep in memory all things that he heard and saw and to forget nothing being dead of that which he saw being alive which being granted the soul of Athalides being slain by Menelaus entred in Euphorbus secondly took place in Hermonius thirdly in Pyrrhus fourthly into Pythagoras which had such memorâ— thereby that he could describe the state of the living the dead Divers were famous for memory amongst the Greeks as Archippus Lysiades Metrodorus Carneades Theodectes and others Many amongst the Romans were renowned for their memories as Julius Coesar L. Scipio Portius Claudius Hortensius with infinite number What great fame had Mithridâ—tes King of Pontus that having as Pliny and Gellius both report xxii strange nations that were souldiers alwaies in wars under him against the Romans he could speak xxii languages without interpreter to open his mind unto them A strange thing it is now to find a man in this our ripe years that can speak half a dozen languages If a man can but smatter in six or seven languages he is noted to be a rare fellow and yet King Mithridates had xxii A note of great memory for some there be in learning for one language that they hardly know they forget another that they know That worthy man Lucullus is remembred of Cicero in his fourth book of Academical questions for his passing and noble memory The Egyptians used notes and figures for their memory insomuch that they noted the well memoried man with a For or a Hare for that the Hare heareth best and the For is of greatest memory and if any wanted memory they compared him to the Crocodile We read of Esdras a Priest that he had all the laws of the Hebrews upon his finger end We read of Portius that he never forgot any thing that he once read before He again would never read that which once he wrot but straight out of hand his memory was such he would speak it and pronounce it in order even as he wrote it before Memory therefore is likened to a Net which taketh and stayeth great fish and letteth through the little fish and even as books that be not occupied wax rusty and did cleave together so memory that is not occupied saith Seneca waxeth dull and oblivious as we oftentimes see how forgetfull men wax either with sicknesse age or such like that letteth the memory of man as Orbilius by extremity of age forgot his Alphabets and letters Hermolaus had a friend which in his youth was a perfect Grecian and yet in his latter years waxed so oblivious that he could not read Gréek Plini saith Messala surnamed Corvius waxed so forgetfull by long sicknesse that he forgot his own name And Seneca doth write of one Calvisius that was so weak of memory that he did forget the names of those that he was daily in company with as Achilles Ulisses and Priamus whom he knew very well What is it else for a man to want memory but to want the name of his knowne friend for hee is no man that knoweth not that man as Augustus Caesar sometime Emperour of Rome his beadel having forgot when he should come unto the Senate demanded of the Emperour whether he would command him to do any thing that he could do why said the Emperour take this letter with thee that men may know thée for thou knowest no man for thou wantest memory Cicero doth make mention of Curio that was so oblivious being a judge that he forgot the cause which he should give judgement upon Likewise Articus the son of Sophista was of so frail memory that he could never keep in mind the names of the four Elements Bamba a certain King of the Goths by a draught of drink given by Heringeus his successour lost his memory It may well be that drink cutteth off memory For the Poets fain that there is a river named Lethes
Demetrius and Alexanders wife who then was a widdow and a Quéen in Corinth for in the midst of triumphs and preparations to the marriage Antigonus by deceit took the Castle commanded his souldiers in arms and proclaimed himself King in Corinth In the same book of Polinaeus the like History is written of Lysander of Sparta and Nearchus of Creet the one promising to the inhabitants of Miletum his aid and help in defending their liberties and the people giving credit to a Kings promise and trusting to have Lysander their special friend they found him their mortal foe for he deceived them thereby and took the City of Miletum unto himself The other sailing to the haven of Telmessus to renue friendship with Antripatridas who then governed the City of Telmessus under the color of friendship he had his men at arms ready on the Sea to destroy his friend and to take the City to himself This deceit was not onely séen in wars where much falshood and perjury is practised but in all things men use craft according to the proverb There is craft in daubing To speak of Theodectes craft toward his Master Aristotle to defraud him privily of his glory to speak of Sertorius deceit in winning authority among the common people to describe the means that Dionisius used to get mony amongst the Syracusans or how Pythius deceived Cannius in his bargain of fish or how Darius became King of Persia by the neighing of a Mare and a million more of such deceits and crafts were infinite I therefore refer the Reader to Poliaenus where he shall have enough of falshood But because craft is used diversly I will somewhat touch those that used craft in altering themselves into the form of women some for filthy lust some for vertues sake and some for vice What kind of dissimulation was in Sardanapalus King of Assyria to forsake the Empire to forgo his Kingdome to become like a woman to spin and card with his Concubines and so from the shape of a man to dissemble himself to be a woman What kind of dissimulation did that renowned and mighty Hercules even the off-spring of the Gods and son to Jupiter use after that he tamed monsters slew Giants overcame Dragons Lions wild beasts and yet he did translate himself from a champion and a conquerour into womans apparel and fashioned himself like a woman with such dissimulation he served Omphale Quéen of Lydia like a woman in the apparel of a woman at the whéel and at the cards at Omphales commandement What kind of craft used Clodius to bring his purpose to pass with Pompeia Caesars wife dissembling himself to be a woman as Cicero taunteth him in an Epistle that he writeth to Lentulus where