river in Hell Vers. 361. Solyma So called by the Grecians as by the Hebrews Salem and when David had taken it from the Iebusites Ierusalem which is as much as Jebusalem turning B into R for the better harmony called after the building of the Temple Hierosolyma by the Greeks of Hieron which signifies a Temple in their language Vers. 264. From th' Isthmos This Isthmos lies between Aegypt and the bottom of the Red Sea from whence to Euphrates David extended his conquests inforcing all the Arabians to become his Tributaries Who also overthrew the King of Sophona hard by the eruption of Tygris overcame the Mesopotamians the King of Damascus and drew that City with all Syria under his obedience having before subdued the neighbouring Nations Vers. 267. Th' admiring Queen c. Josephus makes her Queen of Aethiopia and to have bestowed on Solomon that pretious Plant of Balsamum which he after planted in Engaddi but this grew in Canaan in the dayes of Jacob who sent a Present thereof among other fruits of that Countrey into Aegypt The Aethiopian Emperours glory in their descent from Solomon by this Queen in regard whereof they greatly favour the Jewish nation They have a Citie called Saba which lies on the West side of the Arabian Gulf But by the presents which she brought and vicinitie of the Countrey it is more probable that she came from Saba the principall Citie of Arabia the Happy Vers. 271. Canopus Scepter c. Kings of Aegypt of Canopus a principal Citie which stood on that branch of Nilus which is next to Alexandria taking that Name from Menelaus his Pilot there buried by his shipwrackt master Vers. 272. Those Monarchs c. Chaldean Monarchs Babylon the seat of their Empire who as the Persians adored the Sun under the name of Mithra Vers. 274. Sarrana Tyrus so called in that it was built on a rock the Arabians pronouncing Scar for Sar from whence the Tyrian purple takes the name of Scarlet He Cities sacks and houses fills with grones To lie on scarlet drink in pretious stones Virg. Geor. l. c. Not onely Iosephus but the Scriptures make often mention of the ancient amitie between the Iews and Tyrians Vers. 277. Ths land c. See the Note upon V. 275. Act. 1. Vers. 283. Antiochus guilt Antiochus Epiphanes who abrogated their Law and by threatnings and tortures enforced the Iews to Idolatry polluting their Altar with sacrificed Swine Vers. 291. Iönian Gods The Gods of Greece Antiochus being of a Grecian Family and zealous in their Superstitions Vers. 293. Their brothers slew c. Aristobulus the first that ware a Crown of the race of the Asmones upon a false suspicion by the machination of Salome the Queen caused his valiant and affectionate brother Antigonus to be treacherously murdred who before had imprisoned the rest of his brethren and famished his mother After the desperate death of Aristobulus Alexander his brother was removed from a Prison to a Throne who slew his third brother out of a vain suspicion of his aspiring to the Kingdome To conclude from the first King of the Asmones to the last of the Herods no history is so fruitfull in examples of unnaturall Cruelties Vers. 297. Twice vanquished c Pompey was the first of the Romanes that subdued the Iews neither were the Romanes expulsed by any forrein Prince but untill this time maintained their Government It must then be meant by their expulsion of one another in their Civill warres Iuilus Coesar vanquishing Pompey Mark Anthony being his Lieutenant in Syria who gave a great part of the Territories of the Iews to Cleopatra after absolute Lord of the Eastern parts of the Romane Empire in the end overthrown and deprived of all by Augustus Vers. 303. One part by Romane c. Iudea reduced into a Romane Province by Pompey and then governed by Pontius Pilat Vers. 304. The other two by brothers c. Philip and Antipas called also Herod sons to Herod the Great the one Tetrarch of Iturea a Countrey which lies at the foot of Libanus and the other of Galilee to whōm Agrippa succeeded the son of Aristobulus slain by his father Herod with the title of a King bestowed by Coesar Vers 305. From savage Idumaeans Antipater the father of Herod was an Idumoean who in the contention between the two brethren Hircanus and Aristobulus about the Kingdome took part with Hircanus and grew so powerfull that he made a way for his son to the Soveraigntie though he himself was prevented by poyson Vers. 327. That Name Iehova ANNOTATIONS VPON THE THIRD ACT. VErse 47. Brutish Thunder The Philosophers will have two sorts of Lightning calling the one fatall that is pre-appointed and mortall the other Brutish that is accidentall and flying at random Vers. 119. He whom c. Herod Antipas then Tetrarch of Galilee whose father Herod the Great so magnificently reedified the Temple that the glory of the latter exceeded that of the former Verse 122. The land c. Phoenicia the ancient kingdome