will be easie for you still to trade by Sea and to import and export your Commodities without very great trouble for we have not ordained your retreat from the Sea above fourscore Furlongs and we our selves are distant at least a hundred We permit you to chuse such a place as shall best like you and live with all freedom in your new Habitations and this is what we meant when we told you that the City of Carthage should remain free if they obeyed us in this occasion for speaking of the City we believed not to be understood to have spoken of its Foundations or its Walls but its Citizens Here Censorinus stopped but seeing the Carthaginians were likewise silent he added that What he had said was only to perswade and comfort them And now said he the Orders of the Senate must be put in execution and that out of hand wherefore withdraw your selves for as yet we consider you as Deputies Upon hearing these words the Ushers made them go forth but they foreseeing the disorder this news would bring to Carthage desired once more audience and being again admitted spake again in this manner We see well that we must obey since you will not permit us to send to Rome nor have we any hopes of ever returning again to you for our Citizens before we shall have done speaking will tear us in pieces wherefore we beg you not for our concern we have already set up our Rest but for the interest of Carthage to oblige them by terror to support the Calamity they groan under that to that end you would cause your Fleet to approach the City whilst we are on the way thither to the intent that they at once understanding your design and seeing the danger whereupon they are threatened falling upon them may suffer if possible the execution of your Command Iudge you to what the injustice of our fortune has reduced us when we are constrained to demand your Forces against our selves Having uttered these words they departed and Censorinus went to plant himself within view of Carthage with twenty Galleys whilst one part of the Deputies took a quite different way from the City and the rest went thitherward quite overwhelmed with sorrow and grief The Carthaginians stood upon their Walls to discover their return at a distance and some tore their hairs out of impatience to see them coming others ran out to meet them to hear the news but when they beheld them quite cast down with sadness they smote their Brests demanding how things had passed some in the general others when they met a Friend or any one they knew stopped them and enquired but when they received no answer they gave themselves over to tears judging all was lost those who from the Walls perceived it wept likewise for company without knowing wherefore but out of an inward presage of some great misfortune The Deputies being come to the Gate the people thronged so thick that they were ready to stifle one another and ready they were to have torn in pieces the Deputies had they not told them that before they could answer them they must have conference with the Senate Hereupon some gave place and others made way for them that they might the sooner know the truth After they were entred the Palace and the multitude were retired the Senate took their Seats and the people stood all about the Senate-House And now the Deputies having told them the command they had received from the Consuls there was raised a confused cry in the Assembly which the people that were without answered by a dreadful noise But when the Deputies continued their discourse and declared the reasons they had used to move the Romans they again kept a profound silence out of the desire every man had to know the event which made the people quiet too but when they understood that they were not suffered so much as to send to Rome they burst forth into hideous groans and outcries and the people forcing their Guards entred confusedly into the Palace where now there was nothing but rage and fury All the Rabble like so many Bacchantes possessed with different sorts of madness fell some upon the Senators who had advised the giving of Hostages tearing them in pieces as if they had been the first cause of their surprise others treated in the same manner those who had counselled the delivery of their Arms some threw Stones at the Deputies as the bringers of ill news others ran like Furies up and down the Streets and finding some Italians who by chance had staid in the City not dreaming of this unexpected misfortune treated them with a thousand sorts of Indignities telling them they would have revenge for the Hostages sent to Rome and for the Arms taken from them All the City was filled with tears and rage with fear and threatenings some running through the Streets called out to their Friends others ran to the Temples blaspheming the Gods that had not power to defend their own Altars some running to the Arsenals wept for grief to see them empty others running to the Havens with tears bemoaned their Ships delivered to faithless men others again called their Elephants by name as if they had still been with them accusing