he saith that Clodius dissembled with the Npmph Bona Dea as he was wont to use the thrée sisters Thus Clodius would at all times go unto Pompeia in the apparel of a woman to use such feats that he made Caesar to divorce his wife Pompeia Dissimulations and subtilties as they are most evil to practise so somtimes they are necessary to do good for example Euclides used the like craft as before but to a better purpose for he practised it not to féed lust or to pleasure affectioÌ„ but he used it to hear Socâ—ates to read Philosophy to learn wisedome from him For there was a law betwéen Athens and them of Megaris for the great hatred the one bare unto the other that whosoever came from Athens to Megaris should die and whosoever would go from Megaris to Athens should likewise die Thus death frighted not Euclides but the love thâ—t he bare to Socrates and to Philosophy and wisedome so emboldned him that he would in the night travel from Megaris to Athens in the apparel of a woman least he should be known and he returned before day from Athens to Megaris again This dissimulation and craft of Euclides was far better and more to be commended then the doings of the former Better is Semiramis Quéen of Babylon thought of in that she perceiving her young son Ninus to be too tender to govern the stout Babylonians and Assyrians and knowing the nature of the people to be impatient of a womans government became in her apparel like a man and ruled the Kingdome till her son came to ripe age More praâ—ie ought â—â—lâ—gia a woman of Antioch to have who though she fained her self to be a man and dissembled with the world in that case yet this was to avoid incontinence and to live chast and solitary without the company of men For this cause is the Greek Virgin Mâ—rina and Euphrosina a maid of Alexandria worthily preferred before Cleocritus and Clisthenes for that they went in the apparel of men to live in the wildernesse to avoid lust and sensuality the others went in the apparell of women to beguile women Caelius doth report that certain women as Mantinia Lasthenia Axâ—othea and Phliasia would come in their apparel like men to hear Plato read philosophy in the schools The cause of their dissimulations was vertue and honest life the cause of the others dissimulation was vice and a wicked life so that dissimulation is both good and bad For we read at what time the armed youth of Gréece had determined co fetch home again fair Helene Menelaus wife from Troy where she was deteined by Paris King Priamus son that then Achilles the stoutest and worthiest of all the Gréeks while yet he slept in the Tent of Chiron his mother Thetis suddenly took him from Chiâ—ons house and changed his apparel into the apparel of a woman and appointed where he should hide himself with the daughters of King Lycomedes where he got one of them with child and commanded her to betray him to no man for she knew that her son Achilles should die in Troy if he should go thither There Achilles was a long while at the commandement of his mother Thetis untill the Oracle was given that the City of Troy should never be destroyed without the help of Achilles Ulisses being most subtill and crafty taking upon him to séek out Achilles took a little pack full of fine wares such as women buy and a strong bow and arrows thus when Ulisses came to King Lycomedes daughters though he knew Achilles to be there yet because he was in the apparel of a woman he knew him not and therefore shewed his fine ware unto the Kings daughters having a strong bow bent by him while Deidamia the mother of Pyrrhus and the rest of her sisters viewed the glistering ware of Ulisses Achilles stept in and took Ulisses bow in hand and drew it whereby Ulisses séeing him draw so strong a bow he straight perceived that he was Achilles And thus one craft beguileth another one deceit deceiveth another and one dissembling man findeth out another For by the means of Ulisses was the dissimulation of Achilles known I might have just occasion here to speak of those that were
much given to soft clothing gay apparel and delicate fare as Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers delighted to go brave in gorgeous apparel with rich Chains and Kings and had herein great felicity Demosthenes and Hortensius two famous and noble Oratours the one of Athens and the other of Rome went so fine in their cloths with such neat and wanton gesture that L. Torquatus would often call Hortensius the son of Dionisia for that she had great pleasure in dancing and light gesture of bodie But I will omit such examples and speak of dissembling persons who thinking to hurt others destroyed themselves as that strong Golias who contemning all Israel for force and strength David a weak man overcame him Hammon was hanged upon that gallows that he prepared for Mardocheus even so Absalon going about to destroy his father King David was hanged by the hairs of his head by Gods appointment CHAP. XXXIII Of Famine CIcero in his first book of Tusculans questions doth note the saying of Socrates that hunger was the best sauce to meat and thirst the best occasion to drinke Wherefore King Dioniusis the tyrant hearing much report of the Lacedemonians hard fare and specially of their pottage which was called Jus nigâ—um the black pottage he took a Cook of that Countrey to be his servant to dresse his diet in the ordinary way of the Lacedemonians the Cook having taken much pains in making the foresaid pottage he brought a messe thereof unto the King who much longed for it but assoon as he tasted of it he spit it again out of his mouth and was vâ—ry angry with the Cook saying is this the pottage that the Lacedemonians so much brag of my dog said Dâ—onisius should not eat it the Cook perceiving the gluttony of the King said O Dionisius whensoever thou art to eat of this pottage thou must bring fit sauce for it which is a Lacedemonians stomack for the Princes of Sparta have more pleasure in this kind of fare then ever King Mydas had in his golden banquets What maketh any meat swéet hunger What causeth man to féed pleasantly hunger Or what makes any drink pleasant thirst For at what time Darius was enforced of méer thirst to drink of a lake all defiled with stinking carcases of dead souldiers being then in the field and compelled to take