of Peloponnesus by Archias the Corinthian in the eleventh Olympiad Romulus then reigning at Rome and the Messâ—nian War being very hot in Peloponnesus This new Colony because of Archias and for that many followed him from Corinth owned that Citie for its Metropolis which at that time was most powerfull at Sea But many afterwards flocked out of other parts of Peloponnesus and by little and little the Citie of Syracuse so increased as it became not onely the greatest and most beautifull of all in Sicily but of Greek Cities whatsoever as Cicero affirmeth It contained as he writeth four great Cities the Island Acradina Tycha and Neapolis It s compasse was 180 furlongs having besides Suburbs two Ports very commodious for shipping being separated by the Island and grounds about it very fertile in some places rising into little Hills but compassed about with Fennes The first Inhabitants dwelt in the Island antiently called Ortygia then as the Citie increased the other parts were added whereof the latest was Neapolis As for the state of the Citie after it received a new beginning from Archias the form of the Commonwealth was without doubt the same that then was in the Metropolis under the Government of the Bâ—chiadae viz. Oligarchical bordering upon Aristocracie Afterwards the common people waxing heady outed the better sort of the possession of the grounds and seizing on the Government made bad to be worse as the sad changes and desolations will shew The Exiles by Herodotus called Gamori betook themselves to Gelon the Tyrannus of Gela who coming to restore them with an Army the people resisted not but received him into the Citie whereby obtaining the whole power he restored it not to the Nobility but made himself master of Syracuse This hapned at the time aforesaid and about 244 years after the Plantation of Archias 3. Gelon so used his power as he was loved by all and feared by none He every way much inlarged The acts and power of Gelon adorned and inriched the Citie out of all Conquered Towns he took the Noblest and worst disposed Citizens and brought them to Syracuse He procured the affections of almost all that dwelt in Sicily and so greatly strengthen'd himself that he was able with a Navy of 200 Triremes and as great an Army as all Greece could set forth against Xerxes to help the Graecians in the Median War and had gone to their assistance if they would either have granted him the Command of the Land Army or the Fleet. When he could obtain neither of those he imployed his forces against the Carthaginians who had been called into Sicily by the Egestans and on the same day wherein the Greeks obtained their victory at Salamine got so great an one over them at Himera a Maritime Town that his glory is thought to have equalled His successe against the Carthaginians if not exceeded the other of Themistocles At this time the Carthaginians were very powerfull and become Eminent whose affairs being by necessity to be joyned with such matters as relate to this Island of Sicily a more convenient place cannot be had to speak something as this work requireth of the Original and progresse of their Common-wealth The Original of Carthage 4. Carthage was a Colony of Tyre and Tyre of Sidon the most antient Metropolis of Phoenicia mentioned by Homer with commendation for ingenious industry who hath not one word concerning Tyre and built by Sidon the eldest son of Canaan Tyre was built about the 2747 year of the World and 240 years before Solomons Temple as (a) Antiquit. l. 8. c. 2. Josephus hath observed The Greeks thought it received its name from Tyrus the Founder and (b) Stephanus Byzantius Pollux lib. 1. some invented a fable of a Nymph called Tyros beloved by Hercules But Tsor in the Phoenician language signifying a Rock the situation it self sufficiently declareth the Original of the name which upon this account was communicated to three other places besides this eminent Citie viz. (c) Scylax in descriptione Phoenices vide Bocharti Canaan lib. 2. cap. 17. two in the Continent and another in the same Island Near the Island of this famous City stood Palaetyrus or Old Tyre mentioned by Joshua and called a strong Citie even at the division of the Land of Canaan which hapned about 200 years before the building of that whereof we speak Now (d) Antiquit. lib. 8. cap. 2. Contra Apionem lib. 1. Josephus maketh the Temple of Jerusalem to have been founded in the eleventh year of the reign of Hiram King of Tyre who was son to Abebaal by Josephus called Abibalus and by Eusebius Abelbalus Hiram or Huram according to the Hebrews by the Greeks called Irom and Syron for Horom by Eupolemus was a great friend to David and supplied Salomon his son with materials and work-men for building the Temple He also proposed hard questions to Solomon to be unfolded as Menander testified who translated the Tyrian Annals into the Greek language He strengthned and inlarged the Citie of Tyre as Dius also wrote and reigned 34 years After him his son Beleastartus reigned 7. and Abdastartus 9. who being slain by the four sons of his Nurse the eldest of them reigned twelve years Then Astartus the son of Baleastartus 12. his brother Astarimus 9. who was slain by his brother Phelles Phelles reigned but eight moneths being killed by Ithobalus the Priest of Astarta who reigned 32 years after him Badezorus his son 6. then Mettinus his son 9. and lastly Pygmalion 40. in the seventh of whose reign his sister Dido built the Citie of Carthage in Africk Therefore from the beginning of Hirams reign to the building of Carthage intervened 155 years and eight moneths and whereas the Temple was founded at Jerusalem in the twelfth of his reign from the building of the Temple to that of Carthage passed 143 years and eight moneths as Josephus collecteth from the Testimony of Menander the Ephesian in his first book against Apion The several opinions concerning the building of Carthage 5. But Appian in his History of the Punick Wars writeth that Carthage was built by the Tyrians 50 years before the destruction of Troy which precedeth the former date 360 years He nameth as founders Zorus and Carchedon according to the opinion of the Greeks who thought them the Captains of the Colony whereas Tsor or Zor was the name of the Metropolis and Carchedon of the new Citie Carthada signifying a New Citie in the Phoenician language as Solinus witnesseth Lib. 1. p. 48. Strabo again will have the Phoenicians to have led out Colonies as far as the Pillars of Hercules and planted some a little after the Trojan War upon the Maritime Coasts of Africk with which Virgil closing feigneth Dido to have reigned at Carthage at that time whereas she was 300 years later according to the Testimony of the Phoenician Annals so as Servius upon the Poet affirmeth the whole
be lawfull for any to kill him And lest afterwards the people should abrogate this Law they made all the Citizens take the most solemn Oath that could be devised both for themselves and posterity to preserve it for ever inviolable as (k) Lib. 6. Dionysius writeth who hath also exemplified the Law it self To this (l) Pro Sext. Cicero addeth that they were not onely by sacred Laws fortified against Force and Arms but against words also and interruption of speech 41. But as their power of Interposing was most powerfull against Consuls and Senate The ballance to their power so also against themselves the dissent of one man being sufficient to hinder whatever all his Collegues designed This appeareth to have been the onely constant effectual means for moderation of that power which afterwards they assumed when the Patritians could prevail with one of the College to interpose By that awe which their Sacrosanct Magistracy struck into all men improved through their prompt boldnesse very common in men of meanest condition they took advantage to inlarge their bounds * Lib. 2. cap. 2. Exemp 7. Valerius Maximus writeth that at first it was not lawfull for them to enter into the Senate but they had seats placed before the door where examining the Decrees of the Fathers such of them as they suffered to passe they signed with the letter T. But nothing in Dionysius is more common than their speaking in the Senate and their contentions with the Members thereof in that very place at the very time and that in the infancy of their Office However these fellows at first presumed not to Tyrannise and disturb all as afterwards they did they presumed not at first to assemble the Senate which afterward they did in the 277 year of the Citie in processe of time to dismisse it also when called by another Within a small time they assembled the people preferred Laws The extravagancy of their power executed their sawcy Decrees against the Magistrates themselves commanding the Consuls to be carried to prison especially after the enacting of the Hortensian Law whereby the Plebiscita obliged the whole Roman people for that they were the chief Officers of the Commons 42. Great were the Seditions and Tumults which turbulent spirits backed with such liberty stirred up so as notwithstanding their first end was to preserve right Lucan rightly termeth them Turbantes jura Sylla was the first that bridled their extravagancy by depriving them of liberty to prefer Laws to make Orations and obtain any Office of Magistracy but after his death Aurelius Cotta by a new Law restored the later privilege to them and all the rest they recovered when Pompey and M. Crassus were Consuls Their power thus recovered they kept till the Emperours swallowed it up themselves and left them little more than a name which continued till the time of Constantine As for the Ensigns of their Office they wore not the Praetexta had no Lictors or Sargeants neither used they a Curule Chair onely a sort of Beadle called Viator went before them For want of these Ceremonies as because they entred not at the beginning of the year and laid not down their Office upon the Creation of a Dictator which others did Plutarch writeth that some held them to be no Magistrates but rather a curb and restraint to such Several other sorts of Tribunes Lastly besides these Tribunes and the Tribuni Celerum formerly mentioned there were afterwards many other sorts as Tribuni Militum and Tribuni Aerarii during the Commonwealth under the Emperours are found Tribunus Voluptatum Tribunus Matrimoniorum Tribunus Chartariorum Tribunus Provinciarum Tribunus Fori and Tribunus Scholarum concerning which Cassiodorus in his Epistles and Lissius in his Commentary of the Magistrates of old Rome are to be consulted 43. The Commons having got from the Senate a confirmation of the Office of Tribunes obtained further that they might yearly chuse out of their own body two to be as Ministers to these Officers to Judge certain causes referred to them from the Tribunes take care of publick buildings and provisions These were first called the Ministers and Assistants of the Tribunes The Aediles created but afterward saith Dionysius from one of their Duties had the name of Aediles Many things of great consequence were committed to their trust being very much like to the Agoranomi amongst the Greeks Festus acknowledging that in the beginning Aediles was a Magistrate who took care both of publick and private buildings yet saith he was so called quòd facilis ad eum plebis aditus esset Truer is the derivation which Varro giveth agreeable to that of Dionysius that they were named Aediles from Aedes the buildings of which they took care or those particularly wherein the Plebiscita were kept of which they had the over-sight This later Etymology is rendred by Pomponius who in his second book of the Original of Law describing the several Offices of Magistracy maketh the end of the constitution of the Aediles to have been that they might take care of that house where the Decrees of the people were laid up Whence soever the word was derived it came out of Latium being a name of certain Magistrates in the Latine Towns as was also Dictator and Duumvir as some observe out of Spartianus To these Aediles Plebis who were instituted in the 271 year of the Citie at the same time with the Tribunes were added two more out of the Patritian order 117 years after called for distinction Aediles Curules because they used the Curule Chair whereas the other onely sate on Benches as the Tribunes and Quaestors The occasion of creating those shall be shewn in its place the end was onely then for celebrating of Games 44. This number continued till the time of C. Julius Caesar who in the 710 year of the Citie added two more whom he would have created also out of the Patritians They were called (a) Diod. lib. 43. Cereales from Ceres being appointed to take care of and make provision for Corn. This number of six thus distinguished continued till the time of Constantine as is probably conjectured and were as most other Offices of Magistracy taken away by him The Aediles Their Office saith (b) 3. de Legibus Cicero are the Curators of the Citie of provisions and of solemn Games Of the Citie because they looked to publick works and Temples made provision against fires which Augustus seemeth to have charged upon them saith Lipsius had inspection over Funerals and such like Rites of smaller moment over Marriages and Adulteries Baths Aqueducts Sinks and Streets both for repairing and cleansing of them Of Provisions for that they had the over-sight of all things to be sold men and other creatures determining judging and censuring by their words and edicts Of solemn Games and onely solemn not votive and private ones as the Ludi Florales Circenses Megalenses Romani c. Sometimes at
with the extravigancy of the ten retired themselves expecting the Comitia for the Creation of new Magistrates They add two Tables of Laws to the ten 5. The Decemviri added two Tables of Laws to the ten that were made the year before Amongst these new Laws there was one which forbad marriage betwixt the Patritians and Plebeians for no other cause as Dionysius conjectureth than lest the families being joyned together concord should ensue betwixt the two orders These Laws thus by accident saith (a) Lib. 2. Dig. de Origine Juris Pomponius came to be called the Laws of the twelve Tables being written by the Decemviri through the perswasion of one Hermodorus an Ephesian as some reported then banished into Italy concerning which person (b) Tusculan lib. 5. Plin. lib. 84. Strabo lib. 14. Cicero and others are to be consulted These Laws being established it followed SECT 1. that disputations and controversies of the Court should be necessary for as much as an interpretation was to be built upon the authority of the Learned This disputation or this unwritten Law composed by the Learned is not called by any peculiar name as all other parts but by the common one of Jus Civile or Civil Law onely Besides out of these Laws at the same time almost were composed certain cases wherein men contested one with another which cases lest the People should make them at their pleasure were to be certain and solemn and this part of Law is called Actiones Juris The Original of the Civil Law or Cases at Law Thus almost at the same time these three sorts of Laws arose viz. the Laws of the twelve Tables from these flowed the Civil Law and from the same were composed Cases at Law But the knowledge of expounding all these and the Cases themselves were kept by the College of Pontifices who appointed yearly those that judged Private Persons which custome the People used almost 100 years Afterward when Appius Claudius had propounded and reduced these Cases into form (c) Consule Valer. Max. l. 2. c. 5. exemp 2. A. Gellium Noct. Attic. l. 6. c. 9. Cicero pro Murena Gnaeus Flavius his Scribe and the son of a Libertine or of one whose father was once a Slave stole the Book and gave it to the People which accepted so thankfully of the gift that he was made Tribune of the Commons a Senator and Aedilis curulis This Book was called Jus Civile Flavianum as the other Jus Civile Papirianum Yet Flavius added nothing of his own to the Book The City increasing and there being as yet wanting certain sorts of Cases not long after Sextus Aelius composed other Cases and gave a Book to the People called Jus Aelianum How the parts of it came in by degrees 6. There being now in the City the Lex or Law of the twelve Tables the Jus Civile or Civil Law and the Cases of Law it came to passe that the Commons disagreeing with and separating from the Patritians appointed Laws of their own making called Plebiscita After their return there being a great controversie about these it was thought good to receive them also for Laws and so it was enacted by a Law preferred by * Vide Livium lib. 3. A. Gellium l. 15. c. 26. Hortensius the Dictator so though there was a difference in the form of making a Law called Lex and a Plebiscitum yet the authority was the same Then for that it was difficult for the People to meet because of it's multitudes necessity it self devolved the care of the Commonwealth upon the Senate So the Senate began to interpose and whatsoever it resolved was observed and that Law was called Senatus Consultum At the same time the Magistrates also administred Justice and that the People might know what they would determine concerning any thing and to fore-arm themselves they published Edicts which Edicts of the Praetors constituted the Jus Honorarium so named from the honour and authority of the Praetor Lastly as the course of affaires reduced the making of Laws to fewer fashions at length it came to passe through several Factions viz. of Sylla Marius Pompey and Caesar that there was necessity of the Commonwealth's being governed by a single person For the Senate not being able to govern all the Provinces a Prince was ordained and what he appointed was taken for Law So that in the Commonwealth of Rome all Law was either so constituted by a Law called Lex as that of the twelve Tables or properly called Jus Civile which being unwritten consisted in the interpretation of the Learned or Cases of Law which contained the form of Pleas or a Plebiscitum made without the authority of the Fathers or the Edict of a Magistrate called Jus Honorarium or a Senatus Consultum which without a Law Lex was ordained by the sole authority of the Senate or Principalis constitutio which the Prince himself enacted 7. These things are written by Pomponius in this narrative of the Original of Law for the better understanding whereof it is to be noted that the word Jus signifieth all Law or right in general and is that genus whereof Lex is but a species being defined by (a) Seu Scribenianus Institut l. 1. Tit. 2. Justinian the Emperour to be that which the People of Rome upon the quaestion put by a Senatorian Magistrate for example a Consul did enact As for the twelve Tables they were furnished with Laws partly borrowed from the Graecians partly added at the discretion of the Lawmakers and partly the same as formerly were in use SECT 2. Of the first sort were such especially as concerned private interests Of the second was that which forbad mariage betwixt the Nobility and Commons And of the third that Law which from Dionysius we formerly mentioned to have been made by Romulus giving power to a man to call together his wives kindred and judge her for drinking wine or dishonesty this is attested to have been taken into the twelve Tables by (b) Lib. 14. cap. 13. Plinie and (c) Lib. 10. cap. 23. Gellius also hinteth as much From (d) Jus triplex tabulae quod ter Sanxere quaternae Sacrum Privatum Populi commune quod usquam est Ausonius is observed that these twelve Tables were divided into three parts whereof the first contained what belonged to the Religion of the Romans the second what concerned the publick and the third the rights of private men Great are the commendations which many give of them but the most eminent is Cicero's Encomium that we name no more Disputing under the name of Crassus in (e) Lib. 1. de Oratore one place he thus speaketh If diversity of Studies please any in the twelve Tables there is a great image of Antiquity because the antient use of words is known and certain kinds of actions declare the life and custome of our Ancestors If any look at Polity you
his children some warm water wherewith refreshed they fully recovered The Original of the Terentine Games and told their father how in a dream they had seen a certain god who commanded that at the altar of Pluto and Proserpina black coloured sacrifices furvae hostiae should be offered as also that Lectisternes beds made for the cause of sacrifice as whereon to lye down after the Roman fashion at a solemn feast and night games should be made Valesius seeing no altar in the place thought of making one when as his slaves were digging for that purpose they found one in the earth dedicated to Pluto and Proserpina Here then he sacrificed and three nights together because of the number of his children made Lactisterns and Games being afterwards from this thing named Manius Valesius Terentinus Zozimus writeth Trina Terentio celebrata trinoctialudo Anson that the Romans 100 years before being to fight with the Albans were admonished to build this altar in the earth and that having sacrifized they covered it But this passage concerning Valesius hapned about the twelfth year of Servius Tullius wherein he founded the Lustrum in the 188 of the City and the same wherein the Panathenaea were instituted or rather reduced to the course of five years being-formerly instituted by Theseus at Athens this being the third year of the 53 Olympiad The Terentine and Saecular Games confounded 19. This was the Original of Terentine Games which some have confounded with the Saecular For the next that were celebrated were made by Valerius Poplicola in the year following the banishment of Tarquinius which Zozimus calleth Games of Pluto and Proserpina and * Quem vide cap. 17. lib. de die Natali Censorinus from Antias the Historian giveth them the name of Saecular This confusion cast Censorinus into such a perplexity about the Saecular Games that he thus expresseth the incertainty of the Roman intervals of times and ages Some think the Roman ages to be distinguished by the Saecular Games which if it be so Which much perplexed Censorinus the manner of the Roman age is uncertain For concerning the intervals of times wherein these Games ought to be celebrated we are not onely ignorant how great they were formerly but what they ought to be for the time to come For Antias and other Historians with Varro and Livy have written that they ought to be made every hundreth year But on the contrary both the Commentaries of the Quindecimviri or 15 men and the edicts of Augustus testifie that they ought to be reiterated every hundred and tenth as * Certus undenos decies per annos Orbis ut cantus referatque ludos Ter die clarâ totiensque gratâ Nocte frequentes Horatius Flaccus also saith Further if we search the annals of antient times we shall yet be in greater uncertainty by far For Valerius Antias saith that the first Saecular Games were made after the banishment of the Kings 245 years after the building of Rome by Valerius Publicola But the commentaries of the 15 Men say that 298 years M. Valetius and Sp. Virginius being Consuls The second Games Antias will have made in the 305 year of the City but it s written in the Commentaries of the 15 Men in the 408 M. Valerius Corvinus the second time and C. Paetilius being Consul and so he proceedeth 20. * Hist Sacra Exotica ad A. M. 3491. Jacobus Cappellus dissolveth the difficulty in this manner The cause of this perplexity which troubleth Censorinus is this All Saecular Games are Terentine The difficulty resolved by Jacobus Cappellus but all Terentine Games are not Secular For some were made upon some occasion as those which Valerius Publicola made this 245 year of the City and Valesius about the year 188. These were Terentine Games but not Saecular Now the Saecular are of two sorts The greater Quindecim Diana preces virorum curet Horat. in carm Saeculari which perhaps thou mayst not call amisse * Vide Tacitum Annal. lib. 11. Quindecimvirales were celebrated at the distance of 110 years Of this kind the first were made by the command of the Quindecimviri in the 298 year of the City 110 years as it seemeth after the first Terentine Games made by Valesius So the Valesian shall fall in the 188 of the City The first of the Quindecimviri were made in the 298 year of the City the Second in the 408 the Third in the 518 and the Fourth in the 628. The lesser Saeculum or Age consisted but of 100 years instituted as it seemeth by L. Valerius after the banishment of the Decemviri that year being according to some the 300 of the City So the First Centenarie Games agree with the 305 Varronian year of the City the Second with the 405 the Third with the 505 the Fourth with the 605. 21. Though the Second of the Centenaries should have been celebrated in the 405 year yet whether it happened through the Gallick War or otherwise they were not till that following wherein M. Popilius Laenas the fourth time and L. Cornelius Scipio were Consuls as Zozimus writeth These Censorinus hath omitted and four more Observations concerning the Centenaries if credit be given to the inscription of a certain stone mentioned by George Herwart from which it should appear that before this year were celebrated three Saecular Games viz. in the 100 200 and 300 years according to the account of Pictor and the 105 205 and 305 according to that of Varro Two Solemnities also at the distance of 110 years as in the 188 and 298 after the account of Varro to which may be added those made by Poplicola extraordinarily in the 245 year So that the Games celebrated this year viz. in the 406 may rightly be called the seventh Games The Quindecimvirals or those of 100 years continued till Constantine's time who forbad them to be celebrated in the 1067 year of the City His son Constantius also prohibited the Centenaries which in his time fell in the 1100 year of the City Fifty seven years after the Heathen got leave of Honorius to celebrate the Terentine Games again in his sixth Confulship for which Claudian thanks him 200 years after they had been kept by Severus But to return these Third Saecular Games which gave occasion to this discourse and were celebrated in the 518 year of the City and the fifth after the first Punick Warre P. Cornelius Lentulus and C. Lâ—cinius Varus being Consuls were those of the Quindecimviri or of the interval of 110 years that we may note thus much for the information of Students 22. In the sixth year afer the first Punick War (a) Livius l 1. Eutropius l. 3. Plutarch in Numa the Temple of Janus was shut at Rome now the second time The Temple of Janus shut the second time The first divorce all things being in quiet and the Romans having no Wars any where after the reducement