and blaming both themselves and their Predecessors and arguing that they ought never to have yielded up neither Elephants nor Ships nor Arms nor consented to pay Tribute for that it had been much more honourable to have died for their Country with their Arms in their hands But nothing more enflamed the anger of the people than the Mothers of the Hostages whom they might behold like Furies in a Tragedy flie upon all they met with reproaching them that they had robbed them of their Children and demanding satisfaction In conclusion some more reserved than the rest after having barricadoed up the Gates gathered Stones and carried them upon the Walls to serve against the Enemy instead of other Arms. The same day it was concluded in the Senate that they should stand upon their Defence and Proclamation was made for the general freedom of Slaves They likewise nominated Generals of which one was Asdrubal whom they had condemned to death and who had already twenty thousand Men in Arms and to him they presently dispatched a Deputy to entreat him that now in his Countries extremity he would not remember the offence he had received which was only occasioned by the fear they had of the Romans Him they appointed to keep the Field and for the City they chose another Asdrubal Grand-child to Masanissa by one of his Daughters This done they dispatched once more to the Consuls to demand only thirty days time during which their Deputies should go to Rome which being refused they took a resolution to suffer all extremities rather than abandon their City And now might be seen an universal change in mens minds the Temples likewise and the Palace and other spacious places were changed into publick
an extraordinary size of which one was driven forward by six thousand Foot encouraged by the Orders and Presence of their Captains and the other by the Gally-slaves whose labour was over-seen by those who had the command of the Gallies This begat subject of Emulation so that the Commanders as well as the others striving who should out-do each other a great part of the Wall was soon overthrown and the City might plainly be seen into The Carthaginians on their side did not sleep but apply'd themselves to repair by night what breaches the Rams had made by day but because the night was not sufficient for so great a labour fearful lest the Romans should easily beat down again what they had repaired whilst it was yet moist and unsettled they resolved upon a Sally and some with Swords and others with Torches in their Hands so vigorously assaulted the Engines that though they burnt them not quite yet they rendred them useless and retreated into the City in order Day appearing the Romans entertained a conceit of entring Carthage by the breach which the Inhabitants could not quite repair and they saw within a spacious place very proper to fight in The Carthaginians expected them having placed in the Front all their Armed men others with Stones and Clubs in the Rear and all about in the neighbouring Houses those who were any way capable of defending them The Romans enraged that disarmed men thus despised them entred in throngs into Carthage but Scipio to whom the taking of this City gave afterwards the sirname of Africanus being yet but Tribune took special care not to enter contenting himself with drawing up his Regiment by Companies in Battel near the Walls of the City from whence as much as in him lay he hindred others from passing in and sustained those whom the Carthaginians beat back by favouring their retreat and this was it gave him his first reputation and made him gain the Character in all Letters that were wrote to Rome of being wiser than the Consuls At length Censorinus his Army becoming sorely afflicted with sickness by reason of being posted among dead and stinking waters and that the height of the Buildings hindred them from breathing the Sea Air he resolved to put to Sea but the Carthaginians having observed that the wind blew directly to the Roman Fleet filled with Tow and dried Vine-twigs a quantity of small Barques within their Port that the Enemy might know nothing of it and having plaistred them over with Pitch and Brimstone brought them out in sight of the Romans and there hoisting sail set fire to them so that the wind and the violence of the flames drove them into the midst of the Fleet which were almost all burn'd After this Censorinus being gone to Rome to be present at the Assembly then to meet for Election of Magistrates his departure gave such boldness to the Carthaginians as to make an attempt upon Manlius his Camp To this end they sallyed by night some armed and others who had no Arms carrying Bridges and stormed the Ditch in that place next the Town and were already pulling out the Palisades when the Alarm being run through the whole Camp by reason of the obscurity of the night Scipio with his Horse marched out of the farther Gate and going the round of the Camp without the Line terrified the Carthaginians and made them retreat again into their City all the World gave Scipio the glory of having