the Treaty to project a form of accord and to keep a good correspondence betwixt his Master and the Tyrant but in truth to discover the intrigues of the Syracusan counsels and to be a Spy upon the affairs of Sicily to discover the easiest way of invading it and to practise the Tyrant to some destructive enterprizes Oxythemis had an handsome reception and great credit with Agathocles whose humours and inclinations he soon found and dexterously moved him to renew his attempts against Carthage and follow his pretensions in Africk This he eagerly prosecuted that so the Tyrant leaving Sicily his Master with more ease might attack it This seemed to Agathocles as the counsel of his Fortune for he was now free from any Troubles in the Island Syracuse by an open and continued Trade and some years of Peace had recovered so much Wealth as defaced all the marks of the former War He was now strengthned with the new alliance of a powerful Neighbour whose assistances Oxythemis after the Greek manner did augment and enlarge He therefore embraced the design and made preparations answerable unto it He had provided two hundred Vessels equipped with all necessary furniture for the transporting of his Forces and had begun Hostility by intercepting the Carthaginian Ships that carried provisions of Corn and other necessaries from Sicily and Sardinia to Africk But in the very beginnings of his design that Vengeance of Heaven which had been long due unto him did at last take hold of him and blasted his counsels with his Ruine which was thus effected The Tyrant being now old and doubting the chances of War and the varieties of Fortune which he had so often experienced would provide for the Succession in his ill-gotten dominion before he departed from Sicily Those whom propinquity of Blood the affections of the Tyrant and the Vulgar report marked out for the Honour were the younger Agathocles and Archagathus the Son of that Archagathus that was betraied by his Father and slain by the Souldiers in Africk Both these had great hopes and strong expectations to be the heirs of the Empire The first built his upon the indulgent Affections of the old Tyrant which he had gained by a specious observance continual presence accompanied with a quiet industry in all that was commanded though he were unfit for War and would wear out daies of action with words of Obedience Besides his late Embassie and magnificent reception in Greece had made him more splendid though they were but the arts of the Enemy not the effects of his Merits And it is not to be doubted but that Oxythemis favoured his choice whom he saw least able to hinder his Projects On the other side Archagathus founded his pretensions to the Succession because he was General of the Forces and was now with them about Aetna he had been in several Expeditions in which by his boldness and generous meen he had got the esteem of valiant and the affections of the Souldiery So that the old Tyrant seemed to hold but a precarious Empire of him which he could take away at his pleasure But the obsequiousness of the younger Agathocles did over-balance all these Merits in the judgement of his Father Therefore when Archagathus was abroad with the Army the Tyrant commends his Son Agathocles to the obedience of the Syracusans as the future hopes of all their Peace and Safety and whom he had designed for his Throne And that he might have the like reverence from the Army he sends him with a Letter to Archagathus commanding him to deliver up the charge of the Forces into the hands of his Uncle Archagathus seeing his hopes deluded and that all his glorious hazards were fruitless when the rewards of danger were conferred on him that was never near them conceives an inexpiable hatred both against his Grandfather and Rival and resolves to quench it with the blood of both To this end he sends presently a Messenger to Maenon his Correspondent at Court and with whom he had often treated of dangerous Secrets and had prepared him for any design he should advise him unto and desires him to poison the Old Tyrant and he himself would contrive the death of the Younger This Maenon was a native of Aegesta where Agathocles had acted those incredible Cruelties and in the Ruine of the City was taken with the other youth that were appointed to be sold for Slaves But the comeliness of his Person had preferred him to the Tyrant's own Lust who used him as a Bardacio This he took patiently and seemed to be well pleased with his emploiment and to gain the more Credit with the Tyrant and advantage of doing mischief did glory that he was admitted into the number of his Prince's most beloved Confidents and professed that the present Benefits had cancell'd the old Injuries But yet his soul did inwardly burn with a desire of revenge both for the abuse of his Body and the destruction of his City and therefore was watchful and studious of a fit opportunity to accomplish it Archagathus was not ignorant of his Discontents and had found him a fit engine for such attempts as his defeated hopes did stand in need of For to enterprize upon a Tyrant by a secret Conspiracy none are more proper instruments then such as have a charge about their Persons because they cannot be easily ruined but by those whom they most trust and none are fitter to be wrought to this then such as have been abused by their Masters in their bodies And therefore Aristotle saith that many of those hateful Beasts have been dispatch'd out of the world by their forced Pathicks Besides he that is to perform it must be a person of a firm spirit made so either by Nature or Passion and resolved either for Death or Revenge Maenon had all these requisites and therefore receiving the summons prepares for his work and acts it about the same time that his Correspondent had finish'd his For Archagathus not shewing any signs of Discontent but professing a ready submission to the Command of his Old and the pleasures of his New King invites his Uncle to a Sacrifice wherein he used his Grandfather's method of making Religion the preface to Villany in an Island somewhat distant from the quarters of the Army and there making him drunk he cuts his throat and casts his dead body into the Sea As if he would appease it for the pollutions of the Old Tyrant who had often defiled it with the carcasses of murdered innocents But the waves cast it back to the shore and it being known to the Inhabitants was taken up and conveyed to Syracuse there to vex the eyes and soul of his inhumane Father who by this time also felt the approaches of death For Agathocles being accustomed to pick his teeth after Supper rising from table called for his Pick-tooth which Maenon whose office it was to provide it had anointed with a most mortal poison The Tyrant using it
