place and amended it The second day the Shoomaker came again and found fault in the hose then Apelles answered and said that a Shoemaker ought not to judge of any thing but of the shoe Every man that thinketh himself eloquent for that he hath his tongue at will and can shift matters skilfully in his own judgement is not that eloquent man which Cicero speaketh of nor hath those parts of Rhetorick wherewith hee can perswade to good and disswade from evil The eloquent man doth comfort the afflicted he expelleth fear and terrour from men he stoppeth again the stout and insolent This man is able faith Cicero to win towns countreys castles and kingdomes this eloquence in adversity is solace in prosperity an ornament in youth laudable in age delectable in all men profitable Wherefore not without cause did M. Antonius use to say that oftentimes he saw and heard fine tongued men but he never saw nor heard any eloquent man For though saith Cicero we follow Nature as a Captain unless Art be coupled and united to it we follow a rude and barbarous Captain What Captain was Paulus Aemilius being in wars with King Perseus In a certain clear night when the Moon upon the sudden shifted her self from sight and the night became very dark all the souldiers of Paulus yea Paulus himself being their General and Captain were dismaid and quite discouraged thinking it had béen some prodigious show to pregnosticate mishap to come and being ready to yéeld in heart and courage until Sulpitius began to perswade the rude Souldiers with reason opening the causes unto the Souldiers and declaring the effects of the superiour bodies so eloquently that being before dismaid they were by the eloquence of Sulpitius perswaded to fight valiantly and where through fear of that sudden sight and change of the Moon they were ready to yeeld as captives to King Perseus they were moved and stirred by the eloquence of Sulpitius to become Conquerors and Victors over King Perseus in the self same night The like did Pericles sometimes amongst his souldiers of Athens at what time the sun so darkned that great terrour and fear came upon the souldiers he eloquently perswaded his souldiers and told them as he heard of his master Anaxagoras the cause thereof and quite expelled fear from the souldiers by reason and made them bold again through eloquence In Affrick there was in the time of Anascarimis a Philosopher named Afranio who being demanded what he did hear all the days of his life answered to speak well the second time being asked what he taught unto others answered likewise to speak well at the last he was demanded what he knew in any science he said I know nothing but to speak well so that this old Philosopher Afranio learned nothing taught nothing nor knew any thing but to speak well and most certain it is that he that consumeth all the days of his life to learn to speak well and knoweth nothing else but to speak well spendeth his time very well CHAP. X. Of those Kings and Princes and others who had their Pictures and Images for a shew of their deserved Fame erected THe greatest honour that both Gréeks and Gentiles used toward those that deserved well in the Commonwealth was to advance them by pictures painted and images gloriously graven thinking thereby either to inflame thē further to do good or else to discourage thē again from doing evil by banishing and neglecting their pictures which when Favoritus the Philosopher heard that the City of Athens had rejected his picture because Adrian the Emperour was angry with him said I am right glad thereof for better said he had it béen for Socrates to have had his brazen picture broken and thrown away for some shew of displeasure by the Athenians then to be deprived of his life for nothing by the Athenians for the surest estate of all is not to be known Agesilaus therefore King of the Lacedemonians understanding that the inhabitants of every country in all Gréece had decréed to put up the picture of Agesilaus for a memorial of his vertuous and noble acts to be as monuments of his life after death returning then from Egypt unto Gréece being very sick a little before he died he wrote letters unto Gréece that they should make no pictures no images no painted shews no graven work of his person nor yet of his life saying If I have done well in life the vertue thereof is a sufficient monument when I am dead Cato Senior was of that opinion that he had rather that men should ask why hath not Cato his Picture set up then to asks why hath Cato his picture set up A number of sage Philosophers and wise Princes have lothed and utterly neglected this kind of flattery which then was thought to be the greatest fame and commendation of all things to have their pictures in places set up to make mention of honour and dignity which thereby is meant either for restoring of liberty lost or in defending from tyranny or in saving of Cities or for such things done pictures were erected to advance their fame thereby Thus Aristogiton and Armodius because they delivered Athens from the tyranny of Pysistratus had their pictures with great estimation set up of the people of Athens Likewise Marcellus because he subdued Syracusa vanquished the French men at Padua and gave the repulse unto Hannibal at Nola had his picture set up in the Temple of Pallas with an Epigram written in letters of gold unto his great praise and commendation Eutropius saith that Claudius Emperour of Rome had his picture made with a golden Target in his hand because he vanquished the Goths which were about to spoil the county of Macedonia Numa Pomp. the second King of Rome and Servius Tullius the sixth King had their pictures a long time amongst the Romans in great honour and fame Selostris King of Egypt for his martial feats and vertuous acts was honoured in his country with divers pictures Polydamas that strong Champion in the games of Olympia for that he being without weapons and naked slew a terrible Lyon and held fast by the foot a huge great Bull and with the other hand stayed a running Chariot had his picture therefore erected and set up in Olympia In Athens how many pictures were set up of noble men and learned Philosophers as Conon Euogoras Phocion Isocrates and others which were now up and now down as mutable fortune favoured or frowned the state and life of men being uncertain and changeable As Demosthenes having his picture in Athens had this Epigram written round about the picture If Demosthenes had had courage and strength as he had wit and eloquence neither Philip nor his son Alexander nor all Macedonia had ever vanquished Gréece yet this Demosthenes was exiled and banished Athens divers times So hard was it to please the people then which had the chief government in Athens and Rome that for a small
that eat lice in Scithia called Budmi or them that eat Serpents called Ophiophagi or those that féed on mens bodies called Anthropophagi yea or those that eat their own parents as the Caspians did Vnto what purpose should I name the Astomians a people in India without mouths who onely live with the air that commeth unto their nosethrils where they receive breath they can neither eat nor drink as Plini saith in his seventh book they live the longer with the sweet smell and odours of flowers Vnto what end likewise should I speak of those blind Andabates that fight without eyes or of those great eared people the Fanesii whose ears shadowed and covered their whole body or of the Monopods which in like manner shadow their whole body with one foot or of the Arimaspians people in Scythia having but one eye in the midst of their forehead like the great Ciclop Poliphemus which Ulisses destroied yea of millions more whose deformity to deprint whose uglinesse to write were too much charge to the writer and too much tediousnesse to the reader I might speak of people in some part of India who live two hundred years and more whose hair upon their heads in their young age is white and in their old age black called Pandorae I might likewiâ—e recite a people in Lybia whose horses may not be guided nor governed with bridles be the bitts never so strong but with rods most gently are they tamed be the rods never so weak Herodotus a famous Gréek writer is not ashamed to shew how the women Selencridae brought forth egs whence men were born of such heighth length and stature that I am partly abashed to alledg his authority therein Again the people called Sorbotae of Aethiope are said to be eight cubits long Why should I speak of the Troglodites who live in caves of the ground féeding on Serpents being people of wonderfull swiftnesse and out-run any horse in Aethiope and cannot speak but hisse Why should I speak of the Massagetes of the people Nasomones I will according to promise omit the prolixity therof touching all countreys by the way or some of the chief as of Egypt with brags and vaunts of their antiquity Of the Ethiopians and the people of Caria with their simplicity and slavery so the Carthaginians were false and deceitfull the Babylonians wicked and corrupted the Persians drunkards and gluttons the Sycilians wary and trusty so was the cruelnesse of the Caspians the filthinesse of the Lesbians the drunkennesse of the Scythians the fornication of the