minde and body taking upon him the Government of the Empire it is incredible how much he excelled those who were before him especially in clemency liberality magnificene and in the contempt of money all which graces were so much the more esteemed in him because many thought that being discended of a private man he would be more cruel to private men himself and be given to avarice and to riot For having gotton the office of the Praetor in the raign of his Father he oppressed many of his opposites having his Emissaries in the Theaters and in the Army who did cast forth envious and railing accusations against them and as if they had been convicted of the crimes of which they were accused he did demand them unto punishment amongst whom he commanded that Cecinna a Consulary man whom he had invited to supper should be put to death upon suspition that he had defiled his wife Berenice and all men took very grievously the quarrels which he revenged in the time of his Father alledging that he was greedy of spoyls and that he would be another Nero when he had got the Empire into his hands But these things falling out better did procure him such immortal Glory that he was called The Delight and the Love of mankinde As soon as he was invested with the Government of the Empire he sent Berenice home and commanded the Companies of the Eunuches to depart which was a good sign that he had changed his intemperate life And the succeeding Emperours being accustomed to confirm the Donations and Grants made by the former Emperours he as soon as he took upon him the Government in the first place of his own accord did ratifie them One day calling to minde in the Evening that he had performed no good office to any man that day in a reverend and celestial Speech he thus expressed himself O my friends we have lost a day of such a magnificent liberality he was He so famous made his Clemency that when two men of great Honour had conspired against him and could not deny the intended Treason he first admonished them and afterwards having brought them into the publick Spectacles he did place them on each side of himself and having sent for a sword from the Fencers being present whose exercises were that day to be seen he did give it first to the one and afterwards to the other who being amazed at it and wondring at his constancy See you not said he that power is given by Providence and that it is in vain to attempt a villany either in hope to commit it or through fear to be disappointed of it He also with tears in his eyes did oftentimes request his brother Domitian who sollicited the Souldiers against him that he would not seek to obtain that by parricide which would come unto him in course and with his own consent nay which he had already since he was his partner in the Empire In his time the Mountain of Vesuvius in Campania did begin to burn and there was a great fire in Rome which burned night and day for three dayes together there was also one of the greatest plagues that was ever known with which calamity many being afflicted with his own money he provided all kinde of remedies and in his own person would visit and relieve the sick and comfort those who mourned for the death of their friends He lived one and forty years and dyed of a feaver in the same place amongst the Sabines where his Father dyed It can hardly be believed how great a lamentation there was for his death both in the City and the Provinces who calling him Their publick Delight did so bewaile him as if the whole world had been deprived of a perpetual preserver Domitian DOmitian the Son of Domicilla a free woman the Brother of Titus raigned fifteen years he at the first pretended clemency and seemed to be more tolerable both at home and abroad and not to be so cowardly as indeed he was He overcame the Câ—ttuns and the Germans and administred the Law most justly He builded many houses in Rome either begun before or also anew from the foundation He restored the Library consumed with the fire Copies everywhere being sent for but especially from Alexandria He was so skilful an Archer that standing far off he would shoot Arrows betwixt the fingers of a mans hand stretched forth Afterwards growing cruel and out-ragious he exacted unjust punishments by the murders of good men and after the manners of Caligula he commanded men to call him Lord and God and sending off his Attendants he ridiculously would pursue swarms of flies He raged with that lust the filthy exercise whereof the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his pursuing the flies it came to pass that a certain man asking who was in the Palace Answer was made Not so much as a flie with those cruelties of his and especially with the injury of words by which an aspersion of lust was laid upon him Anthony being incensed did invade the Empire having at that time the command of the Upper Germany but he being slain in a battel by Normanus Appius Domitian growing more furious against all kinde of men did prosecute even his own friends with the utmost cruelty Therefore many in fear of his unbounded rage did conspire against him Parthenius the Groom of his Chamber and Stephanus inciting them to whom was added one Clodian fearing to be punished for the sums of money he had intercepted Domitia also the wife of the tyrant fearing to be tormented by him for the love she did bear to Paris the Stage-Player was one of the Conspiracy Domitian by their instigation having his Body printed full of wounds dyed in the five and fortieth yeer of his life The Senate decreed that there should be no more honor done unto him at his funeral then was allowed to a common Ruffian and that his name should be razed out of the Registers of Honour In his time the secular Playes were celebrated Cocceius Nerva HItherto such as were born in Rome or in Italy did govern the Empire Strangers afterwards were advanced to the Goverment of it by whose vertue the City was much strengthned For who was there more wise or more moderate then Nerva who more divine then Trajan who more excellent then Adrian Cocceius Nerva was born in the Town of Narnia he raigned thirteen Moneths and ten dayes Having taken upon him the Empire a rumor being raised that Domitian was still a live approaching he was surprised with so great a fear that his countenance being changed and his voyce lost he was hardly able to stand upon his legs but being afterwards assured to the contrary by Parthenius he returned to his former temper Being joyfully received by the whole Senate Arrius Antonius a Gentlemen of a high spirit and his greatest friend wisely observing the estate of those who did bear rule before him did embrace him saying That he
for him But all the Provinces and the Citie of Rome so much rejoyced at his death that the people having on their heads the Caps of manumission did triumph as if they had been delivered from a cruel master Sergius Galba GAlba derived of the noble Family of the Sulpitii Reigned seven moneths and as many daies He being infamous in his youth was intemperate in his diet and ordered all things according to the counsel of his three friends Junius Cornelius and Caelius insomuch that as well amongst the common people as the Courtiers they were called his School-masters Before he did take upon him the Government of the Empire he ruled many Provinces excellently well and was so severe unto Souldiers that as soon as he came into the Camp it was in all the mouths of the Souldiers Souldiers stand to your Arms Galba is here and not Getulicus Being seventie three years of age whiles in his coislet he endeavored to appease the Legions stirred up by the sedition of Otho he was slain at the Lake of Curtius Otho Salvius SAlvius Otho derived of noble parentage in the Citie of Terentinum Reigned four moneths he was dishonest in all his life but especially in his youth Being overcome by Vitellius first at Placontia and afterwards at Bebriacum he did run himself through with his own sword in the seven and thirtieth year of his age He was so beloved by his own Souldiers that many of them having seen his dead bodie did with their own hands become their own Executioners Aulus Vitellius VItellius was born of a noble Family and Reigned but eight moneths his father was Lucius Vitellius who was the third time Consul he was cruel of minde extreamly covetous and extreamly prodigal In his time Vespasian did possess himself of the