under their Leader Zorobabel the Son of Salathiel and Nephew to King Jeconias and Joshua the Son of Josedech the High Priest were about fifty thousand And as soon as they arrived at Jerusalem they built an Altar to the living God and sacrificed thereon according to their Law and afterwards bethought themselves how to prepare materials for the building of the Temple Cyrus having set all things in order at Babylon returned through Media into Persia to his Father Cambyses and his Mother Mandanes who were yet living and from thence returning again into Media he married the only Daughter and Heir of Cyaxares and for Dowry had the whole Kingdom of Media given him with her And when the Marriage was finished he presently went his way and took her with him and coming to Babylon from thence he sent Governours into all his Dominions Into Arabia he sent Megabyzus into Phrygia the greater Artacaman into Lydia and Ionia Chrysantas into Caria Adusius into Phrygia Helle spontiaca or the less Pharmicas But into Cilicia and Cyprus and Paphlagonia he sent no Persians to Govern them because they voluntarily and of their own accord took his part against the King of Babylon yet he caused even them also to pay him Tribute Cyrus having spent one whole year with his Wife in Babylon gathered thither his whole Army consisting of one hundred and twenty Thousand Horse and two Thousand Iron Chariots and six hundred Thousand Footmen and having furnished himself with all necessary provisions he undertook that Journey wherein he subdued all the Nations inhabiting from Syria to the Red Sea The time that Cyrus enjoyed in rest and pleasure after these great Victories and the attainment of his Empire is generally agreed upon by all Chronologers to have lasted only seven years In which time he made such Laws and Constitutions as differ little from the Ordinances of all wise Kings that are desirous to establish a Royal power to themselves and their Posterity which are recorded by Xenophon The last War and the end of this Great King Cyrus is diversly written by Historians Herodotus and Justin say That after these Conquests Cyrus invaded the Massagets a very Warlike Nation of the Scythians Governed by Tomyris their Queen and that in an encounter between the Persians and these Northern Nomades Tomyris lost her Army together with her Son Spargapises that was the General of it In revenge whereof this Queen making new levies of men of War and prosecuting the War against Cyrus in a second sore Battel the Persians were beaten and Cyrus was taken Prisoner and that Tomyris cut off his Head from his Body and threw it into a Bowl of Blood using these words Thou that hast all thy time thirsted for blood now drink thy fill and satiate thy self with it This War which Metasthenes calls Tomyrique lasted about six years But more probably this Scythian War was that which is mentioned before which Cyrus made against the Scythians after the Conquest of Lydia according to Ctesias who calleth Tomyris Sparetha and makes the end of it otherwise as you may see before The same Ctesias also recordeth that the last War which Cyrus made was against Amarhaeus King of the Derbitians another Nation of the Scythians whom though he overcame in Battel yet there he received a Wound whereof he died three dayes after Strabo also affirmeth that he was buried in his own City of Pesagardes which himself had built and where his Epitaph was to be read in Strabo's time which he saith was this O Vir quicunque es undecunque advenis neque enim te adventurum ignoravi Ego sum Cyrus qui Persis Imperium constitui pusillum hoc Terrae quo meum tegitur Corpus mihi ne invideas O thou man whosoever thou art and whensoever thou comest for I was not ignorant that thou shouldst come I am Cyrus that founded the Persian Empire Do not envy me this little Earth with which my Body is covered When Alexander the Great returned from his Indian Conquests he visited Pesagardes and caused this Tomb of Cyrus to be opened either upon hope of great Treasure supposed to have been buried with him or upon a desire to honour his dead Body with certain Ceremonies when the Sepulchre was opened there was found nothing in it save an old rotten Target two Scythian Bows and a Sword The Coffin wherein his Body lay Alexander caused to be covered with his own Garment and a Crown of Gold to be set upon it Cyrus finding in himself that he could not long enjoy the World he called unto him his Nobility with his two Sons Cambyses and Smerdis and after a long Oration wherein he assured himself and taught others about the Immortality of the Soul and of the punishments and rewards following the ill and good deservings of every man in this life He exhorted his Sons by the strongest Arguments he had to a perpetual Concord and Agreement Many other things he uttered which makes it probable that he received the knowledge of the true God from Daniel whilst he Governed Susa in Persia and that Cyrus himself had read the Prophesie of Isay wherein he was expresly named and by God pre-ordained for the delivery of his people out of Captivity which act of delivering the Jews and of restoring of the Holy Temple and the City of Jerusalem was in true consideration the Noblest work that ever Cyrus performed For in other actions he was an Instrument of Gods power used for the chastising of many Nations and the establishing of a Government in those parts of the World which yet was not to continue long But herein he had the favour to be an Instrument of Gods goodness and a willing advancer of his Kingdom upon Earth which must last for ever Cyrus had issue two Sons Cambyses and Smerdis and three Daughters Atossa Meroe and Artistona At his Death he bequeathed his Empire to his Eldest Son Cambyses appointing Smerdis his younger Son to be Satrapa or Lieutenant of Media Armenia and Cadusia He reigned about one and thirty years and died aged The Greek Historians wholly ascribe the Conquest of Babylon to Cyrus because that he commanded the Army in Chief yet the Scriptures attribute it to Darius King of the Medes whose General Cyrus was For when Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain It 's said Dan. 5. 31. that Darius the Median took the Kingdom being about sixty two years old It was Darius also that placed Officers over the several Provinces thereof as we read Dan. 6 1 2. It pleased Darius to set over the Kingdom an hundred and twenty Princes which should be over the whole Kingdom and over these three Presidents of whom Daniel was the first c. And thus was it Prophesied by Isay long before Behold I will stir up the Medes against them c. And by the Prophet Jeremy The Lord hath raised up the Spirit of the King of
and favours upon all sorts of People He delighted the People with Feasts and Playes of sundry kinds going himself in person to honour them He sent Colonies into sundry parts and Provinces He made excellent good Orders for the Governours and Government of the whole Empire The like he did also for the Wars and Martial Discipline He shewed himself loving and sociable to his Friends and Familiars whom he honoured and loved much Some conspiracies against him which were discovered he punished without rigour being more prone to pardon than to punish Of murmurings and defamatory Libels he never desired to know the Authors but answered them with gravity giving satisfaction and purging himself from those things which were charged upon him He was much addicted to and affected with Learning and himself was very Learned and Eloquent and compiled some notable Books He much honoured and rewarded Wise and Learned men yet he escaped not the tainture of some Vices growing through humane frailty and his great liberty especially he was much given to Women though in his diet apparel and ornaments he was very sparing and modest He gave himself also excessively to play at Dice and other Games then in use Thus though in many things he was very happy yet besides his troubles and dangers he was very unhappy in his Children and Successours For by his four Wives to whom he was married he had only one Daughter called Julia by his third Wife Scribonia and she proved exceeding wanton and unchaste yea she left nothing undone in Luxury and Lust that was possible for a Woman to do or suffer accounting every thing lawful that pleased her Yea she came to that height of lasciviousness that she kept her Feasting even in the Courts of Justice abusing those very places with lascivious acts in which her Father had made Laws against Adulterers Hereupon her Father was so enraged that he could not contain his anger within his own House but published these things yea and communicated them to the Lords of the Senate He kept himself also a long time from company for very shame He had thoughts of putting his Daughter to death but at last he banished her into Pandataria an Island of Campania her Mother Scribonia of her own accord accompanying her in her banishment Julia being at this time thirty eight years old For want of Sons to succeed him Augustus first adopted his Nephew Marcellus the Son of his Sister Octavia to whom he first married his Daughter Julia and Marcellus dying without Issue he then married her to his Favourite Agrippa who also left her a Widow but yet he had by her three Sons and two Daughters Two of these Sons having been adopted by Augustus died before him whereupon he adopted the third who bore his Fathers Name Agrippa the which adoption he afterwards revoked for some displeasure conceived against him and lastly he adopted his Son in Law Tiberius Nero and made him his Heir whom also he married to his Daughter Julia the Widow of Agrippa yet this he did more through the importunity of his mother than for any good liking that he had of him being sorry that such an one should succeed him Not long after the first Letter of his Name that was upon the Inscription of his Statue that was set up in the Capitol fell down being struck with a flash of Lightning whereupon the Southsayers foretold that he should live only one hundred dayes after which was denoted by the Letter C. and that he should be Canonized for a God because Aesar which remained of his Name in the Hetruscan Tongue signified a God Hereupon he wrote a Catalogue of his doings which he appointed to be engraven in Tables of Brass and to be set over his Tomb. Things being thus done Caesar Augustus being now seventy six years old and odd dayes having Reigned above fifty six and being the best beloved and the best obeyed Prince in the World Death overtook him which was occasioned by a Flux which held him for some dayes and so Augustus died at Nolla in Campania in the same House and Chamber wherein his Father Octavius died being the nineteenth day of August upon which day he was first made Consul and in the fifteenth year after the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He was generally lamented and there was a universal sorrow and heaviness over the whole Empire for him For he did wisely and uprightly Govern that Monarchy which he had gotten by force and fraud He was of a mean stature of a very good shape and proportion of Body of an exceeding fair face mixed with modesty and gravity His eyes were very clear and bright He was very advised in his speeches and loved to speak quick and briefly His last Will and Testament was written a year and four moneths before he died and left in the custody of the Vestal Virgins In his life time he vvas very desirous to reform abuses in Rome and in the first place he corrected some disorders in the Senate vvhom he reduced to the number of six hundred He reformed vvhat vvas amiss in their Playes and Games in the Knights and in their manner of suing for publick Offices He set Fines upon their Heads that vvould not marry and bestovved much upon those that had Wives and Children He gave unto Hortensius tvventy five thousand Crovvns to procure him to marry that he might raise up issue to that Noble Family of the Hortenses He ordained that Maids should be at least twelve years old before they married and suffered them to kill Adulterers that were taken in the fact and condemned the Sodomites without pardon He gave order that none should be put in nomination for Offices but such as were vertuous and of good repute He tied not himself to any certain hours for his meals but used to eat when he was hungry and that which he fed upon was neither dainty nor delicate and he drank little Wine Instead of a Looking-glass he used to read or write whilst his Barber was trimming him He never spake to the Senate or people or to his Souldiers but what he had first written and premeditated though he had words at command He delighted to read good Authors but gathered nothing more than sentences teaching good manners and having written them out word for word he gave Copies thereof to his familiar Friends and sent them about to the Governours of Provinces and to the Magistrates of Rome He was too much addicted to Divinations and was marvellously afraid of Thunder and Lightning Our Saviour christ being born all the Devils Oracles ceased and the Oracle of Delphos was fain to confess it and ever after remained Dumb whereupon Augustus being astonished caused a great Altar to be set up in the Capitol with an Inscription signifying that it was the altar of the God first born To prevent the great abuse of Usury which undid many Families he put into
