for the time of his death affirmes no lesse There was also a tumult in the I le because saith SVETONIVS the fugitiues were not sent backe ADMINIVS as I suppose and his adherents So the detention of tribute seems to haue been in reprisall to force their restitution And here the part of that BERICVS comes aptly in who as DIO saith was expulsed out of BRITAN for sedition The cause not hard to find considering the premises if BERICVS may be thought one of the ADMINIAN faction But of these things let others reason Here certainely our iland first began to feele indeed the weight of conquest CAESAR had a MANDRVBATIVS to induce and train him on and CLADIVS a banished BERICVS The computation of force in AVGVSTVS time fit to hold BRITAIN in obedience according to STRABO'S account was extremely vnder the marke One legion and some horse CAMDEN the king of our antiquaries and not of arms onely reckons vp three whole legions the second the ninth and the fourteenth imposed by CLAVDIVS to retain his martiall purchase Sure I am that when the BRITANS fell from NERO there was another called the twentith all foure of them mentioned in TACITVS where he chronicles the defection and all foure few enough Yet NERO was so farre from augmenting the ROMAN forces here with extraordinaries that but for very shame as SVETONIVS saith he had euen reuoked the ligiers Howbeit STRABO'S estimate supposing equitie and AVGVSTVS might be a full proportion For the odds are not small in the seuerall natures of times which extremely alter the states of power A few vnder a wise and venerable prince are vertually as many as thrice their number vnder a vaine or violent With iniurie no force is not weake with iustice no fewnesse is not strong Sentences verifide vnder NERO in BRITAIN vnder whom euen the deitie of CLAVDIVS was made a greater burthen to the BRITANS as appeares by that of which themselues complaine in TACITVS then CLAVDIVS himself was when aliue Among those pretious coignes which the treasurie of ANTONIVS AVGVSTINVS hath afforded to the world I finde one of CLAVDIVS concerning BRITAN peaceable omitted by all men who haue of purpose handled our affairs What the left hand of the image held vnluckely appeares not in that faire printed copie with which it pleased a great and generous Earle to befriend me It might be a garland a cornucopia a little winged victorie or the like but I could thinke it was some round figure the signe of tribute-money The whole may signifie that CLAVDIVS the conquerour of BRITAIN ciuilised the subdued BRITANS The persons gowned habit a manifest token of it who is otherwise wont to be represented martial and vnclothed And though the rudder or helme of a ship which here BRITANIA holds downward in her right hand as a rest doth ordinarily signifie nothing else in antient ROMAN coigns but that the countrey whose figure appears vpon the metal is an iland whereunto there is no accesse but by water yet here perhà ps it further noteth that not onely the nauigation of BRITAIN florished by his meanes but that tillage formerly neglected did also set vp now prosper if that which coucheth behind be not the halfe part of a ship but the hinder end of an antique plough A coigne put forth into the world after the Southerne BRITANS were prouinciated and the ROMAN gouernment fully setled here Nor improbably when the colonie of old souldiers was drawne and planted at CAMALODVNVM in the twelfth yeare of CLAVDIVS For that was precisely the time as that most modest and antient good friend of mine WILLIAM CAMDEN Clarenceux hath happely and learnedly obserued out of another of CLAVDIVS medalls CAMALODVNVM the place vpon which the raging tempest of rebellion did first discharge the force of it self as the insolencies of that colonie were among the heinous sparkes which firde the wronged natiues This in generall was the case and state of BRITAIN so farre as the ROMANS intermedled from the first entrance of IVLIVS CAESAR thereinto who what hee could not materiallie annex to the main-land attempted to fasten vertuallie to the empire as an out-worke CHAP. XXV THE INTERMITTED NARRATION OF THE REVOLT OF BRITAIN VNDER NERO PROSECVTED AFter the death of consecrated CLAVDIVS BRITAIN with the rest of the ROMAN world comming vnder the scepter of NERO it was nowe of his reigne the seuenth yeare CAESONIVS and PETRONIVS Consuls when the incensed BRITANNS led by a woman and a widowe reuengefullie writ her quarrell in the bloud of thousands of enemies For such they esteemed all who were either free of ROME or of the ROMAN partie The causes of which sodein furie with the bitter effects the estate of things foregoing and following as affording great lessons deserue a narration sutable to the maiestie though not to the length of the introduction And first of all that we may admiringlie know how large a place the euil shooke it must not bee forgotten that presentlie before the terrible blowe all the countreyes nowe comprehended vnder the noble names of ENGLAND and WALES excepting onely the I le of MONA or ANGLESEY were either immediatly ROMAN as prouincial or indirectlie and vpon the by as seeming social A goodlie scope of habitable element one thousand miles in circuit and it self the best and greatest part of BRITAIN full of braue people and of natiue commodities which the ancient equitie of the ROMANS should haue kept and cherished more carefullie For the straightned Ocëan which separates it from the continent doth not separate it from the benefits and blessings of the continent And if the aër of our I le be not alwayes the most pure and transparent yet is it certainly the most temperate But without all other commodities and the names of ours would fill a long inuentarie it was alone enough for an attractiue to the ROMANS that not onely the inferior sorts of oare but siluer also and gold it selfe lay couched in the mines of BRITAIN which their diligence would draw forth into light and vse the vaines of mineral coales a tresure left for vs whose improuident wasts of wood hath made them as pretious as metal The BRITANNS themselues who by the right of theyr first comming hither were natural Lords of the soil a people easily fashionable to the noblest arts and not to that mean one of making cheese the ignorance whereof stands vpon some of them in STRABO as a special note of barbarism Neither were the Romans now in any such numbers here that insolencie might thereupon securely rest it selfe For to defend their owne share they at most employd but foure legions with theyr ordinarie aids consisting partly of GALLS and GERMANS and partly of the ilanders themselues the legions of none but ROMANS only All which together could not very much surmount fortie thousand according to common proportions An handfull of men if compared to the natiues But of this more properly elsewhere §. I. Of the title of