of Agenor son to Belus Priscus who was reputed a God after his death and honoured with Temples called Bel by the Assyrians and Baal by the Hebrews Verse 142. Whose flouds in Summer swell Nilus which constantly begins to rise with the rising Sunne on the seventeenth of Iune increasing by degrees untill it make all the Land a Lake Not ty'd to laws of other Streams the Sun When furthest off thy streams then poorest run Intemperate heaven to temper midst of heat Vnder the burning Zone bid to grow great Then Nile assists the world lest fire should quell The Earth and make his high-borne waters swell Against the Lions flaming jaws Lucan l. 10. Ver. 187. The free born It was the custome of the Romanes to punish slaves onely with whips but their children and the free with rods Verse 195. The wreathed Thorns in reverence of this crown of Thorns which was platted about the brows of our Saviour the Christians forbare to wear any garlands on their heads in their Festivalls although it were the custome of those Nations among whom they lived Vers. 221. Thou liquid chrystall c. Pilat washt not his hands to expresse his innocencie as a Romane Custome but therein observing the Iewish Ceremony which was that he who would professe himself guiltlesse of a suspected Man slaughter should wash his hands over a Heifer with her head cut off Verse 338. Let it fall c. This imprecation soon after fell upon them in all the fulnesse of horrour and throughout the world at this day pursues them Verse 233. Drag him to the Crosse c. Pilat not onely out of fear and against his conscience but therein infringed a Law lately made by Tiberius in the sudden execution for by the same no offendour was to suffer within ten dayes after his condemnation But he met with a Nemesis soon after turn'd out of his Government by Vitellius for his cruelty inflicted upon the Samaritanes and sent to
fleet with our breath After Death nothing rests and nothing Death But of swift Life the Gole Ambition lay Thy hopes aside nor Care our peace betray Inquir'st thou to what place thou shalt return VVhen dead To that where lie the yet Vnborn Seneca in Troad They held that there was neither Spirits nor Angels rejected all Traditions and onely allowed of the five books of Moses that there was no such thing as Fate that no evil proceeded from God and that Vertue and Vice were in our own Arbitrements The Pharisees were sociable among themselves but the Sadduces ever at discord and as uncivill to their own Sect as to strangers This Heresie infected not a few of the High Priests for Hircanus with his two Sons Aristobulus and Alexander were Sadduces so was Auanus the younger Vers. 151. Now the full Moon In the first full Moon after the Suns ascending into the Equinoctiall they celebrated the annuall Passeover according to the positive Law of Moses eating the Lambe in the Evening at their private houses and lying about the table on beds as the Romanes upon their Trielinium never fewer then ten together if they wanted of their owne Family they supplied themselves with their Neighbours nor above the number of twenty This Feast was onely to be kept at Ierusalem but those that came short of the Day by reason of the distance or were defiled with the Dead had a second Passeover in the moneth following assigned Vers. 161. Our washings past It was the Custome as well of all the Eastern Nations as of the Iewes to wash the feet of their Guests though performed by inferior Servants but here by Christ himself to give an example of humilitie They had vessels standing by ready fill'd with water for that purpose This at this Feast was observed between the first and second lying down by way of Purification Vers. 175. Phosphorus The same with Lucifer which is a bringer in of Light and therefore the Harbinger of the Day said to conduct and withdraw the Starres in that the last that shineth This is the beautifull Planet of Venus which when it riseth before the Sun is the Morning Starre and setting after it the Evening Now sea-bath'd Hesperus who brings Night on and first displayes his wings Now radiant Lucifer who Day Exalting chaceth Night away In regard that her Course is sometimes swifter then the Sun and sometimes slower yet never farre off and fulfilling the same period Vers. 193. Those Cities c. The Cities which lie at the foot of Libanus on the North of Galilee whereof Cesarea Philippi the Seat of the Tetrarch was the principall where Iordan not farre above descends from Ior and Dan two neighbouring Fountains Vers 198. A Sea-resembling Lake The Lake of Genesareth called also the Sea of Galilee and of Tiberias taking this name from that Citie there built by Antipas in honour of Tiberius It extendeth forty fur-longs in breadth and in length an hundred the shore once inriched with the Cities of Capharnaum Tiberias Bethsaida Bethsan Gadra Taricha and Chorosaim Vers. 