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
he permitted his Souldiers to marry those female Captives to whom they had indeared themselves politickly conceiving that having in their Tents a representation of their houses and Families at home the labour of the war would be both more pleasant by the company of their wives and their desires to return into their Countries would be more moderate And that Macedonia also should be less exhausted with recruits if young Souldiers should succeed in their old Fathers places and fight in the same works in which they were born being likely to be more constant upon duty exercising not onely their youth and childhood but having their cradles also rocked in the Camp This Custom remained afterwards amongst the Successors of Alexander and maintenance was provided for the Infants and Instruments for the making of Arms and the furniture for horse were given them to practice on when they were but young and their Fathers had allowances appointed them according to the number of their children and if their Fathers dyed nevertheless the children had the pensions of their Father their Infancy amongst so many Expeditions being as a continual war-fare Therefore from their minority being enured to labour and to dangers their Armies were unconquerable for they thought no otherwise of their Tents then of their Country and that an encounter was alwayes nothing else but Victory This is that off-spring which were called Epigoni The Parthians being overcome Andragoras one of the most noble of the Persians was made Governor of them from whom the Kings of Parthia did afterwards derive their Original In the mean time Alexander did begin to exercise his rage on his own men not like a King but like an Enemy Nothing more incensed him then that he was upbraided by them that he had subverted the Customs of his Father Philip and of his own Country for which offence old Parmenio next unto the King in Dignity and his Son Philotas being questioned for other pretences were both put to death On this there did arise a murmur over all the Camp in compassion of the condition of the innocent old man and of his Son and sometimes they were heard to speak that they could not hope for any better themselves which when it was reported unto Alexander fearing least the same reproach should be divulged in Macedonia and that the glory of his Victories should be eclipsed by the ignomy of his cruelty he dissembled that he would send some of his friends into his own Country who should be the Messengers of his Conquests He desired the Souldiers to write freely unto their friends being but seldom to enjoy such an apportunity again by reason of the more distant remoteness of the war This being done he commanded the packet to be brought privately unto him by which having discovered what every one thought of him he reduced them who had written to their friends more hardly of him into one Company either with an intent to destroy them or to distribute them into Colonies in the furthest parts of the world After this he subdued the Dracans Evergetans Parimans Paropamissidans Hydaspians and the other Nations which live at the foot of Caucasus In the mean time Bessus one of the friends of Darius was brought bound in chains who had not onely betrayed but also killed the King whom Alexander delivered to the brother of Darius to be tormented in revenge of his treason thinking Darius was not so much his Enemy as he had been a friend to him by whom he was slain And that he might give a name to those Lands he builded the City of Alexandria on the River of Tanaia within seventeen daies having made a Wall about it six miles in compass and translated thither the people of three Cities which Cyrus had erected He builded also twelve Cities amongst the Bactrians and the Sogdians having distributed amongst them whomsoever he found to be seditious in his Army After this upon a holy day he called his friends together to a banquet where mention being made by them in their wine of the deeds performed by Philip Alexander preferr'd himself above his Father and extoll'd unto the Skies the greatness of his own atchievements the greatest parts of his Guests assenting to him Therefore when Clytus one of the old men tempted by the confidence of his friendship with the King did advance the memory of Philip and the battels which he fought he so inflamed Alexander that a spear being snatched from one of the Guard he killed him at the banquet and insulting over him he objected to him being dead how bravely he defended his Father Philip and how highly he praised his wars After his passion was blown over and he was satisfied with his blood and the consideration of his reputation succeeded into the room of his anger pondering with himself sometimes the person of him who was slain and sometimes the cause of his being slain he began to repent of what he had done and that he gave so discontented an ear to the prayses of his Father which he ought not to have given to his reproaches and lamented that his old friend and his innocent one was slain by him being full of wine and supper and by the same fury being hurryed into repentance as he was into passion he would have kill'd himself Melting into tears he did imbrace the body of the dead he did handle his wounds and did confess his madness to him as if he had heard him and taking the spear again into his hand he turned the point of it to himself and had done a thorough execution with it if his friends had not prevented him this resolution to die continued with him certain dayes afterwards The remembrance of his Nurse sister unto Clytus was an addition to his repentance for whom being absent he was greatly ashamed that he returned her so foul a recompence for the nourishments she had given him and that being a young man and a Conqueror he should with Funerals requite her in whose arms he was bred up He then considered what reports what disgrace he had by this violent act pull'd upon himself not onely in his Army but amongst the conquer'd Nations how much fear and hatred he had cotracted amongst his friends how sad he had made his Feast sitting more terrible at his banquet with his friends then armed in face of his Enemies Then Parmenio and Philotas then Amyntas his kinsman then his Step-mother and his Bothers being killed then Attalus Eurilochus and Pausanias and others of the slaughter'd Princes of Macedonia did present themselves unto his memory For this he four dayes persevered in an abstinence from all meat until at last he was intreated by the prayers of all the Army desiring that he would not lament so much the death of one as to destroy them all nor forsake them whom he had brought into the furthest part of the East amongst barbarous and cruel Nations and provoked by the war The perswasions of Calisthenes the Philosopher
yet remaining of them he answered there are no more whom I now desire to have dead but the Tyrant himself by which words after the revenge of his Sisters chastity he shewed himself to be a Conqueror of the Tyrant himself By his vertue the City being admonished of her liberty Hippias at last was driven from his Kingdom into banishment who repairing to the Persians did offer himself as a Guide unto Darius in his war against his Countrey Therefore the Athenians the approach of Darius being understood desiring aid of the Lacedemonians a City then in friendship with them and finding that by reason of some Religion they demanded the respite of four days their assistance being not regarded with ten thousand of their own Citizens and a thousand Auxiliaries of the Platensians they advanced into the fields of Marathon against six hundred thousand of their Enemies Miltiades was Captain Geneâ—al of the war and the Author not expecting the Lacedemonian aid who was armed with so great a confidence that he believed there was more advantage in the swiftness of the march then in the assistance of his friends Great therefore was the cheerfulness and courage of their minds which they shewed in their eager running to the battel insomuch that when there was the space of a mile betwixt both Armies in full speed and before the flight of their arrows they came up unto the faces of their enemies neither was success wanting to their boldness for they fought with so much courage that you would take these to be men and the other sheep The Persians being overcome did fly into their ships