his Mother a Mede of whom this very Nebuchadnezzar at the hour of his Death uttered this Prophesie There shall come a Persian Mule who shall make use of your Devils as his Fellow-Souldiers to bring you into Bondage He calls Cyrus a Mule because he was to be born of a Father and Mother of two divers Nations THE LIFE and DEATH OF CYRUS THE GREAT The First Founder of the PERSIAN EMPIRE CYRUS was the Son of Cambyses King of Persia by Mandanes the Daughter of Astyages King of Media He was so named by the Prophet Isay almost two hundred years before he was born Isa. 45. 1 4. Thus saith the Lord unto Cyrus his anointed c. Cyrus his first Education was under his Father Cambyses with whom he lived till he was twelve years old and somewhat more at which time he was sent for together with his Mother Mandanes by his Grandfather Astyages into Media In Media he served Astyages first as one of his Halberdiers and then as one of his Armour-bearers till he was called home into Persia by his Father Cambyses when as yet he had one year to spend at School and when he had spent seventeen years at School amongst Boyes he spent ten years more amongst youths When Cyrus was now almost sixteen years old Evilmerodach the King of Assyria being about to marry a Wife called Nicotris made an in-rode with a great Army of Horse and Foot into the borders of Media there to take his pleasure in hunting and harrassing of the Countrey against whom Astyages and Cyaxares his Son and Cyrus his Grand-child who then first began to bear Arms being but about fifteen or sixteen years old marched out met with him and in a great Battel overthrew him and drave him out of his borders Indeed the Death of Nebuchadnezzar the Father of Evilmerodach gave courage to those that had found him a troublesome Neighbour to stand upon prouder terms with the Babylonians than in his flourishing estate they durst have used But Evilmerodach being too proud to digest this loss which he had received by the Medes and their Allies the Persians under Cyrus he drew unto his party the Lydians and all the people of the lesser Asia with great gifts and strong perswasions hoping by their assistance to overwhelm his enemies with a strong invasion whom in vain he had sought to weary out by a lingring War The issue of these great preparations made by Evilmerodach against the Medes was such as opened the way to the fulfilling divers Prophesies which were many years before uttered against Babel by Isay and Jeremy For the Babylonians and their Confederates who trusting in their numbers thought to have buried the Medes and Persians under their thick showers of Arrows and Darts were encountred with an Army of stout and well trained men weightily Armed for close fight by whom they were beaten in a great Battel wherein Evilmerodach was slain After which that great Empire that was raised and upheld by Nebuchadnezzar was grievously shaken and enfeibled under his unprosperous Son and left to be sustained by his Grand-child Belshazzar a man more like to have overthrown it when it was greatest and strongest than to repair it when it was in a way of falling Xenophon relates the matter thus When the Babylonian had enlarged his Empire with many Victories and was become Lord of all Syria and many other Countreys he began to hope that if the Medes could be brought under his Subjection there would not then be left any Nation adjoyning able to make head against him For the King of the Medes was able to bring into the Field sixty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse to which the Forces of Persia being joyned made an exceeding great Army Considering therefore the strength of such a neighbour he invited Croesus King of Lydia a Prince very mighty both in men and Treasure and with him other Lords of Asia the less to his assistance alledging that those Eastern Nations were very powerfull and so firmly conjoyned by League and many Alliances that it would not be easie no nor possible for any one Nation to resist them With these suggestions backed with rich Presents he drew to himself so many adherents as he compounded an Army of two hundred Thousand Foot and sixty thousand Horse Of which ten thousand Horse and forty thousand Foot were brought by Croesus who had great cause of enmity against the Medes for that they had made great Wars against his Father Allyattes Whereupon Cyrus was by his Father Cambyses and the Council of the Kingdom made General of the Persian Army and sent away into Media with thirty thousand Souldiers and one thousand Commanders all of equal Authority under him and when he came thither he was also made by his Uncle Cyaxares who had sent for him General of the Median Forces and the management of the War against the Babylonian was wholly committed to him With this Army he marched against Evilmerodach and his associates and in a very bloody Battel overthrew them In which defeat Evilmerodach King of Babylon being slain so many of his Subjects revolted that Babylon it self could no longer be secured but by the help of Mercenaries waged with great sums of money out of Asia the less Egypt and other Countries which new levied Forces were also defeated and scattered by Cyrus who following his advantage possessed himself of a great part of the lesser Asia Those Persians which followed Cyrus and were by him levied are reckoned to be thirty thousand Foot of which one thousand were Armed Gentlemen the rest of the common sort were Archers and such as used the Dart or Sling Croesus notwithstanding the men lost and the Treasure spent in the quarrel of the Babylonians yet did he Conquer Aeolis Doris and Ionia Provinces possessed by the Greeks in Asia the less adjoyning to his Kingdom of Lydia He gave Laws also to the Phrygians Bithynians Carians Mysians Paphlagonians and other Nations He also enforced the Ephesians to acknowledge him for their Lord He also obtained a signal Victory against the Sacaeans a Nation of the Scythians All which he performed in fourteen years And being now confident by reason of his good successes and withall envious at Cyrus his Fame and Prosperity doubting also that his great Victories might in the end grow perillous to himself he consulted with the Oracle of Apollo whom he presented with marvellous rich gifts what success he might hope for in his undertakings against Cyrus from whom he received this ambiguous answer Croesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim Croesus passing over the River Halys shall dissolve a great Dominion For the Devil being doubtful of his success gave him this Riddle which might be construed either way to the ruine of Persia or of his own Lydia Hereupon Croesus interpreting it as he most desired resolved to stop the course of Cyrus his progress
him in his absence and the King grew angry and was sorry that he had trusted him so far But at length he returned and his Son also and either of them brought with him the Ambassadours of the Cadusians and so Peace was concluded with them both Then was Tiribazus highly in favour again and so departed with the King Artaxerxes at this time made it evident that cowardliness doth not always proceed from Pomp and curiosity which some think to effeminate mens hearts but rather from a base and abject mind that commonly follows evil and the worst counsel For neither the Jewels of Gold nor Kingly Robe not other sumptuous Ornaments which the King ever wore about him valued at twelve thousand Talents did hinder him at that time to travel and to take as much pains as any man in all his Army For he himself marched on foot the fore-most man carrying his knapsack in a scarf upon his Shoulders and his Target on his Arm with which he travelled over high stony Mountains so that his Souldiers seeing the Kings courage and the pains that he took they marched so nimbly as if they had wings about two hundred Furlongs a day At length the King by hard travel came to one of his own Houses where were stately Arbours and Parks with goodly Trees curiously planted but all the Countrey beside was naked and barren having no other Trees near and the weather was very cold the King therefore suffered his Souldiers to hew down the goodly Pines and Cypress Trees in his Parks and to embolden them he himself took an Axe in his hand and began to hew the goodliest Tree of them all The Souldiers seeing that fell every man to work so that in a short time they had wood enough and the Parks were filled with fires by which the Souldiers sat all night In this expedition Artaxerxes lost many valiant men and most of his Horses wherefore thinking that his men would mock him for his miscarriage he grew distrustfull of all and suspected the chiefest Nobles about him so that in a rage he put many of them to death and yet was not satisfied therewith For there is nothing more cruel nor a greater Bloud-sucker than a cowardly Tyrant as on the contrary there is nothing more courteous and less suspicious than a valiant and couragious man After this King Artaxerxes being grown very old heard that there were great contentions between his Sons which of them should inherit the Kingdome after his Death and that the same was diffused amongst his Kindred and Nobles The wisest of them desired that as he himself came to the Kingdom as his Fathers eldest Son so that he also should leave it to his eldest Son called Darius But the younger who was called Ochus being valiant and of a stirring nature had some in the Court that took his part and himself hoped to obtain the Crown by the means of his Sister Atossa whom he much loved and promised to marry her and to make her Queen if he came to the Kingdom after his Fathers Death Now Artaxerxes because he would put Ochus out of all hope to succeed him lest his expectation might put him to go about to practice that which Cyrus did and by this means his Realm should fall into factions and Civil Wars he proclaimed his Son Darius who was now fifty years old King after his Death and gave him leave from henceforth to wear the point of his Hat upright as the Persian Kings used to do Moreover the custome in Persia was that when any came to be proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown that he should request a gift of him that Proclaimed him his Successor which the other grants whatsoever it be if it be possible Darius then asked his Father for his Concubine Aspasia who was first Concubine to Cyrus but now the King kept her for his own use She was born in Ionia of Free Parents and was brought up virtuously and amongst other beauties she was brought one night to Cyrus as he was at Supper those others without making nice of it sat down by him and were glad when Cybegan to play and be merry with them answering him pleasantly again But Aspasia stood on her feet by the Table and spake never a word and though Cyrus called her yet would she not come at him And when one of the Grooms would have forced her to him The first said she that shall lay hands on me shall repent it whereupon all that were present said she was a foolish thing and meanly brought up and knew not what belonged to Courtship But Cyrus being glad of it passed it over with laughter and said to him that brought them to him Dost thou not see that of all those that thou hast brought me there is not an honest woman but she After this Cyrus made much of and loved her very well and called her Aspasia the wise She was taken in the Camp of Cyrus amongst his spoils after his overthrow and now Darius begged her of his Father who was very angry in his mind for it For the Persians of all other things were very jealous of their Women and he was to be punished with Death that durst but speak to or touch any Concubine of the Kings though but in sport yea if they come near them or near their Coaches as they went abroad The Kings Daughter Atossa whom he had married against the Law was yet living and besides her he had three hundred and sixty Beautiful Concubines and yet when Darius asked Aspasia of him the King answered that she was a Free-woman born and if she would he was content that he should have her but if she was unwilling he would not by any means have him to force her So Aspasia was called and she was asked with which of them she would choose to be She answered with Darius This was contrary to the expectation of Artaxerxes who both by custome and Law was forced to let him have her But shortly after he took her from him again saying that he would place her in a Nunnery of Diana in the Country of Ecbatane there to serve the Goddess and to live chaste all her dayes Darius took this very impatiently either for that he was deeply in love with her or because he thought that his Father mocked him Tiribazus perceiving it he laboured to aggravate Darius his anger and he every day buzzed it in his ears that it was in vain for him to wear his hat upright if his affairs also went not right forward and that he deceived himself much if he did not know that his Brother by means of the women he kept secretly aspired to the Crown and that his Father being so inconstant as he was he must not expect to succeed him in the Kingdom For said he he that for a Grecian woman hath broken and violated the holiest Law that was in Persia thou must not think he will
