Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	aaron_n	appoint_v	read_v	29	3	6.4151	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16169	Beautiful blossomes, gathered by Iohn Byshop, from the best trees of all kyndes, diuine, philosophicall, astronomicall, cosmographical, historical, & humane, that are growing in Greece, Latium, and Arabia, and some also in vulgar orchards, as wel fro[m] those that in auncient time were grafted, as also from them which haue with skilful head and hand beene of late yeares, yea, and in our dayes planted: to the vnspeakable, both pleasure and profite of all such wil vouchsafe to vse them. The first tome	Bishop, John, d. 1613.	1577 (1577)	STC 3091; ESTC S102279	212,650	348

set forth in their proper apparell and habite and after them all his noble actes conquestes and victories The hearse being set downe at the Rostra Drusus his adopted sonne read an Oration in writing but at Rostra Iulia by the decrée of the senate Tyberius had an eloquent spéeche vnto the people in his praise whiche beeing ended they that brought the hearse thither did take it vppe and bare it out at the triumphal gate There attended on the corse the Senate the horsemen with their wiues the Pretorian souldiers of the guard and almoste all men that were then at Rome After that his body was laid vpon the roge or pyle of wood which should burne it first of al the priests went rounde about it after them the horsemen then the legionarie and also the other souldiours and lastly they which had had any charge of custodie throwing vpon him all the rewardes that euer they had receiued of him for their noble actes in the warres After this the Centurions or petie capteines taking firebrandes did set on fire the roge which being absumed an Eagle was let to go who flying out of the roge did as they woulde say carie Augustus soule into heauen When all these thinges were done the rest departed but his wife Liuia with the chiefest of the horsemen tarying in that place fiue dayes gathered together his bones and laide them in a tumbe The men did not mourne for him many dayes but the women by decrée an whole yeare as they had done before time for Brutus Publicola and other Moreouer at Rome the wiues vsed to mourne for their husbandes tenne moneths in white within the whiche time if that they maried Numa made a lawe that they shoulde offer vppe a cowe with calfe but afterwarde it was enacted that they should be reputed infamous But nowe leauing the Romanes I do finde that the Iewes vsed to annoynt their dead all ouer with precious ointments and then wrapping them in a shéete full of swéete odours lay them in a sepulchre or graue as wée reade that Ioseph of Arimathea buried our Sauiours bodie embaulming it with a mixture of Aloe and myrrha of an hundreth weight Iosephus in his first booke of the warres of the Iewes telleth this of the burying of Herodes All the hearses were garnished and set with golde and precious stones but the bedde it selfe was spotted with purple the bodie also was couered with purple But a Diademe was sette on his head but ouer it a crowne of golde and a scepter at his right hand and aboute the bed attended his children with his kinsfolkes Moreouer the guarde and the bande of the Tetrarchie the Germanes and the Galatae went all before in battell araye and furniture But the rest of the souldiours did decently folowe armed the capteines and chiefe of their orders But fiue hundreth bondemen and libertes carried odors The bodie was with this pompe carried two hundreth furlonges to Herodian where it was buried Hee was mourned for seuen dayes for the vsage of the countrie would allowe no longer whiche is agréeable vnto that saying of the Sonne of Syrach the mourning for a dead man is seuen dayes Yet I reade no certaine time appointed by the lawe and also I finde that the Israelites mourned for Moses thirtie dayes for Aaron other 30. But why we doe not reade that Iosue was mourned for as wel as Moses and Aaron Ierome in his consolation vnto Paula for the death of Blesilla affirmes the cause to be for that Aaron and Moses presignified the time before the comming of Christ but Iosue figured Christ and the time after In the which Epistle also he doth report that the Iewes in his time did vse at the death of their fréendes to go barefooted and tumbled in Ashes to lye on hayre clothe and least that any thing should want vnto superstition by a lewde rite of the Pharisées the first meate the they did eate was lentilles Furthermore these rites I note out of the sacred Scriptures to be vsed by the Iewes in their solemn mournings to rent their clothes to go barefooted ye sometimes all their bodie half bare to lye prostrate on the ground and vpon haire clothe to shaue their heads and beardes and cast dust and ashes on their heades to sit in ashes to couer their face with a whoode to apparel them selues in haire cloth ye to cut the brawnes of their fleshe whiche thing although I finde forbidden in Leuit. 