unwilling to employ their forces into so remote a war did advise them to crave ayd of Castor Pollux Neither did the Ambassadors despise the counsel of their friends And departing to the next Temple having offered sacrifice they implored the assistance of the gods and having obtained as they thought what they desired and being as ioyful as if they should carry the gods themselves with them they placed Cussions for them in the ship and by a fortunate adventure they brought home comfort to their distressed Army in the stead of help This being known the Crotonians themselves did send Ambassadors to the Oracle at Delphos imploring the grant of victory and prosperous events in thâ— wars to come It was answered that the Enemies were first to be overcome by Votes and afterwards by Arms. Hereupon the Locrensians devoted to Apollo the Tythes or Tenths of their booty having understood that the Crotonians had devoted but the ninth part which they reserved with great privacy lest the answer of the god being known they should be overcome in their Votes Therefore when both Armies were drawn into battel-Array and there were marshalled in the Field one hundred and twenty thousand armed men of the Crotonians the Locrensians looking upon their own Musters which could not at the most amount to above fifteen thousand men having abandoned all hope of Victory they did destinate themselves to a certain death and so honourable an heat did grow upon them all out of this desperation that in the battel they thought themselves to be Conquerors if they dyed not unrevenged Thus whiles they desired to die honourably they overcame happily and their despair was the original of their Victory In the heat and height of the labour of their sword an Eagle constantly appeared to fly in the front of the Locrensian Army and sometimes wheeling about the wings of the Army she would immediately return and be seen again to hover over them until they were become Masters of the Field In the wings of their battel there were also seen two young men to fight in Armor far different from others and remarkable by the height and greatness of their bodies and by their white horses and coâ—cineous paludaments neither did they appear any longer then whiles the battels were fighting The incredible swiftness of the report of the victory did encrease the wonder of it For on the same day on which the Battel was fought in Italy the Victory of the Locrensians was reported at Corinth and Athens and at Lacedaemon After this the Crotonians delighted themselves neither in the exercises of honour nor in the use of Arms for they hated what so unhappily they undertook and had changed their lives into luxury had it not been for the documents of Pythagoras the Philosopher who being born at Samos was the Son of Demaratus a rich Merchant he was indued with excellent gifts of wisdom and understanding and travelled first into Aegypt and afterwards to Babylon to learn the motion of the Stars and to understand the beginning of the World And having therein attained to the perfection of knowledge he returned to Creet and Lacedaemon to instruct himself in the Laws of Minos and Lyâ—urgus with which their Laws being the most famous of all in those daies he reduced the people of Crotona from the abuse of riot by his example to the use of temperance and frugality He daily extolled vertue and cryed down the vices of luxury and did number to them how many Cities were destroyed by this devouring sin and at last he was so much followed by the multitude that what was thought almost incredible even some of the most riotous of those people were converted into the manners and principles of the most thrifty of men He had several Schools and several Auditories and distinctly taught the Matrons from the men the children from their Parents He taught the Matrons chastity and obsequiousness towards theit husbands and he taught their husbands temperance and to be lovers of Learning He alwayes prompted both unto frugality as if it were the mother of all vertues and by his daily disputation he so prevailed that the Matrons did leave off their Garments of gold and other ornaments of their dignity as the instruments of luxury and these ornaments being brought them into the Temple of Juno they were by these Matrons consecrated to the goddess her self professing that the best ornaments of Matrons was chastity and not gorgeous apparrel How much also he prevailed by conquest on the young men the conquered spirits of the contumacious women â—id declare But when three hundred of the young men having obliged themselves by oath through the Interest of their society did like Separatists segregate themselves from the rest of their Citizens being suspected to hold a clandestine Conspirary they exasperated the Citizens against them who would have burned them altogether being convened in one house In this tumult there perished about threescore of them the rest were condemned to banishment Pythagoras having lived twenty years at Crotona did remove himself to Metapontum in which City he dyed they had there so great an admiration of him that they made of his house a Temple and did worship him as a god Dionysius the Tyrant having as before we mentioned transported his Army out of Sicily into Italy and made war upon the Grecians who there inhabited he overcame the Locrians and did assault the Crotonians through a long respite scarce resuming new strength so great was their overthrow of their former war they now more valiantly resisted with a few men the powerful Army of Dionysius then heretofore with many thousands they resisted the inconsiderable number of the Locrensians So much vertue hath poverty against insolent riches and sometimes so much more certain is a dispaired then a presumed Victory In the mean time the Ambassadors of the Gauls who not many Moneths before had burned Rome did address themselves to Dionysius making wars in Italy and desired a league and friendship of him they affirmed that their Nation was now seated between his Enemies and would be of great concernment to him both to attend him in the Van or to defend him if his Enemies should take the advantage to press upon him in the Rear This Embassie was acceptable to Dionysius wherefore having entred into a league with them and re-inforced his Army with Auxiliaries from them he did begin the war again The cause which brought these Gauls to seek new habitations in Italy was civil discord and daily dissentions at home being weary with the tediousness whereof when they came in multitudes into Italy they did drive the Tuscans from their possessions and builded Millain Comum Brixia Verona Bergomum Tridentum and Vincentia The Tuscans at the same time under the command of Rhetus having lost their ancient habitations did possess themselves of the Alpes and called the Country which they commanded Rhetia after the name of their Commander Not long afterwards Dionysius was called