to him or fear anger and hate towards the Senate He invokes their faith and compassion of him and complains of his hard Fate that it was never safe for him to love the People and that none was ever an enemy to the Common-wealth but they would be likewise the contrivers of his destruction For do you not hear saith he how my execution and your punishment is already decreed and how the Senate hath sent these their most subtle Agents to draw me back to the place of slaughter and to contrive the scene of your massacre They envy us the honour of dying upon our enemies swords in defence of our Country's Liberty and we must brutishly fall as sacrifices to their insolent Lusts and our blood be spilt to testifie that such Monsters ruled us In vain do we arm and expose our selves to death to keep off a forein yoke when such ungrateful wretches devote us to ruine at home Are we not patient enough in our slavery when we offer our selves to all the dangers of warre that they may be secure in their effeminate pleasures and wantonly lavish that wealth which is the price of our blood but must we also be basely sent out of the world that they alone may enjoy it When will these men know the just bounds of commanding or we fully apprehend the misery of our ignominious thraldome Then pausing as if he had been interrupted with tears which he shed the Vulgar rout hindered any further progress in his speech with loud clamour each one according to the sense of his Interest or Passion exclaiming against the Vices of the Senators some charged them with Cruelty others railed at their Covetousness and another sort did condemn their Pride and Perfidiousness and therefore they jointly cried out That he should not wait till such inhumane vipers did return to a love of their own City but speedily revenge his own and their injuries that he had already offended enough against his trust in dealing so gently with such as deserved as little of mercy as they shewed of justice Agathocles suffers not their present rage to cool knowing that wicked attempts are to be done with a sudden fury though good counsels gather strength by delay and seeing they understood the causes of hatred he would likewise quicken them with the hopes of Spoil Go saith he and be your own Avengers make the Tyrants feel what they decreed you should suffer Let the wealth of Senators that know no modesty in their commands be the rewards of such generous Souls that can endure no Slavery Leave them no friends or confidents which may bewail or revenge their death nor children to inherit their Crimes with their Wealth Then immediately not to give space to the bad to repent nor to the good if there were any there to consider and in abhorrency of the fact to unite against him he commands the Trumpets to sound a charge as if he were sacking an Enemies Town The caitiff Army having this full licence to satisfie their revenge covetousness and lust soon fell to the execution and left nothing undone that a conquered City feels from an enraged Enemy They guarded all the posts of the City and shut up the Gates that none might escape their fury then they slew all the most daring and popular Citizens who hearing the tumult came forth unarmed into the streets to inquire the cause Then the houses streamed with the blood of the owners the Innocent fell with the Guilty and every one was slain that had something to satisfie the expectation of his murderer He that had no enemy met with death at the hand of his friend and a good name was a mark for ruine The Altars of the Gods were coloured with the blood of those that fled to them for refuge as Victimes to an incensed Deity The aged men and ancient matrons were led about in scorn by their miseries to make up the merrier part of this Tragedy And that nothing of unhappiness might be unfelt by the miserable Syracusans Rapes were mingled with Slaughters he that was the Assassinate of the Husband would be the Ravisher of the Wife and he that reeked with the blood of the Father would quench his flames of lust with the dishonour of the Daughter Their rage and lust was so high against the people that at last it grew hot among themselves and he was accounted an enemy that had got the more precious booty When any Virgin or Youth whom beauty made conspicuous fell into the hands of this barbarous rabble they were commonly torn in pieces by the violence of those who contended for their first abuse and then became the quarrel and armed the Ravishers to their mutual ruine Others while they hasted away with the gold and silver of the murdered owner were themselves a prey to a stronger arm Thus death and ruine reigned in Syracuse and the first day there were no less then four thousand of the most eminent Citizens that by honest arts had won the affections of the people murdered Some were apprehended and slain at the gates through which they thought to flie Others met death from which they fled in climbing over the town wall by too much fear and hast breaking their necks and limbs About six thousand escaped and some of them got safe to Agrigentum and other neighbouring Cities where the relation of their miseries did move a great deal of pity but the inhumane Souldiers would yet make them sensible of their fury in their remaining parts with more contumely ravishing their Wives and Daughters because they themselves had escaped with their lives This Cruelty lasted for two daies Agathocles's thirst of blood being not sooner to be quenched or because his authority was not yet so great as to forbid those crimes which he might with ease command or he was willing to indulge the lufts of his Army beyond all hopes of pardon that so they might not expect safety but in the conduct and preservation of him who had authorized their wickedness But when this base rabble of men did seem to be satiated with villany as having no more subjects to practice on to conclude the Tragedy he sends for all those Citizens whom he had secured and who had been reserved to feed his own eyes with their blood Of these such as he had most injured and whose vertues he might most fear were slain before him others less considerable he banished Onely one Dinocrates a bold and faithless person so like him in vices that the similitude had been the ground of a former acquaintance though now he was a stranger to his design he freely sets at liberty which was not the effect of Clemency or Friendship Vertues that Tyrants are not capable of but to provide a refuge for himself in the future For even the most barbarous and bloodiest villains in diffidence of a change of affairs will provide some private favour against the publick hatred This was Agathocles's first scene of Dominion