19. yet this to be commonly vsed among the Iewes may we probably gathere by the sixtéenth of Ieremie and Ierome vppon that place doth affirme that diuerse Iewes still vsed it in his time I finde also that they vsed to go a gossiping as we do nowe terme it vnto them that mourned carrying with them breade and wine and making them good cheare This also is worthie to be remembred that the Nazarenes might not be present at the funerals no not of their parentes brothers nor sisters the high Priest only of his parentes children brothers sisters so she were a virgin but at no buriall else no not of the Prince and yet was it not lawfull for him to passe by a dead bodie and leaue it vnburied for the lawe commaunded the Iewes to burie their enimies And thus muche of the Iewish funerals But this was common vnto all ciuil nations to erect vpō the graue namely of noblemen Princes a tumbe but they began to be so sumptuous at Athens that the citie was forced to make a lawe that no man shoulde builde other tumbe then suche an one as tenne workemen could make in three dayes vpon the whiche neither might there be any Image of Mercurie which they called Hermes Also Demetrius Phalereus prohibited by statute any piller to be set vp vppon any graue aboue thrée cubites high or any table but pillers were not set vpon the graues of none but very noble and famous men whereby was signified that they did excéede other men which nowe adayes sayes Plinie is done by Arches a new inuention It was not lawful at Lacedemonia to ingraue any mās or womans name on a tumbe but only of them whiche had valiauntly dyed in the warres Plutarche in the liues of the tenne Rhetoricians writeth that there was ingrauen in Isocrates his sepulchre a Ramme of thirtie cubites wherein was a Syren of seuen cubites for a mysticall signification and also neare vnto it a table which had the Poetes and his scholmaisters among whome was also Gorgias beholding an Astronomicall sphere and Isocrates standing by him Augustus in his life time built for him selfe in Mars his field a tumbe of wonderfull workmanshippe with twelue doores in memorie of the twelue Sages and an obelisce wherein was ingrauen the interpretation of the nature of things out of the philosophie of the Aegyptians Vnto the which obelisce August added an other maruellous good vse that was to finde out by it the

Caligula was made out of the way to the incredible ioy of all mankinde whom he hated so deadly that he had béen often heard to bewayle his ill happe that in al his reigne there had chaunced no notable pestilence famine rauin of water earthquake nor any great bloudy battell wherby many men might perish wished that all the people of Rome had but one head that he might haue stroken it off at one blowe it had béene ill with mankinde if that this Phaeton of the world as his vncle Tiberius did vse to call him had béen immortall who in thrée yeares and sixe monethes for so long he reigned had néere hand vtterly destroyed it Moreouer I reade in Suetonius that Domitian the Emperour drawing a forme of letters whiche his agents should vse began thus Our Lord and God doeth commaunde it so to be done Whereby it was decréed afterward that he shoulde not be called otherwise by any man either in writing or spéeche It is is also left to memorie that about the yeare of our Lord 620. Cosdras the mightie King of the Persians after that he had won al Syria with Hierusalem al the South part of Asia with Egypt and all Africa would néedes be adored for a God and diuine honours with sacrifices done vnto him through out all his large dominions But perhappes some man will say what maruel was it for great monarches among the heathen to thinke themselues to be Gods if that you do consider their absurditie fonde vsage in constituting of Gods the originall and causes whereof I doe thinke good to touche The thirde Chapter Whereof the false Goddes had their first ground and the causes that moued diuerse countries to worshippe many men after death for Gods and also some while they liued as Demetrius Iulius Caesar Pycta Lysander Simon Magus Apollonius and of the extreeme maddnesse of the Egyptians in chusing of their Gods of the impudent flatterie of the ambassadours of Palermo vnto Martine the fourth and of the people to Herodes Agrippa and the present punishment of God for the accepting thereof Of the wonderfull reuerence that the Persians gaue vnto their Kinges and of the rare loue that the Galles Arabians Aethiopians bare vnto their Princes two woorthie sayinges of Antigonus and Canute AFter that the vngratious child Chara was abdicated and put away by his father without any instructions giuen him touching the worshippinge of the true God the outcast and his progenie marueilously increased as our common prouerbe is an ill