Poet saith See how these Great men cloath their private hate In these fair colours of the publick good And to effect their ends pretend the State As if the State by their affection stood And Arm'd with Power and Princes Jealousies Will put the least conceit of discontent Into the greatest rank of Treacheries That no one action shall seem innocent Uea Valour Honour Bounty shall be made As accessaries unto ends unjust And even the service of the State must lade The needful'st undertaking with distrust So that base vileness idle Luxury Seem safer far than to do worthily Now the King following the advice of Craterus had resolved the next day to put Philotas to the Torment yet in the very evening of the same night in which he was apprehended he called him to a Banquet and discoursed as familiarly with him as at any other time But when in the dead of the night Philotas was taken in his lodging and that they which hated him began to bind him he cried out upon the King in these words O Alexander the malice of mine enemies hath surmounted thy mercy and their hatred is far more constant than the word of a King Many circumstances were urged against him by Alexander himself and this was not the least not the least offence indeed against the Kings humour who desired to be adored as a God that when Alexander wrote unto him concerning the Title given him by Jupiter Hammon he answered That he could not but rejoyce that he was admitted into the Sacred fellowship of the Gods and yet he could not but withall grieve for those which should live under such a one as would exceed the nature of man This said Alexander assured me that his heart was estranged and that he despised my Glory Philotas was brought before the multitude to hear the Kings Oration against him He was brought forth in vile Garments and bound like a Thief where he heard himself and his absent Father the greatest Captain in the World accused and also his two other Brothers Hector and Nicanor who had lost their lives in these Wars wherewith he was so overcome with grief that for a while he could utter nothing for tears and sorrow had so wasted his Spirits that he sank between those that led him In the end the King asked him in what Language he would make his defence He answered In the same wherein it had pleased the King to accuse him which accordingly he did to the end that the Persians as well as the Macedonians might understand him But hereof the King made this advantage perswading the Assembly that he disdained the Language of his own Countrey and so withdrawing himself he left him to his merciless enemies This proceeding of the Kings Philotas greatly lamented seeing the King who had so sharply inveighed against him would not vouchsafe to hear his answer For hereby his enemies were emboldned against him and all the rest having discovered the Kings mind and resolution contended amongst themselves which of them should shew the greatest hatred towards him Amongst many Arguments which he brought for his own defence this was not the least that when Nicomachus desired to know of Dimnus of what quality and power his partners in the Conspiracy were seeming unwilling to adventure himself amongst mean and base Companions Dimnus named unto him Demetrius of the Kings Bed-Chamber Nicanor Amyntas and some others but spake not a word of Philotas who being Master of the Horse would greatly have graced the cause and encouraged Nicomachus And to make it more clear that he knew nothing of their intents there was not any one of the Conspirators that in their torments would accuse him Yet at the last himself being put to extream torments by the device of his professed enemies Craterus Cenus Ephestion and others Philotas accused himself hoping that they would have slain him immediately But he failed even in that miserable hope and suffering all that could be inflicted on flesh and blood he was forced to confess not what was true but what might best please them who were far more merciless than Death it self Cruelty is not a humane vice It is unworthy of man It 's even a boasting rage to delight in bloud and wounds and casting away the nature of man to become a savage Monster Now whilst Alexanders hands were yet died in blood he commanded that Lyncestes Son in Law to Antipater who had been three years in Prison should be slain The same dispatch had all those that were accused by Nicomachus But Parmenio was yet living Parmenio who had served with great fidelity as well Philip the Kings Father as himself Parmenio that first opened Alexanders way into Asia That had cast down Attalus the Kings enemy That had alwayes and in all hazards the leading of the Kings Vaunt-guard That was no less prudent in Counsel than successful in all his enterprizes A man beloved of the men of War and to say the truth he that had purchased for the King the Empire of the East and of all the Glory and Fame which he had attained to That he might not therefore revenge the Death of his Son though not upon the King for it was unlikely that he would have stained his fidelity in his old age having now lived seventy years yet upon those who by base Flattery had possessed themselves of the Kings affection It was resolved that he should dye also and Polydamus was employed in this business a man whom of all others Parmenio trusted most and loved best Who to be short finding him in Media and having Cleander and other Murtherers with him slew him as he was walking in his Garden and reading the Kings letters This was the end of Parmenio saith Curtius who had performed many notable things without the King but the King without him did never effect any thing worthy of Praise These things being ended Alexander marched on with his Army and subdued the Araspitans and made Amenides sometime secretary to Darius their Governour Then he Conquered the Arachosians and left Menon to command over them Here the Army that was sometime led by Parmenio found him which consisted of twelve thousand Macedonians and Greeks with whom though with much difficulty he passed through some cold Regions At length he came to the foot of the Mountain Taurus towards the East where he built a city which he honoured with his own Name and peopled it with seven thousand of his old Macedonians worn out with age and the travels of War The Arians who since he left them were revolted he again subdued by the industry and valour of Caranus and Erigius and now he resolved to find out the new King Bessus in Bactria who hearing of his coming prepared to pass over the great River of Oxus which divides Bactria from Sogdiana Bessus having now abandoned Bactria Alexander made Artabazus Governour of it and himself marching forward with his Army they
Onesicratus Diodorus Siculus Trogus Pompeius Justin Quintus Curtius with divers others Lycippus the Painter made Alexanders Picture looking up to Heaven with this Motto Jupiter asserui Terram mihi tu assere Coelum O Jupiter I have taken the Earth to my self Take thou Heaven with which Alexander was so well pleased that he published a Proclamation that none should draw his Picture but Lycippus Apelles drew Alexander's Picture with a Thunderbolt in his hand to shew his admirable celerity and unresistableness in his Conquests This bloudy man lived not out half his Dayes and not long after his Death all his Posterity was rooted out His Posterity and Kindred that he left behind him were his Mother Olymtias his Unkle Pyrrhus King of Epirus His Brother Arideus and his Sister Cleopatra His two Wives with their two Sons Roxane with Alexander and Bursines with Hercules Olympias caused Arideus to be Killed Cassander thereupon took occasion to put Olympias to death being almost fourscore years old and then he poysoned both Alexanders Sons Alexander and Hercules with Roxane Alexanders Wife Cleopatra Alexanders Sister the Governour of the Sardians who was base Brother to Philip Alexanders Father procured her to be killed therein thinking to gratifie Antigonus And last of all Pyrrhus was vanquished by Antigonus the Son of Demetrius by whom his Head was cut off THE LIFE and DEATH OF EPAMINONDAS THE GREAT CAPTAIN OF THE THEBANS THE Father of Epaminondas was Polymnis who was descended of one of the most ancient and renowned Families amongst the Thebans the most part of which Noble linage had upon their Bodies for a natural Birth-mark the resemblance of a Snake This Polymnis had two only Sons Caphisias and Epaminondas whom he educated very carefully and had them very carefully and had them very well instructed in all the liberal Arts and honest Sciences especially Epaminondas who had the more stayed wit and was most inclined to Virtue desirous to learn humble obedient and wonderful docible and of one Dyonisius he learned to be very skilful in Singing and Musick And for Philosophy it happened well for him that he fell into an excellent Masters hands by this means The Colleges of the Pythagorian Phylosophers that were dispersed through the Cities of Italy were banished by the faction of the Cylonians yet such as still kept together met in a Councel at Metapont to consider of their affairs But some seditious Persons rose up against them and set the House wherein they were on fire and burnt them all only Phylolaus and Lysis being lusty young men escaped through the fire Phylolaus fled into the Country of the Lucanians and resided there with his Friends But Lysis got to Thebes where Polymnis intertained him intreating him to undertake the Tuition of his Son Epaminondas who though he was but a young Boy yet was he of good capacity and of very good Hopes This Phylosopher accordingly applied himself to manure this noble and quick wit of Epaminondas and in a short time made him perfect in all Sciences and Virtue so that it was hard to find a more wise grave and virtuous Person than he was When he was but fifteen years of age he gave himself to all manner of exercises of the Body as to run wrestle use his Weapons and all feats of Arms and having quickly attained to skill in these he applied himself to his Book He was naturally silent fearful to speak but never a weary to hear and learn whereupon Spintharus the Tarentine being familiarly acquainted with him in Thebes used to say that he never knew any man that knew so much and spake so little as Epaminondas If he fell into any company that discoursed of Philosophy or of State matters he would never leave them till the matter propounded was at an end He was of a pleasant disposition and so witty that he could break a jest as well as any man Lysis after he had lived long in Thebes died and was honourably buried by his Scholar Epaminondas Not long after Theanor one of the Pythagorians in Sicily was sent to bring Lysis thither but when he came to Thebes he found him dead and buried therefore going to Epaminondas after salutations he told him that his Companions who were rich willed him to give Polymnis and his Chidren a good sum of mony in recompence of that curteous entertainment which they had given to Lysis Epaminondas after pleasant excuses made told him that none could be received saying further Jason a Captain of the Thessalians thought that I gave him a rude and uncivil answer when he having earnestly entreated me to receive a good sum of Gold I sent him word that he did me wrong and began to make War with me for that he aspiring to make himself a Lord would corrupt me with mony who am a plain Citizen of a free Town and living under the Law But for thee Theanor I commend thy good will because its honest and virtuous but I tell thee thou bringest Physick to them that are not sick Admit that thou hearing we had been in Wars hadst brought us Arms to defend us and when on the contrary thou hadst found us quiet and at peace with all our neighbours thou wouldst not have thought fit to bestow these Arms and leave them with those that had no need of them Even so thou art come to relieve our poverty as though it were a burden to us whereas on the contrary it s an easie and pleasant thing to us to carry and we are glad we have it in our Houses amongst us and therefore we have no need of Arms or mony against that which doth us no hurt at all But tell thy brethren that they use their goods very honestly and also that they have Friends here which use their Poverty as well and as for the intertainment and burial of Lysis he hath himself fully recompenced us having taught us amongst many other good lessons not to be afraid of Poverty nor to be grieved to see it amongst us Theanor having made some reply about the good and evil of Riches and told him that as Poverty was not evil in it self so neither was Riches to be had in contempt and dispised No truly said Epaminondas yet considering with my self that we have a World of covetous desires some natural that are born with us and bred in our flesh by the lusts pertaining to it Others strange to us grounded upon vain opinions which taking setling and becoming an habit in us by tract of time and long use through evil education oftentimes do draw us down and weigh our Souls with more force and violence than those that be connatural to us For reason through daily exercise of virtue and practice thereof is a means to free us from many of those things that are born and bred with us Yet we must use continual force and opposition against our concupiscences which are strangers to us to quench them
