fathers side from Cyrus and Darius the founders of the Persian Empire and on his mothers side from Alexander the great and Nicanor Seleucus the Erectors of the Macedonian Empire or if he should compare his people to theirs they were of those Nations who are not onely equal to the Roman Empire but opposed the Macedonian no Nation that is subject unto him did ever stoop to the commands of a forreign Potentate and obeyed none but their own Domestick Kings would they have him to make mention of Cappadocia or Paphlagonia of Pontus or Bithynia or of Armenia the greater or the less none of which Nations neither Alexander the great who subdued all Asia nor any of his Successors or Posteritie ever touched As for Scythia it is true indeed that two Kings before him adventured not so much to subdue as to invade it Darius by name and Philip who had much to do to escape from thence by flight from whence he shall receive the greatest part of his strength against the Romans He affirmed he undertook the Pontick wars with far more fear and diffidence then this he being then but a young man and unexperienced in the Discipline of war The Scythians howsoever then his enemies besides their Arms and courage of their minds were fortified with the solitude and inhospitable coldness of their climate by which their great labor in war and their contempt of dangers was the more declared amongst which difficulties there could not be any hope of reward expected from a wandring enemie and destitute not onely of money but of habitations but he now undertook another waie of war for there is no climate more temperate then the Air of Asia nor any place more fruitful of soyl nor more pleasant in the multitude of Cities and they should consume the greatest part of their time not as it were in war but in keeping of holy-daies and it is hard to say in a service more easie or more aboundant whether they are to march to the neighboring possessions of the Attalick Kingdoms or to the antient Cities of Lydia Jonia which they should not go to overcome but to possess And Asia it self desirous of his approach doth so much expect him that she seemeth even to court his presence and to call upon him with her voice so hateful had the Romans made themselves unto her by the ravenous avarice of their Proconsuls the exactions of their Publicans and the calumnie of their contentions Let them therefore he concluded follow him with resolution and collect to themselves what so great an Armie might atchieve under his command whom without the aide of any Souldier they saw with his own strength to have taken in Cappadocia and to have slain the King thereof who the first of all mankinde subdued Pontus and all Scythia which no man before him could with safetie pass by much less invade Nor could his Souldiers be ignorant he said of his Justice and liberalitie having those demonstrations of it that alone of all Kings he possessed not onely his Fathers Kingdoms but had added other Kingdoms to them by reason of his munificence as Colchos Paphlagonia and Bospâ—orus Having with this Oration excited his Souldiers in the three and thirtieth year of his Reign he descended to the wars with Rome At the same time King Ptolomy being dead in Egypt his Kingdom and his sister Queen Cleopatra who was his wife also was by Embassadors presented to that Ptolomy who was King of Cyrene At which Ptolomy much rejoyced but especially that without contestation he should be possessed in his Brothers Kingdom to which he knew that the Son of his Brother was appointed both by his mother Cleopatra and by the favor of the Princes Not long after all being displeased with him he no sooner entred into Alexandria and commanded all the favourers of the young childe to be put to death and on that very day in which he married his mother he killed the young Prince in the mothers imbraces of him in the midst of the Banquet and the solemnitie of this marriage and thus he ascended his sisters bed bloodie with the slaughter of her Son Afterwards he was not more milde unto the people who called him unto the succession of the Kingdom for licentiousness being given to the forreign Souldiers all things did daily flow with blood and at last having by force ravished her daughter and taken her afterwards into marriage he divorced himself from his sister With which crueltie the people being affrighted they stole away into several places and having wilfully banished themselves they forsook their Country for the fear of death Ptolomy therefore with his own servants being left alone in so great a City when he perceived himself to be a King not of men but of empty houses did publish a declaration solliciting all Strangers to inhabit the City who coming in great numbers to him he not long after did go himself to meet Scipio Africanus Spurius Mummius and Lucius Metellus the Ambassadors of the Romans who made a visitation into those parts to observe the condition and kingdoms of their Confederates But he appeared as ridiculous to the Romans as bloody to all the Citizens for he was deformed in countenance and short in stature and by the obeseness of his strutting belly more like unto a Beast then to a man which filthiness his tiffanies and light garments which he had on did encrease as if those parts offered themselves to be seen as through a vail which Modesty commands us with diligence to conceal After the departure of the Ambassadors amongst whom while Africanus walked forth to behold the City he became a spectacle of honor himself to the Alexandrians Ptolomy being hated by the Strangers also that were become Citizens did silently for fear of treachery depart