Government in the East by whose Souldiers Vitellius being overcome in a battaâ—l under the Walls of the Citie of Rome and plucked out of his Palace where he had hid himself he was dragged about the Citie with his hands bound behinde him as a spectacle for all to look upon And lest the impudent man in the consciousness of the evils he had committed should for shame hold down his head a sword was put under his chin and being half naked many casting dirt and others more filthie excrements in his face he was drawn to the Gemonian Ladders where he caused Sabinus the Brother of Vespasian to be slain and falling by many wounds which he received from several swords he there died himself He lived seven and fiftie years All those of whom I have here spoken especially those of the Cesarian race were of such learning and eloquence insomuch that abounding with all manner of vices Augustus onely excepted they had nothing else to commend them Vespasian VEspasian Reigned ten years Amongst other vertues of this man this was the most remarkable that he would forget all enmities insomuch that he married to a most honorable man the daughter of Vitellius having a very great dowrie He patiently endured the insurrections of his friends answering their reproaches as he was the most wittie man in the world with sharp and innocent conceits of mirth He so prevailed upon Licinius Mutianus presuming too much upon his own merit because by his assistance he obtained the Empire that a third friend being called in and familliar to them both he did pacifie him with these few words You know me to be a man But what shall we speak of friends since he despised also the tauntings of the Lawyers and the reproaches of the Philosophers In a short time he refreshed the world wearied and exhausted with war for he had rather overcome by perswasions then by torment or to put to death the ministers of tyranny unless it were those who had been found to be too bloody instruments thinking most wisely that wicked deeds are in many restrained onely by fear Moreover he abolished many vices in admonishing the offenders by most just Laws and which is more effectual by the Example of his own life Nevertheless there are some who do accuse him of covetousness when it is manifest enough that through the want of money and the re-edification of so many ruined Cities he was enforced to impose those Taxes which were not known before his time nor after it He re-edified Rome wasted with former fires and gave free leave to any to build the houses again if the old masters of them were not to be found he repaired the Capitol the House of Peace and the Monuments of Claudius and builded many new Cities in all Lands which were under the Romane jurisdiction the Cities were renewed with excellent Art and Elegance and the Avenues unto them fortified with great industry The Flaminian Mountains were made hollow and cut down on both sides and a way made to pass through them which way is how commonly called The Rock Pertuse he new formed and established a thousand Nations who hardly before were reckoned to be two hundred the greatest part of them being extinguished by the cruelty of Tyrants Vologese King of the Parthians was through fear constrained to seek peace of him By his vertue Syria which is also called Palestine Curaminia Tracheta and Comagine which at this day we call Augustophratensis were reduced to the Roman Provinces Judaea also was added to them his friends advising him to beware of Mutius Pomposianus who aspired to the Empire he made him Consul with this allusion That the time might come he would be mindful of so great a benefit he governed the Empire with great uniformity he watched much in the night and the great affairs of the Commonwealth being over he permitted his friends to come unto him putting on his Princely habiliments whiles he was saluted The first thing that he did was to exercise his body afterwards he rested and having washed he fell to his meat with a better stomack The love unto this good Emperor hath caused me to speak so much of him whom the Romane Commonwealth for the space of 56 years after the death of Augustus being almost breathless and spent by the cruelty of Tyrants by Providence enjoyed that it might not altogether fall into decay he lived threescore and ten years wanting but one and dyed with his most serious studies he always mingled jests with which he was much delighted I finde that a blazing Star appearing formidable by his fiery train This saith he pertains to the King of the Parthians who doth wear a long bush of hair At the last being tormented with the repletion of the belly he rising from his bed did say That it becomes an Emperour standing on his feet to depart out of the world Titus TItus called Vespasian after his Fathers name born of Domicilla a Free-woman raigned two years two moneths and twenty dayes He from a childe most diligently applyed himself to the excellent studies of Vertue and Military Discipline and above all to learning which he afterwards shewed by the gifts both of his
with which growing miseries the Athenians being discouraged after a long famine attended with a great mortality they desired peace And a long debate there was amongst the Lacedemonians and their Associates Whether it were expedient that it should be vouchsafed them or not when many were of judgement that the very name of the Athenians was to be extinguished and the City utterly to be destroyed with fire The Lacedemonians denying that of the two eyes of Greece one of them was to be plucked out did promise peace unto them if they would pull down their wals towards Pyreum and surrender the ships unto them which were left and withal receive thirty of their Delegats to govern their Commonwealth The City being delivered upon these conditions the Lacedemonians did commit unto Lysander the charge of it This yeer was remarkable for the besieging and taking of Athens and for the death of Darius King of the Persians and for the banishment of Dionysius the great Tyrant in Sicily The State of Athens being altered the condition of the Citizens was changed with it Thirty Rulers were set over the Common-wealth who became all Tyrants for at their entrance into their government they did take unto themselves a Guard of three hundred men there scarce remaining so many Citizens by reason of so many overthrows and as if this number were too little to secure the City it received a Garrison of seven hundred Souldiers of the Lacedemonians after this they began the slaughter of the Citizens with a design upon Alcibiades left he should invade the Commonwealth again with an intent to deliver it When they found that he was fled to Artaxerxes the King of the Persians they sent in full speed to intercept him in the way and having found where he was when they could not openly put him to death they burned him alive in the chamber where he slept The Tyrants being delivered from this fear of their Revenger did fill the wretched Relicks of the City with slaughters and rapine which cruelty when they found it did displease Theramenes who was one of their numbers they did put him to death to be a terror to the rest whereupon they fled all out of the City and Greece was filled with the Athenian exiles which being all the security they had that also was taken from these miserable men for by an Edict of the Lacedemonians the Cities were prohibited to receive the banished on this they all conveyed themselves to Argos and Thebes where they not onely lived in banishment but entertained the grateful hopes to be restored to their Countrey Amongst the number of the banished there was one Thrasibulus a man of great vigour both in body and in minde and of noble Parentage who propounding to himself that something although with danger ought to be undertaken for the publick safety having drawn the banished men together he seized upon Phyle a Castle on the Borders of Athens neither was the favour and assistance of some other of the Cities wanting who had in compassion the extremity of their sad condition Therefore Hismenias the Prince of the Thebans did assist them with private although he could not with publick helps And Lysias the Syracusian Orator being also a banish'd man did send at his own charge five hundred Souldiers to assist them in this recovery of the Countrey of the common Eloquence The encounter was sharp the Athenians exercising all their