Tetrarchy but he gave the Kingdom to his Son Archelaus To his sister Salome he gave Jamnia Azotus and Thasaelis with five hundred thousand Drachmaes To the rest of his Kindred he gave money and yearly Pensions To Caesar he gave ten Millions of Drachmaes of silver and all his Plate as well of Gold as of Silver and a great quantity of precious moveables and to Livia Caesars Wife and some certain Friends he gave five Millions of Drachmaes Having thus ordered these things five dayes after Antipater was put to death he dyed himself having enjoyed the Kingdom 34 years after the death of Antigonus but from the time that he was declared King by the Romans 37 years about the 25th of our November in the year of the world 4001 and after the Birth of Christ about two years THE LIFE and DEATH OF HANNIBAL THE GREAT HANNIBAL the Son of Amilcar was about twenty six years old when he was chosen General of the Carthaginian Forces in Spain He was elected by the Army as soon as Asdrabal their late General was dead and the election was approved and confirmed by the Senate or Carthage wherewith Hanno and his faction was nothing pleased This was now the third of the Barchine Family so called of Amilcar whose surname was Barcas that commanded in chief over the men of War Hanno therefore and his Partizans being neither able to tax the Virtue of their enemies nor to perform the like services to the Common-wealth had nothing left whereby to value themselves excepting the general reprehensions of War and cautelous advise of not provoking the Romans but they were little regarded For the Carthaginians saw apparently that the Oath of the Romans to the Articles of Peace was like to hold no longer than till the Romans could find some good advantage to renew the War It was therefore rather desired by the Carthaginians that whilst they were in a fit condition the War should begin rather than in some unhappy time of Famine or Pestilence or after some great loss in their Army or Fleet they should be driven to yield to the impudent demands of their insulting enemies This disposition of his Citizens Hannibal well enough understood Neither was he ignorant that in making War with the Romans it was no small advantage to get the start of them Could he but bring his Army into Italy he hoped to find Friends and assistance even from those People that helped to encrease the Armies of the Romans But his design must be carried privately or else it would be prevented He resolved therefore to lay Siege to Saguntum in Spain where he now was with his Army which might seem not greatly to concern the Romans and would highly please the Carthaginians Having resolved hereupon nevertheless he went orderly to work beginning with those that lay next in his way First therefore he entered into the Territory of the Olcades and besieging Althaea in a few days he became Master not only of it but of all the other Towns in their Country and the Winter coming on he rest his Army in New Carthage or Carthagena imparting liberally to his Souldiers of the Spoils that he had gotten in his late Conquests In the Spring he made War upon the Vaccaei and with little difficulty wan first Salamanca and after it Arbucala though not without a long Siege and much difficulty But in his return he was put to the height both of his Valour and Prudence For all such of the Vaccaei that could bear Arms being made desperate by the spoil of their Country with divers others that had escaped in the late overthrow joyning with the Toletans made up an Army of one hundred thousand able men waiting for Hannibal on the Banks of the River Tagus They knew that he was very adventurous and had never turned his back upon any enemy and therefore hoped that having him at such an advantage they should easily have foiled him But at this time our Great Man of War knew as well how to dissemble his Courage as at other times to make good use of it For he withdrew himself from the River side as seeming fearful to pass over it aiming thereby to draw over that great multitude from their Banks of advantage The Spaniards as Hannibal expected and desired thinking that he retreated out of fear thrust themselves in a disordered manner into the River to pursue him But when Hannibal saw them well near over he turned back his Elephants to entertain them at their landing and thrust his Horsemen both above and beneath them into the River who by the advantage of their Weapons slew almost all of those in the River without resistance and then pursued the rest who being amazed fled and so he made a very great slaughter of them The Saguntines perceiving the strom drawing near to them hastened their Ambassadours to Rome who complained that they were like to be undone only for their Friendship to the Romans This so moved the Senate that some would have War presently proclaimed both by Sea and Land and the Consuls sent with Armies one into Spain the other into Africk But others went more soberly to work according to the Roman gravity whereby it was concluded that Ambassadours should be sent into Spain to view the State of their Confederates These Ambassadours found Hannibal at Carthagena where they had Conference with him who carried himself so reservedly that they departed as doubtful as they came But whilst they were passing to and fro Hannibal prepared not only his Forces but some Roman pretences against Saguntum For the Tudetani who were Neighbours to the Saguntines complained to him of sundry wrongs that they had received from them of Saguntum Probably Hannibal himself had hatched some of them Having therefore such an occasion he sat down with his whole Army before Saguntum The Romans were glad of the Quarrel as hoping that Carthage with all belonging thereto would in short space become their own Yet were they not hasty to threaten before they were ready to strike but meant to temporize until they had an Army in readiness to be sent into Spain where they intended to make Saguntum the seat of War In the beginning of Hannibals Siege his Carthaginians were much discouraged by reason of the brave Sallies which the Saguntines made upon them in one of which Hannibal himself received a dangerus wound in the Thigh that made him unable to stir for many days Yet in the mean time he was not unmindful of his business but gave order to build certain movable Towers that might equal those upon the City Walls and to prepare to batter the Curtains and to make a breach These being sinished and applied had soon wrought their desired effect A large breach was made by the fall of some Towers whereat a hot assault was given But it was so gallantly defended by the besieged that the Carthaginians were not only beaten from the breach and out
and considered it will plainly appear that in none of those things aforesaid nor in any other that may be said of him there hath been any Heathen King or Captain that ever excelled him And setting apart his Ambition and desire of Rule he was onely noted and blamed for being too much given to Women Caesar was thus slain in the fifty sixth year of his Age a little more than four years after the Death of Pompey in the seven hundred and tenth year after the building of Rome and about forty and two years before the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Caesar left behind him neither Son nor Daughter legitimate at that time of his Death For though he had been four several times married yet he had but one only Daughter named Julia that was married to Pompey and died before him Wherefore by his last Will he adopted for his Son and made his Heir in the Dodrant that is in nine parts of twelve of his goods his Nephew Octavius Caesar afterwards called Octavianus Augustus who was the Son of Acia his Neece and of Octavius Praetor of Macedonia which Octavius at this time was by the commandment of his Uncle in the City of Apollonia in the Province of Epirus where he applied himself to his studies staying for him there thence to go with him to the Parthian War being now about seventeen years of age Caesar being thus slain the news of it ran presently all over the City and the tumult therein was so great that no man knew what to do or say All Offices ceased the Temples were all shut up and every man was amazed Caesars Friends were afraid of those that slew him and they as much feared his Friends Brutus Cassius and the other Conspirators and others that joyned with them seeing the great tumult durst not go to their Houses nor prosecute their other designs for fear of Mark Anthony and Lepidus whereof the one was Consul and the other General of the Horsemen but presently from thence they went to seize upon the Capitol crying by the way as they went Liberty Liberty and imploring the favour and assistance of the People The rest of that day and all next night Mark Anthony and Lepidus who took Caesars part were in Arms and there passed sundry messages and treaties between them and the Conspirators At last it was agreed that the Senate should sit whither Brutus and Cassius came M. Anthonies Sons by the perswasion of Cicero a great lover of Liberty remaining as Hostages for them In the Senate they Treated of Peace and concord and that all that was past should be buried in perpetual oblivion whereunto Anthony who was Consul and the whole Senate agreed and the Provinces being divided there was a great likelihood of Peace For the Senate approved and commended the murther and the People dissembled their thoughts For on the one side the authority of Brutus and Cassius and the name of Liberty seemed to give them some content and on the other side the hainousness of the fact and the love they bare to Caesar did move and excite them to hate the murtherers and so all was quiet for the present But Mark Anthony who affected the Tyranny took every opportunity to incense the People against them and Caesars Testament being opened wherein besides the adopting of his Nephew Octavius and making him his Heir besides other bequests he bequeathed to the People of Rome certain Gardens and Lands near to the River of Tiber and to every Citizen of Rome certain Gardens and Lands neer to the sum of mony to be divided amongst them which being known much encreased their love to Caesar and made his death more grievous to them Caesars Funeral being agreed upon his Body was burnt with great solemnity in the Field of Mars and Mark Anthony made the Funeral Oration in his Praise and took the Robe wherein Caesar was slain being all bloody and shewed it to the People using such Speeches as provoked them both to wrath and commiseration so as before the Funeral solemnity was fully finished they all depart in great fury taking Brands in their hands from the fire wherein Caesar was burned and went to burn the Houses of Brutus and Cassius and if they could have found them and the rest of the Conspirators they would certainly have slain them and in their fury they unadvisedly slew Elius Cinna by mistaking him for Cornelius Cinna who was one of the Conspirators This tumult put Brutus and Cassius and their confederates into such fear that they all sled from Rome into several parts and though the Senate having appeased the tumult inflisted punishment upon some of the seditious and had already committed some of them to Prison yet Brutus and Cassius durst not return to Rome but after a while went into Greece to Govern those Provinces which Caesar in his Life time had allotted unto them which were Macedonia to Brutus and Syria to Cassius And truly this was very remarkable that within the space of three years all the Conspirators died and not one of them a natural death Caesar in his fifth and last Consulship made an Edict that thanks should be returned to Hyrcanus the High-Priest and Prince of the Jews and to the Nation of the Jews for their affection to himself and the People of Rome And decreed also that the said Hyrcanus should have the City of Jerusalem and repair the Walls of it which Pompey had beaten down and should Govern it as he pleased himself He also granted to the Jews that every second year there should an abatement be made out of their rents and that they should be free from Impositions and Tributes His Name of Caesar was so honourable that all his successors to this present day have assumed it into their Title and esteemed it an honour to be called Caesars THE LIFE and DEATH OF OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS In whose Raign our LORD CHRIST WAS BORN OCtavius Caesar who was afterwards called Octavianus Augustus was by the Fathers side descended of the Antient Family of the Octavij which was of great account in Rome even from the time of Tarquin their King By the Mothers side he was descended from the Regal Line His Mother was Accia the Daughter of Accius Balbus and Julia the Sister of Julius Caesar which Accia was married to the Father of Octavius He was born in the year of the Consulshp of Cicero and Caius Antonius He was but four years old when his Father dyed and at twelve years old he made an Oration at the Funeral of his Grand-mother Julia. When his Uncle Julius Caesar was Warring in Spain against the Sons of Pompey Octavius though he was but young followed him thither through many and great dangers and when that War was ended Julius Caesar intending to take him with him to the Parthian War sent him before to the City of Apollonia where he plyed his Book very diligently and on