buying his life and hired his servants to his murder for he seemed to upbraid the Roman weakness that could not overcome a Spanish Thief by noble waies And as they hated the unworthy waies of poison and Treason to finish a war so while they were uncorrupted in their Discipline they were Religiously scrupulous in the beginning of any for they never sent forth their Armies till they had sought for justice in the tracts of Peace and after the publick promulgation of their intent Such also was the Integrity of the Achaeans before they had fore-warned their enemy to a defence Machiavel commends the Simplicity of the ancient Florentines that enterprized no hostility on their neighbours till they had by ringing a Bell for the space of a whole moneth admonished their enemy to a peaceable satisfaction or a brave resistance But every Tyrant makes his war impious if not in the cause yet in the management and more like thieves then Princes aim onely to deceive not to conquer their enemies Agathocles being thus successfully wicked at Messene designs Agrigentum for his next prey his false Ambition not suffering him to continue that Peace which his Necessity had forced him to make with them But the Carthaginian Fleet consisting of sixty sail of ships hovering upon the coasts of Sicily diverted his arms from revenge on the Carthaginian territories whose Countries he wasted with fire and sword took some of their Garrisons by force and others were delivered upon composition This Hostility betwixt Carthage and Syracuse made Dinocrates who since Sosistratus's death was become the chief of the Syracusan Exiles and the other Confederates hope for the assistance of the Punick arms against this restless Tyrant To them therefore they sent an Embassie with bitter complaints against Amilcar and invectives against Agathocles The last they set forth as a merciless perjured and bloody Tyrant The other they accused as a Traitor that by secret compact had delivered up the lives and fortunes of the Carthaginian friends into the hands of a most cruel enemy and that as the earnest of this Treachery Syracuse a potent and rich City an emulous contender with Carthage for the Empire of Sicily was first betraied into his hands and under the name of Peace many other confederate Cities had since been exposed to his rapines If therefore that Mighty Common-wealth and wise Senate should not be more vigorous to punish their treacherous servant and to quench the Tyrant's thirst of Empire with his own blood they would soon feel in Africk the dismal effects of their neglect of Sicily This Embassie inraged Carthage and they were more keenly resolved to make Amilcar satiate their anger with an ignominious punishment But either by a natural or a voluntary death he prevented the unjust fury of his own Citizens who had condemned him before he could plead his innocency So barbarously ungrateful are most Commonwealths to their chiefest servants who if they thrive abroad are ruined at home by Jealousie and Envy if they are not successful then the Capricioes of Fortune are accounted the miscarriages of their Generals and their Unhappinesses esteemed for Crimes None were more infamous in this way of cruelty then the Carthaginians who often expiated the dishonour of their overthrow with their Commander's head Therefore * Aur. vict de viris illust Annibal that commanded the Navy in their first Roman war being beaten and losing his Navy makes hast to Carthage to prevent any other messenger of his misfortune and in the Senate declares onely the state of his and the Enemies forces as they were before the fight and inquires what they would command to be done they all cried out he should fight I have saith he and am beaten and so escaped the punishment of the Cross But this Amilcar was either a person of a sluggish soul and so veiled his cowardize under the name of Peace and vainly thought that specious name would please a people that made war for gain Or else of more fine counsels then resolute action and thought the discovery of his mysteries would justifie his practices that he had laid his designs so deep that in time they would easily undermine all the power of the Syracusan Potter without the cost and hazard of the Punick blood and treasure But counsels too finely spun are easily broken and so deep a contrivance agrees not with the impatience of the Vulgar to whom speedy undertakings seem alwaies most heroick and slow yet sure practices are interpreted by them as the motions of false or base spirits Or else Amilcar might be too conscious that his coverous soul had been corrupted with the bribes and promises of Agathocles a vice which Aristotle taxes in the Carthaginian Government and therefore neglected the care of an Apology which too evident crimes did render vain and a contempt of death unnecessary And thus fell Amilcar Dinocrates with the other Exiles waited not idly for the effect of their Embassie and the Carthaginian preparations which they knew would be slow but were very active for their own restitution And therefore he sent forth a party under the Command of Nymphodorus to Centorippa a Garrison of Agathocles where he held a Correspondence with some of the City who promised to deliver up the town to him upon condition of restoring their Liberty The Governour had discovered the plot yet suffers Nymphodorus to enter the town by night where he cuts him off with his whole party Agathocles was not more glad for the defeat of the Exiles then for the opportunity he now had to seize upon the wealth of the Citizens as being ingaged in a Conspiracy against him which he greedily takes from them with their lives as being too great lovers of Liberty to breath in the same air with a Tyrant This loss broke not the courage of Dinocrates but he having yet about three thousand foot and not less then two thousand horse possesses himself of Calaria whether he was invited by a party of the City where immediately he drives out the Faction that was for Agathocles and incamps before the Town The Tyrant upon the first intelligence sent Pasiphilus Demophilus with a party of five thousand against him These ingaging with the Exiles commanded by Dinocrates and Philonides who led the several wings of their Army the victory was for some time doubtful but at last the Tyrants fortune prevailed for Philonides being slain and his wing routed Dinocrates was forced to retreat Pasiphilus in the pursuit kills many of the enemy and recovers Calaria Where like his Master's servant he omitted no act of cruelty and extortion upon the miserable Citizens For the Ministers of a Tyrant are educated by him to the nature of mastives that they should onely fawn upon him that feeds them and be cruel and bloody to every one else Proud with this Victory Agathocles hastens with all the forces he could make to fight the Carthaginians that were drawn out into the field and had