199. Those VVoods of Palmes In the Plaines adjoyning to Iericho from their abundance called the Citie of Palmes Vers. 200. Of fragrant Balsamum which c. As in Engaddi so Balsamum grew plentifully about Iericho A plant onely proper to that Countrey and from thence transported into Aegypt by Antonius to gratifie Cleopatra It dies if it be toucht with iron and therefore they lanch the rinde with sharp stones or knives of bone from whence that precious liquour distilleth Vers. 203. That mount Phasga from whence Moses saw all the land of Promise from Dan to Bersheba and there died buried in an unknown Sepulcher by an Angel lest that should have drawn the Israelites to Idolatry Saint Hitrome writes how the Devil indeavouring to reveale the place was resisted by Michael the Archangel Vers 209. Cepheans whose strong walls c Cepheus the son of Phoenix reigned in Ioppa A citie built by Iaphet before the Floud and rather covered then demolisht by that Deluge The Inhabitants with their territories took the name of their King Who worshipped Dercetis the Goddesse of the Ascalonites their neighbours She as they fable inflamed with the love of a beautifull Youth who sacrific'd unto her having by him a Daughter who after in that nourished by Doves was called Semiramis ashamed of her incontinency put away the Youth exposed the childe to the mercie of the Deserts and distracted with sorrow threw her self into a Lake neare Ascalon and there was changed into a fish Of which Ovid To insist upon The sad Dercetis of great Babylon Who as the Palestines beleeve did take A scaly form inhabiting a Lake To whom a magnificent Temple was erected with her image in the likenesse of a fish from the navell downward This was that Dagon the Idol of the Ascolonites according to S. Hierome by interpretation the Fish of Sorrow which fell before the Ark of God when it was brought into her Temple Vers. 214. Azotus both the Jamnes Maritim townes belonging to the Philistines the latter so called of the flourishing Soyle Vers. 215. Lydda A Citie seated in the valley above and a little to the North of Ioppa called after the Citie of Iupiter famous for the Allegoricall Combat of St George and his Martyrdome Vers. 216. Caparorsa A Citie of Iudaea according to Ptolomey rather of Idumea as here intimated by our Authour Vers. 217. Damascus The regall Citie of Syria as pleasant as great here said to have commanded ten Nations It lieth on the North of Galiee in a valley beyond Antelibanus six short dayes journey from Ierusalem Vers. 219. Sabaste Samaria the soveraigne Citie of those ten Tribes which fell from the House of Iudah not much above a dayes journey from Ierusalem Built by Amri on the top of a Hill presenting an admirable Prospect which he bought of Samarus of whom it was called Samaria The Inhabitants infamous for their frequent falling from God to Idolatry Vers. 221. Phoenicians who The Inhabitants between the great Sea and Galilee so called of Phoenix their king the fifth in descent from Iupiter honour'd for the invention of Letters Phoenicians first exprest if Fame be true The fixt voice in rude figures Memphis knew Not yet how streame-lov'd Biblus to prepare But birds and beasts carv'd out in stone declare Their Hieroglyphick Wisdomes Lucan l. 3. These Cadmus the sonne of Agenor communicated to the Grecians Vers. 223. Tyrus full of Luxury The Metropolis of Phoenicia once soveraigne of the Sea and of all the World the greatest Emporium whose beauty commerce and riches the parent of luxury is by the Prophet Ezekiel most gloriously described Vers. 224. Mother Sidon The ancientest Citie of Phoenicia built by Sida the daughter of Belus or rather by Sidon the first-born of Canaan The mother of Tyrus for the Tyrians were a Colony of the Sidonians Vers. 226. Among the Syrians those c. The Syrians would eat no fish not
onely in regard of the fabulous transformation of their Goddesse Dercetis but that they held it injustice to kill those Creatures which did them no harm and were fed on rather for luxury then necessity Withall conceiving the Sea to be the originall and father of all that had life and that man was ingendred of a liquid substance they adored fishes as being of their own generation and Subsistence So did they a Dove not onely because their glorious Empresse Semiramis carried that name and was after as they fable transformed into that creature but expressing the Aire by the Dove as by a fish the water reverencing both as comprising the Nature of all things V. 229 From Belus whose c. From certain marishes in the valley of Acre runs the River of Belus with a tardy pace and exonerates it self into the Sea hard by Ptolemais whose sand affordeth matter for glasse becomming fusible in the furnace Strabo reports the like of divers places there about and Iosephus speaking of this that there is an adjoyning Pit an hundred