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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	find_v	great_a	know_v	2,951	5	3.3432	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54420	The Syracusan tyrant, or, The life of Agathocles with some reflexions on the practices of our modern usurpers.; Syracusan tyrant	Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1608; ESTC R16938	130,191	299

to be satisfied but by mutual Injuries And he that wrestles with the People's hate will find himself as born under the Starre of Hercules who when he had cut off one of the Hydra's heads had his labours renewed by the sudden production of many more and while a Tyrant seeks to secure himself by injuring one of his suspected Enemies he will provoke a multitude more eager for his ruine So that he shall find himself necessitated if he will keep what he hath wickedly got to repeat his Crimes and increase their miseries till they become uncapable of Liberty stupid under their calamities and neither desirous nor able to take revenge Of the barbarous effects of this kind of Tyrannie no place was evermore sensible then the Island of Sicily a Country continually teeming with these Monsters who endeavouring to enslave their Cities and perpetuate their Dominion made that Island the Theatre of Misery and Villany And among all those plagues of mankind and disturbers of Society whose acts Antiquity hath transmitted to posterity none have their memories branded with more eternal marks of Infamy then Agathocles whose bloody Artifices and execrable practices to raise himself from an abject and base condition to an absolute Soveraignty and from being the most contemptible part of a Community to arrive at such a power as to trample upon the Liberties of his City made the Ancient Historians never mention him without the Title of The most Impious And Machiavel the modern Criuck of Policy and grand Instructor of Tyranny singles him out of the whole Herd of antique Monsters as the singular Patern of Tyranny and Example of such that by Injustice and Impiety will acquire Principality in whose ascent to Greatness he acknowledgeth no advantage by Vertue nor any favourable assistance from Fortune but that all his Power was the sole product of a monstrous Wickedness which will appear in this History of his Life AGATHOCLES the Syracusan Tyrant was the son of Carcinus a native of Rhegium a City in Italy who being banish'd from thence had seated himself at Thermae one of the Cities in Sicily that were then under the Dominion of the Carthaginians Where taking to Wife one of the Citizens daughters and she having conceived by him he was continually disquieted in his sleep with horrid dreams concerning the child his Wife was then pregnant with To put an end to these terrors and to be assured from the Gods what the issue should be of what his Dreams did but confusedly and imperfectly represent there was presented to him this opportunity The Carthaginian Commander in Sicily was at that time dispatching some Embassadors to the Oracle at Delphos to enquire of the Event of some publick design These men Carcinus acquaints with his present inquietudes and desires them to consult the Oracle concerning his expected Issue They satisfied his desire and received from the Oracle this answer That he which should be born should be a cause of exceeding great miseries both to the Carthaginians and all Sicily Which answer allaied not but increased the disquiets of Carcinus for he was now tortured betwixt the fear of the Punick wrath if he should foster their future Enemy and his Paternal affection which disswaded him from sacrificing his own Child whom the Gods had designed to some great emploiments or otherwise he could not cause such troubles that he might secure the Carthaginian fears that were but his imperious Oppressors and for the quiet of Sicily which was but his stepdame But at last his fears as is usual prevailed over his other affections and therefore left the breeding of his Child should be the cause of both their deaths he exposed it to perish in publick and some were appointed to watch its end But it being impossible to reverse the Decrees of Fate which though foreknown are not to be avoided his life out-lasted the patience of the Watchers who being tired in their expectation became more negligent in their charge which afforded his Mother an opportunity to steal him away by night But not daring to bring him home lest she should renew his danger or consulting the safety of her Husband she commits him to the care of her Brother Heraclidas and calls him after her Fathers name Agathocles This is the relation of Agathocles's first coming into the world a Birth proper for a Tyrant wherein he proved terrible and dangerous to those that were the Authors of his life But such Prodigies and Predictions as these are of a dubious credit and uncertain Original For although the Longanimity of Heaven that unwillingly punishes the sins of men may and doth sometimes by means that seem most proper to its infinite Wisdome before it strikes warn the World of those plagues that shall come upon them yet most of these Oracles which we meet with in History are post-nate and after the fact invented and published and that from various beginnings For sometimes the Vulgar who are more Superstitious then Religious will either find or frame a Prediction for every great Event Because they being ignorant of the true Causes of things and not able to observe the progress of Effects but considering the Event in its full product cannot but admire it and therefore attribute it to that power which onely can work wonders and so seek or make a Decree of Heaven that should convey the Issues through so many seeming difficulties Hence also it came to pass that when men of obscure births have performed great actions in the World their descent not fully appearing when their actions were full of splendour they have imagined their Vertue was to be their Herald and so did derive their pedegree from the Gods as Hercules from Jupiter and Romulus from Mars And because the Divine Providence willing to shew that its sole power and not the prudence of Men doth make them great doth often expose such in their Infancy to great dangers whom in their riper years it intends to advance to mighty Honours thereby beginning to demonstrate its force when Prudence cannot pretend to their preservation the Vulgar likewise fits by their fancies for those whom with admiration they behold raised from low beginnings to unexpected Greatness such entertainments in the World as must require the care of the Gods for their preservation Thus the Romans formed the beginnings of their Romulus and the Persians for their Cyrus and the Inhabitants of Spain for their King Habis Nor are the rude Multitude the onely authors of such fabulous Miracles but Tyrants themselves which accommodate their designs to the Vulgar fancies are frequently the very Oracles that frame Predictions concerning their own grandeur For these either designing the change of their Republicks or being already seized of power do labour to make the world believe that Heaven is of the Plot and concerned in their preservation nothing being more prevalent upon the minds of men then Religion which Tyrants by these Oracles make use of to produce an awe in their