NERO CAESAR or Monarchie depraued An Historical work Dedicated wth leaue To the Duke of BVCKiNGhAM lord Admiral A.D. MDCXXiii NERO CAESAR OR MONARCHIE DEPRAVED AN HISTORICALL WORKE Dedicated with leaue to the DVKE of BVCKINGHAM LORD ADMIRALL By the Translator of LVCIVS FLORVS LONDON Printed by T. S. for Thomas Walkley at Britaines Bursse 1624. SENECA AD NERONEM Apud CORNELIVM TACITVM Annal. XIV Ego quid aliud MVNIFICENTIae adhibere potui quà m STVDIA vt sic dixerim in VMBRA educata è quibus CLARITVDO veuit TO MY LORD THE DVKE OF BVCKINGHAM LORD ADMIRALL Most noble my gracious Lôrd THe Office of an Historian is not more worthie then it is hard But the hardnesse as it riseth from the greater necessity of truth then of eloquence is recompensed with an aduantage aboue all other sorts of humane learning For each of those is but for certain natures whereas History is a common study for all The nobility of the guift for it is a guift from heauen and a great one is manifest by the excellencies of persons who haue laboured therein Saints Emperours Kings Gown-men Sword-men and whatsoeuer else is best or for the best The difficulties grow out of the abstruse condition of causes counsels facts and their circumstances And howsoeuer lights may faile yet truth is the supreame aime of euery right narrationer In this historicall work of NERO CaeSAR I haue so regarded veritie that in the same alone I haue placed my whole dignitie CHAP. XIII NERO'S munificences and liberalities CHAP. XIIII OF OCTAVIA NERO'S first wife and of some other women within his first fiue yeeres CHAP. XV. THe death of AGRIPPINA AVGVSTA § I. The causes for which NERO resolued to destroy Agrippina his owne mother Page 24. § II. Meanes thought and agreed vpon for the secret destruction of AGRIPPINA Page 26. § III. The time and place for execution of the deed with a partil description of the trap-galley Page 28. § IIII. AGRIPPINA feasted by NERO at BAIAE and put aboord the trap-galley vpon her returne Pag. 31. § V. The trap in the galley miscarrying AGRIPPINA regaines the shore her two chief attendants diuerslie slaine Pag. 34. § VI. Doubts touching AGRIPPINA'S escape not to bee cleared out of TACITVS SVETONIVS or DIO attempted to bee cleared otherwise Pag. 36. § VII NERO after the newes of Agrippina's escape giues present order for her death in hope to make it seeme her proper act Pag. 38. § VIII The manner of Agrippina's murther exactlie described Pag. 39. § IX NERO'S behauiour and words in priuate vpon the view of Agrippina's corse where the same of their incest is likewise scanned Pag. 43. § X. A short speculation touching Agrippina's pedigree and death Pag. 46. § XI The peoples inward iudgement of NERO'S heinous fact against his mother in what sort outwardly exprest Pag. 48. § XII Of Agrippina's colonie and commentaries and of her buriall Pag. 49. CHAP. XVI AN eclipse of the Sunne and the day of Agrippina's death obserued CHAP. XVII NERO'S part after his mothers end towards the cloze of his first fiue yeeres CHAP. XVIII COnsiderations touching the premisses and common-weale CHAP. XIX THe ghoste of Agrippina and other apparitions afflicting Nero. CHAP. XX. OF the fiue yearlie Playes and Prizes instituted at Rome by Nero and of his studies CHAP. XXI OF the Counsel of Historie for the worser part of Nero's reigne after his first Quinquennium CHAP. XXII AN addresse of speech to my Lord touching that which followes in Nero's reigne CHAP. XXIII THe principall wonder of Nero's time and of Princedoome THE END OF THE FIRST FIVE yeares of NERO his most commended time CHAP. XXIIII THe reuolt in BRITAINE and other troubles of warre § I. An introductorie summe of affaires in Britain from the Romans first entrance vnder Iulius Caesar till the present reuolt vnder Nero. Pag. 72. § II. The Britanns at bloudie oddes among themselues vpon Iulius Caesars inuasion Pag. 74. § III. The effects of Caesars two inuasions and of his finall returne out of Britain Pag. 75. § IIII. The Britanns and the things of Britain a part of Caesars triumph ouer the Galles Pag. 78. § V. Of the Britanns and the British chariot of Maecenas vnder Augustus Pag. 79. § VI. Of the peace of Britain and of other rarest matters there vnder Tiberius Pag. 81. § VII Britain menaced by Caligula A touch of his follies and tower Pag. 83. § VIII The conquest of Britain vnder Claudius Caesar. A rare coigne of his concerning the state thereof Pag. 85. CHAP. XXV THe intermitted narration of the reuolt of Britain vnder Nero prosecuted § I. The title of the Romans to their conquests Pag. 91. § II. The estate of the Roman-Britanns immediately before the reuolt Pag. 92. § III. The causes of the grand reuolt Boadicia's quarell the chiefe Pag. 97. § IIII. The person and qualitie of Boadicia the warlick widow curiously described Pag. 101. § V. Of Suetonius Paullinus Nero's lieutenant generall in Britaine and of his designe against Anglesey Pag. 102. § VI. Suetonius being absent vpon the conquest of Anglesey what Roman forces and friends resided behind for a stay and where Pag. 104. § VII Maine obseruations touching Cogidunus a king at this time in Britain Pag. 106. § VIII Boadicia and the Britanns meet in great secrecie and