from whence he at first set forth But his flight emboldened and increased his Enemies and in his retreat through the narrow Lanes many more of his men were much wounded from the Houses and when he came to the place he intended they closely besieged him Bomilcar seeing his design broke parlies with his besiegers and with as much Baseness as he had begun with Villany he puts an end to his ambitious hopes yielding himself up upon Articles of Impunity All the rest that had been his Instruments were pardoned their Ministery to his Wickedness being imputed to their Weakness and it was not safe now to draw much blood within their walls when such rivers were spilt without Onely the Tyrant himself must by his death seal the security of the Commonwealth and satisfie the publick hatred For hatred that is raised by danger out-lasts the fear nor doth the conquered cease to be hated till he cease to be Therefore notwithstanding the Publick faith for his impunity he was most cruelly tortured and afterwards crucified He shewed himself consentaneous in life and death for from the Cross as from a Throne his Imperious and Proud spirit declamed against the Ingratitude and Cruelty of the Carthaginians Objecting to them how they murdered Hanno whom they had falsely accused with the affectation of Tyranny banished Gisgo whose Innocency their Wickedness could not endure basely passed private sentences of death against his Uncle Amilcar who wisely endeavoured to make Agathocles rather their Friend then their Enemy and in this fury because he could not revenge the Crimes he objected he breathed out his restless soul Thus Conspiracies if they do not ruine yet defame the Magistrate and when they thrive not against them are supposed to come from them as inventions to cover their Avarice in seizing upon the Estates of others or to hide their inhumane thirst of blood This was the end of Bomilcar who following the same designs with Agathocles had yet a different issue for the Cross rewarded his Wickedness when Power and Greatness was the price of the others Not to refer this difference either to the Justice of Heaven by conceiving one to be more wicked then the other and that he which thrived was less impious then he that perished in the undertakings for this would injure that immaculate Justice and Purity of Heaven nor to ascribe it to the pity of Providence who would not afflict the miserable Carthaginians that laboured under the fury of a most bloody forein Enemy with those greater mischiefs that follow a change of Government and of necessity flow from a Domestick Tyranny But we may in reason assign this cause that the different events did arise from those divers Occasions which either took for his Enterprize The Syracusan found a corrupted State to work upon for in none but such do Tyrants arise but the African did not For whereas a State is corrupted either through a long Prosperity or variety of Factions in it both which make the People decline from their ancient Constitutions Carthage at this time was delivered from both these springs of Corruption because being pressed with a tedious and cruel War they were all united against the Common Enemy and being to fight for their preservation they could not attend the satisfaction of those Lusts which are most petulant against the established Laws Which Bomilcar 's impotent ambition not considering nailed him to the Cross in stead of fixing him on a Throne About this time all the Family of Alexander the Great was quite extinguished His Brother Aridaeus with his Wife Eurydice were killed by his Mother Olympias She afterwards besieged and by Famine forced to deliver up her self to Cassander was by him murdered Roxane his Wife with her Son the younger Alexander fell by the same hand and so also Hercules his Son by Barsine His Sister Cleopatra was also put to death by the practices of Antigonus So that there remained no Heir unto that great Troubler of the world And he that had shed so much blood for an empty Name had nothing but that Name left His Commanders who as long as any of these did survive were contented with the portions onely of that Empire did after their death assume the Name and Majesty of Kings Which Agathocles hearing the Potter also who thought himself equal to them in Exploits and Conquests and not inferiour in Dominion would also be styled King and wear a Crown as the Ensign of Majesty which he had never before used but as a Priest But Royalty which is the reward of Heroick Vertues may be the Usurpation yet can never be the Propriety of a Tyrant the Ensigns may be worn by a vitious bloody Villain but the Majesty never adorns but a Lawful Just Prince For Crowns do not create but elicite that Reverence which the Vertues of the wearer first formed in the minds of men without which umpress Diadems do but provoke the indignation of the beholders and upbraid not honour the baseness of the Usurper The assumption of the Royal Title made no alteration in the nature of Agathocles but in his next enterprize he exceeded his former Inhumanity For intending to reduce Utica that had revolted from him he suddenly lies down before it and surprizes three hundred of the Citizens that had emploied themselves in the neighbouring Country By these men he offers oblivion and pardon if they would return to their Obedience The Citizens that were sensible of his actions in Africk that his Faith was to be measured by his Lust that no greater misery could happen to them then what they should run into if they did expect his Mercy that they should perish if they were conquered and they must do so if they surrendred that there was no choice to be made but this whether they should lose their blood with scorn and contumely or spend it in a gallant defence and revenge did therefore refuse all Peace with him When he saw they would not be deluded by false hopes he endeavours to reduce them by their affections and would sack the Town by a force upon Nature For making Engines of wood on them he hangs the surprized Citizens under the shelter of whom he sets his own Souldiers and so brings them close to the Wall so that whatsoever arms the besieged did direct to kill their Enemies must first wound their dearest Friends The Uticenses were at first stupified by this inhumane art and in pity durst not shoot those arrows in their own defence which would spill the blood of those they desired to save But the Enemy pressing hard upon them they preferred Liberty to such a dangerous compassion and desiring the Gods to impute the Cruelty to their barbarous Enemy they for a long time stoutly defended themselves But their adverse Fates suffered them not long to survive their miserable Friends For the Town was taken by storm which the Tyrant soon fills with the blood and carcasses of the defendants some he killed in