Corinthians the rudenesse of the Boetians the ignorance of the Cymmerians the beastlinesse of the Sibarites the hardinesse of the Lacedemonians the delicacy of the Athenians and the pride and glory of the Romans Thus we read that the Spaniards be the greatest travellers and the greatest dispisers the Italian proud and desirous to revenge the Frenchman politick and rash the German a warriour the Saxon a dissembler the Swevian a light talkative person the Britain a busie body the Cimbrian seditious and fierce the Bohemian ungentle and desirous of news the Vandal a mutable wrangler the Bavarian a flouter and a scoffer These qualities are incident to the aforesaid nations by nature But because in this place it were somewhat to the purpose to declare the glory and state of Rome which of all the world was estéemed and feared and for that Rome had more enemies then all the whole world beside to shew briefly how they flourished how their fame spread and their glory grew I think it not expedient to meddle with the antiquity thereof in the time of Janus and Cameses but to touch upon their fame by managing of wars in the time of Romulus who being begotten of Mars and Rhea a Vestal virgin was the first builder of the city and also king thereof This King Romulus warred on the Sabins after he had elected a hundred Senatours to discern and judge the causes of the City to defend Iustice and practice the same and to punish vice and wrongs according to the law of Plato who willed every Common-wealth to be governed with reward unto the vertuous and punishment to the vicious Again he appointed certain souldiers unto the number of one M. to be in a readinesse alwaies to defend the City After Romulus succéeded Numa Pompilius the second king a man very religious and pittiful he in his time made laws to observe rites sacrifices and ceremonies to worship their Gods he made Bishops and Priests he appointed the Vestal virgins and all that belong thereto Thirdly came Tulius Hostillius to be king in Rome whose felicity was onely to teach the youth of Rome the discipline of warfare and stirred them wonderfully to exercise and practice the same Then fourthly succeeded An. Martius with the like industry and care of the further and surer state of the City in raising the high walls of Rome and raising a bridge upon the river Tyber in amending and beautifying all the stréets of Rome The fifth King was Tarquinius Priâ—cus who though he was a stranger born at Corinth yet he increased the policy of the Romans with the wisedome of Greece he triumphed over the people of Tusk and inlarged the fame of Rome much more then it was to this came next Servius Tulâ—ius who was the sixth and Tarquinius Superbus the seventh and last King of Rome who for his misgovernment and lust in the City against the chast matrons for the pride and infringement of the liberty having withall ravished Lucrecia Collatinus wife was at length after long rule and government banished Rome The first alteration and change of state was then after these seven Kings governed Rome two hundred years and a half which was the first infancy of Rome Then Collatinus and Brutus after these Kings were exiled in reward of restoring liberty and for honest life were the first Consuls in Rome they I say altered the government of the City from a Monarchy to a kind of government called Aristocratia which continued in Rome from the time of Brutus and Collatinus untill the time of Appius Claudius and Quinâ—us Fulvius which was two hundred years In this season during this two hundred years was Rome most assailed of all kind of enemies stirred unto wars of all nations for the space of two hundred years and a half Then Appius Claudius forgetting the law which he himself made in Rome against fornication forgetting the ravishment of Lucrecia and the banishment of Tarquinius for breaking of the same against all right and reason willingly and wilfully ravished Virginia the daughter of Virginius and after that her own father slue her in the open fight of Rome the cause being known unto all the City the people were straight in arms to revenge the wrongs and injuries against the laws Even as the Kings before named were exiled and banished Rome for the ravishment of Lucretia so now the ten Commissioners called Decem. viri were likewise excluded and rejected for
at the change of every dish every man again commanded by a law to go to his woman And thus from meat to women from women to meat they beastly and brutishly entertained their Epicurial lust wherein these Gorgons reposed their chief felicity Certainly if Quéen Semitamis of Babylon had been matched with Heliogabulus Emperour of Rome it had béen as méet a match if time had served as one beast should be for another for he was not so filthy but she was as shameless not onely in procuring divers to lie with her but in alluring her own son Ninus to lust and as writers report being a beast matched her self with a beast a horse Had Pasiphae Quéen of Creet been well matched she had forsaken King Minos and come to the Emperour Caligula where she might have been as bold with others as she was with Minotaurus father Had the Empresse Mestalina been deservedly according to her life married she had been more meet for Nero then for Claudius for his life and her life did well agree together for she passed all the Courtesans of Corinth all the strumpets of Athens and all the whores of Babilon for she was onely mistresse and ruler of all the stews and brothel houses in Rome What wickednesse procéedeth from lust what ungodly incest is brought to passe by lust what secret vengeance commeth by lust Lust assured Queen Cleopatra to use her brother Ptolomy as her husband Lust deceived King Cynar to lie with his daughter Myrrha Lust brought Macarius to his sister Canaces bed By lust did Menepron defile his own mother Lust stayeth the purpose of all men hindereth and hurteth all kind of persons Lust stayed King Antiochuâ— of Syria in Chalâ—idea a whole winter for one maid he fancied there Lust stayed Hannibal in Capua a long season to his great hurt Lust stayed Julius Caesar in Alexandria a long time unto his infamy Lust was the first cause of wars between the Romans and the Sabines for Romuâ—us had hardly built Rome but he lusted to ravish the women and to steal the Sabine maids to Rome whereby the war first began The great wars between King Cambyses of Persia and King Amasis of Egypt wherein was a great slaughter and murther of men grew by lust to one woman The ten years betwixt the Thebans and the Phoceans was for the lust of one young man in Phoca towards a young woman in Thebes The cruel conflicts that was between the Troyan Prince Aeneas and stout Turnus was the lust which either of them did bear to Lavinia King Latinus Daughter What bloud what tyranny was between the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwéen Ptolomy and Alexander the one King of Egypt the other King of Assyria and all for one woman Cleopatra Augustus the Emperour made long wars for Octavia his sister whom Antonius abused to the spoyl and murther of many Romans Had Hesione King Priamus sister not lusted to go with Telamon from Troy to Greece had likewise Helen the wife of Menelaus not lusted to come with Paris from Greece to Troy the bloudy wars and ten years siege between the Greeks and the Troyans had never been writâ—en by Homer Had not lust ruled the five cities called Pentapolis where Sedom and Gomorrha were they had not been consumed with fire and brimstone from heaven to the destruction of all the people saving Lot his children If lust had not ruled all the world the deluge of Noah had not drowned the whole earth and all living creatures saving Noah his wife and children Thus lust from time to time was the onely Monster and scourge of the World And in this our Age lust is nothing diminished but much encreased and though we shall not be plagued again with Water according to promise yet to be punished with Fire most sure we be unlesse we detest and abhor this vice There is a History in Justine worthy to be noted of Princes that will not punish these offences Pausanias a Noble Gentleman of Macedonia being a very fair young man whom Attalus by lust abused and Attalus not contented to handle the young man so wickedly and ungodly did bring him also to a banquet where Attalus would have used him as before making all men privy how Pausanias was his paramour as a woman The young man being ashamed of it often complained unto Philip King of Macedonia and after many and divers complaints having no redresse but being rather flouted and scoffed at by Philip Pausanias took it so grievously that after this sort he requited his shame and injuries At the marriage of Cleopatra King Philips daughter with Alexander King of Epirus in great triumphs and pomps King Philip in the midst of his joys walking between his own son Alexander the great who then was but young and Alexander King of Epirus his son in law being married then to his daughter Cleopatra Pausanias thrust him into the heart saying Minister Iustice and punish Lust Thus died that mighty Prince as well for the bearing of Attalus fault as also for his own wickednesse using the same sin sometime with a brother in law of his