saved the Army in this nocturnal terrour by his Conduct and Manlius determined to keep better Guards and to fortifie himself to which effect he caused a Wall to be built in the place where there was but a Palisade and built a Fort on the Sea to receive those Ships that brought him Provisions That done he took the Field with ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse besides Hewers of Wood and Forragers to gather in Harvest throughout all the level Country Those who were employed in this Service were commanded by Tribunes who relieved one another according to their turns which gave occasion to Phameas who commanded the African Horse to signalize himself this young man diligent and handy and who had with him small but swift Horses which lived on Herbs when they had nothing else and could endure hunger and thirst if there were occasion concealed himself among the Woods or in the Valleys and when he perceived the Enemy stood not upon their Guard sallyed from his Covert and came thundring upon them like an Eagle and after having charged the Romans retreated into a place of security But when Scipio commanded he never appeared for Scipio continually kept his Foot in order and his Horse in a fighting posture and when any Corn was to be cut he never suffered the Reapers to go to work till he had first gone the round of the Field they were to cut down both with Horse and Foot in their Arms himself guarding the out-skirts with some Squadrons and if any of the labourers stragled from the others or went out of the Circle he punished them severely wherefore Phameas never durst attempt him and Scipio still continuing his vigilance his glory increased from day to day insomuch that the other Tribunes who envyed him raised a report that there was an old Alliance between Scipio and the Family of Phameas It happened also that some Africans retiring themselves to some Towers or Castles of which there are great number in that Country the other Tribunes after having granted them Pass-ports forbore not to lay Ambushes for them in the way and rob them But Scipio on the contrary convey'd them to the very House insomuch that hereupon none afterwards would enter into a Treaty but in his presence so much the good opinion of his Virtue and Honesty was increased not only in the thoughts of the Romans but of the Enemies themselves Manlius being returned to the Camp after having gathered in Harvest the Carthaginians by night assaulted the Fort on the Sea with great violence and besides to strike terrour into the Romans the whole Multitude coming out of the City made a horrible noise The Consul ignorant of the cause of this Tumult kept within his Trenches but Scipio having caused two Squadrons of Horse to mount each with his Torch in his hand posted in forbidding his people to engage because of the night and only giving them order to run to and fro so that they might make the Enemy believe they were a greater force than they were and likewise strike an apprehension into them that they were advancing to charge them this succeeded for the Carthaginians afraid of being charged on both sides retreated into their City and this was a farther addition to the brave exploits already performed by Scipio it being now in every Mouth he alone was worthy to have Paulus for his Father and to be enrolled in the Family of the Scipio's into which he had been adopted Some time after Manlius going to
to Dominion and I made use of my Brother's Forces with hopes to suppress the power of you all and if now my Brother comes to subvert Monarchy openly or privately I will go to him once more to make War for my Country against you though so highly obliged to you but if he seeks Associates to maintain his tyranny I will serve you against him so long as I shall believe you affect not the Monarchy for I shall always prefer my affection to my Country before either Friend or Relation Caesar now again admiring Lucius told him that whatever offers he made he should not accept of his service against his Brother but that he thought such a Man as he fit to be entrusted with the whole Province and Army of Spain in which he should have Peduceius and Luceius for his Lieutenants Thus he sent Lucius out of the way with Honour having given private orders to his Lieutenants to watch him narrowly Anthony having left Fulvia sick at Sycione set fail from Corcyra to pass the Ionian Sea with two hundred Ships he had built in Asia wherein he had but very slender Forces Upon advice that Aenobarbus came to meet him with a great Fleet and a mighty Army some were jealous that he would not prove faithful to the new made peace because he had been condemned as an Abettor of Caesar's death and therefore put in the number of the Proscribed and had taken part against Caesar and Anthony in the Battel of Philippi But Anthony that he might not seem to distrust any thing held on his course with five of his best Ships commanding the rest to follow at a distance when Aenobarbus with all his Fleet and Army were come in sight Plancus who was on board of Anthony began