commanded him to be brought into the Theater that they might all have a full view of him whom every one conceived to be impossible to be taken Being brought afterwards unto the Dungeon in the respect to his greatness they gave him poyson which he took as cheerfully as if he had conquered death as he had heretofore his Enemies He demanded afterwards if his Lieutenant Generall Lycortal whom he knew to be second to him in the affairs of war had escaped and having understood that he was alive and in safety he said Then it goes not altogether so ill with the Achaians and speaking those words he died Not long after the war being renewed the Messenians were overcome and they endured the punishment for the death of Philopemenes In the mean time Antiochus King of Syria when he was oppressed by the Romans with too great a Tribute and groaned under the burden of it either enforced by the want of money or sollicited by avarice by which under the pretence of a necessitated Tribute he hoped that he more excusedly should commit Sacriledge having drawn an Army together did by night assault the Temple of Dindymaean Jove Which being discovered he was slain with all his Army by a concourse of the Inhabitants When many Cities of Greece â—ame to Rome to complain of the Injuries of Philip King of the Macedons And there was a great dispute in the Senate between Demetrius the Son of Philip whom his father had sent to satisfie the Senate and the Ambassadors of the Cities the young man being confused with the multitude of complaints made against his Father did on a suddain hold his peace The Senate being moved with his shamefastness by which in a private condition he before endeered himself to all when he was an Hostage at Rome did give him the cause and thus Demetrius by his modesty obtained pardon for his Father not by the right or plea of defence but by the patronage of his modesty which was signified by the Decree of the Senate that it might appear that the King was not absolved but the Father rather was given to the Son Which procured to Demetrius not the grace of an Ambassador but the hatred of obtrectation It pulled upon him the emulation and envy of his brother Philip and the cause of the pardon being known to his Father who was pardoned it became an offence Philip disdayning that the person of his Son was of more moment with the Senate then the Authority of the Father or the dignity of regall Majesty Perseus therefore having observed the sickness of his Father did bring daily complaint unto him against Demetrius being absent and at first did cause him to be hated and afterwards to be suspected by him sometimes he did object against him the freindship of the Romans and sometimes treason against his Father At the last he counterfeited that treacheries were prepared by him against his person to be put suddenly in Execution to the trial and proof whereof the Judges were sent for the suborned witnesses examined and the Charge was proved which was objected against him By those unjust proceedings the Father being compelled to parricide did make sad all the Court with the execution of his Son Demetrius being slain Perseus grew not more dutifull but more contumatious against his Father and carried himself not as an heir of the Kingdom but as the King himself with which Philip being offended did daily more impatiently lament the death of Demetrius and suspecting that he was circumvented by the Treachery of Perseus he caused the witnesses and the Judges to be tormented And having by this means discovered the deceit he was no less afflicted with the wickedness of Perseus then with the innocent death of Demetrius which he was resolved to have revenged if he had not been prevented by death For not long after his disease encreasing by the Melancholy and perplexedness of his spirit he deceased having left great preparations of war against the Romans which Perseus afterwards employed For he enforced the Gaules called Scordisci to joyn in league with him and he had made a great war against the Romans if he had not died For the Gaules the war against the Delphians being unfortunately mannaged in which they found the power of God to be more great and present then the power of their Enemies having lost Brennus their Generall some part of them did fly into Asia and some part did wander up and down in Thracia From whence in the same path in which they marched forth they returned to their antient Country Of these a considerable number did sit down in the Confluent of the River Danubius and called themselves by the name of Scordisci But the Tectosagi when they arrived at their antient Country of Tholouse were there visited by the Pestilence and recovered not their health untill being admonished by the answers of the Diviners they had drowned all their Gold and Silver which they had got by Sacriledge in the Lake of Tholouse all which Coepio the Roman Consul did a long time afterwards take away There was in all one hundred and twenty thousand weight of Gold and five millions of Silver which Sacriledge was the cause afterwards of the destruction of Coepio and all his Army The tumult also of the Cambrian war did follow the Romans as the revenge of the violation of the consecrated money Not a small number of the Nation of the Tectosagi did seat themselves in Illyricum being delighted with the sweetness of the Air and the Prey and having spoyled the Istrians they did inhabite Pannonia Fame reports that the Nation of the Istrians do derive their Originall from Colchos being sent by King Aetus to the Argonauts to pursue the ravisher of his daughter who as soon as they entered into Ister out of Pontus having sailed far into the Channel of the River Sais following the steps of the Argonauts they carried their ships on their shoulders over the cliffes of the hills untill they came to the shore of the Adriatick Sea having understood that the Argonauts by reason of the length of their Ship had done the same before them whom when the Colchians did not receive they either through fear of their King or the tediousness of their long Navigation did sit down at last neer to Aquileia and were called Istrians after the Name of the River into the which from the Sea they sayled The Dacians also are a Generation of the Getes who when they fought unfortunately under Olor their King against the Bastarnians were commanded that when they were in bed they should to expiate their sloth lay their feet where they should rest their heads and perform those houshold offices and services to their wives which their wives before were accustomed to do to them Neither was this custome changed untill by their courage they had wiped away the old Ignominy which they had received in the war Perseus when he succeeded in the Kingdom of Philip his
there was no place that was sooner severed from the fire then the North by reason of the cold as to this day it is to be seen that no Clime is more stiffe with Winter but Egypt and all the East received long afterwards their temper seeing it doth still burn with the violent heat of the Sun On the other side if all Lands were heretofore drowned in the Deeps no doubt but every highest part the waters flowing down was first uncovered and that the water stayed for a long time in the lower Countries and the sooner that any part of the earth became dry before the other the sooner it began to bring forth creatures But Scythia is so high in her situation above all other Lands that all Rivers which have their beginnings there do flow down first unto the Maeotick then into the Pontick and afterwards into the Egyptian Sea but Egypt whose fences have been made at the care and charges of such great Kings and so many ages and provided with so many Banks against the force of the falling Rivers and cut into so many Ditches that when the waters are drayned from one place they are received into another and yet for all this cannot be inhabited unless Nilus too be excluded cannot appear to pretend to any antiquity which both by the exaggeration either of her Kings and of Nilus drawing so much mud after it doth seem of all Lands to be the last inhabited The Egyptians being overcome with these Arguments the Scythians were always esteemed the more Antient. Scythia being stretch'd