amongst the rest with swords hid under their Cloaths who killing Eleazar and many of his faction seized also on that part of the Temple Idem ibid. Tacitus Hist l. 5. c. 12. and thereby the number of the factions was reduced to that of two That under John consisted of 8400. and the other under Simon of 10000 fighting men besides 5000 Idumaeans Notwithstanding the Enemy was at the Walls and to oppose him they a little joyned together yet did they break out the one upon the other and the poor people miserably suffered under both 16. The Citie being fortified with three Walls on every side Josephus de bello l. 6. c. 7 8 9 10 11. but where it was fenced with deep Valleys Titus having with much opposition placed his Engines battered the uttermost of them and breaking on the third of May into the Citie Breaking into it possessed all the North part as far as the Tower of Antonius and the Valley of Cedron Five dayes after he brake within the second Wall though the besieged made divers sallies They beat him out again but the fourth day after he recovered the place and prepared for the battery of the third Wall Yet he sent Joseph the Historian to them who exhorting them with many words to yield was entertained onely with scoffs and reproaches The people thinking to escape out of the Citie John and Simon stopped up all passages yet the famine increasing many came out whom being taken Titus caused to be Crucified to such a vast number that room was wanting for Crosses and Crosses for persons On the 12th of May he began four Mounts whereon to place his battering rams two near to the Castle Antonia where he hoped he might take the Temple and other two near the Monument of John the High-Priest where he thought he should with most ease break into the upper part of the Citie But John whose part it was to oppose the Romans in the former place cast down and burnt them two and two dayes after Simon did as much by the other though seventeen dayes had been spent in making them all He destroyed also many rams and engines and brake into the very Camp of the Romans but was repelled by Titus from Antonia who in a Council of Officers resolved now to compasse the whole City with a trench which with incredible diligence and celerity was finished in three dayes with thirteen forts to hinder the flight of the besieged and hinder the conveyance of relief into the City 17. The seditious were nothing herewith moved though the famine not only raged amongst the common sort but themselves also were pressed by it A certain Noble woman sod her child to eat it and such a mortality ensued that from the fourteenth of April to the first of July were caried out to be buried at the publick charge 115080 carkeises of the poorer sort Famine rageth as Titus was told by one Mannaeus who was appointed to pay the money Divers Noble men that fled to him certified him also that 600000 of the ordinary sort were cast dead out of the gates and others that were dead besides were innumerable for because they could not cary all out they laid them up in houses A bushel of corn was sold for a talent sinks and holes were raked to find old dung of Oxen to eat which much moved the Romans to compassion but the seditious were hereby nothing changed For Simon not obstaining from murders and rapines notwithstanding this lamentable condition killed Matthias the High-Priest by whom he had been let into the City with his three sons and sixteen others pretending that they purposed to flie to the Enemy Judas one of his own Officers hereupon weary of his cruelty attempted to betray a certain Tower whereof he had the charge to the Romans but being discovered was put to death with ten others of his complices John also being driven by necessity converted the Golden Vessels of the Temple with the sacred Money to prophane uses and was constrained to divide the Wine and Oil ordained for Sacrifices to his Soldiers 18. Titus cut down all the groves within a great distance of the City Idem l. 7. c. 1 c. and causing more mounts or scaffolds to be erected within 21 dayes on the first of July began to batter the wall of Antonia John that opposed him being beaten back and on the fift day broke into the Castle At this time many false Prophets suborned by the seditious told the multitude they must expect assistance from God and therefore though Titus often exhorted them to yield â—et the deluded defendants refuse to yield they flatly refused boasting that they would rather endure all miseries The contest was earnest about the Temple The wall of the inward part thereof was too strong for the battering rams and the defendants valiantly resisted at the top the foundation of the gates could not be undermined and therefore Titus was constrained to set them on fire Yet was it his intention to save the Temple but on the tenth of August a certain soldier without any command nay against the command of his General moved as by an instinct from above cast fire into the buildings on the North side which catching the flame imparted it to the Temple it self notwithstanding all that Titus could do to quench it The Temple burnt on the same day of the same moneth that it was formerly set on fire by the command of Nebuchadnezar The Temple thus burning Titus was saluted Imperator by his Soldiers and the Tyrants with their companions fled into the City They now desired a parly with the General himself who checked them much for their obstinacy but promised them life if they would yield But refusing to commit themselves to his fidelity they required to depart the City with their wives and children wherewith being greatly angred he commanded to be proclaimed by a Crier that They should not look any longer for mercy 19. He permitted his Soldiers to plunder and burn the City Idem ibid. c. 14 15 16 17 18. but the seditious wretches got to the King's house where many had deposited their wealth and thence repelled the Romans They also killed of their own Country People to the number of 6400 and rifling the money got them into the upper and strongest part of the City called Sion where for all this danger they still most cruelly tyrannized Titus having considered the strength of the place provided engines to batter the walls and began so to do it on the seventh day of September Part of the wall being broken down the Tyrants were seized with great fear and amazement not knowing what to do Some said the East part of it was broken down others that the Romans were entred and that they saw them out of the Towers so that the power of God appeared in the overthrow of these wretches for they forsook the Towers which were their onely strength and
Babylonian who being now unable to undergo the trouble of War made his son Nebuchadnesar King with him in his 17th year and sent him with an Army to subdue Egypt and Syria with him joyned (b) Alexand. Polyst apud Euseb praep Evang lib. 9. Asibares King of the Medes whom some think to be Cyaxares and others more probably Astyages his son In this expedition he made Jehojakin King of Judah his tributary and drew him from the obedience of Egypt which Necho taking in disdain came up against him and ingaging once more at Carchemiâ—h was overthrown and slain as may be gathered out of Scripture (c) Jerem. 46. Whilest Nebuchadnesar was prosecuting his victories overrunning all from the River of Egypt to the River Euphrates in the mean (d) Berosus apud Joseph ut priâ—s Antiqu. lib. 10. cap. 11. A. M. 3410. Olymp. 46. an 2. Romae 159. time his father being sick at Babylon died After he had reigned 21 years as it is now in the Catalogue Nebuchadnesar for which some learned men think 29 is to be read He understanding hereof disposed of the affairs of Egypt and other Countreys and giving order for the conveyance of the Judaean Syrian Phoenician and Egyptian prisoners he himself made haste through the desart and took possession of the Government reserved for him by the Caldaeans His great exploits and buildings 24. He distributed the Captives into Colonies about Babylon adorned the Temple of Belus which Semiramis had built with the spoyls repaired and increased the buildings of the Citie and fortified the Channel of the River that the Enemy should not make use of it against the Town He added a new Citie to the old and compassed both with three Walls of brick He raised divers remarkable aedifices built a new Pallace and about it a Garden or Wildernesse so much celebrated by the Graecians His wife being a Mede and according to the nature of her Countrey delighting in Mountainous Woody prospects brought him to imitate with Art what was wanting in the plains of Babylon This Garden was made four-square Vide Diodor. lib. 2. p. 70. B. taking up in compasse sixteen Acres in heighth equalling the Walls set with tall and beautifull Trees It was born up by stone-Pillars Curtium lib. 5. upon which a pavement of four-squared stones being laid Earth was heaped up in great quantity and Engines were made for the conveying of moisture out of Euphrates to water it The Trees that grew upon it were many of them eight Cubits in compasse at the bole and fifty foot high bearing fruit as plentifully as in their Native soyl 2 Kings 23. c. Jehojakim the King of Judah rebelling against Nebuchadnesar he came up against him wasted the Countrey and taking him cast him out unburied as the Prophet Jeremiah had foretold 2 Chron. 36. Four moneths after he also carried away Captive Jechonias or Jehojachim his son Jerem. 22. and made Mattaniah his Uncle King in his stead This Mattaniah whom he named Zedekiah rebelled against him notwithstanding his solemne Oath of fealty taken at his institution and therefore in the eleventh year of his reign he was also taken by the Babylonian had his eyes put out and was so carried to Babylon the Temple and Citie were burnt with fire and the people led into Captivity as will appear in its proper place His pride 25. Nebuchadnesar returning home was exceeding proud and puffed up at his successe He erected a great Image of Gold Daniel 3. in the Dedication whereof all his chief Officers were commanded to fall down and worship which was obeyed by all except three Jews Shadrach Meshach and Abâ—nâ—go the companions of Daniel For their punishment they were cast into a fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter then usual and so miraculously preserved from the fury of the flame that not an hair of their heads was sindg'd though it killed those that cast them in At this the King astonished by publick edict acknowledged Gods power and forbad the blaspheming of him Yet repented he not of his pride and notwithstanding a sufficient warning given him by God in a dream exalted himself in the conceit of the greatnesse and splendour of Babel which he had built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of his power and for the honour of his Majesty But the same hour as he was answered by a voice from Heaven the Kingdom departed from him Punished he was driven from men made to eat grasse as Oxen and his body was wet with the Dew of Heaven till his hairs were grown as Eagles feathers and his Nails like Birds Claws and seven times passed over him till he knew that the Most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will And this time prefixed being expired seven years as most suppose though some reckon but three and an half counting for times Winter and Summer his reason returned to him with the glory of his Kingdom his Honour and Brightnesse his Councellors and his Lords sought unto him he was established in his Kingdom and excellent Majesty was added to him Therefore he shamed not by a publick writing to own the thing praised honoured and extolled the King of Heaven all whose works he confessed to be truth his wayes judgement and that those that walk in pride he is able to abase What is found recorded of him by the Heathen 26. Of these strange passages the Heathen were not utterly ignorant (e) Apud Euseb praep Evang. lib. 9. Abydenus wrote that being exceeding proud and going up upon his Pallace he was taken with a Divine fury This he had out of the Annals of the Caldaeans who fancied him to have been seized on with a prophetick spirit and so to have vanished (f) Apud Josâ—phum ubi priâ—s Megasthenes in his fourth book of Judaea endeavoured to shew how this King in valiant exploits exceeded Hercules by far that he subdued the chief Citie of Africk and a good part of Spain Diocles in his second book of Persia made mention of him and Philostratus both in his Histories of Phoenicia and India writing that he fought against Tyre thirteen years which 't is probable at length he took by composition and there placed Baal King in the room of Ithobalus What he did against this Citie God taking as service done to himself Ezek. 29. promised him the Land of Egypt for his wages which we must accordingly believe to have been paid At length having foretold that Babylon should be lost to Cyrus as Abydenus wrote he died after he had reigned 43 years being in Ptolomies Catalogue of Kings called Nabocolassar which may be corruptly written for Nabocodolassar Evilmerodach 27. Evilmerodach his Son succeeded him who lifted up the head of Jehoiakim King of Judah in the 37th year of his Captivity A. M. 3440. Olymp. 53. an 4. Romae condit 189. spake
it need not seem incredible that from about 70 persons in the space of 210 years so many should proceed For if but one man in the thirtieth year of his Age should begin to be a father and had but in all ten Children Vide Jacob. Cappell ad A. M. 2293. who also with their posterity should beget at the same Age that one man before 200 years would have descended from him of the sixth Generation 1000000. of the fifth 100000. of the fourth 10000. of great Grand-Children 1000. of Grand-Children 100. and of Children 10. But that the Israelites began to be fathers before the Age of thirty is more then probable nature * Mea memoria in civitate Lactoratensi Novempopulaniae puer minor annorum duodecim genuit ex puella consobrina sua quae nondum decimum annum expleverat Rem notam narro cujus memoria adhuc recens est in Aquitania Pater hoc ipse de se patri meo testatus est quod alioqui tunc ne pueri quidem ignorabant Scaliger in Parei Deut. 1. sometimes not requiring half that time and there is ground sufficient to think that they often exceeded the number of ten Children The Scripture relateth Abdon to have had fourty sons Abizara thirty and as many daughters Gideon seventy sons and Ahab as many Aegyptus Danaus Priamus and Darius are reported to have had fifty Children Artaxerxes Justin relateth to have had 115. and Hierotimus 600. These things to add no more prove the great increase of the Israelites to have been possible in the course of Nature although not without an especial providence 2. Moses had gathered the people together as Josephus writeth about Ramesses the chief Citie of Goshen that they might be in a readinesse and thence they came to Succoth where was their second station Here Moses propounded the command of God concerning the annual observation of the Passeover The Passeover annually to be observed and the Consecration of the first born A ready way hence to the Land of Canaan would have been through that of the Philistins but because the Israelites were born in slavery and therefore had but low and poor spirits to exercise them to stir them up and lest for want of experience they should be so terrified as to return God lead them another and longer way From Succoth therefore they came to Etham in the end of the Desart in two dayes whither God conducted them by a Pillar of a Cloud by day and Pillar of fire by night that never forsook them till they came to the Borders of the promised Land From Etham they journeyed to Pihahiroth and thence to the Red-sea Hither Pharoh pursued them with all his Forces repenting he had let them go They were there exceedingly struck with terrour and murmured against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt In this extremity God divided the waters of the Red-sea which being as a Wall on both sides to them they passed over on dry ground The Egyptians essayed also to pursue them in this place but the Pillar then removed from before them and placed it self between them giving light to the Israelites The Israelites passe the Red-Sea but causing great darknesse to their Enemies Hereupon ensued great consternation and a pannick fear amongst the Egyptians which causing great disturbance the Lord also fought against them and they fled But then the waters returned to their place and overwhelmed them all so that neither Pharoh nor any one of his men escaped This place of the Red-sea being here not at all fordable the sole power of God procured their passage though Josephus to gain credit to the story from the incredulous Heathen Vide Strabonem l. 14. p. 666. D. taketh off from the miracle by an unsutable comparing of it to Alexander the Great his passing the shoar of the Pamphylian-Sea which at low water was ever bare and at other times not very deep 3. From the Red-Sea they journeyed three dayes through the Wildernesse of Etham which as it seemeth stretcheth forth it self to both the sides of the Sea where they found no water Thence they came to Marah where they found water but bitter and thence the place had its name which bitternesse was removed by the casting in of a certain Tree which God shewed to Moses From Marah they came to their fifth station at Elim where were twelve Fountains of water and seventy Palm-Trees and thence to the Red-Sea which name seemeth to be applied to some Bay or Creek thereof From the Sea they came into the desart of Sin where they pitched their Tents on the fifteenth day of the second moneth after their departure Quails and Manna Here murmuring for flesh Quails were rained down upon the Camp at evening and in the morning was there found Manna which continued every morning to fall all the fourty years they abode in the Wildernesse This Wildernesse of Sin being very large and reaching as far as Mount Sinai they had several stations in it The ninth was at Diphka the tenth at Alush the eleventh at Rephidim where the people again murmuring for water the Rock being struck by Moses gushed out into streams Whil'st they here continued Exod. 17. the Amalekites descended from Amalek who was the son of Eliphaz and Grand son of Esau fell in upon their rear and made slaughter of the weaker sort Moses against them sent Joshua the son of Nun he himself in the mean time praying to God in the Mount And as long as his hands were lifted up the Israelites overcame but when he let them down the Amalekites prevailed so that Aaron his brother and Hur his sister Miriam's husband bore them up till the going down of the Sun 4. In the third moneth they removed Chap. 19.20 and took up their station in the desart of Sinai over against the Mountain Horeh which 't is thought was some part of Sinai and here they continued almost a year to the 20th day of the second moneth of the next year Upon this Mountain God gave the Law of the ten Commandments in a terrible manner on the 50th day after their coming out of Egypt The Decalogue as * Hieronymus ad Fabiolum Leo Serm. 1. de Pentecoste some of the Ancients apprehended The day after several other Laws were promulgated as it were Commentaries upon the Decalogue both Judicial and Ceremonial Then Moses having Offered Sacrifice read the book of the Law to the people and made a Covenant betwixt God and them and went up into the Mount where he remained fourty dayes six in the lower and cloudy and 34 in the highest and fiery part In this space of time he received advice concerning the structure of the Tabernacle the Ornaments and Consecration of Priests c. From this familiar Conversing of God with Moses the Heathen Law-givers took occasion to feign such a priviledge to themselves As amongst the Getes Zamolxis gave out he received