his flight he said after his draught that he never drank swéeter drink in his life Though this King was a proud Prince over the Persians and had all kind of wines at commandement yet his want and penury now and his thirsty stomack was the onely cause of this noble drink which he so much commended and preferred before all the wine that ever he drank before Even so affirmed King Artaxerxes in his wars when his victuals and all were spoiled by the enemies of a few dry figs and of a piece of a barley loaf upon which he fel so hungerly that he spake after this sort O good Lord of how great a pleasure have I béen all this while ignorant Lisimachus likewise being in wars in Thracia against Domitianus the Emperour where he and all his souldiers were kept so long without drink untill he was so thirsty that he was inforced with all his host to yeeld as captives to the Emperour Domitianus and now being in captivity having a draught of drink of the Emperour he said O God that I should make my self from a King to be a captive from a noble Prince of Greece to be a bondslave unto the Romans for one draught of drink See what hunger and thirst is how it hath made Kings to yeeld and Princes to be vanquished Yea it hath made King Ptolomy in his own Kingdome of Egypt to commend a piece of bread which was given him in a poor Cottage and to say that he never eat better meat nor more comfortable chear in all his life then that piece of bread was It was the custome of that noble Emperor Julius Caesar in all his wars more with famine then with sword to vanquish his enemies For this famous warriour would often say that even as the physitian would use his patients so would he his enemies the rule of the physitian is to make his patient fast to recover his health The order of Caesar was to kéep the enemy from victual to make them yéeld Great is the force of Famine And by Histories we read that when King Cambyses marched towards the Ethiopians he endured great scarcity of victuals and such penury and want of food was among the souldiers that they agréed with themselves to kill the tenth throughout all the host to asswage hunger and the Famine continued so long that Cambyses the King was in great fear lest the Lot should at length happen upon him and so to be eaten of his own souldiers Sagunthus a City in Spain as Eutropius doth witnesse in great amity with the Romans was besieged by the Carthaginians so long that all the City was brought unto such famine that the Lords and the Captains of the City made a great fire in the Market place and there brought all their wealth and substance and threw it into the fire and after made their Wives and their Children to enter into the fire and last of all the chief Lords and Captains ended their own lives in it lest they should come into the enemies hand So great was that Famine that it was before prognosticated by a Woman in the time of her delivery whose child his head being out entred into his Mothers womb again The like calamity happened in Caligurium a City where Quintilian was born which being likewise long besieged by Cneius Pompey to bring them in subjection and to kéep promise with Sertorius they lacked victuals and waxed so hungry that all kind of beasts whatsoever being slain they were constrained to eat their own Wives and Children It was séen in Ierusalem when that it was destroyed by Vespasian the Emperor of Rome that the mothers were compelled to eat their own children for very hunger whose small and tender bones were left as a shew and token of their calamity Pliny in his eighth book of Natural Histories saith that when Hannibal laid siege to the city Casilinum the Roman souldiers were in such hunger that one Mouse was sold for two hundred pieces of silver and he that sold the Mouse died himself for hunger The Athenians likewise were brought unto such hunger by Sylla who afterward was Dictator of Rome that one bushel of Wheat was sold amongst the souldiers for a thousand Drachmes the common souldiers being poor for want of money on the one side and sore plagued with hunger on the other were compelled to eat the gréen grasse of the fields about the City of Athens and to gather the mosse off the walls of the City and did eat it This City of Athens was oftentimes brought to that misery as by King Demetrius by King Philip and by his son Alexander the great So
him he answered not one word but bad him Good night when he come to his own door which when the enemy saw and that he would not be moved to anger to take any advantage on him he went to the next tree and hanged himself Thus did Socrates who being blamed by his friends for his silence in that he was injuriously handled by his foe answered That his enemies could not endamage him sith he was not that man whom his words did import to be and being stricken spurned by the same man Socrates was counselled to call the same to the Law before the Iudges to the which he answered Which of you if an Asse strike him will call that Asse before any Iudges sith he is no better that useth me this for by this am I known to be Socrates and he to be an Ass The greatest revenge to a fool is to let every man know his folly and the greatest hurt to a wise man is to revenge folly for it was al the revenge of Socrates wheÌ„ any man spake il of him to say thus The man never was taught to speak well So courteous was Fabius Maximus that when he had heard that one of his chief souldiers was about to betray him to his enemies he called the party before him not making him privie that he knew of it and demanding of him what he wanted he commanded him to ask any thing he would have and made him chief Captain of his Army By this means he became most true to Fabius being before most false This was far from such revenge as Alexander the Great used who after he had subdued divers Kingdoms and Countreys he went to the Temple of Ammon to know by the Oracle of Jupiter whether yet any were alive that flew his father King Philip whereby he might shew more tyranny and practise greater murther This was far from M. Brutus rage who was not content to conspire against Caesar and to kill him in the Senate-house but also when power failed when souldiers decayed and he was almost vanquished he made his prayers to Jupiter and to the host of Heaven to plague Caesar