their faithless Leader the perfidious Agathocles The Guard that was upon the Tyrant no less amazed then the rest hearing him named and imagining that the multitude did call upon them to bring their Prisoner forth did immediately lead him into the midst of the Army loaden with chains This sudden spectacle did strangely affect the minds of the multitude Some were moved with Pity and Reverence of him who had so long commanded them For great emploiments leave a lustre even upon that person that hath lost them and Majesty doth accompany those in their distresses whom Fortune hath before proposed to admiration And sometimes if they be vertuous persons they like the Sun appear greatest at their setting and the refraction of a moist cloud of tears doth serve to enlarge their Greatness Marius's glory in his former commands could not be stifled in the Dungeon at Minturnae but once more overcame the Cimbrian Slave that was appointed to be his Executioner Mithridates's imprisonment had not so disarmed him but that the authority of his looks and the memory of his former Empire did affright the Gaul that was sent to murder him till by his own hands he confirmed the trembling Slave to execute the wicked commands of his perfidious Son Though Agathocles had no Vertues that deserved Pity yet his fortunes did excite a Reverence Others moved with the fear of the Enemy and hope of his Conduct joined with the rest and together cried out that they should take off his Chains and set him free This unexpected mercy and deliverance together with the miserable sight of the Army's fears and confusions would have wrought a commiseration in any breast that had had the least sense of humanity to have provided for the common safety or obliged to the same fate But Perfidiousness acknowledges no Merits and every Tyrant doth abjure Gratitude and Justice Therefore Agathocles was no sooner out of his Chains but while the Army was yet in confusion and none at leisure to observe him he makes hast to the shore And because he had before indangered his own preservation by endeavouring to save one of his Sons he now hates that natural Affection and leaves them both to endure the punishments of his Villany and with some few of his servants gets into a Ship and undiscovered sails away The Souldiers hearing of his escape seize upon both his Sons with their blood to satisfie for their Father's Crimes Archagathus thought to stop the execution by asking Arcesilaus that was the Tyrant's friend whom grief and indignation had now made the forwardest to revenge What Agathocles would doe to his Children that should murder his Sons The Syracusan answered it was enough for him that his Children did live some time after Agathocles's were slain And therefore to reap this comfort he speedily sheaths his sword in Archagathus's body Heraclidas was killed by those that had been the Souldiers of Ophellas The Greeks observed in this execution the exact Justice of Heaven that in the same moneth and on the same day that Agathocles had contrary to all faith and rites of Hospitality murdered Ophellas and seized upon his Army did he lose his own Army and had both his Sons slain Providence like a just Law-giver exacting double punishment for so great a Crime for he that had wickedly killed one Friend had two Sons justly destroied Thus having satisfied their Revenge they provide for their Safety and therefore chusing new Officers by them they treat with the Carthaginians and conclude a Peace upon these Articles That the Sicilians should deliver up all those places which had been taken in Africk That for the surrender they should receive three hundred talents That such of them as would serve the State of Carthage should be taken into pay That those who desired to return to Sicily should be transported thither and have houses and places to live in assigned to them at Soluns which was a City of their Dominion in the Island This Composition was faithfully observed to those that did submit unto it but such as were left in Garrisons and would not surrender vainly hoping the deceitful Tyrant would shortly relieve them were soon reduced by force The Captains whereof they crucified but yoked the common Souldiers like beasts to plough that ground and repair by their labours that Country which they had wasted by their arms This was the issue of the African War which had continued four years all which time Carthage with undaunted courage and various success maintained her Liberty and laboured to preserve her Empire against a subtle industrious and bloody Tyrant And Agathocles had the trial of the vicissitudes of all humane affairs having a long time been the terrour of Africk He had broken many Armies ruined great Cities depopulated large Countries moistned the parching Sands with blood humbled the Pride of Carthage and scarce left them any thing but their own walls yet was twice a Prisoner to his own Souldiers and in danger of death from his own Army and at last blotted out all the honour of his Atchievements by a most cursed Perfidiousness and too great a desire of Life deserting a brave Army betraying his own Sons ignominiously flying with one Ship and few attendants trembling in the memory of his Chains and the terrours of his Enemies as if he had been designed to be the example not onely of the Crimes but also of the Punishments of a Tyrant Stripped of all his forces with shame and fury Agathocles lands in Sicily where like a dying Viper his last bites were most fierce Ruine and destruction of others being the last pleasures of a falling Tyrant And as if the air and soil of Africk that is fertile of Monsters had made him more Monster then he was before that miserable Island felt a sharper fit of Cruelty when he was thus half destroied then when he was in his more flourishing fortune He seemed now not so greedy of the Rewards of Wickedness as delighted with Wickedness it self not being more angry that he had lost his own then that he had not got another's substance or that every one had not lost as well as he The first that felt his Inhumanity was the City of Aegesta towards which he leads out those Forces he had and demands a contribution so heavy as would wholly have impoverished the City though it was great and populous and had ten thousand families in it This Injustice did so exasperate the Aegestans that they often met among themselves to complain of such usage That though they were in Confederacy with him and so should be willing to relieve the necessities of their Associate yet were they not his Slaves that he should conceive all their goods to be his own They acknowledged that a League with a more potent party was but a kind of Subjection yet were they not so absolutely to obey as if they had been conquered by him The Tyrant was not ignorant of these complaints which their Grief made