courage for the recovery of their own Countrey and the Lacedemonians fighting more securely for the possessions which belong'd to others the Tyrants at last were overcome who flying into the City having in revenge filled it with slaughter they did also dispoil it of Arms and suspecting all the Athenians to be guilty of treachery they commanded them to depart out of the City and to live in the ruines of the Suburbs which were pulled down and in the mean time they defended themselves with forraign Souldiers After this they attempted to corrupt Thrasibulus and to promise him a share in the Goverment which he refusing to accept they desired ayd of the Lacedemonians which being sent unto them they renewed the encounter in which Critius and Hippomachus two of the most cruel of all the Tyrants were killed the others being overcome when their Army which for the greatest part consisted of the Athenians did flie away Thrasibulus with a loud voice did cry out unto them and demanded What made them to fly from the Conqueror whom they ought rather to assist as the Desendor of their common liberty He told them that his Army was composed of their own Citizens and not of Enemies neither did he take up Arms to force any thing from them but to restore unto them what they had lost he made war he said on the thirty Tyrants and not on the City of Athens he did admonish them that they were all of one blood of one Law of one Religion and of one Militia through the course of so many wars He did implore them to have compassion on their banished Citizens and though they themselves would be patient slaves yet they should restore their Countrey unto them that they might receive their liberty With these words he so prevailed upon them that the Army being return'd into the City they commanded the Tyrants to remove to Eleusina ten being substituted who should govern the Common-wealth who being nothing terrified with the example of the former Tyrants did tread in the same paths of cruelty Whiles these things were thus mannaged at Athens it was enformed at Lacedemon that the Athenians had taken Arms again whereupon Pausanias their King was sent to suppress them who being touched with compassion did restore the banish'd Citizens to their City and commanded the ten Tyrants to abandon the City and to go to their companions to Eleusina Peace being made not many dayes after the Tyrants on a sudden resenting with indignation that the banished were restored and that they were condemned to banishment as if the liberty of the Citizens were their slavery they did make a new war upon the Athenians But a Treaty being had as if they were to receive again their Domination being in the way by policy intercepted they were all put to death and made the sacrifices of the publick peace The people whom before they commanded to live about the ruines of the remotest walls were called back into the City and the City dispersed into many members was reduced again into one body and that no dissention should arise concerning any thing committed in the time of war they all did oblige themselves by oath that there should be an oblivion of all dissentions In the mean time the Thebans and Corinthians did send Ambassadors to Sparta to demand their proportion in the spoils of the common war and danger which being denyed they did not openly declare a war against the Lacedemonians but with silence did conceive so great an indignation that all might understand that a war was
King of Epirus to undertake the war and had overcome him to it if the Father had not prevented his Son-in-law by the collocation of his daughter to him With these provocations of jealousie and anger it is believed that both of them did incite Pausanias to the commission of so desperare an Act. Sure it is that Olympias had horses ready for Pausanias if it had been his fortune to have escaped and she her self the death of the King being understood when under the pretence of the duty she came in great haste that night to attend his Hearse she did impose on the very same night a Crown of Gold on the head of Pausanias then hanging on the Cross which none but she would have been so bold to have adventured the Son of Philip being alive Some few daies after she caused his body to be taken off from the Cross and burn'd and in the same place she did erect him a Monument and struck such a superstition into the people that she provided that for the honor of his memory here should be yeerly made a parentation to him After this she caused Cleopatra for whose sake she was divorced from Philip having first in her own lap killed her daughter to end her life by hanging and satisfied her revenge by beholding her in that lamentable posture swinging on the Tree Last of all she consecrated that sword with which the King was slain to Apollo under the name of Myrtalis for so Olympias was called when she was a little one All which was done so opnely that it may be seared least the fact committed by her were not approved by others Philip deceased about the seven and fourtieth yeer of his age after he had reigned five and twenty yeers He begat on Larissaea the Danceress Aridaeus who reigned after Alexander He had also many other Sons from divers other marriages it being the custom of Kings to take them into Marriage as many as they pleased but they all dyed some by natural deaths and some by the sword He was a King more studious of the preparations of Arms then Feasts his greatest riches were the utensils of war and yet he was more cunning to get riches then to perserve them which made them alwaies poor though he was alwaies plundering Mercy and Treachery were in him equally beloved No way whatsoever to overcome his Enemies did appear sordid to him In his discourse he was both pleasing and deceitful and one who would alwaies promise more then he would perform he was master of his Arts both in jeast and in earnest He observed his friendships not by faithfulness but by profit To dissemble love in hatred to plant sedition amongst friends and to insinuate himself both with friends and foes was his daily Custome Excellent he was in Eloquence and in the acuteness of a fine flourish in his words full of delicate composures that neither facility was wanting to the ornament nor the ornament of invention to the facility Alexander did succeed him greater then his Father both in vertues and in vices Their way was different in the Conquests they obtained The Son mannaged his wars by apparent valour the Father by deceits The Father joyned his Enemies being surprized the Son being openly overcome The Father more subtle in Counsel the Son more magnificent in minde The Father would commonly dissemble his passions and overcome them The Son inflam'd with rage knew neither how to delay not moderate his revenge Both of them were too greedy of wine but their vices in the excess were different It was the custome of the Father from the Banket to advance against the Enemy to encounter him and unadvisedly to expose himself unto all dangers Alexander was more furious against his own friends then against his Enemies wherefore the battels have oftentimes sent back Philip wounded and his Son hath often come from the Banquet the killer of his Friends This would not reign over his friends the other would usurp and grow upon them Tbe Father did choose rather to be beloved the Son to be feared The love to Learning was equal to them both The Father was more full of Policy the Son of Fidelity The Father more moderate in his speech the Son in his actions for he had alwayes a more ready and a more honest minde to be merciful to those whom he overcame The Father was addicted to thrift but the Son to excess By these Arts the Father layd the foundation for the Conquest of the World and the Son accomplished the glory of the work THE TENTH BOOK OF IVSTINE ARtaxerxes King of the Persians had fifteen Sons by a hundred Concubines but he had onely three begotten in lawful marriage Darius Ariarctos and Occhus Of these against the Lawes of the Persians amongst whom the Kingdom suffered no change but by death Artaxerxes being alive did out of his Fatherly indulgence make Darius King thinking that there was nothing taken from the Father which was conferr'd upon the Son and that he should take a sincerer joy in his paternal Interest if he alive did behold the Ensign of his Majesty in his Son But Darius after these unaccustom'd examples