their own worth consequently often changeth their manners into the worse but especially that it encreaseth their pride insolence As for his educatioÌ„ in a house of souerainty that might put into the heads of these censuring subiects thus much for certainly they liked neuer a iot the better of Tiberiê° for hauing bin brought vp in so high a Schoole of soueraignty as the house of Augustus First that what seeds soeuer of haughtines and pride were in him hereditary and which he possessed by vertue of his bloud were now also through long custome sprung vp wanted but the season of reigning to bring forth their vnpleasant fruit Secondly that hauing by experience vnder so learned a master in the Art of gouernment beene taught how to hold them vnder as much as himselfe should please they could not looke for any remissenesse to proceede from want of knowledge how to keepe them low and consequently were sure to find his gouernment euery way vneasie Neijs quideÌ„ annis quibê° Rhodi specie secessê° exulem egerit aliquid quam iram simulationem secretas libidines meditatum Neither those yeeres that he liued vnder colour of retiremeÌ„t in exile at Rhodes did he meditate anything but wrath dissimulation secret lust It is reported of Tiberius that at the first hee trauelled voluntarily to Rhodes but being there he was coÌ„manded to stay Howsoeuer it was he obtained the fairename of retirement to couer the ignominy of banishment A man would perhaps thinke that aduersity should rather quench or at least asswage those passions which haue their life especially from great prosperity as wrath dissimulation lust And so it doth when the aduersitie is so great that the hope is lost of reducing their meditations into act But otherwise it worketh a cleane contrary effect For wheras anger commonly dyeth where reuenge is despaired of dissembling is laid aside where the labor of it is vain imaginations of lust diminish where they can neuer be accoÌ„plished wheÌ„ aduersity is but such as they expect to ouercom it often falleth out that the hope which nourisheth such imaginations is enflamed thereby and men please their vicious fancies for the present with the coÌ„ceit of what they wil execute with effect hereafter when they shal haue the power This was the case of Tiberius and a cause of feare ceÌ„sure in those that were to liue in subiectioÌ„ vnder him Accedere matrem muliebri impotentiâ seruienduÌ„ foeminae duobê° insuper adolescentibê° qui Remp. interim premant quandoque distrahant That besides this there was his mother offeminine impotence that they were to serue a woman two yong men that would for the present oppresse the Commonwealth might hereafter rend it Next to the person of Tiberius they considered in him those of his Family that would also looke for seruice and obedience at their hands namely his Mother two sonnes Germanicus by adoption and his owne naturall sonne and thought them no small grieuance to the Commonwealth For it is a hard matter to serue and please well one Master but to please two or more when there is or may be betwixt them competition or iealousie leauing out that one of them is a woman is altogether impossible The cause hereof is not because the diligence and dexterity of a man cannot suffice for the quantity of seruice but because the quality of it will not permit for the seruice that the one will expect from you is most times this That you displease the other And this proceeds from the emulatioÌ„ of those that are in the way to autority that ofteÌ„ labor not so much to outrunne each other in the course as they do to trip vp one anothers heeles And the same emulation when they once draw neere the races end makes them snatch at the prize and fall to violence and warre and to distract and draw the CoÌ„monwealth into faction and sedition FINIS A DISCOVRSE OF ROME A DISCOVRSE OF ROME IN the sight of any place there bee two especial Obiects Antiquitie and Greatnesse both which none can sooner challenge then Rome in the very beginning noted for Soueraignty The continuance of which in such diuersity of gouernments as Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Emperors cannot but shew a diuine power for otherwise so many changes might in all likelihood haue bred confusion and so consequently suppressed their rising to so great an Empire which as the last so it may be truely stiled the greatest that yet the world euer knew or heard of obtained onely by the valour of this one Citie no Commander and for a long time no Souldier that came not out from thence So that it may bee said the people of this one place made themselues masters of the rest Wherevpon they might haue iust cause to esteeme Orbem in vrbe the world confined in their Citie In the height of whose Imperiality which was in Augustus raigne Christ came into the world This as then the chiefe Commandresse of the whole was the place where holinesse and religion aymed to haue their principall plantation where during the time of the infidelity of the Emperours till Constantine the great who was the first that maintained the faith it is infinite to comprehend the tyrannizing ouer Christians the martyrdomes they endured so many that it is hard to name any who sealed not his faith with his bloud But now Constantine was conuerted to see the ill effects so good a cause produced cannot but breed admiration For the Ambition of the Bishops of Rome made this their first step to greatnesse and subuersion of the Empire How grounded vpon this donation I cannot imagine nor I thinke they yet well defend but this was the true Originall by which in succession of time the Empire was translated The zeale of this and some succeeding Emperours was so well taken hold of by the Prelates of Rome that by degrees they assumed more authority to themselues then was due the other in a manner before they were aware losing all at Rome but the title From which pretended power the Popes now take to themselues supremacie in all causes through all Kingdomes in the world and those which were before their superiours to bee as it were subiect and created by them that were their creatures Which shewes a great contrariety to the pretended arguments of Romanists for superiority and rather may bee returned vpon them that this their greatnesse hath more risen by encroachment then right Why therefore Princes haue beene so blinded with their pretences for greatnesse I cannot tell wherevnto to attribute it except to the fate of this place that hath euer beene or aymed to bee the Mistris of the world First by their wisedome and power and then vnder colour of Religion and Saint Peters Keyes And now to the description of Rome as I saw it In which I will neither goe beyond mine owne knowledge and fly to the reports of others nor yet so strictly
can giue you none for it except you will take this for one I will because I will which is an absurd womanish and childish Iustification and an argument of so smal force that it is a shame to vse it And this is that depriues most enterprises of good successe but alwaies howsoeuer be the euent the enterpriser of commendation For good euents depending ordinarily vpon good counsell they seldome chance without it when they doe it is by fortune whence can arise no glory to the doer but must wholly be attributed to some chance And if any crosse accident interpose it selfe this takes away all excuse For as it is seemly in no man after a chance to say I did not thinke so it is inexcusable in him when the cause is his refusing of good counsell or hearing and neglecting it following none but his owne Like a bad Logician it layes the conclusion downe first and seeks the premises inducements after or as a worse Iudge decrees at home and after heares the parties at the Barre A man so conceited of himselfe can bee no companion in deliberatiues but rather precipitates them and is altogether of a nature vnfit for businesse as comming with preiudicate opinions so vsurping vpon our reason that we will heare none from any else And therefore if this violence and selfe-conceit be so dangerous in a Councellor it is farre more in a Iudge For in the first there is equalitie of voyces and a man cannot so easily sway But in a Iudge if the will resolue before with a kinde of settled opinion notwithstanding any thing that can be vrged to the contrary by the Councell at the Barre I see no vse of pleading farther then to draw the Iudges inclination and for formality It takes away also from a man both his sight and his guide and yet hastens his pace which must needs cause precipitation Whereas receiuing of good counsell is to one both a light and a guide and a staffe and assures him more then the wall and the watch doth a City A Selfe-will'd person most commonly stops his eares to aduice as to an enchantment and when hee is content to heare it which is seldome hee doth it either as onely for custome bringing with him a resolution what to doe whatsoeuer shall be said and knowing that strong and euident reason hath in it selfe a kinde of violence hee therefore armes himselfe against it with obstinacy or else admits of counsell out of a desire to act his owne deuices as Xerxes who began a speech to his Councell with this That hee called them together not to aske their opinions but to haue their confirmation of his Two things make this disease seeme incureable The first is that it keepes out the Physician that should open such passages as being stopt hinder recourse from the will to the iudgement For hee that will admit a friend freely to giue him counsell and to shew him the true causes of this vice might easily auoid it The second is because the poyson of flattery is his ordinary food and few dare oppose the violence of his Appetite Yet on the contrary me thinks in time a Selfe-willed person should bee cured and become very wise because no sort of men doe more often or more deepely repent or buy their repentance more dearely then they doe Yet such if they come to amendment are beholding for it more to their enemies then friends for they punish them for their follies and by seeking aduantages teach