many of which were sunk and many taken In this fight so great was the prowess of every one that it is hard to judge whose praise was the greatest But the glory of young Themistocles did apparently shine forth amongst the rest in whom his Imperatorious Honours to come were easily to be seen The glory also of Cynegirus an Athenian Souldier is celebrated by the praises of many Writers who after innumerable slaughters in the fight when he had driven the flying enemies to their ships he took hold of a ship laden with men with his right hand nor did he let loose his hold till he lost that hand His right hand being cut off he fastened upon the ship with his left hand and having lost that also he took hold of the ship with his mouth so great was his courage that being not wearied with so many slaughters nor both his hands being lost being yet overcome at the last thus dismembred as he was and like an inraged wild beast he fought even with his teeth In that battel the Persians lost two hundred thousand men besides those who perished at Sea Hippias the Athenian Tyrant was also slain the Author and Promoter of the war the Gods the revengers of his Countrey taking punishment of his treachery In the mean time Darius when he would renew the war died in the very preparation of it many children being left begotten both before and after his reign Artobazanes being eldest by the priviledge of his age did challenge the Kingdom which the right and order of birth and nature her self doth allow to the Nations But Xerxes did make his plea not in relation to order but to the happiness of his birth It was true indeed he said that Artobazanes was the first-born but when Darius was a private man but he was born when Darius was a King therefore his brothers who were born to Darius being but a private man could not challenge to themselves the Kingdom but only that private Fortune which Darius had before he was a King He alledging that he was the first whom his Father being a King did beget to inherit the Kingdom To this it was added that Artobazanes was born when not only his father but his mother also were of a private Fortune but he was born his mother being a Queen and that he never saw his father but when a King moreover that King Cyrus on his mothers side was his Grandfather not only the heir but the erector of so great an Empire Therefore if the Father had left both Brothers endued with equall right yet he should carry it both by the right of his Mother and his Grandfather This strife with concording affections they did refer to their Uncle Artaphernes as to a Domestick Judge who the cause being examined made Xerxes King and so brotherly was the contention that neither the Conqueror did insult nor the conquered repine and in the very height of the contestation they sent presents to one another and had not only undistrustful but delightful feastings together The Judgement it self was also given without arbitrators and without reproaches so much more moderately did brothers then decide great Kingdoms amongst themselves then they do now share but small Patrimonies Xerxes made preparations five yeers together for the Grecians which when Demaratus King of the Lacedemonians who lived as a banished man in the Court of Xexes understood being more friendly to his Countrey after his flight then to the King after his benefits lest they should be oppressed by an unexpected war he did certifie the particulars to the Magistrates in Tables of wood and covered the Letters with wax spread over them that neither the Characters might be read which would have bin if they had nothing to cover them nor the fresh wax betray the deceit he then gave them to a faithful servant to be carried and did command him to deliver them to the Magistrates of Sparta which being brought unto them it held them long in suspence at Lacedemon for they saw nothing written and yet believed that they were not sent in vain and that the business was so much the greater by how much it was the more concealed The men not knowing what to conjecture the sister of King Leonides found out the design of the writer the wax therfore being taken off the advertisements of the war were discovered Xerxes had by this time armed seven hundred thousand men out of his own Dominions had three hundred thousand sent to his assistance that it is not unworthily recorded that Rivers were drank up and that all Greece was hardly able to contain his Army he was also said to have one hundred thousand Ships To this so great an Army a General was wanting for if you look upon the King you will rather extol his wealth then his conduct of which there was such abundance in his Kingdom that when Rivers were consumed with his multitudes yet his Exchequer was still full He was always seen the last in the fight and the first in the flight humble in dangers and when the occasion of fear was over one high-minded Before the trial of the War as if he was Lord of Nature her self by the confidence oâ— his numbers he levelled mountains and raised the valleys all to one height some Seas he covered with Bridges and contracted others for the
Persian War from Delos unto Athens least it should be a prey to the Lacedemonians But the Lacedemonians were not contented with it for being engaged themselveâ— in the Messenian War they sent to the Pelopenâ—iensians to invade the Athenians whose Forces at that present were but small their Fleet being commanded into Aegypt therefore fighting at Sea they were easily overcome but by the return of their Associates being increased both in ships and men they renewed the War and now the Lacedemonians giving some respite to the Messenians did turn themselves and their arms against the Athenians the Victory was a long time doubtful at last they left off with equal loss and the Lacedemonians being called back to the war again of the Messenians least in the mean time they should leave the Athenians idle they bargain'd with the Thebans to restore unto them the Government of Boeotia which they lost in the times of their troubles with the Persians if they would undertake the War against the Athenians so great was the fury of the Spartans that being envolved in two Wars they refused not to undertake the third if they could get any to assist them who was an enemy to their Enemies Therefore the Athenians against so great tempest of the War did chuse two Captains Pericles a man of approved vertue and Sophocles the writer of Tragedies who having divided their Army did waste the Fields of the Lacedemonians and added many Cities of Achaia to their Government with which misfortunes the Lacedemonians being discoâ—raged did make peace with the Athenians for thirty yeers but their enmities could not endure so tedious a truce therefore in the space of less then fiâ—teen yeers they invaded the borders of Athens and plundred the Countrey in the despite of God and man and that they might not seem to desire a prey rather then an encounter they challenged the Athenians to battel but by the counsel of Periclâ—s the Athenians deferr'd the injury of the loss sustain'd to an apt time of revenge thinking it not good discretion to joyn in battel with the Enemies when without danger they could be revenged of them Certain daies being passed they went aboard their Ships and the Lacedemonians not thinking of it they plunder'd all Sparta and brought away far more then before they lost and in reference to this booty taken the revenge was above the anger This Expedition of Pericles was famous but much more famous was his contempt of his private Patrimony for the Enemies when they made havock of the rest did leave his Fields untouched hoping by that means to pluck upon him either danger by the envie or the infamy of treachery by suspition which Pericles foreseeing did both declare it unto the people and to decline the assault of envie did give away those Fields to the Commonwealth and so where his danger was most sought after he found his greatest safety Not long after there was another battel at Sea in which the Lacedemonians being overcome were put to flight neither did they cease afterward but by various fortune of the War either by Sea or by land they destroyed one another At the last being wearyed by so many calamities they made a peace for fifty yeers which they observed but six for the Articles which they signed in their own names they did break in the persons of their Associates as if they were