to be afraid and advised him to stop and send some before to make tryal of the Faith of this doubted Man But Anthony made answer That he had rather perish by the violation of a peace than save himself by betraying the least fear They were now come so nigh that they knew easily each other and the Admiral 's Ships stood Stem to Stem with their Flags aloft when Anthony's chief Lictor standing on the Prow according to custom whether he had forgot that they were making towards a Man whose Faith was in some question and who had under his Command an Army of his own or moved by the customary duty of Subjects and inferiours to their Superiours he commanded them aloud to strike their Flag which they obeyed and brought up their Ship along Anthony's side then the Commanders having saluted each other Aenobarbus's Soldiers called Anthony Emperour and Plancus with much ado recovered out of his fright Anthony having received Aenobarbus into his Ship they sailed to Paleonta where Aenobarbus's Land Forces lay where he resigned up his Tent to Anthony as his General From thence embarquing they sailed to Brundusium kept with five Cohorts for Caesar where the Inhabitants shut their Gates against them against Aenobarbus as their ancient Enemy and against Anthony for being in their Enemies company Anthony enraged at this refusal and thinking it only a pretence and that indeed Caesar's Men by his orders hindred his entrance went and seised upon the Neck of the Peninsula drew a line cross and fortified it for the City stands in a Peninsula in form of a Crescent so that now there was no coming to the City by Land the Line being drawn from one Sea to the other he likewise raised Forts round the Port which is very spacious and in the Islands wherewith it is encompassed and sent along the Coasts of Italy to seise of all commodious places and dispatched withal at the same time to Pompey to oblige him as much as possibly he could with his Fleet to infest Italy He very gladly sent Menodorus with a strong Fleet and four Legions into Sardinia which then held for Caesar where he drew two Legions to his Party scared with the agreement between Anthony and Pompey In the mean time Anthony's Men took Saguntum in Ausonia and Pompey besieged Thuria and Consentia and sent his Horsemen into their their Territories Caesar assailed in so many places at once sent Agrippa to relieve those in Ausonia who passing by the Colonies commanded the Veterans to follow him as if he were to lead them against Pompey but when they were told he acted by Anthony's orders they stole away every Man to their Houses which most of all terrified Caesar. However he went in person to Brundusium with another Army and by seasonable Caresses drew the Veterans to their duty they now following him out of a real respect and reverence to his person and yet holding among themselves secret conferences of reconciling him with Anthony whom if they found obstinate to make War they would then defend their General 's honour who was now some days detained at Canusium in Men he much outnumbred Anthony but when he saw Brundusium so beleaguered that he could no way force the Lines he contented himself to encamp near it to view the Enemy and wait a favourable occasion Though Anthony was so well fortified in his Trenches that he could well have defended himself against much greater Forces than Caesar's yet he sent with all speed for his Army out of Macedon and in the mean time by this stratagem amused Caesar he sent by night on board the long Ships and Vessels of Burthen great numbers of Countrymen and Servants and in the day time landed them again one after another all armed in the sight of Caesar as if they had been armed out of Macedon And now his Machines being in a readiness he began his Batteries upon Brundusium to Caesar's great grief who could no way relieve the place when towards the Evening news was brought to both Parties that Agrippa had retaken Tiguntum and that Pompey repulsed from Thurâ—n continued the Siege of Consentia which much troubled Anthony but when he heard that Servilius with twelve hundred Horse was gone over to Caesar he could not contain himself but rising from Supper he mounted with such of his Friends as were in a readiness and accompanied only by four hundred Horse with a singular boldness beat up the Quarters of fifteen hundred near Uria and so surprised them that they yielding he brought them the same day before Brundusium such an opinion of his being invincible had the Battel of Philippi got him The Pretorian Soldiers heightened by this success went afterwards one after another up to Caesar's Trenches upbraiding their ancient Comrades for bearing Arms against Anthony who had saved their lives at Philippi Whereupon the others answering that on the contrary they made War upon them they came at length to Conferences wherein they began their reciprocal complaints on one side that they had refused them entrance into Brundusium and corrupted Calenus's Army and the other that they had besieged Brundusium made inroads into Ausonia treated with Aenobarbus one of Caesar's Murderers and
