giue mee that which himselfe wanteth whereof I haue sufficient but I will send him that which hee lacketh and I my selfe haue abundantly and as for threats and menaces I nothing at al regard for if I liue saith he my countrie will bring foorth things sufficiently to furnish my life withall so that I shall not need his rewards as for death I do nothing feare but exceedingly desire it which shall deliuer me from my old withered carkas Thus you may perceiue that this wise philosopher accounted them poore which were not satisfied and those rich which were contented Scho. Sir I doo verie well perceiue my error and doo acknowledge it for it standeth with good reason that the riches of this world is contentment and that a coueting and discontented minde is extreame pouertie therefore if it please you to procéed forward according to your pretence I shall according to my promise be attentiue Fa. Well séeing you are satisfied heerein I will proceede further The Philosopher Diogenes as I said before perceiuing the vnconstancie of vnfriendly fortune the mutability of honour with the vncertaintie of life so much contemned despised the vaine preferments and promotions of this transitorie life that he liued content and satisfied with a small portion of possession which was but his bare tub or tun wherein he was Lord and King without controlment crauing neither territories or confines to inlarge this his quiet kingdom finding this his poore patrimonie so voyd of all incumbraunces vexations and inuasions that he contented himself with this life vntill his end turning his tub in the summer toward the North for the coolenesse and shade from the Sunne in winter to the South for the heate and warmnes thereof making his vaunt merelie that he could rule his Lordship and possession as he listed from the inuasions of his enimies which was the sharpe bitter windes by turning his tumbling pallaice Thus liuing in contentment it chanced that Alexander the great king of Macedony hearing the rare fame of this Philosopher thought good to visit Diognes in his tub to heare his wisedome and the cause of his so solitarie liuing came vnto him being set in his tun saying My friend I haue long desired to see thee and to inrich thee being so a poore a philosopher therefore aske of mee what goods or liuing thou needest and I will inrich thee with it to thy great contentment To whom when Diogenes had giuen thankes for his great courtesie offered he saide If thou wilt doo mee this fauour as thou saist then I pray thee take not that from me which thou canst not giue me but stand from before the mouth of my tun that I may haue the light and warmnes of the Sunne which is to me great riches for now thou detainest that from me and canst not giue me the like therefore do me but this fauour and I will craue of thee no other substāce Then said Alexander My friend how much possession lands and reuenues woulde satisfie and content thee if now I should giue thee thyful contentment to whom Diogenes answered Euen as much Alexander as thou must be thy selfe contented with all in the end But at the first he misconstrued the meaning of Diogenes and thought him wonderfull couetous knowing that he himselfe had nowe most part of the world in possession and dayly striued to get the whole therefore he thought it an vnsatiable appetite of him not to be contented with lesse but after consideration on the cause he perceiued that Diogenes meant his length of ground to be sufficient patrimony for himselfe which in the end the greatest king of the earth must be contented withall then said Alexander to him againe My good friend what thing best contenteth thee in this world to whom Diogenes replied saying That thing sir King which thou art most discontented withall in the worlde which is a satisfied and contented mind to couet for no more than sufficeth which in thee saieth he I finde contrary Alexander was nothing at all offended at the reprehension of the wise Philosopher but rather smelling his owne follie said at that time Truely if I wer not Alexander I would be Diogenes But we see that he was Alexāder therefore he could not be Diogenes he was couetous therefore he could not be contented wherefore it appeareth that Diogenes had the gift of temperance not to couet his owne destruction as Alexander did but being rich in contentment despised fortune for that her force coulde not molest or touch him reiecting honour because of the mutablitie and varietie of the same regarding not life for the vncertaintie of it but liued as a man contented fearing no calamitie nor aduersitie whatsoeuer might happē to him but was readie with patience to digest it Sch. Truly it doth appeare most plaine that this man had the gift of temperance sufficiently and that he was nothing subiect to the wauering wheele of fortune neither passing of her smooth countenance nor louring looke liuing a stranger to her whereby he kept himself free from her force notwithstanding I would faine know if the end and death of him were as worthie as his life for No man is called happie before his end which being answerable I must needs confesse the man deserued merit Fa. Indeed you say true it is good in our conference orderly to proceede for the life of man cannot be so cleare but that it may be much dimmed and dusked by an ill ende making digression from the former life but truely Diogenes continued a sound Philosopher vntill his end at his death it is said that he lying grieuously sicke perceiuing it a thing vnpossible for him to recouer his former health by feeling his aged body so much weakened and hauing in this great extremitie of sicknesse smal friends to comfort or relieue him threw himselfe downe tumbling from the top of a bridge abutting néere to the common place of excercises and commanded the kéeper or ouer-séer of the bridge that when life failed and breath was quite departed hee should cast his carkasse into the riuer Ilissus Adeò pro nihilo duxit mortem sepulturam Diogenes So little regarded Diogenes the inuasion of death or the tranquilitie and quietnesse of his bodie in the graue But I say not that this end was commendable in a Christian for he was long before the incarnation of Christ being an heathen man notwithstanding indued with wonderfull wisdome Againe some report of his death after this sort saying he died when he was 90. yeares olde and being at the poynt of death willed his bodie to bee left vnburied saying That he would not be troublesome to his friends to digge and delue for him who had no pleasure in their paine vnlesse they would doo it to auoide the smell and stincking sauor whereby he were likely to annoy them but when his friends asked him whether he would lie aboue the ground to be deuoured of birds and beastes No friends
and strength in warre Therfore I say that may not be allowed to encourage the soldiors which the world may laugh to scorne the soldior doth get more glorie to his Countrey and greater praise to himselfe through his victorious conquest than by his ridiculous and superfluous brauerie Wherfore in my iudgement it were farre more necessarie that what cost and charge were bestowed in time of warre should only be to the preseruation of both Common welth and souldior which cannot be so well defended with vaine toyes as with good and warlike furniture What was the cause that Alexander the great with so small a number of men subdued and conquered such a great part of the world Was it through the youthfulnesse of his Captaines and brauerie of his souldiors No truely but it came to passe by their braue mindes and ablenesse of bodie who had hardned themselues to the warre of purpose and not through their nice brauerie in apparell For when Alexander first set foorth to such a mightie enterprize his Armie was but 32000. footmen and 4500. horsemen which was miraculous that so small a handfull of men should doo such mightie exployts and goe through so manie strong Nations vnconquered The cause why is easely coniectured for that Alexander alway had this prouident care and foresight in placing officers in his Armie insomuch that he by no meanes would admit or suffer anie one to beare rule as a Captaine or Leader in his Armie vnlesse hee were well knowen to be a man of great grauitie wisedome pollicie and good gouernement prouided alwayes that he should be a man of the age of 60. yeares to the intent hee might haue all these aforesaide qualities the better and also that no common souldior shoulde be admitted into the hoast vnlesse he were thirtie yeares old at the least which was especially to this end that he might haue both wise leaders and valiant souldiors ioyning both policie and force together Did not he in the warres betwixt him and Darius doe mighty and inuincible exploits by the wise and circumspect guiding of his small army For in the first battaile betwixt them Darius lost the field and had his great army put to flight and slaine which was sixe hundred thousand strong fighting men in the fieldes of Adrastis where Alexander lost but nine footemen and an hundred horsemen and in the second fight betwixt them Darius led foorth against Alexander three hundred thousand footemen and of horsemen an hundred thousand in which conflict the Macedonians slewe of the Persians one and fortie thousand footemen and of horsemen ten thousand and tooke prisoners fortie thousand there were slaine of the Macedonians a hundred and thirtie footemen of horsemen a hundred and fiftie Also in the last fight when Alexander won the whole Empire of Persia Darius brought into the field against him foure hundred thousand footemen and a hundred thousand horsemen which were in this last fight vtterly subdued and ouerthrowne by the wonderfull policie of the circumspect Alexander In like sort the Greekes when Xerxes King of Persia inuaded them with seuen hundred thousand of his owne people and thrée hundred thousand strange soldiors and had on the sea a most mighty and inuincible nauie of shippes by their wise and carefull gouernement in leading their small hoast put the mighty Xerxes to flight and all his huge army causing him to flee priuily and vnknowne in a small fisher boat home to his countrie againe to saue his life to his great reproch and infamie and to their perpetual praise and glory Also Machabaeus the first of that name with thrée thousand men ouercame and vtterly subdued Lysias the Lieutenant of Antiochus with fortie thousand footemen and sixe thousand horsemen which happened thorowe the the circumspect guiding and carefull leading of so small a power and not by his rash wilfulnes and vnaduised ventring therfore these examples doe partly purport vnto vs that the hope and hazard of battel doth wholy consist and depend in the carefull placing of Officers in the army knowing the captaines to be men of experience and graue in wisedome the Souldiours at mans estate with modest gouernement expelling out of the armie all riotous drunkards lewde companions disordered fellowes bréeders of quarrells and dissention being prone and apt to mooue vproares mutinies rebellions disobeying their Captaines and leaders to the whole subuersion and cleare ouerthrowe of the hoste for whereas eyther the armie is gouerned by a drunken disordered Captaine or the Captaine troubled wyth a band or crew of disordered drunkards there can neither any good exployt goe forward nor any happy euent be hoped after the learned wise Erasmus sayth Citius enim ex pumice aquam hauseris quam ebrio sobrium aut dictum aut factum extorseris For a man may sooner saith he draw water out of a hard stone than to wrest from a drunken man eyther anie sober saying or sober deede And whereas rashnes is there temperance wanteth and therefore whatsoeuer happeneth by such vnaduised wilfulnesse cannot be accounted to chaunce thorough valour couragious mindes valiant manlinesse and such like but rather by desperate madnesse wilfull foolishnesse and such like ouer-rash attempts as commonlie hath more oftner bad successe than happie euent Alexander as dooth appeare in these former examples dooth rather tollerate a yong souldiour than a yong Captaine for that the Macedonian Captaines were three score and the Souldiours but thirtie because the leader shoulde be able both in grauitie pollicie and wise gouernment wyth experience to direct and guide the Souldiour and the Souldiour also by those manlie yeares be able to abide the brunt and calamitie of warre the better and all boyish toyes and wilfull rashnesse being layde apart shall be better furnished to obey his Captaine and leader Yet notwithstanding I doo not say that graue wisedome wise pollicie sage gouernement and prouident foresight whollie consisteth and dependeth in gray haires for then it might well bee obiected to mee as it was to the olde Emperour of Greece Who when the States of Athens had picked out certaine of the most wisest men of their Citie and sent them as Embassadours to him to treat of certaine causes of their common wealth but the olde doting Emperour hearing that the Athenians which were come were yong men of middle yeares and not graue and olde fathers refused to conferre with them about their message not suffering them to bee brought vnto his presence nothing at all considering on the matter whether they were wise or no. But by no meanes he woulde heare them by reason of their yeares yet he full well knewe that they were the most wisest that the Athenians coulde finde out notwithstanding vppon their earnest intercession to haue accesse to his presence hee alway returned this answere saying That he would not conferre with such vnwise beardlesse boyes who by outward viewe had but small experience Condemning them by his doating iudgement before
help whē he néeded desiring to vse him as one in whō he might repose his trust Now was Alexāder glad that of his own accord he would return and because he would better let him vnderstande some signe of good wil harty loue he accōpanied him into Thessaly but after they were arriued in the Citie of Larissa they a fresh began to practise new treason one against another and first Alexander to put Demetrius quite out of suspition either without armour or weapon or anie guard to attend on his person would oft visite him hoping thereby to make him doo the like but he was in his so thinking greatly deceiued for as Alexander one night came to supper to Demetrius without guard according to his accustomed wont and that they wer in the chiefe of their supper Demetrius sodainly arose from the table wherat Alexander was sore abashed insomuch that hee arose also followed him to the hall doore but so soone as Demetrius was without he gaue signe and token to his souldiors who incontinently fell vppon Alexander and slew him and certaine of his men which would haue defended him among whom a certain fellowe before he was killed said Demetrius hath preuented vs but a day onely Now was Demetrius King of Macedon and the Macedonians right glad of their change but not long after this Demetrius was taken prisoner by Seleuchus in battaile committed to prison where he continued vntill he died Then was the great fight betwixt Seleucus and Lysimachus which was the verie last battaile that was fought betwixt the successors of Alexander in which conflict Lysimachus was slaine Seleucus victor But Seleucus inioyed his victorie not long for he was shortly after slaine by Ptolome whose sister Lysimachus had married Also Olympias mother to Alexander the Great when she had slaine King Philip and his wife Euridice then to despite Cassander she put to death an 100. noble men of Macedon at one time also she made Nicanor brother to Cassander to be slaine and defaced the tombe and monument of Iole his other Brother to reuenge the death of Alexander her sonne as she said because it was suspected that he had poysoned him in giuing him drinke About the same time when Ptolome Lord of the Isle of Cypres vnderstood that Nicocles King of Paphos had secretly allied with Antigone hee sent two of his chiefe friends to wit Argey and Calicrate into Cypres charging them to kill the said Nicocles fearing that if he should leaue him vnpunished the rest would not sticke to doo the like When these messengers were arriued in Cypres hauing with them the souldiors of Ptolome they incompassed the house of Nicocles signifying to him their charge from Ptolome therefore they exhorted him to kill himselfe who from the beginning vsed manie words in the excusing of the fact but when hee did sée there was no account made of his tale hee at the last slewe himselfe and after that Axithia his wife vnderstood of his death she first slew two yong maides her daughters whom she had by him to the end they shuld not come into the hands of her husbands enemies and after exhorted Nicocles brothers wiues willingly to die with her which indéed they did In this sort also was the pallaice royall of Paphos ful of murders and wilfull slaughters and after in manner of a tragedie burnt for immediately after the brothers wiues of Nicocles were dead they shut vp the dores of the houses and set them on fire and foorthwith they that then liued in the pallaice killed themselues and so finished that lamētable murder In the same season while these things were done in Cypres great controuersie arose in the Countrey of Pontus after the death of Parisade sometime King of Bosphorus betwixt Satyre Eumele and Pritame Parisade his sonnes for the succession of the said Realme insomuch that the brothers made sharpe warre one against the other So it fortuned that Satyre and Pritame were both slaine in that warre wherefore the other Brother Eumele to assure himselfe of the Realme caused all the wiues children and friends of Pritame and Satyre his brethren to be slaine not long after was himselfe cruelly slaine by misfortune Now to returne to Alexander the Great and his line it was reported and partly beléeued that he himselfe consented with Olympias his mother to the death and murder of Philip his father for which gréeuous offence he himselfe with his whole line and stocke was punished accordingly For first it is to be considered that olde Antipater who in Alexanders life was his Lieutenant and after his death first had the Satrape of Macedon bestowed on him by Perdicas the Gouernour Which Antipater and Olympias could neuer agrée but still were at contention and strife both in the life time of her sonne Alexander and also after his death insomuch that when Alexander was comming from the conquest of the world making his abode in Babylon for a time and after minding to returne home into Macedon to visit his mother Olympias Antipater being then Lieutenant of Macedon considered with himselfe that if in case Alexander shuld return home that then his mother Olympias would make gréeuous complaints against him which thing he so much feared that he caused poyson to be giuen to Alexander at Babylon whereof hee presently died Thus when Alexander was dead and olde Antipater deceased there grew a new grudge and quarrell betwixt Olympias and Cassander sonne to Antipater insomuch that he tooke Olympias prisoner and in the end caused her to be slaine Aslo hee slewe Alexander sonne of Alexander the Great and Roxana his mother afterward he put to death Hercules the other sonne of Alexander with Arsinne his mother yet notwithstanding Cassander espoused Thessalonica one of the Sisters of Alexander the great who after the death of Cassander was also slaine by her own sonne Antipater Cleopatra also the other Sister of Alexander was also slaine by the commaundement of Antigonus After this sort was the whole line of Alexander for all his mightie conquests gained with lamentable slaughters and wonderfull effusion of bloud vtterly extinguished by Antipater and his Successours Also what gained his Successors by the large Kingdomes and possessions hee left For they were al by enuie depriued both of life and lands in miserable sort Insomuch that their remained not one that could iustly vaunt and brag of his happie successe but had rather good cause to mourne bewaile the cruel murders manifold slaughters and wastfull ruines both of themselues their wiues children and friends hauing also right good cause to wish that Alexander had neuer béen borne or els that he had neuer conquered so great a part of the world to leaue the possession therof to them wherby they were all driuen to vntimely death with the murder of infinite thousands of their people so that the whole whole world did lament and grieue at their