forwards towards the East is inclos'd on one side with Pontus and on the other with the Riphaean mountains on the back of us with Asia and the River Phaesis The men have no limits to their possessions they Till not the ground nor have any house or shelter or place of residence being accustomed to wander through waste and unfrequented places as they drive and feed their Cattel they carry their wives and children with them in Waggons Which being covered with the Hides of Beasts to defend them from the showers and tempests they do use in the stead of houses The Justice of the Nation is more beautified by the simplicity of their conversation then by their Laws There is no crime amongst them more capitall then theft for having flocks and droves without any house or fence what would be safe amongst them if it were lawful for them to steal they despise gold and silver as much as other men do covet it They feed on milk and honey The use of Wool and of Apparel is unknown unto them and because they are pinched with continual cold they are cloathed with the skins of wild beasts great and smal This their continence hath endued them with such a righteousness of conversation that they covet not any thing which is their neighbours for there is the desire of riches where is the use of it and it were to be wished that in other men there were the like moderation and abstinence surely not so many wars should be continued through all Ages almost over all Lands neither should the sword devour more men then the natural condition of Fate It is wonderful indeed that Nature hath granted that to these which the Grecians could not attain unto by the repeated Instructions of their wise men and the Precepts of their Philosophers and that their refined Manners should stoop in the comparison to unrefined Barbarism so much the ignorance of vices hath profited more in them then doth in others the knowledge of vertue The Scythians thrice attempted the chief command of Asia they themselves did always remain either untouched or unconquered by the forces of others by a shamefull flight they removed from Scythia Darius King of the Persians They destroyed Cyrus with all his Army and in the same manner they overthrew Zopyron one of the Commanders of Alexander the Great with all his power They heard of but not felt the arms of the Romans They erected the Parthian and Bactrian Kingdoms a Nation proud of war and labor The strength of their bodies is great they lay up nothing which they are afraid to lose and where they are Conquerors they desire nothing but glory Vexores King of Aegypt was the first that made war upon the Scythians having first by Ambassadors sent a Summons to them to obey him But the Scythians being before advertised by their Neighbours of the coming of the King made answer We wonder that the Commander of so rich a People should so foolishly make war against poor men having more reason to look to his affairs at home for here the event of the war is uncertain the rewards of the Conquest are none and the losses are apparent therefore they would not attend till he should come to them when in so great and rich an enemy there was more by them to be expected and therefore of their own accord they were resolved to meet him Their deeds did jump and overtake their words and the King understanding that they marched towards him with so much speed he turned his back upon them and his Army with all the Bag and Baggage being left behind he timorously escaped into his Kingdom The Marshes did hinder the Scythians from the pursuit Being returned from thence they subdued Asia and made it tributary a small tribute being imposed rather to shew their titular Command then for any reward of their victory Having stayed fifteen yeers in establishing the affairs of Asia they were called back by the importunity of their wives it being assured them by their Ambassadors that unless they did return with more speed they would seek for issue from their Neighbours nor ever suffer through their default that the Nations of the Scythians should have no name in posterity Asia was tributary to the Scythians for the space of one thousand and five hundred yeers Ninus King of the Assyrians did put a period to the tribute But in this interval of time two young men of royall blood amongst the Scythians Plinos and Scolopythus being driven from their own Countrey by the faction of the Nobility did draw with them a gallant and numerous train of young men and sitting down in the coast of Cappadocia neer unto the River of Thermodoon they did inhabite the Themiscyrian Plains which they had conquered to obedience Being unaccustomed there for the space of many yeers to plunder their Neighbours they were at last slain through treachery by the conspiracy of the people Their wives when they observed their punishment to be without children to be added to their banishment did put on arms and first by removing and afterwards by commencing wars they did defend their own Territories They also did forbear the desire of marriage with their Neighbours calling iâ— slavery not Matrimony a singular example to Posterity They did increase their Common-wealth without men at the same time when they did desend themselves with the contempt of them And lest some
of what force was Concord did enter into a League together and having amassed their Forces into one body they 〈◊〉 the war against Demetrius into Europe Pyrrhus King of Epirus did joyn himself unto them as their Companion in the war hoping that Demetrius could lose Macedonia as easily and as suddenly as he obtained it neither was he deceived in his expectation For his Army being corrupted and himself put to flight he left his Kingdom to the Conquerors In the mean time Lysimachus killed his Son-in-law Antipater complaining that the Kingdom was taken from him by his deceit and committed into Custody his own Daughter Euridice the companion of his complaints And thus all the Family of Antipater partly by slaughter partly by punishment became so many sacrifices to satisfie the revenge of the Ghost of Alexander both for his own death and for the destruction of all his off-spring Demetrius also being surrounded by so many Armies when it was in his power to die honourably chose shamefully rather to deliver himself to Seleucus The war being ended Ptolomy dyed full of the glory of his atchievements He against the law of Nations delivered the Kingdom to his youngest Son not long before the last infirmity of his Age and afterwards did give a reason of it to the people the favour which the young man gained was no less in receiving then was his Fathers in delivering the Scepter Amongst other Examples of mutual piety betwixt the Father and the Son it procured the young man many respects of love amongst the people that his Father having publickly delivered his Kingdom to him did privately attend upon him amongst the Guard affirming that to be the Father of a King was more honourable then to enjoy any Kingdom whatsoever But discord an assiduous evil amongst equals had moved a new war betwixt Lysimachus King Pyrrhus Associates not long before against Demetrius Lysimachus being the Conqueror having routed Pyrrhus did possess himself of Macedonia He afterwards did make war against the Thracians and not long after against the Heraclians the beginning and the ending of whose City was admirable For the pestilence raging in Boeotia the Oracle at Delphos answered that they should plant a Colony in the Country of Pontus which they should dedicate to Hercules When it was omitted by reason of the fear of the long and dangerous voyage