resolue to rise in armes Pag. 109. § IX The Druids of Britain parties in this grand reuolt Pag. 110. § X. Wonders fore-show the ouer-hanging euils Pag. 112. § XI Boadicia's musters and attire and of the place of the rendeuous Pag. 113. § XII Boadicia's oration to her armie affording a most forceable poinct to inflame the Britanns by opposing their manners to the Romans Pag. 115. § XIII The motions and actions of this mightie bodie of rebellion And first concerning the Roman colonie at Camalodunum and the castles on the borders Pag. 119. § XIIII The Roman colonie at Camalodunum destroid by Boadicia Pag. 122. § XV. Petilius Cerealis comming tardie to the rescue is encountred vpon the way by Boadicia and put to flight Pag. 125. § XVI Catus Decianus Nero's procurator leaues Britain without leaue Pag. 127. § XVII Suetonius Paullinus vpon the newes of Boadicia's rebellion came in hast from Mona to London Pag. 129. § XVIII Of Nero's London before Suetonius Paullinus was driuen by Boadicia to abandon it and first whither it were once a Roman colonie or no. Pag. 131. § XIX The qualitie and estate of London immediately before the burning Pag. 132. § XX. NERO'S lieutenant in Britain abandons London to the rebells Pag. 139. § XXI London entred sackt and set on fire by Boadicia Pag. 144. § XXII Verulam sackt and destroid by Boadicia An essentiall difference between the persons of a Municipium and a Colonie Pag. 148. § XXIII The most sauage behauiour of the Boadicians in the vse of their victories throughout Pag. 151. § XXIIII The course which Suetonius Paullinus held in his retreat from London and of
world an agrippa or borne with his feete forward his owne mother left it written of him so in her commentaries and turnd the world vpside downe before he went out of it which is euery where knowne to be written But that praeposterous natiuitie foreboded nothing in PLINIES conceipt who notes that all agrippae were vnfortunate but the parties disaster Horrour terrour to the publick were in that which followes When the Chaldaeans pronounced according to their art that hee should reigne but murther his mother shee submitted herselfe to that destinie and in the furie of her pride fatallie said alowd and let him kill me so as that proues true Acceptance and consent are dangerous poincts in the poinct of drawing-on foretold euents Neither are the sodein conceipts of parents concerning their children whither to the better or the worse part alwayes vain for DOMITIVS AENOBARBVS NERO'S owne father vnpremeditately answerd his congratulating friends that nothing could possiblie come of AGRIPPINA and him but cursed stuffe ordaind to vndo the world or words to such effect An heauy doom which DIO more probably reports in milder termes Fathers are naturallie iudges oftentimes prophets also and aswell their blessings as their maledictions weighty DOMITIVS meant not to read his childs fortune when he vtterd that conceipt but there is euer more somewhat for the speakers to beware and for children to feare in the whatsoeuer words of their parents During his childe-hood ANICETVS had the elementarie teaching of him the same who was afterwards emploid to murther AGIPPINA and falselie to accuse OCTAVIA his pupillage or minoritie was gouernd by ASCONIVS LABEO concerning whom vve finde to NERO'S praise that hee thanckfully procured consularie ornaments for him and one BERYLLVS saith FLAVIVS IOSEPHVS traind him vp in the rudiments of the Greek tongue but LVCIVS ANNAEVS SENECA vnder the most honorable title and in the most vsefull emploiment was the master of his manners And they in reason could not haue proued so vile if his mother had not auerted his affections from the studie of all philosophie as a thing vnfit for a Souereign III. THE FAMOVS ERROVR OF HIS EDVCATION AN opinion worthy of a gracelesse woman and originallie the most certaine cause of his ouerthrow For his nature most vnboundedly affecting immortalitie of fame which was truely princely truely ROMAN in him by this abducement from the knowledge of honesty and worth the onely true grounds of glorie he pursued showes and seemings and sought not saith that excellent philosopher DIO CHRYSOTOMVS speaking of NERO for that which makes men good or wise but for that which might enable him to winn crownes of leaues or garlands for singing fidling piping acting on stages and the like ignobler trials which neuerthelesse through the errour of his breeding appeared to him such transcendently heauenly guifts that in their perfection he constituted chiefe felieitie IIII. THE MINDE OF AGRIPPINA ON the other side to reigne ouer the world seemed to his mother AGRIPPINA a thing so dazling and diuine that all things else stood far to her on the hither side thereof Therefore in making her way shee neuer distinguisht either of methods or efficients for want of knowing that which is a much greater thing then to rule the whole world the ouer-ruling of herselfe for higher ends The study of true philosophy for some philosophies are neither fit for kings nor subiects being falsely called wisdome would haue taught her to consider how much more glorious it is to affect honest things rather then great or to compasse great things honestly For there can be no pleasure in the fruition of brauerie and power which in the least degree can be worthy of an euill conscience end and fame Shee approued good precepts in SENECA the more securely to practise her owne bad ones Domination was her desire and shee for that contemned all the lawes of god man Nor is SENECA without a part in the blame who kept him from solid eloquence proper to the antient orators to hold him the longer in admiration of himselfe Who taught him how to answear readely who much more profitably might haue taught him how to thinck deeply V. OF NERO AS THE ADOPTIVE SONNE OF CLAVDIVS NERO had in marriage the sister of BRITANICVS OCTAVIA the root of his fortunes and in the life-time of CLAVDIVS their father was courted and serued as heir apparent to the empire According to which