they had any relation to those whom they desired to grieve were all driven to the Sea-shore Where that promiscuous multitude that forced Pity from every eye but those of their Butchers while they did expect the stroke of death did wash that place with their tears first that afterwards was to be polluted with their blood and by their cries and supplications drowned both the noise of the City and the Waves Thus tortured with the expectation of Death and the horrid spectacle of their murdered Friends who preceded in the execution they had at last all their Throats cut and their bodies were thrown into the Sea which for a great space was coloured with blood and the marks of the Cruelty were carried to far-distant Coasts And which was most inhumane none dared to bewail the miserable nor bury those carcasses which the waves refused to hide but cast back on the shore lest they should be thought of kin to the murdered and be forced to the same destiny so that the Commerce of humane Nature was broke and Cruelty grew the higher from Commiseration Upon such actions as these does the security of Usurpers depend so that those that have had any sense of Vertue or Humanity do rather chuse to perish in an obscure Privacy then aim at Power that must be obtained and preserved by so much Impiety and so great Misery to mankind Syracuse and Aegesta being thus made sensible of the Tyrant's return who like a dismal Plague brought death and destruction wheresoever he went he goes to all the other Cities that were either under his Dominion or in Confederacy with him and by extorting Mony from them taking off the suspected and re-inforcing his Garisons he labours to keep them from a Revolt which either his Wickedness or his contemptible Overthrow might excite them unto But yet he could not prevent the effect of misfortunes which shakes the faith and cancels the obligations that are between wicked persons For Pasiphilus either by the inconstancy of his nature or fearing his Master's ruine and willing therefore to provide for his own safety did revolt to Dinocrates and as a pledge of his faith delivered up to him all those strong holds and forces which he commanded for the Tyrant This did so strangely affect in jealous Agathocles and present to his fancy such terrible consequences that mad with fear lest Pasiphilus might have more Complices he thought of quitting the Tyranny and therefore presently sends to treat with Dinocrates and propounds to him these conditions of Peace That he would part with his Kingdome and restore liberty to the Syracusans That Dinocrates should return to his own City That there should be granted to Agathocles for his security the two Garrisons of Thermae and Cephaloedium with the territories thereunto belonging These Articles being divulged afforded matter of discourse to the Speculativi Some applauded the Moderation of the man and attributed this prudence of temporizing with his fortune to his long experience in various successes which uses to render the great Actors in the world more wary and suspicious of future Events and the more prosperous they have been the less will they permit to Chance That although he might hope for a change of his present low condition yet he was also to fear a greater fall On the other side some required his Constancy and wondered at his change from himself that whereas in former Perils he seemed alwaies of a present courage and tenacious of hope yet now he should be so transported with fear that he did not dare to hazard one encounter for that which he had by such difficult Crimes got and hitherto preserved And which was most strange that he should despise his own advantages being still Master of Syracuse and many other strong holds stored with no small Treasure furnished with a force that was not contemptible in Number but yet more considerable in Experience and the arts of War They therefore concluded that he was never endued with true Valour and that his former resolutions were either but the insolencies of a present fortune or the eager hopes of a future which were but spurious signs not genuine effects of a brave Generosity And as good men prevail by Vertue so many base persons do sometimes by their Vices Another sort judged that all these Overtures of Peace were but to conceal more secret practices in his Enemies Army that Dinocrates had hitherto either basely or falsely by various delaies betraied the seasons of war to his adversaries and that this Treaty was but to continue him in that negligence That the Tyrant knew well enough how dangerous it was for a private person to have once born the name of a King and that such when they part with their power do abjure their safety for if not the publick Hatred yet private Revenge forbids Security The memory of Dionysius was yet fresh who when he had lost Syracuse and was besieged in his own Works and did so despond that he offered to redeem his life with a voluntary Exile out of Sicily was yet encouraged to a pertinacy by his friend Eloris who told him that Tyranny was a specious Epitaph and by his Father in law Megacles who dictated this Apophthegm that a Tyrant should rather be drawn by the heels out of his Government then voluntarily to recede from it Which so confirmed that Tyrant who was in greater distress then the present that he retained his power and weathered out the Storm that threatned his shipwreck That sure this wily Monster was as far from intending what he did offer as ever his unfaithful Soul used to keep a distance from his Tongue The event gave some credit to this last conjecture for it happened that the Treaty came to no effect For whether Agathocles did seriously intend it or no yet Dinocrates's Ambition made it frustrate Peace cannot please those whose desires are immoderate or corrupt and the desire of Greatness where it is extinguishes all other Affections Dinocrates was no less desirous to be a Monarch then Agathocles had been and was as little pleased that the Democracy should be restored at Syracuse where none that were Great could ever be safe His present command of twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse together with the disposal of all the Cities that were of the League of which he was called the General but in truth was little less then the Lord was not to be parted with for the privacy of Peace which equally obscures the brave and base and makes no difference betwixt noble and ignoble Spirits Syracuse was indeed his native City but she would be no better then his Enemy that would reduce him to the equality of a Private person make him obnoxious to the harangues of unquiet Demagogues and the censures of the giddy Rabble Upon these considerations he was as untoward to admit of Peace as he had been negligent in prosecuting the War and therefore found out many difficulties in the