wéede growes fast and they deduced many colonies into diuers partes of the worlde and the ignoraunce of the prouing of the true God whiche was in the first parent daily growing greater and greater in his posteritie You séeing as Cicero saies in his booke of the nature of the Gods it is naturally ingraffed in man to acknowledge a God and that no people or nation is so rude and barbarous that doth not professe a God they being vtterly ignoraunt of the true God thought those thinges which they sawe to excell other and by whom they receiued moste commodities to be Gods whereof arose the worshipping of the Sunne the Moone Starres and suche other things and also the making of the Gods when they were dead who in their liues had inuented or done any notable thinges to the vse and profite of mankinde And hereby it came to passe that some for the great celebrity of their names were as it were generally receiued of all nations as Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other were worshipped but in particular countries of whom onely they had well deserued as Isis in Egypt Iuba in Mauritania Cabyrus in Macedonia Vracius among the Carthaginians Fanus in Latium Romulus or after his deification Quirinus at Rome and with a great number such other shal he méete that diligently readeth the auncient monuments of the Paganes and those christian authors which haue refused their superstitions We read also in the booke of wisedome that the vnhappie man being bereft by vnripe death of his sonne whome hee loued tenderly to mitigate and assuage his sorrowe first inuented to haue his sonnes image adored and it to be taken for a present GOD in earth and the sonne him selfe for a GOD in heauen The like affection wee reade in Lactantius Cicero hadde towardes his Daughter and Virgils Aeneas vnto his Father with this consolation recouering their Spirites daunted and broken with griefe Wonderfull also was the honour and obseruancie that some nations bare vnto their kings so that he whiche readeth what Atheneus doeth write of the Arabians that the familiars of the Kinges did vse to maime them selues voluntarily of that member which it shoulde happen the king to léese and that when the King died either naturall or violent death they thought it but a sport to die all with him the like whereof is affirmed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus of the Aethiopians and also of the Soliduni in a countrie of Gallia who were sixe hundreth men whom the King did chuse to be about him as his guard and liued and died with the king neither was it euer knowen that any one man of them did euer refuse or séeme vnwilling to die the Prince being deceased He I say that reads this wil not be hard of beléefe to credite Lactantius that the Maures did vse to consecrate all their kinges for Gods after they were dead The Aethiopians sayeth Strabo libr. 17. thinke that there is an immortall God and a mortall god The immortall is he that is the cause of all thinges the mortal is with them vncertaine and lacketh a name but mostly they do take them by whom they haue receiued benefites and their Kinges for Gods. Moreouer they doe thinke their kinges to be conseruers and kéepers of all men but priuate men when they be dead for they do account all dead men for Gods onely of them to whome they haue done good In like manner also the Romanes vsed to deifie their Emperours after their deathe as they also did their first king Romulus The Persian kings we reade in Curtius and other were adored like vnto Gods which honour saies Arrianus was giuen done vnto Cyrus first of all mortall men and the first of the Romane Emperours that was adored or knéeled vnto was Dioclesian after his glorious voiage and victorie against the Persians Yea in our time Xoas the king of the Persians is worshipped of his subiectes for god The water wherewithall he hathe washed his féete do they powre out of the basen and kéepe religiously as holy being an hoalsome medicine for al diseases he is called the Lord that holdes vppe heauen and earth The Gentiles also to incourage the young Gentlemen to folowe vertue and valiauncie vsed muche to Canonize and consecrate for Gods after death the renouned Capteines and greate conquerours by these meanes Hercules Bacchus and other did clime into heauen Of this