natural brother to his first wife Olympias Lust and intemperancy do never escape without just punishment and due vengeance Amnon the son of King David for that he misused his own sister Tamar was afterward slain Absalom for that he did lie with his fathers Concubines died for it David was plagued for Uriah's wife The two Elders that would ravish Susanna were put to death This sin is the onely enemy of man For all sin saith St. Paul is without the body but uncleannesse and lust sinneth against the body Had not Olofernes séen the beauty of Judith yea marked the comelinesse of her slippers he had not lost his head by it Had not Herod séen Herodias daughrer dancing he had not so rashly granted her John Baptists head Had not Eve séen the beauty of the Apple she had not eaten thereof We read in Genesis that when the sons of men viewed the beauty of women many evils happened thereby By sight was Potiphars wife moved with lust toward Joseph her servant By sight and beauty was Solomon allured to commit Idolatry with false Gods By sight was Dina the daughter of Iacob ravished by Shechem These evils procéed from sudden sights therefore saith the Prophet Turn away thine eys lest they sée vanities The Philosopher likewise saith That the first offer or motion is in the eye from sight proceedeth motion from motion election from election consent from consent sin from sin death Wherefore with the Poet I say resist the violence of the first assault I mean the eys The evil that happened thereby too long it were to write Lust again hath its entrance by hearing as Justine in his twelfth Book doth testifie of Thalestris Quéen somtime of the Amazons who having heard the great commendations the fame and renown of Alexander the great ventered her life to hazard to come from Scythia to Hircania which
overcome in Pharsalia and enforced to flie unto Egypt his treasures substance wealth being brought unto Caesar in a great chest Coesar found divers sealed letters and great counsels which he never opened for silence sake but took them altogether and threw theÌ„ into the fire for that all men might learne how much he esteemed silence this done unto Pompeius at Pharsalia he said unto his souldiers that it behoved a Prince to finde out friends rather then search out foes The noble Emperor knew well by reading of Pompeius letters he might be moved to divers injuries and by opening of secrets he might accuse divers wrongfully therefore he had rather purchase by silence friends then by breaking of counsell enmity How sure and safe is the reward of silence histories of Greek and Latine can well report Had Calisthenes followed the counsel of his master Aristotle either merrily or never to speak unto a Prince he had never found fault with Alexander by speaking to anger Alexander and to harm himself Had not learned Seneca so reproved the Emperour Nero the tyrant of Rome with words he had not béen rewarded with death If the Poet Nevius had not written his mind unto Metellus If Chius had not béen familiar in talk with King Antigonus they had saved life by silence where they purchased death by talking Therefore Phocion that Gréek whom sugred Demosthenes called the rasor of Athens was alwaies afraid as Plutarchus saith lest any sudden sillable or foolish word might escape his tongue imprudently So that silence gaineth life and words causeth death as Miles the ancient Muâ—â—tian at what time with Hercules he found fault for that he was Linus scholler and taught by him on instruments for words speaking of Linus unto Hercules he was slain of his own scheller so that silence unto Princes is most necessary O noble silence O rare vertue O most worthy jewell thou hurtest no man thou betrayest no body Philippides a noble man of Athens who for his singular learning and dexterity of wit King Lisimachus made most account of and was most desirous to please him most ready to advance him unto honour willed him to ask what he would and he should have it Philippides most humbly knéeing upon his knees besought Lisimachus the King in any wise not to open his secret and counsel unto him the king demanded the cause thereof because said he I know not whether I am able to kéep counsel or no. How much it repugneth the nature of man to kéep silence Cicero in his book of Offices doth manifest the same for were it possible saith he unto man to ascend the skies to see the order of the bodies superiours and to view the beauty of the heavens unswéet were the admiration thereof unle he might shew it unto others And again he saith there is no such ease unto men as to have a friend unto whom a man may speak unto as himself giving thereby to understand the grief of silence that nature loves nothing which is solitary It may séem that sileÌ„ce one way is not so beneficial as it is another way most grievous as is proved by the history of Secundus the Philosopher who having company with his own mother in the night time either of them most ignorant of the other his mother in processe of time having knowledge thereof for very grief and sorrow slue her self The Philosopher likewise having understood of his mothers death knowing the cause thereof knew not what to do for that he was ashamed of the filthy act one way and most sorrowfull for the sudden death of his mother another way to die to burn to hang to drown himself he thought it too short a torment for so hainous a fact and knowing his mother being a woman stayed not nor feared not to kill her self to ease her sorrowfull heart he conceived that he being a Philosopher it stood him upon to find out the painfullest torment in all the world to plague himself justly for his grievous offence he therefore vowed unto God never to speak one word ouring life such torment he thought was most painfull unto nature and thus by silence he consumed away his life Since therefore silence is suco a burning disease so heavy in the heart of man so hard to kéep in so dangerous to utter how worthy are they of commendations how do they merit fame and praise that can rule their tongues and keep silence Therefore a noble Senatour of Rome sometime brought his eldest son named Papâ—â—ius unto the Senate house to hear the councel pleading charging him whatsoever he should hear in the house amongst the wise Senatours to keep it in silence for the order was in Rome that a young man should say nothing unlesse he were a Consul a Tribune a Censor or such like Officer wherby he had authority to speak This young Papirius on a time being importuned by his mother and charged on her blessing to tell her the cause and businesse that the Senatours had so often to come together the young man being threatned weighing his fathers charge to avoid words one way said since you are so importunate mother to know the secret of the Senate you must keep counsell for I am charged therewith There is a long debate in the Senate house to agree on this conclusion whether it be more expedient for one man to have two wives in the City of Rome or one woman to have two husbands and most like it is that it will go on the mens side Straightways she went into the City and certified the matrons and women of Rome what the Senatours were about to conclude and appointed certain of them to accompany her the next morning unto the Senate where when she came as one dismaied she began to declaim against the purpose and decrées of the Senatours proving what inconvenience might arise for a man to have two wives laying before them the dissention that should be in that house where two women should be married to one man and what comfort and consolation it were for a woman to have two husbands the one to be at home in Rome to see his children brought up and to sée the city defended when the other should be far from home at the wars in other countries The Senatours being amazed at her talk not knowing to what it tended young Papirius demanded licence to speak which being granted he declared the cause of her comming how and after what sort as is before mentioned The Senatours commended much Papiâ—ius wit as well for his obedience to his mother as for silence toward the Senate recompensed his wisedom with the Consulship of Rome Silence was so observed in Rome and honoured of Romans that Demetrius the Phylosopher would often say that the birds can flie where they will and the grashoppers sing where they wil but in the city we may neither do nor speak Euripides a learned Gréek it being objected to him that his breath did stink