them to seeke defences for their safety and flye to counsell But as for friends they be not likely to haue them many nor wise for who hauing iewels of that price as wisedome and ability to giue counsell will be content to remaine and conuerse where hee dare not vtter them or they bee not at all set by For as there can be no greater contentment to a wise man then to haue his counsell made vse of so there is no greater scorne and vexation then to haue it neglected This vice proceeds from two causes which are first Arrogance and next a debility of the mind possessed with an earnest desire to some pleasure or appearing contentment The first cause works vpon stiffe and seuere natures the latter in women and men of soft and effeminated affections The first maketh the vnderstanding by preiudging vnfit to discerne of good aduice the latter disableth the will to follow it The first makes it more dangerous The second more incurable Yet betwixt Selfe-will and Affection a man must distinguish as much as betwixt a setled resolution and a wish as one many times desires prohibited things may bee lawfull though hee approues them not to bee so and so followes not but bridles his inclination Besides notwithstanding all this I hold it better for any man that hath a mediocrity of iudgement to be wedded to his owne will then to the will of any one man besides the danger being equall of both sides for as the aduenture is great wholly to depend vpon our own wills so inconstancie is farre worse when a man will bevaried and disposed with diuers or single opinions It is better to subiect our selues to our owne appetites with little reason then to another mans with lesse The meane is neither to resolue without apparance of reason nor to be altred vnlesse with better neither to bee subiect to the will of another nor too peremptory in our owne It is the Counsell of diuers and wise men amongst whom a mans selfe should bee of the Quorum that most easily conducteth our actions to their desired ends Of Masters and Seruants THis part of Oeconomicall Iurisdiction is in abstract a representation of a more publike Gouernment To be vnexperienced in the first argues much disability for the latter Hee that cannot rule his owne familie is much more incapable to gouerne a multitude In this description I accept not Seruants as bound nor Masters as absolute but take them in those degrees as with vs they be generally receiued where there is left to both an equall libertie and free election And as a Seruant is bound in obedience to his Master which is the part hee must act so a Masters power is limited that hee cannot impose vpon him dishonest employments nor exact a strict performance of his seruant in any action of that sort Wherefore where commands be lawfull obedience is due otherwise not In your choyce first the occasion is to bee knowne next the man For to affect extraordinary multitudes expresseth ostentation If your owne knowledge acquaint you not with a seruant for your vse then venter vpon anothers recommendation but cautelously First know his integrity and next his iudgement lest out of his affection he preferre one for his preferment and not for your vse or that through ignorance he presume one to be fit that is a mere stranger to such employments as your occasions require And to take a man of his own word is the worst of
against those meanes the which God hath appointed for the preseruation of life but I esteeme them only as helps and not causes of continuance All men in this life be subordinately gouerned we are naturally bodies and liue not by miracle but sustentation so that it is as ill to auoid those helpes as to trust to them It is a strange but vulgar error for men to say counsell or temper would haue preuented such a mans death might they not consider the seuerall sudden and strange accidents that leade to this end that there bee not more men then wayes that conduct to this condition Children die before Parents strong before weake sound before sickly which as often happen by small vnobserued chances as great diseases as a man goes well to bed and is smothered before morning is well at the beginning of a meale and dead before the end now in a serious discourse and dead in the midst of a word He that 's a friend to day proues a murtherer to morrow a pillow may stifle smoke may suffocate a Fly may choke This if it were to be illustrated by examples would plainely shew that there is no action nor instrument so small or vnobserued that is not master of our life Therefore to esteeme life aboue the price or to feare death beyond the rate be alike euill No man can bee in loue with this world that is not in some doubt of the next He that respects life expects little beyond death But then it may be demanded Are those the best men that be most weary of this life and therefore hasten death with their owne hands Certainely no. For euery act in that kinde shewes that it was not in respect they hated to liue but because of want feare punishment ignominie and diuers other causes that these examples do dayly publish and are notoriously knowne Man is created by God therefore not to be his own executioner but to wait for the time and expect the houre of his Call A mans Peregrination in this life should be employed but as a harbinger for Death nay rather life for whilst we liue we die but liue not till death Yet good men may in a sort religiously feare death in respect of the cause of it For the wages of sinne is death In respect of not knowing the place of our being after death wee our selues being altogether vnmeriting these and the like considerations may iustly make death seeme terrible But to goe on How can a man think himselfe happy in this world without the expectatiō of a better If a man enioy that his heart can wish if hee know not want haue plenty in abundance these things may sometimes make him glory in himselfe and in a kinde of scornefull pitie to commiserate those that be below him yet the consideration of Death and the little while hee hath to enioy these temporary happinesses turnes all his pleasures into melancholy his sweetnesse to gall This is the happiest condition that the happiest man can haue that thinkes there is no happinesse beyond this life But if you view other men and see what cares what hazzards what iealousies what sicknesse and what miseries they endure in all kindes onely to preserue and please themselues in this short troublesome dangerous suspitious and wearisome life you would think them rather dreames then substances fictions then men But so liue as neither the pleasures of this world may possesse nor the miseries confound you Boast of nothing in your selfe but that you are a liuely representation or Image of your Creator which you deforme if you look to earth or those things which bee below The benefits which God hath heere bestowed vpon you vse according to his direction but not contrarie to his command and feare not but welcome death as beeing the end of your vnhappinesse and beginning of your ioy Many men without the knowledge of Religion haue excellently expressed their contempt of Death but that may bee reduced some of these causes peraduenture they had a kinde of vncertaine opinion that some greater happinesse followed then accompanied this life or in respect of the dayly examples of their mortalitie custome extinguished feare or lastly to perpetuate their memories or publish their fame to succeeding ages haue for the liberation of their Country or Friends or Honour voluntarily exposed themselues to a certaine and present death There be few lingring diseases or sudden paines that be not more sensible and painfull then Death and the recouerie frō them is but as a short reprieue Therefore I see little reason why a man that liues wel should feare death much more then sicknesse Of a Country Life TO write of a Country Life in what respects it is necessary or vnfit for all degrees of men would too much lengthen this part in the resolution of sundry questions which I now doe purposely auoid I onely intending to write in the praise or discommendation of it so farre as it hath relation to men of great qualitie and estates So that in this description I banish all that may referre to any other kinde and rankes of men either for their vse or necessity of liuing in the Country This kinde of life hath beene more familiar with vs then other Nations so that we haue in a kinde appropriated it to our selues more Southernly people as rarely vsing the country for retirement or variety or ayre as our Country Nobility and Gentry were anciently vpon extraordinarie businesses driuen to the towne But different people haue seuerall formes of liuing and behauiour that which is necessarie in one place is ridiculous and pernicious in another In these cases therefore wee must not guide our selues by precedent It is as easie to introduce one common language and reuerse the confusion of tongues as to paralell all men in one kinde and fashion of life Rigidly to keepe vnseemly customes because we receiue them from antiquity and ancestors no man will defend Time as it hath a qualitie in some cases to degeneratè and corrupt so in others it hath to clense but to alter so good a custome as this whereof we haue had so long experience and benefit vpon pretence only of imitation appeares in my iudgement to be altogether void of reason And yet this taking it for a generall question I will at this time neither dispute nor resolue either by the numerousnesse of ancient precedents and example or force of reason and argument onely as the case stands with vs in the particular conclude That it is neither good nor safe to innouate or alter old and approued customes But as in the choyce of any indifferent action mens affections and fancies predominate and gouerne they haue equall power and worke the same effect in the election either of this or any other kinde of life but what reasons in this should induce vs either to the one or other that which fals accidētally by the way passing I will touch By a Country Life I do