were overcome or whether he had made Peace or whether the were in flight they continued their Robberies for they said that having lost their Goods and abandoned their Countries by reason of the War necessity had driven them from the Land to seek their Fortune for the future by Sea They elected among themselves Arch-pyrates who commanded a certain Number as if it had been a lawful War They assaulted weak Cities and sometimes very strong ones too whose Walls they either scaled or threw down They pillaged them after they had taken them carrying to their places of retreat all the rich men they took to make them pay their ransome and giving their Crimes honourable names they shook off the name of Pyrates and called themselves Soldiers adventurers They had likewise Artificers whom they kept in Fetters and continually stored up Wood Iron Brass and other Materials For their vast booty had so heightned their courages that preferring that kind of life before any other they imagined themselves Soveraigns and Kings comparing their Power to that of Armies and esteeming themselves invincible when ever they pleased to unite together they built Ships and forged Arms especially in Cilicia called the Rough which was the common retreat of all these Corsairs or as we may saw the principal Seat of War Not but that they had in other places Castles and Forts in desart Islands and cunning Harbours but they usually retired to that Coast of Cilicia the Rough which was inaccessible and bounded with Rocks reaching almost out of sight and therefore all the World commonly called them Cilicians This mischief which was begun in Cilicia infected likewise the Syrians Ciprians Pamphilians Pontick Nations and almost all the Oriental people who tyred with the length of the Mithridatick War and choosing rather to do ill then suffer it changed their dwellings on Land for the Sea so that in a short time they amounted to many thousands and not only become Masters of the Sea that wets the Oriental Coasts but spread themselves throughout all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules for they defeated some Roman Pretors in Sea Fights and among others the Pretor of Sicily No Ship durst appear about that Island the very Husband-man had abandoned the Fields because of the continual descents they made which very much annoyed he Romans for besides that they beheld their Provinces pillaged want of Corn brought a Famine into the Citie Besides it was not easie to defeat such great Forces that spread themselves over all parts both of the Sea and Land Who were alwaies ready either to fly or fight whilst none knew their Country or place of retreat nor indeed had they any residence or propriety but what fell in their hands Wherefore these extraordinary kind of Enemies who gave themselves a dispensation against all the Laws of War of whom nothing clear or certain could be made out were very formidable and few would have accepted a Commission for this War For Murena having undertaken these Pyrates did nothing memorable no more did after him Servilius Isauricus They were grown so bold as to Land upon the Coasts of Brundusium and Hetruria from whence they carried away some Women of Quality whom they found in the Country And defeated two Bodies of an Army whose Eagles they carried away The Romans no longer able to suffer these Losses and Affronts by Decree of the Senate gave to Pompey the greatest man of that time Command of their Armies for three Years with Authority over all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules and within all the Maritime Provinces for four hundred Furlongs from the Sea and to Command all Kings Governours and Cities to furnish him with necessaries They permitted him likewise to make new Leavies both of men and Monies and in the mean time gave him an Army composed of standing Legions all the Ships they had and six thousand Attick Talents in ready Money So difficult a thing they believed it to overcome so many Naval Armies to pursue them in so vast an extent of Seas and to seek them out in so many holes having to do with Enemies they could not get within reach of except they pleased and who were ready to fall on when they were least thought of Nor indeed did ever any Roman General go to War with so large a Commission as Pompey's Soon after they furnished him with sixscore thousand foot four thousand Horse and two hundred and seventy Ships comprizing the Brigantines and for his Lieutenants they gave him five and twenty Senators among whom he divided the Seas giving them Horse and Foot and Shipping with the Ensigns of Pretor Every Lieutenant had absolute power in the Quarter he Commanded and he like a King of Kings went from one part to another to disperse his Orders and to see that every one kept in his Post without quitting it or pursuing the Enemy far from it if he could not gain the Victory upon the place to the end that there being alwaies people in a readiness in all places to take up what others had not fully done the Pyrates might find no