translating Titus Livius though he was a King I do not hold with age in divers men who for want of discretion and wit was childish again but of perfect men in whom age seemed rather a warrant of their doings For even as he that playeth much upon instruments is not to be commended so well as he that playeth cunningly and artificially so all men that live long are not to be praised so much as he that liveth well For as apples being green are yet sower untill by time they wax sweet so young men without warrant of time and experience of things are oftentimes to be misliked If faults be in old men saith Cicero as many there be it is not in age but in the life and manners of men Some think age miserable because either the body is deprived from pleasure or that it bringeth imbecility or weaknesse or that it is not far from death or calleth from due administration of Common-wealths these four causes saith Cicero make age seem miserable and loathsome What shall we say then of those that in their old age have defended their countries saved their Cities guided the people and valiantly triumphed over their enemies as L. Paulus Scipio and Fabius Maximus men of wonderfull credit in their old years What may be spoken of Fabritius Curius and Cornucanus aged men of great agility of famous memory in their latter days How can Appius Claudius be forgotten who being both old and blind resisted the Senatours to compound with King Pyrrhus for peace though they all and the Consuls of Rome hereunto were much inclined If I should passe from Rome a place where age was much estéemed unto Athens amongst the sage Philosophers if from Athens to Lacedemonia where age altogether bare sway and rule if from thence unto the Ethiopians and Indians where all their lives are ruled and governed by old men If from thence to any part of the world I might be long occupied in reciting the honour and estéemation of age Herodotus doth write that the Aethiopians and Indians do live most commonly a hundred and thirty years The people called Epeii in the Countrey of Aetolia do live two hundred years naturally and as it is by Damiates reported Lictorius a man of that Countrey lived thrée hundred years The Kings of Arcadia were wont to live thrée hundred years the people of Hyperborii lived a thousand years We read in the old Testament that Adam our first father lived nine hundred and thirty years and Eve his wife as many Seth nine hundred and twelve years Seth his son called Enos nine hundred and five Cainan the son of Enos nine hundred and ten Mahalalehel the son of Cainan eight hundred fourscore and fifteen so Enoch the son of Iared lived nine hundred thréescore and five years Enoch his son named Mechuselah lived nine hundred threescore and nine years with divers of the first Age I mean till Noah's time who began the second world after the floud who lived as we read nine hundred and five his son Sem six hundred years and so lineally from father to son as from Sem to Arphaxad from Arphaxad to Sala from Sala to Heber the least lived above thrée hundred years This I thought for better credit and greater proof of old ago to draw out of the Old Testament that other prophane authorities might be beleeved as Tithoniâ—s whom the Poets fain that he was so old that he desired to become a Grashâ—pper But because age hath no pleasure in the world frequenteth no banquets abhorreth lust loveth no wantonness which saith Plato is the only bait that deceives young men so much the happier age is that age doth loath that in time which young men neither with knowledg with wisdome nor yet with counsel can avoid What harm hath happened from time to time by young men over whom lust so ruled that there followed eversion of CoÌ„monwealths treason to Princes Friends betrayed countreys overthrown and Kingdoms vanquished throughout the world Therefore Cicero saith in his book entituled De Senectate at what time he was in the City of Tarentum being a young man with Fabius Maximus that he carried one lesson from Tarentum unto the youth of Rome where Architas the Tarentine said that Nature bestowed nothing upon man so hurtfull to himself nor so dangerous to his Countrey as lust or pleasure For when C. Fabricius was sent as an Embassadour from Rome to Pyrrhus King of Epyre being then the Governour of the City of Tarentum a certain man named Cineas a Thessalian by birth being in disputation with Fabritius about pleasure affirmed that hee heard a Philosopher of Athens affirm that all which we do is to be referred to pleasure which when M. Curius and Titus Coruncanus heard they desired Cineas to perswade King Pyrrhus to yéeld to pleasure and make the Samnites believe that pleasure ought to be esteemed Whereby they knew that if King Pyrrhus or the Samnites being then great enemies to the Romans were addicted to lust or pleasure that then soon they might be subdued and destroyed There is nothing that more hindreth magnanimity or resisteth vertuous enterprises then pleasure as in the Treatise of pleasure it shall more at large appear Why then how happy is old age to despise and contemn that which youth by no means can avoid yea to loath and abhor that which is most hurtfull to it self For Cecellius contemned Caesar with all his force saying to the Emperor that two things made him nothing to estéem the power of the Emperor Age and Wisdome By reason of Age and Wisdome Castritius feared not at al the threatnings of C. Carbo being then Consul at Rome who though he said he had many friends at commandement yet Castriâ—iâ—â— answered and said That he had likewise many years that could not fear his friends Therefore a wise man sometime wept for that man dieth within few years and having but little experience in his old age he is then deprived thereof For the Crow liveth thrise so long as the man doth the Hart liveth four times so long as the Crow the Raven thrice so long as the Hart and the Phoenix nine times longer then the Raven And thus Birds do live longer time then man doth in whom there is no understanding of their years But man unto whom reason is joyned before he commeth to any ground of experience when he beginneth to have knowledge in things he dieth and thus endeth he his toyling Pilgrimage and travel in fewer years then divers beasts or birds do CHAP. XIX Of the manners of sundry People under sundry Princes and of their strange life THe sundry fashions and variety of manners the strange life of people every where thorow the world dispersed are so charactered and set forth amongst the writers that in shewing the same by naming the Countrey and the people thereof orderly their customes their manners their kind of living being worthy of observation I thought briefly to touch and to note
much given to soft clothing gay apparel and delicate fare as Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers delighted to go brave in gorgeous apparel with rich Chains and Kings and had herein great felicity Demosthenes and Hortensius two famous and noble Oratours the one of Athens and the other of Rome went so fine in their cloths with such neat and wanton gesture that L. Torquatus would often call Hortensius the son of Dionisia for that she had great pleasure in dancing and light gesture of bodie But I will omit such examples and speak of dissembling persons who thinking to hurt others destroyed themselves as that strong Golias who contemning all Israel for force and strength David a weak man overcame him Hammon was hanged upon that gallows that he prepared for Mardocheus even so Absalon going about to destroy his father King David was hanged by the hairs of his head by Gods appointment CHAP. XXXIII Of Famine CIcero in his first book of Tusculans questions doth note the saying of Socrates that hunger was the best sauce to meat and thirst the best occasion to drinke Wherefore King Dioniusis the tyrant hearing much report of the Lacedemonians hard fare and specially of their pottage which was called Jus nigâ—um the black pottage he took a Cook of that Countrey to be his servant to dresse his diet in the ordinary way of the Lacedemonians the Cook having taken much pains in making the foresaid pottage he brought a messe thereof unto the King who much longed for it but assoon as he tasted of it he spit it again out of his mouth and was vâ—ry angry with the Cook saying is this the pottage that the Lacedemonians so much brag of my dog said Dâ—onisius should not eat it the Cook perceiving the gluttony of the King said O Dionisius whensoever thou art to eat of this pottage thou must bring fit sauce for it which is a Lacedemonians stomack for the Princes of Sparta have more pleasure in this kind of fare then ever King Mydas had in his golden banquets What maketh any meat swéet hunger What causeth man to féed pleasantly hunger Or what makes any drink pleasant thirst For at what time Darius was enforced of méer thirst to drink of a lake all defiled with stinking carcases of dead souldiers being then in the field and compelled to take his flight he said after his draught that he never drank swéeter drink in his life Though this King was a proud Prince over the Persians and had all kind of wines at commandement yet his want and penury now and his thirsty stomack was the onely cause of this noble drink which he so much commended and preferred before all the wine that ever he drank before Even so affirmed King Artaxerxes in his wars when his victuals and all were spoiled by the enemies of a few dry figs and of a piece of a barley loaf upon which he fel so hungerly that he spake after this sort O good Lord of how great a pleasure have I béen all this while ignorant Lisimachus likewise being in wars in Thracia against Domitianus the Emperour where he and all his souldiers were kept so long without drink untill he was so thirsty that he was inforced with all his host to yeeld as captives to the Emperour Domitianus and now being in captivity having a draught of drink of the Emperour he said O God that I should make my self from a King to be a captive