cleeues with which the Ile was inuironed withall named it Albion ab albis rupibus and also Britania of Britaniae which are the Iles that lie in the Ocean and not Britania of Brutus the supposed Troyan And so this noble Ile may be knowen to spring and descend from the valiant Greekes who suppressed the periured Troyans and beate downe their prowd towne which they by vnfaithfulnes had buylded and not to come from that wicked race who alwayes were the chiefe cause of their owne destruction and procurers of their fatall destinie by their periurie vnfaithfull dealing churlish conditions and vnsatiable lecherie as the whole world at this day doth witnes against them to the euerlasting reproach of their line and Successors Expressed by way of apparition touching the manifolde miseries wonderfull calamities and lamentable chances that happened to her vnfortunate selfe sometime Queene of stately Troy WHen that Auroraes dewes were past and Phoebus did decline And purple Titan ready prest with fainting light to shine When Cynthia did prease in place to run her compasse round And feeblely did shew her face with duskish light on ground Then walked I to silent groue my fancie to delight Where willingly I meant to bide to passe the pensiue night Sweete silence there her sound did yeeld no noyse did me molest All chirping notes were whisht at once each breathing soule did rest Amidst the hollow groue I past to ease my musing minde But no redresse of dolefull dumpes I any where could finde Vntill at last I viewde the skies where lucent lights abound And downe againe mine eyes direct vpon the human ground Then did I shake from sobbing soule the griping griefe and paine That long before had me opprest but now reuiude againe Within the groue a pleasant streame with bubling note did flowe Which I by chaunce had soone found out from hollow bankes below There musing by the running tide and soundings of the deepe The sliding flouds that smoothly passe had husht me soone asleepe And as I slept on greenish shore by help of warbling streames Strange fearefull fancies frighted me by dreadfull drowsie dreames In slumber sound me thought I spied a wight both fierce and fell A thing despisde in viler sort no creature was in hell A woman vext with eager lookes in frantike fierie moode With clapping hands and rowling eyes vncertainly she stoode She ran about with flaring haire much like to horses stout When sodain fright had pierst their minds with strouting tayles did strout Euen so or worse she roude about with head and shoulders bare And oftentimes from senselesse pate her pendant lockes she tare With bloudie nayles and hands imbrued her palmes she oft did smite And reaching for the heauens as though she to the Gods had spite With irefull cries and fearefull notes the hollow groue did sound In yelling sort from gulled bankes the ditties did rebound Like mightie bulles that fiercely meetes and filles with noise the skies And for a token of their wrath the dustie grauell flies By tearing vp of earth so she in such like frantike fits Doeth snatch vp grasse in griping hands as one beside her wits Still stalking on vntill at last she found me where I were Thus fancie fed my dreadfull dreame with grieuous gripes of feare But when that she approached neere and stood me by at length Me thought my trembling ioynts did quake to flie I had no strength With starting steps I sought to flie to shun that fearfull sight But all in vaine I oft assayed to saue my selfe by flight My fainting feet did often faile by striuing still to start No forced pace would ought preuaile or suffer to depart Thus stil me thought amid my dreame as one that were in maze With quaking corps and haire vpright full still I stoode at gaze For feare my faltring tongue did stay I durst her not behold Vntill at last with friendly cheare she said my friend be bold I wish to thee no harme at all wherfore be not dismayde But call to minde thy frighted sence and be thou not afraide Ne maruell why though I disguisde haue furiously been vext In raging sort so strange to thee for that I am perplext In minde and soule to thinke how far fell Fortune hath abusde Both me and mine in spitefull sort when hautie Gods refusde To succour vs in greatest need she turnde her face and fround Who long had smiled but now gaue help to croude vs to the ground Wherfore good friend quoth she geue eare and marke what I shall tell Lift vp thy minde be not dismayd and note my speeches well For I must needes declare the cause to ease my pensiue brest Of haplesse hap that Fate assignde and then in hope to rest With that me thought I banisht feare and quaking limmes reuiude I courage tooke againe afresh of which I was depriude Then boldly thus I said at last what madnes doeth possesse Thy vexed soule Be sure if that thy paine I may redresse To finde some ease of this thy griefe or els I were vnkind Therefore be short to ease thy smart and let me know thy mind It pities me to see the plight of thy distressed state And makes me shrinke at all to gesse on this thy heauy fate For that no fiend that comes from hell could any more lament Their peruerse lot for wickednes and sinnes already spent Than thou hast here before my face with bounsing blowes and cries Whereat the caues reuerberate and Echo roles in skies But now dispatch shew me thy mind if so to ease thy griefe Thou thinke it best I am content that way to geue reliefe Then she began to shew her minde and tell her griefe forepast With grieuous grones in wofull wise these words she spake at last If euer any wofull wight had cause to rue her fate And pleade with teares her heauie hap for change of her estate My selfe haue iust cause to bewayle my state which I thought sure But woe is me vnhappy wretch what ioy doeth aye endure On Fortune fell I doe complaine the cause of my mishap That thus hath dealt with me alas when first within her lap She lulld full sweet and vsde right well and then ere that I wist Did tumble downe from top of throne thus Iudas like she kist She lifted me so high aboue my mates and fellowes all For that more grieuous when I fell she meant to make my fall But would from beggars broode at first my chance had beene so good To spring and that I had beene borne and bred of meanest blood Then would the world not so haue musde to see my sodaine chance To fall so low whom Fortune earst so highly did aduance Yet geue me leaue to ease my minde although I wish in vaine For now tis past by wishing I doe ease my pining paine The trueth is thus I did descend from Cysseus that king A mightie Prince of Thrace wel knowen whose praise each where did ring And from his
childe his tender limmes to teare He would by no meanes do the deede but did the infant spare And yet he thought how that ere long the boy must needes be dead But by that meanes he sought to free his hands from vile bloodshed He killde a pig and tooke the heart and brought it to the King And blooded certaine linnen clothes in token of the thing And tolde him that his childe was dead and there he might behold The heart and heart blood of his sonne wherefore he might be bolde To banish feare for this his childe should neuer him molest For he was dead and dead againe and therefore he might rest Now see the hap that to this man did afterward betide For Phorbas king of Corinth soile by chaunce that way did ride VVho spide the child as then aliue which wofully did cry VVith sprauling hands it reachd about full near at poynt to dy He causde his man to take it downe to saue the infants life Right glad he was wherfore foorthwith he brought it to his wife VVho barren was and had no child then this as for her own She did receiue from whence it came to them it was not knowne The child did grow they loude it well and then in course of yeares Of noble linage comes the boy quoth Phorbas it appeares For that the lad vvas dayly geuen to Martiall exercise And did delight to take in hand some noble enterprise At last king Phorbas sends his sonne vvith mighty men of vvar To fight against the Thebane King twixt vvhom there was a iar Sir Oedipus in battell strong did vtterly confound The Thebanes and to their king he gaue a mortall vvound VVherof he presently did die thus Laius had his end The Gods that knew hovv all things vvent such fate to him did send And Oedipus his mother takes and maries her in hast No thing vvas knovven to him as yet that earst vvas done and past Thus Laius dide by his ovvne sonne no botter could he speede It is no striuing with the gods if once they haue decreed Wherefore vexe not O Hecuba let not thy ghost so fret Against the gods for this their doome and further do not three Fell destinie or fortunes frowne for this that they haue done Was for some mighty sinne of ours which fate we could not shunne Or for the sinne of periurie a vile and hatefull deede Which first my father did commit and now vpon his seede The plague did fall deseruedly for such his bad abuse The gods themselues wil not accept for periurie excuse And I likewise a wilfull man as al my deedes did showe My wofull folly was the cause of this our ouerthrowe For when the Greekes did send to haue faire Helena againe I would not hearken to their sute but pufft with deepe disdaine Did flowt and mocke at their request and openly denide Their iust demaund which great abuse the sacred gods had spide When that my sonne had tane away sir Menelaus wife A filthy part the letcher plaid yet they to end all strife Would willingly digest that wrong so that I would restore The Gretian dame that Paris stole from Greece not long before And that no warre should once arise betwixt our Empires stout So gently they did intreat but if I went about To holde her stil they threaten warre and vowed by gods aboue That they would fight to haue againe sir Menelaus loue Whom I perforce vniustly held and stoutly did maintaine So vile a part that would in time cause thousands to be slaine But I did giue them answere thus I minde to holde her still Not Greece nor all the Princes there in this shall breake my will Let Agamemnon do his worst I passe it not a straw Let Menelaus fret his fill my will shall be a law And let them both with all their force against my power fight I mind to holde dame Helen still against all law and right I haue her now and here with me I minde she shall remaine Let them not spare but fall to warre and see what they shall gaine The walls of Troy are strong enough my power is not small I ready am to sight the field when Grecian trumpets call This will of mine was chiefest cause that did procure my smart For I contrary to a lawe maintainde so hard a part No reason would perswade my minde true iustice was away And wilfull follie helde the sword selfe-will did beare the sway The want of iustice was the cause that this our ruine wrought What was the cause that Troy did fall and so consume to naught So many thousand men to die was not my wilfull fact The chiefest cause that Asia by Grecian power was sackt What Empires great and kingdoms wide hath ruine ouer runne For want of iustice and good lawes Or what hath Princes wonne By such default but present death The world doth witnesse well What mortall man that wilfull was but so to him befel The mighty Caesar ruling Rome true iustice was debarde His will was taken for a law and iustice was refarde His gouernement the Roman crew did priuily disdaine They hate him so that he ere long by subiects hand was slaine Could Nero liue when he began to cleaue vnto his will When Rome mislikt his gouernement and found his deedes so ill With one consent the Roman state decreede that he should die Vnworthy for to raigne in Rome his subiects all did crie And he that hated was durst not vnto their mercy stand But slewe himselfe because he would not fall into their hand And Philip King Amyntas sonne true iustice did neglect And how to remed wrong with right the man had no respect He partiall vvas for fauors sake not passing vvhat vvas right For vvhile he liud all Macedon gaue place to vvilfull might The vvrongd might crie for remedy vvhilst he did stop his eare For vvhom he loude vvho durst accuse as plainly did appeare Pausanias vvhen he had sude vnto the King for grace And found in vaine he did complaine his suite could haue no place He turnde his malice from the man that first had done him spite And causde reuenge deseruedly vpon the King to light For vvith his svvord he stabd the King his folly to repres Himselfe vvas cause of this his fall the dooer did confes VVhat vvas the cause that Carthage fell and subiect vvas at last The Empire great of Affrica of Romane force to tast Did not their vvilfull folly first their vvofull state procure The vvant of iustice made the vvar a long time to indure Vntill their Empire cleane vvas lost their chiefest forces spent That Carthage fell for such a fault the vvorld did much lament Did Rome not fall for such offence vvas she not ouerthrovven By Brennus Captain of the Gauls vvhose force each vvhere vvas knovven For Allia brook can vvitnes yet vvhere thousand Romans dide The want of iustice was the cause it will not be denide If Empires thus and Princes fell what