security in flying from place to place After having disposed things in this manner he gave the Commission of Spain and the Streit to Tib. Nero and Manlius Torquatus joyntly of the Celtrick and Ligustique Sea to Marius Pomponius of Affrica with Sardinia Corsica and the Circumadiacent Islands to Lentulus Marcellinus and P. Attilius of the Coast of Italy from Sicily to Acarnania to L. Gellius and Cn. Lentulus of the Ionian Sea to Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro of Peloponesus Attica Euboea Thessaly Macedon and Boeotia to L. Cinna of all the Aegaean Sea and the Hellespont to L. Cullius Of Bithynia Thrace the Propontick and the mouth of Pontus to L. Piso of Lycia Pamphilia Cyprus and Phoenicia to Metellus Nepos These were the Quarters he assigned every Lieutenant where they were to fight and to give them their Chase so that saving themselves from one they might fall into the hands of another forbidding them to pursue beyond their Bounds for fear lest those long Chases might be a means to delay the War for his own part he flew if one may so say from one part to another to see what passed and having in forty days gone the Circuit of the Western part of the Sea he returned to Rome from whence he went to Brundusium where again taking Shipping and running over all those vast Oriental Seas he brought every where a dread of his Name by the swiftness of his motion the greatness of his Force and Power and the opinion had of a Captain of such high reputation So that the Pyrates who as it was thought would have assaulted him or at least would have found ways to have made his Victory difficult presently raised their Siege before those Towns they had blocked up and out of the fear they had of him retired into their Forts and sheltring
causing the Wood to be cut down before him The Japodes all upon a suddain sallyed out of their Ambush and wounded many of his men but the most part of their Forces were cut in pieces by the Romans who came down from the Mountains and the rest chose rather to retreat in the Woods than into one of their Cities called Terpona which they had abandoned Caesar having taken it would not burn it for he thought as he had made trial in others that would engage them to submit which they did after which he marched towards another of their Cities called by the Inhabitants Metulia and is esteemed the Capital of the Country of the Japodes It is scituate on a high Mountain covered with Wood and built upon two Eminencies divided by a small Valley The best armed and bravest young men that any one can imagine ever to have seen defended it and with ease repulsed the Romans as often as they approached the Wall The Besiegers would have raised Terrasses but the Metulians day and night fallying out on all sides upon the Labourers hindred the Work and by the means of certain Engines which they had taken in the Battel fought not far from thence by Brutus against Anthony and the same Caesar and now planted upon the Walls forced the Besiegers to fall off yet the Romans made a breach in the Wall but whilst they fought the Besieged had raised other Fortifications within over which they though tyred with defending the breach leaped into the City The Besiegers thus become Masters of the Wall which the Inhabitants had quitted set fire on it and to gain the rest raised two Terrases from which they laid over four Planks to the Rampart newly raised Things thus disposed Caesar gave order to one party of his men to assault the other side of the City to draw the Inhabitants that way whilst the others forced their entrance over the Planks and he in the mean time took a view of the Action from a high Tower The Barbarians ran upon the Wall to oppose those that passed whilst another Party behind them strove to heave up the Planks with their Pikes which much heightned their courage for one Plank being overturned and then another and after it a third fear so seised on the Romans that not a man durst engage upon the fourth Caesar from the Tower sharply reproves them but seeing that all he could say would not move them he takes his Buckler and began himself to run upon the Plank Agrippa Hieron and Lucius three of his Captains and Iolas one of his Guards followed him with some Targetiers and got likewise on the Plank Caesar thus deeply engaged shame made the Soldiers run on in such Crouds that the Plank overcharged broke in the middle and a great Number of people that were upon it fell one upon another some were slain other brought of sorely bruised and the Emperour himself was wounded in the Thigh and both the Arms. He again ascended the Tower with some followers of Consular dignity that all might see he was well lest a rumour of his death might beget some Tumult or the Enemy should think he fled and at the same instant set on work the laying of another Plank This more daunted the Metulians then any thing before seeing they had undertaken War against a man whose courage was invincible whereupon on the morrow they sent Deputies to treat with him delivered him the fifty Hostages he demanded and