from a noble Prince of Greece to be a bondslave unto the Romans for one draught of drink See what hunger and thirst is how it hath made Kings to yeeld and Princes to be vanquished Yea it hath made King Ptolomy in his own Kingdome of Egypt to commend a piece of bread which was given him in a poor Cottage and to say that he never eat better meat nor more comfortable chear in all his life then that piece of bread was It was the custome of that noble Emperor Julius Caesar in all his wars more with famine then with sword to vanquish his enemies For this famous warriour would often say that even as the physitian would use his patients so would he his enemies the rule of the physitian is to make his patient fast to recover his health The order of Caesar was to kéep the enemy from victual to make them yéeld Great is the force of Famine And by Histories we read that when King Cambyses marched towards the Ethiopians he endured great scarcity of victuals and such penury and want of food was among the souldiers that they agréed with themselves to kill the tenth throughout all the host to asswage hunger and the Famine continued so long that Cambyses the King was in great fear lest the Lot should at length happen upon him and so to be eaten of his own souldiers Sagunthus a City in Spain as Eutropius doth witnesse in great amity with the Romans was besieged by the Carthaginians so long that all the City was brought unto such famine that the Lords and the Captains of the City made a great fire in the Market place and there brought all their wealth and substance and threw it into the fire and after made their Wives and their Children to enter into the fire and last of all the chief Lords and Captains ended their own lives in it lest they should come into the enemies hand So great was that Famine that it was before prognosticated by a Woman in the time of her delivery whose child his head being out entred into his Mothers womb again The like calamity happened in Caligurium a City where Quintilian was born which being likewise long besieged by Cneius Pompey to bring them in subjection and to kéep promise with Sertorius they lacked victuals and waxed so hungry that all kind of beasts whatsoever being slain they were constrained to eat their own Wives and Children It was séen in Ierusalem when that it was destroyed by Vespasian the Emperor of Rome that the mothers were compelled to eat their own children for very hunger whose small and tender bones were left as a shew and token of their calamity Pliny in his eighth book of Natural Histories saith that when Hannibal laid siege to the city Casilinum the Roman souldiers were in such hunger that one Mouse was sold for two hundred pieces of silver and he that sold the Mouse died himself for hunger The Athenians likewise were brought unto such hunger by Sylla who afterward was Dictator of Rome that one bushel of Wheat was sold amongst the souldiers for a thousand Drachmes the common souldiers being poor for want of money on the one side and sore plagued with hunger on the other were compelled to eat the gréen grasse of the fields about the City of Athens and to gather the mosse off the walls of the City and did eat it This City of Athens was oftentimes brought to that misery as by King Demetrius by King Philip and by his son Alexander the great So
should be acquainted with idlenesse at any time even in the night time used this art to hold a silver ball when he went to bed in his hand having a silver bason upon the ground that when the ball should fall he being fast asléep the shrill sound thereof should wake him and make him mindfull of his enemies so fearfull was this noble prince of idlenesse that to shake off sléep and slothfulnesse he studied and travelled how he might avoid it For Alexander the great being called the son of Jupiter and fully perswaded with himself that he was of the linnage of the Gods had special regard of sléep and lust whereto he being so much subject knew himself to be a man wherefore he oftentimes wrastled with nature in that behalf In the self-same place of Marcellinus it is read that Julius Caesar the greatest and most renowned Emperour that ever reigned in Rome followed this order and practised this policy least he should be idle at any time For first to suffice nature he slept a certain time appointed Secondly he would be occupied in the affairs of his country Thirdly he travelled in his private study Thus least he should be idle nay rather least he should lose any time he divided every night into thrée parts first to nature secondly to his country thirdly about his own businesse The mighty Prince Philip of Macedon as we read in Brusonius was of such care and diligence that when his souldiers slept he alwaies watched Again he never slept untill his friend Antipater were first awake So that betwéen King Philip and Antipater diligence was as much honoured and embraced as slothfulnesse was feared and hated Epaminondas that renowned Prince of Thebes being studious and profitable to profit his country so hated idlenesse that finding one of his Captains in the Camp in the day time sléeping he slue him streight with his own hand and being reprehended by his Nobles and Counsellours for that cruell fact he answered them in few words I left him as I found him comparing idle and drowsie men to dead men for men are born to travell and watch and not to take pleasure and stéep How did Scipio in Affrica overthrow the Tents of Siphax how vanquished he his host of souldiers slew his army and how took he King Siphax captive himself Livius saith that the diligence of Scipio and the sloathfulnesse of Siphax being a sleep when he should be waking was the cause thereof Had Demosthenes loved idlenesse he had never been able to prevent that famous Prince Philip King of Macedon he was so carefull and diligent to the state of Athens that that worthy Captain and great Conquerour Philip was wont to say that he doubted more the diligence of Demosthenes then he feared all the force of Athens Had Cicero slept during the conspiracy of Catelin he had never been able worthily to boast of himself O happy Rome that ever I was thy Consul Studious travel saved oftentimes Rome from divers enemies Quintilian reciteth a worthy history of a famous scholler named Hippias who to avoid idlenesse after long studying of his book would exercise himself in something or other least he might seem to be idle insomuch that he applied himself to divers faculties at void hours and used to practise the faculty of a Goldsmith of a Tailor of a Shoo-maker insomuch that at length he became his own Taylor his own Shoemaker yea to make his own rings so artificially as though he had been brought up in the school of Praxiules What is so hard but diligence will attempt it What is so déep but travel will wade through it What is so strange but study will know it Labour and diligence are of Wise men much commended by the example of the Bée that is busie and carefull and knoweth how to profit her self and others If the little Ants be so praised for that they toyl in the Summer to provide against the Winter If the silly simple Worms do provide things necessary for them and theirs How much more ought man who is born to profit his countrey his Prince his friends and his parents to consider the commodity of diligence and the danger of idlenesse But it is before mentioned vices are covered with the names of vertues as the idle man is noted to be a quiet man the ignorant termed an innocent Caelius doth write of a certain Emperor named Attalus which so well loved idlenesse that he gave the government of the Empire to his friend Philopenes for that he would be idle We read again of one Vatia a great ruler and Mastrate in Asia that loved idlenesse so well that the people used a proverb when they saw any man idle to say He is an idle scholler of Vatiaes The Emperor Licinius and Valentianus were such enemies to learning and so ignorant as Egnatius doth report that they called Learning the onely poison of the world and named them that were learned the Asses of Cuma Who hated learning so much as Heraclides and Philonides which were so ignorant that they were as Caelius doth testifie had of the common people in great derision These blind men did call others Asses of Cuma when they themselves were far inferiour to any Asse in the world For divers Asses had more reason then Philonides or Heraclides had We read that Ammonius a great philosopher of Alexandria had an Asse which would keep company with Origen and Porphirius to frequent the school of Amonius to hear him read Philosophy and to his schollers the Asse was taught to know the reader as the schollers were to know the school at the time of reading The sacred Scripture commends tons the Asse of Balaam who was likewise taught to speak and to shew the prophet Balaam the will of God But the idle and ignorant will neither learn to know time place nor person neither to profit themselves nor others These lasie members these idle and ignorant beasts are the children of Morpheus sléeping alwaies in the cave of Pamedes to whom it well may be spoken as Aurelian sometime an Emperour of Rome spake unto one Bonosius that he was born to drink and not to live The Romans used to punish idlenesse so sharply that the Husbandman that had his ground barren and his Pastures Meadows or Fields untilled any other man should be there placed and he put out The Gentleman that had not his horse ready and in good liking with all things thereunto belonging should be suspected to be an idle member unto his country and should be hated and eschued by the people The common people might use no kind of private pleasure as plaies pastime or any other idle sport but at times appointed The gates of Rome were opened day and night to come and to go for the good of the Commonalty as Plutarch writes the life manners of all men were strictly examined whether they lived idle or no. And if any did resist the order of the Magistrates his head