they which from their birth were called to Sovereignty should be used both to Cold and Heat and should be exercised to Arms betimes and not be brought up idly and delicately reprehending those which brought him up for using him so tenderly asking them if they meant to make a Woman of his Son They replying that he was tender If he be not born said he to be strong and valiant he will not be worthy to succeed me for he must not be an effeminate Prince that must preserve the Parthian Empire About this time his Empress was brought to bed of another Son at Samercand for joy whereof he made Feasts with Tiltings and Pastimes fifteen dayes together Then did he visit all the Sea-Towns near to Quinsay hunting all manner of Games yet often saying That the Recreations which he used were only helps to ease him in the pains of his publick affairs which God had called him to And when Prince Axalla told him that that City was a fit place for his abode O my friend said he it is not so For it 's a Maxime that the Lord of this great City must not come to it above once in ten years and when he is here he must temper his Actions as if he were upon a stage with Gravity and a good grace before the people who are apt to receive good or evil impressions according as their Princed eporteth himself Having setled his affairs in that part of his Empire he returned to Samercand where three times a Week he administred Justice publickly unto the meanest of his Subjects as well as to the greatest which made him much beloved of all over whom he did command On other dayes he gave secret audience and disposed of the affairs of his estate which were concluded daily in his presence In his Council he used such severity that none durst deal untruly or passionately in his presence Yet shewed he such courteousness in his conversation that he was both beloved and feared of his people He never changed his Servants except they committed some great faults against him All the servants of the late Emperour his Uncle he never changed one of them but increased their Pensions making them sensible of his liberality in that change The like bounty he used to strangers thereby to oblige them to him He drew great store of money yearly from the Muscovite by way of Tribute which yet he distributed in the same Country to maintain his authority there winning those to him who otherwise might have hurt him He had great care of his Revenues wherein he was so expedite that in one hours space he could see his Estate from three months to three months together with his ordinary and extraordinary expences they were presented to him so well digested But after all his publick affairs so well managed and his private businesses so well ordered Sickness arrested and Death conquered this Great Conquerour leaving his Empire to Sautochio his Eldest Son now nineteen years old who was proclaimed Emperour within two hours after his Fathers death Tamerlane from his childhood was well instructed in the Arabian learning wherein he was very studious insomuch as when they thought him to be in the Baths wherein they are very curious in that Contrey being their chiefest delight he was retired to the contemplation and study of Heavenly things He had within his eyes such a Divine beauty and radiancy full of Majesty that one could hardly endure the sight of them without closing of his eyes so that some that talked with him and beheld him were stricken dumb for the present which caused him with a comely modesty to abstain from looking upon them that talked with him All the rest of his Visage was courteous and well-proportioned He wore his hair long and curled contrary to the custome of his Countrey-men who used to shave their Heads He went almost alwayes bare-headed saying that his Mother came of the Race of Sampson who therefore advised him to honour long hair His hair was of a dusky colour inclining somewhat to a Violet the most beautiful that any eye could behold His stature was of a middle sort somewhat narrow in his shoulders He had a fair and strong leg his bodily strength and agility was such as none did surpass and often on Festival dayes he made trial of them with the strongest yet did he it with such a Grace mixt with Humanity that he whom he overcame held himself therein most happy though it was a great disgrace amongst the Tartarians to be thrown to the ground in wrestling In the time of his Wars against the Turks a Souldier of his found buried in the ground a great Pot of Gold which he brought to Tamerlane who asked him if it had his Fathers stamp upon it But when he saw that it had the stamp of the Romans he would not own nor meddle with it THE LIFE and DEATH OF CHARLES the GREAT King of FRANCE And Emperour of GERMANY PEPIN sirnamed The short the twenty third King of France a wise and valiant Prince had two Sons Charles and Caroloman and five Daughters Birthe who was married to Milon Earl of Mans by whom she had great Rowland Hiltrude married to Rene Earl of Genes by whom she had the renowned Oliver Rohard Adeline Idubergue Ode and Alix Pepin being toiled out with great Wars much broken with the care of publick affairs and now grown Old that he might imploy his last days in the maintenance of Justice and Peace the burden of War he laid upon his Eldest Son Charles a wise and valiant young Prince of whose modesty and obedience he was well assured And then retiring to Paris he was not long after surprised with sickness in which he recommended his two Sons to the Estates of France to give them portions at their pleasures and so ended his days Anno Christi 768. He was a Religious Prince wise moderate valiant loving to his Subjects and beloved of them happy in his Father and his Children and in his Government An excellent Pattern for other Princes who by his Example hold it for an undoubted Maxim That the strongest Fortress and best security for a Prince is the love of his Subjects and the surest bond of his Authority a respect gotten and preserved by virtue Pepin being dead the Estates of France assembled together and by their joynt consents divide the Kingdom betwixt his two Sons Charles and Caroloman by equal portions Brother 's these were of divers humours who had certainly ruined each other by this equality of power had not the death of Caroloman within three years after divolved the Government of the whole Realm upon Charles Charles was endowed with singular gifts both of Body and Mind which were much improved by the sedulous care of his Prudent Father manifested in the virtuous education of him For which end he procured Paul of Pisa a
Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus Artaxerxes Alexander Epaminondas Herod Hanibal Pompey Iulius Caesar. Augustus Charlemain Tamberlain THE LIVES DEATHS Of most of those EMINENT PERSONS WHO By their VIRTUE and VALOUR Obtained the Sirnames of MAGNI OR THE GREAT Whereof divers of them give much Light to the Understanding of the Prophecies in Esay Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel concerning the three first Monarchies And to other Scriptures concerning the Captivity and Restauration of the Jews The Second Edition Corrected and Enlarged By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Longum iter per pracepta breve per Exempl Hierom. LONDON Printed by J. R. for W. B. and are to be sold by Tho. Sawbridge at the three Flower de Luces in Little Britain and by W. Birch at the Peacock at the lower end of Cheap-side 1675. THE LIFE and DEATH OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE GREAT First Emperour of the CHALDEANS NEbuchadonazar or Nebuchadnezzar was the Son of Nebuchadonazar or Nabopolaser of Babylon who was made General of the Army by Saraco King of Assyria and Chaldea after whose death Nabopolaser took into his hands the Kingdom of Chaldea which he held by the space of one and twenty years At the same time Astyages was made Governour of Media by Cyaxares his Father and the better to strengthen themselves they entred into affinity by Astyages his giving his Daughter Amytis to Nebuchadnezzar the Son of Nabopolaser and thereupon joyning their Forces together they took Ninive together with Seraco the King thereof placing a Vice-Roy in his stead Shortly after the Governour of Coelosyria and Poenicia revolting from Nabopolaser he sent against him his Son Nebuchadnezzar having first associated him with himself in the Kingdom of Babylon with a great Army which was in the latter end of the third and the beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim King of Juda as appears Dan. 1. 1. compated with Jer. 25. 1. Nebuchadnezzar was no sooner thus associated with his Father in the Kingdom but the things which he was to act were presently revealed to the Prophet Jeremy the first whereof was the overthrow of the Egyptians First at the River Euphrates then in their own Country Jer. 46. The first of these came to pass presently Pharaoh Necho's Forces which he had left at Carchemish being cut off by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehojakim Jer. 46. 2. The second was not till after the taking of Tyre in the seventeenth year of the Captivity of Jechonia Ezek. 29. 17 18 19. In the third year of Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar the second his Father being yet alive entred Iudaea with a great Army who besieging and forcing Ierusalem made Iehoiakim his Vassal in despight of Pharaoh Necho who had made him King and took with him to Babylon for Pledges Daniel who was yet a Child with Ananias Misael and Azarias He took also part of the Treasures belonging to the Temple but stayed not to stayed not to search throughly for all For Necho hasted with his Army to the relief of Iehoiakim hoping to find Nebuchadnezzar in Iudea But this great Babylonian had no mind to hazard himself and his Army against the Egyptian Iudaea being so ill affected towards him and himself far from all succour or sure place of retreat If he had as may be supposed any great strength of Scythian Horsemen it was wisely done of him to fall back out of that rough Mountanous and hot Country into places that were more even and temperate And besides these reasons the Death of his Father happening at the same time gave him just occasion to return home and take possession of his own Kingdom before he proceeded in the second care of adding more unto it And this he did at reasonable good leisure For the Egyptian was not provided to follow him so far and to bid him Battel until the new year came in which was the fourth of Iehoiakim the first of Nebuchadnezzar and the last of Necho In this year the Babylonian lying upon the Banks of Euphrates his own Territories bounding it on the North-side attended the coming of Necho there after a cruel Battel fought betwixt them Necho was slain and his Army forced to save it self by a violent retreat wherein it suffered great loss This Victory was so well pursued by Nebuchadnezzar that he recovered all Syria and whatsoever the Egyptians held out of their proper Territories towards the North. The Egyptians being thus beaten and altogether for the present discouraged Iehoiakim held himself quiet as being in heart a Friend to the Egyptians yet having made his peace with the Chaldeans the year before and Mebuchadnezzar was contented with such profit as he could there readily make he had forborn to lay any Tribute upon the Iews But this cool reservedness of Iehoiakim was on both sides taken in ill part Whereupon the Egyptian King Psamnis who succeeded Necho began to think of restoring Iehoahaz who had been taken prisoner by his Father and carried into Egypt and of setting him up as a Domestical enemy against his ungrateful Brother But to anticipate all such accidents the Iudaean had put in practice the usual remedy which his fore-fathers used For he had made his own Son Iechonia King with him long before in the second year of his own Reign when the Boy was but eight years old As for this rumour of Iehoahaz his return the Prophet Ieremy foretold that it should prove a vain attempt saying He shall not return thither But he shall die in the place whither they have led him Captive and shall see this Land no more Jer. 22. 11 12. The Egyptians having lost their Mercenary Forces and received that heavy blow at Carchemish had more Gold than sharp Steel remaining which is of small force without the others help Besides the Valour of Necho was not in Psamnis Apries who reigning after Psamnis did indeed once adventure to shew his face in Syria but after a big look he was glad to retire without adventuring the hazard of a Battel Wherefore this declining Nation fought only with brave words telling such frivolous tales as men that mean to do nothing use boasting of their former glorious acts against Iosias and Iehoahaz And truly in such a time and case it was easie for Iehoiakim to give them satisfaction by letting them understand the sincerity of his affections towards them which appeared in time following But Nebuchadnezzar went more roundly to work For he sent a peremptory message to Iehoiakim requiring him not to stand upon any nice points but presently to acknowledge himself his subject and to pay him Tribute Adding thereunto such terrible threatnings as made the poor Iudaean lay aside all thoughts of adhering unto Pharaoh and to yield to do as the more powerful would have him Thus he continued in Obedience to Nebuchadnezzar three years During which time the Prophet Jeremy cryed out against the Impiety of the Jews putting them in mind that he had
