Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	river_n	sea_n	5,770	4	6.4355	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59396	A most excellent eloquent speech made, not by an irreligious, rebellious, improbous, impious, sedicious, pestiferous, pernicious, factious, flagitious, vicious, vafritious, mischievous, malicious, mutinous, luxurious, letcherous, &c. noble peer, but by a most noble and wise pious and vertuous emperor, viz., Alexander Severus to the common people of Rome, assembled before him in Pompey's Theatre : with the causes, as likewise the effects thereof, which were an humble and real cordial verbal address, to his imperial majesty, of all their lives and fortunes : being a rare pattern of pagan piety and obedience : with a few quintessential queries and remarques thereupon : calculated for the meridian of the famous city of London, buy may prove of singualr service and infallible use to all the atheistical, dissenting, disloyal, and phanatical subjects of His Sacred Majesty of Great-Brittain, France, and Ireland, &c. without the least preceptible error or mistake in the world / made English out of Greek.	Severus Alexander, Emperor of Rome, 208-235.	1683 (1683)	Wing S2818; ESTC R2688	10,392	20

A MOST EXCELLENT Eloquent Speech MADE NOT BY An Irreligious Rebellious Improbous Impious Seditious Pestiferous Pernicious Factious Flagitious Vicious Vafritious Mischievous Malicious Mutinous Luxurious Letcherous c. NOBLE PEER BVT BY A most Noble and Wise Pious and Vertuous EMPEROR VIZ. Alexander Severus To the Common People of ROME Assembled before him in POMPEY'S THEATRE With the CAUSES as likewise the EFFECTS thereof which were an Humble and Real Cordial Verbal ADDRESS to His Imperial Majesty of all their Lives and Fortunes Being a Rare Pattern of Pagan Piety and Obedience Made English out of the Greek With a few Quintessential Queries and Remarques thereupon Calculated for the Meridian of the Famous City of LONDON but may prove of singular Service and Infallible Use to all the Atheistical Dissenting Disloyal and Phanatical Subjects of His Sacred Majesty of Great-Brittain France and Ireland c. without the least Preceptible Error or Mistake in the World Divisum Imperium cum Jove Cesar habet Virgil. Principilus summum rerum Arbitrium Dij dederunt subditis obsequij Gloria vero relicta est Tacit. 4. Annal. Printed for W. Davis in Amen-Corner M.DC.LXXXIII A most Excellent and Eloquent ORATION c. BEfore I come to this Incomparable Speech it self you are to be acquainted with something concerning the Cause thereof according to promise which in short was this following This good Emperor one day looking out at his Palace Window The cause of this Speech chanc'd to see certain Gentlemen Exercising themselves in Wrestling Running Leaping c. To whom there happen'd to come a certain number of Common People who without any sign of Reverence or Respect or so much as saying by your leave intruded themselves into the Gentlemens Society and Malapertly undertook with arrogant and presumptious sawcy Language to contend with them about those their Recreations Now the Gentlemen being therewith offended bad them be content with their own Degree and Stations and go and associate themselves with their Companions and Equals But these Commoners taking this Reproof as a grand Affront with sturdy stubborn Countenances proudly made this Reply viz. That every one of them was able to live and had more store and plenty wherewith to follow their Pleasures than the best of themselves Insomuch as if the Emperor's Guards had not interven'd in season the Commons had fought with the Gentlemen and in all propability had worsted them being more by far in number than they Now the Emperor viewing these passages was perceiv'd to be put into such a passion thereby as was observ'd never to have been seen in him during all his past life-time and thereupon caus'd the said Common People to be secur'd every Man of them and strictly commanded that not any thing that had passed should be taken notice of in the least until his farther Will and Pleasure were made known concerning the same And immediately thereupon sends for the Governour of the City and Tribunes and commands them to send their Officers to Summon all the Men Commons of Rome to appear in Pompey's Theatre the 2d day following where the Emperor in his own Person would also be present and declare unto them some things of very great Weight and Moment concerning the most Important and Perillous Affairs of the State of the Weal-Public The Emperor's Commands were accordingly Executed and an High Place Erected on purpose at the end of the Theatre where the Emperor himself should sit in his Majesty that all the people might plainly behold and perfectly hear him Now the Theatre was made in form of a Bow that hath a great Bend A Description of Pompey's Theatre and in all the round part thereof were many Benches one behind