power hurt Rome so much as their hidden hatred betwéen themselves did Again Alexander the great Cyrus the valiant Xerxes the famous most mighty Conquerors with all their strength of wars could not annoy Greece half so much as their inward Envy betwéen the Cities of Gréece What caused Julius Caesar to war against his son in law Pompey Ambition What made Adrian the Emperor to despise the worthy fame of Traâ—an Envy What moved Cato surnamed of Vtica to kill himself Envy to Caesar Hidden hatred working for private gain and rash counsel of flattery which is heard most often in the envious mouth have destroyed Kingdoms Envy first entred into the hearts of Princes arrested the worthiest Conquerors waded into the bowels of the wise and blushed not to attaint the learned Philosophers in the middest of Athens Hercules in killing the great Dragon that watched in the garden of Hesperides in destroying the ravening birds Stimphalides in conquering the raging and furious Centaurs in vanquishing terrible monsters as Gâ—rcon and Cerbeâ—us in overcomming the Lion the Boar and the Full in overtaking the gilded Hart and lastly for his conquest of the huge and prodigious Hydâ—a in the fens of Lerna won no lesse envy of some then he justly deserved fame of others Theseus to imitate the haughty attempts of Hercules overcame Thebes slew Minoâ—â—mus in the dens of Labyrinthus subdued Caâ—on the Tyrant with divers other large enterprises as one more willing to envie the fame of Hercules then desirous to deserve fame by lenity and quietnesse So might I speak of Julius Caesar that envied Alexander the great and Alexander likewise that envied Achilles And thus alwayes Envy was fostered by Princes With the wise and learned envy bare great sway as betwixt Plato and Xenophon the best and gravest philosophers in their time betwixt Demonsthenes and Aeâ—â—ines betwixt Aristotle and Isocrates one despising the other Such slaughter grew of Envy that one brother killed another the son the father and the father likewise the son as Romulus slew his brother Remus through envy lest he might be King in Rome Cambyses King of Persia killed his brother Mergides as Herodotus doth write through envy Envy caused Anachaâ—sis the Philosopher to be slain by his own brother Cadvidus King Jugurth murthered both his brethren Hiempsalis and Adherbales that he onely might reign King in Numidia Cain did kill his brother Abel the scripture doth testifie because his sacrifice was not accepted Thus envy was known and seen to be betwixt brethren betwixt parents and their children The like we read that envy committed horrible and terrible murthers as well betwixt the husband and the wife as in the children towards their Parents as in short examples is verified Clicenmestra slew her own husband Agamemnon and she again was slain by her son Orestes Queen Semiâ—ams killed likewise her husband King Ninus and she was killed even so by her son called Ninus Agrippina murthered her husbaÌ„d Tiberius she was also murthered by hâ—r son Nero O cruel tyranny that envy should ever cause such unnatural murther as one brother to kill another the father to destroy his son the son to slay his fathsr the husband to murther his wife the wife to make away her husband We read in Pliny of a certain King in Thebes named Athamas that gave both his sons the one named Learchus the other Euriclea to be devoured by ravenous Lions So many monstrous tyrants have been brought up in the school of envy so many deformed Centaures that all countries have been full of them When Antiphiles saw Apelles in great favour with King Ptolomy he so envied the matter that he told the King in spight to Apelles that Apelles was the very cause of the long wars between the Tyrians and Egypt to discredit Apelles for very envy that he was great with the King but the matter being known and his envy weighed Apelles was rewarded by the King with a hundred Talents and Antiphiles for his envy commanded afterward all the daies of his life to be the slave and bonomen of Apelles Themistocles was so grieved to see Miltiades so honoured for his great conquest and triumph in Marathon that being demanded why he was so sad he answered Mitiades triumphs will not suffer Themistocles to be joyfull There was no countrey but envy bare sway in it there was never any great vertue but it was accompanied with envy Caesar was envied in Rome by Cato Turnus was envied in Rutilia by Drances Ulisses was envied in Gréece by Ajax Demetrius was envied in Macedonia after King Cassander died What envy M. Crassus bare toward Pompey is sufficiently known What hidden hatred Pollio had toward Cicero may be read in Brusonius the third book the seventh chapter where Pollio saith to Messala that he could not endure the voice of Cicero The like we read of Aristotle who envied Isocrates so much that he was wont to say It were a shame to Aristotle to hold his peace and let Isocrates speak For as there is no light saith Pliny without a shadow so there is no vertue or glory without envy The wavering state of the vulgar which always ruled Rome and Athens was so mutable and uncertain that after wise and sage Socrates was condemned to die being dead the Athenians repented his accusers were banished and Socrates now being dead had his pictures erected which being alive the rude and uncertain people estéemed nothing Even so was Aristides and Themistocles banished into Persia Iphicrates into Thrace Conon into the province of Corporos Chabrias into Egypt and Cares into Sigeum men of excellent vertues of noble service of renowned fame yet by the envious people they were banished their own countreys to range abroad the world Again Homer was envied by Zoilus Pindarus by Amphimanes Simonides by Timocreon yea learned Maro and Horace were envied and backbiten by Maevius and Suffenus What do I speaking of envy Why wast I time to write of envy Wherefore seem I so fond to touch a general subject being so common with all men so nourished in all countreys being known from the beginning of the world and being first practised by the Devil who envying mans state the felicity joy and pleasure hee was in lest man should possesse the place where somtime the Devil reigned as an Angel he deceived man This envy took root then in the first Age for Cain envied so his brother Abel that he slue him for that God accepted the sacrafice of Abel and refused his Joseph was by his own brethren sold into Egypt for envy that he was better beloved of his father then they were Saul did envy King David that he gave his daughter Michal in marriage to David for that she being his daughter might betray her husband to the Philistines Dathan and Abiram had great envy toward Aaron Daniel was much envied in the Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar What should I be long in this The Apostles the Prophets the Martyrs yea Christ himself
but one year a ruler in the Empire was poysoned by his mother in Law named Martina The very cause of the Emperor Conradus death who was Fredericks son was onely the Empire and rule of Rome for Manfredus his successour hired the Physitians to poyson him that he might have the onely sway O unhappy state of Princes whose lives are desired both of friends and foes No lesse danger it is to be in favour with Princes sometime then perillous to be Princes We read of a Quéen named Rosimunda the daughter of King Cunimund of Gepida who after she had poysoned Albonius King of the Longobards her first husband did marry a Prince of Ravenna named Helinges whom likwise she thought to poison but being warned in the middest of his draught he caused his wife to drink the rest which drink was the cause of both their deaths How many noble Princes in the middest of their pilgrimages have died that death as Dioclesian the Emperour of Rome Lotarius King of France Charls the eight of that name with divers others as Hannibal prince of Carthage Aristobulus King of Iudea and Lucullus Generall of Rome Princes and noble men do sometime poison themselves lest they should be inforced to serve their foes as Themistocles being banished from his country of Athens being in service under Artaxerxes King of Persia poisoned himself with the bloud of a Bull in presence of all the Persians lest he should be compelled to fight in wars against Gréece his country Even so Aratus prince of Sicionia perceiving Philip the younger would banish and exile him out of his country was inforced with poison to drink his own death out of his own hand Even