highest hope the most flourishing title PRINCE OF THE YOVTH or CAPTAINE OF THE YOVNG LORDS which regularly imported heir-apparencie was assigned to him alone Old extant coigns and inscriptions in whose pretious remains the most certaine marks of facts suruiue make it euident CLAVDIVS adopted him for his eldest sonne because BRITANNICVS formerly called GERMANICVS was two yeares younger so much it disaduantaged him with a feble father to haue been born but only so much short In the yeare of that vnluckie adoption which was when CORNELIVS ORFITVS was Consul with CLAVDIVS CAESAR three sunns appeared as if the heauens priuie to impendent effects had by their mystical character reueled what a prodigie was in breeding VI. OF NERO'S FIRST FIVE YFARES SENECA chiefe for learning power saith historical PLINIE and AFRANIVS BVRRHVS the more solidly honest man of the two captaine of NERO'S guards were deep of counsell in the edition of this prince who though hee was in his birth the obiect of dire presages and afterwards in court the creature of darkest practises yet by the apposition of SENECA like a benigne starr among many malignant hee came notwithstanding to bee presented to ROME in the shape of such an hope as a faire fresh morning brings of a correspondent sunn-set But to mingle nothing in historie by the perplexing of times or the forestalling of iudgments this is confest that the first fiue yeares of this young AVGVSTVS were generally such as TRAIANVS himselfe is said to haue admired if they were not rather the reign of his gouernours SENECA and BVRRHVS then porperly his Yet the inofficious entrance pleaseth not for hee preoccupated good-will to himselfe by his adopters disgrace as may without enforcement bee conceaued VII SENECA INOFFICIOVS TO CLAVDIVS CONTRARIE TO THE MORAL GOOD OF NERO. TWo orations pennd to his hand by SENECA and openly pronounced by NERO do both of them carry the marks of their inwardly offended author though they were improper to the argument For SENECA did not only not loue CLAVDIVS but in a libell persecuted his memorie also The first oration of the two pretended by all sorts of praises to make him seem worthy the title of a god which together with all diuine honors was accordingly decreed vnto him yet this had some such passages in it as publickly moued the hearers to laugh and so hee went out ridiculous deitie The second speach summd by TACITVS while it gaue them an idea of what should bee otherwise vnder him and better then before did abatingly insinuate the wants of
braind as they conceiued with the vnexpected ruine or her body be deuoured in the deepes or both Nor in this consultation was it any part of their care what should become of the other people aboord for a greater number would haue been sacrificed to the seruice without any remorse in NERO and they who could swim might so bee safe whatsoeuer became of the galley This trecherous deuice learned at first as a sport but practised here to do mischiefe was afterwards vsed to a magnificent and more innocent purpose For XIPHILINE out of DIO writes that seuen hundred wilde beasts were enclosed in a like fabricke raised vpon the sandy floore of the amphitheater at ROME which were put foorth out of the opening sides of the ship at the pleasure of the keepers Some haue written that the Emperor SEVERVS for it was in his dayes did perhaps represent the ARKE OF NOAH herein That a ship or other vessell may so be built by the direction of an enginéer as vpon a sodaine to part in sunder and shut againe is apparent §. IIII. Agrippina feasted by Nero at Baiae and put aboord the trap-galley vpon her returne BVt such was NERO'S impatience against his mothers life that he could not stay for an offered opportunity to depriue her of it but must consult how to hasten it and his enuie against her coÌ„tentment was so great that althogh he was wel pleased with her solitary courses yet because hee fouÌ„d it was a solace to her he must of force entice her to perish by his practises vnder shew of infinit good affection His letters therefore falser then the gally as hauing a more hollow secretary to endite them then this had cunning ship-wrights to fashion it comming quickly to her hands did not difficultlie allure her out of ANTIVM glad poore woman of fauour and either crediting his faire words which seemed to breathe nothing vpon her but the flowers of delight and loue or as thinking it best to pretend credulitie Withall in his ordinarie discourses NERO gaue it out as if he were turnd good childe that the displeasure of parents ought to be born their minds appeased with obsequious behauiours to beget and raise a rumour thereby that all was well againe betweene them so to quash the contrary fame of which the world was full Himselfe vpon notice of her approach mett her in person vpon the shore and waited vpon her to BAVLI with all the shewes of honour and deare regards and while this face of amitie lasted went with her saith DIO in the deceitfull vessell it selfe to benumbe her all ouer with securitie Nor did he pause long vpon the execution of his plot for that very night she was inuited from her repose at BAVLI to the fatall supper at BAIAE But she vnfortunate Lady hauing secret intelligence that certain destruction lay quoild aboord as a snake in flowers in that pompous preparation resolud not to goe to court by sea but commanding a chaire to bee mounted auoided the voyage and was carried thither so BAVLI as PLINIE describes it was seated betweene BAIAE and lake LVCRINVS and TACITVS contradicts him not as placing it betweene cape MISENVM and the bay of BAIAE where he saith the sea winding inward doth wash the foot thereof ORTELIVS and MERCATOR doe both of them vnderstand it so and accordingly assigne it in their mapps betweene the inmost poinct of the port of AVGVSTVS where the ROMAN nauie rode at anchor the bottome of the BAIAE Which either TACITVS also saith or he is not vnderstood of mee where he writes that AGRIPPINA in herescape from drowning was carried into lake