by Sea every man desiring rather to die in his own Country the Phocensians made war against them and being after vanquished by them they again had recourse to the Oracle which answered That the remedy was the same both for the war and the pestilence Therefore a considerable Colony being drawn together and brought to Metapontus they builded the City of Heraclea and because they were brought thither by the Ordinance of the Destinies in a short time they obtained greaâ— possessions This City afterwards maintained many wars against their Neighbours and much they suffered by dissentions at home Amongst other passages of magnificence this one is memorable When the Athenians were masters of all and the Persians were overcome it was ordered by the Athenians that the tribute of Asia and of Greece should be for the maintenance of their Navie all other Cities readily submitting for their own safety the Heraclians onely refused by reason of their ancient friendship with the Kings of Persia Malaâ—tus therefore being sent with an Army to force them to Contribution which they were resolved not to pay whiles he was plundering their Country having left his ships in their Harbour there did arise on a sudden so great a tempest that he lost all his Fleet with the greatest part of his Army therefore when they could not return by Sea having lost all their ships nor durst adventure to return by Land with so small an Army amongst so many warlike Nations the Heraclians thinking it more honourable to confer a benefit then to revenge a discourtesie did send them home furnished both with Seamen and Provisions believing that herein they had provided well for themselves and for their Fields having by this act confirmd those to be their friends who were before their Enemies Amongst many other calamities they also indured the heavie burthen of Tyranny for when the common people did too impotently demand new tables and a levelling proportion to be shared amongst them in the Fields of those who were rich the business being often debated in the Senate when it could not be determined the Senate desired ayd of Timotheus General of the Athenians and not long after of Epaminondas General of the Thebans but both of them refusing it they had recourse to Clearchus whom they themselves had forced into banishment So great was the necessity of their calamities that they called him back to the defence of their Countrie whom they had commanded never to return unto it But Clearchus returning more wicked from his banishment conceiving this dissention of the people to be a prompt occasion offered to him to exercise his tyranny he had first a conference with Mithridates the Enemy of his Citizens and having entred into a League he compounded with him to be made his Lieutenant and to betray the City to him as soon as he was called back into his Country Afterwards he turned the treachery which he had prepared for the Citizens against Mithridates himself For being returned from banishment as the Arbitrator of the civil discord the time being appointed in which he should deliver the City to Mithridates he took him Prisoner with his friends and having received a vast sum of money for his ransom he delivered him being taken And as to Mithrdates he suddenly made himself an Enemy of a friend so being called back to defend the cause of the Senate he immediately became the Patron of the people and not only incensed the people against the Authors of the power by whom he was called back into his Country and by whom he was placed at the helm of Government but exercised his usurped power in the highest demonstrations of Cruelty and Tyranny The people therefore being called to an Assembly he declared that he would be no longer present nor assist the Senate in their rage against the people but would take their parts if they persevered in their former cruelty and if they conceived themselves to be equal in strength to deal with them he would depart with his Souldiers nor have any hand in their civil discords but if they distrusted in their own strengths he would not be wanting to be a Protector to in them He desired them therefore to ask counsel of themselves whether they would command him to be gone or to remain their Companion in the common cause The people being excited with these words did transfer into his power the chief Government of all whiles they were incensed at the power of the Senate they delivered themselves their wives and children unto the domination of a Tyrant Clearchus having seized upon threescore of the Senators
spread over all Being therefore made Captain of the banished persons he took away by stealth the sacred things of the Egyptians which they attempting to recover by arms were enforced to return back by Tempests Moses therefore on his return to his ancient Country of Damascus did possess himself of Mount Sinai where he and his people being afflicted with seven dayes continued fast in the Desarts of Arabia when he arrived to his journeys end he by a fast consecrated the seventh day to all Posterity and according to the language of his Nation did call it the Sabbath because that day did put a period both to their fasting and their travel And in remembrance that they were driven from Egypt for fear of the contagion least for the same cause they might be hated by the Inhabitants they provided by a Law that they should not communicate with strangers which beginning first from Policy was by degrees turned afterwards into Discipline and Religion After the death of Moses his Son Arvas who was a Priest also in the Egyptians Religion was created King and it was always afterwards a Custom amongst the Jews that they had the same men both for Kings and Priests whose justice being mixt with Religion it is incredible how greatly they did prosper The weath of the Nation did arise from the profits of the Opobalsamum which doth only grow in those Countries for it is a Valley like a Garden which is invironed with continual Hils and aâ— it were inclosed with a Wall The space of the Valley containeth two hundred thousand Acres and it is called Jericho In that Valley there is a Wood as admirable for its fruitfulness as for its delight for it is intermingled with Palm-Trees and Opobalsamum The Trees of the Opobalsamum have a resemblance like to Firr-Trees but that they are lower and are planted and husbanded after the manner of Vines On a set season of the year they do sweat Balsom The darkness of of the place is besides as wonderful as the fruitfulness of it For although the Sun shines nowhere hotter in the World there is naturally a moderate and a perpetual darkness of the Ayr There is a Lake also in that Country which by reason of its greatness and unmoveableness of the water is calld the dead Sea fot it is neither stirred with the Winds the glutinous substance with which all the water is covered resisting their violence neither is it patient of Navigation for all things wanting life do presently sink into the bottom neither doth it sustain any matter unless it be washed over with Roch-Allum dissolved Xerxes King of the Persians did first overcome the Jews they came afterwards with the Persians themselves into the power of Alexander the great and a long time they continued in subjection to the Macedonian Empire when they revolted from Demetrius and desired the friendship of the Romans they first of all the East did receive their liberty the Romans at that time giving freely out of other mens possessions In the same time in which the change of Government in Syria was alternately managed by the new Kings Attalus King of Asia