Lord as he slept in his Chamber and brought his head unto David Ishbosheth slain after seven years He rewarded them with death 1 Chron. 12. and was by the Captains and all the Elders of the Tribes anointed the third time King at Hebron over all Israel which government he held 33 years 2 Sam. 5.6 7. c. A little after this installment he took Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it the seat of his Kingdom himself building and fortifying the Citie of Sion and Joab repairing the rest Then twice he overthrew the Philistins in Rephidim who came up against him after they heard he was made King 1 Chron. 12. c. The Ark of God he removed from Kiriath-Jearim to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite and thence after three moneths into Sion He purposed to build God an house but was forbidden because a man of bloud that work which was to be reserved for Solomon For besides his Wars in his younger time all the space betwixt this and the birth of Solomon seemeth imployed in Wars wherein he overcame the Philistins Amalekites Moabites Ammonites Idumaeans and Syrians The Borders of his Empire he very much inlarged not onely from Shihor of Egypt to the entring in of Hamath but also as far as Euphrates the utmost limits promised by God unto Abraham and onely possessed by him and his son and Successor Salomon David's adultery and murder 39. Salomon was the second son begotten on Bathsheba 1 Sam. 11.12 13. the wife of Uriah the Hittite with which woman David first committed Adultery and then for a cover added to it the Murder of her husband After he had been reproved by Nathan the Prophet he repented and wrote the 51 Psalm upon this occasion Punished Yet the Infant conceived in Adultery died as soon as it was born and though Salomon was born the next year at it's thought A. M. 2957. yet this sin escaped not without a further punishment For within awhile Davidis 14. his eldest son Amnon ravished his half-sister Tamar Amnon ravisheth Tamar and for that was killed by Absalom Some years after Chap. 15.16 17 18. Absalom by the advice and policy of Achitophel seized upon the Kingdom Absolom rebelleth David hereupon fled to God as his Rock of refuge and composed the 3d. and the 55th Psalms then opposing force to force overthrew Absolom in the Wood of Ephraim by Joab his General who thrust the young man through with a Dart as he hung in an Oak contrary to David's order who had charged all the Captains to deal gently with him for his sake This Rebellion was followed by a new sedition raised amongst the Israelites by one Sheba upon this occasion Chap. 19.20 because they had not the chief hand above the Tribe of Judah The conspiracy of Sheba in bringing back the King to his house but this was happily suppressed after Joab had procured the inhabitants of Abel to cut off Sheba's head 40. After these things several battels insued with the Philistins 2 Sam. 21. 1 Chron. 20. in one of which the last wherein he was present David hardly escaped the hands of Ishbi-benob one of the sons of the Gyant being rescued by Abishai his Nephew who slew the Philistin Not (c) 2 Sam. 24. long after tempted by Satan and his own ambition he numbred the people for which God being angry proposed to him three sorts of punishments David numbreth the people viz. Famine Sword 1 Chron. 20.7 or Pestilence as to which he chose rather to fall into the hands of God then of man Then God sent a Plague whereby perished in one day 70000 men but as the Angel was also about to destroy Jerusalem he was commanded to desist David at length having arrived at seventy years of Age was so decayed and spent by his many labours and troubles 1 Kings 1. that he could not receive any heat from Cloaths and therefore a young maid one Abisag 1 Chron. 28.29 a Shunamite was chosen out to lye in his bosom Adoniah his son taking advantage at this infirmity by the assistance of Joab the General and Abiathar the Priest seized upon the Kingdom Maketh Solomon King When he had notice thereof according to the prediction of God and his promise unto Bathsheba he established Solomon in his Throne and having given him a charge Dieth died about six moneths after when he had reigned over Judah alone in Hebron seven years and six moneths and in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah 33 years in the year of the World according to the vulgar way of reckoning without taking in the 100 years formerly mentioned in the History of the Judges 2985. A. M. 2985. 41. David being dead and Solomon established in the Kingdom 1 Kings 2. Adonijah asked Abisag the Shunamite to wife and for that was put to death Solomon putteth Adoniah and others to death as affecting the Soveraignty Abiathar was removed from the Priesthood and Zadok of the Posterity of Phinehaz placed in his room as had been foretold by God against the house of Eli from which the Priesthood now returned Joab for fear fled to the horns of the Altar and there was slain by Benaiah who was made Generall in his stead Simei who had cursed David when he fled from Absalon was commanded to build him an house in Jerusalem and not to stir thence beyond the Brook Kidron upon pain of death which he after two years suffered having broken the order Chap. 3. Solomon within a year after his Father's death married the Daughter of Pharaoh after which offering 1000 burnt-offerings at Gibeon where the Tabernacle then rested God appeared to him in a dream and offered him whatsoever he would ask He asked onely wisdom to govern his people and neither riches nor honour with which God was so well pleased that he made him to excell therein all meer men and accumulated also the other upon himâ— 42. Having all things in a readinesse for building an house to the Lord Chap. 6. Clemens Stromat lib. 4. for which David his Father had made large provisions Vaphres King of Aegypt supplying him with 80000 Men and Hiram King of Tyre with as many besides an Architect named Hypero whose Mother was an Israelitish Woman of the Tribe of Judah he laid the foundation of the Temple in the 4th year of his reign and the second day of the second moneth Zif The Structure being in building 7 years The building of the Temple the work began according to their computation who by reckoning the years of the Judges and the oppressions severally add 100 years to the Aera of the World in the 3089th year from the Creation entering was dedicated in the 3095th ending and in the 587th year after the departure out of Aegypt also ending from which if we substract those 40 they lived in the Wildernesse then 547 years will be
strangers with great courtesie and gave them free admission unto honours He then resolved to remove thither with his goods and friends and after his arrival was much made of by Ancus to whom offering his Patrimony for the publick good as exceeding that of a private man he received freedom of the City for himself and followers with ground to build houses and for their sustenance Now he changed his name from Lucumon to Lucius and his wife from Tanaquil to Gaia Caecilia Festus in voce Gaia and from the place of his birth superadded that of Tarquinius During the reign of Ancus who chose him into the Senate he flourished in great esteem with him and in the favour of the people in War no man shewing himself more hardy nor in Council more dextrous prudent or successful and his integrity seemed such unto the King that he left him Guardian to his two sons whereof both were under age and one but yet an infant 25. He took advantage at the minority of the eldest as yet scarce fourteen years old He obtaineth the Kingdom whom sending out of the way under pretence of hunting he made a Speech to the People saith Livie wherein he plainly begged the Kingdom drawing to his private interest the example of Tatius and Numa whom being meer strangers they had chosen to reign over them whereas he was not absolutely such having lived a good space in Rome and been trained up both in civil and military affairs under Ancus He urged then his liberality towards them which things not being meerly pretended he obtained his end and was the first that came to the Government through his own ambitious seeking His first War was with the Latines from whom he took several Towns and amongst the rest Collatia His Wars over which he placed Governour his Nephew Aruns Tarquinius the posthume issue of his brother and Sirnamed Egerius from his poverty having no Patrimony and Collatinus from this place which Sirname continued to his Posterity Having forced the Latines to beg peace notwithstanding their supplies out of Hetruria he turned his Armes against the Sabines who after he had also forced to submit all Hetruria combined against him because he retained such prisoners as he had taken of the Auxiliaries sent by them to the Sabines It was decreed amongst them that what Town soever refused to joyn against him should not be accounted of their body and they presently possessed themselves of Fidenae a Roman Colony But he so ordered the matter that overthrowing them in sundry battels and preparing for another expedition they were humbled to purchase peace owned him for their Prince and as tokens of fealty and allegiance sent him the Ensigns of Soveraignty wherewith their Kings had wont to be adorn'd These were a Crown of Gold an Ivory Chair a Scepter on the top of which was an Eagle a Coat of purple wrought with Gold and a purple Gown pinked like to the Roabs of the Lydian and Persian Kings save that it was not four-square but of a semicircular figure Some write also that they sent 12 Axes for so many Cities it being their custom for every Magistrate in his own Town to have an Axe with Rods carried before him and in a common expedition twelve to be born before their General Others contended that Romulus used these Axes and Rods as a Badge of his Authority to punish Offenders but Dionysius replieth that Romulus might learn this custom of the Hetruscans and if not yet might Tarquinius have these sent to him seeing the people of Rome afterwards used to send Diadems and Scepters to such Kings as they confirmed which these Princes received although they had worn the same Ornaments before 26. In nine years he finished the Hetruscan War and then fell again upon the Sabines who alone contended with the Romans for superiority a vvarlike Nation possessing a large and fertile Countrey not far distant from Rome Over them he obtained his third Triumph and providing for another expedition they prevented him by their intreaties giving up themselves fully into his power whom he received on the same terms as formerly he had done the Hetruscans These were his military actions At the beginning of his reign that he might bind the people to him he chose out an hundred of the Plebeians He encreaseth the Senate who for valour or wisdom were most eminent and added them to the Senate which now first consisted of 300. Romulus at the beginning chose an 100 out of the first planters then added an 100 more of the most noble of the Sabines which with these of Tarquinius were called Patres conscripti and the last Patres minorum gentium Zonaras agreeth with Dionysius concerning the number of Senators made by Romulus adding that Tatius and he at first consulted with their Senators apart but at length they were joyned together so that those are not to be heard who will have but 200 in all during the time of the Kings and 100 afterwards added by Brutus He increased the number of the Vestal Nuns from four to seven The Vestal Nuns adorned the forum built the Walls of the Citie before patched up in haste with 4 square stones Cloacae or Common sinks whereof each was a Cart-load He caused the common sinks to be made for voiding the filth of the Citie into Tiber a work so admirable that Dionysius thinketh from the magnificence of it as from the Aqueducts and the high cawsied wayes the amplitude of the Roman Empire appeared and this is manifested from what C. Aquilius wrote that those sinks being once stopped the Censors spent 1000 Talents in cleansing of them In the Circus Maximus a place dedicated to the beholding of Games and exercises betwixt the Palatine and Aventine Hills he caused seats to be raised for spectators whereas before all stood and he distinguished their places according to their dignity 27. Tarquinius intended to add three Centuries of horsmen named after himself and his friends to the former three instituted by Romulus That King first chose 200 out of the three Tribes or Legions and after the taking in of the Sabines increased the Legions so that each contained 4000. whence it was called Quadrata as Festus observeth yet afterwards a Legion comprised full so many men as were found convenient for the service of the Commonwealth Actius Naevius But he was forbidden by Actius Naevius to change the constitution of Romulus and therefore without increase of the Centuries doubled the number of the men This Naevius was the most famous Augur that Rome ever knew and so well versed in his Art as he never missed in his predictions Tarquinius on a time to try him asked if that was possible to be done which he had in his thoughts who answering yea he laughed him to scorn saying that he had thought of cutting a Whetstone with a Razor which he held in his hand but Naevius still replying he should do it and bidding
him to strike hard he cut thorow it This much inhanced the reputation of his skill and he flourished thenceforth with great honour till at length he was suddenly missing and his body never could be found which turned to the disquiet of Tarquinius For the sons of Ancus Marcius now grown men grudged him their fathers Kingdom and often thought of thrusting him out expecting much from martial men who generally bore love to their fathers memory Now they accused him to the people of having made away the Augur because he had contradicted his devices and created him some trouble till Tullius his son-in-law answered the objections and cleared him of the Calumny Missing of their design this way they counterfeited repentance and being easily reconciled to the old man out of respect to their father cloaked their malice for three years Then they cloathed two of their companions like Shepherds who going to the Court and pretending to be faln out did beat each other and called loud upon the King for Justice having at their backs other Conspirators apparelled also in rustick vveeds who offered to give Testimony on both sides Being called in to the King they wounded him to death and betaking themselves to their heels were caught confessed who were authors of the plot Tarquinius murdered and received their just reward To this end came Tarquinius sirnamed Priscus after his Grand-son of the same name had obtained the Kingdom about 80 years old when he had reigned 38 years and done many and great good Offices for the Commonwealth 28. Tarquinius Priscus being dead Servius Tullius his son-in-law succeeded him in the fourth year of the 50th Olympiad wherein Epitelides the Laconian was Victor Servius Tullius his descent and education when Archestratides was Archon at Athens concerning whose Original and private life something is first to be spoken Dionysius l. 4. Livius l. 1. Florus l. 1. c. 6. A certain man of Corniculum a Town in Latium of Royal bloud was slain when Tarquinius took the place and left his wife Ocrisia big with Child which woman Tarquinius gave to his Queen Tanaquil Ocrisia then was delivered of a son in the Kings house named Tullius and sirnamed Servius by her in remembrance of her bondage When being an Infant he lay in the Cradle a flame of fire is said to have appeared and incompassed his head which raised great expectation of him in Tanaquil a woman skilfull in the mysteries of her Countrey She brought her husband into a great opinion of him so that he was educated by them and answering what had been conceived of him at length was made their son-in-law then abroad he had Command in the Army and at home managed publick Affairs for the King when grown old in all things behaving himself with such integrity valour and prudence as purchased him the love of all the people Now whereas Tarquinius had at his death no sons as Dionysius maketh most manifest but left two Grand-sons both Infants Tanaquil having a desire that Tullius should succeed him kept his death private for some time till he had procured the people to banish the Marcii giving out that the King dangerously wounded though not dead had referred all businesse to him according to his custom Being secure of the faction of the Marcii he then carried out Tarquinius to be buried as newly dead and as Tutor to the young Children executed the Office of King which Tanaquil out of the window had told the people was her husband's will when yet she feigned him to be living But the Patricians grudging Tullius this honour conspired how the next time he assembled the Senate they might constrain him to leave off all the royal ensigns and then go to an Election according to the usual manner 29. He coming to the knowledge hereof Assembled the people and producing the two boyes pleaded their case and his own he promised them to pay all their debts and divide to those that wanted the publick grounds Hereby retaining the power under the notion Guardian The Patritians were sore agrieved thereat but the wisest sort thought it not good to stir though they plainly saw the Authority of the Senate much infringed For they considered that if they should make a King of their own body the people would not approve the choice and if it were referred to the multitude Tullius would assuredly be the man wherefore they thought it more wisdom to suffer him to reign in an unlawfull manner that so they might ever have some just pretence against him than by stirring in the matter to procure him a legal Title But he prevented this their design going with his mother mother-in-law and all his kindred in mourning habits unto the Forum where he shewed the people how lamentable his condition was through the plots of the Patritians against him which he deserved no otherwayes than by his good deeds towards the commonality he laid to their charge that they would call in the Marcii that had murdred Tarquinius and expose his posterity who had so well deserved of the State together with himself to the same cruelty and in conclusion offering to lay down all if such was the pleasure of the people and undergo any hardship rather than be troublesom he offered to descend from the Tribunal A great clamour then arose mixed with prayers and tears of those that besought him to retain the Government and presently some that were provided beforehand began to cry out that he was to be chosen King and the Curiae were to be called to the Vote which thing was instantly resolved by the multitude He gladly took hold of the opportunity thanked them that they were mindfull of the benefits received from him promised larger if he were elected King and appointed a day for the Comitia or Assembly whereof he intended to have present those also that were abroad in the Countrey Obtaineth the Kingdom At the day appointed for the Assembly of the Curiae called Curiata Comitia he was chosen King by the suffrages of them all and so in despight of the Conscript Fathers who refused to confirm the choice as the manner was obtained the principality 30. A.M. 3427. V.C. 76. Olymp. 50. an 3. Nebuch 31. Presently after his setlement he accomplished his promise concerning the division of the publick Land to such as were forced to preserve themselves by dayly labour in other mens grounds and in the Curiata Comitia preferred fifty Laws concerning contracts and injuries He added two Hills to the former five viz. the Viminal and Esquiline in the later whereof he lived himself and was the last man that inlarged the Pomaeria of the Citie the Wall whereof was never any further stretched out though very large Suburbs were afterwards added After he had compassed all the seven Hills within one Wall he distinguished the Citie into four parts and instead of three made four Tribes And as Romulus distinguished the people according to their Seats and
her breasts nose ears lips and tongue and in this case sent her home Masistes inraged at this barbarous usage conspired vvith his Children how to be revenged and resolved to fly into Bactria of vvhich he vvas Governour then to stir up that Province and the Sacae vvith vvhom he vvas very gracious into rebellion against his brother But Xerxes coming to the knowledge of the matter sent a party after him vvhich cut him off vvith his Children and all his retinue These things hapned about a year after his return with which endeth the history of Herodotus the Father of history as Cicero called him seeing he is the most antient of all Heathen Writers now extant 70. The same year being the third of the 75th Olympiad Diodorus ad Olymp. 75. an 3. Thucid. lib. 1. and the eighth of the reign of Xerxes a year after the finishing of the Median War so called by the Graecians the Lacedaemonians sent Pausanias famous for his Generalship at the battel of Plataea to set at liberty such Greek Cities as yet were under the Persian who accordingly with 50 Gallies set sail out of Peloponnesus and taking 30 more out from Athens commanded by Aristides first went to Cyprus where he set at liberty such Towns as were yet held by Persian Garrisons and thence to the Hellespont where he took Byzantium and therein many Noble prisoners of the Persians whom he delivered to one Gangylus an Eretrian to be kept as he pretended to be put to death but indeed to restore them to Xerxes For he sent this man secretly to the King and bargained for his daughter to be given him in marriage to betray Sparta and all into his hands He gladly received the message and wrote back again to him by Artabazus the son of Pharnaces whom he sent to the Sea-Coasts to hold intelligence with him and for that purpose gave him the Government of Dascylis recalling Magabates who was over that Province But Pausanias growing more insolent hereupon was suspected and afterwards at length discovered and punished for his treason as farther is to be discovered in it's proper place 71. In the third year of the 77th Olympiad and the sixteenth of Xerxes Diodorus ad Olymp. 77. an 3. Demotion beng Archon or chief Magistrate at Athens the Athenians made choise of Cimon the son of Miltiades for their General and with a considerable force sent him into the Maritime Coasts of Asia with order to relieve the Associates and set at liberty such as were still under the slavery of Persian Garrisons He bends his course towards Byzantium and took Eione and Scyrus inhabited by Pelasgians and Dolopians and divided the grounds thereof by lot then casting in his mind greater designes sailed back to the Piraeus and furnishing himself with more ships increased his Navie to the number of 200 to which he added of the associates 100 more and with all this power sailed towards Caria Here all the Maritime Greek Cities revolted to him and what did not he subdued by strong hand which having done he sailed to Lycia where he had the same successe and now requiring ships to be provided by such as had joyned themselves in society with the Athenians he thereby mightily increased his Navie 72. The Persians now levied both a Land and Sea-Army the former within themselves and the latter out of Phoenicia Cyprus and Cilicia Vide Plutarch in Cimone the General being Tithraustes the base son of Xerxes who by some other is said to have only had command of the Fleet and that Phaerendates was over the Land-forces though this place by another is given to Ariomandes the son of Gobryas Cimon having made discovery that the Persian Fleet rode nigh to Cyprus sailed thither and with 250 ships made head against 340 whereupon ensued a sharp fight both parties fighting with great courage and animosity till at length the Athenians overpowerd the other and spoiling many of their Vessels took about 100 with the men in them the rest escaping to Land at Cyprus the men saved themselves by flight but the ships fell into the hands of the Graecians Cimon not contented with this Victory sailed towards the Land-Army of the Persians then lying upon the River Eurymedon Idem ibid. Diodorus ut prius Polyaenus l. 1. Frontinus Stratag lib. ult cap. ult exempl ultim To deceive the Enemy he put his most valiant men aboard those Vessels lately taken in the fight adorned and clothed after the Persian fashion so that the Persians not doubting at all but that it was their own Fleet kindly welcomed these counterfeits as their friends Hereby Cimon received as such landed his men by night and fell upon the Enemies Camp whence ensued great fear and tumult his men presently killing all they meet and amongst the rest Pheredates Nephew to the King by his brother Of the common sort many were slain others sorely wounded and shortly all put to flight yet they knew not by whom not suspecting the Graecians to have any Land-Army and therefore concluding themselves surprized by the Pisidians upon whom they bordered 73. Suspecting therefore this storm to come from the continent they betook themselves to their ships and the Moon then not shining and the night being very dark the error was the more increased so that not discerning any thing they ran upon their own ruine and great slaughter was made of them on all sides All things being thus in confusion the Graecian General fearing the straggling of his Soldiers too far for booty according to former order that when he set out a Light they should all come back to that place gave out that sign by the ships upon sight of which they withdrew themselves thither Notwithstanding these two Victories which in some sence seemed to excel those of Salamina and Plaâ—aea being fought on the same day yet would he add one thing more as a supplement to them Plutarch ibid. Understanding that 80 Phoenician ships expected as Plutarch saith by the Navy at Eurymedon which was the cause why he set upon it so soon being unwilling they should joyn to be arrived at Hydrus he sailed hastily thither where as yet the news had not arrived but now the Phoenicians suspecting the truth and thereby discouraged he easily overcame took and sunk all their ships and therein the greatest part of themselves miscarried Hereupon ensued a certain agreement betwixt the King and the Graecians 74. The next thing considerable concerning Xerxes is his death Diodorus ad Olymp. 78. an 4. Justin lib. 3. cap. 1. Ctesiac placed in the fifth year after the former transactions by Diodorus There was one Artabanus an Hyrcanian by birth of great power about him as Captain of his Guard who consulted about making him away and transferring the Kingdom to himself and for that purpose inveagled Mithridates the Eunuch the King's Chamberlain by whom being let in by night with his seven sons they strangled him in his bed Hee reigned 21