into banishment having taken with him his son which he had begotten on his sister and his new wife whom he had married having put away her mother and having with money contracted a mercenary army be made war at once on his Sister and his Country After this having sent for his eldest son from Cyrene that the Alexandrians should not make him their King against him he put him to death whereupon the people pulled down his Statues and Images which he conceiving to be done in favour of his Sister he slow that Son also whom he begot on her and having divided his Body into several parts and put it into a Coffin he sent it to his Mother on that day whereon she made yeerly a great feast for the solemnity of his Birth which was a sight not only grievous and much lamented by the Mother but by all the City also and brought so much grief in the height of all their mirth at the banket that all the Court was filled with a great and a suddain lamentation The Inclinations of the Princes being therefore turned from feasting into mourning they shewed to the people the dismembred body of the young Prince
Greece upon himself if he had determined any thing too cruelly against Croesus In the process of time Cyrus being imployed in other wars the Lydians again rebelled who being again overcome their horses and arms were taken from them and they were commanded to exercise voluptuous and effeminate arts and employments by which means that industrious heretofore powerful and warlike Nation being weakned by sloth and riot did lose their antient vertue and whom before Cyrus no wars could master being fallen into luxury ease and excess did overcome The Lydians had many Kings before Croesus famous for many adventures but the fortune of Candaules is to be compared unto none who when he made his wife the subject of all his discourse whom he too much loved for the excellence of her beauty and as if silence were the enemy of beauty being not content with the tacit conscience of his pleasures unless he revealed the secrets of wedlock to add at last a proof to his asseveration shewed her naked to his companion Gyges by which fact he made both his friend his enemy being allured to commit adultery with his wife and her love being thus betrayed to another he estranged his wife from himself for not long after the murder of Candaules was the reward of the marriage The wife being â—ndowred with the blood of her husband delivered both her self and the Kingdom of her Husband to her adulterer Cyrus Asia being overcome and all the East brought into his power did make war upon the Scythians In that time Thomyris was Queen of the Scythians who being not like a woman affrighted at the approach of her enemies she suffered them to pass over the river of Araxes when she might have hindred them conceiving that the event of the battell would prove more successful to her within the bounds of her own Kingdom and that the flight would be more difficult to her enemies by reason of the interposition of the river Cyrus therefore when he had passed over his forces having advanced a little further into Scythia did there pitch his tents on the next day dissembling a fear as if he flying back had forsaken his Camp he left behind him great store of wine and of those things which were necessary for a Banquet which when it was declared to the Queen she sent her young son to pursue him with the third part of the Army When he came to Cyrus Camp the young man being unexperienced in the affairs of war forgetting his enemies and as if he came to feast and not to fight did permit the Barbarians unaccustomed to wine to overburthen themselves with it and the Scythians were overcome with wine before they were overcome in war for this being discovered Cyrus returning by night did oppress them not thinking of him and put all the Scythians to the sword and the son of their Queen Thomyris so great an Army being lost and which is more to be lamented her only son did not pour forth her grief into tears that she was childless but did reserve it into the comfort of revenge and with the like policy of deceit circumvented her enemies insulting at their late victory for counterfeiting a distrust of her strength and retiring in some disorder by reason of the loss received she brought Cyrus into a straight betwixt two hills where her Ambuscado being lodged she killed two hundred thousand of the Persians with the King himself In which victory this also was memorable That there remained not a messenger of so great an overthrow The head of Cyrus being cut off the Queen commanded it to be cast into a tub filled with the blood of men with this exprobration of his cruelty Satisfie thy self she said with blood which thou thirstedst after and of which thou hast always been insatiable Cyrus did reign thirty yeers being admirably remarkable not only in the beginning of hâ—s reign but by a continual success through all his life His son Cambyses did succeed him who addâ—d Aegypt to his Fathers Empire but being offended with the superstitions of the Aegyptians he commanded the Temples of Apis and of others of their Gods to be demolished He sent also his Army to destroy the most famous Temple of Ammon which Army was lost being overwhelmed with tempests and with hills of sands After this he saw in his sleep that his brother Mergides should reign being affrighted at which vision he delayed not to commit parricide after sacriledge for it was not easie for him to spare his own who had committed violence against the Gods To this so cruell an execution he selected one of his friends a Magician called Comaris In the mean time he himself being