polluted that most flourishing Kingdom received from his Uncle Eumenes with the slaughters of his friends and the punishments of his neerest kinred feigning sometimes that the old woman his Mother sometimes that his wife Beronice were slain by their treasonable practices After the fury of this most wicked violence he did put on ragged clothes and made short his beard and the hair of his head after the manner of the guilty he would not be seen in publick nor shew himself to the people he would have no feasts of mirth at home or any appearance of a sober man as if he would altogether by taking punishment on himself give satisfaction to the Ghosts of the slain At the last having forborn the administration of his Kingdom he digged in gardens sowed seeds and mingled the good with the hurtful and having steeped them all in the juyce of poyson he sent them as a peculiar gift unto his friends From this study he gave himself to the Art of making of brass and in the invention of tools and things belonging to it and much delighted himself with the melting and the minting of pieces in Brass After this he bent all his endeavours and design to make a Tomb for his Mother at which work being too intent he contracted a disease by the immoderate heat of the Sun and died the seventh day afterwards By his Testament the People of Rome were made Heirs But there was one Aristonicus descended from Eumenes not by lawful marriage but born of an Ephesian Strumpet the Daughter of a Fidler who after the death of Attalus did invade Asia as his Fathers Kingdom And having made many happy encounters against the Cities which for fear of the Romans would not deliver themselves unto him he seemed now to be a King in earnest wherefore Asia was decreed to Licinus Crassus the Consul who being more intent to the Attalick booty then to the war when in the end of the year he entred into Battail with the Enemy with a disordered Army being overcome he with his own blood suffered for his inconsiderate avarice The Consul Perpenna being sent to supply his place at the first encounter did overcome Aristonicus and brought him under subjection and carried with him unto Rome the hereditary treasures of Attalus which his successor the Consul Marcus Aquilius repining at did make all possible haste to snatch away Aristonicus from Perpenna to become the gift and honor of his Triumph But the death of Perpenna did end the difference of the Consuls and thus Asia being made the Romans she sent also with her wealth her vices unto Rome THE Seven and thirtieth BOOK OF IVSTINE ARistonicus being taken the Massilians sent Ambassadors to Rome humbly intreating for the Phocensians their Founders whose City and the memory of whose Name because they were alwayes implacable Enemies to the people of Rome both at that time and before in the war of Antiochus the Senate commanded should be utterly extinguished but a pardon was granted by the importunity of the Ambassadors After this the rewards were given to those Kings who brought in their Auxiliary forces against Aristonicus Syria the less was bestowed on Mithridates of Pontus Lycaonia and Cilicia were given to the sons of Ariarathes who fell himself in that war and the people of Rome were more faithful to the sons of their Confederate Ariarathes then the Mother was to her own children for they encreased the Dominions of his son in his nonage and she took away his life from him For Laodice having in number six sons by King Ariarathes fearing that they growing into years she should no longer enjoy the administration of the Kingdom did destroy five of them by poyson The care of his Kindred did preserve the yongest from the violence of the Mother who after the death of Laodice for the
people did cut her off by reason of her cruelty did enjoy the Kingdom alone Mithridates also being taken away by a sudden death did leave his Kingdom to his son who was also called Mithridates whose Greatness afterwards was such that he excelled in Majesty not only all the Kings of his time but of the former age and with various victory held war with the Romans for the space of six and forty years whom the most famous Generals Sylla Lucullus and others at the first and Cneius Pompeius at the last did so overcome that he arose alwaies more great and famous in renewing of the war and became more terrible by his losses and at last being overcome by no hostile force he died a voluntarie death in his own Kingdom being a very old man and leaving a Son to succeed him many signs from Heaven did presage his greatness to come for both on that day in which he was born and on that in which he began his Reign at both times there did appear a Comet which for seventie nights did shine so brightly as all Heaven did seem to be in a flame for by the greatness of it it took up the fourth part of Heaven and by its splendor it overcame the light of the Sun and when it did either rise or set it took up the space of four hours Being in his minoritie he laie open to and did endure the treacherie of his tutors for they did put him upon a wild and an unmanaged horse and did command him not onely to ride him but to exercise his horsmanship and to throw darts from him but Mithridates deluding their design by governing the horse beyond the expectation of his age they conspired against him by poyson which he suspecting did oftentimes drink Antidotes and with such exquisite remedies did so prepare his bodie against it that being an old man he could not die by poyson though attempting it Fearing afterwards that his enemies would perform with the sword what they could not dispatch with poyson he pretended he would solace himself with the recreation of hunting wherefore for the space of four years he neither entred into Citie nor came in the Countrie within the roof of any house but wandred in the woods and took up his lodging on the tops of severall hills no man knowing in what place he was being accustomed by his swiftness of foot either to pursue wild beasts or to flie from them and sometimes by main force to grapple with them By which means he both eschewed all treason that was designed against him and hardned his bodie to all indurance of virtue When afterwards he came to the management of the Kingdom he immediately contrived not so much how to rule it as how to enlarge it and by an incomparable felicitie overcame the Scythians who were before invincible for they had overthrown Zopyro the Lieutenant of Alexander the great with thirtie thousand armed men and killed Cyrus King of the Persians with two hundred thousand Souldiers and routed Philip King of the Macedons Being increased in his power he possessed himself of Pontus and not long afterwards of Cappadocia and going privately out of his Kingdom he sojourned over all Asia with a few friends and thereby gained a perfect knowledge of all the Countrie and of the situation of every Citie After that he travailed higher over all Bithynia and being already as it were Lord of Asia he contrived where to laie his best opportunities for his following victories After this he returned into his Kingdom where it being generally noysed abroad that he was dead he found a young childe which in his absence Laodice who was both his sister and his wife had brought forth But after his long travels amidst the gratulations both of his safe arrival and of the birth of his son he was in danger of being poysoned for his sister Laod ce believing he had been dead did fall into an incontinent life and attempting to conceal one sin by committing a greater did resolve to welcome him with poyson which when Mithridates