the kinges sayes he séeking to féede his humour and to followe his affection caused Images to be made of yuorie golde and other pretious stuffe But Alexander him selfe gathered together a great number of Architects and the excellentest workmen to adorne his funeralles And first of all did he cast downe ten furlongs of the wals of Babylon all the bricks being gathered together caused he to be carried away the the ground might be leuel to build the roge or funerall fire vpon the which he erected foure square euery side being one furlong long the rest of the plot he diuided into 30. edifices the which were built with stories boorded with palme trée at the lowest part were set 240. béekes of quinqueremes or galleies with fiue ranckes of oares of golde and vpon euery one of them as it were vpon the stemme of a galley stoode two archers two cubites high resting on their knée in the middes stoode fiue statuies in armour of fiue cubites high and all the places betwéene them were couered with drawne courteins of purple On the second storie were fiftéene lampes whose féete were inclosed with crowns of gold In the top or highest story where the fire should be put and kindled were Eagles portraytured spreading abroade their winges and looking downe vpon the dragons that stoode beneath staring vppe vppon them The third storie was filled ful of a mightie number of wild beasts wrought for that purpose The fourth had the fight of the Centaures made in golde The fifth had Bulles and Lyons of golde first a Bull and then a Lyon and so stil in like order Aboue all this was the highest storie hanged round about with the weapons of the Macedons and also of all the Barbarians bothe to shewe the vallor of the Macedons and also to signifie what nations they had conquered Then vpon the toppe of al did there stand holow Myrmaides in whom were hidden certaine men that sang the funerall Nenia or song The height of the whole work was estéemed to be 130. cubites And when that the capteins the souldiers the embassadours and the inhabitants did to the vttermost of their power helpe to furnishe and adorne the pompe there was bestowed aboue 12000 talentes that is 572500. And after the rate and proportion of this magnificence were all other thinges celebrated in the funerals and buriall with surpassing brauery And last of al were men commanded to sacrifice vnto him as vnto a God president To furnish the funerals of so déere a beleued Alexander gaue commandement vnto all the cities néere to helpe and garnish the pompe by all meanes and with al things that they could possible He also gaue commandement to al the cities of Asia that they should put out the fire which was kept in the Temples and casted the holy fire the which thing was neuer vsed to be done among the Persians but at the death of their king In this place also although somewhat out of order will I set downe out of Thucidides the publike obsequies the which the Atheniens kept for their countrimen that were slain in the Pelop●a ●stan wars folowing the auncient manner of their countrie Thrée dayes before the buriall was there made a great tabernacle within the which were laide the bones of them that were dead that their parents fréends might lay vpon them what they thought good Afterward euery linage or tribe of the towne had a great cofer or cophin of cypresse into the which they did put the bones of al them of that tribe which were dead and carried it in a chariot to the vsuall place of buriall And after all the cofers was there carried in a● other chariot a great bedd ready made garnished without any body lying theron the which represented these deadmen whose bodies could not be found These chariots were conducted and accompanied by all sortes of people citizens or other those that would go vnto the sepulchre where the wiues parents of the diseased wept bitterly and made great lamentation Then did they lay all the cofers or cophins in a publike sepulchre or monument made for the purpose in the fairest suburbe of the citie the which sepulchre is called Ceramicon wherin they vsed to but i● al th●se that died in the warres except it were they that were slaine at the battel of Mar●●●n In memorie of whose singular ●●wesse they had willed a ●●●●●ar sepulchre to be 〈◊〉 ●s the selfe same p●●e And after the bodies were buried the vsage was the some notable personage of the citie both for knowledge honour should make an Oration vnto the people in the praise of the persons departed the which being unded euery body departed home But for to make the oration at that time was the vallaint and ●●quent Pet●●te● appointed And nowe to 〈◊〉 vnto the Romin●● I do finde in Plinie 〈◊〉 was not vsed among them 〈…〉 for to burne the dea● bodies 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 them in the earth but afterward when that they vnderstood the those which were ouer whelmed by warres farre from home were oftentimes taken vp an ordinaunce was made that all should be burnt yet they kept the auncient rite diuersly for they do report that none of the house of the Cornelij were burnt before Sylla the Dictator who feared lest he himselfe should be taken vp and handled after his deathe as he in his life time had dealt with Marius his dead body Learned Volaterranus doth holde that after the time of the Antonines of whome Heliogabalus was the last they burnt no corses at Rome And before that time I read in Tacitus that when Nero had slaine in his madde moode his wife Poppea