after this sort after long administration of the Commonwealth did noble Socrates learned Anaxagoras worthy Seneca and famous Demosthenes poison themselves Thus their pilgrimages were ended and their lives finished their honour and dignity their fame and renown did purchase them death Happy then are those whom the world knows not who desire not to be acquainted with the world but quiet and contented do finish the course of their pilgrimages Had not Jugurthus thirsted for the Kingdom of Numidia he had not slain his two brethren Adherbal and Hempsal which were partakers of the Crown for the which vengeance fell upon him being subdued by Marius and dying afterwards in prison Had not King Siphax thirsted after the Empire of Rome he had never béen taken captive and prisoner by Tiberius where he at length out of his Kingdome died in prison Henry the third was of his own son named Henry put again in prison where he died Aristonicus for all his businesse and great doings was vanquished by the Consull Aquilius and put in prison where likewise he died In prison divers princes have ended their lives in forrein countries Strange kinds of deaths happen upon Princes more then on any other men as orderly I shall prove by their pilgrimages and lives Some by fire as the Tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum who was burned with all his children and his wife in the Brasen Bull which Perillus made for others was first of all put into it himself By fire was the Emperour Valentine burned by the Goths by fire was that famous Greek Alcibiades destroied in Phrygia and burned in bed with his mistresse Timandra after he had ruled Athens and all Greece a long while Sardanapalus that great King and last prince of Assyria fearing to fall into the hands of Arbactus and detesting to die by his enemies made a solemn fire when after his lewd life wantoning in lust and following his desires he burned himself it was the end of the renowned Hercules who conquered Monsters subdued Serpents Lions Dragons and wild beasts at the last he put on the shirt of Nestus the Centaur which burned him alive What shall I speak of Boges the dear friend sometime of King Xerxes who when he knew that he could not escape the hand of Cimon and the power of Atâ—ens he made a great fire where he caused his wife and concubines his children and family to be burned and then his gold silver and treasure and last of all he burned himself Empedocles Catullus Luctatius Asdrubal and Poâ—tia died this death So desirous were men alwaies to become princes so ambitious of honour so greedy of wealth that having the name of a King they thought to avoid and escape that which alwaies waits on the heels of Princes I mean death Were not princes hanged by their own subjects which is the vilest and most ignominious death that can be Achaeas King of Lidia for that he troubled his subjects with new taxes and subsedies was hanged by his own subjects at the river of Pactolus Bomilchar a Prince of Libia being suspected by the Carthaginians that he had conspired with Agathocles unto the annoiance of the subjects was hanged in the City of Carthage in the middest of the Market Policrates who was supposed to be the happiest Prince that ever reigned in Samos and never sustained any losse by fortune was at last by Orontes the Persian King Darius General hanged in sight of Samos Herodotus doth affirm that Leonides that famous King of Sparta who long ruled the Lacedemonians with great fame and renown was by Xerxes King of Persia after his head was smitten off commanded notwithstanding to be hanged Trogus doth write of Hanno a prince of Carthage which flourished in the time of King Philip father to Alexander the great who for his prosperous successe that he had in all his attempts waxed to be such a tyrant that his own people first bound him with cords whipt him with rods pluckt out his eys brake his legs cut off his hands and at last to recompence his tyranny they hanged him up in Carthage These were no mean men that thus were hanged in their own country and by their own people Thus Princes in the middest of their lives have béen arrested by death and by divers kinds of death Some as you have heard by poison some by fire some by hanging have ended their pilgrimages some again have been devoured by their own horses as Diomedes King of Thracia became food himself to those beasts which before he fed with mens bodies The King of Eubea for his tyranny in Boetia was given by Hercules to be eaten by his own horses Licinius the Emperour at what time he had appointed that his daughter Hâ—rina should be given to his horses to be eaten he himself giving her as food unto them was torn in pieces It hâ—ppened that Neocles the son of that noble Greek Themistocks was by a horse likewise devoured And this was not strange unto princes for they were alwaies subject unto all kind of deaths After that the famous prince Mâ—â—us Captain of the Lybians had broken truce with the Romans he was afterward as Livi doth witnesse taken and drawn by four great horses alive at the cemmandement of Tullus Hostilius being then King of Rome Hâ—ppâ—litus son
son to Theseus being falsly accused by his mother in law Quéen Phedra and flying to avoid the fury and rage of his father at the request of the Queen was torn in pieces by wild horses But let us passe further and we shall read that as some were devoured by horses so others were by Serpents stung to death as Laocoon that worthy Troyan was by two Serpents destroyed yea that famous and warlike woman Cleopatra Quéen of Egypt after her lover and friend Marcus Antonius was overcome by Augustus Caesar the Emperour did chuse rather to be overcome with Serpents then subdued by Caesar With this death was Opheltes the son of Licurgus King of Menea vanquished Again some have perished by wild Bores and raging Lions as Anceus King of Samos and Paphages King of Ambracia the one by a Bore the other by a Lion Some have béen devoured by dogs as Linus the son of Apollo Pliny in his seventh book metions a Quéen in Bithinia named Cosinges K. Nâ—comedes wife whom her own dogs flew tare in pieces Euripides that learned Gréek coming in the night time from Archelaus King of Macedonia with whom he had been at supper was incountered by his enemy Promerus who set his dogs on him and did tear him to pieces Even so were Herachtus and Diogenes both Philosophers by dogs likewise killed I may not forget so great a prince as Basilius the Emperour of Macedon who in hunting amongst his Lords and Nobles yea amongst thousands of his Commons he onely meeting a Hart in the chase was hurt by him in the leg whereof he died As for Seleucus King of Syria son to Antiochus surnamed the Great and Bâ—la King of Panonia they were both thrown by their horses and died If these mischance happen unto princes in the midst of their state what is their glory but misery since nothing expelleth fate nor can avoid death Some have been so weary of life some so fearfull of death that they have thrown themselves into the water to be drowned others for all their diligent fear and watching for death have most shamefully notwithstanding been by death prevented Frederick the Emperour marching towards Ierusalem after that he had taken several Cities and Townes in Armenia in passing through a little river was drowned Decius that noble King being enforced to take his flight from the Goths with whom he then was in wars was drowned in the Marish ground Marcus Marcellus after that he had béen a Consul in Rome thrée times before the third wars betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians was likewise by shipwrack cast away How many noble Princes have béen drowned as Pharaoh King of Egypt in the red sea of whom we read in the sacred scriptures How many have the seas despoyled of life and with their own names christened the names of seas and waters in which they were drowned As by the death of Aegeus King of Athens the sea Aegeum was so called by the death of Tyrrhenus King of Lydia the sea was called The Tyrrhen Sea And so King Tyberinus altered the river called Aelbula by his death to be the river of Tyber Again the sea Hellespont was so called by a woman named Helle drowned in it So by Iâ—arus and Myrtilus the sea of Icarus and the sea Myrton were so called Divers Princes have also perished by famine and have been compelled to eat their own flesh as Erisicthon and Neocles a Tyrant of Scicioma It is written in Curtius that Sysigambis King Darius mother died of hunger Ulysles the Gréek lest any off-spring of Hector should rise in Phrygia to revenge the fall of Troy and his countrey did cast Astianax the son of Hector over the walls alive Lycurgus King of Thrace was by his own subjects thrown headlong into the sea for that he first mingled water with wine How many famous and noble Princes have been stoned to death as valiant Pyrrhus King of the Epyrotes being in wars with Antigonus was slain by an old woman with a a tile-stone at Argos Pyrander at what time the Athenians warred against Eumolpus for that he feared famine hiding the wheat from his souldiers was therefore by them stoned to death Even so was Cinna the Roman in the wars betwixt the Gauls and the Romans for the like offence stoned to