another and over one another for it was narrowest below and upward grew larger and larger and there sat all the Common People and at the streight end which was to the other part as the String to the Bow were the Seats for the Senators and behind them sat the Gentlemen At the time appointed the People being in the Theatre according as they were commanded the Emperor came in Person accompanied only with the Governour and Tribunes leaving all his Guards at the Theatre Gate At his coming all the people rose and Saluted him with most joyful Acclamations but he good Man contrary to his accustomed Custome pass'd by them with a displeased Countenance whereat they were not a little amazed and with hearts full of dutiful loving dread and general constant Silence prepar'd their Ears to hear attentively what the Emperor would say who after he had long view'd them with a Grave Countenance and full of Majesty spake to them as hereafter followeth The Emperor Alexander Severus's Speech to the Common People of Rome WE wot not how to begin to speak unto you for we know not by what Name we shall call you for if you were our Senators then we would call you Fathers if you were Gentlemen then would we call you our Friends and if you were as you ought to be good Commoners then would we call you our good People of Rome as you know we were wont to do But since Election hath not made you Senators nor Birth made you Gentlemen nor your Merits good Commoners we be in no small doubt what we shall call you For should we call you Romans we fear least Romulus from whom proceeded that Name if he be Deify'd as you suppose he is being therewith offended should be avenged as well on us as on you for abusing his Glorious Name on such People which go about to dissolve this Noble Empire destroy this City which he first founded with his most excellent Prowess and Wisdom and what worse is if any thing can be worse utterly to Extingush the most Honourable and Glorious Fame of this City and People thereof which hath pierc'd the Clouds flown over the high Mountains pass'd the perilous Seas and large Rivers ran through the vast Desarts and Wildernesses and touch'd the farthermost Bounds of the World We will therefore omit to call you by any Name until we can find out a proper one and according to your deserts Perhaps at our coming you beholding our Countenance towards you more strange than it was formerly wont to be you thought I say it may be that we were moved by some private Displeasure for something touching our particular Person or that we were alter'd from our former Temperance to Tyranny conceiving some Suspicion of our Nature by the remembrance of that Monster in Nature our late Predecessor Heliogabaius forasmuch as we both came from one Lineage which I deny not But truly if this be your phantasie we will soon acquit our self thereof and set all your minds at Liberty We will then say thus much to you As touching our Person and Family no Man by Words hath offended us no Man hath taken any thing from us no Man that we know hath gone about to betray us or conspire against us Nor is

there any other thing privately acted to our Detriment that hath displeased us And as for our accustomed Manners which so well liked and contented you we shall assure you we have not alter'd neither intend we to alter them For Tyranny as we have ever had it in extream detestation so do we now most fervently abominate and abhorr it The Corrupt Nature of our Predecessor had never place in us One Garden at one time brings forth deadly Poyson and wholesome Medicine We see that one Woman which by one Man hath many Children of them some be fair and personable some ill-favour'd and Deform'd some be Ingenious and apt to receive good Learning others we see be Fools and dull-witted one we see is Courageous and Hardy another is a Dastard and a Coward this Child is gentle and inclin'd to vertue that 's fierce and full of Vice Now this is no new thing but in daily experience and if this diversity and varity then happens to be in one Garden and in the Generation of one Father and also of one Mother then I hope we may well escape the cause of this Suspicion We and Heliogabalus had several Fathers and several Mothers and they as different in their Conditions as you your selves can bear witness who have known and seen experienced the Chaste living Sanctity and Prudence of our Reverend Mother and in what vertuous Discipline She hath nurtur'd us and brought us up unto the time that we were called to this Dignity by God and this ought certainly to suffice as well to persuade you that not any thing concerning our self hath moved us to displeasure towards you as also to Exclude all suspicion of Tyranny out of your minds and now shall you know the real cause why we be at this time discontented with you Although we said at the beginning that you went about to dissolve this Empire destroy this City and extinguish the Glorious Fame