guilty of less perjurie by bringing ayd to their Confederates then if they had proclaimed open War themselves The War was hence translated into Sicily which before I shall declare some few things are to be first spoken concerning the situation of the Iland THE FOVRTH BOOK OF IVSTINE IT is reported that Sicily by some narrow necks of Land was heretofore joyned to Italy and that it was torn from it as from the greater body by the impetuousness of the upper Sea which is carryed that way with all the weight of its Waves The Earth itself is light brittle and so full of holes flaws that it lies almost all open to the gusts of the winds and there is a natural vertue and faculty in it both for the begetting and the nourishing of fire for it is reported that within it is full of the veins of Pitch and Rozen which is the cause that the wind in the bowels of the Earth wrastling with the fire it often and in several places doth belch forth sometimes fire sometimes vapours and sometimes smoak and from hence through so many Ages the fire of Aetna doth continue and where the winds do work more strong through the spiraments of the Caves heaps of Sands are cast forth The Promontory next to Italy is called Rhegium which according to the Greek doth signifie abrupt Neither is it a wonder that the Antiquity of this place should bee so fabulous in which so many wonderful things do meet together First there is nowhere a more violent Sea and not only with a rapid but a cruel force and terrible not only to the Saylors but Spectators afar off so great also is the combate of the Waves tilting one against another that you may behold some of them as it were turning their backs to dive into the bottom of the Gulph and others in foaming triumph to ride aloft as Conquerours over them you may hear the roar of their rage in the height and the groans again of their fall into the Deeps The perpetual fires of the Hill of Aetna and of the Aeolian Ilands do come so neer that you would think the very fire is nourished by the water for otherwise in so narrow a compass so great a fire could never continue so many Ages if it were not fed by the nutriture of the moysture From hence the Fables did produce Scylla and Charibdis from hence those barkings were heard from hence were those strange shapes of the Monster believed when the Saylers by affrighted with the great noyse and swallows of the whirl-Pools did conceive those Waves did bark which the voraginousness of the devouring Sea did commit and clash together The same cause makes the fire of the Monntain Aetna to be perpetual for this concurse and wrastling of the water doth take down with it into the bottom of the deeps the enforced spirit and there suffocates and keeps it down so long until diffused through the pores of the Earth it kindles the nutriment of the fire The neerness of Italy and of Sicily and the height of their Promontories is so equal that it gives no less admiration to us then it did terror to Antiquity who did believe the Promontories meeting both and uniting themselves into one and by and by again dividing that Ships oftentimes were by them intercepted and comsumed Neither was this invented by the Antients for the delightfulness of the Story but by the fear and wonder of the Saylers for such is the condition of the place to those who at distance do observe it that you would believe it rather to be a Harbour
the war affirming that with their swords they would cut in pieces the Decrees of the Macedons Being advanced with his Army into Aetolia he commanded the Cities to pay him contribution and violently forced it from those who refused it Afterwards he marched unto Sardis to Cleopatra the sister of Alexander the Great that by her voyce the chief Officers and Centurions might be confirmed concieving that regal Majesty would turn all to that side for which she stood Such was the veneration of the greatness of Alexander that even by the addresses of women the favor of his sacred name was implored On his return Letters were found dispersed over all the Camp in which great rewards were promised to those who should bring the Head of Eumenes to Antigonus Eumenes having understood it and called the Souldiers to an Assembly did in the first place give thanks that there was not any found amongst them who preferr'd the hope of a bloody reward above the Oath of his fidelity and craftily concluded that these Letters were contrived and scattered by his directions thereby to make a trial of their resolutions He declared that his safety consisted in the power of them all and that none of the Generals would so overcome as to decree that such a most wicked act should be determined against him By this means he confirmed the staggering resolutions of his Souldiers for the present and provided for the future that if any such thing should happen again his Souldiers might believe that it was no corruption of their Enemy but the temptation of their General They therefore all by throngs did offer themselves and their endevours for the preservation of his person In the mean time Antigonus came upon them with his Army and having encamped close unto him did on the next day set his Army in Array to give him battel Eumenes also with great care marshalled the Field and made no delay of the encounter but being overcome he fled into a Castle that was fortified where when he saw that he must undergo the fortune of a siege he disbanded the greater part of his Army lest he should be delivered to the enemy by the consent of the multitude or the siege should be oppressed by their numbers After this in a most humble manner he sent Ambassadors to Antipater who only was equal in power to Antigonus who when he found that considerable ayds were sent unto him by Antipater he raysed the siege Eumenes was now delivered from the fear of death but not from the fear of danger having before disbanded a great part of his Army Therefore looking round about him to provide for his safety it seemed most expedient to him to have recourse to the Argyraspides of Alexander the Great an invincible Army and shining with the glory of so great and so many Victories But Alexander being deceased the Argyraspides disdained to be commanded by any conceiving that the Militia under others would be but disgraceful after the memory of so great a King Eumenes therefore did court them with alluring words and full of submissive respects did complement with every one of them sometimes calling them his fellow-Souldiers sometimes his Patrons sometimes the Companions of his dangers in the great labours of the East sometimes his Supporters and the onely Refuges of his safety they he said were the onely men by whose valour the East was overcome the onely men who exceeded the wars of Bacchus and the Monuments of Hercules by whom Alexander was made great by whom he obtained divine honours and immortal glory He besought them to receive him not as their General but as their fellow-Souldier and to be admitted as a member of their body Being on this condition entertained he not long after by admonishing all of them and by gently correcting what was done amiss amongst them did by degrees usurp the Soveraignty of Command nothing was done in the Camp without him nothing could be contrived or determined without his Policy At the last when it was declared that Antigonus came against him with an Army he enforced them to come down and to give him battel where when they despised the Commands of their General they were overcome by the valour of their Enemies In that battel they did not onely lose their glory gained in so many wars but their booty also with their wives and children But Eumenes who was the Author of their overthrow and had no other hope of safty did encourage the conquer'd affirming that they were superior to their Enemies in courage for they slew five thousand of them and if they would but continue the war he assured them that the Enemy of their own accord would desire peace of them He enformed them that their losses by which they thought themselves overcome were but two thousand women and a few children and slaves which were but the luggage the lumber of the war and to be repaired by fighting and prosecuting and not by forsaking the Victory But the Argyraspides made answer that they would neither fly after the dammages of Matrimony and the losses of their wives nor would they make war against their own children Moreover they