of the Graecian Forces They return home made War with them against Tissaphernes 50. The Governours of the King's Provinces through which they journyed were Artymas of Lydia Artacamas of Phrygia Mithridates of Lycaonia and Cappadocia of Cilicia Syenesis of Phoenicia and Arabia Dernes of Syria and Assyria Belesis of Babylonia Roparas of Media Arbacas of the Phasiens and Hesperites Teribazus The Governours of the King's Provinces at their return The Carduchans Chalybes Chaldaeans Macrons Cholcans Mosynaecans Coitans and Tibarens were free people and under no man's subjection Paphlagonia was ruled by Corylas the Bithynians by Pharnabazus the Europaean Thracians by Seuthes The total number of the Ascent and Descent was 212 encampings 1150 parasangs 34255 furlongs 4281 miles and more The time of the Ascent and Descent one year and three moneths Thus these Strangers wanting all things ignorant of the Countries through which they passed over precipitous Mountains straight and almost impassable wayes notwithstanding the malice of Enemies sharpnesse of air and difficulty of the Soil by the wonderful Providence of God and singular prudence of Xenophon returned home into Greece as we have it described by Xenophon himself though the seven Books of this Expedition notwithstanding the constant opinion of Antiquity are adjudged by a late Learned Man by reason of the disagreement of their manner of writing from his other works from him and are ascribed to Themistogenes the Syracusian whom * Hellen. 3o. elsewhere he mentioneth to have related these matters However this service performed to Cyrus cost him the losse of his Country being for that banished by the Athenians his Countrymen but the Lacedaemonians taking pitty of him gave him some Lands in the Country of Elis and the Territories of Triphyllis whence we may very well fetch an account of his writing that elegant Treatise of the form of their Commonwealth Plutarch in Artaxerxe 51. In this mean time whilst the Graecians were on their way homewards Parysatis the Queen-mother of Persia greatly lamented the death of her son Cyrus and meditated nothing but revenge upon such as had been instruments in his death whom one way or other getting into her hands she killed with most exquisite torments Parysatis rageth against such as had any hand in the death of her son Cyrus The Carian who vaunted he and no other had killed him being designed by Artaxerxes to be beheaded because he robbed him of the glory of so valiant an action she begged of the King that she might have the punishing him and so delivered him to those who for ten dayes tormented him then digged out his eyes and lastly made an end of him by powring melted brasse into his ears Mithridates guilty of the same Crime of boasting and thereby greatly incensing the King who would have had all men to believe that he alone in a single Duel had slain his brother was condemned to be put to death after an odd kind of punishment full of cruelty then in use in Persia The Malefactor was laid on his back between two hollow things in form like to Boats so fitted together that his head hands and feet mightâ—ly out and the rest of the body be contained within Being thus made fast meat was given to him and if he would not receive it he was forced to eat by pricking of his eyes and when he did eat instead of drink honey and milk mixed together were powred into him being so placed as ever to have his eyes against the Sun Hereby it came to passe that his face would be wholely covered with flies and doing that within the Engine which a man needs must who keepeth constantly eating and drinking from the putrefaction of the Excrements were Maggots and Worms bred which creeping up into the entrails fed upon the body so that the miserable man being dead and the upper part of the Engine removed they might see the flesh devoured and swarms of filth sticking on the Carcasse After this manner was Mithridates by degrees extinct after seventeen dayes 52. Parysatis after this having won from Artaxerxes her son at Dice Idem ibid. the Eunuch Megates who had cut off the head and hands of Cyrus caused him to be flead alive Her study then was how to rid herself of Statira her daughter-in-law whom she never cared for now hated mortally and emulated her by reason of her hatred against Cyrus and her power with the King her husband so as she resolved in the procurement of her destraction to hazard her own safety Being now in appearance reconciled and all old things forgotten so as they met and supped together she thence took occasion secretly to work her death The Bird Rhyntaces wherein Parysatis poysoneth Statira There was a bird in Persia called Rhyntaces in which being nothing superfluous or of excrement all the inward parts were filled with fat This as Ctefias wrote she cut it in two with a knife whereof the one side was onely poysoned then taking the clear half to her self she gave the other which the poyson had touched unto Statira who suspecting nothing for that she see her eat herself of the bird before her did eat it up and died after great convulsions and torment She suspected her before her death and possessed the King with the matter who knew sufficiently the cruel and implacable disposition of his mother He presently with Tortures examined her neerest servants but she kept Gygis a woman who had been accessary to the fact and would not give her up to him till at length having notice that she should go out of the house by night he surprized and condemned her to die the death due to poysoners by the Persian Law which was that the head of the Malefactor being laid on a great stone with another it was broken and flatted As for his Mother he hurt her not at all either by word or deed but she desiring to go to Babylon he sent her adding onely this that he would not see that Citie so long as she lived This was the state of the Domestick affairs of Artaxerxes 53. After the overthrow of Cyrus Diodorus ad an 1. Olymp. 95. he sent down Tissaphernes not Pharnabazus as is falsly written in Diodorus to the Sea-Coasts to recover them into his power the Governors of which fearing now to pay dearly for their compliance with Cyrus sent to make their peace with this new General and sought all wayes possible to be received into his favour But Tamos a man of prime note amongst them and Governour of Ionia shipping his goods and all his sons except one named Cyaos who afterwards became Captain of the Kings forces sayled for fear of Tissaphernes into Egypt to Psammitichus the King hoping for former curtesies to be received but he without consideration of former benefits to get his ships and money to himself murdered his friend with his Children In the mean time the Ionians fearing Tissaphernes Idem ibid. Xenoph.
Foot-men and 1200 Horse besides others that used bows on Horseback and 6000 Archers on foot of Gallies fit for sail 300 and he added other things to make them couragiously begin the War They obeyed him in fetching their goods into the City and shutting up themselves there though much to their prejudice and trouble but such authority had he with the people having first to ingratiate himself inlarged the authority and liberty of the multitude whereby afterwards in effect he ruled alone They set themselves also with all their might to the rigging of their Fleet and gathering together the forces of their Confederates 6. The Peloponnesian Army entred Attica by Oenoe a Castle of the Athenians upon the frontiers of Boeotia and there Archidamus staid providing all things for the storm Being somewhat long in his preparations his adversaries thence found matter wherewith to accuse him as one who affected the Athenians and on purpose before at the Isthmus SECT 2. and now also protracted the time till they should have removed all their goods out of Attica He indeed thought they might be inclined to a composure for the saving of their goods and therefore did delay his march but finding no message sent and not being able to take the Castle he removed about 80 dayes after the Thebans entred Plataea in the height of Summer Corn being now ripe and invaded Attica which he wasted as far as Acharnae the strongest Garrison of all the Countrey and but seven or eight miles distant from Athens When they in the Citie understood this having not suspected he would have peirced so far and afflicted for the losse they sustained they began to be much moved especially they of Acharnae who seemed to themselves a considerable part in the State and tumultuously gathering together now began to rail at Pericles for that he being General did not lead them out against the Enemy He would not call the assembly nor any Company together for fear they should resolve rashly upon any thing but was very carefull of the defence of the Citie and sent out a party of horse of which some were Thessalian Auxiliaries to restrain the excursions of the Enemy into the parts adjacent which was beaten back with some losse At length the Peloponnesians seeing the Athenians would not come out to fight removed from Acharnae and wasting other places departed through Boeotia into Peloponnesus and went severally to their own homes 7. Whilest they were yet in Attica the Athenians to divert them sent out a Fleet of 100 Gallies on which were aboard 1000 Soldiers of heavy Armour and 400 Archers with which the Corcyraeans joyned 50 Vessels more The Athenians send a Fleet into Peloponnesus to divert their enemies and other associates contributed their numbers Coasting the Peloponnesian shoar besides other harm done they landed in Laconia and had taken Methone then unwalled and meanly manned but that Brasidas the Spartan with 100 men brake through and getting into the Town defended it so as they were glad to retreat to their ships Then went they to Elis where they seized on Phia and staying there two dayes harrased the Countrey and overthrew such as were sent to restrain them but their ships being sorely tossed with a Tempest and hardly recovering the Haven of Phia and understanding also that greater forces were coming against them they departed thence and grievously distressed such places as they came to At the same time also another Fleet was sent from Athens to infest the Locrians and defend Eubaea which did much harm upon the Coasts of Locris took Thronâ—um took Hostages with them and overthrew the Locrians that came out to resist them They eject the Inhabitants of Aegina and plant a Colony of their own in the Island In the same Summer the Athenians cast out the Inhabitants of Aegina for that they imputed to them the especial cause of the War and judged that Island convenient for them to place a Colony therein of their own The Lacedaemonians out of requital for the kindnesse received from them during the Earth-quake and War with their slaves and out of hatred to the Athenians gave them Thyrea and its Territories to inhabit which separate Laconia from the Countrey of Argos reaching as far as the Sea but such of them as this place for its straightnesse could not receive were dispersed up and down Greece it self An Eclypse of the Sun on the third of August 8. This same Summer at the change of the Moon hapned such an Eclypse of the Sun at which time saith Thucydides it is judged that it can onely happen that at Mid-day the Stars were seen which according to the Julian account hapned on the third day of August as the Astronomical Tables demonstrate About the same time the Athenian Fleet of 100 Gallies having in Acarnania taken several Towns came to Cephallenia an Island lying over against Acarnania and Leucas which being inhabited in four Towns they reduced without one stroak and so returned home In the beginning of Autumn the Athenians with a vast Army invaded Megaris which wasting in an Hostile manner they returned and so they did once a year till they got Nisaea into their hands At this time also they placed a Garrison in Ataelante an Island belonging to the Locrians of Opus which hitherto no body had peopled lest it should prove an Harbour for Robbers that from Locris might prey upon Eubaea In Winter according to their custom they solemnised the Funeral for those that first died in the War on this manner First their bones for three dayes were laid out to be seen in a Tent The manner of burying those who died in the Wars where it was lawfull for their friends to come and do such duties as was usual to the dead Then when they were carried out each Tribe came and putting the bones of their fellows into Cypresse Coffins carried them away on Chariots and one Chest was carried empty for such as had not been found the women of their kindred making lamentation as for them Then were they buried in a publick Sepulchre in the most famous Suburb of the Citie called Ceramicus where all slain in War were constantly buried except they that fell at Marathon who for their greater honour were buried in the place of the fight After they were buried some one Eminent for prudence and eloquence made a Funeral Oration in commendations of them which at this time was most excellently performed by Pericles The scope of his speech was to shew they deserved immortal glory for shedding their bloud in their Countreys behalf and to excite the living to seek after such renown With this Winter ended the first year of the Peloponnesian War whose History for its influence into the whole is the more considerable 9. In the Spring the Peloponnesians again under conduct of Archidamus their former General invaded Attica at which time fell also upon it Thucyd. lib. 2. ad ann 2. a most
make themselves Masters of all They sent Aeschines and Aristotle tvvo of their company to Sparta to desire a Garrison for the better government of the City till they had taken out of the vvay all naughty persons and had setled the Commonvvealth promising themselves to pay the Soldiers Lysander being made use of procured vvhat they desired and Callibius vvas sent as Harmostes unto Athens whom they so flattered that they brought him to consent to vvhatsoever they should act Novv then they fell upon not onely naughty and dissolute persons but on the best vvhosoever they thought ill affected and would endeavour to stop their proceedings Theramenes one of them protested against this cruelty and added that it was impossible their power should continue in that State without a sufficient company to assist them Hereupon they fearing him lest he should make himself Captain of the discontented which was almost the whole City chose out of the Citizens 3000 which they thought meetest for their purpose and gave them some part of the power with this privilege that none of them should be put to death without the consent of the Senate all the rest of the People being left to the discretion of the thirty whom they also disarmed at a general muster 2. Now thinking themselves secure enough they filled all places with murders Fill all places with murders and rapine not onely of their private Enemies but such whose wealth might enrich them of which they were excessive greedy and to this purpose they agreed that every one should name one man whom he would put to death for to seize upon his goods Theramenes having disliked the election of the 3000 uttered now also his detestation of this wickednesse refusing himself to commit it For this they were more jealous of him fearing he might crosse their abhominable practices and resolved upon his destruction so that having provided a Company of young men with daggers to assist them they called the Senate together and therein Critias his once familiar friend but now his deadly Enemy because the most cruel Tyrant of the thirty bitterly accused him as a turbulent and unsetled man being novv for the People and another vvhile against them he objected against him the death of the six Captains procured by him and concluded he vvas not a fit man to live in a Common-vvealth Theramenes one of them for detesting their wickednesse is put to death especially so constituted Theramenes replyed vvith undaunted courage and gave satisfaction to the Senate as Critias perceived by their muttering vvho thereupon concluding that if he escaped it vvould endanger his ovvn life he consulted vvith his Companions and then returning to the Senate told them that having first expunged his name out of the Catalogue of the 3000 and hereby he being subjected to their censure they condemned him to death Theramenes replied again that his name was no more easy to be blotted out than any other mans in consideration vvhereof he advised them all to make his case their ovvn but none daring to oppose for that they knew the men that were present to be privily armed he was led away and compelled to drink poyson which he did with a resolute and gallant Spirit After this the Tyrants as being at liberty to do what they pleased forbad all that were not contained in the Catalogue to come into the City from which they expelled them and the borders that they and their Associates might enjoy their Lands The Citizens betook themselves to the Piraeus but being thence also expelled they filled Megara and Thebes with their multitudes 3. This banishment of the Athenians procured their liberty For now they entred into consultation and resolved to hazard their lives for the freedom of their Country seeing that now what would have been treason at home would have no danger abroad but such as might be found in the execution First Thrasybulus who was then at Thebes with but * Corn. Nepos in Thrasybulo thirty in his company seized upon Phyla a Castle in the Territories of Athens which the Tyrants understanding endeavoured to recover but to no purpose for he having gotten to him within a while 700 men put to flight the Garrison Soldiers of Sparta whom they had set to watch two miles off from the Castle killing of them about 120 men Herewith the Tyrants were something discouraged Thrasybulus opposeth the Tyrants but thinking it best to get Eleusine into their power they went thither and perceiving the Inhabitants that were able to bear Arms to go out at the gates that they might onely as they pretended take the number of their heads most wickedly murdered them After this Thrasybulus with 1000 men seized upon the Piraeus against whom though the Tyrants came out with their whole power yet he obtained the victory against them killing 70 and what more Critias the Arch Tyrant with Hippomachus one of his Collegues and Charmiaes one of the ten Captains which had been placed over the Piraeus When the slain were delivered up to be buried and thereupon both parties met Câ—eocritus a Cryer belonging to the Priests and a man famous for his loud and audible voice expostulated with those who sided with the Tyrants for expelling them their fellow Citizens educated together partakers heretofore of the same things sacred and prophane prosperous and adverse and all for to satisfie the lust of those Monsters who had kindled such a flame as had already consumed more than the Peloponnesian War did in ten years His speech produced such effect that the 3000 fell at difference amongst themselves such as had been busied in the destruction of other men together with the Tyrants vehemently contended that nothing was to be granted to them in the Piâ—aeus but those that were confident in their own innocence crying out there was no reason that they should obey the will and pleasure of the thirty and suffer the Citie to perish prevailed against them Then was the power of the thirty abrogated and ten chosen into their room one out of very Tribe Their power is abrogated after which they quitted the Citie and retired to Eleusine 4. Notwithstanding the change of the Government yet there was no accord betwixt them in the Piraeus and those in the Town They send for aid from Sparta but several acts of Hostility they committed against one another At length the 3000 in the Town and the Tyrants of Eleusine sent to Sparta to desire aid against the other saying that the people revolted from the Lacedaemonians and Lysander procured them 100 Talents to be sent out of hand himself ordered to go General to assist them and his brother Libys General of the Fleet. Then besieged he the Piraeus Lysander is sent and besiegeth Thrasybulus and his fellows in the Piraeus both by Land and Sea and sorely straightned them but Pausanias the Spartan King thinking much that he should get the glory of Conquering Athens the second