of indulgence took counsel to kill his Father He had been wicked enough if he onely had conceived the parricide in his minde but so much the more wicked that into the society of the villany he took his fifty brothers to be partakers of it Prodigious it was that in so great a number the parricide could not onely be contracted but concealed and that amongst fifty of his children there was not one found whom neither the Majesty of the King nor the reverence of an ancient man nor the indulgence of a Father could recal from so horrible an act What was the name of a Father so vile amongst so great a number of his Sons that he who should be safe even against his Enemies by their defence being circumvented by their Treason should now be safer amongst his Enemies then amongst his own children The cause of the Parricide was far more wicked then the Parricide it self for Cyrus being slain in the brothers war as mention above is made Artaxerxes the King took his Concubine Aspasia into marriage Darius did demand that his Father should give her unto him as he had delivered up his Kingdom who being too indulgent to his children did promise at first that he would do it and not long after repenting himsâ—lâ— and honestly denying what rashly he had promised he made her a Prioress in the Temple of the Sun whereby a perpetual abstinence from all men was religiously imposed on her The young man being much incensed at it did first quarrel with his Father and not long after having made a conspiracy with his brothers whiles he sought to betray his Father being discovered and apprehended with his Associates they expiated with their blood the designed Parricide and did punishment to the Gods the Revengers of paternal Majesty The Wives also
at once with all the Forces of Darius being afraid before that the wars would be delayed if the Persians should have divided their Army Before the battel did begin both the Armies made a stand and did look on one another The Macedons did wonder at the multitudes of their Enemies at the greatness of their bodies and the beauty of their Armor The Persians were amazed that so many thousand of their Souldiers had so often by so few been overcome The two Kings did ride round abâ—ut their Armies Darius assured his that if the division were made throughout his Army he had ten men in arms to fight against but one of his Enemies Alexander admonished the Macedonians not to be troubled with the multitudes of their Enemies nor with the greatness of their bodies or the novelty of the complexion of their Arms he commanded them onely to remember that this is the third time they fought with them and so consider that they were become never the better men by their so often flying away but carryed alwayes with them the sad remembrance of their former overthrows of so much blood they had lost before in the two other battels He assured them that as Darius did exceed in men so did he in strength He perswaded them to despise that Army shining with gold and silver in which there was more booty then danger the Victory being not to be purchased by the glittering of ornaments but by the edge of the sword After this both Armies were joyned in battel The Macedons in contempt of the Enemy so often overcome did throw themselves upon the swords of the Persians And the Persians desired rather manfully to die then to be overcome seldom more blood in any fight was shed Darius when he saw his Army overthrown would willingly have dyed himself But those who stood next unto him did compel him to flie Some perswading him to break down the Bridge of the River of Cydnus to stop the passage of his Enemies he made answer That he would not so dishonourably provide for his own safety by exposing so many thousands of his Souldiers to the fury of their Enemies and that the same way of flight was to he open to others which lay open to himself Alexander in his own person was alwayes present in the greatest difficulties and where he saw his Enemies on their thickest squadrons to fight most bravely he clapped in upon them and would have all the dangers to be wholy his own and not his Souldiers In this battel hâ— gained unto himself the whole Empire of Asia in the fifth yeer of his reign and so great was his felicity that after this no man durst to rebel and the Persians after the Empire which continued so many yeers did patiently endure the yoak of servitude His Souldiers being rewarded and refreshed so great was the booty that it took up forty daies to receive the full account of it he found hid in the City eleven thousand Talents After this he took Persepolis the chief Seat of the Persian Empire a City renowned for many yeers and full of the spoyls of the World which first appeared at the destruction of it As those things thus passed eight hundred Greeks did come unto him who with dismembred bodâ—es did endure the punishment of their Captivity beseeching him that as he had delivered Greece so he would deliver them also from the cruelty of their Enemies The King having granted them leave to return to their own Country they made choyce to be seated rather in a plantation abroad least in the stead of joy they should present unto their Parents the lamentable and loathed spectacle of themselves In the mean time Darius to purchase favour of the Conqueror was bound by his knismen in golden chains in a Town of the Parthians called Tancas I believe the immortal gods so ordained it that the Empire of the Persians should have its end in their Land who were afterwards to succeed in the Government Alexander pursuing the chase in a full gallop came to the same Town on the next day He there understood that Darius in a close waggon was carryed away by night his Army therefore being commanded to follow he pursued him with onely seven thousand horse and in the way had many and dangerous encounters And having in the chase numbred many miles when he could not receive the least notice of Darius he respited a little to breathe and bait his horses As one of his Souldies did go unto the next spring he found Darius bleeding through many wounds but yet alive whereupon he made use of his Captive to be his Interpreter whom when Darius found by his voyce to be a Persian he said that this brought some comfort to him in his present misfortunes that he should speak to one who understood him and should not in vain breathe forth his last words He desired that it might be represented to Alexander that he dyed much in his debt being obliged to him for many favours having never the happiness to return any he was much to thank him that he deported himself towards his Mother and his children not like an Enemy but a King and was more happy in his Adversary then in his own kindred for the lives of his Mother and his children were given to them he said by his Ennemy but his life was taken away by his kinsmen to whom he had given both life and Kingdoms for which he should receive that recompence which he being a Conqueror should be pleased himself to take All the thankfulness which he being a dying man could return unto him was to beseech the powers above and the powers below and the gods that dispose of Scepters that they would grant him the Empire of all the World For himself he desired to have rather a solemn then a sumptuous Funeral As for what pertained to the Revenger of his death it ought he said to be made Exemplar it being not onely Alexanders but the common cause of all Kings which to neglect would be as dishonourable as it were dangerous for as in one the Example of his justice so in the other the cause of his futuâ—e safety would be declared for the performance of which he gave his right hand the onely pledge of the Faith of a King Having spoken these wordâ— and stretched forth his hands he dyed which when it was reported unto Alexander having beheld him he with tears prosecuted his death so unworthy of that height wherein he lived and commanded that his body should be buried after the manner of their Kings and be carryed to the Tombs of his Predecessors THE TVVELFTH BOOK OF IVSTINE ALexander after this with great Funeral expences did honour those Souldiers whom he lost in the pursute of Darius and divided fifteen thousand Talents amongst their fellows who did accompany him in that Expedition The greatest part of their horses were lost by the excessive heat and those which remained alive made