reasons to leaue that Title the first is of lesse weight except in Grammar and that is the impropriety of that word applyed to him that hath charge alone being proper onely to such as be three in Commission The second is because the name was too meane For till this time the Triumviri were rather for ouerseeing then gouerning sometimes appointed to looke to one businesse sometimes to another but neuer had any whole charge of gouernment of the Commonwealth till such time as Augustus Antony and Lepidus being three men equally interessed in the State gaue themselues that Title But the chiefe cause was this that the name carried with it a remembrance and rellish of the ciuill warres proscriptions which were hatefull to the people And a new Prince ought to auoid those names of authoritie that rubbe vpon the Subiects wounds and bring hatred and enuy to such as vse them Consulem se ferens ad tuendam plebem Tribuntiio iure contentū Calling himselfe Consul and content with the authoritie of a Tribune to maintaine the right of the Commons This officer of Tribune was ordained anciently so alwaies cōtinued for a protector of the people and a defender of their rights immunities and priuiledges against the violence and incrochment of the Nobles The authoritie therefore of this officer together with the Title of Consul Augustus tooke to himselfe that euen of the old offices he might haue those that were both for name and effect of greatest consequence And for authoritie there was none now greater then that of Tribune of the Commons Insomuch as Tacitus saith in another place Id summi fastigij vocabulum Augustus reperit ne Regis aut Dictatoris nomen assumeret ac tamen appellatione aliqua caetera imperia praemineret Augustus found out that name of chiefe dignitie that he might auoid the name of King Dictator and yet haue a Title of preeminence aboue other Magistrates But the main cause why hee affected the Title of Tribune was this because hee thought it best to make his faction sure with the Commons who at that time were the strongest part of the State by hauing the Title and Authoritie of their Protector And seeing it is impossible to please all men it is therefore best for a new Prince to ioyne himselfe to and obtaine the fauour of that part in his State which is most able to make resistance against him This Augustus neglected not But rather vsed all meanes to draw all men to bee contented with his present gouernment Militem donis Populum annona cunctos dulcedine otij pellexit He allured the Souldiers by largesse the people by prouision of corne and all men by the sweetnesse of ease and repose Souldiers are most commonly needy and next to valour they thinke there cannot bee a greater vertue then liberalitie from which they thinke all Donatiues proceed when if the truth were examined it would appeare that such gifts came not from the vertue Liberalitie but were meerely the price of their Countries libertie But this the Souldiers were too rude to examine An open hand drawes their affections more then any thing else whatsoeuer The same effect in the minde of the people is produced by prouision of corne which if they can buy at a lower price then formerly they could haue done though peraduenture the measure be as much lessened as the price they thinke then the State to bee excellently gouerned How effectuall this kind of liberalitie hath beene appeared long before this in the same State when as Spurius Cassius by distribution of mony and Spur. Melius by largesse of Corne were very neere obtaining to themselues an absolute soueraignty and tyrannie ouer the Commonwealth This is also one of Augustus his designes Hee steales the peoples hearts by sustenance and reliefe as hee did the Souldiers by his mony Further he pleaseth them all with the sweetnesse of ease and repose They saw that to beare the yoke of Augustus was to bee freed of other vexation and to resist was to renew the miseries they were lately subiect to When they were much stronger they could nor make sufficient resistance now they are weake they can much lesse doe it Therefore being weary they could not but be much wonne with the present ease and vacancy of Warre especially ciuill warre So Augustus tooke in this the best order that can be to assure a new soueraignty which is to to afford the Souldier money the People a good market and all men ease and quietnesse Insurgere paulatim munia Senatus Magistratuum legum in se trahere Hee beganne by degrees to encroach to assume the businesse and charge of the Senate of the Magistrates of the lawes to himselfe Augustus hath hitherto dealt with the State as one that tameth wilde horses first he did beate and wearie them next tooke care not to frighten them with shadowes then shewed them hope of ease and made prouision of corne for them and now he begins gently to backe the State Hee gets vp by little and little For it is not wisedome for one that is to conuert a free State into a Monarchy to take away all the shew of their libertie at one blowe and on a suddaine make them feele seruitude without first introducing into their mindes some preuiae dispositiones or preparatiues whereby they may the better endure it Hastinesse in any action especially of importance is most times the ouerthrow of it and to doe that at once which must bee done successiuely is an argument of a rash and intemperate man that cannot containe himselfe and stay for his desires Also to a people so long weaned from a Monarchicall gouernment it was most probable hee might gaine by degrees insinuation and continuance of time more then on any suddaine hee could Therefore hee takes vpon him the businesse and charge of the Senate of the Magistrates and of the Lawes and begins now to assume what hee had long looked for and expected For whereas all the plots and policies hee had before vsed were to this end if hee had not also come to fruition hee might haue beene iustly condemned of leuity and his actions to haue proceeded from a vaine-glorious and vnconstant braine and his authoritie would haue in time come into contempt For action and continuall managing of businesse is the onely thing that preserueth the life and vigour of authoritie And all men giue their respect and thinke it due to those to whom they haue recourse in the dispatch of their weighty affaires Nullo aduersante cum ferocissimi per acies aut proscriptione cecidissent No man now opposing him the stoutest men being falne either in battaile or by proscriptions This encroching on the libertie of the State in former times neuer wanted opposers but now the stout Patriots were rooted out For such men being forwardest and busiest in Armes must needs waste sooner then the rest and finding too much resistance must therefore breake because they were of a
giue rules to the good that they might know how to liue peaceably regularly one with another as to represse the audacity of those vnbridled spirits who in despight of discipline and reason doe thrust themselues into all kinds of outrage and disorder from which bad cause notwithstanding according to the old rule a good effect is produced Ex malis moribus bonae leges oriuntur But the particular introducements of Lawes arise either from a pressing necessity or a foreseeing and prouisionall carefulnes of those that make them these proceed from prouidence the other from some sence of euill The impulsiue causes in the making of prouisionall Lawes are either loue of their Coūtry or desire of glory or affectation of popularity or somtimes particular interest and priuat respect for it often happens that a priuate good may haue connexion with the publike And the sence of ill decaying either by the encrease of it or a seeming to bee destitute of remedy is the cause that where Lawes are once forced out of the sense of mischiefe inconuenience they be for the most part grieuous and immoderate as on the other side such as reason prouidence do produce are many times more specious then vsefull In the first take away the spur and sense of ill and it makes men in the constitution of Lawes to bee carelesse and vnwary and in the other if there bee not continued a strong and constant affection they commonly faint in the execution of them But in the meane time there is no doubt that there are certaine fountaines of naturall Iustice and equity out of which hath beene taken deriued that infinite variety of Lawes which seuerall people haue apted to themselues and as seuerall veines and currents of water haue seuerall qualities and tasts in respect of the nature of that ground and soyle thorow which they flow and run so these Lawes and the vertue of them which bee fetched frō an originall fountaine receiue a new kinde of application and tincture in respect of the scituation of the Country the genius and nature of the people the fashion and forme of publike actions diuers accidents of the time and sundry other occurrences I will not stand to repeat And in the making of Lawes wise men haue alwayes had these things in consideration First the Common-good and benefit for which they intend them and that requires that they should be both iust and profitable now no law can bee profitable nor yet iust which is made for priuat particular respects not for the publik good 2. The persons to whom they be to be applyed that for the executiō application of them they be such as may be possible to be obserued apt for the customs places time where when they be to be vsed 3. The present course of the State what Lawes there haue beene vsually receiued by what speciall ones it hath beene conserued and by what new ones it may be assured for one kinde of care is not fit for all places and Countreys But Lawes when they are once made ought very rarely to be chāged to which purpose the ancient position of wise men is not vnworthy the obseruing that nothing is to bee changed in the Lawes of a Common-wealth which hath a long time by these Lawes preserued it self in good state gouerment as Isiodor ' wel noteth after a Law is once made we ought not to iudge of it but according to it And yet in these two cases the alteration of Lawes may turne to the better 1. When