did torment him with reproaches that in their returning home after so many yeers of their pay dearly earned with the rewards of so many Victories he recalled them being discharged into new wars and battels as lasting as they were dangerous and had with vain promises deceived them being almost at their journeys end in the very entrance of their Country and the sight of their houshold gods and now having lost all the booty which they gained in their happy warfare he would not permit them in the penury of their old age to rest being overcome Immediately upon this their Captains not knowing of it they sent Ambassadors to Antigonus demanding that what they had lost might be restored to them He promised that all things should be returned if they would deliver up Eumenes unto him which being understood Eumenes with a few men did attempt to flâ—e but being brought back and his affairs altogether desperate there being a great concourse of the multitude he desired to have the liberty to speak unto the Army which being readily granted by them all silence being made and his handcuffs of steel taken off he stretched forth his hand unto the people having yet some other chains upon him and said Souldiers Behold here the habits and the ornaments of your General which none of the Enemies have imposed upon me for that would be my comfort Iâ— is you who of a Conquerour have made me conquered and of a General a Captive four times within this one yeer have you obliged your selves unto me in an Oath of fidelity but that I do omit for it becomes nor the miserable to be reproachful One thing I intreat of you that if Antigonus be resolved to take away my life that you will give me the leave to die amongst you For it concerns not him
for the rest were fled away did throw them into prison being laden with Irons The people rejoyced especially that the Senate were overthrown by the Captain General of the Senators and that their ayd was converted into their destruction and Clearchus threatned sudden death to every one of them on purpose to raise the market of them to a higher rate For under the pretence of withdrawing them from the fury of the people having received from them great sums of money and despoyled them of their fortunes he not long after did despoyl them of their lives And having understood that war was made against him by those Senators who fled away the Cities prompted to compassion being come to their assistance he did set free their Servants and that no affliction should be wanting in these potent Familes he enforced their wives and their daughters to marry their own Servants death being proposed to every one that should refuse it by this means he thought to render the Servants more faithful to him and more unreconcileable to their masters But these sad Nuptials were made more grievous by the sudden Funerals of the Matrons for many of them before their Nuptials and some on the very day in which they were marryed having first killed their husbands did afterwards kill themselves and delivered themselves from their encreasing calamities by the vertue of an ingenious shame Not long after this the battel was fought in which the Tyrant being Conqueror he in the way of triumph did drag the conquered Senators before the faces of Citizens and being returned into the City he bound some of them he racked others and slew many there was no place free from his cruelty insolence was added to his savageness and arrogance to his fury And now by the success of his continual felicity he did forget himself to be a man and did call himself the Son of Jupiter When he would be seen in publick a golden Eagle was born before him in the honour of his discent His body was cloathed with a garment of Purple he did wear buskins on his feet after the custom of Tragick Kings and a Crown of Gold upon his Head He also called his Son Ceraunus that he might delude the gods not onely with lyes but also with names Two of the most noble of the young men Chion and Leonides complaining at these things with indignation and resolved to deliver their Country did conspire the death of the Tyrant These two were the Scholars of Plato the Philosopher who desiring to exhibite that vertue to their Country to which they daily were instructed by the precepts of their Master they did prepare an Ambush of fifty of their kindred as if they were all their Clients and repairing themselves to the Tower to the Kings as two in great contestation being admitted by the right of Familiarity whiles the Tyrant intentively heard the former of them pleading his cause he was killed by the other but their friends coming in not timely enough to their assistance they were both cut in pieces by the Guard by which it came to pass that the Tyrant indeed was killed but their Country was not delivered For Satyrus the brother of Clearchus did the same way invade the Tyranny and Heraclia for many yeers by degrees of succession was possessed by Tyrants THE Seventeenth BOOK OF IVSTINE MUch about the same time there was a terrible Earthquake in the Countries of Hellespont and Chersonesus in which though they trembled all over yet the City onely of Lysimachia erected by Lysimachus two and twenty yeers before was utterly overthrown which portended dismal things to come both to Lysimachus and to his Generation and the ruine of the Kingdom with the desolation of the afflicted Countries round about him Neither was belief wanting to the prodigy for not long after he killed his Son Agathocles by poyson having used therein the assistance of his Stepmother Arsyrice it being the more horribly remarkable for having ordained him into the succession of the Kingdom and made many prosperous wars under his Conduct he now hated him not onely beyond the obligation of a Father but beyond the Example of Humanity This was his first stain and the beginning of his growing ruine For this parricide was attended with the slaughter of the Princes who were punished to death because they lamented the death of the young man Therefore those who were Commanders in his Army did in great numbers fall away from him to Seleucus enforced him being prone enough before out of the emulation of glory to make war against Lysimachus This was the last contestation betwixt the fellow Souldiers of Alexander and as it were reserved by Fortune to make the example of their parallel the more admirable Lysimachus was seventy and four yeers of age and Seleucus seventy and seven But in this old age they had both of them the resolutions of youth and an insatiable desire to encrease Soveraignty of Command for when but these two did seem as it were to be masters of the whole world they were shut up into too narrow bounds and measured the end of their lives not by the space of yeers but by this limits of their Empire In that war Lysimachus having lost before in divers charges fifteen sons dying not uncouragiously did discend into the Grave himself being the last Hearse of all his Family Seleucus rejoycing in so great a victory and which he conceived to be greater then the victory that he was the last that lived of the cohort of Alexander and a Conquerour of the Conquerors did vaunt of his fortune as if it had been a work of Divinity and above the condition of man being altogether ignorant that not long afterwards he was to be an Example himself of the frailty of the condition of man for at the end of seven Moneths he was slain being circumvented by the treachery of Ptolomy whose sister Lysimachus had marryed and lost the Kingdom of Macedonia which he took away from Lysimachus together with his life Therefore Ptolomy being ambitious to please the people for the honour of the memory of Ptolomy the Great and in the favour of the revenge of Lysimachus did first resolve to reconcile unto him the children of Lysimachus and desired the marriage of Arsinoe his own sister who was their Mother having promised to adopt them his own Sons thinking thereby that they would attempt nothing against him being restrained by their duty to their mother and by their calling of him Father He desired also by letters the friendship of his brother the King of Aegypt professing that he would forget the offence of his succeeding in his Fathers Kingdom would demand no more of him being his brother the injury being received from his Father With all his Art he flattered Eumenes and Antigonus the Sons of Demetrius and Antiochus the Son of Seleucus against whom he was to make war for fear a third Enemy should arise unto him Neither was Pyrrhus