grievously wounded in the thigh with his own sword dropping by chance out of his scabberd died of that wound and endured the punishment either of parricide commanded or of sacriledge committed This being made known by a Mesenger Magus committed the villany before the death of the King was reported and Mergides being killed to whom the Kingdom was due he subâ—lituâ—ed his own brother Oropastes in his room for he was like unto him in the favor of face and in the lineaments of body and no man suspecting the deceit Oropastes was made King in the stead of Mergides which was reserved the more private because amongst the Persians the person of the King under the awful pretext of Majesâ—ie is always concealed Therefore the Magi to win unto them the favor of the people did forbear the Tributes and granted a vacation from wars for three yeers that they might confirm the Government to them by favours and largesses which they had obtained by deceit which was first suspected by Orthanes one of the Nobility a man of a most sharp apprehension therefore by his Agents he enquires of his daughter who was one of the Kings Concubines whether the Son of Cyrus were King or no who returned answer that she did not know it her self nor could learn it of another because every one of them were shut up by themselves He then commanded her to feel his head being asleep for Cambyses had cut off both the ears of Magus Being then assured by his daughter that the King was without ears he declaâ—ed it to the Nobility and by the Religion of an Oath did oblige them to the slaughter of this counterfeit King There were only seven that were conscious of this confederacy who immediately that they might not have the leisure to repent and disclose the plot with swords under their garments did repair to the Court. There those being killed whom they met with in the way they came unto the Magi who wanted not courage to defend themselves for with drawn swords they killed two of the Conspirators howsoever they were apprehended by the greater number one of whom being fast in the arms of Gobrias his companions doubting lest they should kill him in the stead of Magus because it was acted in a dark place he commanded them to
advantage of the Saylors His entrance into Greece as it was terrible so was his departing foul and shamefull for when Leonides King of the Lacedemonians had secured the Straights of Thermopylae with four thousand men Xerxes in contempt of their powers commanded those of his souldiers to encounter them whose kinsmen were slain in the Marathonian Plains who whiles they began to revenge their friends were the beginning of the overthrow and these being followed by an unprofitable multitude a greater slaughter was occasioned Three dayes together there they fought to the grief and indignation of the Persians on the fourth when it was reported to Leonides that the tops of the Straights were possessed by twenty thousand of the enemie he exhorted his associates to drawback and to reserve themselves for some better service for their Countrey He would try his own fortune he said with the Lacedemonians being more indebted to his Country then to his life the residue were to be preserved for the general defence of Greece The command of the King being heard the rest were dismissed and the Lacedemonians only remained In the beginning of the war counsell being asked of the Oracle of Delphos it was answered that either the King of the Lacedemonians or the City must fall therefore when King Leonides did set forth to the War he so confirmed the resolution of his own souldiers that they all knew he advanced with a mind resolved to dye He therefore did possess himself of the Straights that he might overcome with a few with greater glory or fall with less dammage to the Common-wealth His Companions therefore being dismissed he exhorted the Spartans to remember that howsoever did they fight they must fall and that they should take heed lest they might seem to have more couragiously stood still then to have fought therefore he said they were not to attend to be invironed by their enemies but as soon as night should administer the opportunity to fall unexpectedly upon them secure and hugging an abusing joy The Conquerors he said could never dye more honourably then in the Tents of their enemies It was no hard task to perswade those who were resolved to dye they presently buckled on their Arms and six hundred men did beat up the Quarters of five hundred thousand immediately they advanced to the Pavilion of the King to dye with him or if they vvere over-povvered to dye especially in his tent and sight The Alarum vvas heard over all the Camp The Lacedemonians after they could not find cut the King did fly up and dovvn as Conquerors over all the Camp and killed or overthrew whatsoever did oppose them as knowing that they did not fight in hope of victory but to revenge their own deaths The fight was continued from the beginning of night unto the greatest part of the next day at the last not overcome but being weary with overcoming they fell upon the great heaps of the carkaâ—es of their enemies Xerxes having received two overthrows by land was determined to try his fortune on the Sea But Themistocles the General of the Athenians when he understood that the Ionians against whom the King of the Persians had undertaken this war had set forth to Sea with a Navy to his assistance he resolved to sollicite them to take part with him and because he could not have the opportunity to confer with them he provided that Symbols should be provided and left written on the stones by which they were to sail in these words