LVCRINVS so to her manour Vpon her coÌ„ming to court she found such exquisite welcomes such cheare and cheâ—refulnesse in refutation of forewarnings which NERO would haue her thinke were malignantly instilled that all her iealousies were charmd fast a sleepe by degrees and she receiued down deepe into her as an infallible truth that nothing at all was meant towards her but good and faire And they verily vvho vvere not vvithin the conscience of the secret but liued so safe and happy as to sit spectators only vvould easily haue svvorne that all vvas gold in those shovves of loue vvhich vvere so double-guilded But her cunning enemies NERO their chiefe hauing obserued vvith vvhat distrust of the vvater she came to BAIAE to make it sure she should returne in the trap-galley hee commanded the maister of her owne LIBVRNICA or priuate barge to bruise and boulge it saith SVETONIVS as by some mischance that the same being thereby made vnseruiceable he might in sted thereof obtrude that vnsound and false-bottom'd bote at her departure And hauing foold her into full beliefe of his sincerenesse with viler dissimulations then his trecheries were prodigious he held her among meates and cups with varieties of entertainments till somewhat late in the night When now yet at last there was a kinde of necessitie to part he most officiously vshered her to her boates side where ANICETVS her assured foe with all humble reuerence tooke her in vnder his charge without any other of her people but onely CREPEREIVS GALLVS and ACERRONIA POLLA But neither the sea saith DIO was willing to concurre to such an artificial parricide for the water proued wondrous calme at the time a circumstance which no wit of man could maister nor the heauens to conceale it for the skie was awake with store of starre-light saith TACITVS as to conuince the fact §. V. The trap in the galley miscarrying Agrippina regains the shore her two chiefe attendants diuersly slaine BEhold the successe The galley now had not long beene off at sea nor farre from shore but the deadly signe was giuen At which the engine immediatly flew off and had performed the effects for which it was ordaind but that the props and stayes of the forepart being by chance more stubborne then to yield to the crush the life it selfe of the wicked mysterie AGRIPPINA and her woman of honour remaind vntoucht Their postures were the cause for the empresse lying at length vpon a pallet ACERRONIA leaning backeward at her feet the timbers ouer head fell not low enough to reach her to the sad disaduantage of her easier end An heauy hap surprised CREPEREIVS GALLVS who standing vpright not farre from the sterne was instantly strucken dead with the hinder end of the falling roofe it draue of it selfe so violently down ANICETVS beholding the fraud thus accidentally defeated did neuerthelesse without remorse obstinately pursue his cruell purpose and so both shee and ACERRONIA were howsoeuer tumbled out into the sea by ouerturning the galley but somewhat leasurably as in a tumult where the most part being vninstructed for the drift hindred the forwardnesse of guiltie parties AGRIPPINA is now in the sea I cannot say the waues for there were in it none other at all then those which the motion of the galley and the tragicall vprore caused And who would imagine
if it were nine aboue tenne the wonder of the victorie would seme great enough euen with nineteene thousand §. XXVI Of Iulius Agricola the father in law of Cornelius Tacitus NEither was it the least honour of SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS that IVLIVS AGRICOLA whose life his sonne in law CORNELIVS TACITVS doubtfully whither with more pietie or eloquence hath commended to all posteritie that he had his breeding for warre in his schoole where he carried the honourable title of a tribune and exercised al the duties of his place On the other side it was the speciall good fortune of AGRICOLA that he had PAVLLINVS for his maister whose familiar friend he liued and as well his companion in armes as his camerado Here therefore did that noble gentleman learne how to command by hauing obeid and what the warres of BRITAIN required before hee came as hee afterwards did to bee Generall himselfe in BRITAIN §. XXVII The number of men in Boadicia's armie their nations qualities and armes BOADICIA whose people had handled the quarrell of their countrey infinitely worse then the sorest enemies which euer their countrey had drew hastily vp to the fatal ground vpon which SVETONIVS necessarily resolued to ride out the finall fortune of a day while any hope remained Her two defloured daughters are the onely persons particularly remembred to haue attended in the seruice and yet euen their names are lost So inglorious are all whom the light of letters retaines not aloft in sight Her numbers couerd the region ouer Two hundred and thirty thousand fighting men in field Successe and spoile most effectuall meanes to multiply partakers The ICENI the TRINOBANTS were chiefe in the action as authors There were also the CORITANI and other Marshmen BOADICIA shewes it in DIO where she speakes of fennes and bogges for hiding themselues if ouerthrowne there were the ORDOVICES for who else had such mountaines to shelter them as they and whosoeuer else of the BRITANNS the BRIGANTS certainely were not absent TACITVS expresly names them And why the greatest Criticks should be so troubled thereat as to substitute any other word for that seemes to mee a great maruell For the speaker in that place is GALGACVS the rough Caledonian Prince who vnder the one name of BRIGANTS being among his nearest neighbours and therefore most knowne to him doth seeme to vnderstand and comprise all the more Southerlie BRITANNS who were at this time out in armes vpon this one womans leading To GALGACVS therefore all were indifferently BRIGANTS who were not his And besides the authoritie of TACITVS the very description of the manners of some of the Boadicians in XIPHILINE doth plainely conuince that the rudest