cubits in circuit covered with sand that glistered like glasse and when carried away for therewith they accustomed to ballast their ships it forth-with was filled again borne thither by windes from places adjacent Moreover that what minerall soever was contained therein converted into glasse and glasse there laid againe into sand Vers. 231. From Arnons bankes those c. Arnon riseth in the mountaines of Arabia and dividing the Countrey of the Moabites from the Ammonites fals into the Dead Sea By those ancient Warres is meant the Overthrow which Moses gave unto Og and Sehon Vers. 234. Asphaltis The Dead Sea or Lake of Sodome and Gomorrah having no egresse unlesse under the Earth Seventy miles in length and sixteen broad here at large described by our Author Vers. 237. VVhat over flies c. The like is written of Avernus whereof the poeticall Philosopher Avernus cald a name impos'd of right In that so fatall to all Birds of flight VVhich when those aiery Passengers o're-fly Forgetfull of their wings they fall from high With stretcht out necks on Earth where Earth partakes That killing propertie where Lakes on Lakes Lucr. l. 6. Vers. 215. VVhen she c. Lots wife Iosephus writes that he himselfe had seene that Statue of Salt yet extant if Brocardus and Saligniacus professed Eye-witnesses be to be beleeved Vers. 255. Devout Esseans A Sect among the Iews strictly preserving the worship of God the rules of Religion and Iustice living on the common stock never eating of flesh and wholly abstaining from Wine and Women They wore their apparell white and cleanly pray'd before the rising of the Sunne laboured all day long for the publike utilitie fed in the evening with a generall silence and had their Sobriety rewarded with a life long and healthfull Their chiefe study was the Bible and next to that Physick taking their name from the cure of diseases All were servants one to an other They never sware an oath nor offered any thing that had life in their sacrifice ascribing all unto Fate and nothing to free Will They preserved their Society by the adoption of children inured to piety and labour Their Sect though ancient hath no known Originall yet much agreeing with the discipline of the Pythagoreans Vers. 274. The first unleaven'd Bread Eaten with the Paschal Lambe at the Israelites departing out of Aegypt the Ceremonies used therein are at large delivered by Moses Vers. 275. She never would retaine The Libertie they lost in the Babylonian Captivitie was never absolutely recovered for the most part under the Persians Grecians Aegyptians or Syrians although in the reigne of the Asmones they had the face of a Kingdome yet maintained with perpetuall bloudshed after governed by the Idumeans and lastly by the Romanes often rebelling and as often suppressed Ver. 278. Horned Hammons Temple Iupiter Hammon which signifies Sand because his Temple stood in the Lybian Desarts with such difficultie visited by Alexander Or rather being the same with Ham the sonne of Noah from whom Idolatry had her Originall who usually wore the carved head of a Ram on his Helmet whereupon his Idol was so fashioned But Iupiter Hammon is also taken for the Sunne Hammah signifying Heate in the Hebrew And because the Yeere beginneth at his entrance into Aries he therefore was carved with Rams hornes Ver. 281. Built his proud City Alexandria in Aegypt built by Alexander the Great upon a Promentory neer the Isle of Pharos so directed as they write by Homer in a Vision Vers. 282. To their old prison Babylon Not all the Iews returned with Zorobbabel but remained at Babylon and by the favour of succeeding Princes planted thereabout their Colonies grew a great Nation observing their ancient Rites and Religion These were called Babylonian Iews to whom not a few of their Countrey men fled from the troubles of their Countrey Vers. 283. To freezing Taurus c. The greatest Mountaine of the World which changeth its name according to the countries through which it extendeth that part properly so called which divideth Pamphilia and Cilicia from the lesser Armenia and Cappadocia Whither many of the Iews were retired Vers. 284. And Tiber now c. Rome the Empresse of Cities adorning the bankes of Tiber to which the Ocean then yeelded Obedience ANNOTATIONS VPON THE SECOND ACT. VErse 1. Bloud-thirsty Romulus The Originall of the Race and Name of the Romanes who laide the Wals of Rome in the bloud of his brother Remus Vers. 15. To such a Guide c. It was a Custome among the Easterne Nations and not relinquished by many at this Day for men to kisse one another in their salutations So did the Romanes untill interdicted by Tiberius With the Iews it was a pledge of peace and amitie used also to their Lords and Princes by way of homage and acknowledged subjection as perfidious Iudas did here to his Master Vers. 55. Memphis By this is meant the Aegyptian Servitude