Sceuola in which when he came to the place hee thrust his right hand willingly into the fire first suffering it to burne to ashes couragiously saying I willingly committe this my hand to the fire which fayled to kill Porsena the tyrant Further affirming at his death that there were thrée hundreth Romanes more redy prest which had also sworne the death of the king if he fayled and would as willingly venture themselues in their Countreys cause as he before them had done and as it were among themselues striuing who first should doe that good seruice to their countrey Which when Porsena had hearde he did not much discommend their faithfulnes towardes their Commonwealth but with all speed remoued his siege and departed from the walles of Rome to the great reioising of the citizens Thus ought euery man to haue a speciall care regard to preserue his natiue countrey and commonwealth For when both Princes and noble estates haue willingly ventured life nay run to present death for the sauegard of the weale publike much more then ought euery priuate person and meane subiect in Prince and Countreyes cause valiantly to venture both life and lim with right couragious mindes in defence of so honest and good a cause Scho. I confesse that euery subiect ought willingly to offer his body in defence of his Prince and natiue Soyle and not to haue so great a care for the preseruation of his priuate person as for the benefit and welfare of his Prince and Commonwealth Were it not a vile reproach and ignomie to those people that should by their cowardlines suffer their king to be slaine in the field and they themselues to remaine aliue and geue the looking on Contrariwise is it not great honor to him that shall hazard his life yea or run to right desperate exploites in the good cause or quarrell of his Prince To conclude it is the part of euery good prince to haue a care of the welfare of his commonwealth and of the preseruation of his subiects and also the part of all honest Subiects to haue a duetiful care to preserue their prince and a manly courage to defend their coūtrey Truely we read in most ancient histories of diuers who by their noble valoure wise policie and manly courage haue defended from the inuation of forrain foes both their weale publique from subuersion their stately townes and cities from ruine and decay also the whole body of their countreymen from most cruel murther and pitifull slaughter and yet in the end haue been most vilely recompenced by their vnkind countreymen Was not Manlius a Roman surnamed Capitolinus who preserued the Capitoll or castle of Rome from the cruell force of the Gaules and did many other noble actes in his Countreis cause throwne down from the top of the same Castle headlong by his owne vnkind countreimen whom he many times both manfully and couragiously had defended and saued Also Miltiades a noble man of Athens which in the field of Marathaon with 10000. Gréekes discomfited and put to flight 600000. Persians and so by his great wisdome and prudent policie saued deliuered his countrey from being ouerrun with such a mighty and huge hoast which otherwise had beene vtterly subdued ouerthrowen but after being cast in arrerage of a certaine summe of mony he was by his vngratefull Countreymen condemned into most cruell prison and there died in fetters and being dead he might not be suffered to be buried vntill his sonne had put on him the giues that his father did weare In like sort Themistocles a noble captain of the same vngrateful town of Athens after he had deliuered his Countrey from the huge terrible power of Xerxes putting him to flight and al his great hoast making y t mightie king by his circumspect wisdome and policie shamefully to flie home in a Fishermans boate vnknowen for the safety and preseruation of himselfe notwithstanding was at the last driuē his Countrey and forced to flie by the vnkinde Citizens to his enemie Xerxes whō before he had driuen from the walles of Athens but Xerxes willingly receiued such a friende with great intertainment and sent him againe with a mighty armie to warre on his owne countrey hoping now that he would be sharply reuenged on his vnkinde citizens But Themistocles being now Lord Generall against his natiue countrey hauing in his power the whole destruction and ouerthrow of his deere commonwealth yet notwithstanding for all that the Athenians had dealt so extremely with him he rather chose to die than any way to hurt his countrey And because he would not shew himselfe a traitor to Xerxes who had put his whole power into his hand and receiued him so courteously in his extremitie nor that he would torment the bowels of his vngratefull citie vnmercifully to spoyle with forraine people his vnkind countreimē to frée himselfe of these two inconueniences hee poysoned him selfe and so died a more faithfull frend to his countreymē than they had deserued After that Demetrius sonne of Philip king of Macedon whom before I spake of had obteined pardon for his father and whole countrey by his great modestie temperance shewed in the Senat of Rome because the Senators did write to his father the king in this maner We the Senators of Rome do not pardō thee for thy owne sake but for the modest demeanor of thy sonne shewed here before vs in the Senate Which thing Philip by the instigation of certaine of his flattering Subiectes did take so displeasantly and gréeuouslie that his sonne was in such estimation and better accounted of than himselfe and therefore so hated his sonne for his great paines and diligent care whereby he preserued both his father and Countrey from the reuenge of the Romanes At whose good hap also certaine of his vnkinde Countreymen with the helpe of his vnnaturall brother Perses so repined insomuch that they procured false witnes to accuse him to his father being willing to heare any cause against his sonne Thus by the surmise of his vnnaturall Countreymen he was condemned to death by his vnkinde father who before had both studied to preserue the honor of his father and also to mainteine the flourishing estate of his countrey Did not the Romanes banish and exile the noble and worthie Cicero by the procurement of Clodius when he had preserued and defended his Countrey from ruine and vtter destruction and saued the noble Citie of Rome from the fury of Cataline euen for because he had put to death the chiefe traytors and enemies of the Common-wealth in that dangerous conspiracie who sought to spoyle sacke take and burne their natiue Citie Rome Was not the same vngratefull Citie Rome found vnkinde to her most deare frend and preseruer the worthie Scipio for when the Romanes were in great distresse thorow the bitter and sharpe warres which the Carthaginians long time most greeuously helde against them being also mightely ouermatched
the euerlasting fame and renowne of the Romans was sufficient to kéepe their minds from mourning their hearts from sorrowfull sobbing not their eyes from bitter teares such was their losses in that warre their Consulls slaine their Senators and chiefe rulers consumed and a mightie nuÌ„ber of their people vtterly perished Hannibal had slaine in fight 5. of their kingly Consuls to wit Flaminius L. Aemilius Paulus Posthumus Marcellus and old P. Scipio that was slaine in Spaine There was also slaine Cneius Scipio brother to this P. Scipio with Titus Gracchus Cneius Fuluius Centenius Penula with diuers other noble Romanes of great fame and authoritie HaÌ„nibal had also slain of the Romane souldiours 300000. in open fight and set field besides the slaughters which were committed in the winning of townes odd méetings skirmishes such other extraordinarie fights betwixt the Romanes and the Carthaginians which by common iudgement was néere comparable to the former number Thus was Italy stained with the bloud of her natiue Romanes and the cruell slaughters of the Carthaginians so that the Romans had no more cause to reioice in their mightie conquest than the Carthaginians had at their lost Empire In the last conflict betwéen Hannibal and Scipio the Carthaginians lost the field before the walls of Carthage with the slaughter of 50000. men the Romanes hauing the victorie lost in the same battaile 54000. worthy souldiers Therfore great was the mourning in Carthage for their vtter subuersion and as great or rather greater was the lamentation in Rome after their victorie for their déere friends chiefe states other mightie losses so that the Empire of the whole world could not withhold them from dolefull moane and pitifull wéepings hauing good cause on both parts to wish that the warres had neuer begun or that their proud mindes had digested the abuses of each other rather than on both sides so to bewaile their remedilesse losses Qui struit insidias alijs sibi damna dat ipse By what meanes ancient Troy was destroyed and why the whole Empire of Phrigia was lost with the lamentable murders aswell of the Troians as the Grecians being victors WHen Paris sonne to Priamus King of Troy was returned from Lacedemon with faire Helena wife to Menelaus whom he had stolne from thence when her husband was gone to dispose the goods of olde Atreus his father lately being dead in Crete the angry Greeks not well contented therewith nor digesting such a proud abuse and shamefull rape at the Troyans hands hauing no reformation of their wrongs when as Palamedes Vlisses and Menelaus himselfe went to Troy to demaund Helena againe by the way of intreatie before they would proclaime warre assembled a mightie Armie determining sharply to reuenge themselues on such a vile and vntollerable act wherefore they with twelue hundred ships of warre being strongly furnished with men and munition sayled towards Troy with the aid and persons of thrée score and ten Kings and kingly Péeres which also in the behalfe of the wronged Greekes had made a vowe against the Troians Priamus in like manner after his son Paris had brought home his long desired loue fortefied his town made strong his wals and was aided with the power and persons of three and thirtie Kings beside manie valiant princes which were his own sons maintaining warre against the fierce Greekes the space of tenn yeares two months twelue dayes to the wonderfull slaughter and mightie murder of them both Notwithstanding after manie cruell fights and bloudie battailes Troy was taken beeing sacked spoyled beaten downe and ruinously defaced with fire by the Greeks who first wer mightely abused at the hands of the Phrigians In reuengement whereof they slewe aged Priamus Father to Paris and King of Troy with thousands of the Phrigian Nobilitie vsing al extremities and finally subuerting that royall Citie Thus when the angrie Gréekes had vtterly wasted destroyed Phrygia burned Troy slaine the valiaunt sonnes of King Priamus slaughtered in battaile of the Troians 656000. beside those that were slaine at the subuersion of the Citie which were a most wonderfull and inestimable number to the great lamentation of the whole world and fully had reuenged the vile villanie that Paris had offered after the most cruell maner then they whom fortune had left aliue returned into Grece with the empire of Asia and all the kingdomes which lately were vnder the subiection of Priamus Yet for all this y e Grecians had no great cause to triumph and reioice in their victorious conquest but rather to lament their mightie losses cruell slaughters and manifold spoyles which they sustained by the Troyan Warre for during the ten yeares siege they had slain of their people by the Troyans 860000. men besides all their chiefe Péeres which were slaine during the time of the siege or else after by occasion of the Troian warre The most valiant Hector sonne to Priamus King of Troy couragiously chased the Greekes in manie battails by the space of 6. yeres but then after Achilles by misfortune had slaine the noble Hector euery thing fel out vnhappely to the Troyans notwithstanding during his life his name was terrible to the Greekes for he had slaine 28. of their chiefe Kings and Princes with his owne hand namely Protesilaus the great King of Philaca with manie thousand more wheÌ„ first the Greekes landed on the Phrigian shore he also slewe Patroclus King of Pythia who had put himselfe in the armour of Achilles Lufor Boetes Archilogus Meron King of Crete with Epistrophus Lepedâ—mon Deipeynor proud Prothenor king of Boetia Dorius Polixenus Zantippus Serpedon with Phidippus the mightie King of ChalcedoÌ„ Polibetes Alpinor Philetes Letabonis Isideus and Leonteus the valiant King of Larissa Menon Humerus Maymentus Palemon Phillis Octaâ—en with Schedius the dreadfull King of Phocis all which beeing mightie Kings were manfully slaine in battaile by the worthy Hector beside manie other noble worthy Greekes of lesse account Agamemnon sonne of olde Atreus King of Mycene the chiefe ringleader of the Greekes against the Troyans was himselfe slaine by the occasion of the Troyan Warre For returning home from the Phrigian Conquest with Cassandra the daughter of unfortunate Priamus his owne wife Chtemnestra conspiring with Aegisteus with whom shee had liued in adultrie in the absence of Agamemnon her husband so that she caused her Lord to assay a garment on his bodie which had no issue for his head and whilest he was striuing therewith Aegisteus thrust him thorough and so stewe him thus was that noble Prince by occasion of his long absence most cruelly murdred at his returne which happened by the Troyan warre Also Achilles after hee had bathed his sworde in the bloud of the Troyans cruelly chasing the Phrigians in sundrie fights and also had slaine Hector and Troylus the valiant sonnes of Priam at the length was himselfe slaine by the subtle inuention of Hecuba mother to these noble youths whom hee
the wilely Greekes doo lurke Also faire Helena her selfe who was the originall cause of that bloudie warre greatly suspected that a troupe of Greekes were secretly inclosed in that hollowe frame insomuch that she her selfe came priuely to the horse beeing before time acquainted with the right voyces of the Ladies of Greece began most artificially to counterfaite their voyces in the Gretian tongue meaning thereby that if there were anie Lords of Greece therein inclosed they wold speake to her whē she did rightly counterfet their Ladies But the subtle Greeks were as mistrustfull as she was wyly refusing to aunswere to her voyce onely Anticlus would haue spoken when as he déemed he had heard the liuely voyce of Laodamia his wife had not Vlysses letted him by laying his hand on his mouth vntill Helena departed whereby Anriclus was strangled and foorthwith died What cause then had the victorious Grecians to reioyce at the ruine and destruction of Troy when as their chiefe Péeres were slaine at the same siege some of them violently being chased at sea so that they returned not home to Greece in the space of 20. yeres some of them also being slain at their returne to Greece by treason which was knowen to happen thorough the occasion of the Troian warre So that there remained aliue of 70. Kings not fully 15. but either they were slain before Troy at their returne by treason or else through dissention for diuiding the Troian spoyles Insomuch that all Greece had as great cause to bewaile the losse of their noble péeres slain by the Troian warre as the vanquished Troians had to mourn at the destruction and subuertion of their aged prince worthie Peeres and stately empire wherefore neither the Gretians Romans Macedonians nor any other countriemen whatsoeuer who by their notable victories haue brought manie Countries vnder subiection that euer had iust cause to ioye ouer their conquest or triumph ouer their great and mightie victories but rather had in the ende good cause to mourne lament sorrowe and hartely repent their achiued victories for that many calamities miseries lamentable losses and pitifull slaughters is as well incident to the victor as vneuitable to the vanquished therefore what gaineth the victor but losse and although it procureth priuat ioy to some yet notwithstanding it purchaseth publique sorrow to many Thus dooth despitefull warre both wast destroy ruinate confound and vtterly subuert the Kingdomes countries stately prouinces and worthie Cities of the conquered and also cruelly spoyle displeasantly voxe and miserably torment the conqueror so that where the vanquished haue cause to bewaile their subuerted state there most commonly the victor lamenteth his losse and hath good cause to complaine on fortunes crueltie That it is both a disgrace and also a foule discredit to Englishmen to chaleng their genealogie of the Troyans or to deriue their pedigree frō such an vnfaithfull stock who were the chiefe causers of their own perdition IT hath béen is at this day amongst Christians a meere folly and wonderfull madnes to deriue and fetch their genealogie and pedegree from the ancient Troyans because for sooth that they would be knowne to descend and spring from the Gods as the old foolish saying is that the Troyans did for it is said that old Anchises begot Aeneas on the goddes Venus and after the fatall subuertion of Troy Aeneas much increased that stock and kindred as hereafter shall more manifestly apeare The proud Troyans the stately Gretians falling into controuercie about their ancient generositie séeking out which of them descended from the most ancientest stock and line the Troyans affirming that Hector was far more worthy then Achilles the Gretians also stoutly mainetaine that Achilles was superior to Hector which thing the Troyans not well digesting vnfould their fond pedegree as followeth Etsi enim Peleifilius Achilles fuit Aeaci verò Peleus Aeacus Iouis sic quóque Hector Priami Priamus autem Laomedontis Dardani Laomedon silius Dardanus quóque Ioue prognatus est Alijgenus Hectoris paulò aliter deriuant Iupiter inquiunt ex Electra genuit Dardanum Dardanus Assaracum Ilium Ilius Laomedontē Laomedon Priamum Priamus Hectorem vide Tortellium after this sort they deriue themselues from the gods but if it be possible that a wicked a peruerse generation should spring and descend from the gods themselues then no doubt but that the Troyans came linially frō the gods and if as they say Dardanus was begotten of a God how soone then did his son Laomedon digres from that sacred genelogie for of him thus it was sayde Laomedon insignis perfidia fiut qui pactam pro constructis Troiae maenibus mercedū neganit Apolloni atque Neptuno violauitque sacram iurisiurandi religionem quae semper abalijs inuiolatè santissiméque habita Laomedon was the vnfaithfullest Prince that liued for hauing borrowed a great summe of money of the priests of Apollo Neptune to reare and build vp againe the decayed walls of Troy which being done the priests craue their money againe he mightily forsweres the debt protesting and vowing by the sacred gods he ought them no such summe therefore he would pay no such debt Wherfore by the iust plague of the Gods their predicessors as they thēselues affirme their citie was part ouer flown with the raging seat by reason where of there arose afterwards in the citie when the water was retired a most miserable deadly plague whereof many thousands of the Troyans died which plague to appease they asked counsaile aduice of the oracle at Delphos how they should satisfie the angrie gods answer was giuen thē that no other waies they could apease their wrath and displeasure but onely by this means by giuing monthly a virgin to a sea monster with should appeare for the nonce at the shore or banck before Troy which custome being obserued and dewly kept y e gréeuous plague seased it hapned in time that the daughter of Laomedon the King whose name was Hesione was chosen by lot and chance to be the virgin that should satisfie the gréedy monster thus when the time drew on that the sea monster was ready waighting at his wonted port crauing his accustomed pray and thus pensiue Laomedon with diuers of the lamenting Troyans came forth with the virgin bound presently to bee giuen to the eager monster to be deuoured in the meane time pitifully be wailing the destressed state of the guiltlesse virgin Hercules by great chance at that time comming from the voyage of Hespere hapned to be against Troy when such a mightie throng of people stoode on the shore wherefore he forthwith drew neere and demanded the cause and why they did so lament then trembling Laomedon told all that is before rehearsed confessing his owne periurie for which all this miserie chanced The noble minded Hercules greatly pittying their their distressed state demanding of Laomedon what he would giue the man that should frée their citie from