nations were at this worke and consequentlie the BRIGANTS as neither the most polite nor most remote and certainly not least populous Wherefore the CORNELIAN text is sincere and decent For GALGACVS is speaker and not TACITVS Nor can DIO'S text bee iustified without this senses admission For he was euidently too much in the thought of the MAEATS and CALEDONIANS such as his owne times saw them vnder the emperour SEPTIMIVS SEVERVS when he recorded his BVNDVCA'S oration if he meant the barbarous manners which that oration boasteth to be common to all the BRITANNS who were in that martiall auditorie For nothing can bee more vntrue because euen in IVLIVS CAESARS times some of them were much more courteous then others and the ciuility of many of the BRITANNS now vnder NERO is confessed as a disaduantage There is no doubt nor cause of doubt why the BRIGANTS should not be helpes to BOADICIA as complices vpon whom soone after the whole weight of warre did fall nor improbablie for this partaking For the ROMANS prosecuted the contagion of assistance as they did the maine opposition it selfe Their enemies succours properly enemies The most wilde and barbarous therefore of the qualities which are deciphered in her oration are onely to bee vnderstood of a part of the BRITANNS not of all or of the more Southerly But amongst her strengths at this time wee must not reckon the flockes of British wiues and women who were brought to sit spectators of the expected vtter ruine of PAVLLINVS the cause and hope of their iourney though the versifier in his Albions England pleasantly encroaching vpon the poet doth furnish this Queene-Mother and her martiall daughters with sixe thousand armed Ladies out of his Homericall hearsayes A licence of wit not vnbeseeming the musicke of rimes but incompetent for the grauity of storie which admits no fables And though the CORNELIAN writings mention not the nature of the Boadician armes and weapons at this field but repute them as naked men and doe elsewhere before deny that the ORDOVICES hardie BRITANNS had the vse either of murrions or brest-plates yet DIO and XIPHILINE make it cleare that she not onely had soldiers compleatly armed and light both horse and foote but charriots also of warre such as IVLIVS CAESAR in penning the British affaires doth greatly celebrate though of all these there is not the least inckling or touch in CORNELIVS TACITVS §. XXVIII Of the place of the battle and season of the yeare THe leuell or plot of ground vpon which the army of BOADICIA by the ROMANS forestallment came to be embatteld was certainly vpon a plaine of at least fiue or sixe miles ouer in breadth betweene two woods at either end of the open field one The quantitie of the space shall bee made apparent by the same infallible demonstration in the Tacticks by which POLYBIVS disprooued CALLISTHENES erroneously describing the field betweene ALEXANDER and DARIVS as that poinct also of the two woods by the best bookes compared But whereabout in these parts of BRITAIN that very place was vnlesse it were vpon SALISBVRIE plaine where there is a black-heath and scope enough is not for mee to imagine Edmund Spencer who was in his time the most learned poet of ENGLAND layes it to haue beene further off for he names besides SEVERN But without praying in aide of his poëms I seeme to my selfe to haue made it vehementlie probable that the field was hereabout by hauing shewed that PAVLLINVS was marcht hitherwards And somewhat perhaps it will fortifie the coniecture that vpon the brimme or skirts of this most spatious plaine nor far from Stonage there suruiue at this houre three memorable arguments of antient camps the greatest of which being ouer against WILLY is doubly enuironed with depth of ditch and by the forme saith CAMDEN appeares to haue beene a ROMAN worke the other singlie none of them farre asunder and all of them distinguisht by the common people with the seuerall names of Yanesburie castle Dunshot and Woldsburie And admitting that VESPASIAN was the author of Yanesburie vnder CLAVDIVS as some doe well diuine that cannot hinder why SVETONIVS PAVLLINVS should not the rather make vse thereof at this time vnder NERO both as a strength readie wrought and fortunately hanseld by the lucke of so braue
it to be cut and printed GABRIEL SYMEONI also an Italian author formerly published the same Out of whose extant worke it is deriued hither into mine A strange inuention for an imperiall signet And my memorie fails me if it be not also in the printed collections of ROMAN seals imitated out of sundry rings as they were seuerally set with cornelians aggats onycles and other the cheaper sort of pretious stones engrauen for the vse of signature The argument of this cachet so the French call it is the famous fable of MARSYAS who was flayed aliue for presuming to challenge the harpe of APOLLO into a triall against the musicke of his pipe What NERO meant by assuming it or in what cases hee was accustomed to seale therewith is meerely matter of coniecture not of certaintie For whether it were to terrifie those who durst compare or contend in skill with him or to iustifie his most high veneration of musicall agons in regard they were the peculiar glory of so great a deitie as APOLLO or whither it were that hee arrogantly vsurped a resemblance or whatsoeuer my part is sufficiently discharged in hauing deliuered not what I may deuise but what I finde true To please the meaner sort of people was the poore chiefe poinct of his policie For in their affections he reposed his safetie and in their applause his glory Therefore to entertaine all their senses with their proper delights there being no other way so sure of winning them he layes hold of their eares with songs and tunes of their eyes with publike games and showes and finally of the residue of the fiue with the most voluptuous and impudent permissions of all sorts of gluttonous and venereous excesses in publicke That banquet or Bacchanal which SOPHONIVS TIGELLINVS prouided in the poole of AGRIPPA or