understood by her maid he revenged the treason which was plotted on the author of it And winter drawing on he spent his time not at the banquet but in the field not in sloth but in exercise not amongst his companions but with Kings equal to him either in the horse-race or the foot-race or by trying the strength of bodie He also by daily exercise hardned his Armie to the same patience of labour and being unconquered himself he by these acts made his Armie invincible Having afterwards made a league with Nicomedes he invaded Paphlagonia and having overcome it he did share it with his companion Nicomedes The Senate being informed that Paphlagonia was again in the possession of Kings they sent Embassadors to them both to command them to restore the Nation to her former condition Mithridates when he believed that he was equall to the Roman Greatness did return a proud answer which was that he received his Kingdom by inheritance and did much wonder that they should trouble themselves with a Controversie which did not belong unto them and being nothing terrified with their threatnings he seized upon Galatia Nicomedes because he could not defend himself by right made answer that he would restore his part to a lawful King and having changed his Name he called his own Son Philomenos after the name of the Kings of Paphlagonia and in a false name and title enjoied the Kingdom as if he had restored it to the true Roial Progenie And thus the Embassadors being deluded did return to Rome THE Eight and thirtyeth BOOK OF IVSTINE MIthridates having begun his parricides by the murder of his own wife determined with himself to put to death the Sons of his other sister Laodice whose husband Ariarathes King of Cappadocia he had treacherously murdered by Gordius thinking he had done nothing in murdering of the father if the young men still enjoyed their fathers Kingdom with a desire whereof he was violently transported Whiles he was busie on his design Nicomedes King of Bithynia did invade Cappadocia destitute of a King which when Mithridates understood in a counterfeit pietie he sent assistance to his sister to drive Nicomedes out of the Kingdom but in the mean time a contract being made Laodice had espoused her self to Nicomedes At which Mithridates being much troubled he drove the Garrison-Souldiers and others of the Armie of Nicomedes out of Bithynia and restored the Kingdom to his sisters son which was an honorable act indeed if it had not been attended by deceit for not long after he pretended that he would call back Gordius from banishment whom he used as his minister in the murder of Ariarathes and restore him to his Countrie hoping if the young man should not give waie to it there would arise from thence a sufficient cause of the war or if he should permit it that the Son might be destroyed by thesame man who
but sendeth forth abundance of all things to Italie and the Citie of Rome neither is there in it only great store of Corn but also of wine honie and oyl There is in it also an abundance of steel and of swift horses and it is not only to be praised for the outward goods of the earth and which are on the superfiices of it but for the many Mines and richness of the metals in the bowels of it There is also abundance of Flax and Spartus and no Countâ—ie in the world undoubtedly is more full of minion In this Kingdom the courses of the Rivers are not now so violent as to bring any hurt by their swiftness but smooth and gentle and water both the fields and Vine-yards and by the high tides from the Ocean very full of fish Many of their Rivers are rich in Gold which are celebrated by the praises of many writers It onely joyns to France by one ridge of the Pyrenaean hills on all other parts of it like to a circle it is surrounded by the Sea The Form of the Countrie is almost four square unless when it is shut in by the Pyrenaean Hills the Sea shores being there more straight and narrow The space of the Pyrenaean Hills doth contain six hundred miles The salubrity of the air and the equal temper of it throughout all Spain is not infected with any heaâ—ie mists from the marshes to this may be added the cool aires from the Sea and the gentle and daily whisperings of the windes which piercing through all the Countrie is an occasion of a great and general health to all The bodies of the men are prepared for hunger and labor and their resolutions for death They are all and altogether given to frugalitie and covet war rather then sloth if they want an enemie abroad they will seek him at home They have been oftentimes tormented to death for the concealing of things committed to their trust so much more strong is the care of their taciturnitie then of their life The patience of that servant is made famous in the Carthaginian war who having revenged his master did insult with lowd laughter on the rack and in an unclouded and pure joy overcame the horror of death and the crueltie of his tormentors The Nation are swift of feet they have for the most part active spirits Horses for service in war and good swords are more dear unto them then their own blood They have no feasts there but on holy-daies After the second Carthaginian war they learned of the Romans to be bathed in hot water In a long course of time they had never any famous General besides Veriatus who for the space of ten years wearied the Romans with various victory so much the more neer to beasts then unto men are their dispositions Neither was he elected by the suffrages of the people but they followed him as a warie man and expert to decline dangers and so great was his valor and his continence that though oftentimes he overthrew the Armies of the Consuls and was renowned for great atchievements yet he never changed his arms nor his habit no not so much as his diet and continued in the same fashion of cloaths and Arms in which at first he began to fight insomuch that every common Souldier did seem more gallant then the General himself In Portugal neer unto the River of Tagus it is affirmed by divers Authors that Mares do conceive by the winde which fables received their original by the fruitfulness and abundance of them who are found to be so swift in Galizia and in Portugal that not undeservedly they seem to be conceived by the winde The Galizians do derive their pedigree from the Grecians for after the end of the Trojan war Teucer being hated by his father Telamon and not received into the Kingdom by reason of the death of his Brother Ajax sayled unto Cyprus and builded there the Citie Salamina after the Name of his antient Countrie to which place having understood of the death of his father he not long afterwards returned But when Eurix the Son of Ajax would not suffer him to land he lanched forth into the Deeps again and by rough windes was driven to the Coasts of Spain where he possessed himself of that place on which new Carthage now doth stand from thence he sayled to Galizia and having planted there a Colony he gave a name unto that Nation Howsoever Galizia is said to be the portion of Amphilochus The Countrie doth abound with Lead and Brass and with Minion also which giveth a Name to the neighboring River And it is so rich in Gold that oftentimes in ploughing the ground they do turn up the Oar of Gold with it On the bounds of this Nation is a consecrated Hill and which it is accounted a great sin to violate with Iron but when the earth is cleaved with thunder Bolts which is usual in those places it is permitted to any to collect the detected Oar as the gift of God The women do exercise themselves in houshold affairs and in