THE Thirteenth BOOK OF IVSTINE ALexander the Great being deceased in the flower of his Age and the height of his Victories a sad silence there was over all Babylon and over all men The conquered and barbarous Nations would not believe the report who believ'd him to be as immortal as he was invincible They called to minde how often he had been pluckt from sudden death how often his sword being broke and his buckler slipt from his hand he on a sudden presented himself to his Souldiers not onely safe but a Conqueror But as soon as it was believed that he was dead all the barbarous Nations whom not long before he overcame did leave him not as an Enemy but a Father The mother also of Darius who her son being lost yet repented not by the indulgence of the Conqueror that she lived that day although reduced from the height of Majesty into Captivity having heard of the death of Alexander she wilfully ended her own life not that she preferr'd an Enemy above her Son but because she found the piety of a Son in him whom she had fear'd as an Enemy On the other side the Macedons did rejoyce as if they had lost rather an Enemy then a Citizen and a King of so great a Majesty condemning his great severity and the daily dangers of the war To this you may add that the Princes looked after the Soveraignty of command the common Souldiers after the treasure and the heavie and great weight of gold as an unexpected booty those bending their thoughts to the succession of his Kingdom and these to the inheritance of his riches for you are to understand that there was in the treasury one hundred thousand and in the office of the yeerly revenews by tributes three hundred thousand Talents But the friends of Alexander did not undeservedly expect the Kingdom for they were of that vertue and veneration that you would have believ'd every one of them to be a King such a graceful beauty of countenance such a tall streightness of body such a greatness and vigor of strength and wisdom were in them all that they who did not know them would have judged them not to be selected out of one people but out of all the Nations in the Earth For never Macedonia before nor any other Nation did flourish in the production of such famous men whom Philip first of all and after him Alexander did select with so much care that they seemed not so much to be chosen into the society of the war as into the succession of the Kingdom Who would therefore wonder that the world should be conquered by such ministrators when the Army of the Macedons was governed rather by so many Kings then Captains who never had found any equal to them if they had not fallen out amongst themselves and Macedonia in the roome of one should have had many Alexanders if Fortune had not armed them by the emulation of their vertue into their mutual destruction But Alexander being deceas'd they were neither secure nor joyful drawing both their persons and competitions into one place neither were the common Souldiers less sollicitous whose liberty was more dissolute and whose favor more uncertain Their equality did encrease their discord not one of them all so excelling another that any one of them should submit unto him Therefore putting on their Arms they came all unto the Court to form a new State according to the emergency of the present affairs Perdiccas was of judgement that they should attend the Issue of Roxanes womb who being eight Moneths with childe was almost ready to be delivered if she brought forth a Boy that he should be his Successor in the Kingdom Meleager denied that the Counsels ought to be delayed to the doubtful events of the birth of the child neither ought they to attend when Kings should be born unto them when they might make choyce of those who were born already for if they would have a child there was at Pergamus the Son of Alexander begotten on Arsine or if they would rather have a young man there was in the Camp Aridaeus the brother and companion of Alexander and most acceptable to all though not in his own yet in the name and notion of Philip his Father He alledged that Roxane received her original from the Persians neither was it lawful that Kings should be derived to the Macedons from those whose Kingdoms they destroyed and that Alexander himself was against it who dying made no mention of him Ptolomy refused Aridaeus to be King not onely by reason of his Mothers infamy being begot on Larissaea the Danceress but also by reason of his own incapacity least he having the Title onely another should govern the Empire it was therefore better he said to make choyce of those who in regard of their virtue were next unto the King who might govern the Provinces and might command war or peace then to subject themselves to the command of unworthy men under the pretence of a King The opinion of Perdiccas was approved by the consent of all It was therefore agreed upon that they should attend untill Roxane was delivered of her child and if it were a Male that Leonatus Perdiccas Craterus and Antipater should be his Guardians and immediately they every one did take their oaths to perform the office of a Guardian When all the horsemen did the like the foot being offended that they were not assumed into the participation of their Counsels did choose Aridaeus the brother of Alexander to be their King and did provide him with a Guard out of their own Companies and commanded that he should be called Philip after the name of his Father which when it was reporred unto the Horsemen they sent two of the Nobility Attalus and Meleager to pacifie their minds who seeking a new power to themselves by a compliance with the people omitting their legation did accord with them On this the sedition did encrease and it began now to have both head and Counsel The foot being all in arms did break into the Court to destroy their Cavalry which being understood the Horse surprized with fear did abandon the City and having encamped not far from it the Foot themselves were startled at it But the contestation of the Nobility ceased not Attalus did send to kill Perdiccas who was Captain of the other party to whom being armed and out-daring them when the Executioner durst not approach Perdiccas was of so great a resolution that of his own accord he came unto them and admonished them to look back upon the crime which they were about to commit and consider against whom they had taken arms not Persians but Macedons not enemies but Citizens and most of them their nearest kinsmen certainly their fellow Souldiers and companions in the same Tents and dangers it would be a gallant spectacle he said unto their Enemies who would rejoyce in their mutual slaughter by whose arms they were overcome
was slain in a tumult by the Souldiers His body was drawn by a Souldier through all the streets of Rome like the carkass of a dog in a military Irony calling him The Whelp of a ravening and an untamed lust At the last the bulk of his body being so great that it would not enter into the hollow seat of a Privie they did drag it unto Tiber and fastning a great weight unto it that it might not rise again they did cast it into the River He lived sixteen years and for these things which happened to him was called Tiberinus and Tractisius Severus Alexander SEverus Alexander raigned thirteen years he was destructive to the good of the Common-wealth In his time Taurinus was made Augustus who for fear did cast himself into the River Euphrates At that time Mauritius did take upon him the Empire having corrupted many of the Souldiers but when Alexander did observe himself forsaken of the Souldiers he cryed out upon his Mother alleaging that she was the occasion of his death and the Executioner coming to him he covering his head did with great confidence offer his neck unto him to be struck off His Mother Mammea did carry so closs a hand over him that if any thing at Dinner or at Supper was left were it never so little it was reserved for his next meale Julius Maximinus IVlius Maximinus a Souldier born in Thrace governed three years who while he prosecuted the rich men as well innocent as guilty was torn in pieces at Aquileia and his Son with him by the sedition of the Souldiers the Souldiers in derision crying out Of a bad Sire they must not keep a whelp Under his Government Gordianus the Father and Gordianus the Son one after another did take upon them the Government and one of them after another came to confusion In the like manner