by the changing of it the Law is made more perfect more cleere more positiue more profitable 2. When the condition of subiects gouernment is changed there of necessity the Law must vary according to the difference diuersity of the times and persons for change variatiō of Lawes are either by occasion of entertaining forraigne customes or some internall deficiences or excesses according to the alteration of time One of these is so far from innouation that it is altogether necessary but that is not introducing of Lawes by way of imitation of other people it argues a desire of change rather then any cause that is materiall But on the other side old and ancient customes in respect of their very antiquity doe induce a kinde of harshnesse and breed saciety for the wilfull retaining of a custome against the present reason of the time is altogether vnequall This is to be vnderstood of temporary Lawes made and applyed to new and seuerall accidents For the fundamentall lawes vpon which the fabricke of a common-wealth and people be grounded and built they in no case will admit innouation neither are the other sort to bee lightly altered but where the present custome of the time finde them impertinent and the State thinks them vnvseful To illustrate in the same times sometimes we see Lawes mutable fit to be so such as are made in time of warre peace doth extinguish and so on the contrary agreeing with Liuie speaking to this purpose Quae in pace latae sunt plerunque bellum abrogat quae in bello pax vt in nauis administratione alia in secunda alia in aduersa tempestate vsui sunt And although change of Lawes be sometimes necessary it ought notwithstanding to bee done with a great deale of caution but yet it must be confessed that time of all things is the greatest innouator and therefore wilfully to prescribe the continuance of an old Law in respect of antiquity the face of the world and affaires being changed is indeed an introducemēt of nouelty for the pressure of the vse of it vrging and setting it only forth with the grace of antiquity if notwithstanding it bee opposite or incongruous to the present times gouernment makes that old Law if practised to fall and bee conuerted into a new and vnreasonable custome Now for my iudgement concerning the vse of Lawes I thinke this that as the vse of much Physicke and diuers Physicions argue the aboundance of humours and diseases so the multiplicity number of Lawes be manifest signes of a diseased distempered Common-wealth And therefore to follow the similitude as in diseases new experiments be dangerous where those that be ancient and approued may serue so new Lawes bee needlesse when the maladies of the Republique may be cured by the old for it is a thing both vnequall and vniust to insnare the people with multitude of Lawes Law and Reason are twinnes the absence of one is the deformity of the other being in a kinde conuertibilia and inseparable That common reason we haue ingrafted inour natures is a Law directing what we are to doe forbidding the contrary according to Cicero Eadem ratio cum est in hominis mente confirmata confecta lex est For Law is nothing but reason dilated and applyed vpon seuerall occasions and accidents the comprehension of reason and Law as of publike enormities and necessities
Apothegmes yet in all other worth and desert Hee is so puft vp that to men in estate beneath him for feare of contempt which howsoeuer he cannot auoid hee will neuer speake familiarly seldome any way as if there could be no greater disparagement then not to obserue the distance which he holds to bee betwixt them Which being to the meanest sort vnpleasing causeth him to want not only the respect hee looketh for as due but euen that if any bee so that is due indeed Hee commonly commiserates his equalls for their weakenesses and loues to teach rather then learne the thing hee knowes not Giue him but such a handle and hee will bee sure to hold it till one be weary and will instruct with such confidence that though he produce no reason a man must beleeue him on his word or hee 'le be angry If hee write or speake a discourse of any length he cannot forbeare but hee must make knowne somewhat of his owne custome or humor or life With I was this or did this or like this or thus am or was wont belike supposing that all men would be glad to make him the patterne of their life and actions As hee is distastfull to so he distasteth all men for according to his owne estimate he must needs hold himselfe vnder-valued euen by those that prize him aboue his iust worth then which nothing more vexes him For though when himselfe detracts he thinkes the detracted ought to beare it as a righteous censure yet if another be but sleepy in his discourse or when hee talkes be taken from him with any businesse hee is presently grieued thereat as a high neglect If hee reade anothers writings hee findes somewhat to correct but nothing to prayse and so in their actions Himselfe being in his owne Iudgement beyond censure If hee meete with one of his owne nature there 's presently warres and it will appeare that he detests himselfe in the person of his enemy more then another can do him in his owne But meeting with modesty hee deuoures it makes it his prey and nourisheth his Arrogance with such food for whatsoeuer the one shall in modesty lay from himselfe the other will take and yet thinke too little But it is best when hee encounters a cunning Flatterer for such a one will spurre him on and blow his folly vp to madnesse and set him out to the laughter of them hee most contemned Or as the Foxe serued the Crow make him to let fall the meate from his mouth with attempting to sing Or put him forward to seeke an emploiment which hee not knowing his owne strength will bee alwayes ready to take vpon him and so ruine him For such a one will not feare to vndergoe what hee does not vnderstand All which be the fittest traps for this Vice Some are Arrogant as one may say indirectly and will extoll such a man in such a faculty as the hearers allow him to be better in then the party so by him praised But it comes all to one purpose for the face of Arrogance howsoeuer painted is not without deformitie Yet I would not wish a man to bee so much affrighted with it as to start to the contrary vice Pusillanimitie For a man should not derogate from himselfe there beeing too many ready enough for that office at least to beleeue him as one that best knowes what hee most wants And certainely hee that doth Sentence himselfe hath no colour for an Appeale nor person to appeale vnto vnlesse it be from his words to his deedes which need then to bee very remarkeable Howsoeuer he must acknowledge it to bee great folly to haue denyed that ability in himselfe which hee desires to haue made knowne But such men bee seldome found that say not of themselues full as much as they can doe Of Ambition IT is an vnlimited desire neuer satisfied A continuall proiecting without stop An vndefatigable search of those things wee wish for though want not No contentment in a present state though fortunate and prosperous An Ambitious man is in a kinde of continuall perambulation or perpetuall courting of aduancement not respecting the meanes Bribery Flattery Humility Popularitie seeming Seueritie or Austerenesse Any of which so they conferre and conduce to his owne ends whether for Titles or Preeminence or Estimation shall bee disguises good enough for the present occasion The Scripture saith Quise exaltat humiliabitur Whosoeuer exalts himselfe shall be humbled Not hee that is worthily exalted by others and whose merits bee the cause of his rising but he that will Ambitiously exalt himselfe hee shall bee abased That disposition which is naturally infected with this Leprosie which is a spreading disease can not foresee the ineuitable dangers and euents that be incident therevnto Phauorinus speaking of these kinde of men said they were eyther ridiculous or hatefull or miserable Aspiring ambitiously to places beyond their worth makes them scorned obtaining hated and missing of their hopes wretched If the current of their Ambition bee once stopped like an impetuous torrent it beates and breakes the bankes growes dangerous and many times causes inundations Therfore Princes respects if they be fixed vpon such natures are tyed not only to a continuation but an addition of fauors for the least surcease makes declination in seruice So that these dispositions should bee auoyded if discouered sequestred from imployment as pernicious and incendiary Ambition was the first temptation by which the Diuell wrought vpon our first Parents to encite them to a desire of knowing good and euill equally with God It is a strange insinuating affection for whosoeuer is once therewith possessed neither Reason nor Impediment nor Impossibility can stay his extrauagant desires For though Nabuchadnezzar enioyed all greatnesse possibly incident to man yet his Ambition stopt not he would be worshipped as God It was not Vertue nor Reason that counselled Sylla and Marius Pompey and Caesar to enterprise their domestique warres but a disordinate loue of flattering Ambition being in their owne opinions not great enough which caused the ruine both of themselues Countrey And as this was theirs so it is the generall and principall motiue to all seditious and trecherous attempts But these men whilst they tosse all bee themselues most shaken and inwardly feele the torture of this pernicious fury wherewith they haue offended others Therefore it is Apocrypha to thinke that any man can become truely happy by the way of an other mans misfortune if for his owne particular hee be the contriuer When Ambition seazeth vpon a man peraduenture his first ayme will be but vpon designes within his reach or fit for his capacity which if obtained is the way to conduct him to higher cogitations and so by degrees from step to step the more Ambition is fed the more appetite it hath It is in a kinde the Ape or imitater of Charity saith a Father for Charity endures all things for Eternall Ambition for Transitory happinesse That