with a great deal of eagerness had soon rubbed all his gummes with it and immediately felt those exceeding pains which may be easily imagined were in parts of so tender a sense when infected with poison while Maenon escaped and got safe to Archagathus The Tyrant's Disease every day increased and his Body suffering more bitter pangs then ever his most sagacious Cruelty could have invented for his injured Vassals his Soul also had its share of torment in the news and sight of the slain body of his beloved Son Heaven as it were providing tortures for every Faculty and Passion His Grief was raised in considering the great loss of him in whom he thought to have established his Empire perpetuated his Name and who he conceived would have been a support to the weaker branches of his Family that now must all perish and be exposed to Ruine His Indignation swell'd high at the too near imitation of his own Wickedness and that his Grandchild should revenge the mischiefs he had done to his accursed Generation That all the rewards of his Perjury and Blood and the fruits of all his Cares and Toils should be snatch'd away from him in a moment and while he lived to see and hear it To be taken off also in the midst of those great Designs which he had projected and die now though not at the command yet at the pleasure and desire of all his Enemies filled him with more Fury then could be expressed And to all these we may add those horrid tortures which the sage and vertuous Greeks affirmed do arise in every Tyrant's breast from the memory of their past Crimes when every Vice makes an incurable and insufferable wound not to be healed or asswaged with the softest Pleasures when the Tribunals that remain after this life though to a constant Felicity they appear but like the vanities of a troublesome Dream yet in the impetuous approach of Death are dressed and armed with real Terrours We cannot but judge this Tyrant and all such as imitate him have misery enough in their Ends to make their ignominious Honours and uncertain Greatness to be unenvied by the most impotent spirits Wracked thus in Soul and Body which were both unequal to such cruel Pangs and could not last long under the execution the poisonous humour having invaded every nerve and member and made an intestine war between life and death his Mind also torn a pieces with various Lusts and Passions agreeing neither with it self nor with the Body but in common Miseries and either's pains increased with the other's tortures he was perplexed with another care how to secure his two youngest Children with their Mother Theagena a Woman that was venerable no less for her Vertues then for her Beauty had no other Crime but that she was his Wife and yet made her self more eminent by this his Fortune For he well knew that one Wickedness was to be secured by another and that he which had conspired the death of the Father would not suffer the Children to grow up to a revenge nor permit the Wife with her tears to keep alive the hatred of her Husbands murderer but either divert her Grief with her Dishonour or overwhelm it with her Blood He therefore desires her to secure her self and the common pledges of their love in Aegypt from whence he had married her and to take with her all his Riches the Jewels and ornaments of his former Greatness and the spoils of oppressed and injured Nations to be their subsistence in an adverse Fortune and to leave the prey of his Kingdome as poor as he could to his violent Successour That the Tyrant might want no vexation even the Piety of his Wife was another affliction to him who denied to obey such ungrateful commands and desired that She might not be divorced from him till death had sealed the bill that her departure might not be as infamous as was the Parricide of another for she should seem no less inhumane in leaving her miserable Husband then he was in murdering his Grandfather She could not forget the laws of wedlock though He had rased out the dictates of Nature for She had contracted as well with his adverse as prosperous fortunes Nor would she be unwilling to perform her last office of receiving the expiring groans of her dying Husband and taking care for his honourable Exequies though she lived no longer to mourn for him and were buried in the same grave with him This undeserved Piety and the tears of his Children increased the distracting sorrows of him that was forced from longer enjoying so rare an example of Love and could not express any gratitude for it but bequeath Misery to Her and her's This drew an abundance of unfeigned tears to repay her last kisses And when his Children bewailed their tortured Father he mourns over their unkind Destinies who being educated in the supremest fortune were now to be exposed to the extremest Dangers But when for a long time all sought comforts from one another and none could give Necessity separated them and the Tyrant was left a miserable spectacle to every eye but to such as had been witnesses of his own Cruelty After they were gone and with them all the comforts of his Life he sought for some in his Death by revenge For though all things were consumed in him yet his Cruelty strived to be immortal Therefore calling an Assembly of the people his bloody Soul belched forth through his perjured mouth where almost all the instruments of Speech were corrupted by the Poison some half-formed words of Cruelty and Revenge Inveighing against the Impiety of Archagathus he desired the Syracusans not to let such a cursed Example which might ruine both private Families and Commonwealths to pass unpunished and that they might doe this he restores to them their Liberty and declares them a free State A liberality that Tyrants are never guilty of but when they cannot keep the power in themselves Nor did he intend it as a Benefit but to engage them in Wars which with all the consequents should force them to those sorrows after his Death which he knew they would not have for it and that a continued presence of Miseries might make those seem lighter which were past and the hatred of a living Enemy might alleviate the infamy of a deceased Oppressor Besides the habits of Cruelty contracted by Tyrants do make them so unsatiable of blood and so delighted in publick Calamities that as by them their Lives and Greatness were maintained so would they have their Death 's comforted He that had made the whole Roman Empire the Stage of his Cruelty desired that the world might fall together with him Herod that had polluted all his Kingdome with Massacres to temper the people's joy at his Death would have had some hundreds of the most eminent Jews to be slain at his expiring that so every Family might have something to be wail and shed tears at his decease