The peace of Antalcidas the Exiles returned home These things being done and the League sworn to by all parties this first peace was made betwixt the Lacedaemonians and Athenians with their followers A. M. 3618. Ol. 98. an 2. V.C. 367. Artax Maem 18. after the ending of the Peloponnesian War and casting down of their Walls being called the peace of Antalcidas for so it was termed from the procurer being indeed the shamefull betraying of those Cities into the hands of Artaxerxes for which Agesilaus had prosecuted the War in Asia 25. The Lacedaemonians were they who had the benefit thereof being the Protectors and Patrons of it and grew so high upon the successe that now they resolved to chastize such of the Associates as had in the late War born greater affection to their adversaries than themselves The Spartans hereupon grew high First they fell upon the Mantineans as guilty of this Crime whom by their King Agesipolis for Agesilaus because of the friendship that passed betwixt his father and them desired to be excused they forced first to break down their Walls by turning the River upon them which ran through the Citie and then to divide themselves into Villages After this they forced the Phliasians to receive their Exiles and made War upon the Olynthians in Thrace at the request of the Acanthians and Apollonians who accused them of clandestine practices with the Athenians and Thebans By these courses they hoped that all the small Towns in Greece upon occasion would willingly follow them in their Wars as Authors of their liberty and the great Cities having lost their Dependents would be unable to make opposition And in particular they had conceived an emulation against Olynthus now grown so mighty that not onely she commanded her neighbour Towns but was become terrible to places far remote The practices of the Olyâ—thians and to Sparta her self The Olynthians had taken a great part of Macedonia together with Pella the Metropolis of that Kingdom and now imitating the old pretence of the Lacedaemonians to set at liberty the places over which Amyntas did Tyrannise had almost driven him out of his Dominions and taken all to themselves They of Acanthus and Apollonia further adding that either they must War upon Olynthus or become subject to it and fight shortly in its defence Eudamidas was sent before with 2000 men He arriving in Thrace fortified the Cities and recovered Potidaea which had associated it self to the Olynthians and managed his affairs with successe answerable to such force In the mean time his brother Phoebidas according as he had requested of the Ephori was employed in raising the main body of the Army and having compleated the leavy marched away for Thrace to joyn with him 26. At this time the Thebans were much divided amongst themselves Xenoph. ut supra Plutarch in Agesilao being headed by two Polemarchi Ismenias and Leontidas When Phoebidas was come on his journey as far as Thebes Ismenias out of his hatred to the Lacedaemonians would not see him but his Collegue betrayed Cadmaea the Citadel of Thebes into his hands seized on Ismenias and got the command of the whole Citie whereat those of the contrary faction to the number of 400 fled to Athens Cadmea the Citadel of Thebes betrayed Then another being chosen into the place of Ismenias Leontidas went to Sparta where he found the Ephori and people much displeased with what Phoebidas had done being both against the League and without any Commission from them and such as were Enemies to Agesilaus especially aggravated the matter labouring to draw him into suspition about it He otherwise as great both a commender and practiser of Justice as any yet took upon him to defend the fact saying that Phoebidas was worthy to be punished if he had done any thing that was hurtfull to the Commonwealth but if it was profitable The fact is unjustly excused by Agesilaus then according to the ancient custom he was not bound in such cases where haste is required to stay for a Warrant Following herein his ambition or giving way to his passion which most shewed it self against the Thebans he not onely indemnified Phoebidas but perswaded the Citie to own what he had done to keep the Castle and prefer Archias and Leontidas who had betrayed it to the chief command of Thebes The rest of the Graecians were sore aggrieved at what was done but the Confederates durst not contradict it and each Citie joyned one Commissioner to three sent from Sparta who all together should take Cognisance of and judge the cause of Ismenias He was accused before them of having favoured the Barbarians and held intelligence with the Persian that he had received part of the money sent from him to corrupt the Graecians Ismenias put to death and together with Andocides had been the great incendiary who kindled and fomented their intestine broils He answered severally and apart to all but being believed to have attempted great and pernicious things was condemned and put to death Then was the power established in Leontides and his Complices who did more in favour of the Lacedaemonians than was desired of them 27. Things thus prospering the Lacedaemonians more cheerfully pursued the War against Olynthus They sent General thither Teleutias who with the help of Amyntas the Macedonian Teleutias sent by the Spartans against the Olynthians and Derdas Prince of Elimea overthrew the Olynthians under their walls and wasting their grounds for that Summer was ended withdrew to their Winter quarters But the next year when he returned the Olynthians sallied out against him whom to repel he sending a party which drave them back beyond a River which ran by the Town and followed them over they then thinking they had his men at an advantage turned back upon them and slew to the number of 100. He being in a great chafe hereat went in to the rescue with all his Forces and following them within bow-shot from the walls his men were sore galled by those that stood on the Turrets and forced to give back and then being hotly charged he lost his life with many others so that the rest clearly put to the rout Is slain and shifting for themselves to several places the strength of this Army was broken which defeat Xenophon chargeth upon the passion of Teleutias shewing how dangerous it is in the Leader of an Army The Lacedaemonians having notice of what had hapned Agesipolis sent after him dieth of a Feaver dispatched away Agesipolis their King with all convenient speed into Thrace who upon better advantages invading the Olynthians took Torone one of their confederate Towns and harrazed the Country but at Midsummer by extremity of heat got a Fever of which he died the seventh day being much lamented by Agesilaus his Colleague for their long familiarity though emulated by him Being put into Honey and brought home there he was interred with Royal rites and
Justice Temperance Wisdom Magnanimity and Sincerity he excelled all men and so far in Military skil the art of a General and in valour that he could not adequately be called a Valiant Politick Wary Bountiful Industrious or Prudent Captain all these Titles and many others being due unto him His modesty was incredible shewing it self especially in this that after the Victory of Leuctra and many other rare atchievements he refused not to go in the Expedition into Thessalie in quality of a private Soldier He was grave yet affable and courteous as a means to all those virtues having great insight into all parts of Philosophy and Learning being therein instructed by Lycis the Tarentine a Pythagorean But * Corn. Nepos in vita Epamin enough will be said in his commendation if this be added that the City Thebes before the birth and after the death of Epaminondas was ever subject to the command of others but as long as he had to do in the management of the affairs thereof was the head of all Greece from which may be gathered that this man was of more consequence than the whole City 61. For with Epaminondas all the strength of the Theban Commonwealth was extinct as if he had not onely died Justin but all the rest of the Citizens with him who as before him they did nothing memorable so now after were famous for nothing but their overthrows and disasters After this battel of Mantinea all the Graecians being tired out with War Diodorus entred into a League offensive and defensive together out of which Agesilaus would have excluded the Messenians But Artaxerxes stood for them as having Territories as large and fruitful as the Laconians whereupon the Lacedaemonians burning with an implacable grudge against them refused to subscribe and alone by themselves refused to be comprehended in the League Corn. Nepos Plutarch in Agesilao hoping still to recover Messenia This reflected something upon Agesilaus who out of an insatiable thirst after War had by his utmost endeavour hindred the union of Greece and the burying of publick quarrels And he seemed to increase the infamy by undertaking an Expedition shortly after into Aegypt though it was by his service in his decrepit old age to get some money for the supply of the now very poor and exhausted State For it appeared a thing unseemly for the best man in Greece and one who had filled the world with his fame Agesilaus blamed to go serve a mean man and a Traytor and venture his life credit and all for a little gain when as because of his old age he had refused the Office of General at home and in his own Country though for the liberty of Greece But he thought nothing too much wherein he might serve the Commonwealth and in this respect undervalued his own honour and having served in Aegypt in a condition far unworthy of him after he had received 230 talents of Silver as a reward from Nectanbis died in his return when he had lived 84 and reigned 41 years A most excellent Captain in whom Nature inwardly made amends for that wherein outwardly she had been deficient His death most ambitious of glory and yet of exceeding great humility which he shewed in his house and in his constant conversation Though his justice was overruled by his passion in the businesse of the Theban War yet generally he held it most sacred and as a punishment for his default therein that great glory whereby he even reigned over Greece till then was afterwards together with the splendor of the Lacedaemonian greatnesse much eclypsed by the rising Fortune of Epaminondas 62. Artaxerxes King of Persia and Agesilaus of Sparta Diodorus ad Olymp. 104. an 3. died both in the same year and the next after the death of Epaminondas And the same year the peace of Greece was again broken by some Arcadians who having been translated out of the neighbouring places into Megalopolis took occasion at some words of the League which gave leave to all to return home to quit the City and return to their old habitations The other Megalopolitans endeavoured to reduce them by force Stirs amongst the Megalopolitans and thence insued a great controversie they calling in to their help the Mantineans and the rest of the Arcadians and Eleans The Megalopolitans sent to the Athenians for aid who sent them 3000 Foot and 300 horse under the command of Pammenes He with this Force took some of the Towns and terrified others into composition and so reduced them all to Megalopolis The year following Alexander the Phaerean Tyrant subdued several of the Cyclades and took thence abundance of Captives The Athenian Garrison commanded by Leosthenes opposed him in Peparethus whereupon he set upon the Athenian Gallies and took them together with one belonging to Peparethus and 600 prisoners The Athenians inraged hereat condemned Leosthenes and sent Chares with a Fleet into those parts who spending his time in scaring the Enemies but oppressing the Confederates thereby contracted an ill name For going to Corcyra he there caused such a Sedition as could not be ended but in the ruine of many and committed other things which much tended to the disgrace of those that sent him With this year Diodorus concludeth his fifteenth Book having according to his promise related such things as hapned before the reign of Philip King of Macedonia and such as together with other affairs of the Greeks related by others shew that peace security and order are things little akin to Antimonarchical Government Learned Men during this period 63. Of Learned Men Contemporary with this period in the first place is to be remmebred Hippocrates native of the Island Cous Prince of all Physicians He was the son of Heraclidas and Phaenarete Sordanus the twentieth in descent from Hercules and the nineteenth from Aesculapius Some have written that he was born in the first year of the 80th Olympiad But a certain passage mentioned in his life of his curing Perdiccas of an Erωtick Feaver Hippocrates argueth him at this time to have been famous This Perdiccas King of Macedonia who having reigned 28 years according to Eusebius or according to others 53 died about the third of the 93 Olympiad fell in love with Phila his Father Alexander's Concubine but modesty forced him to conceal his grief till he fell into a Consumption and languished Hippocrates by the motion of his eyes found out the cause of the distemper and told Phyla it was in her power to save the King's life whereupon she was willing though with the impairment of her own credit to redeem it The like story is told of Erasistratus the Physician who discovered that Antiochus the son of Seleucus was in love with his Fathers Concubine which Galen * mentioneth adding Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he had made the same discovery in a certain woman 64. Hippocrates grew so famous in his Art that
and severely prohibited Wine as much as to be tasted in in the Camp as Plato recordeth in his Laws This also Aristotle commendeth that for an incouragement to warfare they had a Law which gave liberty to a Soldier to wear so many Rings as he had served times in the field The People were by their natural constitution morose and surly obedient to their Magistrates The disposition of the people agreeable with their government tyrannical towards their Subjects most dejected in time of fear and cruel in anger resolute in their designs notwithstanding all force of flattery and so infamous for their breach of faith that the Punick faith or trust became a Proverb As for their greatnesse and Dominion the description thereof is to be left to it's proper place Now must their affaires abroad in Sicily and other parts be defined with the matters of that Island 12. At what time or upon what occasion the Carthaginians first came into Sicilie is uncertain (a) Decad. 1. lib. 4. Livie will have them first called in by the Sedition of the Islanders in the year that T. Quintius Sirnamed Cincinnatus as also Penno and Cn. Julius Mento were Consuls which was in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War the 323 year of the City 50 years after the passage of Xerxes into Greece and consequently as many from the Victory which Gelon got over them a grosse mistake (b) Lib. 18. Justin out of Trogus having first related their impious custom of pleasing their gods by humane Sacrifices addeth that the divine powers being therewith displeased or averse to them when they had long unhappily made War in Sicilie they translated it into Sardinia and there losing the greatest part of their Army received a grievous overthrow whereupon they banished Mazaeus their General by whom they had conquered a great part of Sicilie Mazaeus and done great matters against the Africans with that part of the Army which remained The Army taking this in great disdain sent to the City to desire a repealing of the Act of banishment and threatned by force to rescind it in case they were thereto constrained by a denyal of their sute Their message being despised they besieged the City and after a few dayes took it Mazaeus calling the People together complained of the injury excused the necessity of the War and inveighed against the contempt of his Victories He said he would pardon all but such as had been authors of the injurious Exile of their fellow Citizens and accordingly putting ten of the Senators to death he restored the City to it's Laws Not long after being accused of an intention to make himself absolute he was punished both for his paricide committed against his Country and his own Son as Justin termeth it whom being a Priest he had crucified for refusing to come to him before he had finished his superstitious rites and when he came appeared in his purple and other ornaments which Mazaeus thought unsuitable with the condition of him his Father Him succeeded Mago by whose industy the wealth dominion and reputation of the Carthaginians for matters of War increased Mago 13. Mago being the first who by ordaining military discipline Justin lib. 19 had laid the foundation of Empire and added to the strength of the City as well by introducing Virtue as the Art of War left two Sons behind him Asdrubal and Amilcar who by treading in his paths succeeded as well to the greatnesse as the Patrimony of their Father Under their conduct the State made War in Sardinia and fought against the Africans who demanded Tribute for the ground on which Carthage stood which also at length they constrained the Carthaginians to pay Asdrubal died of his wounds in Sardinia whose death was ennobled by publick mourning eleven Dictatorships as Justin calleth them by which seemeth to be understood no other than so many times sending out or commissionating as General with full power in the field yet so as to be under the commands of the State and four Triumphs and the Enemies of Carthage took heart as if with the Captain it 's force and power was also dead The Inhabitants of Sicilie then vexed with the continual injuries of the Carthaginians betook themselves to Leonidas the brother of the King of Sparta and a great War insued wherein both parties long strugled with various Fortune At this time came Ambassadors from Darius the Son of Hystaspes King of Persia commanding the Carthaginians to forbear offering humane Sacrifices and eating mans flesh requiring them to burn their dead rather than bury them Darius his message to the Carthaginians and demanding assistance against the Greeks with whom he was about to ingage in War They denied to afford any succours because of their continual Wars with their neighbours but obeyed him in the rest lest they should seem too stubborn saith Justin yet that they stood not to their word the testimonies of Plato Diodorus and Pliny do certifie Whilst these things passed Amilcar was slain in the War of Sicilie leaving three Sons Amilco Hanno and Gisgo Asdrubal also left so many viz. Annibal Asdrubal and Sappho Of these Annibal is mistaken for Annibal the great by one who hath made some short Notes upon * Margine ad l. 19. excus Londini pro Felice Kingstonio 1651. Justin and Amilcar his Uncle for Amilcar Barchas Father to the famous Annibal and Mago also for another of this name that lived * Vide infra paragr 53. many years after in the dayes of Dionysius the younger and Timoleon The Annotator wondreth what came into Justin's mind to make Annibal the great the son of Asdrubal and well he might if any such thing had been intended he also referreth the Reader to the life of Timoleon to find that Mago killed himself and was after his death nailed to a crosse because he fought unprosperously in Sicilie which Plutarch intendeth of another person Of this grosse mistake of one whosoever he was that took upon him to inform beginners Students in History are to take notice and beware 14. For this Amilcar seemeth no other than the very same that was slain in the battel fought with Gelon of Syracuse in the sixth year of Xerxes Son to Darius King of Persia from which was made a digression into the affaires of Carthage The great defeat of Amilcar With Amilcar perished 150000 Carthaginians the Captives that remained of his Army filled all the Cities of the Island and the State of Carthage was constrained to beg peace having as some say made this War at the instance of Xerxes that thereby the Greeks in Sicilie might be diverted from helping their Friends After this Herold l. 7. c. 153. Aelian var. hist lib. 13. c. 37. A. M. 3527. Ol. 75. an 3. V. C. 276. Xerxis 8. Gelon was offered the Kingdom of Sicilie but he generously refused it whereby he obtained the greater glory and love At length having setled all things