What madness hath possessed you O Ionians What crime is this which you undertâ—ke Did you before make war upon us your Founders and do you now intend it again upon us your Defenders Did we therefore build your Walls that they should be those who must overthrow our own What was not this the cause that at first made Darius and now Xerxes to make war against us because we would not forsake you rebelling Come away from that Siege into our Tents or if you think this Counsel not safe the battels being joyned withdraw your selves by degrees keep back your Oars and depart from the War Before the Battel at Sea vvas fought Xerxes had sent four thousand men to plunder the Temple of Apollo at Delphos as if he vvould vvage vvar not vvith men onely but also vvith the Immortal Gods vvho vvere all destroyed vvith tempests and thunders that he might understand that the greater the anger of the Gods is by so much there is no povver of men that is able to stand against them After this he set on fire Thespiae and Placeae and Athens destitute of inhabitants and because vvith his svvord he could not destroy the men he did devour their houses with fire for the Athenians after the battel of Marathon Themistocles forevvarning them that the victory over the Persians vvould not be the end but the cause of a greater vvar did build tvvo hundred ships and having asked Counsel of the Oracle on the approach of Xerxes the answer was that they should defend themselves with walls of wood Themistocles conceiving that by the Oracle a defence of shipping was â—mplicitely understood did perswade them all that their Country was their confines and not their walls and that the City did consist not in the houses but the Citizens therefore they should better commit their safety to their ships then to their City and that God was the Author of this counsel This counsel being approved of and the City being abandoned they lodged their wives and children with their most precious moveables in the close Islands they themselves being armed did repair unto their ships There were other Cities also that followed the example of the Athenians When all their Fleet was united and resolved for a Sea-fight and had possessed themselves of the Straights of Salamis that they might not be circumvented by the multitude of Xerxes Fleet there did arise a dissention amongst the Princes who when they would forsake the war to defend their own possessions Themistocles fearing that by the departure of his confederateâ— his strength should be diminished did acquaint Xerxes by a faithful servant that he might now with ease take all Greece being drawn up into one place But if the strength of the Cities which weâ—e now marching homeward should be scattered he must pursue after then one by one with greater labor By this artifice he prevailed upon the King to give a sign and sound to the battel The Greeks also being busied at the advance of their enemies did prepare for the fight with their â—nited powers The King in the mean time one part of his ships not far from him did stand upon the shore as spectator of the fight but Artemisia Queen of Halicarnassus who came to the aid of Xerxes in her own person did fight most gallantly amongst the foremost of the Commanders for as you might here behold a womanish fear in a man so in a woman you might see a manly courage When the fight
unserviceable The treasure consisting of one hundred and three and fifty thousand Talents was brought all into one Exchequer and Parmenio was made Chancellor of it In the mean time Letters were received from Antipater in Macedonia in which the war of Agis King of the Lacedemonians in Greece the war of Alexander King of Epirus in Italy and the war of Zopyron his Lieutenant in Scythia were contained with which news he was diversly affected but received more joy by the death of the two Kings that did emulate his glory then he expressed grief for the loss of Zopyron with his Army For after the departure of Alexander almost all Greece taking advantage of his absence did combine to take Arms for the recovery of their liberty In which they followed the authority of the Lacedemonians who alone despised the peace with Philip and Alexander and refused the conditions of it The General of this war was Agis King of the Lacedemonians which insurrection Antipater having drawn his forces together did suppress in the very beginning of it The slaughter howsoever was great on both sides Agis when he beheld his Souldiers to turn their backs having cleared himself of his Guard that he might be equal to Alexander though not in fortune yet in courage did make so great a slaughter of his Enemies that sometimes he drove whole Troops of them before him At the last though he was over-born by the multitude yet he overcame them all in glory And Alexander King of Epirus being called into Italy by the Tarentines desiring ayd against the Brutians did march with so much resolution that if in the division of the world the West by lot had fallen to him and the East to Alexander the Son of Olympias his sister he might have found no less a subject of glory in Italy Africk and in Sicily then the other in Asia and amongst the Persians To this may be added that as the Oracles at Delphos did fore-warn Alexander the Great of treachery in Macedonia so he was advised by Jupiter of Dodona to take heed of the City of Pandosia and of the Acherusian River which being both in Epirus he being ignorant that they were both in Italy also did more readily undertake a forreign war to decline the danger which was threatned by the destinies as he conceived at Rome Being advanced in Italy he first of