were altogether wonderfull and verie vnlikely but that the liuing GOD who punisheth with shame such shameful murderers would be sharply reuenged on him for his monstrous crueltie in so slaying of the innocent For not long after he was slaine in Battaile by the right noble Henrie Earle of Richmond where his mangled corpes was laid being first despoyled of armes and stripped naked ouer a horse backe hanging downe in such sort that the filthie durt and myre did both spot and sprinkle the ill shaped carkasse of this abhorred Tyrant which was a most odious and detestable sight yet too worthie a funerall for so murderous a wretch This recompence happened to him for his intollerable crueltie Thus it plainly appeareth that murder is sharply punished as well in the Prince and Péere as in the silliest sot and poorest slaue for further proofe whereof to showe the iust reuengement of God on meaner personages this one example shall suffice The true and certaine report goeth that one Macharcus a sacrificing Priest of God Bacchus dwelling in Mityline in his exteriour countenaunce and fauour resembled great gentlenesse and courtesie yet in life manners and inward practises no man that liued coulde bee more wicked or abhominable It fortuned on a time y t a certaine soiorner lodged at his house and committed to his credite a certaine summe of mony in gold this Machareus being assaulted with auarice and carried as it were into captiuitie to couetousnesse makes a hole in a secret place of the temple with a mattocke and therein hides the gold which he was put in trust withall After a few dayes were expired the soiourner desired to haue his own again vpon which request Machareus led the man mistrusting no mischiefe nor doubting anie danger into the temple where vnder pretence cloake and colour to restore the man his right and hauing as he thought opportunitie time and place to worke his villanie murdred the man which being compassed to his contentation he tooke vp the golde and laid the right owner thereof whome he had iniuriously slaine in the selfe same place couering him ouer with earth and damd vp the pit in such sort as all things in his thinking were cock sure perswaded himselfe that as men be deceiued and mocked so the powers supernall the eternall God I meane might be deluded and blinded But the matter fell out vnhappely inough and had another euent than was hoped for on Machareus part for after a few dayes were passed the solemne Seruice and Obsequies of GOD Bacchus which were yearly approached and was celebrated according to ancient custome wherein Machareus behauing himselfe after a gorgeous and glorious estate being verie busie in the festiuall Ceremonie it chaunced that his two sonnes which were left at home as that day did imitate their Fathers order in holy seruice in such sort and effectuall manner that the yonger brother cast himselfe prostrate on the ground and laid his head vpon a blocke verie méekely which the elder brother with an olde rustie whinyeard or cankred wood-knife did chop off from the shoulders Anone came in the seruaunts which dwelled in the house séeing the childish murder that was committed gaue a great shoute making a terrible outcrie and pitifull noyse as men meruailously confounded and amazed at sight of so strange and bloudie a spectacle The vehemencie of which lamentable clamor and outragious roaring speedely pearced the eares of the frighted mother who came like a mad woman to vnderstand the meaning of the matter and then séeing one of her sonnes slaughtered and weltering in streames of bloud and the other holding still a rustie glaue in his hand all to be stayned with the crimsen blood of his brothers flesh she caught vp a firebrand very fiercely and in the heate of her great rigor did so thumpe and souse her liuing sonne that he died the death in her presence Then was tidings brought to Macareus what butcheries were committed at home in his priuate house who immediatly vpon the report therof left the holy seruice like a man moonesick or rather a fiend of hell ranne home with might and maine hauing in his hand at the same instant a burning torche or taper where with he did so beate bounce and baste his wife ouer euery limme and ioynt that she in like case was soone dispatched of life Thus when the multitude had intelligence of these rare and lamentable murthers they forthwith apprehended Macareus and vrged him thorow examination and torment to confesse each circumstance of this bloudy Tragedie and as he was opening the matter and discouering the mischief which he had committed in the holy temple prophaning a seuerall and sacred Chappel with two notorious and inexpiable trespasses the paines of death oppressed him insomuch that he died sodenly before the whole assembly of people These miserable chances hapned to Macareus by reason of his monsterous murthers as a terrible and most fearfull example to the followers and imitators of his horrible profession Scho. O miserable ende and yet deserued hap no better successe is to be hoped for than such ruine and cruell destruction to those that doe imbrue their hands in the bloud of the innocēt contrary to the law of God and nature Besides these your examples we sée dayly what reuengement falleth to the share of those bloudy minded persons though their villanies for a time he did yet in the end the true God will not suffer them to scape vnpunished For I thinke is no people of ciuill gouernment so voyde of good and holesome lawes in this cause but that they prouide a sharpe punishment for wicked murtherers prouided alwaies that whosoeuer shall transgresse or willingly breake the saide ordinances and decrées that then such persons by vertue of the law shall suffer worthy punishment namely losse of life In your exaumples it is also manifest that those whose power and person far excéedeth and surmounteth a lawe and whose high dignitie disdayneth to stoupe to the law and decrée of the lande notwithstanding when neither people nor Péeres may decrée sentence against them for such detestable sin and cruell murthers the liuing God plagueth them in the ende with most sharp and grieuous punishments without remorse being much higher aboue them then they aboue their lawe whereby it seemeth that if Princes by reason of their high estate and dignitie doe escape the punishment and decreed sentence of a law yet the very prouidence of the highest bringeth them in the ende to open confusion vtter destruction as your aforesaid examples haue verified it Further it remayneth to vs that at what time the people craued answere of the Oracles expecting from thence the very flat determination of their God heard often most sharpe decrees against murtherers by their diuine Oracles pronounced for at such time as a certayne Musicion who played on the harpe singularly well did both play and sing at Sybaris in a solemne feast made and set forth in the honour of
virrute propria ascenderunt non inferiorem laudem merentur quà m qui nobilitate maiorum superbise iactant Maior enim est gloria virtutibus proprijs niti quà m alienis intumescere They which are borne but of meane and base Parents and rise to high honour by their owne proper vertues deserue or merite no lesse praise when they which brag and boast of their right noble Progenitors Therefore far better is that baunt to sticke and cleaue fast to their own proper vertues than ouermuch to swell with the pride of another mās glorie But Iuuenalis reporteth of this mans father otherwise saying Plebeius ab officina gladiorum fuit He was free of the Cutlers and liued by that trade Which also was farre from the credite and calling of his sonne Demosthenes Fa. It is very true indeede such vaunting vanitie remayneth in many but it is very hard to finde such a one as is risen to great honour and dignitie in his Countrey being descended from meane and base parentage to vaunt and brag in causes of controuersie of his poore Progenitors much lesse ought he who is descended and sprong from the stocke of generositie being poore or in base estate ouer proudly to vaunt thereof for that either his fall was by the vicious vice of his predecessors wherof he ought rather to blush than brag Or els it proceedeth of his owne lasciuious or licencious vanitie whereof he ought greatly to be ashamed Well let this suffice that vertue maketh a Gentleman and the want thereof causeth the stock and graffe to wither and fall downe And whereas we haue alredy sufficiently touched the misdemeanors and bad behauiours of noble Peeres and high estates and what they gain by such disordered gouernment now againe we will shew and make manifest how much good gouernment is commended what praise it deserueth and what perpetuall memorie it registreth to the eye of immortall fame and also how farre clemencie courtesie humilitie and mercie in Princes and high estates auayleth and is of force where neither cruelty tyrannie or other rigorous dealing can preuaile First concerning modestie and the fruites thereof Demetrius the sonne of Philip king of Macedon being sent by his father to Rome to answere the greeuous cōplaint of the Grecians who made a great hainous complaint against him to the Romans for certain abuses which he had offered them in Greece when this Demetrius was in the Senate of Rome hearing his father greeuously complayned on would forthwith haue executed the office for which cause he came wherefore he stoode vp and began to answere to the accusations which they so vrgently obiected against his father But the Ambassadors of Greece so vehemently interrupted and interturbed his speach with vnpleasant babbling and rayling insomuch that the young Gentleman could not be heard by reason of their great importunacie for which cause the yong Demetrius being greatly abashed with blushing chéekes in most modest manner sate him down being greatly ashamed at their outragious railing pleaded his cause with silence because he would not be troublesome to the graue Senators he gaue the Ambassadors his aduersaries leaue to scolde and rayle their fill Which when the graue Bench of the Senators perceiued they also commaunded the antragious Grecians to silence and dismissed them the Senate suffering them to returne home to Grece without reformation of their wrongs pardoning the offence of the yong mans Father sending letters into Macedon to this effect Philip King of Macedon we the Senatours of Rome pardon thine offence remit the trespasses of thee done against the Cities of Grece not for thy sake Philip but for the modest behauiour of Demetrius thy Sonne shewed heere in the Senate of Rome before vs to the great wealth and good of thy Countrey and to his perpetuall remembrance What praise and commendation also did yong P. Cornelius Seipio otherwise called Scipio Africanus purchase by his singular clemencie notable curtesie and bountifull liberalitie for at such time as he had taken the Citie of newe Carthage in Spaine with a number of prisoners captiues and also great quantitie of riches and iewells there at that time also was taken among the rest a virgine of rare singular beautie who with diuers other were brought before Scipio after whom the people wonderfully thronged and thrusted delighting to sée her for the rarenesse of her beautie But the noble Scipio enquiring of her of what Countrey she was and of what kindred she was descended and perceiuing by her that shee was betroathed or made sure to a yong Prince of the Celtiberians whose name was Luceius Whereupon when he had committed the other Matrones and Maides to right worthie honest persons to the intent their chastitie might be both honestly and carefully preserued he presently sent for the said yong man and also for her parents At whose comming knowing that the yong Prince was sore enamored of her he thus said to him Sir I being a yong man haue sent for you that are also a yong man to come to me the cause is for that when this yong maide being fianced or ensured to you was brought to me by my souldiers I heard say that you entirely loued her as her beautie witnesseth you had good cause so to doe If I might lawfully enioy her pleasant loue were not otherwise occupied in my minde about the affaires of the Common wealth I could perchaunce beare her my loue and desire to enioy the same But now I will beare fauour to your loue that of right ought to haue her She hath been here with me as well and honourably kept and her virginitie as carefully preserued as though she had dwelled still with her owne parents To this intent I might make of her a present to you most acceptable and also for the preseruation of mine honour And for this my gift I require of you but onely this one reward that is that you from hencefoorth become a louing true and faithful friend to the Romanes and if you esteeme me to be a good and honourable man as my father and vncle before me were reputed to be then thinke that there are in the noble Citie of Rome many like vnto vs and trust me neuer if any people this day can be found on the earth that you will be more glad to haue the loue and friendship of or that you would be more sory to haue the displeasure of The young man after great thankes geuen to him prayed the Gods to reward him for all his goodnes where his power sufficed not Then were the parents of the mayd called foorth who had brought with them a great summe of golde for the raunsome of their childe But when they perceiued that the noble Scipio had geuen her fréely to her husband then they desired him to take and accept a parte thereof as of their gift for the better declaration of their good hearts towards him affirming that his receiuing therof should
be as ioyfull vnto them as the restitution of their daughter vndefiled Then Scipio being ouercome with their long and vehement intercession caused the saide summe to be layd on the ground before his feete and calling Lucius againe to him hee said Beside the dowrie that you shall receiue of your Father in law for the mariage of his daughter ye also shall take this gift at my hande With which his great gift and also much honor done to him beside he returned home to his house countrey declaring to euery man the honor magnificence of noble Scipio saying There was a young man come most like a God who both with his power in warre and also with his gentlenes and liberalitie in peace had ouercome all the countrey Not long after this young Gentleman leauing his house and familie in good order returned to Scipio bringing with him 1400. good horsemen to the ayde and succour of the Romanes Thus first Scipio began with mercy lenity and gentle courtesie which was the cause that he gote in the end to the Romanes such notable and mightie victories The great Pompey neuer gate the like renowne in all his conquest of Spaine and Affrike nor in the subduing of the valiant Sertorius neither in the victories of Armenia Cappadocia Arabia Iberia Mesopotamia with diuers other Prouinces and Kingdomes as he did by his great courtesie For when in his warres against Mithridates he had taken certaine noble matrons and beutifulll virgins he caried a vigilant eye ouer them neither abusing any of them himselfe nor suffering his captains or souldiers to dishonour or dishonest them in any case calling them all together before him comforting them with sweete wordes in the best maner he coulde saying That none vnder paine of death should offer them villanie graunting foorth his safeconduct to them that they might be conueyed to their husbandes parents and friends with honour vndefiled richly rewarding them with iewels which he had taken in his warres protesting also vnto them that he for his part was most heartely sorrie that it was his hap so to fright and terrifie such hurtlesse creatures requesting them to take it in good part for such was the chaunce and casualtie of warre for which gentle behauiours had it not béen for certaine other lewd vices which are before mentioned he had attained to péerlesse praise Alexander the great king of Macedon although hee frequented a number of most notable and bad vices yet were it no reason to burie in obliuion and forgetfulnesse couering as it were in the graue of silence the gentle courtesie and manly pietie which hee showed in most ample maner to the distressed houshold and familie of king Darius For euen at such time as the mightie Warres began betwéene these two Princes In the second Battaile and conflict Alexander had a great victorie against Darius and the Persians taking the tents with all the bag baggage appertaining to the King and the Persians and also for a pray amongst other booties hee tooke prisoners the mother wife sister and the two daughters of King Darius his enemie whome when Alexander came to comfort beeing in great sorrow and distresse they beholding him comming with an armed troupe pitifully schritched and lamentably cried out as if they then should presently haue been slaine falling downe prostrate at the féete of Alexander beséeching him that they might before they died burie the dead bodie of their Lord Darius whom they supposed to be slaine in that bloudie fight and that now wheras he was a man and had at this time gotten a most noble and manly victorie against Darius their Lord and King so to behaue himselfe towards those poore distressed creatures who were altogether vnguiltie of