he burnt not her body but stuffing it ful of odours after the maner of forreigne kings buried it in the sepulchres of the Iulij but the solemne accustomed funerals were kept Furthermore laying of the dead bodie in the earth doth Cicero truely thinke to be the most ancient kinde of burial for the Patriarches were so buried wherunto Xenophon also séemeth to assēt making Cyrus to will his sonne to lay him neither in gold siluer nor in any thing else but only to restore him vnto the earth This also was common bothe vnto the Greekes and Romanes to burie the dead with great lamētations and teares without which saies Seruius they thought that they were not orderly duely buried wherof procéedes that complaint of Drances against Turnus the we an vnbewept multitude may be slaine in the fielde for the which cause they vsed to hire women to wéepe houle at burials whereof Chrysostome doth make mention in many places Horace also toucheth in his booke De Arte Poetica Chrysostome in his 69. sermon vnto the people of Antioche blameth in them the tearing of their haires the baring of their armes the dissipating of their eyes and the wearing of blacke apparell and vpon the first vnto the Philippians scratching of their faces he rebuketh their

and the women running out of their houses sweeped the Temples of the Goddes and the sacred altars with the haires of their head and on their knées holding vppe their handes to heauen besought the Gods with aboundant teares loude shriches that they wold kéepe the citie and people of Rome in safetie But after that he was come and incamped within thrée miles of the citie he approched almoste to the harde walles with a chosen band of two thousand horse to viewe the citie with whom Fuluius one of the Consuls skirmished in the mids of the fight one thousād two hundreth Numidians which had reuolted frō Hanibal vnto the Romans were at the houre on the Auentine hil were commanded to march frō thence into a part of the citie called Exquiliae Nowe they running apace from the hil into the plain séemed vnto them which were ignorant of the counsell to be their enimies and thereof did such tumult arise in the whole citie and such a feare and trembling that if Hanibal had not incamped him selfe so néere vnto the citie that they could not flie but into the lappes of the enimie the dismayed multitude had quite forsaken the citie Yea Augustus whom all the world stoode in dreade of was put into such a feare with the newes of the ouerthrowe and slaughter of Q. Varus with thrée legions in Germanie by the Cherusi that although they were many hundreth miles off and the monsterous Alpes betwéene them and the losse were nothing in comparison of his great power yet as in almoste a desperate state he commaunded straight watche and warde to be kept that no tumult should arise within the citie he also prolonged vnto the gouernours of the prouinces the time of their charge that they might be kept in obedience by men of skil and suche as had béene vsed vnto them he vowed great playes vnto Iupiter Optimus Maximus if that of his woonted goodnesse he woulde chaunge the publique weale into a better state The people also following their prince were so afraide that they made their wils and conueyed away their goodes as though there had surely béene but one way with them and yet the Germanes neuer did set foorth on foote towardes Italie This people which conquered all nations were so affrighted with this one discomfiture that they would not go into Germanie vnto Tyberius aide who with great felicitie warred there so that the Emperour was forced to confiscate the goodes of them as the lot fell vpon them to note them with ignominie but when that neither would serue to reuoke the courages of the cowards but that many refused to go he put them to death that assured death might make them to winne doubtfull victorie Also I reade in Gregoras that when Iohn the brother vnto Michael Paleologus the Emperour of Constantinople besieged with a mightie armie the despote of Thessalie in the strong castle of Patras whither he had driuen him the Despote being almost in despaire howe to get him selfe and his out of this present perill attempted this way the whiche yet he durst not to communicate vnto any man in the world it was so desperate In a very darke night he did let downe him selfe from the wall by a rope and priuily went through the campe of the Emperials for other way had he none in clothes all to torne and ragged crying and gaping with a loude and boystrous voyce and with words halfe barbarous and clownish as though he had sought a horse which he had lost the souldiers laughing and flouting of him as some poore lob of the countrie By this meanes he escaping them came into Attica where vppon promise of much money and the marriage of his faire daughter he obteined of the Duke fiue hundreth souldiers with whome he marched towardes