and his posterity This I say was far from Livius Salinator who being warned of Fabius Maximus not to revenge malice upon Hasdâ—ubal before he knew the state of the matter the power of the field and the end of the victory where it should happen yet being more rash to revenge then wise in forbearing he said that either out of hand he would kill or be killed And in this place I will recite three or four Histories fit for this purpose Phobius wife fell in love with Antheus a noble Gentleman of Halicarnassus being left in pledge with Phobius chief ruler then of Milesia and used al means possible to allure Antheus to requite her love But he partly for fear and partly for love of Phobius her husband in no wise would consent to any filthy desire Cleoboea Phobius wife took the same in so evil part that she began mortally to hate him inventing what way best she might revenge his discourtesie in refusing her love She feigned on a time that she had quite forgotten her old love towards him and thanked Antheus very much for the love and great zeal that he did bear to her husband Phobius in not consenting to her folly then when she was in love with him Thus talking with him Cleoboea brought her old Lover Antheus over a Well where for that purpose onely she threw a tame Partridge desiring him to aid her to have her Partridge out of the Well the young Gentleman misdoubting her in nothing as one willing to pleasure his friend and old lover went down into the Well to have the Partridge out but she revenged her old love and requited his service after this sort she threw a great stone after him and there killed him and straight for sorrow caling to mind the old amity and hidden love betwéen them she hanged her self This revenge that noble and famous Lacedemonian used who had his own wife in such admiration and was so impatient in love that he was as much hated of her as she of him was honoured and estéemed For she loves King Acrotatus son so dear that her husband Cleonimus understanding the same went to Epire to King Pyrrhus perswading him earnestly to go unto Peloponesus and to move wars against King Acrotatus whereby he might revenge the injury done by his wife in killing him whom she loved best thinking it a greater revenge to kill him whom she loved better then her self then to revenge it upon her own person Valerius Torquatus for that he might not have Tuscus daughter in marriage moved wars immediately and revenged the same with bloud For what cause did Progne King Pandions daughter of Athens kill her own son Iâ—is and gave him to be eaten unto his father and her husband King Pereus of Thrace for nothing but to revenge her sister Phylomela whom her husband deflowred Why did Nero that cruell Emperour kill Seneca his master and teacher in all his youth for nothing but to revenge old stripes which he received at his master being a boy For what purpose did Cateline Silla Damasippus Marius and others make quarrels to plague Rome to punish all Italy to destroy the country for nothing but for that they could not abide the one to be above the other Darius after that he had taken the City of Babilon he revenged his old malice after this sort as Herodotus in his third book affirms he caused thrée thousand of the best within the City to be hanged Attilla King of Panonia slue eleven thousand virgins at the siege of Colonia So several were revenges amongst men so cruel yea so foolish that Xerxes and Cyrus two great Kings of Persia when the water of Hellespont troubled Xerxes and molested his souldiers he forthwith commanded that the sea of Hellespont should have thrée hundred stripes and willed thrée hundred pair of Fetters to be thrown into Helespont to bind the sea Even so did Cyrus because the river Gindes did drown one of his best geldings he made his souldiers to divide the river into a hundred and fourscore small parts to revenge the rage of the river toward him thinking that by breaking of the great rage of so great a stream he well and worthily requited the injuries of Ginges These are cruell revenges too many are of these insomuch that women revenge their malice after this sort So Tomyris Quéen of Scithia to revenge her son Margapites death slue King Cyrus and two hundred thousands of his souldiers too great a slaughter for one mans death and not yet satisfied till she bathed Cyrus head in a great vessel of bloud This Bâ—ronice Pollia and divers cruell women have performed Princes ought to use advisement in revenging and wisedome in sufferance For as Frederick the Emperour was wont to say Princes that revenge hastily and especially wrongfully are like fair marks for
men There is nothing neither can there be any thing more ugly to behold then mans face when he is angry nor to be feared because he hath no rule over himself All the painters of Persia had much to do to draw in colours the terrible countenance and fiery face of Queen Semiramis when she heard that her City of Babylon was besieged by the enemies being then dressing of her head she came with her hairs hand flying in the wind half amazed at the news Her picture in this discontent and fury stood as long as Babylon continued as a monument and a terrible mirrour to posterity We read of the like history of Olimpias whose anger was such when she thought of her son Alexander that she straight ways like a raging Lion or a cruel Tiger digged up the body of Iolas Alexanders murtherer and tare his body in small pieces and gave it to the birds of the air Such anger was in Marcus Antonius towards Cicero that he was not contented at Ciceroes death but comanded his head to be set before him on the Table to féed therewith his wrathfull heart and gréedy eys and his wife Fulvia to shew her anger pulled out his tongue and pinned it to her hood and ware it on her head in token of her cruel and Tigrish heart The noble Roman Metellus was so inflamed against Pompey for at what time he was appointed by the Senatours of Rome to succéed Metellus in his pro-consulship in Spaine Metellus perceiving that hee was discharged he brake for very anger all the furniture of wars and dedestroied all the provision he famished the Elephants and permitted his souldiers to do what injury they could against Pompey so great was his anger that to hinder Pompey he injured his native City of Rome The