Father did excite all these Nations to joyn in assistance with him against the Romans In the mean time there did arise a war betwixt King Prusias to whom Annibal fled after the peace granted to Antiochus by the Romans and Eumenes Which war Prusias first began having broken the League through the confidence he had in Annibal For Annibal when amongst other of the Articles of the Treaty the Romans did demand of Antiochus that he should deliver him up unto them being advertised by Antiochus of it did fly to Crete Where having lived for many years a quiet life and found himself envied by reason of his excessive wealth he deposed in the Temple of Diana pitchers filled with Lead as the safegard of his fortune and the City being no wayes jealous of him because they had his fortunes with them as his he repaired to King Prusias his Gold which he carried with him being melted and poured into hollow Statues least his riches being discovered should be a hinderance to his life Prusias being overcome by King Eumenes by land and intending to try the fortune of a Battel by Sea Annibal by a new invention was the Author of the Victory For he commanded that all kinds of Serpents stored into earthen Vessels in the middle of the Battel should be thrown into the Ships of their Enemies It seemed ridiculous to the Enemies at first that they should Arm themselves and fight with earthen Pots who could not encounter their Enemies with swords But when their Ships began to be filled with the Serpents they were circumvented with a doubtfull and double danger and yeilded the Victory to their Enemies When these things were declared at Rome Ambassadors were sent by the Senate to make a reconciliation betwixt both Kings and to demand the person of Annibal but Annibal having notice of it did take poyson and prevented the Embassy by death This year was remarkable by the death of three of the most famous Generals in the world Annibal Philopemenes and Scipio Africanus Most certain it is that Annibal when Italy trembled at the thunder of his Arms did never sit down when he did eat nor did ever drink more at once then one pint of wine and so great was his chastity amongst so many Captives that who would deny that he was born in Africa It was undoubtedly a great Argument of his moderation that when he commanded an Army of divers Nations he was never set upon by any treachery of his own men nor betrayed by the deceit of others when his Enemies had oftentimes attempted both against him THE Three and Thirtieth BOOK OF IVSTINE THe Romans mannaged the Macedonian war with less noise and trouble then they did the Carhaginian But with so much the more honour as the Macedons in fame did exceed the Carthaginians For the Macedonians were not onely encouraged with the glory of the conquered East but assisted with the Auxiliaries of all Kings Therefore the Romans sent more Embassies to their Associates and received Auxiliaries from Messanissa King of the Numidians and from others of their Confederates And amessage was sent to Eumenes King of the Bithynians to contribute to the war with all his powers And besides the opinion that the Army of the Macedons was invincible Perseus had provision for ten years war laid up byhis Father both in his Exchequer and his Granaries with which being growng insolent forgetful of his Fathers fortune he commanded his Soldiers to call to mind the Ancient glory of Alexander The first encounter was of the horse onely in which Perseus being Conqueror made all men begin to doubt and to incline to his side Howsoever he sent Ambassadors to the Consul to desire that peace which the Romans had given to his Father being overcome offering to defray the charges of the war as if he had been overcome himself But Sulpitius the Consul did give him no other conditions then what the conquered were accustomed to receive In the mean time through the fear of so dangerous a war the Romans made Aemylius Paulus Consul and decreed unto him contrary to custome the Macedonian war who when he came unto the Army did make no long delay of the battail On the night before there was an Ecclipse of the Moon All men judged that it was a sad portent for Perseus and that the end of the Macedonian Empire was thereby presaged In that Battel Marcus Cato the Son of Cato the Orator when amongst the thickest of his Enemies he gave admirable Demonstrations of his valor having fallen from his horse did fight on foot For a band of the Enemies with a horrid cry did stand round about him falling on him as if they would have killed him lying on the ground Bur he having suddenly recollected himself did get upon his feet and made a great slaughter of his Enemies the Macedons did surround him on every side and did throw themselves upon him to take away his life but he striking at one of the Commanders his sword flying from his hand did fall into the midst of a cohort of his Enemies to recover which protecting himself with his Buckler both Armies looking on he was covered with the swords of his Enemies having gained his sword and received many wounds he returned with a general acclamation to the Army his fellows imitating his valor obtained the Victory Perseus the King fled to Samothracia carrying with him ten thousand talents And Cneus Octavius being sent by the Consul to pursue him did take him prisoner with his two Sons Alexander and Philip and brought them to the Consul Macedonia had from her first King Caranus to Perseus thirty Kings But she was not famous for Soveraignty above one hundred and ninty three years when she came into the power of the Romans she was made free Magistrates being constituted through the several Cities and she received those Laws from Aemylius Paulus which to this day she doth observe The Senates of all the Cities of the Aetolians because they were uncertain in their fidelity were sent with their wives and children unto Rome and were a long time detained there that they might make no innovation in their Countries but the City being wearyed with the importunities of many Ambassadors they were hardly after many years suffered to return into their Countries THE Four and thirtyeth BOOK OF IVSTINE THe Carthaginians and Macedonians being subdued and the strength of thâ— Aetolians being weakned by the Captivity of their Princes the Achaians onely of all Greece did seem at that time most powerful to the Romans not by the excessive wealth of every one of their particular Cities but by the combination of them all for although the Achaians be divided by their Cities as by so many members yet they have one Body and one Command they beat off the dangers which threaten particular Cities with their mutual strength The Romans therefore seeking out an occasion of the war fortune did luckily present them with the
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
course of life as to exercise and mitigate the field s with ploughs and to environ and to defend their Cities with Walls They then began to live not only by Arms but Laws they learned to prune the Vine and to plant the Olive And so great a beautie and order was observed both in disposing of the things and men that Greece did not seem to come into Gallia but Gallia to be translated into Greece Senanus King of the Segoregians being dead from whom the place was received to build the Citie his Son Commanus did succeed him in the Kingdom and a certain King affirming that the time would come when Massilia should be the destruction of the neighboring people did argue that it might be suppressed in the Original lest growing strong by degrees it might at last suppress him who gave both an Original and an encrease unto it to the performance whereof he inserted this following Fable A Bitch great with whelp did petition to a Shepherd to give her room in which to bring forth her young ones which being obtained she petitioned to him again to grant her the same room to bring up her young ones at the last her whelps growing into age and she being supported with her Domestick numbers did challenge the proprietie of the place unto her self So the Massilians who do now appear to be but strangers may in a short time become Lords of the Countrie The King being incited by the application of this storie did attempt by deceits to destroy the Massilians Therefore on the Holy-day dedicated to Flora he sent many lustie and