as DIO hath the place in the amphitheater where nothing was chaste nothing frugall nothing honest hath the fame of the maddest and most wilde of all that euer were in his dayes Lasciuious naked women immeasurable cheare wine words and nothing barrd but abstinence or modestie which though it was the cause why the meeting ended in quarels blowes and bloud yet this was freedome in their estimation being indeed nothing else but an ouerflow of authorised corruptions and villanies But some few dayes after the feast there succeeded an act more prodigious the coupling of NERO to PYTHAGORAS Doryphorus as an husband CARDAN excuseth him vpon those flatterers who while they did put him into a frolicke for the honour of the goddesse ISIS perswaded a sacrilege in stead of a ceremonie and so deceiued him A fiction and a toy but not amisse for the scope of CARDANS writing to vent a wittie wonder of his owne deuising as if NERO were a Worthie That most inherent fire of lust which all religion and all good lawes striue to quench in the hurtfull heats thereof by making adulteries rapes and vnnaturall violations capitall and other licentious intemperance shamefully criminall NERO inflames and enrageth with example leaue The destroyer of health and happinesse nor in any thing so mischieuous to manners as in this his most loathsome soule and monstrous practise CHAP. XXIX THE BVRNING OF ROME BY NERO. THe citie of ROME filled and polluted thus with his incredible vices behold as if to purge the same it sodeinly conceiued fire and vehemently prospered towards an vniuersall blaze That NERO was the author of it seemes branded vpon him for a truth though CORNELIVS TACITVS whose historicall iustice is admired reports it as a matter vncertaine because his authors differ among themselues some affirming some denying it and he himselfe doth elsewhere professe to deliuer nothing for vndoubted veritie without common concent of good bookes A rule of narration much more tender seuere and scrupulous then that often times of his censures His inward iudgement notwithstanding doth not obscurely incline to the affirmation I for my part will forbeare to deriue vp this most depraued affection of NERO so high as to his first times though among his publicke entertainements of the people hee presented one of the gowned playes of AFRANIVS or such an one whose argument and dramaticall persons were ROMANS entituled The fire giuing leaue to the actors when according to the plot the house of the stage was on a flame to share the gorgeous furnitures among themselues as bootie And howsoeuer perhaps hee did not as then reflect vpon the burning of ROME yet might it afterwards very well seeme a presage thereof or a modle Enuie to mankinde wantonnesse of will and the absurd desire of glorie his most inward incentiues to a fact so strange He pronounced king PRIAMVS an happie man saith XIPHILINE because hee beheld the end of his kingdome and countrey together And when in ordinarie discourse one chanced to vtter in his hearing a tragicke Greeke verse importing when I am dead let the fire take all or let the earth and fire be confounded together hee presently replide not when I am dead quoth he but while as yet I am aliue Voices hard to say out of which of the hel 's inspired And here his desire of conuerting ROME into embers doth first of all seeme to haue kindled About which worke he neuerthelesse went not so closely that his guiltinesse did not glimmer through He abode within his birth-place ANTIVM From thence hee slily lets slip into diuerse parts of ROME a few odde fellowes counterfaiting druncken saith DIO and would doe some other mischiefe who began the consuming euill Yea some of NERO'S own chamber as it is in the CAESARS of credible SVETONIVS were seene to carrye course flaxe or toa and torches about the meanes of fiery mischiefe and yet most of those great and consularie lords into whose grounds they came neuer laid hand vpon them Hee wanted a citie on fire ouer which to sing the burning of TROY Thus hee had it And there is abundantly enough euen in the CORNELIAN Annals to conuince NERO'S conscience of the deed though their noble author pursuing his rule of vncertainty euen interprets those very reasons with a temper Many threatned thicke at such as would haue quencht the flames others openly hurld firebrands crying they knew what they did or there was one who would beare them out Besides hee himselfe did not set forward from ANTIVM to ROME till the fire had laid hold of that part of his house which ioignd the palace and the gardens of MAECENAS Finally no art nor bountie of his could induce the commons to belieue in NERO'S innocencie For doe what he could the general perswasion went that he commanded ROME to bee set on fire These and sundry other the like things the CORNELIAN Annals affirme Alone sufficient to proue NERO the principall partie though all other testimonies which neuerthelesse speake plainly and come home to the question were euerlastingly silent §. I. Of the hugenesse and goodlinesse of NERO'S Rome MArble ROME such as AVGVSTVS left it and specially
standing consecrated to the euerlasting names of their represented Worthies were iniuriously growne for sparing cost to rase out old inscriptions to gratifie new deserts Against this bad encroaching custome DION bent his engins of reason and speech and obiected NERO'S priuiledge That College of Honour for which your Lordship in your excellently honest zeale to our countrey openly moued meetes euery where with aids and supports of authority and reason and DIOS oration alone were able to introduce that sacred noursery of braue encouragements diuturnitie of remembrance for publicke merit by statuarie plasticke fusorie and other the arts of magnificence A secret little vnderstood but neuer to be too soone enured among the noble It was for such a minde as NERO'S which enuide immortality of good renown to others and was deficient to his owne to violate the wonders of workemanship the greater wonder of deseruing such