that pitiful slaughter being as it were present in the Armie with their friend for their countreyes cause and in defence of their libertie in which also their Lord King Darius was now slaine therefore now that he would vouchsafe to bestow the bodie of their slain friend on them that they might doo to him in their life the rights of buriall and then said they O Alexander our liues be at thy cōmaundement Alexander beeing greatly mooued with pitie séeing their bitter teares and considering the hard hap and bad destinie of so noble Dames bewayled their distressed case with wéeping further comforting them saying that Darius theyr Lord and King was aliue and at libertie still with his owne force and power and although he was ouercome in that fight yet was he readie to giue newe battaile againe as in déede hee did causing them to banish feare from them for that no iniurie or wrong should happen to them giuing also commaundement that they should be prouided for and vsed as to their high estate and dignitie appertained giuing good words and comfort vnto the two yong Daughters of Darius wishing them assuredly to thinke and firmely to perswade themselues that hee woulde haue as great care to bestowe them in marriage if King Darius their father did die and perish in these warres as he liuing with a fatherly care would prouide for them and that with no base or obscure mates Which thing when Darius was truely certified of and of the courteous entertainement of his mother wife and sister being all prisoners and captiues at the hands of Alexander his enemie although he then was able to geue battaile to the strongest king of the earth for he agayne had gathered a most mightie and huge armie was already ouercome and conquered with the gentle courtesies of his enemie altogether vnwilling to fight against so friendly a foe wherfore he sent his letters to Alexander requiring him that he might redéeme his captiues promising a mightie summe masse of money for their raunsome Notwithstanding Alexander would receiue no money but required his whole kingdome for their redemption Darius not willing to fight with so friēdly an enemie sent his letters to Alexander the second time offering one of his daughters in mariage with part of his kingdome to him if it might please him to accept thereof But the vnsatiable Alexander could not be content with part vnlesse he might haue all the whole And as for the offer of his daughters he returned this answere saying He had them already and could doe with them his pleasure Now was Darius forced to goe against his friendly foe the thirde time hoping to get his prisoners and yet notwithstanding louing and honouring the very name of Alexander for the great courtesie and lenitie he had shewed to his familie The army and power of Darius was at this time foure hundred thousand footmen and an hundred thousand horsmen thus marching toward his enemie Alexander it was told him in his iorney that his wife was dead whose death Alexander lamented with teares and caused a noble funerall to be appointed doing to her the greatest honor he could deuise comforting the rest requesting them not so heauely to take the death of their friend whose
Tyrant Phalaris who alwayes tooke pleasure in tormenting and persecuting his poore Subiects wishing rather to bee feared than loued coueting to rule and gouerne his Weale publique by cruell and tyrannous meanes for which his vnsatiate and bloudthirstie intemperancie he felt the desert of his owne folly Therefore Sir I right well perceiue that the Prince ruleth with more safetie as you said before in a thinne and single wastcoate than in strong armour much more auayling by gentle and curteous meanes ouer their louing Subiects than with a bloudie and tyrannous hand which oftentimes turneth them to hate not to loue preferrring him to death not to life And whereas you haue shewed examples what great honour and renowme falleth to the share of such Princes which haue shewed both mercifull pitie gentle courtesie and manly clemencie on poore distressed creatures in time of victorie and also what loue they gate euen of their enemies for the chast preseruing of Matrones and Uirgines for their gentle courtesie in entertaining them and for their liberall hearts in voluntarily fréeing and dismissing them beeing such hurtlesse captiues noting contrariwise the deserued ruine of such as haue vniustly tyrannized ouer their innocence for of such Tyrants falls all Histories are full It is certainly reported that Dionysius Iunior in his victories vsed great crueltie by abusing of Matrones rauishing yong Uirgines and deflowring of Maidens for when on a time he came to the Locreans he tooke vp possessed occupied vsed or rather abused the greatest largest fairest houses that were in all the Citie strewing them with damaske roses lauender sauorie and such like odoriferous flowers swéet smelling hearbs sending for the yong Damsels of the Locreans to come to him with whom he had fleshly pleasure and delight past all shame honestie or regard of chastitie Which filthines most loathsome offence abounding in him escaped not vnpunished for when his kingdome was rent and torne from him by Dion the Locreans rewarded like with like dealing carnally with the Wife and Daughters of Dionysius inforcing vpon them for his offence most abhominable fornication without anie intermission or ceasing and such specially as were of the linage consanguinitie and kinred of those young maydes and virgins whom Dionysius defloured were most eager and fierce to be so reuenged After they had satisfied and staunched the lust of their flesh with the bodies of Dionysius his wife and daughters they tooke needles and thrust them into their fingers and toes vnder the naples in such lamentable order murthering them and stamped their bones in morters from the which they had launced and cut collops of flesh offering the gobbets to be eaten whereof who so refused to tast such they abused most villainously and handled worse than helhounds The remnant of slaughtered and dismembered carcases was cast into the sea there to be consumed with whirling waues or to be deuoured by monstrous fishes and as for Dionysius himselfe after he had endured manifold mischances and sustayned sundry distresses of life and estate at Corinth being pinched with extreme néede he became a starke begger and went from place to place playing on a Timbrel and Flute and singing Ballades in the companie of such as hyred him and gaue him for his labour going also into Barbers shops to iest and to make the people mery and pleasant when they came thether to be notted shauen This was the end of Dionysius and after this sort hee finished the course of his life in no lesse beggery than infamie who no doubt was but plagued according to his desert Fame Now doe I right well perceiue that our conference doth much profit you and that you haue wel noted and marked the tenor of my purpose in going about to discipher the difference betwixt vertue and vice which you sufficiently discerne and are able to geue examples to the contrary therefore I nothing repent me of my paine and labour herein but will with willing minde procéede to pleasure you in what I may and whereas now in this my last speech I shewed vnto you what honor and renowme was purchased and obteined thorow mercy and clemencie and also what noble fame and eternall praise remayneth to those who doo shew both manly pitie gentle courtesie and mercifull fauour to the conquered to those who are vnder their power to dispose at their pleasure Contrariwise you haue declared what inconuenience doeth often fall to those who séeke to rule and raigne thorow tyrannie and by bloudie meanes and also what miserie hapneth oft to those who haue had neither regard of their owne honestie the preseruation of chastitie nor any pitifull consideration of them in aduersitie Well now againe I will procéed beginning where last you interrupted me which was where Princes tendered carefullie loued their subiects and welfare of their commonwealth there also what a duetifull care and obedient mind the subiects ought to haue for the preseruation of their so good a Prince happie weale publique for that commonwealth which is gouerned by a wise and prudent Prince cannot chuse but be called and tearmed right happy and fortunate The wise and learned Philosopher Plato was woont to say Tum demùm beatum terrarum orbem futurum cum aut sapientes regnare aut reges sapere caepissent Yet at length a happy blessed time shall fall on the earth when either wisemen begin to raigne orels Kinges begin to waxe wise For there saith he the Common wealth is on all parts blessed Then hauing such a wise Prince and setled Commonwealth the Subiectes ought to haue a speciall and duetifull care in mainteyning defending vpholding and preseruing both Prince and Countrey to the vttermost of their power yea if it were with the losse of their liues in the iust quartell and good cause of their Prince and Countrey Cicero saith Non nobis solùm nati sumus sed etiam pro patria We are not onely borne saith he to pleasure our selues but also to the profite and commoditie of our coūtrey For at such time as Attilius Regulus a noble Consull of Rome hauing oftentimes vanquished the Carthaginians was at the last of them taken prisoner by a certaine subtile sleight yet notwithstanding because the Romanes had also taken certaine prisoners of the Carthaginians and those most noble and valiant Captaines and Souldiers wherefore Regulus was sent home to Rome to make exchange for the other prisoners But when this ancient Father was come to Rome he called a Conuocation of the Senators and there in the Senate before them all he thus began Most learned graue fathers whom I right well know haue alwaies wished well and tendered the welfare cōmon good of our coūtrey knowing also that at this time you are not ignorant of my late chaunce and mishap which now being past remedy is not to be sorowed and also that you haue here in the citie certaine prisoners of the Carthaginians being both expert actiue
and valiant captaines whom they craue to haue againe by way of exchange and so may you haue me againe here at libertie in Rome notwithstanding first for my auncient authoritie in this our commonwealth then for my approued good wil towards my coūtrey and last in respect of my graue and aged yeares and here by the vertue and dignitie of my place in the Senate house I am to determine causes confer about the good of our weale publique and to haue as great a care for the preseruation both of our Citie and Countrey in as ample manner as the rest of you my fellowe Senators therefore most honourable Fathers being thus strongly warred vpon by so mighty a people who seeke daily to subuert our state throwe down our citie and spoyle our commonwealth the cause is therefore wisely to be considered on First for mine owne part as you all do know I am old decrepite and of little force of body not like long to continue Againe the Captaines whom you holde of the Carthaginians are both lustie valiant and couragious gentlemen likely to perfourme and doe great seruice against you to the great hurt of the Commonwealth Therefore Fathers conscript by the vertue of may aforsaid authorities I wil neuer consent to the redeliuering or redeeming of such perilous enemies but will with a willing heart returne to the Carthaginians from whence I came to saue both the honor of my countrey and the credite of my name from perpetuall infamie lest that we should be hereafter by the Carthaginians our enemies accounted and reprochfully tearmed the confringers of martiall rights Thus the graue Senators by no meanes could perswade the good old man to make such exchange as the Carthaginians offered but would néedes return for his countreis sake although he knew he went to present death and cruel torment Thus went Attilus Regulus to the enemie who after they had bound him cut of his eye lids and set him in a hollow tree vpright filled full of sharp and pricking nailes there continuing in most horrible paine vntill he died Thus did he carry a faithfull heart and noble courage in his countreis cause willing to lose his life for the profite and welfare of his weale publique In like sort Gobrias a Persian holding in his armes by force in a dark chamber him who was a traytor to his countrey insomuch that when one of his fellowes came to his ayde to help to slaye the traytor he cryed out to his friend saying Stay not thy blowe but thrust him thorow although thereby thou doest kill me also so that he escape not from vs to the further hurte of our Countrey therefore presently run thy sword thorow him and so shall our Common-wealth be freed from a wicked traytor Thus Gobrias esteemed not his life in deliuering his countrey from an enemie Codrus king of Athens for the sauegard of his publick weale went to present death willingly and with a valiant courage For at such time as there was warres betwixt him and the Dorians the Dorians went to the oracle of Apollo at Delphos to know who should be victors in that war begun to whom this answere was made That they should be coquerors if they killed not the king of Athens Then was proclamation made in all the Dorian campe to spare and preserue aliue the Athenian king But Codrus hearing of the answere of Apollo and being aduertised of their proclamation did foorthwith change his garmēts in most deformed maner with a wallet full of bread on his shoulders and went priuely to the campe of the Dorians and wounded a certaine od fellow among their Tentes with a sharpe hooke or sickle which hee had prepared for the nonce In reuenge whereof the wounded fellowe slewe Codrus the king but after when the body was knowen the order of his death the Dorians departed without battaile remembring the diuine answere of the Oracle wherby the Athenian king freed his countrey frō peril which otherwise had béen in great danger It is also reported that Lycurgus after he had made diuers good lawes to be obserued kept of his coūtreimē fained that they were made by the cōsent of the Oracle at Delphos And when he perceiued that these lawes statutes were to the great benefit of his countrey fayned that he would go to Delphos for further counsel And to the intent they should kéep those lawes vntill he returned from thence firme and sure he made the whole body of the commonwealth to sweare binde themselues by oath to keepe vnuiolated and vnbroken those lawes which then he had set downe vntill such time that he returned againe from Delphos but because he would haue those statutes remaine and be of force for euer in his Countrey hee went the next way to Créete and not to Delphos where he liued in exile banishing himselfe from his Countrey so long as he liued and at his death because his bones should not be caried into his Countrey whereby his Countreymen might think themselues discharged of their oathes and full fréed from their vowe he caused his bones to be burned and the ashes thereof to be throwen into the sea to the intent that neither he himselfe nor any part of him being left should be brought backe into his Countrey by which meanes he caused his Countreymen perpetually to kéepe those good and holesome lawes to the vnspekable profit of the Commonwealth Zopirus a nobleman of Persia also tendering his Prince Countrey insomuch that when the great Citie of Babylon rebelled against Darius his Lord and king to the great trouble vexation of the whole commonwealth and could by no meanes be subdued he then in fauor of his prince and countrey priuily and vnawares went and cut off his owne nose lips eares and in other deformed maner pitifully mangling his body fled into the City of Babylon saying that Darius his master and certain other of his cruell Countreymen had so shamefully disfigured and martyred him because saith he I perswaded him to haue peace with your citie Which when they heard greatly pitying his distressed case and in recompence thereof made him chiefe captain and gouernor of their towne by which meanes he yéelded vp the rebellious Babylonians to his soueraigne Lord the king to the great good quieting of his countrey Did not Sceuola that noble Roman whē the citie of Rome was besieged by the mighty Porsena king of Tuscane willingly run to desperat death to purchase liberty to his countrey for he apparreled him selfe in beggars cloathes came foorth of the citie by night and ranged in the enemies campe till he had found out the Tent of Persena the king minding to slay that mighty Tuscane who then so strongly compassed and enuironed their citie But he mistaking the king slewe his Secretary and missed his marke who being thereupon presently taken and his pretended purpose further knowen Porsena the king caused a great fire to be made to burne