succeedes so worthy an endeuour And why it is not more commonly practised I rather impute it to the vnwillingnesse of interposers thē a common peruersnesse in the parties interessed to submit their differences to an vpright and vnpartiall neighbour which his own actions if conuersant in this kinde will sufficiently assure and I see not such difficulty but it may bee possible this way to giue satisfaction to both sides But if eithers mistrust cause them not to yeeld to so easie and quicke an end the merit of his endeuours and good will cannot bee taken away And if it fall out that the busines be of such a nature as may iudicially afterwards come before him let not the parties ielousie before in referring it wrest or wry his iudgement in the least degree to preiudice I will enlarge this no farther these particulars last touched being onely in the power of men of degree and authority and heere ends my first enquiry how a Noble man in the Country ought to carry and gouerne himselfe I now descend to take a short view of the more peculiar delights and healthfull conueniences incident to them that liue in the Country then in any other place All field delights as Hunting Riding and Hawking commendable if vsed with moderation are properly belonging onely to this life and certainly they greatly inable and actiue mens bodies making the difficulty of enduring labour and other accidents that in times of warre a man may be subiect vnto more easie then any other preparatiue or imitable practice that I know The vnseasonablenesse of the times early and late and so the vncertainty of the weather heates and cold and wet of dyet little or none or course and at houres vnlimited and not set assured also ready in his horsmanship by so often occasions of practice which is no small aduantage So paralelling these with the chances and necessities in time of seruice the often vsing of these exercises will make the labour lesse difficill and hard when necessity of employment shall require it and the body more agill and healthfull free from those infirmities that rest idlenesse and full feeding doe bring men into This is the good that followes the vse of these exercises setting aside the delight which drawes most men to follow and entertaine them which surely though not alwayes discerned by wise men yet may by good reason be proued to be delightfull If I should breathe the country ayre and digresse into the commendatiō of it in respect of health from that cause I thinke the whole Colledge of Physicions would subscribe to my opinion for without doubt it is freed from those noysome vapours and consequently infections which thronged and populous Cities doe produce And this dayly practice makes manifest for in those Countries where towne-dwelling is most frequented yet euery Summer the better sort retyre onely for the freedome and libertie of the ayre to their Palaces and Villaes as they terme them which shewes there is a necessarie and impulsiue cause for their health that driues them thither And heere with vs those that be most in loue with the towne in Summer euer fly into the Country and the generall reason of it must onely be to change a bad ayre for a good wherein though the Country doth alwayes predominate yet in Summer the ayre of the Citie is so farre from good that it is neither tolerable nor indifferent And being now in a meditation of health to say truth the helpes and furtherances of it are much more appropriate to a Country then a Citie life which I will but touch without robbing the Poets at this time by falling into the praise and pleasures of Gardens Riuers Fountaines Woods places of privacy and retyrednesse or the like of most of which though all Cities haue a shew yet it is but forced and counterfet in respect of them in the country which is the proper element for those delights But to return to my consideration of health the Country is the place most free frō that easy sedentary life which men in Cities be forced to entertaine there all exercises for the health and agilitie of the body bee in dayly practice as Riding Shooting Bowling Walking Hunting Hawking and the like which though some towne-liuers sometimes make hard shift to practise yet there there be so many other diuersions that there are very few liuing in townes who can either take or finde opportunities for that purpose which must needs greatly decay and disable both a mans health and strength Of this argument much more might bee said but I purposely auoid it and indeede would haue left it out but that I was forced to it in completing the description for feare of falling from my Title But I now hasten to other obseruations and first of those aduantages and benefits a man gaines by liuing in the country A man in the Country is retired out of the crowd and noise of factions and emulations dependencies and neck-breaking of one another which Court and Town do too often yeeld and though a man in his owne inclination bee free from and not busie yet if present can hardly be a neuter or if he be one will yet scarcely be thought so and suspected of either side for affection to the other But take him allowed for a neutrall hee then commonly is so farre from the affection of the sides that they both turne his enemies because he is neither of their friends These straites by being away and by liuing in the Country men often escape from Next he is free from those tempestuous winds of businesses and multiplicitie of vexations wherewith many haue beene tossed the calme of the Country being void of those stormes and troubled waues that commonly accompanie a towne or Court life where mens desires and ambitions so abound that they bee alwayes in hopes and proiections wherein many times they doe so outstraine ouer-graspe that in reaching too high they ouerreach themselues in seeking a new fortune lose their old and so conuert their substance into pretensions their certainty into nothing Againe no man can expect to liue in the same or equall reputation out of the Country and his owne dwelling In Towne or Court he is as it were in a throng wanting elbow roome there bee so many his equals and superiors aboue him both in place and merit that he is reckoned for number not weight one of the troope rather for shew then vse Those Nations therefore who affect this place out of vaine-glory and pride to shew themselues and get opinion if they compare their estimation heere with their reputation at home they will finde cause quickly to change their minde and place to goe thither where they shall be sure to finde that which they so affectedly desire and that is to their owne Country aske but Northerne men or Welshmen they will sweare to you this is true Besides I beleeue if it went to voices most would opine that the stabilitie
the sooner to an end Pompeij Crassique potentia cito in Caesarem The power of Pompey and Crassus soon passed into Caesar This was an authority in the Romane State exercised without publike permissiō only out of their own priuate strength Of these Crassus was the most wealthy Pompey the best beloued of the Senate and Caesar of most power in the field Their ambition was equall but not their fortune nor their wisedome For Crassus was slaine in the Parthian warre the which hee vndertooke onely out of auarice Pompey though hee affected the Monarchie yet hee tooke not the course that was fittest for it for he then courted the State when hee knew his Riuall had a purpose to vse violence and to rauish it But Caesar knew the Republique to be feminine and that it would yeeld sooner to violence then flattery and therefore with all his power assaulted and ouercame it and so in him alone remained the strength of all the three till his death Likewise after the death of Iulius Caesar Lepidi Antonij armain Augustum cessere The forces of Lepidus and Antonius came into the hands of Augustus This was the last change of the Romane gouernment and was permanent for now Rome vtterly lost her libertie For Antony by occasion of Caesars slaughter beeing himselfe then Consul hauing taken armes which the State feared he would make vse of to serue his owne ambition and to set himselfe vp in Caesars roome the Senate gaue authoritie to Augustus to leuy an Armie and make head against him Which he did within a while after agreeing with Antony and taking Lepidus in for a stale established this Triumvirate which in the end was also wholly reduced to Augustus So that hence may appeare that it is a most dangerous ouersight to put Armes into such a mans hands for our defence as may aduance himselfe by conuerting them to our destruction To which purpose the Fable is also applyed of the Horse who suffering a rider and the bit for his assurance against the Hart that fed with him in the same pasture could neuer after recouer his former libertie Qui cuncta discordijs ciuilibus fessa nomine Principis sub imperium accepit Who when the whole Sate was wearied with ciuill discords receiued it vnder his gouernment with the Title of Prince The manifold miseries that doe accompany Ciuill Warres and the extreme weaknesse which followeth them doe commonly so deiect expose a State to the prey of ambitious men that if they lose not their libertie it is onely for want of one that hath the courage to take the aduantage of their debilitie And when a mighty and free people is subdued to the tyrannie of one man it is for the most part after some long and bloudie Ciuill Warre For ciuill warre is the worst thing that can happen to a State wherein the height of their best hopes can come but to this to venture hazzard their own to ouerthrow their friends and kindreds fortunes And they that are at the worst haue reason to bee content with and wish for any change whatsoeuer This was one occasion which Augustus laid hold of to establish the Monarchy they were weary their strength abated and their courages foyled Yet he would not presently take vnto him the Title belonging to Monarchy especially not the name of King but nomine Principis sub imperium accepit Euery man that hath an office of command though neuer so meane desireth a name that may