Pupianus and Balbinus affecting the Principality were both put to death Gordianus GOrdianus the Grandchild of Gordianus by his Mother was born at Rome he was the Son of a noble Father and ruled six years he was slain at Ctesiphon by Philip a Praetorian Commander the Souldiers being stirred up into sedition this was done in the twentyeth year of his life His body being interred in the Confines of the Roman and Persian Empire did afterwards give a name unto the place which was called The Sepulcher of Gordian Philip. MArcus Julius Philippus ruled five years he was slain by the Souldiers at Verona his head being cleaved a sunder in the middle a little above the upper row of his teeth his Son Gallus Julius Saturninus being about twelve years of age was slain at Rome being of so melancholy a disposition that after he was five years of age he could by no sport or invention be moved to laughter and in the secular Games seeing his Father to laugh profusely although he was but a childe in dislike of it he turned his face from him This Philip was born but of mean Parentage his Father being a Captain or Leader of Robbers Decius DEcius born in Pannonia Bubalia raigned thirty Moneths and made his Son a Caesar he was a man well learned in all the Arts addicted entirely unto vertue pleasant and familiar at home and a brave man at Arms. In a great tumult he was drowned amongst many others in a place so full of Bogs and Fens that his body could never afterwards be found His Son also was slain in War He lived fifty years In his time Valens Lucinianus was made Emperour Virius Gallus VIrius Gallus with his Son Volusio raigned two years In their time the Senate created Hostilianus Perpenna Emperor who not long afterwards dyed of the Pestilence In their time also Aemilianus was created Emperour in Maesia against whom both the Father and the Son marched with an Army and were slain by their own Souldiers at Interamnis the Father being seven and forty years of Age they were created Emperors in the Iland of Meningis now called Girba Aemilian in the fourth year of his Government was slain at Spoletum or Pontes which by reason of his death was afterwards called Sanguinarius being a place in equal distance betwixt Ociculum Narnia and the City of Rome He was by his birth a Moor a man of a daring spirit but not too rash he lived seven and forty years Licinius Valerianus LIcinius Valerianus sirnamed Colobius raigned 15 years he was descended of noble Parentage but of a slow and stupid disposition and not fit for any publick place either in Counsel or of action He made his Son Galienus Augustus and his Grandson Cornelius Valerianus a Caesar In their times Religianus in Moesia Cassius Labienus Posthumus in France the Son of Galienus being slain were made Emperors In the same manner Aelianus at Mentz Aemilianus in Egypt Valerius in Macedonia and Aurelius at Millain assumed the Imperial Title But Valerianus making war in Mesopotamia he was overcome by Sapores King of the Persians and not long afterwards being taken grew old amongst the Parthians in an ignoble servitude for as long as he lived the King did set his foot upon his neck when he mounted on horsback Galienus GAlienus in the place of his Son Cornelius did substitute his other Son Salonianus he was addicted to the uncertain love of Concubines Salonina and Pipa but he coloured his love to Salonina with the pretence of marriage and her Father the King of the Marcomans did grant him thereupon by covenant one part of the upper Pannonia At the last he marched against Aureolus whom he besiged at Pontus and obtained it which place afterwards was for that cause called Aureolus he also besieged Millain but by the contrivement of Aureolus he was slain by his own Souldiers after he had raigned fifteen years seven with his Father and eight by himself he lived fifty years Claudius CLaudius raigned two years some are of opinion that he was the Son of Gordianus others say of the woman Licensa by whom he was taught how to deport himself towards a wife he was appointed Emperor by the last Will and Testament of Galienus who sent unto him to Ticinum the Imperial Robes by Gallonins Basilius Aureolus being slain by his own Souldiers he received the Government of those Countryes and fighting against the Almains not far from the Lake of Benacum he cut in pieces such a multitude of them that of their infinite numbers scarce a half part remained In those daies Victorius was made Emperor And when Claudius understood by the Book of the Destinies which he commanded to be looked into that a principal man of the Senate must die Pomponius Bassus who was then present did offer himself to be a sacrifice for the publick but he not suffering the Oracles to be frustrated did give his own life a free gift to the Common-wealth having first expressed himself that no man of that order could be intepreted to be the principal man but the Emperor onely This was so acceptable to every
to it In the mean time Constantius and Constans fell at variance about the Dominions of Italy and Africa Constantius a rash man and living like a Plunderer being filthily drunk whiles he endeavoured to intrench upon his Brothers possessions did lose his own and being taken was killed and thrown into the River of Alsa not far from Aquileia Constans given much to hunting whiles he followed the game in the Forrest Chrestius Marcellinus and Magnentius with some others of the Souldiery did conspire his death and having agreed upon the day Marcellinus amongst many others did invite him to Supper in pretence of celebrating the birth day of his Son The Feast continuing late in the night Magnentius arising as he said to ease his belly did put on the venerable habit of the Emperor which when Constans understood he made means to flie away but was over-taken and slain by Gaiso who with a select band of the Cavalry was sent after him This was done at Helena a Town not far from Peirene in the thirteenth year of his Raign he was made Caesar three years before and he lived seven and twenty years He was lame in his feet and had the Gout also in the joynts of his fingers In the Division of his Dominion he was fortunate in the temperature of the Ayr in the abundance of fruits and for not being annoyed by the Barbarians which benefits had indeed been greater if he had advanced his Lieutenants into the Government of the Provinces not by money but by merit His death being understood Vetranius the General of the Army did take upon him the Empire in Pannonia of which he was not long afterwards dispossed by Constantius he lived to a great age and in a voluptuous life being foolish almost to Idotism it self Constantius COnstantius made Gallus his Uncles son Caesar and marryed him to his Sister Constantina Magnentius also at that time beyond the Alpes did create his kinsman Decentius Caesar And Nepotianus the Son of Eutrophia who was Constantines sister did assume the Government of the Empire at Rome whom Magnentius in the eight and twentyeth day afterwards did suppress In his time there was a great Battel fought at Marsia in which Constantius overcame Magnentius The strength of Rome did never more suffer then in this War and the Fortunes of the whole Empire were desperately shaken Magnentius after this having retreated into Italy did kill at Thicanum many of his pursuing Enemies who too improvidently did follow the chase as it oftentimes falls out in Victories Not long afterwards being shut up in Lions with a prepared sword the pommel of it being set to the Wall level to his breast with all his strength and the whole weight of his body he received the point which running through him being a man of a great bulk pouring forth his blood not onely at his wound but as his mouth and his nose also he expired in the thirteenth Moneth of his Government and the fiftyeth year of his Age His Parents were of Gallia he was a great Reader acute in his Discourse of a proud spirit and yet immoderately fearful but a great Artist to conceal his fear under bold pretences Decentius no sooner heard of his death but strangling himself with his own Garter he ended his life Much about this time Gallus Caesar was slain by Constantius he ruled four years Silvanus SIlvanus being made Emperor was slain in the eight and twentyeth day of his Government he was of a most pleasing and courtly wit although begotten by a barbarous Father he was sufficiently instructed