with the subtile and wilie Hanniball chiefe General of the hoast of the Carthaginians who came marching to the very walles of Rome conquering the Romans staying their Consuls and beating downe their strongest powers whose force and policie made the citie of Rome to shake for feare the Senators graue fathers to tremble in despaire the noble matrones and young damsels to cry out and lament most pitifully as if the Citie euen then shoulde haue beene sacked knowing not how by any meanes to repell the enemie being in this distresse and ready to be spoyled by their mortall foe when all their flourishing young Gentlemen were almost slaine and their chiefest Captaines and most noble warriors put to the sword Now in this great extremitie the noble Scipio required leaue of the sorowfull Romans to reuenge their iniuries on the bloody minded Carthaginians not doubting but that with a lusty courage and circumspect care to encoūter the power and policie of fierce Hanniball Thus when the graue Senators and the rest of the distressed Romanes did see such willingnes in the noble youth Scipio knowing that both his father and vncle were slaine in the same warre before also seeing such inuincible courage in the braue minded Gentleman they all with willing consent made him gouernour almost ouer their conquered band requiring him with lamentable teares hanging about his necke that at this time he would remember their miserable and distressed estate and seek to hold vp and maintaine their wauering Common wealth which was nowe ready to fall into the hands of their cruell enemie Thus Scipio hauing taken his Countreys cause on him with a noble heart marched against the hardie Hanniball and draue him as well by policie as by force out of the borders and confines of Italie ouercomming him in diuers notable battailes in Spaine getting also the whole Countrey of Spaine againe which the Carthaginians had lately woon from the Romanes not resting vntill he had chased and driuen Haniball back into his owne countrey of Affricke yea and in the end penned him vp hard to the very walles of Carthage which was his chiefest defence and refuge where was fought a cruell and bloudy battaile betwixt two of the most noblest captaines of the world contending in that fight for the Empire of the whole world watching to whō now it should fall For the pride of these two empires of Rome and Carthage could neuer digest or brooke the statelines of each other which first was the cause of this bloudy warre but now at this time it was turned to a whole Monarchie for Scipio in this battaile ouercame the Carthaginians and caused stately Carthage to be yeelded to his mercie Now when Scipio had finished this perilous war he returned with the conquest of Affrica and Spaine making the stout captaine Hanniball to fly for his safetie causing the hautie Carthaginians to yeeld them selues on their knees to the mercie of the Romanes returning into Rome with the Empire in a māner of the whole worlde to the great ioy and euerlasting fame of the Romanes Surely a great and sodain change to see the Romans raigne as victors when that not long before the dreadfull Captaine Hanniball had ranged all Italie ouer and driuen the Romanes into their citie of Rome who euery day expected the destruction of themselues and their Citie and now not onely to be Lordes againe ouer their owne Empire but also ouer the stately Carthaginians who before had sought their subuersiō and confusion which hapned by the wise gouernment and valiant courage of noble Scipio The Romanes being now fréed from all miseries and calamities and againe ruling as kings ouer the whole worlde could not chuse but defile themselues with notable ingratitude and spot themselues with wonderful vnkind dealing for Scipio who had thus pleasured his countrey because the world had him in great honor and admiration comming dayly from far to the citie of Rome to behold and doe honour to so valiant and fortunate a Gentleman who had so manfully defended his countrey and gotten such peereles prayse to the Romanes wherfore the Romanes disdayning that the honour of Scipio should dayly so increase repining and grudging at him séeking by all meanes possible to hunt him from the citie because they would not acknowledge themselues to be beholding vnto him for his noble actes despising that any one should liue amōg them that should be accounted the preseruer or vpholder of their common wealth which was by reason of their intollerable pride therefore they sought by all meanes to banish and exile him from the Citie which was by his meanes preserued as the world at this daye can wel witnesse inuenting against him strange and diuers accusations First hee was charged with the olde matter betwixt the Locrenses and Pleminius wherein as they say he being Consull was corrupted with mony and therefore ministred not true Iustice. Againe they layd to his charge that his sonne being prisoner to Antiochus their enemie was deliuered to him without raunsome which they thought was verie suspitious For these small causes he was called before the Senate to answere to their obiections which were but of small importance euen as if he had béen a meane man base person vrging causes against him with extremitie without fauour or hauing anie respect to his noble actes done for the Common wealth which ingratitude he tooke so displesantly that he departed from the Court and went into the countrey to the towne of Lytarne where he dwelled as long as he liued exiling himself frō Rome for euer and at his death he commaunded his bodie to bee buried there also that his bones might not rest in that vnkind Citie The most worthie Captaine Hannibal was also banished Carthage by his vnkinde country men when he had done wonderfull exploytes in his Countreys cause and although he was in the ende conquered by Scipio yet was he well knowen to bée the most famous and worthiest Captain liuing in the world at that time notwithstanding Fortune fauoured him not Thus we sée that diuers are most vile hardly recompenced by theyr vnkinde countrey men for their good seruice done Fame Yet notwithstanding my good friend although diuers Countreys haue béen vnkinde and vngrateful to their noble Countrey men it is no consequent that anie Country man should be vntrue to his natiue soyle and Commonwealth for the fault is much more hainous and farre more gréeuous for the man to be vntrue to his Common wealth than for the coūtrey to shewe an vnkinde part to the man although it be bad in both But now againe to our purpose though wee haue somewhat digressed from the matter in shewing what man ought to doo for his Countrey and with what willingnesse hee ought to hazard life for the preseruation thereof it shall not séeme vnfitt to retire againe to our former conference concerning the gouernment of man which altogether ought to bee grounded on temperance as our former speach hath hetherto
chosen But surely the vaine babling of the prating Poets in this cause is vtterly to be condemned for vnder the colour that all women are euill they goe about to hide and cloake the foolish follie of mad doting men making women a veile or shadow to hide and couer the doting fondnes of vnsatiable men Indeede the olde prouerbe is Ignis mare mulier tria sunt mala That sire the sea and a woman are three euils Truely a strong reason then may it like wise be said that men are euill for that one man hath killed another and surely by this reason the former three are also euil For if a man will cast himselfe into the fier no doubt but that he shal burne or into the sea where he may be drowned or els into the calamities of such a mariage or otherwise ouer fondly to dote which he well knew before would purchase his trouble and vexation But my good friend my purpose is not to exclaime on or blame faultlesse women who cannot bridle the fond affection of their importunate louers wherefore I will somewhat more amply speake of fonde and doting loue which is as well in the one as in the other and what inconuenience doth consequently follow their doting folly Semiramis being the most amiable Lady of the world by reason of her surpassing beautie was sent for into Assiria to the king of that region that he might satisfie himselfe with the sight of her péerles pulchritude before whose presence she came according to the tenor of his message The king had no sooner cast his wanton eye vpon her passing beauty but was foorthwith inflamed with the fire of affection towards her then after certaine circumstances ouerpassed she required of the doting king a rich reward namely a robe of estate the gouernment of Assiria for fiue dayes continuance and the absolute authoritie in all thinges that were done in the kingdome Which petition of Semiramis was granted by the king no deniall made to the contrary In conclusion when things without exception were in the gripes of her aspiring minde she commanded the fonde king to be slaine whereby he was dispossessed of his dominion and she presently thereupon enioyed the scepter and crowne imperiall ouer all Assiria Did not Candaulus king of Sardis dote in foolish and fonde loue ouer his wife insomuch that he thought her the fayrest creature in the worlde yet not content to satisfie himselfe with her beautie but in fond and doting sort must needes shewe his wife naked to his frend to make him partaker of her surpassing beautie and peereles person and therfore he called his frēd Giges to his chamber and hid him secretely against his wife should come to bed but his frend Giges disswading him from his folly notwithstanding Candaulus would haue no nay in his importunate suite but that his frend should both know see his his priuie benefite so that he was constrayned to obey his fonde request Now when the wife of Candaulus perceiued herself so betrayed by the inuention of her husband for Giges incontinētly discloased himselfe she was mightely abashed wonderfully ashamed for in that countrey it was counted a most wonderfull dishonesty and reproach that a woman should be seene naked of any man sauing of her husband yet for all that she dissēbled the matter for a time meaning in the end to take sharp reuenge on her husband for the great villany he had offered her At the last she called Giges to her chamber who before had séene her naked to the end to haue slaine him threatening him that vnlesse he would presently reuenge the wrong and great abuse which her husband had offered her in his presence which he consequentlie consented vnto for the sauegard of his life with firme oathes solemne vowes which was that he should kil the king her husband and take her to wife with the kingdome hoping that hee would be content to possesse so good a benefite and not to make any other priuie or partaker of that which hee best esteemed Thus whether it were for the sauegard of his life which he stood in perill to lose or for the coueting of so beautifull a Queene large a kingdome which now was offered him it resteth doubtfull but he foorthwith executed the Queenes pleasure on his doting master which happened through his owne fonde follie What inconueniēce also hapned to Artaxerxes king of Persia by such foolish folly in doting ouer his sonne so fondly y t he must make him his master in his life time For being drownd in such fond affection toward his sonne Darius not content himselfe with his scepter and kingdome which he quietly possessed hee presently aduanced him to taste the secretnes and sweete of his kingdome not satisfieng himselfe to be a commander ouer his people but would be a seruant and be commanded by his sonne so it hapned to him as he deserued for this princox his sonne being established in the kingdome by his doting father became at the last so lordly ouer his foolish father that hee woulde commaund him in all causes as his duetifull and obedient subiect it chanced that his father Artaxerxes had married the concubine which he before had taken in his warres who at that time was péerelesse in beautie Now Darius being in possession of his fathers kingdome by vertue of his authoritie he called his father before his presence as a common subiect saying Father as you haue put the kingdome into my hand and made me absolute King thereof so whosoeuer this kingdome containeth is also my subiect and vnder my authoritie therfore sir my pleasure is that you deliuer and yéelde into my handes your wife which was the concubine for she is faire in my sight and therefore I greatly desire to haue her and by vertue of my authoritie I straightly commaund no resistance to the contrarie But Artaxerxes although he had made his sonne King knew that hee was his father wherefore hee contrary to his sonnes minde detained Aspasia his newe married wife which deniall caused his sonne Darius to conspire the death of his resisting father because as he thought hee was not absolute King to commaund as after the death of his father hee should be and also did associate in this his vnnaturall confederacie fifty brothers which were begotten by his owne father Artaxerxes by diuers concubines But this doting King as it chanced although he had made himselfe a subiect to his prowd sonne yet by good helpe of his nobles he detected the cause and found out the treason And in the same day that Darius made account to accomplish his wicked enterprise he was himselfe and all the rest of the confederates taken and fell into the same snare that they had prepared for their aged father for Artaxerxes put both them their wiues and children to the sworde that none of that wicked race should remaine aliue the aged King for verie griefe that he had conceiued
of the Roman empire without cause at that time offered by the Romanes the Romanes then seeing their Empire in danger their whole state in perill their wiues and children likely to be spoyled the Citie defaced and their countrey vtterly to be ruinated and destroyed they then with manly courage and specially by the good help of the wise and valiant Scipio repelled them Italie draue them home into Affrike in the end to the very walles of their chiefest refuge which was to the stately towne and citie of Carthage there in the last battaile they were ouercome by the Romanes and forced to sue for fauour at the handes of them whom before they had inuaded The noble Scipio considering that in that battaile did consist and depend the victorie and whole ouerthrowe of one of those who stately Empires of Rome and Carthage And thus in this battaile they on both sides were stirred and pricked forward in hope of possessing each others Empire had no other meanes to animate and encourage his souldiers than by repeating and reiterating vnto them the perill of their owne estate and with what cruell and bloudy mindes the greedy Carthagiginians had inuaded them before Promising them futher to the intent to pricke their mindes forward more willingly to fight that if at that time and in that fight they did get the victory theÌ„ they should returne home to their owne countrey carying with them libertie for euer and neuer againe to feare such cruel inuasion as before they had tasted of For saith he Adesse finem belli in manibus esse predam Carthagenis si forte pugnauerint c. The war is euen now at an end the pray and spoyle of the Carthaginians were already in their hands and leaue should be giuen them after this victorie to returne home to their couÌ„trey parents wiues and children and to their houshold Gods So by the encouragement of the worthy Scipio they obteined a most triumphant victorie returning to Rome hauing coÌ„quered the causers of that bloudy war which they could neuer haue done if the Carthaginians first had not made them desperate by inuading their Region Also in the great warres sharp fight betwixt the Medians and the Persians in the time of Cirus and Astiages there hapned a notable thing which in this cause doeth merite remembrance For when the Persians vnder the conduct of king Cyrus were driuen backe and forced by Astiages and the Medes to retire being most eagerly chased by the fierce inuading foe with cruell force and bloudy minds vntill the Persian women rebuked the cowardlines of their flying men in this sort Nam matres vxores eorum obuiam occurrunt orant in prelium reuertantur cunctantibus sublata veste obscoena corporis ostendunt rogantes num in vteros matrum vel vxorum velint refugere The men by this sharpe reprehension of the women went backe againe into the battaile and put vnto shamefull flight those who before had caused them to retire For then they bethought themselues whether they should flie if they lost their owne kingdome thinking it very harde to liue and inhabite vnder the rule and dominions of other when as they could not enioy and quietly possesse their owne patrimony and also when they looked backe toward their women who came vpon them in such vndecent sort as hath before beene shewed they were greatly ashamed considering their own cowardlines who were faine to be stirred vp and put in minde by their valiant women to defend their countrey and familie Therefore the arte of warre is to be exercised and the feates and actes of chiualry highly to be commended not so much for the inuading of others as for the defending of their owne and beating down of the prowde vaunting foe This was an auncient order custome amongst the Romans to set open the Temple gates of Ianus in the time of warre and in peace to close them vp again for when they had thorowly seene the mutabilitie and vncertaintie of frowning battaile and the casualties of cruell warre being ouerwearied and tired with the calamities and miseries thereof at last they erected and buylded a temple in their city placing therein the image and picture of Ianus which was pictured with a bifronce or double forhead looking plainely and sensibly both wayes the temple dores and gates beeing closely bolted locked and shut vp in time of peace tranquilitie and in the time of warre either forrein or ciuill they commaunded to vnlocke and set ope the gates of the same temple to this end purpose that the people of the Citie might thoroughly behold the double face and backward looke of Ianus which signified and represented to the beholder a foresight of future thinges finally to happen aswell as for the prouision of the present state Thus it was continually vsed in peace to be shut and in warres to bée open wherby both the Senators Centurions Captaines and other Officers and Gouernors of the people were put in minde in the time of warre to haue a prouident foresight circumspect care what might happen thereby therein or thereafter as well as what séemed to stand good by their present knowledge Which prudent policie caused the wise Romanes to preuent diuers inconueniences for it is not good ouer blindly to goe forward in such causes trusting to their own force nor to fickle fortune who commonly deceiueth those that trust her It fortuned vpon a time that Dionysius the second and Philip the sonne of Amintas met together and falling into communication of manie matters as the vse and custome is in conference circular talke they harped both vpon this string Philip asked this question of Dionysius Quando cum tantum regnum accepisset à parente non id defendisset conseruasset How it chanced that he hauing receiued so ample a patrimonie of his Father did not defend and maintaine the same Whereunto he made this answere Non mirum quoniam omnia relinquens fortunam solùm qua ea parauerat tutus fuerat pater non mihi tradidit No maruell saith he for my father leauing all things to me in abundance did not deliuer to me withal his flourishing fortune whereby he obtained and maintained the same But truely where fortune most commonly is present and waighteth at will and pleasure there is wanting a satisfied mind which was verefied by the Legates of Carthage For when the Romanes had vtterly ouerthrown and subdued them they were forced to sue to the Senate of Rome for peace in which ambassade their was a graue Father of Carthage who boldly stood foorth in the â—â— the Romanes as thy first motion was rather than to mooue warre which dooth so happely fall out to the great honor of the Carthaginians no Hanno now I warrant thée we shall heare a Senator of Rome speake héere in the Senate house of Carthage most humbly crauing peace at our hands for their distressed Countrey and Commonwealth or