expresse the full vertue of his place and most men receiue as great content from Title as substance Of this humour Augustus retained onely thus much at this time that hee tooke a title which signified not authoritie but dignitie before all the rest as if the people of Rome had beene to be numbred one by one hee thought himselfe worthy that they should begin with him Also hee knew that the multitude was not stirred to sedition so much with extraordinarie power as insolent Titles which might put them to consider of that power and of the losse of their libertie And therefore hee would not at the first take any offensiue Title as that of King or Dictator which for the abuses before done were become odious to the people And in a multitude seeming things rather then substantiall make impression But hauing gotten the mayne thing that he aspired vnto to giue them then content in words which cost him neither money nor labour hee thought no deare bargaine And this was but for the present neither For he doubted not but that the power which hee had in substance would in time dignifie any name hee should take aboue the name of King and in the meane space hee should keepe the loue of the people which is the principall pillar of a new soueraignty Hitherto the seuerall changes and alterations in the state of Rome and how the sway thereof after the space of almost 800. yeere being now arriued at her greatest strength remained wholly in the person of Augustus Caesar He therefore after much deliberation had whether he should restore it againe to the former libertie of a Common-wealth or conuert the gouernment into a Monarchy at length resolued on the latter The meanes he had and the deuices he vsed to bring the same to passe are now by the Author likewise touched and should follow in order But because Tacitus here digresseth to shew the faults of Historiographers and the vprightnesse he purposeth to vse in his owne story I will also take his words as they lye in my way and afterwards proceed with the History it selfe Sed veteris populi Romani prospera vel aduersa claris Scriptoribus memorata sunt But of the ancient people of Rome both the prosperous and aduerse estate hath beene recorded by renowned Writers It is a signe of too much opinion and selfe-conceit to be a follower in such an Historie as hath beene already sufficiently atchieued by others And therefore Cicero said well of the Commentaries which Caesar wrote of his owne acts and intended should bee but the notes and the ground of an History to bee written by some that should afterward vndertake that taske that though that were an acceptable and welcome worke to some arrogant persons yet that all discreet men were thereby deterred from writing So that as it was here to Tacitus it should also be cause enough to any man else to abstaine from the writing of those Histories which are already wisely and perfectly related The reason why the times of the Commonwealth haue been better Historified then those that came after seemeth to be the liberty that such a gouernment affordeth For where the gouernour who is alwayes the mayne subiect of the Annales of a Citie is not one man but a great many there personall tax breedeth not so often publique offence Temporibusque Augusti dicendis non defuere decora ingenia donec gliscente adulatione deterrerentur And there wanted not good wits to write
Augustus his time till by the preuailing of flattery they were deterred Also vnder Monarchs so long as their deeds be such as they can bee content to heare of againe the Historiographer hath encouragement to follow the truth in his writings but when they be otherwise men must dissemble if they will please and must please if they will haue their writings passe vnsuppressed Therefore the knowne Law of History which is Ne quid falsi dicere audeat neque vere non audeat that a man should not dare to say a falsitie nor not dare to speake the truth must needs be abrogated where Flatterie hath admittance For there it is more needfull to haue regard to the acceptance then to the substance of our writings And hereby Flattery in time commeth to weare out and consume the able writers in a Kingdome Tiberij Caijque Claudij ac Neronis res florentibê° ipsis ob metum falsae postquam occiderant recentibus odijs coÌ„positae sunt The occurrences of Tiberius Caius and Claudius and Nero whilest themselues flourished were for feare and after they were dead out of fresh hatred falsely written It is the condition of most men hauing been restrained from moderate libertie in any thing whatsoeuer when that restraint is taken away to become immoderate in the same For their desires swell and gather strength at the stoppe which when it is remoued they runne more violently then if they had neuer beene hindred at all Hence it is that hee which flattreth during the danger slandereth when it is past when the truth lyeth betwixt both so that the same men that would before for feare most haue blanched are they that when they may doe it safely will most detract And from hence it is that the latter end of Augustus together with the reignes of the foure here named had not as then found a faithfull relator Inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto extrematradere mox Tiberij Principatum caetera sine ira studio quorum causas procul habeo My purpose therefore is to deliuer to posteritie a few and those the last things of Augustus and then the principalitie of Tiberius and the rest without spleene and partialitie the causes whereof are farre from me The defects aboue mentioned and want of a true History of these last times caused the Author to take this taske in hand wherein to auoid the suspition of the same faults hee hath before taxed in others he putteth in to our consideration that the causes both of spleene and affection are farre from him These causes must bee either feare or hope of future good or euill or else some benefit or iniury formerly receiued which euery writer of History should doe well to shew himselfe voyd of if he can because most men measuring others by themselues are apt to think that all men will not onely in this but in all their actions more respect what conduceth to the aduancing of their owne ends then of truth and the good of others Thus much of the digression now followeth the History it selfe Postquam Bruto Cassio caesis nulla iam publica arma After that Brutus and Cassius being slaine the Commonwealth was no longer in armes Though Cremutius that called Brutus and Cassius the last of the Romans writing it in a time which would not permit a man so much as to looke backe at the former state of the Commonwealth was perhaps worthily punished yet this may be truely said of them that they were the last Champions of the Roman libertie For after them no man euer bore Armes for Recuperation of that gouernment What an aduancement then was it for Augustus that these were slaine For now the Commonwealth relinquished her liberty and confessed her selfe subdued So that his strongest aduersarie yeelding hee might the easilier deale with the next Pompeius apud Siciliam oppressus Pompey defeated in Sicily This Sextus Pompeius being the reliques of the Pompeian faction was defeated neere Sicily by Agrippa the Lieutenant of Augustus in such manner as of 350. sayle hee fled away onely with 17. So that this was another step to the quiet establishing of his Empire The first Ciuill warre was betweene the Caesarean faction on one side and Pompey with the Republique on the other and Caesar preuailed The next will bee a subdiuision of the Caesareans that Augustus standing on one part and Antony on the other the authoritie may at length settle in the indiuiduall person of Augustus who hitherto hath had to doe against the faction of the Commonwealth and Pompey in the warres against Brutus and Cassius and against Sextus Pompeius How hee will now diuide from himselfe the other heads of his owne faction is next to follow Exuto Lepido interfecto Antonio Lepidus being put out and Antony slaine Lepidus if hee had remained in the Trium virate might haue hindred the contention of the other two by keeping them in doubt to whether part hee would encline Wherefore as if they desired to try the mastery betweene themselues they won Lepidus whose authoritie was least of the three to dismisse the Legions that were vnder his command and to lay downe his office That done the desire of soueraigne rule would admit no longer friendship in the other two so they fell to warres and Augustus following it with all his power brought Antony who was already vanquished with effeminate passions and had his heart chained to the delight of a woman quickly to destruction and himselfe remained sole heyre of all their claimes and interests Ne Iulianis quidem partibus nisi Caesar dux reliquus There remained not another Commander no not in the faction of Iulius but onely Augustus Caesar This faction did not diuide as long as Brutus and Cassius were aliue for then they had soon come to nothing and the vertue of Brutus might haue had as good fortune for the maintenance of libertie as that of his ancestor But when they had made vse one of another to aduance both of their hopes then they parted and contended who should bee the sole gainer Which happening to Augustus hee had afterwards no more to doe but onely to keepe what hee had gotten which hee might easily doe For first hee was alone and when a mans power is singular and his intentions are onely of his owne free election hee is then most likely to reduce them into act Companions in such affaires can seldome be content that all counsailes nay almost that any should tend to the others profit so constant is euery man to his owne ends This Augustus foresaw when he secluded from him those two that were equall in authoritie and power with himselfe Antony by force and Lepidus by deceit And now hauing power ouer the bodies of the people he goes about to obtaine it ouer their minds and wils which is both the noblest and surest command of all other Posito Triumviri nomine Laying away the name of a Triumvir Hee had three