months and ten days he deposed and sent him Prisoner to Babylon together with Ezekiel Mordecay and Josedech the High Priest The Mother of Jeconias together with his Servants Eunuchs and all the ablest men and best Artificers in the Land were also then carried away Captives This Jeconias following the Counsel of the Prophet Jeremy made no resistance but submitted himself to the Kings will wherein he both pleased God and did that which was most profitable for himself though at the present it might seem otherwise to such as consider the evil that befel him rather than the greater evil that he thereby avoided This only particular act of his is recorded in Scripture which was good But it seems that he was at least a partaker in his Fathers sins if not a provoker which was the cause that though he submitted himself to Gods will yet did he not preserve his estate For so it is said That he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Father had done In his stead Nebuchadnezzar set up Mattania his Uncle making him King of Iudaea and called him Zedechias For like as Necho King of Egypt had formerly displaced Iehoahaz after he had slain his Father Iosias and set up Iehoiakim the Son by another Mother So Nebuchadnezzar slew Iehoiakim who depended on the Egyptians and carrying his Son Ieconias Prisoner to Babylon he gave the Kingdom to this Zedechias who was whole Brother to that Iehoahaz whom Necho took with him into Egypt and from Zedechias he required an Oath for his loyalty and faithful subjection which Zedechias gave him and called the living God to witness in the same that he would remain assured to the Kings of Chaldaea 2 Chron. 36. 13. Ezek. 17. 13 14 18. In the first year of Zedechias Ieremy saw and expounded the vision of the ripe and rotten Figs the one signifying those that were already carried away Captives the other signifying those Iews that yet remained and were afterwards destroyed Ier. 29. 17. In the fourth year of Zedechias Ieremy wrote in a Book all the evil which should fall upon Babylon which Book or Roul he gave to Seraiah when he went with King Zedechias to Babylon to visit Nebuchadnezzar willing him first to read it to the Captive Iews and then to bind a stone to it and cast it into Euphrates pronouncing these words Thus shall Babel be drowned and shall not rise from the evil which I will bring upon her This journey of Zedechias to Babylon is probably thought to be in a way of a visit and to carry some presents to Nebuchadnezzar But yet it is likely he had some suit to make which his Lordly Master refused to grant and sent him away discontented For at his return all the bordering Princes sent Messengers to him inciting him as it seems to those unquiet courses from which the Prophet Ieremy dehorted both him and them About which time the Prophet by Gods appointment made bonds and yokes one of which he wore about his own neck others he sent unto the five Kings of Edom Moab Ammon Tyre and Zidon by those Messengers which came to visit Zedechias making them know that if they and the King of Iuda continued in subjection to Babylon they should then possess and enjoy their own Countries If not they should assuredly perish by the Sword by Famine and by Pestilence He also foretold them that those Vessels which yet remained in Ierusalem should be carried after the other to Babylon yet at length should be restored again The same year Ananias the false Prophet took off the wooden yoke which Ieremy did wear as a sign of the Captivity of the Iews and brake it Vaunting that in like manner after two years God would break the strength of Babel and the yoke which he had laid on all Nations and that he would restore Ieconias and all the Iews with the Vessels and Riches of the Temple and put an end to all these troubles But Ieremy instead of his Wooden yoke wore a Collar of Iron and in sign that Ananias had given a false and deceitful hope to the People he fore-told the Death of this false Prophet which accordingly came to pass in the seventh Moneth After this when Zedechias had wavered long between Faith and Passion in the eighth year of his Reign he practiced more seriously against Nebuchadnezzar with his Neighbours the Edomites Ammonites Moabites Tyrians and others who were promised great aids by the Egyptians in confidence of whose assistance he resolved to shake off the Babylonian Yoke whereof when Nebuschad chadnezzar was informed he marched with his Army in the dead of Winter towards Ierusalem and besieged it Jeremy perswaded Zedechias to render the City and himself to him But Zedechias being confident of help from Egypt and being perswaded by his Princes and false Prophets that it was impossible that the Kingdom of Judah should be extirpated until the coming of Shilo according to Jacobs Prophesie Gen. 49. 10. he despised the counsel of Jeremy and imprisoned him For Jeremy had told the King that the City should be taken and burnt that the King should not escape but be taken Prisoner and brought to the presence of Nebuchadnezzar That he should not perish by the Sword but being carried to Babel should there dye a natural Death The following year Ierusalem was surrounded and more strictly besieged by Nebuchadnezzars Army whereupon the King of Egypt Pharaoh Hophra entred into Iudaea with his Army to succour Zedechias of whose revolt he had been the principal Author But Ieremy gave the Iews faithful counsel willing them not to have any trust in the succours of Egypt for he assured them that they should return back again and in no sort relieve them And it fell out accordingly For when the Chaldaeans removed from Ierusalem to encounter the Egyptians these bragging Patrons abandoned their enterprise and taking Gaza in their way homewards returned into Egypt as if they had already done enough leaving the poor people in Ierusalem to their destined miseries Ier. 34. 11 22. In the mean while the Iews who in the time of their extremity had released their Hebrew Bond-men and Bond-women according to the Law in the year of Iubile and made them free thereby to encourage them to fight did now upon the breaking up of the Chaldean Army repent of what they had done and thinking that all danger had been past they held them by force to their former slavery But the Chaldeans being returned to the Siege the Prophet Ieremy when the State of Ierusalem began now to grow to extremity counselled Zedechias to render himself to the Babylonians assuring him of his own life and of the safety of the City if he would do so But his obstinate heart led him on to that wretched end which his neglect of God and his Infidelity and Perjury had provided for him Three and
and Baruch to accompany them they went into Egypt and by the permission of Pharaoh they dwelt in Taphnes where when Ieremy often reproved them for their Idolatry foretelling the destruction of themselves and the Egyptians he was by these his own hard-hearted and ingrateful Country-men stoned to death and by the Egyptians who greatly reverenced him buried near the Sepulchre of their Kings Ier. 42. and 43. The nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzars Reign it was when destroying utterly the great and mighty City of Ierusalem he exceedingly enriched himself with the spoils of it and the Temple and by that dreadful Example terrified all those that should dare to resist him From that time forward he to his three and twentieth year laboured in the Conquest of those adjoyning Countries which God had exposed unto his Sword and commanded to wear his Yoke namely the Edomites Moabites Ammonites Tyrians Sidonians and Egyptians though some of these were already become his followers and served under him when Ierusalem was taken and burnt But the Tyrians whose City was built upon an Island and therefore secure from the invasion of any Land-Army and whose Fleet was so strong that they needed not to fear any enemy at Sea were neither daunted with the fall of their neighbour City nor with the obstinate resolution of this mighty King imploying all his wit and power to work their subversion That the City of Tyre was rather well-pleased than any way discouraged with the destruction of Ierusalem it appeareth by the Words which Ezekiel condemneth as the common voice of Tyrus Ezek. 26. 2. Aha! the Gate of the People is broken it is turned unto me For seeing she is desolate I shall be replenished Yet at length that great work before mentioned began to appear above Water and so to threaten them with inevitable mischief Nebuchadnezzar still follows his work hard notwithstanding all discouragements and in the thirteenth year of the Siege and the nineteenth of his Reign he had brought it to such perfection that now the Citizens despaired of holding out against him whereupon all the chiefest of them imbarked themselves their Families and Treasures in their Fleet and escaped to the Isle of Cyprus but the poorer sort were left to the fury of the enemy who being inraged for being put to so much pains slew with the Sword not only such people of Type as dwelt on the Continent who are called her Daughters in the Field but the like execution was done in the streets into which with excessive labour the Chaldeans made way for his Horses and Chariots Thus Nebuchadnezzar made his Army serve a great service against Tyrus wherein every head was made bald and every shoulder was made bare yet had he no wages nor his Army Ezek. 20. 18. but was fain to rest contented with the Honour of having destroyed that City which in all mens Judgments had been held invincible The destruction of these two Great and powerful Cities having made the name of the Chaldeans dreadful in the ears of all the Nations round about Nebuchadnezzar used this advantage of that reputation which he had obtained by his victories already gotten to the getting of more and more profitable with less pains The Kingdom of Egypt was the mark which he chiefly aimed at A Country so abounding in Riches and pleasures that it might well have tempted any Prince finding himself strong enough to pick occasion of quarrel against it Besides it was so far an enemy to the Crown of Babylon that had it been far poorer yet it must have been subdued or the Conquest of Syria could not have been secured Yet was it needful that before he entred upon this business the Countries adjacent should be reduced into such tearms that either they should wholly stand at his devotion or at least be able not to work him any displeasure And herein the Decree of God concurred as in all prosperous enterprises with reason of State For the people of Moab Ammon Edom Damascus Kedar Hazor and other adjoyning Regions whom God for their sins had condemned to fall under the Babylonian Yoke were such as regarding only their own gain had some of them like Ravens followed the Chaldean Army to feed upon the carcasses that fell by the cruelty thereof Others taking advantage of their Neighbours miseries occupied the Countries which by his Victories belonged to Nebuchadnezzar all of them thinking that when the Babylonian had satisfied his fury he would be forced to forsake those desolated Countries and leave the possession of them to those who could first seize upon them Particularly the Edomites and Philistines had shewed much malice against the Iews when their City was taken Ezek. 25. 12 15. Whether they had done any good service to the Chaldeans it appears not if they did any its like to have been in reference to their own advantage wherein yet they were deceived The Ammonites were not contented to rejoyce only at the fall of Jerusalem but presently they entred upon the Country of God and took possession of it as if not the Chaldeans but they had subdued Israel Ezek. 25. 3. Jer. 49. 1. Neither can it be imagined what other design Baalis King of the Ammonites had when he sent Ismael a Prince of the Blood of Judah to murther Gedalia whom the King of Babel had made Governour over those that remained in Israel and to carry Captive into the Ammonites Country the People that abode in Mizpah than a desire of entangling Nebuchadnezzar with so many labours at once as should force him to retire into his own Country and abandon those wasted Lands to himself and others for whom they lay conveniently Such or the like Policy the Moabites also did exercise whose Pride and Wrath were made frustrate by God and their dissimulation condemned as not doing aright Ver. 40. 14. 41. 2. 10. 28 27 c All these Nations had the Art of ravening which is familiar to such as either live in or that border upon Desarts and now the time ministred occasion to them to shew the uttermost cunning of their Thievish wits But Nebuchadnezzar made void all their devices by sharp and sudden War upon them overwhelming them with unexpected ruin as it were in one night according to the Prophesies of Isay Jeremy and Ezekiel who all foretold with little difference of Words the greatness and swiftness of the misery that should come upon them It appears not with which of them he first began but it seems that Moab was the last that felt his heavy hand For so many interpret that Prophesie of Isay threatning Moab with destruction after three years as having reference to the third year following the destruction of Jerusalem the next year after it being spent in the Egyptian expedition This is evident that all the principal Towns in these Countries were burnt and the people either slain or made captives few excepted who saved themselves by flight and had