in and prone enough to learn the Roman civilities Constantius COnstantius did honour Claudius Julianus the Brother of Gallus with the name of Caesar being about three and twenty years of Age. He in the Feilds of Argentoratum in France did slay an innumerable company of his Enemies The bodies of the slain being piled up did seem like so many Hills and the blood that flowed from them did seem like so many Rivers Their famous King Nodonarius was taken all the Nobility were utterly overthrown and the limits of the Roman Power were restored At the last fighting with the Almains he took their most puissant King Badomarius Prisoner By the Souldiers of Gallia he was proclaimed Augustus but Constantius did urge him by his Ambassadors to abandon that honour and to discend into his former name and condition Julianus IVlian by softer Mandates did make Answer that he more officiously would obey if the injunction laid upon him were confirmed by the Authority of the high Empire whereat Constantius being greatly offended being more and more inflamed with grief and choler did contract a violent Feaver at Mopsocrene being situated at the foot of the Mountain Taurus His indignation and want of sleep did increase the malignancy of his disease so that he dyed in the four fortyeth years of his age and the nine thirtyeth of his Raign having been Augustus four and twenty years and raigned with Magnentius and his own brothers sixteen years and eight years alone He was fortunate in all his Civil Wars but most unhappy in Forraign Wars He was admirably expert in Archery and much given to meat wine and to sleep very patient of labour and desirous of eloquence which not being able to obtain he envyed others He was much given to the love of his Attendants and Eunuchs and to the love of his Wives with whom he lived very contented not turning his lawful affections to any unnatural or filthy lusts Amongst all his wives he loved Eusâ—lia best who indeed was very beautiful but by her Amantiae and Gordoniae and other importunate services she much blemished the Emperors reputation contrary to the custome of modest Ladies whose saving Counsels do oftentimes much assist their Husbands To omit other Examples it is almost incredible how much Pompeia Plotina encreased the glory of Trajan whose procurators did so oppress the Provinces that one of them is said in these words to salute every rich man he did meet with What hast thou on thy Table From whence hast thou it Deliver what thou hast She understanding of it did reprove her Husband that he was so unmindful of his Honour and caused him so much to detest such exactions that he afterwards called his Exchequer the Milt because that the Milt swelling too much all the rest of the members do consume Julianus having invested himself in the Government of the Roman Empire being desirous of glory did make War upon the Persians where being deceived by a Fugitive sent by the Parthians for that purpose who had round about inclosed him and begun to fall upon his Camp he armed onely with his shield did run out of his Tent and in too rash valour leading forth his Forces to the battel he was run through with a Spear by one of his Enemies rising from the ground being mortally wounded he was carried into his Tent and coming forth again to encourage his Souldiers to
Arms at their very entrance into their Gates and not above one hundred men and disabled too by their age did enter into a fight against fifteen thousand Souldiers so much strength and courage the sight of their City and of their houshold gods did administer who infused into them greater spirits as much by their presence as by the remembrance of them for when they saw for whom and amongst whom they stood they were all of a resolution either to overcome or die a few old men undertook the whole brunt of the battel unto whom before that day appeared not all the youth and Army of their Enemies could be equal In this fight two Captains of the Enemies were slain In the mean time when the coming of Agesilaus was reported the Thebans retreated and some few hours after the battail again began for the youth of the Lacedemonians being inflamed with the courage and glory of their old men could not be kept back but would throw themselves upon their Enemies howsoever the Thebans had the Victory and Epaminondas performing the duty not onely of a General but of a resolute and couragious Souldier was grievously wounded which being understood the Thebans through the excess of grief were possessed with fear and the Lacedemonians through the excess of joy with a kind of amazement and as it were with a consent on both sides they departed from the batâ—el Some few daies afterwards Epaminondas deceased with whom the whole strength of that Common-wealth dyed also for as if you break or blunt the edge of any weapon you take from the residue of the steel the power to hurt so this Captain who was the edge of their courage being taken away the whole strength and vigor of that Theban Commonwealth was immediately rebated insomuch that they did not seem onely to lose him but to have all perished with him for before this Captain they did never mannage any memorable war and were famous afterwards not for their vertues but their overthrows so apparent it was that the glory of his Countrey was born and dyed with him It is hard to say whether he was a better man or a better Captain for he sought the Government not for himself but for his Countrey and was so careless of money that he had not wherewith to defray the charges of his own Funeral moreover he was no more covetous of glory then of money for the Commands were all thrown upon him refusing and drawing back from them and he so deported himself in his places of honour that hee seemed not to receive but to give an ornament to the dignity it self So great was his knowledge in Letters and Philosophy that it may be wonderful how that excellent experience in the affairs of war should arrive unto a man born amongst the Arts neither did the manner of his death differ from the institutions of his life for being brought half dead into his Tent he collecting his voyce and spirits demanded onely if his Enemy had taken his Buckler from him when he fell which when hee understood was preserved he desired to see it and it being brought unto him he kissed it as the companion of his labours and his glory Hee again demanded Who had obtained the Victory when it was answered The Thebans he replyed It was well and so gratulating his Countrey he did give up his last breath In his grave the vertues not onely of the Thebans but of the Athenians also was buried for he being taken away whom they were accustomed to emulate they did degenerate into sloth and laid forth the publick Revenues not as before on Fleets and Armies but on festival dayes and on the setting forth of Playes and visiting the Scene oftner then the Camp they onely celebrated the Theators famous with Poets and Actors praysing their Poets and their Orators more then their Captans by which means it came to pass that in these leisures of the Grecians the name of the Macedons but ignoble and obscure before should rise into glory and that Philip bred up in the vertues and institutions of Epaminondas and Pelopidas being three yeers as an Hostage at Thebes should put the Kingdom of Macedonia on the necks of Greece and of Asia as the yoak of their servitude THE SEVENTH BOOK OF IVSTINE MAcedonia was heretofore called Aemathia after the name of their King Emathion the first experiments of whose vertue were extant in those places Their beginnings were but small and their bâ—unds but narrow the people were called Pelasgi and the Country Boeotia But afterwards by the prowess of their Kings and the industry of their Nation having first subdued their borderers and after them other People and Nations they extended their Empire to the furthest bounds of the Orient Telegonus the father of Astriopaeus whose name we have received amongst the most famous Commanders in the Troâ—on war was said to reign in the Country of Poeonia which now is a part of Macedonia On the other side in Europa there raâ—gned Europus by name But Caranus with a vast multitude of the Grecians being commanded by the Oracle to loâ—k out a seat for hâ—mâ—n Macedonia when he came into Emathia he unexpectedly possessed himself of the City of Edissâ— he Inhabitants not perceiving it by reason of a