property of anger is to hurt divers in séeking to offend one As he is not wise that cannot be angry so he is most wise that can moderate anger The fame and renown that both Themistocles and Aristides got in vanquishing their anger one towards the other was great for being sent both as Embassadours for the stâ—te of Athens travelling over a high hill Themistocles said unto Aristides shall we both bury our anger on this hill and go as friends and not as enemies and there though the cause was great they became friends one to the other forgetting and forgiving one anothers fault Anger and wrath are the onely poison of the world whence hidden hatred doth procéed for to nourish the one is to féed the other Therefore it is written that hidden hatred private wrath and young mens counsel hath béen the very cause of divers destructions Manlius Torquatus after he had conquered Campania and triumphed over the Latins returning into the City with noble fame though the Senatours of the City met him in triumph yet the young men of Rome more disdainfull then courteous were more willing to have his death then desirous of his life the cause is known in Valerius I will omit to speak of Caligula whose anger and hatred was such that he wished Rome had but one neck that with one stroke he might strike it off Neither will I recite Hâ—logabalus who amongst writers is named the beast and not the Emperour of Rome The histories of Catelin Silla and Appius for their anger and hatred towards their country and native City are extant in Plutarch and Salust by this anger and wrath proceeded invectives and declarations and then envy and malice began to build their bowers by their chief Carpenter anger and mischief and vengeance doth alwaies depend upon them And because anger is the onely counsel of all mischief I will speak of those two monstrous furies incident alwaies to anger I mean Envy and Malice and shall referre that to Envy and Malice which might have been spoken on this subject CHAP. XLI Of Perjury and Faith and how Princes have been honoured and punished accordingly FAith is the foundation of Iustice and Iustice is the chief means as Aristotle saith to preserve a Publick Weal We will therefore note how faithfull just some Princes have béen how wicked and false others have shewed themselves there are so many vertues in the one and vices in the other For some from foes become friends as Clodius and Cicero two great enemies a long time and yet before two faithfull friends Tiberius likewise and Affricanus from mortal foes grew to be such perpetual friends that Affricanus gave his onely daughter Cornelia in marriage to Tiberius Even so some again from friends became foes yea from tried friendship to mortal enmity as Dion of Siracusa was killed by Calicrates his most assured friend as he thought with whom alwaies before he found friendship and faith Polimnestor likewise though King Priamus reposed such great trust and confidence in him that he committed his own son Polidorus to his custody yet he falsly slew him and murthered him though beside friendship he was his near kinsman How well saith Socrates do faithfull friends far excell all Gold for in danger faith is tried and in necessity friends are known Such is the secret force of truth and love and such is the hidden subtilty of falshood as may be proved in a history of Sextus Pompeius son and heir unto Pompey the great The faith and justice of Pompey at what time he had appointed a banquet for Augustus Caesar and Marcus Antonius upon the seas was well tried for being moved by divers at that time to revenge his fathers death Pompeius the great and especially at that time being prompted to it by his friend and master of the ship whose name was Menedorus Sextus in no wise would suffer it saying that faith and justice ought not to be turned into perjury and falshood for said he as it is perjury to omit faith and promise made to these Emperours so this is tyranny and not justice to revenge my fathers death upon innocence And true it was that Augustus Caesar was then but a boy and brought up in school in Apulia when his uncle Julius Caesar vanquished Pompey And Marcus Antonius was rather a friend to Sextus father then a foe and therefore no lesse faithfull was Sextus in preserving then just in weighing innocency Far unlike was false Hannibal who under pretence of peace with the Romans sent Embassadours unto Rome to treat thereof where they were honourably received but well requited he the courtesie of Rome to his Embassadours For when that noble Roman Cornelius came from Rome as an Embassadour unto Hannibal his welcome was such that he never went alive unto Rome again for most cruelly and falsly was he slain by Hannibal In this falshood and perjury was Hannibal much defamed whose vertues were not so much corrupted by the vilenesse of his own nature as by the falshood and corruption of the Countrey which alwaies in this was not to be trusted of which it is proverbially spoked Poeni perfidi the Carthaginians are false for
but one year a ruler in the Empire was poysoned by his mother in Law named Martina The very cause of the Emperor Conradus death who was Fredericks son was onely the Empire and rule of Rome for Manfredus his successour hired the Physitians to poyson him that he might have the onely sway O unhappy state of Princes whose lives are desired both of friends and foes No lesse danger it is to be in favour with Princes sometime then perillous to be Princes We read of a Quéen named Rosimunda the daughter of King Cunimund of Gepida who after she had poysoned Albonius King of the Longobards her first husband did marry a Prince of Ravenna named Helinges whom likwise she thought to poison but being warned in the middest of his draught he caused his wife to drink the rest which drink was the cause of both their deaths How many noble Princes in the middest of their pilgrimages have died that death as Dioclesian the Emperour of Rome Lotarius King of France Charls the eight of that name with divers others as Hannibal prince of Carthage Aristobulus King of Iudea and Lucullus Generall of Rome Princes and noble men do sometime poison themselves lest they should be inforced to serve their foes as Themistocles being banished from his country of Athens being in service under Artaxerxes