Minutius wher the remnant of the discomfited succors were Thus when the wilfull Minutius had séene himselfe so deceiued by the flights of Hannibal tried the frendly succor of his fellow whome by all meanes he had sought to discredite he called the remainder of his hoast about him saying I oftentimes louing souldiers and friends haue heard say that he is most wise that can giue good counsaile and tell what is to be done in weightie causes and that he is next wise that can obay him that giueth good counsaile but he that can neither giue good counsaile himself nor hearken to the graue aduice of the wise is of al other most foolish now therefore seeing that the first of these giftes fortune hath denied vs let vs keepe the second and while we learne to rule let vs also purpose with our selues to obay them that bee wise Wherefore I pray you let vs now though too late ioyn our tents with Fabius when you heare me salute him as my father salute you his soldiours likewise as your noble patrones by whose strength and hardines this day ye are preserued Incontinently they remooued to the Campe of Fabius wherat hee meruailed not a little now when their legions were met together and salutations had after long protestation made by Minutius to Fabius they tooke either other by the hand the soldiers of either dooing the like Minutius submitted himselfe and all the authoritie of the Empire which was committed to him by the Senators into the hands of Fabius as a man far more worthie thereof accounting it rather a burden to himselfe than honor desiring Fabius that he might be in the office of the master of the horsmen as before he was When this was knowen at Rome and affirmed to be true not onely by the letters of the Captaines but also by the reports of the soldiours of both parties the praise of Fabius was extolled to the verie heauens repenting their hard opinion which they had conceiued against him before confessing openly that they had greatly abused him in reiecting and condemning his wise and approoued counsaile so foolishly whose words they had found to be too true wishing that they had been ruled by so graue and wise a counsailor now submitting themselues as it were at his feete requiring him to defend their Countrey by his approoued pollicie and wisedome in so perilous a time and against so dangerous a foe as Hannibal was but first they felt their owne follie before they would giue anie credite or audience to the admonition of the wise Not long after Paulus Aemilius was chosen Consull and was to fight against Hannibal but before he departed the Senate Fabius made an Oration vnto him in the conclusion whereof hee said thus to the new chosen Consull Paulus if thou doo anie thing doo it soberly according to reason not rashly trusting to fortune followe not the occasion that thy enemie will giue thee neither be too hastie for hast is blinde and worketh vnsurely Notwithstanding Aemilius at that time gaue little héed to the wise precepts of the graue Fabius saying for a fashion sake Indeed they were more true than easie to bee followed At the last this Paulus Aemilius was ouerthrown at the great fight of Cannas where he lost all his power and was himselfe sore wounded whereof he soone died But before he ended his life C. Cornelius a noble Romane had found him out in the field being halfe couered with bloud who foorthwith requyred him if he felt anie hope of life to amount himselfe and depart the field and not to make the battaile more dolefull by the death of a Consull To whom Paulus made this answere C. Cornelius be thou increased in vertue but beware least while thou bewaile this chaunce thou haue small time to escape thy selfe goe thou therefore to the Citie and bid the Senate that they make strong their walls before this Conquerour come vnto them and secretly aduertize Quintus Fabius that Paulus Aemilius dooth firmely remember his friendly precepts and wise admonitions yea and liueth in them and finally dieth in them Wherewithall he presently died by reason of his mortall wound Wherefore it was well knowen that if the Romanes at the first had béen directed by the prudent counsaile of wise Fabius they had neuer tasted of so many calamities and miseries as hapned to their distressed State but their wilfulnes would not be warned before experience had sharply corrected their folly In like manner what blame did Cassandra daughter to Priamus king of Troy purchase when first her ouer wilde Brother went to Greece to fetch by stealth faire Helen away the wife of R. Menelaus for she mainly cried out and prophecied saying Whie ye Troyans will ye suffer my brother Paris to goe fetch fire in Greece to burne the stately towne of Troy thinke ye that the Greekes will digest so proud an iniurie O ye foolish Troyans And againe when he returned from Greece to Troy with his desired pray she with might and maine cried Away with Helen away againe with Menelaus wife for she smelleth of the Grecian fire that for her cause shall destroy the citie of my father me thinke I see for her sake my aged sier slaine and the Citie of Troy to flow with Phrygian bloud with heapes of the slain Troyans lying in the streetes for defending her vniust quarell Therefore saith she away with this fire spark least it consume our towne and make desolate our stately buildings Whereat the blinde Troyans laughed saying What is Cassandra madde knoweth she what she saith are not the Troyans able to resist the pride of Greece Let them pick what quarrell they wil we haue the beautifull Helen within our wals and will keepe her in the despite of the proud Greekes betide what may or will Thus was Cassandra openly blamed both of her brother and also of the whole Citizens for her wise counsaile when she most rightly had prophecied For not long after the Greeks loathing to suffer the Troyans so to abuse them in detaining King Menelaus wife came with a mightie and huge armie and besieged their Citie and in time tooke it slaying the people and vtterly defacing Troy with fire so that the stateliest Citie of the world lay flat on the ground Then could the Troyans say O Cassandra rightly hast thou said we finde thy words most true but we despised thy admonitions and reiected thy friendly warnings therefore is now this plague iustly fallen on vs. But then as the olde saying is Serò sapiunt Phryges they bethought thēselues too late being mad themselues with pride when first they thought Cassandra mad with folly Thus somwhat digressing though not altogether from our purpose in making manifest what the vainglorious and wilfull persons gaine in the end by not hearkening to the graue aduice wise counsaile of the prudent but contemning and reiecting the friendly warnings of those who before haue tried the mutabilitie of vnfriendly Fortune
most excellent things in the worlde that euer were séene or heard of Now when all these ordinances of Alexander were red by Perdicas heard by the Macedonian Princes although they loued their master maruellously yet when they saw his enterprices to be such and of so great charge they all agreed with one consent that nothing should be done therin departing euery man to his Prouince whereunto he was appoynted by the gouernor Perdicas Shortly after they were all departed and seperated one from another Perdicas thought good hauing so fit oportunity to reuenge himselfe on those that first hindered him from being king And for because that Meleager now prince of Lydia whē he was sent ambassador to the footmē did earnestly stād against his desire altogether preuented his intent therefore Perdicas in reuenge first of all other most cruelly slew him with 30. of the most principall souldiers that were against his proceedings The other princes soon had intelligence of the things Perdicas had done fearing he would shew the like crueltie on them hearing also what their master Alexander had said on his deathbed which was that his kingdomes possessions should be possessed of the most worthy wherfore euery of them enioying so large prouinces and territories thought themselues as worthy personages as either Aride the king or Perdicas his gouernor insomuch that the most part of them would be subiect to neither but seniorized their Prouinces to their owne vses chalenging the name and title of kings deuiding themselues taking part one against the other euery one striuing who should bee worthiest Which words of Alexander together with their stately pride was the originall cause that the whole number of Princes and captaines successors to Alexander perished and were vtterly destroyed for they earnestly coueted each others kingdome raising among themselues bloudy war and cruell strife snatching after the most worthy place not forcing of cruell murthers or lamētable slaughters but with eger minds būted after y e goods life of ech other vntil they had vtterly rooted out consumed themselues for Perdicas hauing slaine Meleager and other of his fellow seruitors in Alexanders warres toke vpō him to go into Egypt to dispossesse Ptolome whom before he had placed in that Prouince But there because he behaued himselfe so proudly dismissing his captains vpon small occasions at his pleasure his souldiers set vpon him most fiercely slew him the greatest part of his army being gone to Ptolome King Philip Euridice his wife wer most cruelly murthered by Olympias Alexanders mother Craterus cōming against Eumenes in opē battail was by him slaine Eumenes also was slain in fight by Antigonus Antigonus likewise put to death Python and gaue his prouince to another Antigonus going to batel against Antioch the sonne of Seleucus was himselfe slain by default of his sonne Demetrius It was credebly reported that the night before Antigonus was slaine his son Demetrius dreamed that Alexander who before was dead came stood before him with his sword drawne saying I wil take part with thy enemies against thy father and thee in the morning also when Antigonus aranged his phalange or square battell of footmen comming foorth of his Tent to fight he stumbled and sell downe flat to the groūd and after he was lifted vp againe holding vp his hands to heauen he said I know hard fortune and euill successe drawethny but I pray the immortall Gods rather suffer me to be slaine in this battel than shamefully before mine enemie to flie Also old Antipater falling sick on a surfet which he had takē in these warres deceased and left the kingdome of Macedon to Polispercon his frend and not to Cassander his owne sonne which also caused great controuersie to arise betwixt his sonne Cassander and his friend Polispercon But in the end Cassander expelled Polispercon his fathers kingdome Not long after he himselfe came to vntimely death leauing behind him two sonnes the eldest hight Alexander the other Antipater which Antipater after he had slaine his owne mother sought meanes to driue his brother Alexander out of Macedon For which cause Alexander sent for ayde to king Pirrhus in Cyprus to Demetrius Antigone his sonne in Peloponnesus howbeit Demetrius being so occupied about the estate and affaires of Pelopōnesus whē the Ambassadors of Alexander came that hee coulde by no means help him In the mean time Pirrhus with a great armie came thether and in recompence of his ayde charge took possession of so large a peece of Macedon laying it to his owne countrey of Epyre that Alexander greatly dreaded him And while he abode in this feare he was aduertised that Demetrius was with his whole power comming to his ayde Wherupon he considering the authoritie great renowne of Demetrius and also the worthines of his déedes for which causes he was highly honoured through the whole world did now more than before feare his estate if he entered his realm wherfore he foorthwith went to méet him whom at their first méeting he right courteously and honorably entreated greatly thanking him for his courtesie and trauell in that he would leaue his own affaires of great importance and with so mightie an army come to his ayde further telling him that he already had wel quieted and established his estate so that he should not néede any further to trauell Neuertheles he thought himselfe so much bounde as if he had come at his first sending for or that all things had béen by his meanes quieted To these words Demetrius answered that he was right glad of his quietnes and that he had now no néed of his helpe besides many other louing and gentle words which gréeting ended either of thē for that night returned into his tent During which time there arose such matters betwixt thē that the one greatly suspected the other for as Demetrius was bid to supper with Alexander he was willed to take heede to himselfe for Alexander had practised by treason to slay him notwithstanding he by no mean shewed any countenance of mistrust but meant to go to the banquet to whose lodging Alexander was comming to bring him on his way But Demetrius diuersly detracted the time went a soft easie pace to y e ende his souldiers might haue leisure to arme them and cōmāded his garde being a greater number than Alexanders to enter with him also to waite neer his person but when Alexanders souldiers saw themselues the weaker part they durst not attempt it at that time And after supper because Demetrius would haue some honest cause to depart he fayned he was some what ill in his body therfore foorthwith took leaue of Alexander went thence The next day Demetrius feined that he had receiued letters out of his countrey of great importance so that he with his army must presently return into Peloponnese frō whēce he came praying Alexander to haue him excused offering him
aliances and families at the handes of the Grecians and suffered with bagge and baggage fréely to passe from the burning towne and slaughtered heapes of their betrayed Countreymen But nowe more rightly to decipher vnfaithfull Aeneas whom Virgil oftentimes in his prophane verses doth call Pius Aeneas as doth appeare in the 3. book of the Aeneidos saving Parce pias scelerare manus non me tibs Troia c. And in the 6. book Principuè pius Aeneas tum iussu Sibyllae Also in the 7. book At pius exequijs Aeneas ritè solutis c. First it is to be considered that Aeneas was the onely man that led doting Paris to that vnaduised enterprise accompanying him into Lacedemon Then afterwards in the greatest extremitie of his Countrimen for sauegard of his owne life he betrayed the towne and was the chiefest instrument to bring aged Priamus to an vntimely death with all the whole Troian State For perceiuing the Greekes meant sharply to reuenge thēselues on the whole race of Priamus for the vile abuse of Paris his leawd sonne Aeneas hauing married Crusa one of the daughters of the said Priamus then knowing the intent of the fierse Greekes presently with willing consent committed his louing wife to the murdering enimie that no let or impediment might be of his owne escape Notwithstanding Virgil alwaies fauoring wretched Aeneas because the Romans deriue the pedegrée from the fugitiue Troyans after a more cunninger sort saith that he lost Crusa his wife in the burning towne altogether against his will when he with his father and the rest of his familie made hast to scape from the persecuting foe Also other of the Romans going about to hide the vnfaithfulnes of their predicessor saie thus of him that at such time as Troy was taken by the Gretians Agamemnon their chiefe captaine greatly pittying the perplexities and miseries of the Captiues made this generall Proclamation in the Gretian tongue that it shoulde bee lawfull for euery Citizen which was frée to conuay and carrie away with them some one thing or other what they themselues would best like of most tenderly loued Aeneas therefore contemning all other things of great valew and estimation carried out with him the gods of hospitality which when the Greekes beheld and considered the vertious gratious inclination of the gentleman as they say gaue him leaue in like manner to take and chuse one thing what be most made of among all his goods riches and possesions Aeneas vsing the benefit of this their mercifull graunt tooke his father being olde and ancient vpon his shoulders and bore the burden of his bodie out of the Citie whereat the Grecians being wonderfully astonished left vnto him the substaunce of all his wealth vndiminished adding these wordes importing a testimonie of their opinion conceiued towards him Pietatem in homines deos exercentibus parentésque reuerenter colentibus c. Such as behaue themselues religiously toward the gods and vse themselues reuerently to their parents must of necessitie