promised to receive a Garrison to whom they left the higher Eminence retiring themselves into the other But when the Garrison being entred required them to yield up their Arms they entred into such a fury that shutting up their Wives and Children in the Town-house and having likewise caused the Officers of the Garrison to enter there they told them that if they were so hardy to attempt against them any thing extraordinary they would set fire on that building and by one act of dispair endeavor to wreak themselves on the Romans After this discourse they drew together at the foot of the higher eminence as if they had a design to mount up The Garrison set the Town-house on fire many of the women kill'd themselves with their Children and some threw themselves alive into the flames Thus almost all the youth of Metulia being slain in the conflict and most of the useless persons burnt all the buildings were likewise consumed in the flames so that there scarcely remained any mark of so great a City The Metulians thus totally ruined all the rest of that Nation submitted to Caesar for fear of a like misfortune and thus fell the Japodes under the Roman power Caesar being gone the Possenians shook off their yoak but Marcus Elbius being sent against them reduced them by force punished with death the authors of the Rebellion and sold the rest by Outcry The Romans having already made two Voyages into the Country of the Segestains without taking Hostages or doing ought else to subject them they grew insolent and presumptuous Wherefore Caesar resolved to make war upon them and to take his passage through the Territories of the Peonians not depending on the Roman Empire Peonia is a woody Country whose length extends from the Japodes to the Dardanians The people inhabiting it have no Cities but live in the Fields and have Villages separate according to their Families They have not among them either Judge or Prince that has Superiority over others They had at present a hundred thousand Men but because they knew no Command could never form a Body So when Caesar came amongst them they presently fled into the woods where if they found any Roman stragling from the rest they cut him in pieces As long as Caesar thought they would could come in he neither touched their Villages nor Towns but when he saw they kept themselves close in the woods he set all on fire making an inestimable spoil for eight days together as he cross'd the Country of the Segestains and Peonians as far as the Sava Caesar on the banks of this River found a City fortified on one side with the River which was very broad and on the rest with a large Ditch deep and dug downright so that it was as broad at bottom as top Wherefore he made an attempt upon it as a place very convenient for his stores in the War he designed against the Dacians and Basternes which inhabit beyond the Ister which in these places is called the Danube But when a little lower it is enlarged with great quantity of waters it takes the name of Ister instead of that of Danube Now the Sava discharges it self into the Ister and Caesar had Vessels upon that River which might bring provisions up the Danube for the subsistance of his Army He therefore invested this City but scarce had made his first approaches when the inhabitants of Segesta for that was the name of the place sent Messengers to him to know what
passed the Ionian Sea Thus Cassius diverted from the Expedition of Egypt of which he had great hopes dismissed the Parthians with Rewards and sent Ambassadors to their King to demand a greater Succor which arriving after the Defeat over-run Syria and the Neighbouring Provinces as far as Ionia and so returned After this having left his Nephew in Syria with one Legion he sent his Horse before into Cappadocia surprized Ariobarzanes under pretence that he had deserted Cassius and defeated him and brought to the General all his Treasures and Provisions which he had made ready for the War Those of Tarsus being divided into two Factions the one had first received Cassius and made him a Present of a Crown the other some time after payed the same Honours to Dolobella and both acted in the Name of the Community So that by having received sometimes one and sometimes the other they exposed their City to be punished by both for their Inconstancy and at last Cassius after Dolobella's death taxed them in fifteen hundred Talents They were already so poor that they had not wherewithal to pay this Summ but the Soldiers tormented them with a thousand Cruelties to make them find it They sold first all the Publick Goods then things consecrated even to the Ornaments of the Temples and the Offerings had been made Which yet amounting not to the least part of the Summ the Magistrates sold the Free Persons first the Maids and Children then the Women and Old Men who yielded but little and after all the Young Men many of which slew themselves At last Cassiâ—s returning from Syâ—ia had compassion on their misery and remitted the Remainder of the Tax These were the Calamities wherewith Tarsus and