King of Persia poisoned himself with the bloud of a Bull in presence of all the Persians lest he should be compelled to fight in wars against Gréece his country Even so Aratus prince of Sicionia perceiving Philip the younger would banish and exile him out of his country was inforced with poison to drink his own death out of his own hand Even after this sort after long administration of the Commonwealth did noble Socrates learned Anaxagoras worthy Seneca and famous Demosthenes poison themselves Thus their pilgrimages were ended and their lives finished their honour and dignity their fame and renown did purchase them death Happy then are those whom the world knows not who desire not to be acquainted with the world but quiet and contented do finish the course of their pilgrimages Had not Jugurthus thirsted for the Kingdom of Numidia he had not slain his two brethren Adherbal and Hempsal which were partakers of the Crown for the which vengeance fell upon him being subdued by Marius and dying afterwards in prison Had not King Siphax thirsted after the Empire of Rome he had never béen taken captive and prisoner by Tiberius where he at length out of his Kingdome died in prison Henry the third was of his own son named Henry put again in prison where he died Aristonicus for all his businesse and great doings was vanquished by the Consull Aquilius and put in prison where likewise he died In prison divers princes have ended their lives in forrein countries Strange kinds of deaths happen upon Princes more then on any other men as orderly I shall prove by their pilgrimages and lives Some by fire as the Tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum who was burned with all his children and his wife in the Brasen Bull which Perillus made for others was first of all put into it himself By fire was the Emperour Valentine burned by the Goths by fire was that famous Greek Alcibiades destroied in Phrygia and burned in bed with his mistresse Timandra after he had ruled Athens and all Greece a long while Sardanapalus that great King and last prince of Assyria fearing to fall into the hands of Arbactus and detesting to die by his enemies made a solemn fire when after his lewd life wantoning in lust and following his desires he burned himself it was the end of the renowned Hercules who conquered Monsters subdued Serpents Lions Dragons and wild beasts at the last he put on the shirt of Nestus the Centaur which burned him alive What shall I speak of Boges the dear friend sometime of King Xerxes who when he knew that he could not escape the hand of Cimon and the power of Atâ—ens he made a great fire where he caused his wife and concubines his children and family to be burned and then his gold silver and treasure and last of all he burned himself Empedocles Catullus Luctatius Asdrubal and Poâ—tia died this death So desirous were men alwaies to become princes so ambitious of honour so greedy of wealth that having the name of a King they thought to avoid and escape that which alwaies waits on the heels of Princes I mean death Were not princes hanged by their own subjects which is the vilest and most ignominious death that can be Achaeas King of Lidia for that he troubled his subjects with new taxes and subsedies was hanged by his own subjects at the river of Pactolus Bomilchar a Prince of Libia being suspected by the Carthaginians that he had conspired with Agathocles unto the annoiance of the subjects was hanged in the City of Carthage in the middest of the Market Policrates who was supposed to be the happiest Prince that ever reigned in Samos and never sustained any losse by fortune was at last by Orontes the Persian King Darius General hanged in sight of Samos Herodotus doth affirm that Leonides that famous King of Sparta who long ruled the Lacedemonians with great fame and renown was by Xerxes King of Persia after his head was smitten off commanded notwithstanding to be hanged Trogus doth write of Hanno a prince of Carthage which flourished in the time of King Philip father to Alexander the great who for his prosperous successe that he had in all his attempts waxed to be such a tyrant that his own people first bound him with cords whipt him with rods pluckt out his eys brake his legs cut off his hands and at last to recompence his tyranny they hanged him up in Carthage These were no mean men that thus were hanged in their own country and by their own people Thus Princes in the middest of their lives have béen arrested by death and by divers kinds of death Some as you have heard by poison some by fire some by hanging have ended their pilgrimages some again have been devoured by their own horses as Diomedes King of Thracia became food himself to those beasts which before he fed with mens bodies The King of Eubea for his tyranny in Boetia was given by Hercules to be eaten by his own horses Licinius the Emperour at what time he had appointed that his daughter Hâ—rina should be given to his horses to be eaten he himself giving her as food unto them was torn in pieces It hâ—ppened that Neocles the son of that noble Greek Themistocks was by a horse likewise devoured And this was not strange unto princes for they were alwaies subject unto all kind of deaths After that the famous prince Mâ—â—us Captain of the Lybians had broken truce with the Romans he was afterward as Livi doth witnesse taken and drawn by four great horses alive at the cemmandement of Tullus Hostilius being then King of Rome Hâ—ppâ—litus son