so inflamed those of his party especially the younger sort that nothing could be determined for the heat of contention This put the Consuls upon dismissing the Senate for that time admonishing the younger sort to carry themselves more respectfully and modestly for the time to come or else they would neither use them as Advisers nor Judges but prefer a Law for limiting a certain age for Senators The graver men they exhorted also to concord letting them know they had a way to end the controversie by referring the matter to the decision of the People which had right to judge of it as a case about Peace and War At the next meeting the ancient men were of the same opinion as formerly but the younger modestly referred themselves to whatsoever they should determin so that the major part by far being wearied with the cries and sollicitations of those who had relations in the Army rather than any reason notwithstanding Appius stuck close to his former resolution resolved to follow the advice of Menenius who with nine others were commissionated with full power both by Senate and People to compose the difference At first the offers of the Commissioners could not be heard through the instigation of two cunning and turbulent fellows Sicinius and L. Junius who conceited of his abilities affected the name of Brutus also Menenius to give full satisfaction promised that such as were unable to pay their debts should be discharged both from obligation and imprisonment and for the time to come matters of this nature should be ordered by the joynt consent both of People and Senate Then adding the Fable of the several members falling out with the belly as consuming all which they provided and thence the ruine and decay of the whole body he so improved it to the present occasion likening the Senate to the belly which digesteth and distributeth sustenance to all the rest though they provide it that the whole multitude convinced of the necessitie of Union cried out He should lead them home without delay 39. Little wanted of their departure without any other security than the bare word of the Commissioners But Junius Brutus a Plebeian formerly mentioned with-held them saying that they were gratefully to acknowledge the kind offers of the Senate but whereas some men of tyrannical spirits might reserve their anger to a convenient opportunity the Commons wanted such good security for the time to come as might defend them from the unreasonable malice of great ones and he moved that they might have certain Officers created yearly out of their own bodie whose power should onely be to give relief to such Plebeians as were injured and suffer none to be defrauded of their right and therefore not to resist the Consuls as some thought This being received by the multitude with great approbation was insisted on to Menenius and his fellows who thought not good to admit of a matter of such large consequence without leave from the Senate and demanded time to know the pleasure thereof The Consuls reporting the matter Valerius thought this favour was to be granted to the Commons and though Appius opposed it earnestly crying out calling their gods to witnesse and truly foretelling what calamities they would bring upon the Commonwealth yet the major part inclining to Peace it was caried for them and the Commissioners were sent back with the resolution of the house The Commons by the advice of Menenius A composure by bringing in the Tribunes first sent to take from the Senate a religious confirmation of this privilege and afterwards in the Assembly of the Curiae elected L. Junius Brutus and C. Sicinius Bellutus A. M. 3511. Ol. 71. an 3. V. C. 260. Darii 28. A. Virginio Montano T. Veturio Gemiao Coss to whom they afterwards joyned C. and P. Licinius and Sp. Icilius Rugu These five first entred this new Office on the fourth of the Ides of December according to the History and computation of Dionysius sixteen years after the expulsion of Tarquin 40. These Officers were called Tribuni Plebis there having been from the beginning other Tribunes in the City named Tribuni Celerum so called from the Peoples being divided into three parts at that time from which so many were sent into the Army as (a) Ling. Lat. l. 4. p. 22. Varro and (b) De Orig. Juris par 20. Pomponius derive the word or because they were elected by the Tribes or oversaw them as others Varro seemeth to hold that the Tribuni Plebis were called Tribunos because they were first made of the Tribunes or Colonels of the Soldiers Livie nameth C. Licinius and L. Albinus for the first two to whom were shortly after added three more viz. Sicinius the Author of the departure and two others concerning which saith he Authors differ In the 297 year of the City five more were added and this number of ten so continued Their number As these Officers were elected by the Commons so ever out of their body except where we read in Livie in his third Book of two Patritians Nay most commonly of the lower sort till a Law ordained that they should be created out of the Senate that is out of such Plebeians as were admitted into the Senate What time this Law was preferred cannot certainly be discovered (c) Bel. civil lib. 1. Appian saith it is not certain whether Sylla did it It should appear from (d) Lib. 14. c. 8. Gellius that there passed a Plebiscitum or Decree of the People for this purpose called Plebiscitum Atinium but what Atinius this should be is also obscure there being one P. Atinius Tribune of the Commons when Julius Caesar and Bibulus were Consuls As concerning their power (e) De Legib. lib. 3. Cicero saith they were opposed against the Consuls but this is not true the occasion of their making not rising from the Consuls At the beginning their power was onely to relieve the oppressed Power as a shield to keep off evil and not as a weapon to inflict it They nulled the unjust as they accounted them Decrees and Commands of the Senate and Magistrates and to shew their readinesse to protect the meanest (f) Plutarch probl 81. their doors stood open night and day to their complaints (g) Lib. 3. c. 2. Gellius telleth us that they could not be absent from the Citie one day not an hour saith (h) Lib. 37. Dion and (i) De bell Civil l. 2. Appian going further confineth them within the Walls They interposed by this one word Veto solemnly pronounced They procured themselves afterward to be accounted Sacrosancti Privilege so as by a Law confirmed with an Oath none might compel a Tribune to do any thing as one of the vulgar neither strike nor command him to be beaten neither kill nor command him to be killed If any did contrary he was to be held as Sacer and his goods being Confiscated unto Ceres it should
power Instead of Horatius Livy mentioneth P. Curiatius SECT II. From the Creation of the Decemviri to the War of Privernae which fell out the same year that Darius Codomannus died the space of 121 years The second change of Government when 1. THe second change in the Government from Consuls to Ten men A.M. 3554. Ol. 82. ann 2. V.C. 302. Artax Longim 14. or Decemviri as the first was from Kings to Consuls hapned in the 302 year of the Citie according to the account of Cato and the 303 after the computation of Larrutius and Varro which fell in with the 2 and 3 years of the 82 Olympiad the 14th of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus 449 before the Aera of Christ A. M. 3554. and as may be gathered both out of Dionysius and Livy on the Ides of May. The acts of the Decemviri for the first year 2. The Decemviri having taken upon them the Government in reference to a new constitution agreed that onely one of them at one time should have the Fasces and other consular Ensigns He assembled the Senate confirmed the Decrees and did other things agreeable with chief Magistracy The rest for to lessen envy differed little in habit from private men having onely an Accensus or sort of Beadle going before them which Livy addeth to the relation of Dionysius They succeeded by turns for a certain limited time till the year went about The present Possessor of the Fasces onely saith Livy but all of them as Dionysius seemeth to mean judged private causes together with publick ones belonging to their subjects and associates All things they managed with such Justice and moderation that the Commonwealth seemed most happy under them having no need of appeal Appius above the rest grew exceeding popular by his familiarily with the ordinary sort so as in a manner he carried away the praise from the whole College for that he had a further design than any of the rest 3. At length having made a model out of such Laws as were brought out of Greece and their own Countrey 's customes they proposed it to the view of all men in ten Tables that any one might make exceptions liberty being given to private persons to inform the Law-makers who consulted much with the Nobility about the work When all approved of them a Senatus Consultum passed nemine contradicente for the ratifying of these Laws and the question being put to the People in the Centuriata Comitia they were confirmed most religiously in presence of the Pontifies Augurs and Priests Then were they ingraven in brasse saith Dionysius and others in Ivory saith Pomponius the Lawyer and proposed to the publick view in the most conspicuous part of the Forum as Minos of old according to Plato and long after him Solon caused his Laws to be written in Tables by the Athenian called * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrbes and Axones The year being almost out the Decemviri moved the Senate about the Comitia After a great debate it was resolved to continue this kind of Magistracy for the following year because something seemed yet wanting to the new model through the shortnesse of time allotted to the work but especially for that by this Office the Tribuneship was suspended of which the Patritians had cause to be most jealous The commons thought they had good reason to concur with the Fathers in this choice and the day for holding the Comitia was appointed The most antient and honorable of the Fathers stood for this Office fearing that if turbulent spirits were possessed of it they might have a great advantage against the State Above all others was Appius extolled to the skies the Commons labouring earnestly to retain him in his place for that none had behaved himself better than he He desired to be excused pretending he had rather be discharged of so troublesom and ingratefull a work At length overcome as it were by the intreaties of the people he professed himself amongst the Candidates Appius obtaineth to be Decemvir the second time by cheating the credulous multitude and by accusing all others as owing him ill will for his publick spirit made way for himself and his friends In the Centuriate Comitia he was made Decemvir the second time and with him was joyned Q. Fabius Vibulanus who had been Consul three times a man hitherto of unblameable carriage out of the other Patritians by the procurement of Appius were created M. Cornelius M. Servilius L. Minucius T. Antonius and Manius Rabuleius persons of no great Eminency and out of the Commons Q. Petilius Caeso Duellius and Sp. Oppius whom he took in the more to ingratiate himself with the rabble saying it was just that the Commons should share in that Magistracy which was to govern and command all 4. Appius a man more popular than any Magistrate that ever governed either King or Consul with his nine Collegues entred his Office on the Ides of May which saith Dionysius hapned in the full Moon according to the course whereof moneths at that time were observed The first thing the Decemviri did He and his Collegues labour to establish themselves was mutually to agree and confirm by Oath to be of one mind not to hold the Assemblies but perpetually to retain the power in their own hands to admit none into their number and to be of equal power and authority amongst themselves to make use of Senatus Consultum 's and Plebiscitum 's but rarely and never except in case of necessity acting most things by virtue of their own power On the first day which to the Romans was ever Festival and Religious after their superstitious Ceremonies were over they all appeared with regal Ensigns which exceedingly terrified the people especially the Axes added again to the Rods which Poplicola had laid aside and none of his Successors the Consuls used in the Citie By this fear they sought to procure themselves security each of them getting about him a company of stout young men such as were most addicted to him Some preferring their private commodity before the publick good flattered them and even amongst the Patritians themselves were not wanting who though Eminent both for birth and estate patiently bore the oppression of their Countrey The Decemviri indulging their pleasures exercised now their authority with all licentiousnesse nothing valuing the Roman Senate and people Being both Legislators and Judges many Citizens they unjustly put to death and deprived others of their Estates whose causes were all formally judged that they might have some shew and pretence of Justice accusers being suborned out of their Dependents each one affording all assistance herein to his Collegue Such private persons as in their sutes feared their cause were constrained to joyn themselves to the party of their Judges so as it came to passe in a short time that most of the Citizens were also corrupted Such as were offended
Curules What their Office was hath been shewn before As for this Chair Gellius writeth Lib. 3. cap. 18. that antiently such Senators as had born a Curule Office were for honour's sake wont to be drawn to the house in a Chariot wherein was a Chair in which they sate and which thence from the Chariot or Currus was called Curulis But others think that both the Orthography of the word and the dismension of the thing crossed this derivation What the Curule Chair was and that it was called Curulis from Cures a Town of the Sabines The form of it upon old Coins represents that of Spanish Chairs used by Princes as Chairs of State It had also crooked feet as Plutarch in the life of Marius describeth it several ascents there were to it it was covered with Ivory as several Authors shew and carved or ingraven according to Ovid. What the Praetorship 40. But as for the Praetor there were two causes of the Creation of this Officer Aemulation and Use The former was wrought in the Patritians by the Commons who now had wrested into their own hands the Consulship The later was brought about by reason that the Consuls were for the most part imployed abroad in Wars and therefore there was a necessity of a Magistrate whose peculiar work it should be to administer Justice in the Citie The Praetor was so called a praeeund as write both (a) Praetor dictus qui praeiret jure exercitu A quo Lucilius Ergo Praetorum est praeire De Ling. Lat. lib. 4. p. 22. Varro and (b) Vide Cap. hujus Sect. 1. Paragr 1. Cice o and agreeably with this Etymology it was once the name of (c) Veteres enim omnem Magistratum cui pareret exercitus Praetorem appellaverunt unde Pretorium tabernaculum ejus dicitur in castris porta Praetoria hodie quoque praefectus pratorio Asconius Pedianus in Verrem de Praetura urbis Consuls also as we shewed before and of all or most other Magistrates Civil or Military It is probable that this name as the other of Dictator Aedilis and Duumvir might come out of Hetruria there being such Officers there of old as Spartianus seemeth to hint and otherwise may be gathered There being but one created at his time viz. in the 388 year of the Citie afterward about the 500 year another was added who administred Justice unto strangers so that for distinction the one was called Praetor Urbanus and the other Peregrinus the former being in Dignity above the other and his Constitutions called Jus Honorarium as we shewed before out of Pomponius This same Author having shewn that after the bringing in of this Praetor Peregrinus the Decemviri for judging of Causes the Triumviri for coyning of Brasse Silver and Gold the Triumviri Capitales for keeping of Prisoâ— and the Quinqueviri for both sides of Tiber for executing what belonged to Magistrates in the evenings at which time they were not to be abroad were created by degrees writeth further that Sardinia being made a Roman Province after that Sicily then Spain and after Norbonensis so many Praetors were made as there were Provinces who partly governed at home and partly abroad Lipsius more particularly affirmeth that in the 520 year of the Citie Sardinia and Sicily being both made Provinces there were two added who as the former two assisted the Consuls in administring of Justice so these in the government of the Provinces When Spain Hispaniae in the plural number was subdued in the year 557. two more were added So there were in all six Praetors whereof two onely remained in the Citie and the other as soon as declared departed into the Provinces as they fell to them by lot this order continued till the examinations called Quaestiones Perpetuae were appointed at which time the Senate resolved that all the Praetors for the year of their Office should continue in the Citie and judge some controversies either publick or private 41. Pomponius proceedeth saying that Cornelius Sulla appointed other publick Examinations or Inquisitions As for example De falso De Paricidio and de Sicariis for which he added four Praerors more but Lipsius saith he is mistaken in the number proving out of Cicero that he made but two C. Julius Caesar appointed other two as also two Aediles called Cereales and afterward 16 Praetors as appeareth from Dio who also relateth the Triumviri with greater liberty to have made 64. Augustus filled up the number to 16. saith Pomponius though first Lipsius will have him to have confined the number to 12. Claudius added two who where to judge onely concerning Fidei Commissa as the Law term is Titus took one from the number but Nerva restored and appointed him to hear and determine Causes betwixt the Exchecquer and private persons Another was appointed by M. Antonius Philosophus called Praetor Tutelaris So in all there were 18. till as the Empire decreased they decreased also in number and at length were reduced to that of three by a Law of Valentinian and Marcian As for the Office of Praetors the Praetor Urbanus who was also called Praefectus Urbi though the Praefectus was afterward onely chosen for the Latine Feriae in the absence of the Consuls executed their Office in the Senate and Comitia But three things especially belonged to them Games Sacrifices and Judicature The former onely continued to them in a manner when the Empire decayed Their Judicature was either in publick or private matters Private causes concerning meum and tuum two onely handled viz. the Urbanus and Peregrinus Publick or Criminal matters were managed by all the rest who yet had their several and distinct Crimes one or two which they judged and yet sometimes in their Provinces they managed Civil matters also They had the same Ornaments and Ensigns of power as the Consuls onely but six Lictors apiece whereas the other had twelve In respect of their power and honour as also because they were created by the same Auspicia Livy calleth them the Collegues of Consuls 42. The first Consul out of the body of the Commons was L. Sextius Liv. Lib. 7. by whose Law the privilege was obtained the first Praetor Sp. Furius the son of Camillus and the first Aediles Curules were Cn. Quintius Capitolinus and P. Cornelius Scipio To Sextius was given as Collegue from amongst the Patritians L. Aemylius Mamercus and so the Consuls again returned after 23 years The many alterations in the Roman Government these being the 88 pair as they are found in Livy and the Tribunes Military were for ever laid aside after 48 courses of that Office and fifteen changes from the Consulship to it and from it to the Consulship Besides these changes of Government in Rome there were the two Grand ones from Kings to Consuls and from Consuls to the Decemvâ—ri and to this time from the first of these alterations had intervened 20 Dictatorships besides
ambiguous an answer was made as the Samnites being left but dubious the Latines and the other thought themselves so far disobliged as to rebel T. Manlius Torquatus now Consul the third time with Decius Mus his Collegue was sent to chastize the Latines Upon dreams which they both had that one General on the one part and the Army on the other belonged to the Dii Manes and Tellus mater they agreed that in what part the Roman Army should be distressed he under whose command it was should devote himself and that strict discipline should be observed so that all were forbidden to fight without orders The Army being sorely put to it in Decius his wing he devoted himself and rushing into the midst of his Enemies after great slaughter made lost his life Decius Mus devoteth himself L. Manlius the other Consul's Son passing with his Troop A. M. 3666. Ol. 110 an 2. V.C. 415. Ochi 23. Philippi 22. before the battel near the Camp of the Enemy was challenged by Geminius Metius Captain of the Tusculans whom when he had slain and stripped his Father for a reward caused him to be put to death whence cruel Commands were wont to be called Manliana Dicta Of the manner of the Combat * Lib. 9. cap. 13. Aulus Gellius or Agellius is to be consulted The Latines being overthrown were wholly subdued and begged Peace which being given to them though not with the same conditions to all Manlius returned and was met by antient men onely the young ones refusing to do him that honour who ever after both hated and cursed him in reference to his son 46. After his return the Antiates and Ardeates made incursions into the Roman Territories Being by sicknesse rendred unfit for War he named L. Papyrius Crassus for Dictator who appointed L. Papyrius Cursor his Master of Horse-men but nothing memorable was done The Consuls for the following year The Latines overthrown T. Aemilius Mamercus and Q. Publius Philo overthrew the Latines who had rebelled because of the grounds taken from them Publius by whose conduct and auspicium the Victory was obtained receiving into amity such Cities as had been worsted Aemilius led the Army against Pedus which received supplies from several places Though he had the better in all skirmishes yet the Town holding out and he hearing that his Colleague was returned home to his deceed Triumph he also left the Siege and departed to demand that honour The Senate was offended and denied to permit him the honour except Pedus was either taken or surrendred which caused him out of revenge all the year following to joyn with the Tribunes against the Fathers his Collegue not opposing it because a Plebeian The Senate having a desire to be rid of them commanded a Dictator to be named but it belonging to Aemilius to name him he whose were the Fasces for this moneth named his Collegue who appointed Junius Brutus his Master of Horse-men And his Dictatorship was very grievous to the Nobility being full of invectives against them and the procurer of three Laws whereof the first altered the very constitution of the State The very constitution of the State changed This was that the Plebiscita should bind all the Quirites or the whole People comprising all rankes and degrees The second that such Laws as passed in the Centuriata Comilia should be proposed by the Fathers before the Suffrage The third that one of the Censors at least should be a Plebeian whereas now it was come to that passe that both might be such Thus did the Government of Rome devolve fast to a Democratical temper the interest of the Patritians being now quite broken by the force of the former Law which proved as a Lex talionis to them and as a punishment for their rebellion against their Kings in they 416 year of the City after Varro's account which fel in with the first of Arses King of Persia and the 23 of Philip King of Macedonia 47. In the following year wherein L. Furius Camillus and C. Maenius were Consuls Pedus was taken by storm and the Consuls in pursute of the Victory subdued all Latium All Latium subdued for which they triumphed and had Statues on horseback set up in the Forum an honour but rare in those dayes The several People of Latium had several conditions of Peace set them To Antium was sent a new Colony and the old inhabitants were forbidden the Sea had all their long-ships taken from them had leave to enter themselves in the Colony and were made free of the City The ships were partly brought into the Roman Arcenal partly burnt and with their Rostra or beaks was the Gallery or Pulpit for Orations adorned which was built in the Forum whence that Temple was afterwards called Rostra The year following Minutia a Vestal Nun was buried quick in the Campus Sceleratus The Rostra at Rome whence so called which I believe saith Livie had it's name from Incest for so the fault of incontinency in those women was termed And in this same year Q. Publius Philo was made the first Prator out of the Commons the Senate not regarding now what hapned in this kind because they had been overpowered in things of greatest consequence Now also a War arose betwixt the Aurunci and Sidicini whereof the former were constrained by the other to forsake their antient seat and depart to Suessa which was afterwards called Aurunca The Aurunci had given up themselves to the Romans who thereupon ordered them relief but the Consuls deferring it this fell out in the mean time But the next year the Sidicini and the Ausones who inhabited Cales were overthrown and Valerius Corvinus now the fourth time Consul for the following year and the greatest Roman Captain of this time took Cales also where a Colony was placed In the second year after the taking of Cales the Census was solemnized and two Tribes added Metia and Scaptia for the newly admitted Citizens the Acerrani were also made free of the City without the privilege of Suffrage by a Law preferred by L. Papirius the Praetor 48. In the year following above 170 women were put to death for the art of poysoning being discovered by a she Slave whereas heretofore there had been no inquisition made after this crime which therefore was counted such a prodigie that a Dictator was made for fixing of a nail which they had read in their Annals to have been a remedy for the distempers of the State when the Commons separated from the Patritians For the two succeeding years a War was managed against the Privernates who were drawn into it by Vitruvius Vallus War with the Privernates a man of principal note amongst the Fundani In the first year they were overthrown in the next he was either taken or delivered up and Privernum either stormed or surrendred both being affirmed by Writers A. M. 3675. Ol. 122. an 3. V. C. 424. Darii 7.