nature vnapt to bend And againe in the proscriptions these onely were they that were aymed at whereas the lesse violent aduersaries found safety in contempt The Proscription here spoken of being that of the Triumviri where the heads of the factions ioyning abandoned and as it were sacrificed their old friends to this new friendship it could not be that almost any stout and dangerous man of what faction so euer should bee left aliue And it may bee it was no lesse aduantageous to the designes of Augustus that some of his own faction were slaine then was the slaughter of those that tooke part with Anthony and Lepidus For they might haue expected for the requitall of their seruice to haue been paid with participation of his authority which hee might not suffer or else haue growne auerse and haue plucked him downe though they had with his fal crushed themselues to death But Augustus was now rid of those stubborne companions Caeteri nobilium quanto quis seruitio promptior opibus et honoribus extollerentur ac nouis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera periculosa mallent The rest of the Nobility as any one of them was most ready to serue so hee was exalted to wealth and honour and being enriched by the change liked rather the present State of things and that which was safe then the former and that which was dangerous It is both iustice and good policy to reward with preferments those that yeeld their obedience readily and willingly for it stirreth emulation in men to exceed each other in diligence And on the contrary to heape benefits on the sullen and auerse out of hope to win their affection is vniust and preiudiciall For first they shall lose one benefit after another through vaine hope of winning them and not losing the thanks of their first benefit and then also others will learne and thinke it wisdome to bee auerse and stubborne by their example Also those that were rewarded for their seruice must needs striue to maintaine the present State and helpe to keepe off the Ciuill warres For times of tranquillity bee alwayes best for the rich men In warres and trouble they pay for all and in desolation their losse is greatest For Ciuill warre is commodious for none but desperate vnthrifts that they may cut their Creditors throats without feare of the gallowes men against whom the Law and the sword of Iustice maketh a fearfull warre in time of peace But the rich and such as were in loue with titles of honour found more ease and contentment heere then they could expect in the Ciuill warre and did accept the present with securitie rather then striue for the old with danger Neque Prouinciae illum statum rerum abnuebant suspecto Senatus populique imperio ob certamina potentum auaritiam magistratuū inualido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur Neither did the prouinces dislike this state of things for they mistrusted the gouernment of the Senate and people because of the contention of great men and couetousnesse of the Magistrates for the ayd of the Lawes was weake being infringed by force canuassing and lastly by mony The Romane State did not consist in the magnitude of that one City of Rome or in the extent of Italy alone but in the multitude greatnesse of Prouinces that were subiect vnto it And therefore it much concerned the surety of Augustus his gouernment to haue also them content with this alteration which they were for two causes First a Popular State if the great men growe once too mighty for the lawes is to the Prouinces not as one but many tyrants so that not knowing to which faction to adhere they procure the enimitie alwayes of some and sometimes of all and become subiect to the rapine of whosoeuer first seazeth it and to be the prize of their contention At home they are commanded by contrary factions contrary Acts so that they can neither obey nor disobey without offence but are hurried and haled somtimes to this faction and sometimes to that Those that were deputed to do iustice amongst them must not administer the same according to the Law but according to the humour of him whom himselfe followeth which may bee now one and anon fortune changing another At Rome if they sued for any thing though they could all bee content their sute should passe for the matter it selfe yet the furtherance that one faction should giue it would stirre vp contradiction in the other and so crosse it Therefore it is better for a Prouince to bee subiect to one though an euill master then to a potent if factious Republique Next they found couetousnesse in the Magistrates For when they expected that hauing truth and equity on their sides their causes and sutes should not goe amisse they found contrarily that by that their iudgements were not ballanced but that they distributed iustice rather by weight then measure That purse that was heauiest that bribe that was greatest carried the cause Iustice was not seene but felt a good bribe was their best Aduocate Such in those times were the Magistrates and Iudges Euery thing was carried by might ambition and corruption He that was not ambitious was neglected and he that was not corrupt was esteemed vndiscreete In this time the Prouinces would haue beene cōtent with a Monarchy or tyrannie rather then to be troubled with so different and ill humours of diuers men But there may also be couetousnesse in Magistrates when one hath the soueraignty being a fault of the person and not of the forme of the gouernment Indeed there may bee bribing in such a State but in a factious and diuided Commonwealth it cannot bee otherwise For where the State is vnited the Magistrates will haue some respect vnto that but being diuided euery one is for himselfe and must looke to strengthen and enrich himselfe by any meanes how ill soeuer For faction hath no strength but from Iniustice and Rapine One remedy there is for such an inconuenience and that is if the Lawes bee strengthned with authoritie which also wanted in the former times For force friends and mony ouerthrew their validitie For what Law was so strong that the force of Cinna Sylla Marius Iulius Caesar and others in their times could not haue broken thorow Nothing is more prouerbiall then that Lawes are like Spiders webs onely to hold the smaller Flyes Then fauour and friendship made way euen for the weake men to breake thorow And lastly money gaue the easiest passage of all Wherefore the Prouinces conceiuing better hope of the rule of Augustus could not dislike but were rather glad of the alteration Thus farre the acquist and assurance of the Monarchy to Augustus now his wayes to perpetuate the same and deriue it to posterity are to be considered Augustus subsidia dominationi Claudiū Marcellum sororis filium admodum adolescentem Pontificatu curuli Aedilitate extulit
and make him Colleague of the Empire and partaker of the authority of Tribune which was authority equall to his owne for the present and then to cause the armies to yeeld him their respect and acknowledge him for their next Lord. These fauours Liuia had beene long solliciting for by insinuation detraction deceit and whatsoeuer Art else is requisite to the supplanting of a Riuall in a Princes affectioÌ„ But now the way was so cleere by reason of the Emperours age fit to be wrought on and the rudenesse of Agrippa that shee durst openly moue Augustus to dis-inherit his owne issue and preferre hers But the fauour that Liuia shewed to Augustus children besides the suspition of causing the death of two of them was cleane contrary Nam senem Augustum adeo deuinxerat vti nepotem vnicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam proijceret For she had so tyed vnto her Augustus who was now an old man that hee confined his onely Grand-sonne Agrippa Posthumus into the Iland Planasia I haue not found so great a defect in Augustê° his iudgemeÌ„t in al his former actions as in this so farre to follow her will as to banish and confine his owne bloud for the aduancement of hers But as Tacitus saith hee was now growne old and so the weakenesse that accompanieth old age may excuse that fault which in his younger and more mature iudgement peraduenture hee would neuer haue committed It was hard for him being now in yeeres to want the comfort of his Wife to liue with her and not to haue her pleased intolerable and against the dignity of an Emperour and to extinguish her ambition impossible So that if he had seene her drifts vnlesse they had broken out into some violent actions hee must in a manner haue beene forced to dissemble it For it is contrary to the dignitie of a Prince to take notice of that fault which he is not able to amend But hee saw them not for what cannot the craft of some wiues through opportunitie continuall flatterie and arguments framed with all the Art that can be vsed worke vpon the weake iudgement of an old man The place of Agrippa's exile being a small and vninhabited Iland where hee was rather imprisoned then banished was in a manner a sure argument that hee should not long out-liue his Grandfather for as the feare of Augustus kept him now aliue so the feare of his owne Title would make Tiberius neuer let him escape out of his fingers Rudem sane bonarum artium robore corporis stolidè ferocem nullius tamen flagitij CompertuÌ„ Ignorant to say the truth of good Arts and bearing himselfe foolishly fierce of his strength of body but not detected of any crime These are the causes for which Agrippa was put by the right of his succession and wanted the respect which was otherwise due vnto his birth Hee had not good education That vvas the summe of all his faults And in a State which might freely elect their Prince the same had beene a iust cause to passe by him For it is a great misfortune to a people to come vnder the gouernment of such a one as knowes not how to gouerne himselfe For where it is said hee was vnfurnished of good Arts it is not ment of letters though that also be good in a Prince and of ornaments the chiefe for hee may want these rather then iudgement valour or goodnesse of nature But the Art that hee is principally taxed to want seemeth