all made war with the Apulians the fate of whose City being understood he not long after made peace and friendship with their King At that time Brundusium was the City of the Apulians which the Aetolians following the Conduct of their Captain Dio medes renowned for his atchievements at the siege of Troy did build But being forced away by the Apulians it was told them by the Oracle that perpetually they should possess the place which they first found out wherefore by their Ambassadors they demanded of the Apulians that their City should be restored to them and threatned to bring a war upon them if they should detain it But the Apulians having notice of the Oracle did put the Ambassadors to death and did bury them in their City to have there their perpetual residence And being thus discharged of the Oracle they for a long time did possess the City which when Alexander of Epirus understood in reverence to the Antiquity of the place he did abstain from making war upon the Apulians But he made war against the Brutians and Lucanians and took many of their Cities afterwards he made peace with the Metapontinians the Rutilians and the Romans But the Brutians and Lucanians having the assistance of their Neighbours did renew the war with greater courage in which the King neer unto the City of Pandosia the River Acheron was killed the name of the fatal place being not known until he fell and dying he understood that the danger of death was not in his own Countrey for the fear of which he did â—â—e his Countrey The Tyrians having at the publick charge redeemed his Body did commit it unto Burial Whiles those things were done in Italy Zopyron who was made Lieutenant of Pontus by Alexander the Great conceiving himself to be but as an idle person if he should do nothing memorable himself having drawn together an Army of thirty thousand men did make war upon the Soythians being slain with all his Army he suffered for the rashness of making wars on that innocent Nation When these things were brought to Alexander in Parthia having dissembled a sorrow for the death of Alexander his kinsman King of Epirus he commanded his Army to quarters for the space of three dayes And all men suggesting to themselves that in Darius death the war was ended and expecting now a speedy return into their own Country and in their imagination already embracing their wives and children Alexander did call them forth to a general convention and declared unto them that nothing was as yet atchieved by so many famous battels if the more Eastern Enemies should remain untouched neither did he make war for the body but the Empire of Darius those he said were to be pursued who fled away and revolted from him Having with his speech given new heat to the courage of his Souldiers he subdued the Mardians and Hercanians In that place Thalestris or Minothaeae Queen of the Amazons did address her self unto him with three hundred thousand women having travelled five and twenty dayes through most hostile Nations to have Issue by him her countenance and the cause of her coming was the subject of much wonder both for the strangeness of her habit and the strangeness of her desire To satisfie which the King took the leisure of thirty dayes and when she thought that her womb was pregnant she departed After this Alexander assumed the habit and the diadem of the Kings of Persia before unused by the Kings of Macedon as if he had translated himself into the customes and fashions of those whom he had overcome which that it might not more enviously be beheld in him alone he commanded his friends also to take unto them the long robe of gold and purple And that he might imitate as well their riot as their habit he divided the nights by turns amongst the flocks of his Concubines as remarkable for their birth as for their beauty to which he added the magnificence of banquets least his luxury should not seem compleat And according to the vanity of royal pomp he made his Feasts more delightful with Enterludes being altogether unmindful that so great wealth with such profuseness is accustomed to be consumed and not enlarged Amongst these things great was the Indignation of all over all the Camp that he so degenerated from his Father Philip that he cared not for the name of his own Country and followed the dissoluteness of the Persians whom for such dissoluteness he overcame and that he might not onely seem to addict himself to the vices of those whom with arms he had subdued
decree to put a measure to the charges of marriages they commanded it not to be observed by one or some few bur by all in general that the person might not seem to be pointed at but the vice corrected Being prevented by this Counsel he again incited the slaves to a Rebellion and having appointed another day for the slaughter of the Senators when he found that he was the second time prevented fearing to be call'd into judgement he possessed himself of a fortified Castle having armed twenty thousand slaves There whiles he incited the Africans and the King of Mauritania to make war on the Carthaginians he was taken and being scourged with rods his eyes pulled out and his hands and legs broken that a due punishment might be exacted of every one of his members he was put to death in the sight of the people and his body torn with rods was fastned on a Cross His Sons also and all his kindred though innocent were delivered to the Executioner that not â—one of so nefarious a Family should remain either to imitate his wickedness or to revenge his death In the mean time Dionysius being received by the Syracusians when he grew every day more grievous and cruel