Patros where he founde many of the Emperialles abroad in the fieldes taking their pleasure of whome some he did take other of purpose hoping that which in déede happened he coursed into the campe By his souden and vnlooked for comming arose there such a tumult in the campe they imagining some mightie power had come vnto the Despotes ayde that before he could come vnto the munitions the Emperials were all fled some one way some an other leauing all the carriages and furniture of the campe behinde vaine feare making them to flée which twentie thousand men could not haue done And in his sixt booke writes he the like Andronicus Paleologus the yonger Emperour of Constantinople went with an army against Archanes the great Turke who inuaded his dominions in Asia and before Philocrene a litle towne not farre from Nicea they fought vntill that the night parted them the Gréekes returning into their fortified campe but the Turke who by tryall made that day of the prowesse of the Gréekes thought that they woulde goe farther vp into the countrie the next day marched forwarde that night to take before hande the wayes for passage leauing yet behinde him neare vnto them a bande of thrée hundreth horsmen to watch what they would doe The emperour who had bene a little wounded in his foote in the sight went into the towne to haue his wound dressed Now the Gréekes who were ignorant wherefore he went thither thought that he had bene fled away for feare then also came this imagination into their braines that the Turke woulde be there that nighte with a mightie armie and that not one man of them shoulde escape and sée the sunne the nexte day Wherevpon they that had brought small boates thither for the towne stoode by the water side went aboard their boates leauing all their baggage behinde them other hasting to get into the towne some of them trode vppon and smouldered an other some standing one vpon an others shoulders got into the towne but other were pulled and other thrust downe by their fellowes and slaine in the fall There were some also that in this outragious feare dyed as they stoode But in the morning when the sunne was vp those 300. Barbarians beholding that incredible discomfiture of the Gréekes and in their campe horses armour and weapons without men yea and also the Emperours owne horses with red saddles two hundreth of them tooke the spoyle and went away the other hundreth came nearer and with many a shot galled and killed the poore Gréekes that were left An other such historie finde I in him when Ziges lay in siege before Trapesunt a poore woman that thought her hempe and flaxe whiche was all her wealth lay not safe enough in a bastil neare vnto the wall remoued it thence and brought it by night into the great castle where by misaduenture it falling a fire did also set on fire the house the chiefe of the citie and the people seing the fire thought that some traytors had betrayed the citie wherevpon they all fled out of the towne some by sea and some by land leauing the king in the citie

a tyrant but a very short for a man to thinke that he had such assured tryall of Fortune that he should neuer féele her vnfaithfulnesse but be aduaunced into the vnchangable felicitie of the gods His body was carried out of the citie in the common bere by the sextens the which his nurse burned at home at her owne house but afterward priuily conueyed the ashes thereof into the sepulchre of his house in their churche For if that the Senate had knowne thereof they woulde haue withstoode it as they whiche decréed that all statuies and arckes set vp in his honour should be broken downe and al titles scraped out and all memorie of him quite abolished for euer The xxvi Chapter Of Commodus BVt what penne can display the continuall hofulnesse of Commodus a God without Martiall glory howe greate a number of conspiracies were there made to deliuer the people of Rome from the bondage of this tirant from howe many good men tooke he life away to prolong his owne hated yeres It is left in memorie that he left not any man aliue that was in authoritie eyther in his fathers or the beginning of his owne reigne but Pompeyanus Pertinax Victorius He became so fearfull that he durst let no body eyther clip his haire or shaue his berd but burnt them off him selfe with a flaming coale And yet this warinesse could not saue him from being poysoned by his minion Martia and being sicke thereof and layde vpon his bed from being strangled by Narcissus in the twelfe yeare of his reigne and one and thirtie of his age But the iust anger of the Senate and people became so hot against him after he was deade that they all cried out with one voice vnto Pertinax his successor Heare O Caesar wée desire thée that all honours may be taken away from the enimie of his countrie that all honours may be taken awaye from the parici●e we request O Caesar that the enimie