son to Theseus being falsly accused by his mother in law Quéen Phedra and flying to avoid the fury and rage of his father at the request of the Queen was torn in pieces by wild horses But let us passe further and we shall read that as some were devoured by horses so others were by Serpents stung to death as Laocoon that worthy Troyan was by two Serpents destroyed yea that famous and warlike woman Cleopatra Quéen of Egypt after her lover and friend Marcus Antonius was overcome by Augustus Caesar the Emperour did chuse rather to be overcome with Serpents then subdued by Caesar With this death was Opheltes the son of Licurgus King of Menea vanquished Again some have perished by wild Bores and raging Lions as Anceus King of Samos and Paphages King of Ambracia the one by a Bore the other by a Lion Some have béen devoured by dogs as Linus the son of Apollo Pliny in his seventh book metions a Quéen in Bithinia named Cosinges K. Nâ—comedes wife whom her own dogs flew tare in pieces Euripides that learned Gréek coming in the night time from Archelaus King of Macedonia with whom he had been at supper was incountered by his enemy Promerus who set his dogs on him and did tear him to pieces Even so were Herachtus and Diogenes both Philosophers by dogs likewise killed I may not forget so great a prince as Basilius the Emperour of Macedon who in hunting amongst his Lords and Nobles yea amongst thousands of his Commons he onely meeting a Hart in the chase was hurt by him in the leg whereof he died As for Seleucus King of Syria son to Antiochus surnamed the Great and Bâ—la King of Panonia they were both thrown by their horses and died If these mischance happen unto princes in the midst of their state what is their glory but misery since nothing expelleth fate nor can avoid death Some have been so weary of life some so fearfull of death that they have thrown themselves into the water to be drowned others for all their diligent fear and watching for death have most shamefully notwithstanding been by death prevented Frederick the Emperour marching towards Ierusalem after that he had taken several Cities and Townes in Armenia in passing through a little river was drowned Decius that noble King being enforced to take his flight from the Goths with whom he then was in wars was drowned in the Marish ground Marcus Marcellus after that he had béen a Consul in Rome thrée times before the third wars betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians was likewise by shipwrack cast away How many noble Princes have béen drowned as Pharaoh King of Egypt in the red sea of whom we read in the sacred scriptures How many have the seas despoyled of life and with their own names christened the names of seas and waters in which they were drowned As by the death of Aegeus King of Athens the sea Aegeum was so called by the death of Tyrrhenus King of Lydia the sea was called The Tyrrhen Sea And so King Tyberinus altered the river called Aelbula by his death to be the river of Tyber Again the sea Hellespont was so called by a woman named Helle drowned in it So by Iâ—arus and Myrtilus the sea of Icarus and the sea Myrton were so called Divers Princes have also perished by famine and have been compelled to eat their own flesh as Erisicthon and Neocles a Tyrant of Scicioma It is written in Curtius that Sysigambis King Darius mother died of hunger Ulysles the Gréek lest any off-spring of Hector should rise in Phrygia to revenge the fall of Troy and his countrey did cast Astianax the son of Hector over the walls alive Lycurgus King of Thrace was by his own subjects thrown headlong into the sea for that he first mingled water with wine How many famous and noble Princes have been stoned to death as valiant Pyrrhus King of the Epyrotes being in wars with Antigonus was slain by an old woman with a a tile-stone at Argos Pyrander at what time the Athenians warred against Eumolpus for that he feared famine hiding the wheat from his souldiers was therefore by them stoned to death Even so was Cinna the Roman in the wars betwixt the Gauls and the Romans for the like offence stoned to death Stout Cebrior King Priaâ—'s son was slain by a stone hurled at him by Patroclus at the siege of Troy so died Cygnus the son of Achilles at the same time O unstedfast fortune that stones should end the many lives of famous princes O imprudent princes that know not how nigh ye are always to death How many hath God punished with sudden death for their offences as Mithridates King of Pontus and Nicanor the son of Parmenio of Macedonia died suddenly Sertorius was slain suddenly at a banquet by Upenna The Emperour Heliâ—gabalus was killed upon his stool at his easement and thrown into Tyber That renowned and famous Conquerour Julius Caesar was in the middest of the City of Rome where he was Emperor yea in the Senate-house murthered and mangled by Brutus and Cassius Divers Consuls in Rome died this death as Fabius Maxâ—mus Gurges the Senator And Manlius Torquatus even at his supper died presently Some with Thunder-bolts did God likewise punish thus Capaneus was slain at the wars of Thebes Tullus Hostilius King of Rome was with a Thunderbolt for his insolency and pride slain Zoroastres King of the Bactrians the first inventer of Magick was likewise by that kind of death encountred Pride in princes was the onely cause of their falls insomuch that the poets feign that the great and monstrous Giant Eâ—câ—ladus for his proud enterprise against Jupiter was thrown by a Thunderbolt into the bottome of Aetna a fiery and flaming mountain The uncertain state of princes is séen and tried by their death Who liveth so short a time as a prince who dieth so strange a death as a prince Who liveth in care who dieth living but a prince Was not Sergius Galba and Commodus the son of Marcus sirnamed Anbilius two Emperors of Rome the one by Otho strangled in the Market place of Rome the other imprisoned by Martia his own concubine Minos King of Creet travelling after Dedalus into Sicily was by his great friend King Cocalus slain by deceit So was Alebas chief governour of Larissa murthered by his own souldiers The desire that men bear unto honour and dignity is commonly accompanied with death as Spurius Cassius and Spurius Melius for their greedinesse of the Empire of Rome were both worthily beheaded God hath shewed just vengeance upon Princes for their iniquity with plagues and pestilences which spoiled the Emperor Constantine and the Empresse Zoae his wife And by this were Marcus Antonius Alphonsus and Domitius justly and worthily punished God hath wonderfully punished the pride of Princes even with shamefull and horrible deaths insomuch that Lice and vermine have consumed their bodies alive As Maximilian the Emperour Arnulphus