manuring of the ground the men do live by their swords and by their plunder Steel with them is a principal commoditie but their water is more violent then Steel it self for the Steel being extinguished in it is made more sharp hard neither do they approve of any weapon which is not dipped in the River of Bilbo or in Chalybs from whence the Inhabitants who live neer unto this River are called Chalybes are said to excell all others in the commoditie of Steel But the Curetians do inhabite the Forrests of the Tertesians in which it is reported that the Titanian Gyants made war against the gods The most antient of their Kings was Gargoris who did first finde out the use of hony He when a Nephew was born unto him by the incontinence of his own Daughter being ashamed at the dishonor of the act he commanded that the little one by several varieties of death should be destroyed but being preserved by fortune through so many chances he at the last even by the compassion of the dangers themselves did arrive unto the Kingdom First of all when he commanded him to be exposed he after certain daies did send to enquire after his Body and found that he was wonderfully preserved and nourished by the milk of several wilde beasts Being brought home he commanded him to be cast into a narrow path in which the droves and heads of Cattel were accustomed to pass too cruel he was in this to have the young childe rather to be trod upon by the muiâ—tude of the Beasts then to perish by a single death and remaining untouched by them and not wanting nourishment he commanded that he should be cast to fierce bandogs impatient by the abstinence of many dayes and they also forbearing him he not long afterwards commanded that he should be cast unto the hogs who did not onely not hurt him but some
THE HISTORY OF IVSTINE Taken out of the four and forty BOOKS OF TROGUS POMPEIUS CONTANING The Affairs of all Ages and Countrys both in Peace and War from the beginning of the World untill the Time of the Roman EMPERORS Together With the Epitomie of the Lives and Manners of the Roman Emperors from Octavius Augustus Caesar to the Emperor Theodosius Translated into English by Robert Codrington Master of ARTS LONDON Printed for William Gilbertson and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in Gilt-Spur Street without Newgate 1654. To the most Illustrious OLIVER Lord Protector of the Common-Wealth of the three Nations of England Ireland and Scotland and the Dominions thereunto belonging My Lord SO great is the happiness that we already do enjoy under Your Highness Protection that we have neither hearts nor hopes but what are armed with a Confidence that from the tempests and the discords of VVar we shall gradually return to the harmony of the Arts nor act any more VVars in our Fields but content ourselves with the reading of them in our Histories at home being crowned with a Safety as accomplished as Peace and Plenty and as Piety her self can make it Neither is this My Lord the Expectation onely of the three Nations united in this Common-wealth but of Foâ—raign States and Princes who as much dread as gratulate your Greatness to which the differing Counsels of the State and the lowd necessities of the moving times and no desires of your own did call you This is that My Lord which will yet raise you higher and which will establish you in that height He stands fast who is advanced and upheld by the hand of Providence which even by the mightiest of your Enemies will be acknowledged who surprized as much with envy as admiration shall finde the Presence and the Power of GOD in the wonder of your Victories And from the observation and the Course of your Actions they may before-hand pass a judgement on themselves either of their Happiness or their Dangers In this History your Highness may observe by what Arts Empires and Kingdoms have been Erected and how justly they have suffered when the corruptions of Peace did deliver them to the Examination of the Sword to be either reformed or destroyed You may observe how the VVorld hath been Inhabited by several Plantations which though many of them may seem neer unto a Fable yet doubtless there is something of Truth in them as may appear by what is rehearsed of the Iews whose Ancestry and whose Religion being precisely concealed from the observation of the Gentiles it is to be wondred how Trogus Pompeius knew so much and that Tacitus who lived many years after him and when the Iews had a Synagogue in Rome should know so little and in that little should fall so short of the Truth My Lord This History in the Original was dedicated to Antoninus Pius an Emperor so admirable for his Government that the striving gratulations of those officious times wherein he lived when they could finde no parallel for him they had recourse unto Antiquity and compared him unto Numa I have presumed My Lord to prefer the Translation of it to your Highness Protection whose Courage and whose candor is beyond Example and whose Piety is greater then both The Idolatry of the Romans decreed divine Honours to Antoninus and imployed all their Eloquence to extoll him being dead It shall be the Business of our zeal to wait upon your Lawrels and with the eloquence of a bended knee to implore the Almighty to continue you long amongst us the Protector of true Religion and the Delight and Defender of the Arts and that when by a late Death you shall be taken from us our suffrages may be so happy as to find a Successor like unto you So prayeth My Lord Your Highness most humble and most devoted Servant Robert Codrington The History of Iustine THE INTRODVCTION OF IVSTINE The most famous Historian to the Histories of Trogus Pompeius Dedicated to the Emperor ANTONINVS WHereas many of the Romans and men of Consulary dignity have committed to History the Roman Affairs both in Greek and other tongues Trogus Pompeius a man of ancient eloquence being delighted either with the desire of glory or with the variety and novelty of the enterprize did compose in Latine not only the History of Greece but the History also of the whole world that as the Roman affairs are read in Greek so now the affairs of Greece may be read in the Roman tongue and if the works of other Authors discoursing on the acts of several Kings and Nations do seem to them to be a task of arduous difficulâ—y ought not Pompeius seem unto us with Herculean boldness to adventure through the whole world in whose books the acts of all Ages Kings Nations and People are contained And what the Greek Historians have confusedly thrust together as every one thought best unto himself srogus Pompeius some things being omitted which were judged to be superfluous hath digested the rest into order the whole work being distinguished by time by the course and Series of the affairs In the leisures which in this City I enjoyed I have carefully collected out of his four and forty books for so many he did publish all things which did proffer themselves to observation and I have composed as it were one Posie of flowers of them those things being left out which were neither delightful for the pleasure of knowledge nor profitable for example to the end that both those who understand the Greek tongue might have wherewith to be remembred and those who understand it not may have wherewith to be informed This I have transmitted unto you Emperor Antoninus not to improve your knowledge but to correct the defects thereof as also that I may give you an account even of my leisures of which Cato recordeth that an account is to be rendred Your approbation even in this time will be sufficient for me by which when envy and detraction shall be gone Posterity shall receive a testimony of my industry The First Book OF JUSTINE THE HISTORIAN Taken out of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius IN the beginning of Affairs the command of People and Nations was in the power of Kings whom no popular ambition but an approved moderation amongst good men did advance unto the height of Majesty The people were restrained by no Laws the arbitrations of the Princes being in the place of Laws It was their custome rather to defend then to enlarge the bounds of their Empires Their own Countries were to every one the limits of their Kingdoms Ninus King of the Assyrians was the first of all who by an immoderate desire of reign did change the ancient and as it were the hereditary custome of the Nations He first made war upon his Neighbours and subdued the people as yet unexperienced to resist even to the bounds of Africk There were indeed more antient in time