able men into the Citie to be entertained as guests and gave order that many more should be brought in Carts in which they should be covered with green leaves whiles he himself with his Armie lay hid in the next hills that they might be present when the opportunitie served for their Ambush and the Gates in the night being opened to receive their Carts they might with armed men invade the Citie drowned in wine and sleep But a woman who by the contiguitie of blood had neer relation to the King being accustomed to play the wanton with one of the Grecians pittying the loveliness of the young man in her embraces of him did betray the deceit unto him and desired him to decline the danger He immediately informed the Magistrates with it and the prepared treacheries being discovered the Ligurians were apprehended and lying hid were drawn out of the Carts and being all put to death deceits were prepared for the deceitful King and seven thousand of the Ligurians were slain with the King himself After this the Massilians did alwaies upon their Holy-daies keep their Gates shut and observed a strict watch and had Centinels to walk their Rounds on the walls and to take notice of strangers and to demand the word and thus as if they were invironed with war they managed their Citie in the times of peace so punctually good Instructions are observed there not so much by the necessitie of the times as by the custom of doing well After this the Massilians had for many years great wars with the Ligurians and the Gauls which both increased the glorie of the Citie and amongst the neighboring Countries made famous the valor of the Greeks by their multiplied Victories And when a new war arose from Carthage they having surprized the Busses of their Fishermen they often overthrew the Armie of the Carthaginians and gave peace unto them being conquered They entred into a league with the Spaniards and almost from the first foundation of their Citie they observed their friendship with the Romans with great fidelitie and in all their wars industriously assisted their associats which both increased the confidence of their strength and purchased them peace from their enemies When Massilia flourished therefore with the same of their atchievements the abundance of their wealth and the glorie of their strength the neighboring people in conspiring multitudes did gather themselves together to root out the name of the Massilians as to extinguish a common fire By the consent of all Caramandus was chosen General who when he besieged the Citie with a powerful Armie of chosen men being affrighted in his sleep with the vision of a hard favoured woman who called her self a goddess he offered peace of his own accord to the Massilians and having desired that he might be allowed the libertie to enter into their Citie and to worship their gods when he came unto the Temple of Minerva and beheld in the pâ—rtalls of it the image of the goddess which he beheld before in his sleep he immediately cried out that that was she who did affright him in the night and commanded him to raise the siege and having gratulated the Massilians that the immortal gods had care of them he entred into a perpetual league with them having recompenced the goddess with a chain of Gold Peace being obtained and their securitie established the Embassadors of the Marsilians having returned from Delphos to which place being sent they had brought gifts unto Apollo did inform them that they heard in the way that the Citie of Rome was taken by the Gauls and set on fire they seemed to be much afflicted at the loss and did prosecute it with a publick funeral and sent their Gold both what they had in private as well as publick to make up the summe having understood that they had redeemed their Citie and their peace with money from the Gauls For which benefit it was decreed by the Senate that they should be made free of Rome and a place allowed them in the publick Spectacles and a solemn league was again confirmed perpetually to be observed with equal Interests on both sides In his last book Trogus affiâ—ms that his Ancestors derived their original from the Volscians that his Grandfather Trogus Pompeius was made free of the Citie at what time Cneius Pompeius made war against Sertorius in Spain he affirmeth also that his Uncle under the same Pompey was Colonel of a Regiment of horse in the war against Mithridates and that his father served in the wars under Caius Caesar and that he was both his Secretarie the master of the Complements and had the office of the Seal THE Four and Fortieth BOOK OF IVSTINE SPain as it is she doth shut up the limits of Europe so it is the conclusion of this Work The Antients called it first Hyberia from the River Hyberus and after Spain â—om Hispanus It is situated betwixt Africk nd France and inclosed with the main â—cean and the Pyrenaean mountains and as is less then either Africk or France so it more fruitful then either for it is not scorched with the violence of the Sun as Africa neither is it troubled with daily windes as France but enjoyes a mean betwixt both and by its temperate heat and seasonable and pregnant showers it produceth all variety of fruits insomuch that it sufficeth not only the Inhabitants
did gratulate the Senate the People and the Provinces but he could not gratulate him It having been better for him alwayes to suppress ill Princes then taking upon him so great a burthen to be subject not onely to the troubles and the dangers but also to the reports of all as wel enemies as friends who when they presume that they have deserved all things if they cannot extort any thing from him will be more cruel then the greatest Enemies He forgave all the penalties due at that time for not paying the Tributes he relieved the afflicted Cities he commanded that Boyes and Girles born of poor Parents should be brought up throughout all the Towns of Italy at the charge of the Commonwealth He that he might not be terrified by the access of Malignants was then advertised by the saying of Mauritius a grave and an ingenious man who being his familiar friend and at Supper with him when he beheld Veientones who had been Consul to be present who had brought many private informations to Domitian against him mention being made in the time of Supper of Catulus who was the chief informer What would he have done said Nerva if he had out-lived Domitian Why he would have supped with us too said Mauritius He was a most knowing and frequent reconciler of all differences He removed Calphurnius Crassus with his Wife to Tarentum for solliciting the Souldiers with great promises against him the Senators reproving him for his too much lenity When the Murtherers of Domitian were demanded to be put to death he was so much amazed at it that he could not forbear to vomit or defer the forced burthen of his belly howsoever he did vehemently oppose the Vote of the Senate saying That it were better to die then to injure the power of the Empire and to betray those by whose meanes he assumed the Authority which he had But the Souldiers letting alone their Prince did kill Petronius with a sword but the privie members of Parthenius were first cut off and thrown in his face Gusperius redeemed his life with great sums of money and grown more insolent he constrained Nerva to give thanks to the Souldiers before the people because they had destroyed the worst the most wicked of all men He adopted Trajan into the place of a Son with whom he lived three noneths and one night exclaiming against â—ne Regulus with a very loud voyce being in a great choler against him he fell into an extream sweat and dyed not long afterwards on the same day wherein there was an Ecclipse of the Sun Vlpius Trajanus VLpius Trajanus born in the City of Tudertum was called Vlpius of his Grandfather and Trajanus of Trajus who was the first of his Fathers stock or else he was so called after the name of Trajane his Father he raigned twenty years He did demonstrate himself to be so brave a man and of such admirable parts that the great wits of the most excellent Writers are hardly able to express them He took upon him the Empire at Agrippine a noble Colony in France In the affairs of War he used industry in the affairs of peace lenity and in relieving the distressed Cities liberality And seeing there are too things which are expected in great Princes Religion at home and Fortitude in Arms abroad and Wisdom