thereof which indeed is the cause of our displeasure and heaviness yet in those general Words you perceive not I suppose what we mean thereby wherefore be attentive and take good heed and you shall hear it more particularly declared unto you After Romulus had Built this City Romulus he by his Divine Reason considered and as I doubt not in the time of the Building Experience declared That in a confused multitude of People and they being of divers Wits and Conditions if Order were wanting there would be no perpetual Concord but the People of necessity would be compell'd by continual variance and discord either to abandon the City and dividing themselves to seek for sundry places to inhabit in or else abiding there in continual Sedition would shortly and easily be subdued or destroyed by their Neighbors dwelling about them Wherefore he proceeding from a Gentile and Noble House excelling the residue of the people in Noble Courage and fineness of Wit first devised and established this Order viz. That the Company which he had Assembled as well of them which he had brought unto him as of those which he out of divers parts had allured with him should generally be called by the Name of Romans for ever and that of them should be Three States or Degrees every one of them necessary for the Weal-Public of his Noble City in their sundry Administrations Stations Duties and Exercises For the first State he chose out of the whole Congregation an hundred Men Ancient in years which in Moderation of Living Soberness of Manners and sharpness of Wit were the principall Personages of all that number Of these he Estabished a Council whereby the Affairs of the City and the Appendices thereof should be Ruled and Ministred and these Counsellors for their Age should be called Senators Senators for Senes in Latine signifies old Men notwithstanding being saluted or spoken to they should be named Fathers as also the College or Company of them was Incorporate by the Name of the Senate Moreover out of this College should be Elected the chief Judges and Officers in the Weal-Public to whom should be committed the determination of Justice the Execution of Ceremonies and Solemn Sacrifices and other Authorities which belong to Government Wherefore he would that in this State there should be a Majesty which of all other Men should be had in singular Honour and Reverence Now as this State was ordained for Counsel and Government so likewise he Elected out of the redsidue which were Lusty in years Valiant Hardy and Courageous a greater number whom because in Wars they should be on Horse-back he called Equites Equites Equestris and the other he called Equestris to them should chiefly pertain the defence of the City against the Invasion of Enemies with other small Administrations about the necessary Provisions and Ornaments of this Noble City And this State also would he have Honoured of the rest of the People and to the intent they should be known from other Men he assigned them to wear a Ring and to bear Javelins in their hands from whence afterwards they were called Quirites Quirites which in the ancient Tongue of this Country signified Spear-Men Out of this State should be Elected the Senators when the just number of the Senate decayed The third State was of the base People The Commoners or Commoners to whom severally should not be Commited any Authority but should imploy and busie themselves in their proper Occupations and be ready at all times to Execute the Statutes and Ordinances made by the Senate Note That Romulus was none of the three States as also to be obedient to the chief Officers in what pertained to the Weal-Public And moreover when Wars requir'd that they should go forth then were they to be obedient and diligent at the Commands of their Captains and Leaders This Order being Established by Romulus as long as in every degree it was duely observed how marvelously did this City prosper yea how wonderfully did a few Romans in respect not only defend this little Territory against the great number and vast Puissance of divers and sundry people confederated against them but also beat them back to their own houses entred into their Cities despoil'd them of their substance and also compell'd them not only to desire perpetual Peace but moreover at the last to become their Subjects and Tributaries And when this good Order began to be broken your Common State aspiring to Government and Rule where they were ordain'd to obey only What Year I pray can ye find free from Sedition and Discord among you Who can number the Romans which have been slain in Civil Wars and Commotions Who could without tears The Ld. Russel would call these but Stirrs write the dolorous State of this City in the time of Cinna and Marius whom for disdain that they had for the Nobility you Elevated to the highest Dignities By this your Disorder sundry Calamities befell this City you chose Caligula to be your Emperor