make blunt the sharpe edge of the irefull enemie But this sauoureth nothing of the truth for Dictys Cretensis seruing the Grecians against the Troians during all the warre to the intent that he should note the yearly aduentures which fortuned it is to be thought that being a Grecian and in all places setting foorth the worthy praise of his Countreymen to the verie vttermost would neuer so staine y e valor of the Greekes as to say they could not take the Towne by force but were forced to vse trecherous means to obtain their purpose Notwithstanding it might haue béen suspected although he had written that Troy was taken by the Greekes by manly force and stout courage in despite of the Troians that then he had flattered the Greekes his Countreymen whose pen most commonly after the largest manner is giuen to set out their Countries glorie wherefore it is certainly to bee beléeued that Aeneas with his confederates was corrupted and yéelded vp the towne to the enemie or els Dictys Cretensis would neuer so much haue abased his Countrey men as to affirme this Tunc placitum est omnibus fidem dari foedere firmari iureiurando stringi eo pacto vt si oppidum proxima nocte tradidissent Aencae Antenori Vcaligoni necnon liberis coniugibus propinquis amicis suisque omnibus fides seruaretur Then Aeneas as Dictys reporteth being at a point with the Greekes concerning the yeelding vp of the Towne firmely gaue faith on all parts by solemne vowe being bound on this condition that if the next night they yelded their Citie to the Grecians that then both Aeneas Antenor and Vcaligon together with their Wiues Children Families Friends and Kindred with all their goods and riches whatsoeuer should be faithfully spared and right carefully kept from hurt by any of the said Grecians which plighted promise was on either part firmely obserued for the next night Troy was treacherously yelded vp by Aeneas and his traiterous crew and the Grecians according to promise spared the betrayers thereof Notwithstanding the vnfaithfulnes of Aeneas was greatly noted by the Greekes for when hee had betrayed both his aged Prince stately Empire strong towne he could not be found faithful to the Grecians but sought to flowt and mocke them at whose handes he had obteyned life and liberty insomuch that when Agamemnon and Pyrrhus the sonne of Achylles made diligent enquirie and earnest search after Polixena daughter to Hecuba who so vilely had dealt with noble Achylles nowe minding sharply to reuenge his fathers death on that disloyall wretch and therefore earnestly striued to finde her out Aeneas who coulde neither be faithfull to his friendes nor enemies sought out meanes to hide Polixena from the fury of Pyrrhus Achylles sonne but fierce Pyrrhus not ceasing vntill hee had founde her out in reuengement of his fathers death he cruelly sacrificed her on his toomb For which vnfaithfull part of Aeneas as Dictis Cretensis reporteth Tunc Agamemnon iratus Aenea quòd Polixenam absconderat cum omnibus suis à patria protinus discedere iubet that then Agamemnon king of the Greekes being greatly angry wyth Aeneas for that he had hidden out of the way faire Polixena by whose vnfaithfull meanes his good companion noble Achylles was vntimely slaine for which cause he presently commaunded him to depart out of the Countrey and for that hee before had promised him both landes goods and all other things whatsoeuer were knowne to be his owne hee foorthwith compelled him to take whatsoeuer him best liked also to bestow his lands at his own pleasure for there he should no longer stay Thus after Aeneas had betrayed his Countrey he himselfe with the other rable rout of his treacherous companions were forced to wander at sea attending what destiny would bestow on them spoyling robbing in diuers coasts and countries where he landed in the end chancing on the country of Affrica he
by his owne follie soone ended his life a more happier King than a father It were but a tragicall historie of Leyr sometime King of this land which is so sufficiently set down and made manifest in their English Chronicles what enormities calamities and infinite miseries hapned to him by the fond and doting loue which he bare towards his daughters For by a foolish conceipt which he had taken toward them so farre doating in an vnmeasurable sort and as it were being ouer much blinded with a fond conceipt and foolish affection towards the yong nice wenches that hee must néedes forsooth diuide his Kingdome betwixt them in his life willingly dispossesse himselfe standing euer after to their reward courtesie Thus when hée had displaced himselfe and deuision of the Kingdom was made ioyntly to the vse of his daughters being bestowed and married in seuerall parts of the Land hée himselfe thought good to remaine a time with the one and as long a space with the other vntill the good olde King had tyred both his daughters who soone began to be wearie of their aged Father denying and abbridging him in a maner of things necessarie and néedfull so that the poore old King was forced thorough extreame néede to séeke redres at his yongest daughters hand whom he neuer could well fancie neither had euer giuen anie thing vnto remaining out of his Kingdome because hee had bequeathed her no part thereof at whose hand the poore distressed King found reliefe and also redresse of his wrongs to his great comfort in his olde age Thus it remaineth euident extant at this day what miseries calamities enormities infinit troubles and dayly vexations consequently doo fall to man by that fond conceipt in doating folly inordinately louing and immoderately fonding ouer wife sonne daughter or others whosoeuer as the tenor of our conference hath hethertoo tended and expressed therefore my good friend leauing to your consideration our former speaches to be well and diligently noted wherby I may somewhat hereafter perceiue that you are profited and then I shall thinke my paines well bestowed and our first méeting right happie And now in the meane time for the better recouerie of your memorie and also beeing loath to trouble your senses with ouer much tediousnes I willingly craue pardon to rest vntill our next méeting expecting at this time no further replication but committing our conference to the safe tuition of your memorie Farewell FINIS The miserable calamities and lamentable distresses of bloudie Battaile and ruinous Warre with the vnspeakable mischiefes that consequently followeth disdainfull enuie WHereas diuers calamities and miseries incident to man are alreadie sufficiently explayned and set downe wherein he wilfully runneth to perdition and present destruction by his inordinate and vnsatiable appetites not withstanding there remaineth as yet vnspoken of the greeuous enormities of despitefull Warre with the infinite miseries and distressed calamities thereunto belonging which also hapneth to man by his immoderate and vntollerable pride But now first to decipher the cruell state of ruinous Warre it hath béene most vainely prooued by Logicall probations that Warre is incident and vneuitable to a Common wealth For as they say Warre bringeth ruine ruine bringeth pouertie pouertie procureth peace and peace in time increaseth riches riches causeth statelinesse statelinesse increaseth enuie enuie in the end procureth deadly mallice mortall mallice proclaimeth open warre and battaile and from warre againe as before is rehearsed so that by this argument the weale publike must either be in pouertie or els in war which truly we oftentimes sée to fall out accordingly But is this sophisticall argument of sufficient force to blinde and cloake the badde corruption of mans nature as though riches were master to the man not the man ouer his riches either is it consequently incident vnto him that is rich to carrie mallice enuie and mortall hatred in his minde or otherwise to him that is in pouertie to séeke for peace Then let vs attribute it to the whéele wherein one thing successiuely followeth another and not to bee redressed by the prouident gouernment of man Surely I am not of that mind although riches doth oft abuse the man and the man his riches yet notwithstanding it is no generall consequent that all rich men are malicious persons séeking after ruinous warre bloodie battaile for then should I thinke it a vaine thing for a man to striue with the corruption of his nature to preuent and disappoint such miserable calamities by his prouident wisedome as maye after incidently happen and fall out but rather wish him to runne headlong with his vnbridled affections to such casuall chaunces as may howsoeuer the world falleth out come to passe But truly I am of this opinion that whosoeuer hath the gift of temperance can neither bee proud in authoritie and high dignitie whereby mallice and enuie maye growe and encrease nor in pouertie to be so vnsatiable couetous that sufficient shall not serue him but whether riches encrease continue or diminish no doubt but that Temperance hath such a prouident foresight and prudent care to holde it selfe content without battaile Wherefore to make frustrate this former fond Argument Warre is not so incident to man but that by wisedome it may easely be preuented But now to returne to our purpose againe concerning the calamitie of warre the ancient Historiographer Trogus Pompeius reporteth that Ninus King of Assyria first made warre being stirred vp with pride and couetousnesse and first of all others assayed to bring other Nations and Regions vnder his subiection fighting with his neighbours and confines for superioritie wherein he made great effusion of bloud and mightie slaughters of people Yet notwithstanding the same Trogus affirmeth that there were certaine Kings before him who inuaded barbarous Nations and rude Regions to the intent to bring them to be ciuill people For saith hee Fuere quidem temporibus antiquiores Vexores rex Aegypti Scythiae rex Tanais quorum alter in Pontum alter in Aegyptum excessit sed longinqua non finitima bella gerebant nec imperium sibi sed populis suis gloriam tenebant contentique victoria imperio abstinebant There were before him Vexores King of Aegypt and Tanais King of Scythia the one going into Pōtus the other into Egypt and making warre a farre off and not on their neighbors neither did they séeke to get principalitie to themselues but perpetuall glorie to their Countrey men contenting themselues with victorie refrained to holde them vnder subiection sauing in repressing their barbarous maners Therfore saith Pompeius Ninus was the first that made warre because he inuaded his confines and borderers striuing for regiment fighting for superioritie and earnestly going about to get the Kingdomes of his neighbours vnder his subiection and not these Kings who sent their power into forraine countries to tame and make ciuill such barbarous people and to bring them to good gouernment and then to leaue their kingdomes
to their owne authoritie But Ninus hath béen so rightly imitated and iustly followed that at this day warre increaseth of trifling causes to most bloudie battaile Did not the cruell warre of the Persians growe of a small occasion and grudge betwixt Menāder Samius and the Athenians Also the bloudie conflict called Praelium sacrum began about the exaction of the iudgement of the Amphictions the Cheronean warre bred of a light occasion betwixt Philip the Athenians Which warres although they sprang but of friuolous causes could not be ended without great slaughters Therefore it is an easier thing to begin war than to end it wherefore a man ought first to haue a care howe to finish that which he taketh in hand or else he runneth blindly to his enterprise hauing also consideration that whosoeuer shal first begin warre sounding the trumpe of defiance vpon small occasions doth as it were open his gate to be spoyled as well of the forren as domestique enemie such misgouernment disorder there is in warre for the rude and vnbridled rascall doth gape after so fit an opportunitie to deuoure spoyle and rob the honest and true subiect boystrously intruding himselfe into the houses arrogantly challenging to be partakers of the goods substance of the quiet people which they haue long time trauelled for with great paines and carefull toyle so that he who cannot be content to enioy and possesse his owne proper goods priuately with quietnes let him proclaime open warre hee shall soone be rid of that griefe Who is so prone to bloudie broyles as such as haue by euillhusbandrie as they terme it spent their lands goods and substance in vaine pleasures and vile follies Was not Rome in great perill to haue béen spoyled by a notable crue of bankrupts For Lucius Sergius Cataline a noble mā of Rome when hee had by riot spend his patrimonie beeing altogether vnable to maintaine his prodigalitie and wanton vaine in immoderate spending went about to spoile sack and destroy his owne natiue citie and countreymen associating to him in this his greeuous conspiracie such outlawes and bankrouts as either stoode in feare of a law or els such vnthrifts as himselfe as had wantonly and most vainly spent and consumed their goods and possessions which presently were as soone allured as himselfe was ready to entise hoping to be made rich by the spoile of their owne countreymen when they had vnthriftely wasted their owne This rable rout of vnbrideled riotors had wrought their mischieuous purpose to such effect that their wicked enterprice had taken place if by the prouident wise foresight of Cicero it had not beene preuented neither was it knowen that any one Roman of good gouernment or any one that liued orderly in the commonwealth without riot or other bad and lewd conuersation was found culpable or gilty in this dangerous conspiracie although diuers principall and chiefe men at the first were suspected notwithstanding they were in the ende cleerely defended and apparantly freed from that slaunderous reproach and ignomie by their owne Citizens Did not Brennus in like manner leade and conduct a mighty huge bande of Gaules who had before spent their goods by ryot prodigalitie and disordering themselues in many bad and vile misdemeanors spoyling and robbing most vnmercifully the countreys as they marched committing sacriledge with a number of most vile villaines to recouer againe their former vaine expēces Did they not in the end after many cruell acts vnsatiable spoyles and shamefull robberies most miserably perish to the wonderfull example of such spoyling outlawes What was the cause that the Troyans inuaded Italie making such hauock and spoyle in what countrey soeuer they arriued but their greedy couetous mindes to recouer their vnthriftie losses For when they had by their own vnfaithfulnes greatly abused their frends the Greekes with a most shamefull abuse the Greekes in reuengement thereof sacked and spoyled their citie slaying and murthering the vnfaithfull Troyans sauing certaine which afterward made warres in Italie which were saved at the destruction of Troy for betraying their king and citie into the hands of the Grecians this remaine of the disloyall Troyans so scoured and pilled the coastes of diuers countreyes to get and take perforce whatsoeuer they could finger arriued at the last in Italy where they made sharp warre spoyling the people and wasting the Countrey vntill such time as they had taken the whole region from the lawfull inhabitors thereof Thus it is most euident that first warre is begun and set forward either by the vnsatiable person or els by the rebell bankrout or outlaw the one to satisfie his vnbrideled appetite plaguing diuers for his owne priuate gaine the other for his misgouernment and disobedience both to Prince and law to whom warre is swéete and most pleasant to answere their gréedy expectation withall But war to the contented person and quiet subiect is a hell and the very scourge of God the name whereof is most odious and terrible to the quiet minde for it bringeth all miseries and calamities to man as namely plague pestilence sodain death murther bloudy battaile cruel slaughters miserable destruction of many towns ouerthrow of stately cities sword fire and famine with a thousand miseries incidert to man by such a spiteful guest The olde prouerbe saith Dulce bellum inexpertis sed acerbum experientibus Warre is sweete and pleasant to the vnskilfull and ignorant but bitter and vnsauerie to the skilful Yet notwithstanding although war be most fierce and cruell yet is it stoutly to be maintained against the vnsatiable and inuading enemie and with might and maine to be folowed to the beating downe and suppressing of such spitefull foes as are euer ready prest and bent to disturbe a quiet and peaceable kingdome being blinded with auarice doe right soone consent to lamentable slaughters and effusion of bloud it is much more easier to defende a kingdome being already possessed and to repell the aduersarie than to inuade other regions or conquere forraine countreis for it is to be thought that the people will fight more couragiously both for their prince coūtrey libertie wiues and children house and familie than the proud inuading enemy who fights to satisfie his vainglorious minde and vnsatiable appetite Was not Xerxes king of Persia when he inuaded Greece with such an innumerable power who also perceiuing the strēgth of his multitude commanded both sea and laud to obey his pleasure driuē back out of Greece by a small companie of the defending Grecians causing him to flie with spéede home to his owne Countrey againe to his great shame and dishonor Was not such inuading the very chiefe and originall cause that the Romanes subdued Carthage for if the proud and vnsatiable Carthaginiās had not first inuaded Italie and the Romanes their owne Citie and commonwealth could neuer haue béene ouerthrowen and subdued For when first the Carthaginians entered Italie minding to make a whole conquest