Memphis of old the chiefe Citie in Aegypt Vers. 55. Devouring Desarts All the Israelites that came out of Aegypt perished in the Desarts but Ioshuah and Caleb Vers. 55. Civill warres As between the Tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Tribes the Iews and Israelites Israelites against Israelites and Iews against Iews Discord threw her Snakes among the Asmones nor had Herods Posteritie better successe Vers. 56. Oft forreign yokes Often subdued by their Neighbours and delivered by their Iudges and Princes Vers. 56. Assyrian Conquerers Who sackt Ierusalem destroyed the Temple which was built by Solomon led their King captive and their whole Nation unto Babylon Vers. 57. Great Pompeys Eagles Pompey who bore the Romane Eagle on his Standard took Ierusalem and the Temple by force yet would not meddle with the Treasure nor sacred Vtensils subdued the Iews and made them tributaries to the Romanes Vers. 57. Sacred Rites Profan'd Who entred the Sanctum Sanctorum with his followers and prophaned the Religion of
Rome with his accusers But Tiberius dying before his arrivall he was banished the Citie by Caius who troubled in minde and desperate of restitution slew himself at Vienna in France within two yeares after Vers. 238. If thou be he c. By this place taken out of the Gospel it appeares that divers of the Iews were of the opinion of the Pythagoreans or the Pythagoreans of theirs concerning the transmigration of Soules into other bodies All alter nothing finally decayes Hither and thither still the Spirit strayes Guest to all Bodies out of beasts it flies To men from men to beasts and never dies As pliant wax each new impression takes Fixt to no forme but still the old forsakes Yet it the same so Soules the same abide 'Though various figures their reception hide Ovid. Met. l. 15. Herod conceived that the Soule of Iohn the Baptist by him wickedly murdered was entered into the body of our blessed Saviour And Iosephus in his Oration to his desperate Companions in the Cave of Iotopata Those poore Soules which depart from this life by the law of Nature and obediently render what from God they received shall by him be placed in the highest Heavens and from thence againe after a certaine revolution of time descend by command to dwell in chaste bodies Vers. 249. Slaine for a dancer This daughter of Herodias as Nicephorus writes going over a River that was frozen fell in all but the head which was cut off with the yce as her body waved up and downe underneath Vers. 331. Sadock The Author of the Sect of the Sadduces See the Note upon Vers. 43. Act. 1. ANNOTATIONS VPON THE FOVRTH ACT. VErse 35. To Warre the fatall way The City of Ierusalem is onely on that side assailable there forced and entred by the Babylonians and after by Pompey Vers. 36. Golgotha Mount Calvary a rocky hill neither high nor ample lying then without the North-West wall of the City the publique place of execution Here they say that Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac in memory whereof there now standeth a Chappell as an Altar where the Head of Adam was found which gave the name to that Mount buried in that place that his bones might be sprinkled with the reall bloud of our Saviour which he knew would be there shed by a propheticall fore-knowledge It is said to stand in the midst of the Earth which must needs be meant by the then habitable for what middle can there be in a Sphericall Body V. 49. The Nazarite Not as Sampson by vow nor of that Sect but so called of that City wherein he was conceived and where he inhabited after his returne out of Aegypt Vers. 52. Mixt with the bitter tears of Myrrh Some suppose that this was proffered him by his friends being of a stupifying qualitie to make him lesse sensible of his torments But it appeares by Petronius and Pliny that it was a mixture much used in their delights Whereof Martial The teares of Myrrh in hot Falernum thaw From this the Wine a better taste will draw Epig. l. 14. Strengthning the body and refreshing the Spirits and therefore more likely proffered by his enemies to prolong his sufferings Vers. 81. His inward Robe There be who write that this was woven by the Virgin Mary and we reade in the Scriptures as frequently in Homer and other Authors that women and those of the highest qualitie usually wrought garments for their Children and Husbands Vers. 203. The Center pants c. This Earth-quake proceeded not from the Windes imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth strugling to break forth or from any other naturall cause but by the immediate singer of God Vers. 205. The Sunne affrighted hides c. Miraculous without the interposition of the Moone or palpable Vapours was that defect of the Sunne and unnaturall Darknesse in the sixth houre of the Day which appeareth by the Text to have cover'd all the World and not Iudea alone as some