So Agathocles for all Tyrants live and die with the like affections would have intailed Calamities to the miserable Syracusans The Tyrant's Tortures still increasing and Vengeance pursuing him with so slow a pace as if it had intended to return his own arts of Cruelty upon himself he lived for some time Cruelty upon himself and a loathed burden to all that were about him and having no Friend to provide for the decency of his departure or by some care to alleviate his Pains when the tumours of the poisonous humour had hindred his Voice so that neither his Complaints nor Threatnings could be understood Oxythemis the Macedonian spy and the Syracusan's false Friend together with his tired Attendants laid him before he was dead upon his funeral Pile and burnt him alive As soon as he was dead the Syracusans pulled down and broke all his Statues seized upon his Goods and sold them and then did by proclamation declare themselves a free People and return to their Democratical Government Thus after he had enslaved his own City twenty eight years in the seventy second year of his age he came to such a miserable end as his hateful Crimes and Impieties deserved and not onely the Revenge of Men but the Justice of Heaven did appear in his Destruction The lineaments and proportion of his Body are not recorded by Historians onely by the sins of his youth it appears that it was a moving object of the Lusts of others and that it was too fair a fabrick for so wicked a Soul His actions give us the fullest character of the temper of his Mind He was quick and apprehensive of every expedient for his enterprizes industrious and bold in the execution fitted for Glory if he had minded Vertue powerful to perswade but without Faith in his Promises or Truth in his Asseverations adapted to reconcile the Affections of men to himself but not careful to preserve their Love or continue their Friendship any longer then he had an opportunity to injure those that embraced him insatiably greedy of Greatness but a despiser of an honest Fâ—…e of such easie and ductile Passions that he could temper and compose them according to the necessities of his Designs and put on whatsoever shape his present Interest required He was of an obstinate silence to conceal his own Projects but perspicacious of the counsels of his Enemies He was not nice of any Sin nor fearful of any Ignominy With all the methods to Tyranny he was acquainted and wanted not in an unquiet City fortunate opportunities of attaining Power But his Crimes were greater then his Power and more prodigious then his Fortune so that he seemed to be born for the destruction of men and ruine of Cities For from the time that he began to appear as considerable in the World that Age and the Scene whereon he acted was horrid with various Miseries terrible and wasted by many Battels rent in pieces with diverse Factions and even in Peace was full of Cruelty Desarts were filled with banish'd persons the Sea infected with blood and the Rocks polluted with the putrifying carcasses of slaughtered Innocents the Cities of Sicily Africk and Italy defiled with the frequent Murders of their own Citizens deformed by many Rapines and Spoils and some of them buried in their own Ashes Nor was his barbarous rage satisfied with the vexations and tortures of men in their Bodies and Fortunes but being insatiable with the Miseries of Mankind he endeavoured to deprive them of the comforts of Religion by murdering the miserable suppliants at the Altars of their Gods rasing down their Temples and sacrilegiously despoiling the Sacred treasures of the testimonies of the Piety of former Ages he discouraged the future from the worship of their God He did extirpate all sense of Vertue by imputing it for a capital Crime and the glorious acquisition of the People's love by honest arts and generous actions was esteemed by him as a mark for Ruine Treachery and Perfidiousness were the onely qualities he loved as Vertues in himself and rewarded in others He attempted the extinguishing of all Natural affection To bewail the unhappiness of a tortured Friend was accounted as a design of Revenge and practice of Revolt from the unjust commander Therefore the tears of pity were mingled with the blood of the compassionate the Children were murdered that the Father might not perish by a single death He exposed the Son to the arrow of the Father and offered the Brother to the Brother's sword As his life was spent in these hateful Crimes so was it ended in horrid tortures and he could not be said to Die but to be driven out of the world and forced from among the Living after he had lived to see his cursed Issue part miserably perish'd and part exposed to a certain destruction Two of his Sons he himself had betraied to the fury of an injured deserted Army His third Son was murdered when he had proposed him to Empire and his slaughtered carcass brought to increase the torments of his Soul His younger Children who had lived no longer then to be made sensible of the height from which they had fallen were forced with their Mother to the dangers of Exile and to perish in an obscure fortune Archagathus his grandchild fell not long after him by the same Instrument which he had sollicited to his destruction For Maenon proud with the success of having destroied the Old Tyrant resolved to kill the Young one also therefore applying himself to the usual arts and waies of alluring the multitude which are seldome good he got such a power in the Army that he slew Archagathus assumed his Command and would have imposed himself as a Prince upon the People But the Syracusans that had under the former Tyrant felt the extremest bondage and since his death tasted the sweetness of Liberty were tenacious of it and hoped to maintain it They therefore sent out their Praetor Nicetas with an Army to oppose Maenon Who doubting his own Forces were too weak for those of the People followed the practices of his Corruptor and called the Carthaginians to his assistance and so engaged the Syracusans in a series of Wars till Hiero did become their Prince who in his private fortune wanted no requisite of a King but a Kingdome and under him they found the benefits of a lawful Government and that Liberty is best secured under a Just Prince Fallitur egregio quisquis sub Principe credit Servitium Nunquam Libertas gratior extat Quam sub Rege pio FINIS