memorials Images to life and the names of Worthies in arts and armes should be aduanced in the most conspicuous ciuill places For there is no vse to be instituted of them but ciuill and for ciuill causes only If any will contend that these iniuries to the depressed GREEKS were not all of them done by NERO'S authoritie at this present I will not striue but turne about from hence with a short stop to his returning home CHAP. XLVIII NERO'S RETVRNE HELIVS being arriued where CAESAR was preuailed so far that he sodeinly returned in such tempestuous weather as it gaue iust hope that the seas would take to heart the cause of the land and deuoure him with waues whom waters could not wash white nor deserued a graue-roome on earth The train-sent of a conspiracie which HELIVS did beat vpon seems to haue beene the fatall purpose of that rebellion in GALLIA the force whereof shouldred NERO before it was long out of his imperiall seat For as the seas moue of themselues with a kinde of horror before some terrible tempest and as certaine signes doe alwayes foregoe euery great sicknesse in humane bodies so maine mutations are neuer in the world without their sensible tokens effects of heauenly prouidence It hapned so now in GALLIA before the deadly stroake of change And herein I doe not meane of those prodigies only which PLINIE commemorates as fore-runners of downefall and whereof himselfe was a witnesse Such were riuers flowing backe to their springs oliue-gardens and meadowes in the lands of VECTIVS MARCELLVS NERO'S attourney generall transported ouer the high-way betweene and setling themselues on the further side the decay of that cypresse tree which had lasted from the dayes of ROMVLVS till then the paire of hermaphrodite mares foaled in GALLIA among the TREVIRI which serued to draw NERO'S coach or the like reputed wonders But I also meane those prëambulatorie notes by which it may suspiciously appear that some mighty businesse is in hand when secret murmurs and other markes of approaching mischiefe discouer somewhat euen to an halfe open-eye and when common bodings mis-giue CHAP. XLIX NERO'S DOINGS AFTER HIS RETVRN IN the meane space as if nothing else were needfull the vnwise prince doth wholly tend to enter ROME in a fidling triumph by breaking downe her walls no contemptible omen of his owne dismantlings as hee had done before at NAPLES ANTIVM ALBANVM according to the custome of the Hieronickes or sacred victories For with that adiunct the GREEKS adorned their deserts who returned victors from their generall prizes CHAP. L. THE LAST ACT OF NERO'S PERSECVTION OF CHRISTIANS BVt whosoeuer triumpht in sport the champions of eternall verity triumpht in bloud For after NERO'S return the two principal lights of the Christian name were by his commandement led to their martyrdome both vpon one day both with one glory of profession though in a diuers kinde of suffering the one by crucifixion reuerst the other by decollation So the fire of persecution which had vnequally flamed ouer the world after about foure yeares from the first rising therof went forth in two most shining blazes as dying lamps expire with enlarged flames The summ of Christianitie being their care their deaths being the summ of iniquitie EVSEBIVS dates the Persecution not where it began but where it gaue the sorest blow Which if some had well considered they might haue spared the reproofe of EVSEBIVS as if he had mis-placed the time CHAP. LI. HOLY MEN THE INVISIBLE STAYES OF THE WORLD ANd though the Persecutor obserued it not yet did he therby cut away at once the two main anchors at which the ship of empire and the last hope of his safety did inuisibly ride Their prayers and their presences mightily preserued the estate of peace according as they also did in the opinion of PAVLVS OROSIVS vnder CLAVDIVS AVGVSTVS that indulgent father of the world The persons of Saints are like secret pledges of common quiet apparently seene in the case of the fiue cities for which ABRAM interceded and their meditations are as shields for the earth against the wrath of heauen God taught his most potent office of praier in persecution for preseruation of the ciuill estate by his prophet IEREMY to the Iewes in their captiuity at BABILON and these blessed Apostles enured it in their writings and examples during their corporall abode in ROME These cables and stayes being thus cut off NERO could not but be ouer-whelmed with the vengeance due to his crimes among which the greatest was the wilfull effusion of Christians bloud vnder iniurious calumnious titles For IOSEPH SCALIGER voucheth an old pagan scholiast affirming that they suffer'd as sorcerers or magitians and to say the truth what could it appeare to NERO who knew not things diuine but an effect of some notable enchantment that women who in his dayes were inuited and authorised to all sorts of lewdnesse should be wonne to the quite contrary The sacred annals assigne deuout chastity as a cause among the causes of that Persecution His own perswasion was firme in this saith SVETONIVS that there was no such vertue for he himself was defiled all ouer and had deflowred the Vestal virgin RVBRIA He could not therefore but be much the readier to ascribe so strange a conuersion to witchcraft Again the famous case and bloudy downfall of Simon Magus that most blasphemous impostor in the fight of ROME and of NERO as in SVETONIVS vnder the fabulous name of an ICARVS procured by the prayers and adiuration of the Apostle as in DAMASVS HIEROME AVGVSTINE EPIPHANIVS ARNOBIVS and others had the rather seald an opinion of magick arts in Christians according to the malice and ignorance of the times IANVS GRVTERVS to whose diligence the common-weale of ciuill letters is not a little indebted in his vsefull volumn of Inscriptions hath a testimony touching a place in ROME called The Simon Magus where that memorial which was whatsoeuer it was being taken away by the barbarous the same was restored by CASTALIVS INNOCENTIVS Audax at that time iudge in sacred causes The