to him or fear anger and hate towards the Senate He invokes their faith and compassion of him and complains of his hard Fate that it was never safe for him to love the People and that none was ever an enemy to the Common-wealth but they would be likewise the contrivers of his destruction For do you not hear saith he how my execution and your punishment is already decreed and how the Senate hath sent these their most subtle Agents to draw me back to the place of slaughter and to contrive the scene of your massacre They envy us the honour of dying upon our enemies swords in defence of our Country's Liberty and we must brutishly fall as sacrifices to their insolent Lusts and our blood be spilt to testifie that such Monsters ruled us In vain do we arm and expose our selves to death to keep off a forein yoke when such ungrateful wretches devote us to ruine at home Are we not patient enough in our slavery when we offer our selves to all the dangers of warre that they may be secure in their effeminate pleasures and wantonly lavish that wealth which is the price of our blood but must we also be basely sent out of the world that they alone may enjoy it When will these men know the just bounds of commanding or we fully apprehend the misery of our ignominious thraldome Then pausing as if he had been interrupted with tears which he shed the Vulgar rout hindered any further progress in his speech with loud clamour each one according to the sense of his Interest or Passion exclaiming against the Vices of the Senators some charged them with Cruelty others railed at their Covetousness and another sort did condemn their Pride and Perfidiousness and therefore they jointly cried out That he should not wait till such inhumane vipers did return to a love of their own City but speedily revenge his own and their injuries that he had already offended enough against his trust in dealing so gently with such as deserved as little of mercy as they shewed of justice Agathocles suffers not their present rage to cool knowing that wicked attempts are to be done with a sudden fury though good counsels gather strength by delay and seeing they understood the causes of hatred he would likewise quicken them with the hopes of Spoil Go saith he and be your own Avengers make the Tyrants feel what they decreed you should suffer Let the wealth of Senators that know no modesty in their commands be the rewards of such generous Souls that can endure no Slavery Leave them no friends or confidents which may bewail or revenge their death nor children to inherit their Crimes with their Wealth Then immediately not to give space to the bad to repent nor to the good if there were any there to consider and in abhorrency of the fact to unite against him he commands the Trumpets to sound a charge as if he were sacking an Enemies Town The caitiff Army having this full licence to satisfie their revenge covetousness and lust soon fell to the execution and left nothing undone that a conquered City feels from an enraged Enemy They guarded all the posts of the City and shut up the Gates that none might escape their fury then they slew all the most daring and popular Citizens who hearing the tumult came forth unarmed into the streets to inquire the cause Then the houses streamed with the blood of the owners the Innocent fell with the Guilty and every one was slain that had something to satisfie the expectation of his murderer He that had no enemy met with death at the hand of his friend and a good name was a mark for ruine The Altars of the Gods were coloured with the blood of those that fled to them for refuge as Victimes to an incensed Deity The aged men and ancient matrons were led about in scorn by their miseries to make up the merrier part of this Tragedy And that nothing of unhappiness might be unfelt by the miserable Syracusans Rapes were mingled with Slaughters he that was the Assassinate of the Husband would be the Ravisher of the Wife and he that reeked with the blood of the Father would quench his flames of lust with the dishonour of the Daughter Their rage and lust was so high against the people that at last it grew hot among themselves and he was accounted an enemy that had got the more precious booty When any Virgin or Youth whom beauty made conspicuous fell into the hands of this barbarous rabble they were commonly torn in pieces by the violence of those who contended for their first abuse and then became the quarrel and armed the Ravishers to their mutual ruine Others while they hasted away with the gold and silver of the murdered owner were themselves a prey to a stronger arm Thus death and ruine reigned in Syracuse and the first day there were no less then four thousand of the most eminent Citizens that by honest arts had won the affections of the people murdered Some were apprehended and slain at the gates through which they thought to flie Others met death from which they fled in climbing over the town wall by too much fear and hast breaking their necks and limbs About six thousand escaped and some of them got safe to Agrigentum and other neighbouring Cities where the relation of their miseries did move a great deal of pity but the inhumane Souldiers would yet make them sensible of their fury in their remaining parts with more contumely ravishing their Wives and Daughters because they themselves had escaped with their lives This Cruelty lasted for two daies Agathocles's thirst of blood being not sooner to be quenched or because his authority was not yet so great as to forbid those crimes which he might with ease command or he was willing to indulge the lufts of his Army beyond all hopes of pardon that so they might not expect safety but in the conduct and preservation of him who had authorized their wickedness But when this base rabble of men did seem to be satiated with villany as having no more subjects to practice on to conclude the Tragedy he sends for all those Citizens whom he had secured and who had been reserved to feed his own eyes with their blood Of these such as he had most injured and whose vertues he might most fear were slain before him others less considerable he banished Onely one Dinocrates a bold and faithless person so like him in vices that the similitude had been the ground of a former acquaintance though now he was a stranger to his design he freely sets at liberty which was not the effect of Clemency or Friendship Vertues that Tyrants are not capable of but to provide a refuge for himself in the future For even the most barbarous and bloodiest villains in diffidence of a change of affairs will provide some private favour against the publick hatred This was Agathocles's first scene of Dominion