Laodicea were afflicted Cassiâ—s and Brutus consulting together what they were best to do Brutus was of Opinion they should go into Macedon and give Battel to the Enemies who had forty Legions eight of which had already passed the Ionian Sea Cassius judged on the contrary that the Enemy being so numerous were not to be dreaded seeing they would scatter of themselves for want of Provisions and therefore that it were better to begin the War with the Rhodians and Lycians who held for the Enemies and were very strong in Shipping lest they should fall into their Rear whilst they were engaged with Caesar and Anthony This Opinion was followed Brutus undertook the Lycians and Cassius those of Rhodes where he had been educated and had studied those Sciences taught in Greece And because he had to deal with People very expert in Sea-Fights he fitted up all the Ships he had manned them both with Sea-Men and Soldiers and exercised them at Mynda As for the Rhodians the most prudent of them were fearful to come to Extremities with the Romans but the People made insolent with those Victories which they remembred to have gained against People to whom the Romans were no ways comparable were very glad of it and began to set in order three and thirty of the best Vessels they had However they sent Deputies to Cassius to desire him not to contemn Rhodes which had always revenged it self on those that had despised them Nor to violate the Treaties between the Romans and the Rhodians by which they had promised not to bear Arms one against the other That if he found fault with them for refusing their Ships they would send Deputies to the Senate and if the Senate ordered it they would assist him with all their Forces To this Cassius made Answer that now it was no more time to make use of Words but Arms That as for those Treaties which obliged them not to bear Arms one against another they had first violated them by assisting Dolobâ—lla against him That the same Treaties contained likewise a Promise of assisting one the other and that when Cassius demanded theirs they mocked him with a pretence of sending Deputies to the Senate now dispersed into all parts in their flight from those Tyrants had made themselves Lords of the City Tyrants which he would punish as well as the Rhodians their Abettors if they did not suddenly submit themselves This Answer increased the fear of the Wise Men But the People suffered themselves to be led by Alexander and Mnaseus who encouraged them by putting them in mind how Mithridates and before him Demetrius had in vain attempted Rhodes with far greater numbers of Shipping Wherefore they made Alexander Prytane which is the chief and most powerful Magistrate of the City and Mnaseus they made Admiral However they again deputed to Cassius Archelaus under whom he had studied the Greek Learning who as one that had lived familiarly with him taking him by the hand spoke thus The Speech of Archelaus to Cassius WIll you that love the Greeks ruin a Greek City and that fight for Liberty take it from Rhodes that is a Free City Are you envious of the Glory of the Dorick Nation which never yet was overcome or have you forgot those Noble Stories you learnt at Rhodes and at Rome it self At Rhodes the mighty Actions the Rhodians when assaulted in their City have done against a number of Kings and above all against those were thought invincible Demetrius and Mithridates for the Defence of that Liberty for which you say you are now in Arms At Rome the important Services we have done the Romans especially against King Antiochus the Monuments of which you may there behold engraven in Copper This I say to oblige you to consider our Nation the Honour of our City its good Fortune which never yet abandoned it its Affection to the Romans and the Assistance it has offered them But as to what may concern your self Cassius you ought particularly to bear some respect to a City wherein you have been educated taught cured of your Sickness and where you have a long time sojourned and that even in my School which makes me hope that the pains I have formerly took in instructing you will not prove unprofitable to my Country in dispensing her from engaging in a War with her Nursling and Scholar wherein of two things one must be inevitable all the Rhodians must perish or Cassius must be overcome I will add a little Counsel to the Request I make you In the important Affair wherein you are engaged for the Publick Good take the Gods for the Guide of all your Actions those Gods by which you swore when by Caesar's intermission we last renewed the Alliance between 〈◊〉 and after we had sworn mutually gave hands in token of that Faith which ought to be kept even to Enemies but with much more reason to Friends and those from whom we have received our Education Besides we ought not only to consider the Gods but also take care to preserve our Reputation for the sake of Men for those who violate Treaties are abhorred of all the World and after having once broke it neither Friends nor Enemies have any more Relyance on their Word After