and whilst he lay before it came Ambassadors from the Rhodians to denounce War against him in case he came within Nephelis the Promontory of Cilicia not out of any hatred to him as they said but lest joyning with Philip he should hinder the Romans now active for the liberty of Greece Though he heard this with much disdain yet thought he it wisdom to give them good words for the present and please them in this particular but they after all danger was over from Philip who this Summer was beaten at Cynoscephalae not tying themselves with him to the former condition sent aid to the Cities their associates and preserved several in their liberty He took at length Coracesium and after it several others and amongst the rest Ephesus where wintering he endeavoured to reduce also the Cities of Asia under the obedience they paied to his Ancestors and thinking it not difficult to be done by any of them except two viz. Smyrna in Aeolis and Lampsacus upon the Hellespont he sent Forces to besiege them both Antiochus the Great and the Romans grow jealous one of another 27. Now the Romans with all others doubted not but his Army was for Europe after his affaires had succeeded in Asia and they had the more cause to be jealous of him for that Hannibal their old and sworn Enemy had now been with him Livius l. 33. therefore in the setting of the Greek Cities at liberty after the overthrovv of Philip King of Macedonia the Senate had left it to the Commissioners appointed for that vvork to deal as they should think fit vvith Chalcis Demetrias and Corinth the keys of the Country and vvhether out of a desire of the glory of setting all the Greeks at liberty or to awe and affright him they decreed that all such Cities as well in Asia as Europe should be freed Appian in Syriacis Polybius Excerp Legat. 9. Lib. 17. The ten Commissioners sitting now in Greece about these affairs they of Smyrna and Lampsacus whom he had besieged sent to them for relief and Antiochus himself thinking fit not to anticipate his opportunities sent thither also his Ambassadors to whom the Commissioners lay'd open the pleasure of the Senate and in case he contain not himself and Forces in Asia threaten him with War and withall promise that some of their number should come to him Yet he in the beginning of Spring comes over into Europe got a great patt of the Chersonesus into his power and then marching to Lysimachia there found the Commissioners who pressing him to the things formerly mentioned he demanded by what right the Romans questioned with him about Asia seeing he medled with nothing done in Italy and added that the Greek Cities should obtain their liberty not by their commands but his bounty Now it was moved that those of Smyrna and Lampsacus might be heard which being obtained and the Delegates using their liberty of speech he out of indignation that he should be forced to plead with them before those Judges interrupted them saying the Rhodians and not the Romans should have the hearing of the cause and so the Treaty ended without any conclusion or agreement at all 28. A rumour was spred abroad during this Treaty Livius Appian ut supra that Ptolomy the King of Aegypt was dead which much affected both parties yet strove they to hide it from each other Lucius Cornelius one of the ten who was also ordered to endeavour the reconcilation of the two Kings demanded a little time to go into Aegypt and Antiochus being restlesse out of an itching desire to get that Country into his hands Upon a false rumour of Ptolomie's death he resolveth to invade Aegypt sailed with his Fleet back to Ephesus whence sending again his Ambassadors to treat with T. Flamininus chief of the Commissioners on purpose to hold them a little in hand till he could bring about his design came to Patara where he heard that Ptolomy was alive Now he changed his purpose of invading Aegypt but withall resolved for Cyprus to attempt that Island but such a tempest fell upon him that he almost lost his whole Fleet. Not long after Hannibal being driven from home by the malice of such as incensed the Romans against him whilst he onely endeavoured the Publick good returned to Antiochus who though before he did but fluctuate in his resolutions for the War Hannibal's advice to invade Italy yet was now confirmed by him so in his purpose that henceforth he thought not so much of it as of the reward of the Victory Hannibal denied that the Romans could be overcome any where but in Italy and desired but 100 Gallies Livius lib. 34. Appian ut prius 16000 Foot and 1000 Horse with which he would first go to Carthage hoping to draw his Countrymen to revolt and though that should not succeed yet would he seize upon some part of Italy The King closing with his propositions at this time he went not himself but sent a certain Tyrian to Carthage who under pretence of trading should break the ice but he being suspected by Hannibal's adversaries was glad to shift for himself and notice thereof was presently given to the Romans In the mean time Antiochus sent three Ambassadors to Rome who under colour of procuring a right understanding should feel how the Senate stood affected They expostulating the matter that their Master should be forced to quit the Cities of Asia and forsake his antient right in Thrace were referred to the Commissioners in Greece for answer to whom repairing Flamininus and his Collegue urged that the King should either leave Europe or the Romans have power to protect their friends in Asâ—â— and make as many more there as they could The Ambassadors answer they neither can nor will conclude any thing to the prejudice of their Master's crown and so the Peace was not nearer than before 29. Antiochus his resolution being set therefore for the Warre Livius lib. 35. Appian ibid. that he might prevent any thing that would divert or call him back he resolved to make alliances with his neighbours To Ptolomy he maried his Daughter Cleopatra giving with her in portion all Coelesyria which before he had taken from him Antiochus intending a war seeketh Confederates to Ariarathes King of Cappadocia another named Antiochis and a third he offered to Eumenes of Pergamus but he being acquainted with his design to make War upon the Romans and by this affinity to oblige him to his party A. M. 3813. Ol. 147. ann 1. V. C. 562. Antioch Mag. 32. Ptol. Epiphan 12. conceiving it also his interest rather to stick to them whom he had some ground to think would prove victorious he waved his offer In Spring he set upon the Pisidae a people inhabiting about Selga being desirous first to bring all Asia to his beck at the same time came Ambassadors from Rome to discover his designs and preparations
1 Maccab. 7. 2 Mac. 14. and now was not received nor owned by the people because that in the dayes of Epiphanes he had defiled himself came to Demetrius with other Apostates and such like as himself and accused his Countrey-men especially the Hasmonaeans i. e. Judas and his brethren that they had cut off and banished his friends Bachides sent by him against the Jews whereupon he sent one Bachides a trusty friend with great forces into Judaea confirming the Priesthood to Alcimus whom he sent back with him All their design being arrived there was to get Judas into their hands divers Scribes going out to them to sollicit for peace being confident because the Priest was of the seed of Aaron he most wickedly and contrary to his Oath given slew sixty of them in one day then Bachides going from Hierusalem sent about and caused divers that had fled from him and many of the people whom being slain he cast into a great pit and so committing the Countrey to Alcimus to the defence of which he left him some forces he returned unto his King Leaveth Alcimus the High-Priest with some forces After his departure Alcimus striving to confirm himself in the Priesthood made great havock of the people to restrain which Judas went throughout the Countrey and compelled his party to shut themselves up within their holds and growing stronger he restrained their invasions so that Alcimus being afraid of him goes once more unto the King carrying along with him a Crown of Gold a Palm and of the boughs which were used solemnly in the Temple and seeing he could not have any more accesse to the holy Altar taking a fit opportunity when he was asked of the affairs of his Countrey accused the Asidaeans and especially Judas as seditious of depriving him of the Priesthood the honour as he said of his Ancestors and plainly affirmed that as long as Maccabaeus lived the Kings affairs could not be secure This being seconded by some ill-willers to the Jews Demetrius was inflamed and sending for Nicanor one of his chiefest Princes Who accusing Judas Nicanor is sent against him and a bitter Enemy to the Israelites made him Captain over Judea and sent him forth with a Command to slay Judas to scatter them that were with him and make Alcimus High Priest of the great Temple 60. When he was come thither and understood the courage and resolution of Judas his brethren and companions for the defence of their Countrey he feared to try the chance of War and sent to make peace with the people who having agreed unto the Covenants the two Captains came together to consult about the League Nicanor was so taken with Judas as he continued with him loved him in his heart and perswaded him to marry and beget Children and so remained constant in his affection to him till Alcimus perceiving it Nicanor at first much loveth Maccabaeus and understanding the Covenants which were made betwixt them took a third journey to the King told him that Nicanor had taken strange matters in hand and appointed Judas a Traitor to the Realm to be his Successor Demetrius being hereat displeased by Letters checked him for these things and commanded him in all haste to send Maccabaeus bound unto Antioch which grievously troubled him that he who had done no hurt should be thus used but conceving it necessary for him to comply with the pleasure of the King he waited for a convenient opportunity to accomplish it Then complained of by Alcimus seeketh his destruction Behaving himself thenceforth more roughly to him the other suspected something by the great change of his carriage and therefore gathering a few of his men withdrew himself from him but he followed him with a strong power to Hierusalem and drawing him out to talk with him had prepared some to seize on him yet he having notice hereof got away and would see him no more Seeing his design to be discovered he went and fought with him near Capharsalama in which he lost about 5000 of his men and the rest fled into the Citie of David After this he came up to Mount Sion and some of the Priests with the Elders of the people went forth of the sanctuary to salute him peaceably and shew him the burnt-offering that was offered for the King but he jeering hereat demanded Judas to be delivered unto him and they affirming with an Oath that they knew not where he was he stretching out his hand against the Temple swore that except Judas and his forces were delivered up he would when he should return in peace set the sanctuary on fire His blasphemous threats demolish the Altar and build there a stately Temple to Bacchus The Priests hearing this went in and standing before the Altar with tears begged of God that he would frustrate the mans intentions and be avenged upon him and his Host for his blasphemous words 61. Hearing that Judas was gone from Jerusalem into Samaria 1 Maccab. 7. 2.15 he went and pitched his Tents in Bethhoron where new supplies from Syria came to him the Enemy being in Hadasa 30 furlongs off with no more than 3000 men He would fain have fought on the Sabbath day which the Jews who were constrained to follow friendly dehorting him from with great blaspemy uttered against God he refused to hear them demanding if there were a living Lord in heaven who commanded that seventh day to be kept and saying he himself was mighty upon earth to command them to Arm themselves and to perform the Kings businesse He is slain in battel But coming to the ingagement he himself was slain first which when his Army saw they cast away their Arms and fled and the Israelites following the chace slew 30000. so that not one of the Army was left remaining Coming to the plunder of the field they cut off Nicanor's head and hands and carried them to Jerusalem where they were hung up before the Temple his tongue being cut in pieces and cast unto the Fouls The end of the second book of Maccabees Then they decreed that the 13th day of the 12th moneth Adar as the Syrians call it the day before Mardocheus his day should be observed every year as the Author of the second book of Maccabees tells us who with this story finisheth his work 1 Maccab. 8. 9. being the Epitome of the five books of Jason a Jew of Cyrene After Nicanor's death Judaea was quiet for some time and then Judas hearing of the power of the Romans and their compassion of the distressed and how much Demetrius stood in awe of them sent Eupolemus the son of John and Jason the son of Eleazer on an Ambassage to the Senate Bachides and Alcimus sent into Judaea against Judas that entring into society with them the People might be freed from the yoke of Demetrius and the Greeks But Demetrius hearing of the mischance of Nicanor and his
the Principality of the Asmonaeans receiveth it's period and 6000 Horse The defendants with great earnestnesse and courage made resistance concermining and sometimes fighting with the Enemy in the ground though much straitned for provisions it being the Sabatical year 35. Force at length prevailed joyned with skil in both which the Romans excelled so that after five moneths twenty of the stoutest Soldiers and then Sosius his Centurion got over and the outward part of the Temple with the lower side of the City were taken and at length the other also where all were full of slaughters the Romans being enraged by the tediousnesse of the War and the Jews out of malice and particular grudges seeking to destroy all of the contrary Faction Antigonus came and fell on his knees before Sosius who received him with reviling speeches calling him Antigona Herod had much adoe to keep the Soldiers from entering the secret places of the Temple and to restrain them from slaughters demanding of Sosius if the Romans intended to make him King of a desert and adding that he should think the price of all that blood which was spilt to be very little though the Dominion of all the World should come into the bargain and at length was fain to redeem the City from further trouble by his own money wherewith he dismissed the Romans sufficiently inriched This disaster befel Jerusalem in the Consulship of M. Agrippa and Canidius Gallius and the last of the 185 Olympiad the third moneth in the fast and on the same day it had been taken by Pompey 27 years before Sosius consecrating a crown of gold to God went away with Antigonus unto Antony Idem ibid. l. 15. c. 1. Plutarch in Antonio Dio lib. 59. But Herod fearing that Antony carying him to Rome he should there obtain favour with the Senate as being of the Royal race and procure the Kingdom at their hands if not for himself yet for his children who never had ill deserved of the People of Rome he procured Antony to dispatch him out of the way who pretending at least the unquietnesse of the Jews for his sake caused him to be beheaded at Antioch And so the Principality of the Asmonaeans ceased after it had endured free from the yoak of Syria 98 years and Herod a man of forein and obscure birth was confirmed in the Soveraignty over Judaea by the Romans in the Empire of whom we shall hear further of him CHAP. VIII The affaires of Sicilie Contemporary with the Empire of the Macedonians From the death of Timoleon to the Sicilian or first Punick War containing the space of 73 years 1. THe constitutions of Timoleon being Popular and tending to the loose liberty of the Vulgar which was destitute of lawfully successive Princes Sicilie continued not in Peace many years being of all other places through want of lawful Monarchs most subject to the ambition and tyranny of those who though private Citizens through flattery and deceit enslaved their neighbours Amongst the rest Agathocles is most eminent none that ever in any time went before him The Original of Agathocles coming up to him or reaching him by far in cunning and cruelty He was the son of one Carcinus a Potter Diodorus Siculus lib. 19. ad Olymp. 115. ann 4. and brought up by his father in that trade of life who being banished from Rhegium in Italy his native soil came into Sicilie and placed himself at Thermae at that time subject to the Carthaginians Before he was born and when his mother was yet great with him the Delphick Oracle foretold that he should be the author of great calamities to the Carthaginians and also to all Sicilie and for that cause he was exposed by his father but preserved by his mother and reserved to such a time unknown to him as he repenting of what he had done gladly understood from her of his safety Being then again received by his father he was brought up in the trade of a Potter and was but young when Timeleon overthrew the Carthaginians at the River Cremissus and made all free of Syracuse that would come thither He was then with his father admitted into that City and not long after his father died but one Damas a chief Citizen being extraordinarily affected towards him for his comlinesse gave him whereon sufficiently to live and afterwards being created the Captain of the Agrigentines bestowed on him the place of a Colonel in the Army for that he was wont formerly in musters to wear those arms which none else could bear for their bignesse But now being advanced to this degree He is made a Colonel he rendred himself more popular by his bold adventurers and his making speeches often to the people and Damas dying he married his Widow whereby he got abundance of wealth A. M. 3688. Ol. 116. ann 4. V.C. 437. Ptol. Lagi 7. Afterwards it hapning that Crotone being besieged by the Brutii they of Syracuse sent relief thither which amongst other Captains was conducted by his brother Autander and he himself by decree of the people had also the Office of a Colonel But the Chief command was committed to Heraclides and Sosistratus the later of which out of envy defrauded him of the rewards of his valour which he now abundantly shewed whereat he was so inraged as to accuse him and his Companions to the people of affecting the Tyranny but they giving no credit to his words Sosistratus after his return seized on the Principality Liveth in Italy Agathocles then for some time continued in Italy and endeavouring to get Crotone into his power failed of his Enterprize and withdrew himself to Tarentum 2. He was received into pay amongst the Mercenaries but being suspected to attempt new matters was not long after again cashiered after which getting together a Company of Italian Fugitives he relieved Rheginum then set upon by Sosistratus and Heraclides and then Sosistratus being banished Syracuse together with his Authority returned thither where sometimes a private person otherwises an Officer he valiantly behaved himself against the Tyrant's faction in which the Carthaginians and a great number of the chiefest Citizens were ingaged Having once broke into the Citie Gela and there being overmatched by Sosistratus and the Towns-men so that he and his party were all of them in danger to be cut off Endangered at Gela. he sent his Trumpetters round about to the Walls commanding them to sound an Allarm whereby it came to passe as he intended that the Enemy thinking the besiegers had broken in from all quarters retired from him to repulse them and so he safely retreated this Sconce This businesse of Sosistratus being over and Acestorides the Corinthian Created General of the Syracusians Agathocles was suspected because of his politick head Suspected to affect the Tyranny and banished to affect the Tyranny yet Acestorides would not take him of publickly for raising new stirs but commanding him to depart the
statue made him a Senator though but nineteen years old decreed that he should be considered towards preferment as ten years older and gave him equal power with Hirtius and Pausa the Consuls whom now they sent to relieve Brutus They took Bononia but Antony being bold for that he had got the better in some skirmikes went and met Pansa whom he overthrew but returning carelesly into his Camp was worsted by Hirtius A littel after a great battel was fought near Mutina wherein Antony was quite defeated and fled to Lepidus then Proconsul in the further Gall. A. M. 3962. V. C. 712. Both the Consuls died of wounds Hirtius in Antonie's Camp and Pansa at Bononia Brutus being at this time spared by Caesar thought of departing with his ten Legions to M. Brutus and Cassius now in Greece but his Soldiers moved by the difficulty of the journy revolted the six new raised Legions to Caesar and the four of old Soldiers to Antony He then purposing with a small attendance to passe through Gall was taken at Aquilea and betraied by Capenus Sequanus Governour of the Countrey who sent his head to Antony Before this Appian Livius lib. 120. Cicero Philip. 11. Trebonius another of his Complices in Caesar's death excluding Dolabella whom the Senate had judged an Enemy from Pergamus and Smyrna was taken by him in the later place and after grievous torments had his head cut off which the Soldiers kicking about as a foot-ball did so abuse as no face was to be seen on it Not long after the death of Decimus Brutus Minutius Basilius another of the Conspiratours was slain by his slaves whom he had gelded in a great rage 9. Now the Senate having no need of young Caesar slighted him exceedingly Yet having no need of Caesar the Senate again slighted him decreeing the honour due to him unto Brutus whom he had relieved giving him very bitter taunts and denying him a Triumph Being sensible hereof and how most of them were of Compey's Faction Appian ut supra Livius l 119. Sueton. in Angusto Patercul l. 2. c. 62. Livii Epitom lib. 120. he began to tamper with Antony by Letters as also with Lepidus for a conjunction and sent 400 Soldiers into the City in the name of the Army to demand the Consulship for him Hereat the Senat straining hard one Cornelius a Centurion laying his hand on his Sword said This shall do it if you will not Then called he Antony and Lepidus into Italy whereat the Senate much startled and too late blaming their own rigidity decreed him Consul and whomsoever he would take to himself So he invaded the Consulship a moneth and five dayes before he was twenty years old and took Q. Pedius for his Collegue Then by a Law was fire and water forbidden to all that had an hand in the death of Caesar and their goods were sold The Senate was now so changed either through good advice or fear that in stead of slighting they advanced him above all example Vide Dionem lib. 46. They resolved that after his Consulship he should take place of all Consuls and though formerly they were displeased with his levying forces being a private man now they desired him to add to his Army and decreed to him the Legions of Decimus Brutus The City was committed to his care Livii Epit. l. 120. Appian bell civil l. 4. and power given him to act what he pleased Which procureth the Thumviraté though without the prescript of the Laws which he retained fifty six years till his death Not long after came Aemilius Lepidus and M. Antonius into Italy whom he met about Bononia and after a three dayes conference entred into confederacy with them which is famous by the name of the Triumvirate The Terms of the Combination 10. The terms of this Combination were That Caesar for the remainder of the year should leave the Consulship to Ventidius who formerly in the Social War when a Boy was led in Triumph and after that rubbed the heels of * Concurrite omnes Augures Aruspices Portentum inusitatum constatum est recens Nam mulos qui frecabat Consul factus est Mules for his living Idem ibid. Dio lib. 46. That a new authority of three men should be erected to take away civil dissentions which they three should execute for five years with Consular power for the Dictatorship was waved because of a Law lately preferred against it by Antony with authority to dispose of all Offices for that Term. That Antony should have as a Province all Gall except that of Narbon which Lepidus was to have with Spain and to Caesar was Africk with Sardinia and Sicily assigned other places beyond the Seas being left to another time They agreed further that their Enemies should be destroyed wherein the case of Cicero moved the greatest controversie For Antony would not meddle except he in the first place should be slain These Verses were scattered up and down the Citie Lepidus was content but Caesar stood much against it Gellius lib. 5. cap. 4. yet on the third day he assented an exchange being made for he yielding up Cicero Lepidus permitted his brother Paulus and Antony L. Caesar his Uncle by the Mother's side to be proscribed Lastly it was agreed that Lepidus should be Consul the following year instead of Decimus Brutus designed formerly by Julius Caesar He guarding Rome and Italy the other two were to make War upon Brutus and Cassius who now though at first without any decree of the Senate had seized on Macedonia and Syria Cassius in Laodicea besieged Dolabella who being judged an Enemy by the Senate for the death of Trebonius when the Citie vvas taken caused his Page to cut off his head and so ended his life being a man of no great solidity He vvas son-in-law to Cicero but after the divorcing of Tullia they fell into great enmity vvhereupon the Orator proved a back friend to him in the Senate reigning amongst the Fathers and the People with his Eloquence The effects of it 11. The first effect of the Triumvirate was a Proscription of some 300 persons of Equestrian and Senatorian ranks Appian Though the pretence was to revenge Caesar's death yet many were murdered for their rich Estates others out of malice and some for their convenient Houses and Gardens Amongst those of greatest note was Varro who now living to see and feel a second Tricipitina yet escaped with his life Cicero the man most aimed at by Antony for opposing him so vehemently in the Senate upon the Triumvirs their coming went to Sea but the winds being contrary and because he could not endure the shaking of the ship he returned saying he would die in his Countrey often preserved by him Being weary both of his flight and life Plutarch in Cicerone he came to a Village a little more than a mile distant from the Sea Here his servants