have conjectured Divers Authours have recorded this in their Annals and Histories but none so exactly as Dionysius Areopagita who then resided in Aegypt and was an eye-witnesse Vers. 240. The greedy hollowes of a Spunge c Physicians agree that Vineger being drunk or held to the nose hath in it a naturall Vertue for the stenching of bloud Pliny attributes the like to Hyssop and the better if joyned Neither is it to be thought that the Iews offered this unto IESUS in humanity but rather out of their hatred that by prolonging his Life untill the Evening his legges might have been broken to the increase of his torments Vers. 256. Pale troopes of wandring Ghosts These were the reall bodies of the dead which entred the City from their graves for it was as now their Custome to bury in the fields and seen by day Whereas deluding Spirits assume an Aery thinne and fluxative Body condensed by cold but dissipated by heate and therefore onely appeare in the Night time Which Virgil intimates in the Ghost of Anchises And now farewell the humid Night descends I sent Day 's breath in his too-swift repaire This said like smoak he vanisneth to aire Aen. l. 12. Ver. 259 The cleaving Rocks The Rock of Mount Calvary was rent by that Earth-quake from the top to the bottome which at this day is to be seene the rupture such as Art could have no hand in each side answerable ragged and there where unaccessible to the workman Vers 263. Old Chaos now returnes That confused Masse out of which God created the beautifull World into which it was imagined that it should be againe reduced The aged World dissolved by the Last And fatall Houre shall to Old Chaos hast Stars justling Stars shall in the Deepe confound Their radiant fires the Land shall give no bound To swallowing Seas the Moone shall crosse the Sun With scorne that her swift wheeles obliquely run Dayes throne aspiring Discord then shall rend The Worlds crackt Frame and Natures Concord end Lucan l. 4. But many of our Divines are of opinion that the World shall neither be dissolved nor anihilated strengthning their assertion out of the eighth of the Romanes and other places of Scripture Ver. 238. Th' amaz'd Centurion To this Centurion who professed CHRIST to be the Sonne of God they give the name of Longinus and honour him with the crowne of Martyrdome Vers. 296. The Temples Veile Described by Iosephus to consist of Violet Purple and Scarlet Silke cunningly mixt wrought by Babylonian Needles the colours containing a mysticall sense Such was that of Solomons and of the travelling Tabernacle but that they were powdred with Cherubins This it should seeme was renewed by Herod when he so magnificently repaired the Temple It hung before the Sanctum Sanctorum into which none but the High Priest and that but once in the yeer was to enter violated by Pompey pursued by a miserable Destiny There was an out-ward Veile not unlike the other which separated the Priests
the place by beholding that which was to be seene but by the High Priest onely Vers. 58. The Temple sackt with bloud c. He slew twelve thousand Iews within the wals of the Temple Vers. 66. Cedron This Brook or Torrent runnes thorough the Vale of Iehosaphat between Mount Olivet and the City close by the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ was betrayed Vers. 103. Not Jordan with two c. See the Note upon vers 195. Act. 1. Vers. 105. Callithoe A Citie in the Tribe of Ruben so called of her beautifull Springs where from a Rock two neighbour Fountaines gush out as from the brests of a woman the one of hot but sweet water the other of cold and bitter which joyning together make a pleasant Bath salubrious for many diseases and flowes from thence into the Lake of Asphaltis Herod in his sicknesse repaired to this place but finding no help and despairing of life removed to Iericho where he died Vers. 105. That ample Lake The Sea of Galilee by which Peter was borne Vers. 107. Blew Nereus c. Nereus is taken for the Sea in generall but here for the Aegyptian into which Nilus dischargeth his waters by seven currents the fresh water keeping together and changing the colour of the Salt far further into the Sea then the shore from thence can be discerned Vers. 128. Lethe A River of Africa passing by Bernice and running into the Mediterranian Sea neere the Promontory of the Syrtes It hath that name from Oblivion because those who drunk thereof forgot whatsoever they had formerly done Of this Lucan Where silent Lethe glides this as they tell Draws her Oblivion from the veines of Hell So feigned because of the oblivion which is in Death as allegorically for that of Sleep Vers. 139. Tarpean Jove Tarpeus is a Mountaine in Rome taking that name from the Vestall Virgin Tarpea who betrayed her Fathers Fort to the Sabines upon promise to receive what they ware on their left armes for her reward she meaning their golden