death Stout Cebrior King Priaâ—'s son was slain by a stone hurled at him by Patroclus at the siege of Troy so died Cygnus the son of Achilles at the same time O unstedfast fortune that stones should end the many lives of famous princes O imprudent princes that know not how nigh ye are always to death How many hath God punished with sudden death for their offences as Mithridates King of Pontus and Nicanor the son of Parmenio of Macedonia died suddenly Sertorius was slain suddenly at a banquet by Upenna The Emperour Heliâ—gabalus was killed upon his stool at his easement and thrown into Tyber That renowned and famous Conquerour Julius Caesar was in the middest of the City of Rome where he was Emperor yea in the Senate-house murthered and mangled by Brutus and Cassius Divers Consuls in Rome died this death as Fabius Maxâ—mus Gurges the Senator And Manlius Torquatus even at his supper died presently Some with Thunder-bolts did God likewise punish thus Capaneus was slain at the wars of Thebes Tullus Hostilius King of Rome was with a Thunderbolt for his insolency and pride slain Zoroastres King of the Bactrians the first inventer of Magick was likewise by that kind of death encountred Pride in princes was the onely cause of their falls insomuch that the poets feign that the great and monstrous Giant Eâ—câ—ladus for his proud enterprise against Jupiter was thrown by a Thunderbolt into the bottome of Aetna a fiery and flaming mountain The uncertain state of princes is séen and tried by their death Who liveth so short a time as a prince who dieth so strange a death as a prince Who liveth in care who dieth living but a prince Was not Sergius Galba and Commodus the son of Marcus sirnamed Anbilius two Emperors of Rome the one by Otho strangled in the Market place of Rome the other imprisoned by Martia his own concubine Minos King of Creet travelling after Dedalus into Sicily was by his great friend King Cocalus slain by deceit So was Alebas chief governour of Larissa murthered by his own souldiers The desire that men bear unto honour and dignity is commonly accompanied with death as Spurius Cassius and Spurius Melius for their greedinesse of the Empire of Rome were both worthily beheaded God hath shewed just vengeance upon Princes for their iniquity with plagues and pestilences which spoiled the Emperor Constantine and the Empresse Zoae his wife And by this were Marcus Antonius Alphonsus and Domitius justly and worthily punished God hath wonderfully punished the pride of Princes even with shamefull and horrible deaths insomuch that Lice and vermine have consumed their bodies alive As Maximilian the Emperour Arnulphus
Athens Lentulus the defendour of Italy exiled from Rome Dion of Siracusa hunted out of his country by Dionisius even that renowned Hannibal that long protector of Carthage was compelled after long service for his country to range about like a pilgrim every where to séek some safe-guard for his life Too many examples might be brought from Gréek and Latine histories for the proof hereof The chiefest bulwark of a Common-wealth saith Demosthenes is assured faith without flattery and good will tried in the Commons and plainnesse without deceit boldnesse and trust in the Nobility Flattery is the onely snare that wise men are deceived withall and this the pharisées knew well who when they would take our Saviour Christ tardy in his talk they began to flatter him with fair words saying Master we know that thou art just and true and that thou camest from God Even so Herod willing to please the Iews in killing James the brother of John and in imprisoning Peter he so pleased the people with flattery that they cried out this is the voice of God and not the voice of men so sweet was flattery amongst the Iews The flattering friends of Ammon knowing the wickednesse of his mind and his perverse dealing toward Mardocheus did not perswade Ammon from his tyranny but flattered him with fair words and made him prepare a high gallows for Mardocheus where Ammon and his children were hanged But the young man that came to flatter king David saying Saul and his children are dead was by David for his flattery commanded to die CHAP. XLIIII Of the Pilgrimages of Princes and Misery of Mortality THere is neither beast on the earth nor fowl in the ayr nor fish in the sea that séeks his own decay but man onely as by experience we sée all things to have a care of their own lives The Lion when he féeleth himself sick he never ceaseth till he féedeth upon an Ape whereby he may recover his former health The Goats of Créet féeding on high upon the mountains when any of them is shot through with an arrow as the people of that Countrey are most excellent archers they seek out an herb called Dictamum and assoon as they eat any part of it the arrow falleth down and the wound waxeth whole incontinently There are certain kinds of Frogs in Egypt about the floud of Nilus that have this perceiverance that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is which is great a murtherer and spoiler of Frogs they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed which groweth about the banks of Nile and as this fish doth gape thinking to feed upon the Frog the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the Frog and so they save their lives If the Goats of Creet if the Frogs of Egypt have this understanding to avoid their enemies how much more ought man to be circumspect of his life who hath millions of enemies neither seen nor known We read in the first book of Aelian that the rude swine if at any time by chance they eat of that herb called Hiosciamus which so contracteth draweth their veins together that they can hardly stir they will strive for remedy to go under the water where they feed upon young Crabs to recover health In the same book you may read of a sea Snail which from the water doth come to land to breed and after she hath egged she diggeth the earth and hideth her egs and returneth to the sea again and there continueth fourty days and after fourty days she commeth to the self same place where she hid her egs and perceiving that they are ready to come out of the shell she openeth the shell and taketh her young ones with her into the sea And thus have they a care not onely of their own states and lives but also of others and by some shew of sence they help that which is most dangerous and hurtfull The little Mice have this kind of fore-knowledge that when any house waxeth old and ruinous they forsake their old dwelling and creeping holes and flee and seek refuge in some other place The little Ants have such fore-sight that when penury and want of relief draweth near they wax painfull and laborious to gather victuals as may serve them during the time of famine If these small creeping worms and simple beasts provide for themselves what shall we say of man the King and ruler over all beasts who hath not onely a body to provide for but also a soul to save More happy are these worms and beasts in their kind then a number of Princes are for that they by nature onely are taught to avoid their foes we neither by nature neither by God the cause of all goodnesse can love our friends Therefore very well it is said of the wise man that either not to be born or else being born straight to die is the happiest state that can chance to man For living in this vale of misery we see the Pilgrimage and travel of life to be such that better far it were to be a poor quiet man then a proud ambitious Prince And since death is the last line of life as well appointed for Princes as for poor men who in reading of the lives of Emperors Kings and Princes and the Nobles of the world seeth not their unhappy states which come into the world naked and depart from the same naked yet like proud Pilgrims are busie one to destroy another not content with countreys and Kingdomes they go from place to place like Pilgrims to be more acquainted with misery and to seek death Alexander the great conquerourâ— taking his voyage from his Kingdome of Macedonia unto India in a desire to destroy all the world he was in the City of Babylon prevented by Antipater and Iola with poyson and there he died Philopomenes a great Emperor sometime in Gréece being taken prisoner in the wars of Messena was so cruelly handled that he besought Dinocrates who then was Prince of that countrey and conquerour over him one drâ—ught of poyson to end his life Thus he that could not be content to be Emperor and ruler of Gréece was moved to seek death in a strange Countrey amongst his foes Ladislaus King of Apulia endeavouring to subdue the Florentines and séeking to be King over the Florentines lost the Kingdome of Apulia and by them was at length poysoned and so bereft both of Kingdome and life With this unhappy kind of death many Princes have been prevented and no lesse threatned are these Princes by their own houshold friends then by forraign foes No lesse do their children their wives brethren and kinsmen study to destroy them Thus Claudius Caesar an Emperor of Rome was poysoned by his own wife Agrippina Antiochus King of Syria was poysoned by his Quéen Laodice so that he was in love with Berenices King Ptolomy's sisterr Constantine the Emperor the son of Heraclius being