tempest and a great mist that did attend it In this expedition he followed the conduct of a slock of Gâ—â—ts who â—led towards the Town from the violence of the tempest and calling the Oracle into his memory by which he was commanded to seek out a place to rule in the Goats being his leaders he made that City the â—eat of his Kingdom and whithersoever afterwards â—e advanced he religiously observed to have the same Goats before his Ensigns to be the Leaders on in his enterprize who were the authors of his Kingdom for the memory of this event he called the City Edissa Aegaea and the people Aegaeâ—des After this Midas being forced away for he also possessed a part of Macedonia and some other Kings with him he alone succeeded into the place of them all and having united the Nations into one he brought the several people of Macedonia into one body and the Kingdom increasing he made the foundaâ—ion strong with an intent to raise it higher After him Perdicas reigned whose life was famous and his last words at his death were as memorable as the precepts of the Delphian Oracle for full of age and dying he shewed to his Son Argaeus the place where he would be buryed and commanded that not onely his own but the bodies of all who succeded him in his Kingdom should be interred the same place presaging that if the Relicks of his Successors should be buryed there the Kingdom should perpetually continue in that Family And it is superstitiously believed that the issue failed in Alexander because he changed that place of Sepulchre Argaeus having governed the Kingdom moderately and with the love of the people did leave Philip his
Successor who being taken away by an untimely death did make Europus a little child his Heir At this time the Macedonians had daily wars with the Thracians and Illyrians by whose Armes being hardned as with a daily exercise they became a terror to their neighbours by the glory of their atchievements The Illyrians contemning the Infancy of their King did make war upon the Macedons who being overcome in the battel the little Infant their King was brought forth in his Cradle and placed in the front of their Army whereupon they renewed the encounter with greater violence for they were beaten they conceived before because in the fight they had not with them the auspicious presence of their King and should now overcome because out of a superstition they were possessed with a confidence that they should be Conquerors the compassion also on their Infant Prince did leave an impression on them whom if they were overcome they should make him of a King a Captive The battels therefore being joyned with a great slaughter they overthrew the Illyrians and made it apparent to their Enemies that in the former encounter the Macedons wanted not courage but a King Amyntas succeeded him famous by his own vertue but more renowned by the excellent endowments of Alexander his Son in whose nature the ornaments of all vertues were so extant that in the various exercisâ— of sports he contended at the Olympian Games In the mean time Darius King of the Persians being routed and making haste out of Scythia in a dishonourable flight least he should grow every-where contemptible by his loss he sent Megabazus with a part of his Army to subdue Thrace and the other Kingdoms adjacent to it in which number was Macedonia a place then accounted so poor that it was hardly worth looking after In obedience to the Kings command Megabazus not long after sent Ambassadors to Amyntas King of the Macedons demanding that pledges might be given to him as an earnest of the peace to come The Ambassadors being bountifully entertained in the height of the banquet and of wine required of Amyntas that to the magnificence of the Feast they would add the priviledges of Familiarity and send for their sons their wives and daughters which amongst the Persians is the pledge and assurance of entertainment Who when they came the Persians handling the Ladies with too petulant a wantonness Alexander the son of Amyntas desired his Father in respect of his age and gravity that he would be pleased to depart from the Feast promising that he would try the jests and frolicks of his Guests His father being gone he not long after called all the women from the Banquet in a pretence to dress them finer and to return them more acceptable to them In their places he brings in young men disguised in the apparrel of Matrons and commands them to chastise the wantonness of the Ambassadors with the swords which they carried under their garments And thus all of them being slain Megabazus being ignorant of the event and seeing they returned not did command Bubaris thither with a part of his Army onely as into a poor and easie war scorning to go himself least he should be dishonoured to make war in his own person with so contemptible a Nation But Bubaris before the war being inflamed with the love of the daughter of Amyntas instead of making wars did make a marriage and all hostility being layd aside he entred into the obligations of affinity After the departure of Bubaris from Macedonia Amyntas the King deceased to whose son and Successor Alexander the consanguinity with Bubaris not onely procured peace in the time of Darius but confirmed Xerxes to him insomuch that he endued him with the command of the whole Countrey between the Hills of Olympus and Haemus when like a Tempest he invaded Greece But Amyntas increased his Kingdom as well by his own valour as by the liberality of the Persians By order of succession the Kingdom of Macedonia came afterwards to Amyntas the son of his brother Menelaus he also was famous for his industry and accomplished with all royal vertues He begat three sons of his first wife Eurydice Alexander Perdicas and Philip the Father of Alexander the Great and a daughter called Euryone and on his second wife Cygaea Archelaus Aridaeus and Menelaus He made great war first with the Olynthians and afterwards with the Illyrians and had lost his life by the treason of his wife Eurydice who contracting a marriage with her son in-law had undertaken to kill her husband and to deliver the Kingdom unto her adulteror which had taken effect if her daughter had not betrayed the loosness of the Mother and the counsels of her wickedness The old man deliverd from so many dangers deceased the Kingdom being left to Alexander the eldest of his Sons Alexander in the beginning of his reign bought his peace of the Illyrians a sum of moneys being agreed upon and his Brother Philip being given them as a pledge in the process of time he made peace with the Thebans having given the same pledge unto them which conduced much to the growing fortunes of Philip by the advantage of his education for being three yeers a pledge at Thebes he received the first rudiments of his youth in a City of ancient severity and in the house of Epaminondas who was as great a Philosopher as a General Not long after Alexander being assaulted by the treason of his Mother Euridice was slain his Father had pardoned her before being guilty of contriving his death in relation to the children he had by her not thinking she would prove so pernicious unto them His brother Perdicas did also lose his life being killed by the treasonable plotting of his mother A most unworthy thing it was that the children should be deprived of their lives by their mother for her lust the consideration of whom had before protected her from the punishment due unto her for her wickedness This murther of Perdicas seemed the more grievous because the little son whom he left could not prevail upon her cruelty to take compassion of him Philip a long time did deport himself not as a King but as a Guardian to the Infant But when great wars did threaten the Kingdom and that the help would be too late in the expectation of the Infant he took upon him the Government of the Kingdom being compell'd unto it by the people In the beginning of his reign the hopes were great that were conceived of him both for his wit which promised him to prove a great man and for the ancient fates of Macedon which sang that one of the sons of Amyntas being King the state of that Kingdom should be most flourishing And this was the man who was preserved from the wickedness of his mother to make good the hopes of the people and to justifie the Oracle When on one side the most unworthy murder of his brothers on the other side the