in both he was indued with so great a measure of the noblest gifts that he seemed to enjoy a transcendent temperature of all Vertues onely he was a little too much addicted to meat and wine he was liberal towards his friends and did use the society of them as if he enjoyed with them the same society of life He builded certain Baths in the honor of Sura by whose means he attained to the Empire It would appear superfluous to give you an exact account of him in particulars it is sufficient that he wss absolute in all things He was patient of labour studious to do the Souldiers good and all good men he loved the most candid wits the most learned men although he himself was not much indebted unto Learning and but a little Eloquent He was a great lover of Justice and as well a finder out of new Rights both Humane and Divine as an observer of the Antient All which in him seemed so much the greater because the splendor of the Romane State being as it were quite destroyed and levelled to the ground by many cruel Tyrants he was thought to have been sent by Providence for the redress of such great calamities and many wonders did presage his coming to the Empire Amongst the rest a Chough from the top of all the Capitol was heard to speak in the Greek tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is by Interpretation It shall be well The Ashes of his Body being burned were brought to Rome and buryed under his Pillar in the Market-Place of Trajan His Image as those who did come in triumph were accustomed was brought into the City the Senate and the Army going before it In his time the River of Tyber overflowed more dangerously by far then in the raign of Nerva and covered very many Houses There was also a great Earthquake in many of the Provinces attended with a devouring Pestilence and the calamities of consuming fires all which he much helped by exquisite remedies and ordained for the time to come that no House should be higher then threescore foot because of the vast ruines and expences when such fires did happen whereupon he was deservedly called A Father of his Country He lived six and forty years Aelius Adrianus AELius Adrianus of Italian Parentage and cousin-germane to Trajan the Emperour was born at Adria which Town standing in the Country of the Piceni did give a name to the Adriatick Sea He raigned twelve years he was so intirely addicted to the Greek Tongue that by many in derision he was called Graeculus He augmented the Attick Studies and manners not onely with Poetry but with the faculty o singing and with the art of healing and with Musick and Geometry He was an excellent Painter and Carver and a rare workman in Brass or Marble and next to Polycletus or Euphranor a man would have thought that he had been onely made for those Arts for they never received so exquisite an elegancy as by the work of his hands He had a memory beyond belief and could remember all places businesses Souldiers and call them all by their own names although he had been long absent from them He travelled on foot over all the Provinces and in that Expedition was the formost by far of all that were with him in the way he restored many Cities and established them by sundry Orders For after the discipline of the Legions he had many Bands by Hundreds together of Smiths Carpenters Engineers and all manner of workmen either for the building the walls or for the adorning them In all causes he was a most absolute Judge being born as it were to
the fight his blood so issued forth that he dyed about midnight having first said that he would not as the custom then was give any order for the succession in the Empire least in the multitude of his friends present who with different Counsels did seek that dignity the envy or emulation of any of them through civil discord should procure any danger to the Army There was in him a vaste knowledge of Letters and of great affairs which made him to give such a countetenance to Philosophers and the wisest men of Greece He was but short of stature and not strong yet able through exercise There were in him some things which did diminish the glory of his vertues as his immoderate desire of praise his superstitious worship of the gods and a valor more rash and daring then became an Emperour whose safety being the common good of all men is diligently to be provided at all times but especially in War The ardent desire of glory did so much overcome him that he could not be disswaded by an Earthquake nor many other presages from his Expedition into Persia no nor by seeing in the night a great Globe to fall down as if Heaven fell with it could he be induced to appoint a more happy time for that War Jovinian IOvinian the Son of Varronianus in the I le of Singidona in the Province of Pannonia did raign eight Moneths His Father having lost many children was admonished in a dream to call that childe of which his Mother was ready to be delivered Jovinian he was a man of a most gallant personage pleasant of wit and studious of Letters In the midst of a sharp winter travelling from Persia to Constantinople he fell into a crudity of his stomack and being oppressed by the management of new his dignity he dyed suddenly being almost forty years of age Valentinian VAlentinian ruled twelve years and about nine moneths His Father Gratianus was meanly born and among the Cibalae was called Funarius because that carying Câ—rds up and down to be sold five Souldiers could not take one of them from him for this he was called to be a Souldier where by degrees he did ascend to the power of a Praetor The Souldiers for his sake did bestow the Empire upon Valentinian his Son who at the first did refuse to accept it He made his cousin Valens Companion with him in the Empire and afterwards his Son Gratianus whom by the perswasions of his Mother-in-law and his wife being but a childe he created Augustus This Valentinian was of a comely presence of a sharp apprehension and most eloquent in Speech although he was not forward to express himself He was severe vehement and an enemy to vices especially to covetousness of which he was a great punisher and in all things which I have spoken of him he was most like to Adrian He was well versed in Antiquities and invented new Arms and Utensils of War He could draw the figures of men exactly in Earth or Clay He wisely knew how to make use of place time and words To conclude he had been an absolute Prince if he had not given too much credence unto Flatterers or had followed the advice of his most approved learned Counsellors In his time Firmius was slain attempting the Empire in Mauritania At the last giving Audience to an Embassie of the Guardians at Bergentium by a disease in the blood he was struck speechless in the five and fiftieth year of his Age and being of perfect sense and memory he expired Some affirm that this disease fell upon him through intemperance of diet his sinews being over-stretched by too much saturity He being dead Valentinian his Son being but four years of Age was with his Mother brought to Rome and created Emperor by the procurement of Aequitius and Merobaudus Valens VAlens with his young Cousin Valentian raigned ten years and five moneths Valens making an unfortunate War with the Gothes was wounded with arrows and being brought into a most sordid Cottage the Gothes following the pursute set fire on it where he perished in the Flame He was to be commended for these things He was a good Counseller just in altering of judgements trusty to his friends not angry to any mans prejudice and fearful enough when he saw cause for it In his time Procopius the Tyrant was put to death Gratianus GRatianus was born at Syrmium and raigned with his Father Valentinian eight years with his Uncle and his brother three years with the same Brother and Theodosius four years and with them all Arcadius also being inserted six moneths He overthrew thirty thousand Alemans at Argentoratum in Gallia Having understood that the Gothes and Triballians and the Huns and Alans Nations more ruinous then destruction it self had possessed Thrace and Dacia as if those Countreys had been theirs by Inheritance finding that the Roman Name and State were in great danger to be utterly extinct did send for Theodosius out of Spain and in the three and thirtieth year of his Age he did resign the Government of the Empire to him This Gratian was not meanely Learned he could make a Verse speak