bracelets which they not onely gave but threw their shields upon her a part of the bargaine and so prest her to death who buried her in the Place since called the Capitol where Iupiter had his Temple Vers. 139. Mars great Quirinus Sire Romulus was called Quirinus of his Speare or for his uniting the two Nations of the Cures and Romanes as the sonne of Mars in that so strenuous a Souldier Plutarch writes that he was begotten by his Vncle Aemulius who counterfeiting Mars disguised in Armour ravished his mother Ilia not onely to satisfie his Lust but to procure her destruction as the heire to his elder brother the law condemning a defiled Vestall to be buried alive Vers. 140. You Houshold Gods snatcht c. Penates which Aeneas saved from burning at the sack of Troy and brought them with him into Italy supposing that from them they received their flesh their life and understanding Vers 151. Caprae A little Iland in the Tyrrhen Sea and in the sight of Naples naturally walled about with up-right Cliffs and having but one passage into it Infamous for the Cruelties and Lusts of Tiberius who retiring thither from the affairs of the Common-wealth sent from thence his Mandates of death polluting the place with all varietie of uncleannesse whereupon it was called the Iland of secret lusts and he Caprenius conversing there with Magicians and South-sayers whereof the Satyr speaking of Sejanus The Princes Tutor glorying to be nam'd Sitting in caves of Caprae with defam'd Chaldeans Iuv: Sat. 10. Ver. 152. The long-gown The gowne was a garment peculiar to the Romanes by which they were distinguished from other Nations as of what qualitie among themselves by the wooll and colour fashion and trimming In so much as they were called Togati Whereof Virgil in the person of Iupiter Curst Juno who Sea Earth and Heaven above With her distemper tires shall friendly prove And joyne with us in gracing the Long-gownd And Lordly Romanes still with conquest crown'd Aen. l. 1. Vers. 157. Their hate to all c The Iews with the hate of an enemy detested all other Nations would neither eat with them nor lodge in their houses but avoided the stranger as a pollution Proud in their greatest poverty calling themselves the elect of God boasting of their Countrey their Religion and ancient Families in their conversation austere and respectlesse So full of jealous envy that by a Decree in the reigne of Hircanus and Aristobulus such suffered the dreadfull censure of a Curse who instructed their sons in the Grecian Disciplines and much regrated that the laws of Moses was translated into a profane language by the command of Philadelphus expressing their grief by an annuall Fast which they kept on the Eighth day of the moneth Teveth Vers. 159. Abjure for one c. Pilat accuseth them here for their piety who after the Captivity as much detested Idolatry as they affected it before who could not be compelled by their Conquerours to worship the Images of Tiberius Caesar which Pilat brought into the Citie but was forced to carry them away upon their refusall Caius not long after commanded that the Statues of the Gods should be erected in their Temple menacing if they should refuse it their utter subversion But his death prevented their ruine who before had made their protestation that they would rather suffer the generall destruction of themselves and their City then suffer such an abomination so repugnant to their Law and Religion Vers. 168. With how much grief our swords c. Iosephus mentions one slaughter onely which Pilat as then had made of the Iews and that about the drawing of water by conduits into the sacred Treasury which divers thousands of the Iewes tumultuarily resisted Pilat invironed them with his Souldiers disguised in popular garments who privately armed fell upon the naked People and by the slaughter of a number appeased the mutiny Vers. 234. Rods and Axes Borne before the Romane Consuls Pretors and Governours of Provinces bound together in bundles to informe the Magistrate that he should not be too swift in execution nor unlimited but that in the unbinding thereof he might have time to deliberate and perhaps to alter his sentence that some are to be corrected with Rods and others cut off with Axes according to the quality of their offences Vers. 254. Since one must die c. Caiaphas prophesied being then the High Priest though not of the House of Aaron He was thrown out of his Office by Lucius Vitellius who succeeded Pilat and Ionathan the sonne of Annas placed in his room when distracted with melancholy and desperation he received his death from his own hands Vers. 242. Stygian Styx is a Fountain of Arcadia whose waters are so deadly that they presently kill whatsoever drinks thereof so corrodiating that they can onely be contained in the hoof of a mule This in regard of the dire effects was feigned by the Poets to be a