fill his Purse with money he judged him unworthy to be a Souldier Upon a time he understood that his Target-bearer had received a great sum of money for the ransom of a Prisoner whereupon he said to him Give me my Target and go thy ways home and buy thee a Tavern wherein to spend the rest of thy life for I perceive thou wilt no more like an honest man put thy self in danger in the wars as formerly thou hast done because now thou art grown rich and wealthy Though Epaminondas was thus virtuous and unblameable in his life yet the aforementioned Meneclides would never cease contending and reproaching of him and one day he went so far as to upbraid him because he had no Children and was not married and that he magnified himself more than ever King Agamemnon had done To this Epaminondas answered Thou hast nothing to do to counsel me to marry and in this respect there is never a man here whose advise I would less make use of than thine and this he spake because the other was taken notice of to be an Adulterer And whereas thou thinkest that I envy the fame and renown of Agamemnon thou art fouly deceived Yet let me tell thee that whereas he was ten Years in winning one City I on the contrary by putting the Lacedemonians to flight in one day have delivered not only our own City but all Greece from their slavery But thanks be to you My Lords Thebans speaking to all the Assembly by your assistance I did it and thereby overthrew the power and government of our insulting enemies Yet after all his brave deeds both he and Pelopidas were ill rewarded for all their good service by their ingrateful Citizens For at their return from Laconia they with some other of the six Counsellers were accused that after the time that their Government was expired they retained their power four months after the time appointed by the Law With much ado Pelopidas was quitted But Epaminondas willed all his other Companions to lay the fault upon him who by his Authority forced them to it and instead of excusing himself he told them all the brave exploits which he had done at that time Adding withal that he was willing and ready to die if they so pleased Provided that they wrote upon his Tomb that Epaminondas was put to death because he had compelled the Thebans against their wills to burn the Country of Laconia which in five hundred years before had never been plundered That he had repeopled the City of Messina with Inhabitants two hundred and thirty years after it had been laid wast by the Lacedemonians That he had brought all the People and Towns of Arcadia to be as one Body in League together and had set all the Greeks at liberty and all these things said he we did in that Journey The Judges when they heard this worthy and true defence they all arose from their seats and laughed heartily and would not take up their Balls to Ballot against him But for the second accusation to wit that he had shewed favour to the Lacedemonians for his own particular honour he would make no particular answer to it before the People but rising out of the Theater he passed through the Assembly and went into the Park of Exercises Upon this the People being incensed against him refused to chuse him into Office as they had wont to do though there was a great need of him and created other Counsellers to go into Thessaly and the more as they thought to despite him they commanded him to go that expedition as a private Souldier which he refused not but went very willingly Pelopidas being sent a second time into Thessaly to make peace between the People and Alexander the Tyrant of Pheres was by this Tyrant not regarding that he was an Ambassadour and a Theban committed to Prison together with Ismenias Upon this the Thebans being justly offended sent an Army of eight thousand Foot and five hundred Horse against him howbeit under the conduct of unskilful Captains who wanting judgment to use their advantages thought good to return home without doing any thing But as they went back Alexander being stronger in Horse than they pressed hard upon their Reer killing some and wounding others so that the Thebans knowing neither how to go forward nor backward were in great distress and that which aggravated their misery was that their Victuals were almost spent Being thus almost out of hope ever to get home in safety Epaminondas being at that time a common Souldier among the Foot both the Captains and Souldiers earnestly intreated him to help to redress this disorder He thereupon chose certain Footmen that were light armed and all the Horsemen and with these putting himself into the Rere of the Army he so lustily repulsed the Enemy that the rest of the Army afterwards marched in great safety and still making Head as occasion served and keeping his Troops in good order he at last brought them all well home This brave Act Crowned him with new Glory confounded his enemies and made him well spoken of every where and by it he obtained the love and good will of the Citizens who set great Fines upon the heads of those Captains who had behaved themselves so unworthily in that expedition And now the People seeing that by so many worthy deeds he had stopped the slanderous mouths and confuted the accusations of his ill willers they chose him again their Captain General to conduct a new Army into Thessaly At his coming all the Country wonderfully rejoyced only the Tyrant with his Captains and Friends were exceedingly dejected and possessed with fear being Thunderstruck with the fame of so Noble a Captain and his Subjects had a good mind to rise up against him hoping that they should shortly see the Tyrant fully recompenced for all the wicked and cursed deeds that he had done amongst them Epaminondas when he came into Thessaly preferred the safety and deliverance of his Friend Pelopidas before his own Honour and Glory and fearing lest Alexander when he should see himself and his State in danger to be overthrown should in his rage revenge himself upon Pelopidas he therefore purposely drew this War out in length marching often about him but never setting upon him in good earnest often seeming to make preparations and yet still delaying and this he did to mollifie the heart of this Tyrant and not to provoke to the danger of his Friend the inhumane and unbridled passion of this cruel Bloud-sucker Yet he being a Monster compounded of cruelty and cowardliness was so afraid of the very name and reputation of Epaminondas that he presently sent some to him to excuse his fact and to crave Peace But Epaminondas was not willing that his Thebans should make Peace and Alliance with so wicked a man only he was content to grant him a Truce for thirty Days upon the delivering to him
slain Antigonus being in a rage caused the dead body of Joseph to be whipped though Pheroras his Brother offered fifty Talents to have redeemed it After this loss the Galileans revolting from their Governours drowned those that were of Herods party in the Lake In Idumaea also there were many innovations Anthony having made peace with his enemy commanded Caius Sosius to assist Herod against Antigonus with two Cohorts When Herod came to Daphne the Suburbs of Antioch he heard of his Brother Josephs deah which caused him to hasten his journey and coming to Mount Libanus he took thence with him eight hundred men and one Cohort of the Romans and so came to Ptolemais from whence in the night he passed with his Army through Galilee Here his enemies met him whom he overcame in fight and forced them into the Castle from whence they had issued the day before Them he assaulted but was compelled to desist by reason of the extremity of the weather and to retreat into some neighbouring Villages but upon the coming of another Cohort from Anthony they in the Castle were so affrighted that they forsook the same by night Herod then hastned to Jericho purposing to revenge his Brothers death and being come thither he feasted his Nobles and the feast being ended and his guests dismissed he retired into his chamber and presently the room wherein they had supped being now empty of company fell down without hurting any which made many to think that surely Herod was beloved of God who had so miraculously preserved him The next day six thousand of the enemies came down from the Mountains to fight with him and their forlorn-hope with darts and stones so terrified the Romans and some of Herods Souldiers that they fled and Herod himself received a wound in his side Antigonus desiring to have his strength seem greater than it was sent one of his Captains named Pappus with some forces into Samaria whilst himself went against Machaeras In the mean time Herod took in five Towns and therein put two thousand of the Garrison Souldiers to the sword and setting the Towns on fire he went against Pappus and was strengthened by many that came to him out of Jericho and Judea yet was the enemy so confident that he would joyn battel with him but in fight Herod overcame them and being inflamed with a desire to revenge his Brothers death he pursued them that fled slew many of them and followed them into a Village and there slew many more of them who retreated into houses the rest fled After which Victory Herod had presently gone to Jerusalem and put an end to the war had not the sharpness of the Winter hindred him for now Antigonus bethought himself to leave the City and fly elsewhere for safety Herod in the evening when he had dismissed his Friends to refresh themselves as yet hot in his Armour went into a chamber attended with one only servant to wash himself wherein some of his enemies armed whom fear had forced thither were hidden and whilst he was naked and washing himself first one and then a second and a third ran out armed with naked swords in their hands so astonished that they were glad to save themselves without profering the least hurt to the King The next day Herod amongst others cut off Pappus his head and sent it by way of revenge for his Brothers death to his Brother Pheroras for it was Pappus that with his own hand had slain Joseph Herod in the beginning of the third year after he had been declared King at Rome coming with an Army to Jerusalem encamped near the City and from thence removing to that place where the Walls were fittest to be assaulted he pitched his Tents before the Temple intending to attempt them as Pompey had done in times past and having encompassed the place with three Bulworks by the help of many workmen he raised his batteries fetching materials from all places thereabouts and appointing fit men to oversee the work and then himself went to Samaria to solemnize his Marriage with Mariamne the Daughter of Alexander the Son of Aristobulus who was formerly betrothed to him The Marriage ceremony being over Sosius came with an Army of Horse and Foot being sent by Anthony to the aid of Herod and Herod also took a great party with him from Samaria to Jerusalem so that the whole Army being come together consisted of eleven Legions of Foot and six thousand Horse besides the Syrian Auxiliaries which were very many and so they pitched on the North-side of the City Over this great Army were two Generals Sosius and Herod who purposed to displace Antigonus as an enemy to the people of Rome and to establish Herod in the Kingdom according to the Decree of the Senate The Jews being gathered together out of the whole Countrey and shut up within the Walls made a valiant resistance boasting much of the Temple of the Lord and saying that the Lord would not forsake his people in the time of danger By secret sallies also they burnt up and spoiled all provision without the City both for Man and Horse whereby the Besiegers began to be pinched but Herod provided against their excursions by placing ambushments in convenient places and sending parties to fetch in provision from afar off so that in a short time the Army was well furnished with all necessaries By reason of the multitude of Workmen the three bulworks were soon finished it being Summer time so that no untemperateness of weather hindred them and with his Engines Herod often battered the Walls and left nothing unassayed but the besieged fought valiantly and were every way as active and subtile to make void his endeavours often sallying forth and firing their Works both those that were finished and others that were but begun and coming to handistrokes with the Romans they were nothing inferiour to them but only in Martial skill The Sabbatical year now coming brought a Famine upon the besieged Jews notwithstanding which they built a new Wall within that which was beaten down by the battering Rams and so countermined the Enemies mines that many times they came to Handystrokes under ground and making use of despair instead of courage they held it out unto the last though Pollio the Pharisee and Samias his Disciple advised them to receive Herod into the City saying that they could not avoid his being their King by reason of their sins They held out the siege for five moneths space though there was so great an Army before the City but at length twenty of Herods choicest Souldiers got upon the Wall and after them the Centurions of Sosius So that the first Wall was taken on the forti'th day and the second on the fiftieth and some Galleries about the Temple were burnt down which Herod charged though falsly upon Antigonus thereby to bring him into hatred with the people When the outward part of