eloquently and lay open a Cause like a perfect Orator Night and day he made it his business to meditate on Archery and the hurling of Darts thinking it a faculty of the greatest pleasure and which carryed in it some divinity with it in it with a stedfast dexterity to hit the mark assigned him he was a conqueror of his lusts wine and luxury And he had been good to all if he had addicted his minde to manage the Government of the Commonwealth in which he was defective both in knowledge to rule and in inclination to learn for having neglected the Army and preferred the Alani whom with a vast sum of money he had drawn unto him and being become such a friend and companion of the Barbarians that he would be seen in publick with them and walk in their habit he drew upon him the hatred of the Roman Souldiery In his time Maximius who rebelled in Britanie came into France and being received by those Legions who were discontented with Gratian they did put him to flight and immediately afterwards he dyed having lived eight and twenty years Theodosius THeodosius was the Son of Honorius his Mothers name was Thâ—rmantia he was a Spaniard by his birth but deriving his original from the Emperor Trajan He was made Emperor by Gratian at Syrmium and ruled seven and twenty years It is reported that his Parents were admonished in a dream to give him this Name whereby we might understand in Latin that he was given us by God There was an Oracle also famous over all Asia that one should succeed Valens in the Empire whose name should begin with the Greek letters θ ε and ο with a presumption whereof Theodorus being deceived he was justly put to death for his ambitious and immoderate desire of Soveraignty Theodosius was an illustrious Defender
and an enlarger of the Commonwealth for in divers memorable Battels he overthrew the Goths and the Huns who laid wast the Empire and having invaded the Persians he compelled them to seek for peace of him he slew at Aquileia Maximius the Tyrant who had killed Gratian and challenged all France to himself He caused also Victor his Son to be killed whom his Father Maximius had proclaimed Augustus when he was in the years of his Infancy He overcame also Eugenius the Tyrant and Arbogastes ten thousand of their Army being cut in pieces This Eugenius trusting to the forces of Arbogastes after he had slain Valentinian at Vienna called himself Emperor but not long after he lost his life and Empire both togegether Theodosius in body and conditions did much resemble the Emperor Trajan as the writings of the Historians in those dayeâ— and his Picture do declare so tall he waâ— in stature such was the proportion of his limbs such was the colour of his hair the same face unless his cheeks were a little more thin by often plucking out the hair by the roots neither had he so great eyes and I know not whether he had altogether so great a flourish of beauty in his face and such a gracefulness in his gate but I am sure their minds were most alike so that nothing can be said or read in books of the one which may not properly be translated to the other He was gentle merciful and affable to all thought that only in his habit he did differ from other men he was munificent to all but magnificent to the good he loved ordinary wits and admired the great ones provided they were harmless with a great mind he gave great largesses he loved the Citizens and those most known unto him him by private acquaintance enriched them with honours money and other benefits especially those whose good offices to him as towards a Father in the time of his adversity he had approved but for loving of Wine and the desire of triumphs with which Trajan was aspersed he so much detested them that he found Wars but did make none and by a Law did prohibit all wanton meetings and to have Songs at Banquets so much he did contribute to continence and modesty that he did forbid the marriage of Cousin germans as an unlawful thing For learning being compared to those who are absolute he was not extraordinary but wise and prudent he was and very diligent to read men in their manners He would hastily condemn the cruel deeds of the Ancients and those Enemies to publick liberty Cinna Marius and Sylla and he did bear an especial hatred to perfidious and ungrateful persons He would suddenly be angry but he was apt to return to his first temper and after a little pause he would of himself be quickly appeased Sometimes he would propound unto himself the severe precepts out of Livy or what Augustus was taught by him who did read Philosophy unto him that if he were angry at any time before he attempted to revenge the displeasure he should repeat the four and twenty Greek Letters by means whereof the concitation of the spirit which in a moment was raised the minde being otherwise imployed might in a little respite of time be appeased A brave man undoubtedly he was thus to exercise his patience and which is a proof of a singular vertue after the regal power confirmed by years and much more after a civil Victory What shall I speak of his sollicitous care in providing of Corn and to restore out of his own treasure the vast sums of gold silver taken away by force consumed by Tyrants even when bountiful Princes do hardly give unto their Followers the reversion of a few unfruitful fields or of a plundred Farm Neither can those less things be forgotten which being practised within the Court do more attract the eyes and ears of all curious natures to behold them as to reverence the Uncle like the Father to bring up the children either of the dead Brother or Sister as his own to embrace kindred and allyance with the affection of a Parent to make a neat and a merry Feast but not a sumptuous one to frame the discourse to the quality of the persons and observances to Dignities to have a discourse pleasant with gravity a tender Father and a loving Husband He so exercised himself in sports as to be neither thereby engaged or wearied and when he had leisure he refreshed his spirits with walking He governed his bodily health with a good diet And thus in the fiftyeth year of his Age he dyed in peace at Millain leaving in a peaceable condition the two Commonwealths to his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius his body was the same year in which he dyed conveyed to Constantinople and there interred FINIS An Alphabetical TABLE of those things which are most remarkable in this HISTORY THe Abderits forced from their own Country by multitudes of Frogs and Mice to seek new habitations page 237 Aborigines the first Inhabitants of Italy p. 501 The abrogation of the Custome for the sacrifizing of men alive p. 281 Abydus p. 52 The Acarnanians alone ayded not the Graecians against the Trojans p. 364 The Achaians fight with Nabis p. 389 Their combination fidelity and power ibid. Adrian the Emperor p. 555 The Adriatick Sea and why so called p. 287 Adultery most severely punished amongst the Parthians p. 481 Aeacides King of the Molossi p. 232 The greatest part of that Name dying about thirty years of Age p. 202 Their Original from Hercules p. 157 Aegeades from whence so called p. 114 Aegeus King of the Athenians Father of Theseus p. 137 Aegypt fortified at the vast expence of her King p. 26 Aegypt the Granary of the Roman people p. 526 The Aegyptians superstitious p. 17 The fruitfulness and temper of Aegypt p. 24 Aemilius gave Law to the Macedons p. 414 Aeneas came into Italy p. 502 Aeneas dyed in the wars against Mezensius ibid. Aeolus heretofore governed Sicily p. 75 The Aeolian Ilands p. 73 Aetna Hill and the perpetual burning of it p. 74 The Aetolians lost their liberty p. 401 The Africans send back their tribute to the Carthaginians p. 282 The excellent words of Africanus p. 400 His moderation in the receiving of his Son p. 397 398 Agathocles twice a banished man p. 306 Agathocles of a base original become tyrant of Sicily ibid. Agathocles took away all hope of flight by burning the ships p. 313 Agathocles his death p. 322 Agesilaus lame in one foot p. 101 Agis King of the Lacedemonians p. 179 Alcibiades of his own accord goes to banishment to Elis p. 82 Alcibiades his gallant courage wit and personage p. 83 Alcibiades called back from his command to answer for his prophaness p. 81 Alcibiades knew the wife of Agis p. 83 Alcibiades goes again into banishment p. 88 Alcibiades burned alive in his Chamber p. 93 Alexander demands of the Athenians their