of the Goddes the sword player the butcher may be drawn along the channels of the citie with an hooke Let him that was more cruell then Domitian and more filthy then Nero be drawne along the channels with an hooke He that murthered all sortes of men let him be drawne among the channels with an hooke He that spoyled the temples let him be drawne along the channels with an hooke and throwne into Tyber But Pertinax who had caused his body to be priuily buried in the night desiered them séeing that his body was already buried not to meddle with it although they cryed out it was vniustly buried and therfore it ought to be taken vp againe but the Emperour would not permit them to doe any vilanie vnto his body but to breake downe al statuies and monuments of him and to abrogate al things before decréed for his honour and to abolish his name out of all places as well publike as priuate Thus the thrée Romane Emperors that woulde néedes vniustly be adored for Gods while they were aliue not only lost the honour of being canonized for Gods after death the which was common vnto the rest of their predecessours and successours but also the due funerals of a noble man although I do reade that Seuerus to anger the Senate whome he hated did afterward canonize Commodus for a God and cōmaunded his byrth day to be kept holy The xxviij Chapter Of Cosdras king of Persia NOwe am I glad that I haue passed these Romane monsters and am come vnto the last of my counterfeit Gods Cosdras the mightie monarche of Persia whose sight had fortune blinded with greater flatterie For he liued vntill he was aged and had towardly sonnes both which things prouident and louing nature had denyed vnto those other Tygres least that they should quite haue destroyed mankinde and also surpassed in Martiall glory all the kinges that had reigned in Persia before him For he wanne from the Romane Empire Mesopotamia Syria all the south side of Asia all Aegypt and Africa But as it was soone won almost with continued course of victories so that after he became proude and would not acknowledge that he receiued these victories of God but woulde néedes be adored for a God he lost them againe in as short time and Empire and life withall for Heraclius the Emperour of Constantinople being broken with so many and great foyles supplyantly desired peace of him although the conditions were verie dishonourable and shameful but when that proude Cosdras vtterly refused to make peace with any conditions and wickedly vaunted that he would neuer spare the Christians vntill that he had made them all to denie him that was crucified and adore the sunne then Heraclius rather impelled by necessitie the pricked forwarde by prowesse prepared a power and after many holy supplications and generall feastes helde did set foorth against his insolent enimie who was then at Azotus a citie of Syria in those dayes verye riche whether Heraclius marched for to darreine battell with him But this dastardly God before that Heraclius coulde come thither retyred backe into Mesopotamia almost in flying fourme destroying euery where the standing corne that was nowe as good as ripe that he might take from his enimie all facultie of following him Yet neuerthelesse Heraclius persued him who stil fled before him so fast that Heraclius could not ouertake him Wherfore he wisely left folowing of him and turned all his force vnto the wasting of the countrie with fire and sword But when he vnderstood that the Persian had left two capteines with two greate armies who trusting to the aduauntage of the hilles should stop his passage ouer the mounteines he leauing a part of his power to subdue the cities and places the which were behind vntouched hasted him self with the strength of his armie vnto Taurus the which being spéedily passed ouer he fought with one of the Persian capteines called Salbarus at the riuer of Saro whom he discōfited in a bloudie fight forced to flée into Persis The gouernment of the remnants of whose armie augmented with a strong supplement of fresh souldiers did Saias take and fought a pitched field with Heraclius who still marched forwarde the which fight continued from the dawning of the day vntil it was late with great slaughter on both sides but at the length the Persians had the better when that a mighty shoure of raine mixed with wind haile terrible thunder lightning was sent from heauen into the faces of the Barbarians the which taking from them the vse both of eies eares yea also depriuing them of al their senses they were beaten down by the Christians as thick as hops so that of so mightie an armie there escaped very fewe but either they were flaine or taken Yet after this great discomfiture Cosdras repayred his armie with al the power of his empire created one Razanes general therof who fought with greater endeuour then his predecessours but with like euent for he him selfe