as Vexores King of Egypt and Tanais King of Scythia one of whom advanced into Pontus and the other as far as Egypt but their wars were remote and not on their neighbouring Countreys neither sought they domination for themselves but glory for their people and being contented with victory they abstained from the tyranny of command Ninus with continued happiness confirmed the greatness of his acquired power therefore the next Nations unto him being subdued he by the access of new powers did always march more strong against the others and every last victory being the promoting of the following he overcame all the Nations of the East His last war was with Zoroastres King of the Bactrians who is said first of all to have found out the art of Magick and most diligently to have observed the beginnings of the world and the motions of the stars He being slain Ninus deccased himself his son Ninus whom he had by Semiramis being not yet of age she not daring to deliver up the Empire to a boy nor openly to exercise the command of it her self so many and so great Nations being scarcely to be obedient to a man much less unto a woman did counterfeit her self to be the son instead of the wise of Ninus and a boy instead of a woman They were both of a middle stature their voyce but soft their complexion and features of face and the lineaments of their bodies were alike both in the mother and the son she therefore with rayment covered her arms and thighs and put a tire on her head and that she might not seem to conceal any thing by her new habit she commanded the people to be clothed in the same attire which that whole Nation have ever since observed Having thus counterfeiced her Sex she was believed to be a boy After this she made her self famous by great atchievements by the magnificence whereof when she thought she had overcome all envy she câ—nfesâ—ed who she was and whom she had counterfeited neither did this take away from her the dignity of her Government but increased her admiration that a woman not only surpassed her sex but even men in vertue She builded Babylon and encompassed it with a wall of Brick being interlined with Rozen Sand Pitch which in those places the earth doth everywhere cast up There were many other famous acts of this Queen for not content to defend the Boundaries of the Empire obtained by her husband she not only added Aethiopia to it but she carried the war into India which besides her and Alexander the Great never any in vaded At last when she desired to lie with her son she was killed by him having reigned two and forty years after Ninus Her son Ninns being contented with the Empire purchased by his Parents did abandon the study of war and as if he had changed his sex with his mother he grew old in the company of Ladies being seldome at any time seen by men his Successors also following his example gave answers to the Nations by their Agents The Assyrians who afterwards were called Syrians did possess the Empire for the space of one thousand and three hundred yeers The last that reigned was Sardanapalus a man more dissolute then a woman When his Lieutenant over the Medes Arbactus by name after great solicitation could hardly be admitted into his presence which was vouchsafed unto none before him he found him amongst a throng of Concubines spinning Purple on a distaff and distributing their tasks unto them and exceeding them all both in the effeminacy of his habit the softness of his body and the wanton glances of his eye Which things observed Arbactus being possest with indignation that so many men should be subjet to such a woman and that those who did bear arms should obey a Spinster repairing to his companions he did communicate to them what he beheld he denied that he could pay Homage unto him who had rather be a woman then a man A conspiracy therefore was plotted and war was made on Sardanapalus which he understanding not as a man who would defend his Kingdom but as women at the fear of death he looked first about where to hide him then with a few and those out of all military order he advanced to the battell being overcome he retired himself into his Court where a pile of wood being prepared and burning he threw himself and his riches into the fire in this only having imitated a man After this Arbactus the Governor of the Medes and the killer of the King was made King himself he translated the Empire from the Assyrians to the Medes After many Kings the Kingdom did descend to Astyages by the order of Succession He in a dream beheld a Vine to spring from the womb of his only daughter by the branches whereof all Asia was shadowed The Magicians being asked their counsel they made answer that from the same daughter he should have a Grandchild whose greatness was presaged and that he himself should lose the Kingdom Being amazed at this answer he gave his daughter in marriage neither to a Gentleman nor to a Citizen lest the nobility of the Father and Mother should elevate the mind of his Grandchild but to Cambyses a mean man and one at that time of the obscure Nation of the Persians And the fear of his dream being not thus taken off he sent for his daughter being great with child that the child should especially be killed in the sight of the Grandfather The Infant being born was delivered to Harpagus a partaker with the King in all his counsels to be killed He fearing that if the King being dead and the Empire divolved to his daughter because that Astyages had no male-child she would take that revenge from the servant which she could not from the father for the murder of her son did deliver the Babe to the Kings Shepheard to be exposed in the woods to the mercy of wilde beasts It so fell out that at the same time the Shepheard had a son born his wife hearing of the exposition of this royall Infant did earnestly intreat her husband that the child might be brought home and shewed her Returning to the wood he found a bitch close unto the Infant giving suck unto him and defending him from the birds and beasts and being himself moved to compassion with which he saw the bitch to be touched he brought the Infant to his cottage the bitch all the way sollicitously following him as soon as the woman took him into her arms the boy danced as to a note of musick and there appeared in him such a vigor and such sweet smiles of flattering innocence that the wife of her own accord did desire the Shepheard to expose her own child for him and to give her leave to bring up that boy either for his hopefulness or for his fortune and thus the condition of the little ones being changed the one was brought up for the