Honorificus King of the Vandales and Herode King of the Iews were eaten up alive with vermine and Lice Pliny and Plutarch say that proud Sylla which sore plagued Rome and Italy had all his flesh converted into Lice and so died Herodotus doth likewise report of one Pheretrina a Quéen of the Barceans who died of this filthy and horrible death God hath taken them away in the midst of their pleasure even eating and drinking as Septimus and Valentianus two famous Emperours who died both of a surfeit for want of digestion Archesilaus died presently with one draught of wine What is the life of Princes but an uncertain Pilgrimage Nay women are famous for their pilgrimage therein As the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to hear and to learn Solomon's wisdome Cornelia from Rome being a noble woman went to Palestina to hear Saint Hierome teach Christians The pilgrimage of our life is nothing else but a continual travel until we come to our last journey which is Death then is the end of all pilgrimage and just account to be made for the same CHAP. XLV Of Death the End of all Pilgrimage THe last line of all things is death the discharge of all covenants the end of all living creatures the onely wish of the good and the very terrour of the wicked And for that the life of man is divers so is death variable after sundry manners and fashions as by experience is séen and known in all Countreys Nothing is surer then death yet nothing is more uncertain then death For Pindarus that wise King of the Liricans being demanded of certain Beotians what might best happen to man in this world Even that said he which chanced to Trophonius and Agâ—medes meaning Death For these men after they had builded a new Temple to Apollo demanded of Apollo the best reward that he could give them they thinking to enjoy some dignity or worldly substance were seven days after rewarded with death The like we read in the first Book of Herodotus where the mother of Biton and Cleobes two young men of Argos knéeling before the Image of Juno besought the Goddesse to bestow some excellent good thing upon her two sons for their pain and travel that they shewed toward her in drawing her Chariot ten miles in stead of horses The Goddesse willing to grant them the best thing that could be given to man the next night quietly in bed as they slept they both died Wherefore very well did Aristippus answer a certain man who asked how Socrates died Even in that order said he that I wish my self to die Giving to understand that any death is better then life That noble Philosopher Plato a little before he died as Sabellicus doth write did thank nature for three causes the first that he was born a man and not a beast the second that he was born in Gréece and not in Barbary the third that he was born in Socrates time who taught him to die well Hermes that great Philosopher of Egypt even dying so embraced death that he called upon that that divine spirit which ruled all the heavens to have mercy upon him being right glad that he had passed this toyling life Such is the uncertainty of death that some in the half of their days and in the midst of their fame and glory die So Alexander the great died in Babilon Pompey died in Egypt and Marcellus being a young man of great towardnesse and by adoption heir unto the Empire of Rome died It is strange to sée the varieties of death and in how divers and sundry fashions it hath happened unto Great men always Some being merry in their banquets and drinking were slain so Clitus was slain by Alexander the great being his chief friend Amnon being bidden to a banquet by Absalom was slain by him Yea all the Embassadors of Persia were commanded to be slain even drinking at the table by Amintas King of Macedonia Some end their lives wantonning with women and playing in chambers as that renowned Alcibiades being taken in wantonnesse with Timandra was slain by Lisander Even so Phaon and Speusippus the Philosopher died likewise Some bathing and refreshing themselves have perished by their own wives so Agamemnon that famous Gréek was killed by his wife Clitemnestra and Argirus Emperor of Rome by his wife Zoe Divers in prison have died as captives so Aristobulus Eumenes Aristonicus Marius Cleomenes Jugurth Siphax famous and renowned Princes Divers have béen slain in the draught as that beast Heliogabalus whom Rome so hated that he fled to a draught and there was slain and after was drawn through the streets and thrown into the river of Tyber Cneius Carbo a man of great dignity and power in Rome was commanded that he should be slain as he was sitting on his stool of ease by Pompey in the third time of his Consulship in Rome Thus shamefully have some died and thus famously others died Patroclus knew not that he should be slain by Hector Hector never thought he should be killed by Achilles Achilles never doubted his death by Paris Paris never judged that he should be vanquished by Pirrhus Neither did Pirrhus know that he should be overcome by Orestes so that no man knoweth his end where how and when he shall die and yet all men are certain and sure that they have an end that they must néeds die And yet the fear of death hath overcome the stoutest souldiers We read that Asdrubal of Carthage a noble and a famous Captain â—verthrown by Scipio for fear of death knéeled before Scipio embracing his féet and was so fearfull that his own wife was ashamed of his doings Yet had this famous Generall rather be a laughing stock to the Romans a bond man to Scipio running a foot like a lacky after his triumph then to die manfully in the behalf of his countrey which valiantly for a time he defended Perpenna likewise a famous Roman being taken in Spain by the souldiers of Pompey in a place full of Groves fearing lest at that instant he should be slain by Pompey's souldiers he made them believe that he had divers things to speak to Pompey of some designs that the enemies had in hand against him rather had Perpenna betray his friends and his fellows yea and all his country to his enemy then suffer a sudden death A greater fear of death we read in that book of Fulgosius of the Emperour Vitellius who after he had vanquished and slain divers nobles and shewed great wrongs unto the Emperour Otho and to Sabinus brother to Vespasian the Emperour being in fear of his life by Vespasian and being taken by the souldiers hee besought them rather then die presently that hee might be kept safe in prison untill he might sée and speak with Vespasian the Emperour such was his fear that he did hide himself in a chest to prolong his wretched life So fearful was Caligula of death that he would never go abroad at any