to haue beene the Art of conforming to times places and persons and consisteth much in a temperate conuersation and ability vpon iust cause to containe and dissemble his passions and purposes and this was then thought the chiefe Art of gouernment And whereas he is said to be vndetected of any crime that made not much for the matter in hand for though he might proue no ill man hee might bee neuerthelesse an ill gouernour But Agrippa's defects were not the sole cause of his dis-inheriting though they were the sole iustification of it when it was done The hope of succession notwithstanding the care of the Emperour being reduced by the Art of Liuia to one only man Augustus againe takes order for the bringing in of one more At hercule Germanicum Druso ortuÌ„ octo apud RhenuÌ„ legionibus imposuit adscirique per adoptionem à Tiberio iussit quamquam esset in domo Tiberij Filius iuuenis sed quo pluribus munimentis insisteret But yet hee made Germanicus the sonne of Drusus Commander of eight Legions vpon the Rhine and commanded Tiberius to adopt him although Tiberius had a young sonne of his own but this he did to haue the more supports Augustus is still of this iudgement that the succession ought not to depend on the life of one man and therefore wil haue more props to establish it But as the aduancing of Tiberius was thought to bee the ruine of Caius and Lucius so now the making of Tiberius to adopt Germanicus might haue proued the ruine of Tiberius if the Ambition of Germanicus had beene answerable to his power For Augustus put eight Legions into his hand the which afterwards would not only haue beene ready to haue giuen him the Empire but also went about to put it vpon him by force Therefore if a Prince raise many to the hope of reigning he ought to prouide against the emulation ambition and mutuall iealousies that ordinarily arise thereof For else he shall hardly bring any of them to the fruition or if one then all the rest to vntimely ends Augustus here gaue Liuia indeed no occasion to worke against this last choise of his being one of her owne Grand-children but yet to command Tiberius who had a sonne of his owne to adopt another must needs breed a hart-burning in him because he knew by himselfe how much rather men desire to possesse then expect such authoritie And fearing therefore that Germanicus might beare the same minde he afterwards as is thought tooke a course to bring him to his end wherby may be perceiued in what danger an honest man standeth being neere vnto one that is ambitious either before or behinde him whose nature is to destroy before him out of hope and behinde him out of feare After that Augustus had mastered quieted taken order for the succession of the Empire the Author sheweth next the state of the present times And first for matter of warres abroad Bellum ea tempestate nulluÌ„ nisi aduersus Germanos supererat abolendae magis infamiae ob amissum cum Quinctilio Varo exercitum quam cupiditate proferendi Imperij aut dignum ob praemium There remained at that time no warre sauing against the Germans and that rather to wipe off the disgrace for the losse of the Army with Quintilius Varus then out of any desire to enlarge the Empire or hope of worthy recompence Warres are necessary onely where they are iust and iust onely in case of defence First
money to get one of them away they hold them in so great estimation Neuerthelesse euery day amongst their Vineyards and in the ruines of old Rome they finde more which in whose ground soeuer they be found at a certaine price doe now belong to the Popes who distribute them in their own Palaces to their fauorites or kinsmen and somtimes as presents to Princes And this is the cause that the houscs of such as haue beene Nephewes or fauorites of the Popes bee best furnished with these ornaments If a man should make an exact relation of the Anticaglie in this kinde he must haue seuen yeares time to view and two mens liues to write them But for a tast and so away At the Popes Palace at Saint Peters the Statues of Commodus and Antoninus the Statue of Laocoon which is written of by Virgil in the second booke of his Aeneads and they say that his very seeing of that Statue was the cause of those verses the Statue of Apollo and in the middest of this place the thigh of a man done in Marble which the best workmen haue iudged admirable in the true proportions and they say that Michael Angelo stood two dayes by it in contemplation and the artifice was so excellent and beyond his apprehension that he had like to haue gone mad with the consideration of it In this place there bee many more Antiquities the great Pine Apple of brasse wherein were found Adrians ashes At the Popes other Palace vpon Mons Quirinalis before the Gate there be two other Statues done in full proportion of Alexander taming Bucephalus made by those two famous men Phydias and Praxiteles one in emulation of the other And from these two Statues being set heere this place is called Monte Caualli In the Garden of Cardinall Borghese without Porta Pinciana there is a Tombe which is said to be Alexanders In the Palace of Cardinall Fernese amongst an infinite number of other Antiquities there be the Statues of the twelue first Emperours two Tables of the Grecians Lawes which the Romanes brought from thence one of the gods which is said to haue giuen answers in the Pantheon a Statue of the two sonnes of a King of Thebes after the death of their father tying his Concubine to a Bull in reuenge of those wrongs shee had done their mother this Story is said to bee related by Propertius and Pliny brought to this City by the ancient Romans out of Rhodes found in the time of Paulus III. of the Fernesian family and by him left as a relique to this house Heere are besides the ancient Statues of the Horatij and Curiatij such another of Neroes Mother as I haue mentioned to be in the Capitoll but better expressed In one of the Palaces of Cardinall Borghese which in former times hath beene the Kings of England and giuen by Henry the 8. to Cardinall Campeio at his being heere now enriched by the best hands of Painters and the most ancient Statues you shall see amongst the rest a Gladiatore or Fencer admirably described in Marble and a Statue of Seneca in brasse bleeding in his bath to death with whom this part also of the Romane Antiquities shall dye Now from these ancient ruines of Temples Trophies Statues Arches Columnes Pyramides the rest there would be required in a curious pen a particular obseruatiō but I will only prescribe vnto my selfe some generall notes How venerable Antiquities both bee and haue been in all mens esteem is so generally known and receiued as I will not enter into a Laudatory thereof further then to shew the singular vse and profit that may bee gathered from the knowledge of them First they much illustrate Story and in some cases illuminate the vnderstanding of the Reader and serue as a confirmation of that he hath read When actions of note bee registred the bare after-reading of them without seeing the place whence they proceeded is by many men not so constantly retained in memory For euery man knowes that if in reading an History onely by a Mappe the place bee obserued as well as the action ones iudgement is better strengthened and consequently much more when a man sees that which others haue but by description They that haue read of Antoninus Traian and Vespasian and finde their acts which they haue read engrauen in Arches Pillers and the like it is hard to expresse what credit they giue to the History and satisfaction to the Reader And if in this respect any place in the world deserue seeing none can sooner claime it then Rome Secondly the ancient Statues of the Romanes do strangely immortalize their fame and it is certaine that the men of those times were infinitely ambitious to haue their memories in this kind recorded such was the benignity of that people that they willingly yeelded to honour their acts by publique expression and in a kind to Deifie the persons of their worthiest men which industry of theirs may bee gathered by the numbers of Statues of Cicero Seneca Brutus Cassius the Horatij and Curiatij Cato and many more whose vertue more then their greatnesse made them famous Otherwise if I had onely seen the Statues of the most powerfull men and ancient Emperours I should haue thought there had been in those times as great Time-seruers as there be now where power authority is more esteemed of then vertue or valour Yet I think if euer men of any place in any time desired to haue their names and actions to continue to Posterity not knowing any farther immortalitie these were they and this one consideration produced better effects of vertue and valour then Religion and all other respects doe in our dayes Certainly therefore if they had been as well instructed in Diuine as Morall precepts no man of any age had euer exceeded them Thirdly the multitude and riches of these Statues and other Antiquities do wonderfully argue the magnificence of those times wherin they haue exceeded all that went before or followed after them and yet this sumptuousnesse nothing diuerted their minds from a generous and actiue life but rather instigated them which now we most commonly finde contrary For greatnesse and goodnesse doe not alwayes agree together Fourthly the Architecture of many ancient Temples and Statues is so singular and rare that they that euer since haue beene esteemed the best durst neuer assume or vndertake to equalize them in that kinde of singularitie especially of the Statues which are so done that neuer any could come neere the originall for exquisitenesse in taking the Copie so that a man cannot but gather that in this place and those times there were conioyned all singularities together best workmen best wits best Souldiers and so in euery kinde Superlatiue But it may be there are some who will drawe ill conclusions from these Antiquities either tending to Atheisme or Superstition For Atheisme thus If men desire to immortalize their memories in this kind after their death it may seeme the