Senate shall be assembled it shall be effectual to all ends and purposes as if the Senate had been assembled or held by Law Moreover whomsoever he shall commend to the Roman Senate and People that stand for any Magistracy power command or charge or to whomsoever he shall give or promise his suffrage let them be considered beyond the usual form in the Comitia As also it may be lawful for him to inlarge the Pomaerium if he think it convenient for the Commonwealth so as it was lawful for Tib. Claudius Caesar Germanicus Moreover whatsoever he shall think useful for the Commonwealth or agreeable to the Majesty of all things divine or humane publick or private let him have right and authority to act and do so as it was lawful for Divus Augustus and Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Moreover from what Laws and Plebiscita it was ordained that Divus Augustus Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus should be loosed from those Laws and Plebiscita let the Emperour Caesar Vespasian be loosed And what things soever by what Law or asking soever Divus Augustus Tib. Julius Caesar Augustus and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ought to do let it be lawful for the Emperour Caesar Vespasian Augustus to do them all Moreover what things soever before the asking of this Law were acted done decreed or commanded by the Emperour Caesar Vespasian Augustus or by any other by virtue of his command or mandate let them be held as just and valid as if they had been done by command of the People or Commons The Sanction If any one by virtue of this Law hath done or shall do any thing against the Laws asking of Laws rogationes Plebiscita or Senatus Consulta or shall not do what he ought to have done according to any Law asking Plebiscitum or Senatusconsultum and that by virtue of this Law let no dammage thence light upon him neither let him owe any thing to the People for this matter neither let any have an action against him neither let any one judge him nor permit the matter to be debated before him 23. In the fourth year of Vespasian Caesennius Paetus President of Syria Josephus de bello Judaico lib. 7. c. 27. accused Antiochus King of Comagena and Epiphanes his Son as holding correspondence with the Parthian whereupon order was given him to prevent what might ensue Paetus then invaded Comagena which Antiochus quitted Paetus gaineth Comagena being loth to fight and fled into Cilicia His sons also after they had made some opposition went to Vologesus into Parthia But Paetus procured Antiochus to be taken and sent to him bound towards Rome yet Vespasian caused him to be loosed and stay at Lacedaemon where he allowed him a revenue to live like himself and he afterwards sent for both him and his sons to the City where they were magnificently entertained About this time the Alani who being Scythians inhabited about Tanais and the Lake Meotis consulted with the King of the Hyrcanians who was Master of the Straights to invade Media which they entred and sacked at their pleasure Pacorus the King being forced up into a strong hold and glad to redeem his wife and concubines with 100 Talents The Alani invade Media and Armenia From Media they passed into Armenia and wasted the Country Tiridates the King opposed them but was near being taken alive in batttel for with his sword he cut in pieces the rope that was cast about his neck as they were therewith drawing him amongst his Enemies and escaped But they inraged at his opposition wasted the Kingdom and carying great booty out of both Countries returned home Several acts of Vespasian 24. Vespasian took away liberty from Achaia Lycia Rhodes Sueton in Vespasiano Byzantium and Samus reducing them into Provinces as also Thrace Cilicia and Comagena the King whereof he sent for to Rome as we said before Cappadocia now began to be over-run with barbarous Nations to restrain whom he added Legions and placed one of Consular dignity over it in room of a Knight Orosius l. 7. c. 9. At length all Wars and tumults being suppressed both at home and abroad he shut the Temple of Janus the sixth time from the foundation of the City It was his principal care first to setle and establish the afflicted and tottering condition of the Empire and then to adorn it Whereas the City was very deformed by reason of the burning of it he permitted any to build upon old plots if the owners would relinquish them he also re-edified the Capitol As to his personal quality he was of much temper and clemency His character easily passing by and forgetting injuries The meannesse of his former condition he sought not to hide but sometimes would professe it openly He took not the Tribunitial power nor title of Father of his Country for some time If any innocent person were punished it was sorely against his will and for want of knowledge He passed by the treason of many that had plotted his destruction saying They were fools and knew not what a weight and trouble the Empire was he weeped and groaned at the punishment of an offender To Vologoses King of Parthia who wrote to him thus Arsaces King of Kings to Fl. Vespasian Xiphilinus ex Dione without any reproof he directed his answer thus Fl. Vespasian to Arsaces King of Kings The onely vice reprehended in him was covetousnesse and yet to that seeking earnestly for money he was constrained through the necessities of the State T is certain he used it well however gotten being very liberal in feasting relieving impoverished Senators and others of desert Hee incouraged learning and gave the first stipends out of the Exchequer to the Professors thereof He was Consul eight times besides once before he was Emperour and in his last Consulship died of a flux His death in the 69 year of his age the tenth of his reign being compleated in the 832 of the City A. D. 79 he himself the ninth time and Titus Caesar the seventh being Consuls He was the first Emperour whose successor was his own son In his time flourished Pliny the elder and writer of the Natural History Who also the same year that he died whilst he went to see what might be the cause of the burning of the hill Vesuvius was stifled with the smoak thereof and died as Pliny Junior his nephew writes in his Epistle * Lib. 6. ep 16. to Trajan And that of Pliny Now also Quintilian and other learned men were famous Titus succeedeth him 25. Titus his eldest son succeeded him by whom Jerusalem had been taken and destroyed on the eighth of the Calends of June He was born that year wherein Caius was slain Sueton in Tito Eutrop l. 7. Orosius l. 7. c. 9. alii and brought up with Britanicus the son of Claudius being
ex Dione that a golden neck and head was grown up on his shoulders and that he was fully assured Golden dayes after Domitian that after him were thereby portended golden dayes to the Commonwealth This truly came to passe through the abstinence moderation and excellent government of the six succeeding Princes during the reign of whom the Roman Empire for temporal respects enjoyed more happinesse than ever before or after Strangers affording that which the Natives of Italy would not contribute to their own Country 2. Cocceius Nerva an old man and born in Crete say some Aurelius Victor though others make him a native of Narnia in Italy after the death of Domitian had the Empire put upon him Nerva succeedeth him by the Legions which then quartered amongst the Sequani in Gall. After his assuming the Government a strong rumour went abroad that Domitian was yet living which somewhat perplexed him till by Parthenius and Petronius Captains of the guards he was put out of doubt and afterwards his election was confirmed by the Senate He took down the golden and silver Statues erected to Domitian whereof was raised a great sum of money and forbad any to be set up to himself Euseb Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 21. He recalled such as his predecessors banished and amongst others the Christians so that St. John the Apostle returned out of Pathmos unto Ephesus Calpurnius Crassus by vast promises attempted to draw the Soldiers from him but being happily discovered he onely banished him to Tarentum He eased the Commonwealth of the grievous impositions laid upon it and having conjoyned these two things in the times of some of his Predecessors insociable viz. Soverainty and Liberty although he had kindred of his own yet he adopted M. Ulpius Trajanus a Spaniard born who then ruled Germany Tacitus in Agricola preferring herein the publick good before private respects Adopteth Trajan and dieth He lived with him but three moneths For falling out with one Regulus a Senator he was in so great a passion that it drove his natural heat into a Feaver whereof he died on the sixth before the Calends of February having lived 65 years and reigned one year four moneths and nine dayes in the 851 year of the City A. D. 98 he himself the fourth and Trajanus Caesar the second time being Consuls 3. Trajan succeeded him Orosius l. 7. c. 12. and took the Ensigns of the Empire at Agrippina a Colony in Gall. He presently reduced all Germany beyond the Rhine into it's wonted condition Trajan succeedeth him brought under also several Nations beyond the River Danubius But Diurpanes or Diurpanis Decebalus or Decibalus for he hath several names King of the Daci A. D. 98. V. C. 851. Trajani 1. who had formerly forced Domitian to pay tribute held him stifly to it for the space of five years with the expence of so much blood that there wanted linnen to bind up the wounds of the Soldiers His Wars and the Emperour tare his own robe to supply the defect thereof But at length he brought them under and planted Colonies in that Country He reduced Armenia having killed him that seized on it conquered Parthia whence he was called Parthicus and passing over Tigris and Euphrates invaded Persia and Assyria and got into his hands Seleucia Ctesiphon and Babylon Considering Trajan as an Heathen Prince in excellency of Government he was second to none He extended the Empire further than any of his predecessors so that now it reached from the Irish Ocean beyond the River Tigris from the Atlantick Sea to the Persian Gulf He extendeth the Empire further than ever from the Mount Atlas to the Calidonian Forrest as also as far as the River Albis and beyond Danubius He had in his intention to invade India with a Fleet which he ordered to be provided in the Red Sea He was saluted Optimus by the Senate His moderation was exceeding great being backed with such a confidence of his own innocence that giving a dagger to Saburanus according to the custom when he made him Captain of his Guard A moderate person in civil matters he bade him use it in his behalf if he did well but imploy it against him if he found him to transgresse the bounds of Law and equity for as much as he that ought to look to others should most of all look to himself He so used his Subjects as he himself he said would desire his Prince should use him were he a private person Though he was not learned himself yet he much favoured humane and secular Learning conversing very familiarly and often with the Professors thereof whom he also preferred to publick Offices 4. Humane and Secular Learning he favoured and that onely For he raised the third persecution against the Heavenly Doctrin and the Church of Christ But persecuteth the Church to which cruelty the worldly wise men seem most of all to have contributed Being puffed up with the Victory he had obtained over the Daci and Thracians after the ending of the second Dacian War in the ninth year of his reign Decebalus having killed himself as he was maching against Osroes or Chosdroes the Parthian King and the Armenians having commanded all that would not worship his false gods to be put to death Jgnatius the Scholar of St. John the Apostle and Bishop now of Antioch was brought before him whilst he lay in his passage in this City Ignatius standing in his presence he said who art thou Devil Cacodaemon who makest haste to transgresse our Commands His discourse with Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and perswadest others to destroy themselves Ignatius answered No body calleth Theophorus a Cacodaemon for Devils flie from the Servants of God But I know thou so callest me because I molest them For I confesse I have Christ the heavenly King and dissolve their councils Trajan demanded who is Theophorus Ignatius replyed He who hath Christ in his breast Trajan said Dost not thou think we have the Gods in our breast which assist us against our Enemies Ignatius answered In that thou esteemest the Devils of the Gentiles to be gods thou errest For there is one God who made Heaven and Earth and Sea with all that are in them and he hath one onely begotten Sonne Jesus Christ whose friendship I have obtained Trajan then said Thou speakest of him that was crucified by Pontius Pilate Ignatius replyed Of him who crucified sin and the inventor of it and who approveth not of him that serveth Idols but who in his heart wisely understandeth this Trajan added Dost thou they carry Christ in thy self Ignatius said Yea for it is written I will dwell and walk in them Trajan concluded thus I award that Ignatius who saith he beareth in himself the Crucified be conveyed in bonds by Soldiers to the great City Rome there to be devoured of beasts for a show to the People This was accordingly executed upon the
of Adrian in the * Lib. 4. c. 25. words of Melita Bishop of Sardis who wrote an Apology to the Emperour and also * C. 13. exemplifieth the Epistle it self This letter also of M. Antoninus Philosophus is extant in the most antient Copy of the Vatican library in the end of Justin Martyr's works added by some studious and well-affected person first translated into Greek out of Latin and again into Latin out of Greek most accurately as we are informed by Syâ—burgius in his Annotations upon Justin Martyr But the Emperour being called into Pannonia for the finishing of the War there and passing into Sarmatia fell sick Hereupon seriously bethinking himself what might happen to the Empire in the minority of his son these parts being not fully reduced to obedience especially in case he should degenerate from the worth of his ancestors and give himself up to luxury and cruelty he called his friends together and seriously commended him unto them to be advised and assisted for the best After this he lived but one day and a night to the grief of all men He died at Vendebona the 17 of March in the 58 year of his age M. Aurelius dieth and of his Empire the 19 the 932 of the City A.D. 180. Arrius Praeseus the 2 time and Aelius Gordianus being Consuls Commodus 31. Herodianus l. 1. Olymp. 239. an 4. V. C. 932. A. D. 180. Commodus his son for whose sake Dio maketh the Physicians to have killed him succeeded him having two years before been made a Consul through a dispensation with the Lex Annaria as Lampridius writeth although it seemeth something strange that this Law could take place upon those to whom the title of Augustus was not denied Being owned by the Army for some time he governed according to the direction of his Father's friends but being obnoxious to flatterers by reason of his youth who sought to make their own ends out of him he shotly after contrary to the judgement of his best Counsellors made a dishonourable Peace with the Enemy and away he went to enjoy the pleasures of Rome where he was joyfully received for his fathers sake his beatuty also much commending him to the eye For a time he here also harkned to his fathers friends but making one Perennius an old Soldier Captain of his Guards he being excessively covetous allured him at first by pleasures to idlenesse and neglect of businesse then governing all himself he falsely accused them and others of the richer sort that he might seize on their estates This his design was furthered by Lucilla the Emperour's sister who grudging that Crispina Commodus his wife should take place of her entered into a conspiracy against her brother and ingaged one Quadratus a young Noble man therein who perswaded Quintianus to kill Commodus His difficulties But he meeting him had no power to do the deed onely shewing his dagger said The Senate sends thee this and so was apprehended and put to death with his complices These words concerning the Senate thus foolishly spoken never went out of the Emperours mind but made him suspect all the Fathers which advantage Perennius took and perswaded him to kill all the chiefest of them This being performed this man affected the Soveraignty but was in good time discovered both he and his sons whom he had sent into Illyricum to draw the Legions to revolt and received their reward 32. Commodus to prevent the too great power of one man put two into his place Cleander and Niger for the time to come and yet presently after had more plots laid for his life There was one Maternus who practising the trade of robbery got a great company of Highway-men together and making himself Captain of a considerable Army wasted Gall and Spain and thence repelled resolved to venture for the Soveraignty it self Having but little hope to obtain it by force because of the People and the Pretorian bands he betook him to his wits At that time the Annual solemnity was kept in honour of the mother of their gods wherein it was lawful for Soldiers or any other to imitate Magistrates or their Officers Taking this opportunity he sent some of his Soldiers privily armed to get amongst the Sargeants and Officers of the Emperour and so to kill him but being betrayed by his own party he and his plot both miscaried After this succeeded a terrible Pestilence accompanied with a Famine which Cleander a Phrygian one who from a slave came into greatest power made an occasion to advance himself He bought up all the Corn thinking by a largesse thereof to purchase the Empire of the Soldiers and People but these rising against him as the cause of the Dearth and Plague too after that with great difficulty by reason of his power the matter was revealed to Commodus he also received his reward These things caused the Emperour to be jealous of all men to cast off all care of State affaires and giving ear to every back-biter to kill any Hence also no persons of worth being admitted into his presence he was ruled by dissolute companions and fell more and more into disorder 33. He turned chariot-driver Idem ibid. Orosius l. 7. c. 16. and spent his time in killing beasts with darts and other unworthy exercises He was the best markesman that ever was known scarcely ever missing any mark he aimed at He publickly killed multitudes of wild beasts upon the theatre amongst the rest a Panthere which just being about to devour a man he hit and slew in the nick of time as she was about to seize on him In stead of Commodus the son of Marcus he commanded himself to be called Hercules the son of Jupiter Casting off the usual Robe of Princes in complyance with that name he would lye on a Lyons skin and have a club in his hand yet he would wear purple garments and cloath of Gold His cariage To his former title he added Amazonian and Conquerour Rome he stilled Immortal and Fortunate and the World His Colony A great fire hapened in the City which burned that excellent Library gathered by his Praedecessors with the Temple of Peace and other buildings which accident as the People accounted an ill omen so they laid the guilt upon him knowing well his practices which he never strove to conceal Though his throwing of darts upon the theatre much derogated from the Imperial Majesty they were indifferently pleased with it but when he came naked upon the stage and acted the common fencer it seemed intolerable At length at the Feast of Janus resolving not to proceed from his Palace as Emperour but as a Fencer from the fencing School attended with such like to the view of the People this occasioned his end 34. For this his resolution being known to his Friends Martia his beloved Concubine Laetus his General and Electus his Chamberlain laboured with all intreaties to divert him from so shameful a
meat beyond the length of the string by which he is bound to a violent leap Thus the conscious light being overthrown and put out c. so he proceedeth to the same purpose but in worse terms And Justin Martyr in his Conference with (c) Pag. 227. B. Tryphon the Jew demandeth of him after this manner Do you also believe concerning us that we devour men and after meat the lights being put out use wicked and promiscuous Copulation Lastly Theophylus Patriarch of Antioch in his third book (d) Pag. 119. D. to Antolycus against Calumniators of Christian Religion summeth up what we have already said in these words They say that our wives are common and accuse us that we use promiscuous Copulation Besides they lay to our charge that we do not abstain from our own sisters but rashly dare to violate those with incestuous lust But this is most cruel and brutish of the Crimes they object against us when with an impious mouth they prate that we eat mans flesh neither do they cease to traduce our Religion or Doctrine as of yesterday and destitute of all truth which neither we our selves if a controversie arise are able to defend with clear demonstrations Further they say that our Doctrine is nothing but folly and meet toys 17. That malice which invented these impious adjuncts of Christian Religion found out a suitable object of vvorship for the Romans had so far forgotten their own antient custom of serving their Gods without Images or resemblances for Numa as Plutarch telleth us and the antient Romans for many years admitted no Images in their Temples because the Deity cannot be made out by any external resemblance that they thought it impossible for any Religion not to be guilty of Idolatry towards some visible thing Hence came that fable related by (a) Histor lib. 5. Tacitus an Author guilty of malice against both Jews and Christians that the Jews consecrated the Image of an Asse because forsooth being pressed sorely with thirst in the deserts of Arabia certain wild Asses shewed them the Fountains where they were wont to drink although this Author who saith he lies not writeth that Pompey having taken Jerusalem and entred into the Temple to see the mysteries of the Jewish Religion saw there no Image at all (b) Apoll cap. 16. Tertullian conceiveth that from this tale sprung that conceit that the Christians the Religion of whom was drawn from that of the Jews and succeeded it worshipped the Effigies of an Asse And the object of it I hear saith Cecilius that they vvorship a Consecrated head of an Asse the most filthy of all sorts of Cattel I know not out of what foolish perswasion a Religion worthy of and descended from such manners But he goeth further and relateth a report that the very object of their vvorship was also obscene (c) Ibid. Tertullian further writeth that some were of opinion they worshipped the Crosse and Cecilius from the ignominious death of our Lord and this instrument of it argueth to the infamy of Christian Religion in an abominable manner Tertullian in the same place telleth us that some with more apparent reason believed the Sun to be their God and sent them to the Religion of the Persians herein suspecting them for so doing because when they prayed they turned themselves toward the East And after an answer to this lye he addeth The calumnies invented to cry down our Religion arose to such excesse of impiety that not long ago in this Citie a picture of our God was shewed by a certain infamous person that got his living by exposing to the sight of the people wild beasts who by a strange faculty gotten by him to avoid their bitings making use of his craft shewed also the aforesaid picture to all comers with this inscription thereon This is Onochoetes the God of Christians This supposed God of the Christians pretended by him had the ears of an Asse an hoof on one of his feet carried a book and was clothed with a Gown we laugh at the barbarousnesse of this name and the extravagancy of this figure Such were the blasphemies of Pagans against Christian vvorship and as an argument for them they produced the secrecy of Christian meetings which their own cruelty and rage had made necessary They (d) Tertul. Apol cap. 39 talked of nothing more than the excesse of the Tables of the Christians And after all this they (e) Idem ibid. cap. 42. objected that they were not any way profitable in the commerce of the World 18. As to their outward demeanour they accused them of Sedition as well as Atheism Let (a) Apol. cap. 10. Tertullian speak upon what frivolous grounds You say we vvorship not the Gods nor for the welfare of the Emperours offer sacrifices to them They were accused of Sedition The one of these two Crimes whereof you accuse us must necessarily follow upon the neck or in consequence of the other for being resolved to render no manner of vvorship to your Deities we must necessarily in like manner be resolved not to sacrifize at their Altars whether for our selves or for what person soever it be Hereupon you conclude us guilty of Sacrilege and high Treason Pliny was wont as appeareth from his Epistle to Trajan to try Christians by supplications made to the Images of the Gods and amongst these to the Emperour's picture by Frankinscence and Wine This burning incense was an ordinary tryal in all ages They were also counted singular and factious for that they would not swear by the Fortune or Genius of the Emperours This the holy Martyr (b) Epist Ecclesiae Smyrnens de S. Polycarpi Martyrio Pag. 20 21. Polycarp was bidden to do by the Proconsul a little before his suffering These prejudices and false opinions being heightned and irritated by the malice of Devils who found themselves neerly concerned therein procured wonderfull enmity and malice in the hearts of Pagans against the faith 19. Is it not strange saith (a) Apol. c. 3. Tertullian that the hatred vvherewith this name is pursued in such manner blinds the minds of most men that vvhen they vvitnesse the probity of a Christian they mix in their discourse as a reproach that he hath imbraced this Religion One saith truely he of vvhom you speak is an honest man if he vvere not a Christian and his life vvould be free from blame Another Do you know such a one vvho had the reputation of a vvise and discreet man he is lately turned Christian Again These people by an extreme blindnesse of hatred speak to the advantage of the name Christian Hence wonderfull hatred vvhen they strive to render it odious For say they How pleasant and of vvhat a good humour vvas that vvoman How sociable and jovial was that man 'T is pity they should be Christians So they impute the amendment of their lives to the profession of Christianity Some of them also