to the City was besieged by a new conspiracy and having at last layd down both his Tyranny and his Army he delivered the Tower to the Syracusians and taking with him some necessaries for a private fortune he betook himself to a banished life in Carinth and there conceiving things most humble to be most safe he descended into a most sordid condition of life for being not contented to foot it up and down in publick but to drink also and not onely to be seen in Taverns and Houses of wantonness but to continue in them many dayes together he would quarrel with the vilest scum upon the basest subject and be seen all in rags and squallid and rather give an occasion of laughter to others then receive it from them he would stand in the Shambles and devour with his eyes what he was not able to buy he would complain of the Bawds and Whores before the Aedils and do all things in such an importunate rudeness that he seemed rather to be despised then to be feared At last he professed himself to be a School-master and taught children in open places that he might either be seen alwayes in publick by those that feared him or more readily be despised by those that feared him not And although he abounded with the vices of a Tyrant yet this dissembling of his vices was not by nature but by art he counterfeited to have lost all royal shame being not ignorant how hateful was the very name of Tyrants without their revenews He endeavoured also to take away the envie of things past by the contempt of things present and made use not of honest but of safe counsel Nevertheless amongst those arts of his dissimulation he was thrice accused to affect the Tyranny again and his best protection was the despicableness of his person and his fortunes In the mean time the Carthaginians being amazed at the great success of Alexander the Great fearing that he would add Africa to the Empire of Asia sent Amilcar sirnamed Rhodanus a man famous above the rest for eloquence and policy to discover his intents Their fear was encreased by the taking of the City of Tyre the mother to their City and by the building of Alexandria a City emulous of Carthage on the bounds of Africk and Aegypt and by the perpetual felicity of the King whose desires and whose fortune could not any wayes be bounded Amilcar having obtained access to the King by the means of Parmenio he dissembled to the King that he fled unto him being banished from his own Country and offered himself to serve him in his expedition against it And having dived into his Counsels he wrote all things to the Carthaginians in woodden Tables the Letters being covered with wax Howsoever after the death of Alexander the Carthaginians did put him to death being returned into his own Country not onely by an ungrateful but with a cruel sentence alledging that he would have betrayed their City unto Alexander the Great THE Two and twentieth BOOK OF IVSTINE AGathocles the Tyrant of Sicily who arose to the height and greatness of the former Dionysius from a base and sordid pedigree did advance himself unto royal Majesty He was born in Sicily his Father was a Potter nor had he a more honest childhood then he had Original for being admirable in beauty and the lineaments of his body he a long time lived by the passive prostitution of his body And being come to sixteen yeers of age he transferred his lust from men to women Afterwards being infamous with both Sexes he changed his course of life and committed Robberies In process of time he travelled to Syracusae and was sent for into the City by the Inhabitants where he lived a long time without reputation for he had nothing more in fortune to lose nor in chastity to defile Being at last an ordinary Souldier he was as prone to any villany by a seditious as he was before by a dissolute life He was resolute and active and very eloquent in discourse In a short time he was made a Centurion not long afterwards Tribune of the Souldiers In the first war against the Aetnaeans he shewed the Syracusians excellent demonstrations of his Chivalty In the following war against the Campanions the opinion which all had of him was so great that he was chosen General in the place of Damascen deceased whose wife having known her first by adultery he did take unto him in marriage after the death of her husband And being not contented that of a poor man he suddenly grew rich he at last turned Pyrat against his own Country It was his safety that his Companions being taken and tormented denyed that he had any any interest amongst them Twice he endeavoured to possess himself of Syracusae and twice he was driven into banishment for it In the hatred to the Syracusians he was made first Praetor and afterwards General by the Murgantins amongst whom he did lead a banished life In that war he took the City of the Leontins and began to besiege the City of Syracusae to the defence whereof when Amilcar General of the Carthaginians was desired to march having laid aside all hostile hatred he sent considerable Forces to relieve it In one and the same time the City of Syracusae was defended by her Enemies in a civil love and was besieged by her Citizens in a civil hatred But Agathocles when he perceived that the City was more gallantly defended then beleagured did by his Messengers Petition to Amilcar that he would undertake the arbitration for a peace betwixt him and the Syracusians promising on his part the assured peculiar return of all good Offices that he could expect Amilcar being possessed with this hope did enter into a
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
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