the Temple was taken and the lower City the Jews fled into the inward part of the Temple and the upper City and fearing lest they should be hindred from offering their daily Sacrifices unto God they sent Ambassadours unto Herod to desire leave that such Beasts only might be brought in which were to be sacrificed This request Herod easily granted hoping that by this means they would leave their obstinacy and submit to him But perceiving that this courtesie prevailed not and that they were still resolute to continue the Sovereignty in Antigonus he gave a general assault and won the City on the Kalends of January on the second moneth Cislu being the day on which the Jews were wont to celebrate a Fast in commemoration of the holy Rowl that was burnt by Jehoiakim The City being taken by assault all places were filled with murthers the Romans being incensed against the Jews for holding out so long and the Herodian Jews endeavouring to extirpate the contrary faction so that there were continual slaughters in the Porches and Houses yea the reverence of the Temple not saving the suppliants They spared neither age nor sex nor so much as the little children and though the Conquerour Herod besought and intreated them to forbear yet none would hear or obey him but as if they had been mad they proceeded in their cruelty Antigonus coming down from the upper City fell at Sosius his feet who nothing pittying his miserable condition insulting over him calling him Madam Antigonuus and withall cast him into prison and set keepers about him And whereas a multitude of Strangers that Herod had hired came rushing in not into the Temple only but even into the Sanctuary some he thought to restrain by intreaty others by threats and some by force judging his Victory worse than if he had been overthrown if any of those things which were not lawful to be seen were exposed to the view of the prophane multitude He restrained also the plundering of the City as much as in him lay intreating Sosius to do the like asking if the Romans would make him King of a Wilderness the City being so wasted by rapines and murthers Sosius answered that the Souldiers desired the plunder of the City in regard of their hard service in the siege To which Herod replied that he would recompence every man out of his own Treasury and making good his promise he freed the City from further misery For he bestowed gifts liberally upon the Souldiers and proportionably upon the Commanders and bountifully upon Sosius whereupon Sosius offering a Crown of Gold unto GOD withdrew out of the City leading Antigonus a Prisoner along with him to Anthony Herod being thus setled in Jerusalem he advanced those of his own faction and daily put to death them of the contrary Amongst whom he slew all those of the Sanhedrim who had accused him of a capital crime before he was King sparing only Pollio the Pharisee and Samias his Disciple whom he highly honoured Then did he gather together all the Regal Ornaments and much silver and gold which he exacted from rich men all which he gave to Anthony and his Souldiers He put to death also forty and five of Antigonus his chief Noble men setting watches at their doors that none of them might be carried out under pretence of being dead and what gold or silver soever was found was all carried to Herod so that there was no end of the peoples miseries the covetousness of the needy Conquerours consuming all their estates The fields also lay untilled because it was the Sabbatical year in which it was unlawful to sow the ground Of these miserable times amongst others were spectators Zacharias the Priest with his Wife Elizabeth Of the relicts of Davids stock Hely and Joseph Anna also the Prophetess of the Tribe of Aser and Simeon the just who received an answer from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord Christ. Luk. 2. 26. Anthony being thus possessed of Antigonus intended to keep him Prisoner to adorn his Triumph but Herod feared that if Antigonus was brought to Rome by Anthony he might there contend with him before the Senate for the Kingdom considering also how the Nation of the Jews hated him and favoured Antigonus he thereupon gave great sums of money to Anthony to cut off his head which accordingly he did at Antioch Antigonus being the first King that was thus put to death by the Romans and in him ended the Principality of the Hasmonaeans It being from the Captainship of Judas Maccabaeus to the death of Antigonus an hundred twenty six years and two or three moneths and by this means Herod a stranger got the Kingdom and was totally freed from his fears Hyrcanus as we heard before being carried Prisoner to Phraates King of the Parthians he intreated him courteously for the Nobility of his Descent and after a time freeing him from Prison he suffered him to live in Babylon where were great store of Jews who honoured him no less than as their King and High-Priest and not only they of Babylon but all the rest of the Nation of the Iews did the like who in old time had been carried captive beyond the River Euphrates by the Assyrians of whom there were many millions But Hyrcanus hearing that Herod was made King of the Iews he began to cast his hopes that wayes expecting favour from Herod whose life he had saved when he was called in question before the Sanhedrim He consulted therefore with the Iews that came to visit him about his return into Iudea who by all means disswaded him from it yet could they not prevail with him Besides Herod desired by all means to get the poor old man into his clutches and thereupon wrote to him to get leave of Phraates and the Iews that he might return and that they would not envy him the joynt rule with his Son in Law the time being now come wherein he could requite the favours that Hyrcanus had shewed him in being his nourisher and preserver He sent also his Ambassadour to Phraates with great Presents intreating him that he would not hinder him from being thankful to him that had deserved so well of him Hyrcanus being forward of himself dismissed by the Parthians and honourably furnished by the Iews for the expences of his journey he came at last to Herod who entertained him with all honour gave him the upper hand in all Assemblies and the more honourable place at all Feasts calling him Father hereby to delude him lest he should suspect any treachery Herod providing that none of the Nobility should be created High-Priest sent to Babylon for a Priest of base Parentage whom formerly he had been acquainted with of the race of those Priests that had been carried away beyond Euphrates whose name was Ananelius or Hananeel and to him he gave the High-Priesthood This
Citizens of Jerusalem made a Conspiracy against him amongst whom one was blind who made one not because he could do any thing but to shew how ready he was to suffer with those that defended their Country rights Herod had appointed secret spies to discover such plots one of which had fished this matter out and acquainted Herod with it who caused them to be apprehended and when they were brought before him with undaunted countenances they drew out their Weapons from under their Garments protesting that not out of any private respect but in the behalf of the publick weal they had undertaken this conspiracy Then were they led away and put to death with all manner of tortures Not long after their accuser being hated of all men was slain by some and being cut in pieces was thrown to the Dogs Yet were the authors hereof concealed till after long and wearisome inquisitions it was by torture wrung out from some silly Women who were privy to it When Herod had thus found out the Authors he punished them with death and their whole Families Herod the better to secure himself from the seditions of the tumultuous people in the thirteenth year of his Reign began to fortifie Samaria which was a days journey from Jerusalem and called it Sebaste or Angusta The circuit of it was twenty furlongs in the midst whereof he built a Temple of a furlong and an half which he wonderfully adorned and so ordered that many of the Souldiers and of the neighbouring Nations came and dwelt there Herod also built another Cidadel to be as a bridle to the whole Nation namely the Tower of Straton Also in the great plain he built a Castle and chose of his Horsemen by lot to keep it Another he built in Galile and one in Peraea which Castles being so conveniently disposed in several parts of the Country took away from the people all opportunity of rebellion About this time very grievous calamities befel the Nation of the Jews First there was a long Drought after which followed a Famine After the Famine by reason of their ill diet there came divers Sicknesses and the Plague and Herod having not wherewithal to supply the publick wants was forced to melt the Gold and Silver that was in his Pallace not sparing any thing for the curiosity of the Workmanship no not so much as the Vessels which were for his own daily use These being turned into money he sent to buy provisions into Aegypt where Petronius was Governour under Caesar who though he was pestered with multitudes that repaired to him upon the like necessity yet being Herods Friend he gave his Servants leave to export Corn and was assisting to them both in the buying and carriage of it When the Corn was brought to Herod he was very careful to see it divided first to such as had most need and then because there were many who by reason of old age or some other weakness were unable to dress it themselves he appointed them certain Bakers to provide their food for them By this means he procured the good will of the people and the praise of a prudent and provident Prince He provided also for his Subjects against the sharpness of the Winter taking care that none should want clothing their Cattel being dead and Wool and other materials failing And when he had made provision for his own People he took care also for the neighbouring Cities of the Syrians to whom he allowed Seed for sowing of their ground and the Castles and Cities and those of the common People who had great Families coming to him for succour he found a remedy for them also Insomuch that he gave to those that were not his Subjects ten thousand Cores of Corn each Core containing ten Athenian bushels As soon as the Corn was ripe for harvest Herod dismissed fifty thousand Men whom he had fed in the time of Famine into their own Countries by which diligence he restored the almost ruined estate of his own Subjects and did not a little relieve his Neighbours who groaned under the same calamities At the same time also he sent aid to Caesar. to wit five hundred chosen Men of his own Guard whom Aelius Gallus led into the Arabian Wars where they did most excellent service Herod also built himself a Pallace in Sidon in which he built two very large and stately Houses with which the Temple it self could in no wise compare and called one of them by the name of Caesar and the other by the name of Agrippa Herod having removed from the Priesthood Jesus the Son of Phales made Simon a Priest of Jerusalem the Son of Boethus of Alexandria Priest in his room and took also his Daughter Mariamne to Wife that was the most beautiful Virgin of that age The marriage solemnities being over he began to build another new Pallace unto which he adjoyned a Town which he called Herodian in a place distant from Jerusalem about sixty furlongs towards Arabia in the place where he had overcome the Jews when he was thrust out by the Arms of Antigonus He built also Sebaste and having finished that he began to build another most magnificent City in a place by the Sea-side where Straton stood which he called Caesaria and added to it an Haven of admirable work equal in bigness to the Haven Piraetus all which he finished in twelve years space sparing neither labour nor cost about them Then did he send his two Sons Alexander and Aristobulus whom he had by Mariamne the Asmonaean to Rome to Caesar to be there educated under him for whom Lodgings were prepared at the House of Pollio Herods great Friend Caesar intertained the young men very courteously and gave Herod power to make which of his Sons he pleased the heir of his Kingdom he added also to his Government Trachonitis Batunaea and Auranitis When Herod had received Trachonitis he took guides and went to the Den of the Thieves restraining their Villanies whereby the people lived in quiet But Zenodorus the former Governour being moved partly thorough envy and partly with the loss of his Government went to Rome to accuse Herod but could effect nothing About this time Herod went to Mytelene to salute his chiefest Friend Agrippa and so returned into Judaea and presently after some Citizens of Gadara went to Agrippa to accuse Herod whom he vouchsafed not so much as to hear but sent them bound to Herod Yet did he spare them for though he was inexorable towards his own People yet did he willingly contemn and forgive injuries received from strangers Zenodorus had solemnly sworn to the Gadarens that he would do his utmost with Caesar to get them freed from the jurisdiction of Herod and to be annexed to the Province of Caesar Many of themselves also exclaimed against Herod calling him cruel Tyrant complaining to Caesar of his violence and
of the Kings women that were most addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees except Salome who constantly adhered to her Brother Herod These Pharisees were a crafty people arrogant and enemies to Kings and they only of the whole Nation of the Jews refused to swear allegiance to Herod and Caesar and were about six thousand For which cause Herod fined them and the Wife of Pheroras paid their fine for them to whom by way of requital they foretold that the Kingdom should be taken from Herod and his children and be transferred upon her Husband and Her and their children these things Salome made known to Herod who examining the business put some of the Pharisees to death and with them the Eunuch Dagoas and his darling Carus who was commended to him for his handsomness and besides these all the rest of his Family whom he found to have conspired with the Pharisees Herod having punished the Pharisees called a Council of his Friends and before them began an accusation against the Wife of his Brother Pheroras and when Pheroras though to gratifie his Brother would not forsake her he forbad Antipater Pheroras his company and Antipater that he might remove all suspition from himself procured by his Friends that his Father should send him immediately to Augustus and accordingly Herod sent him with great Presents and his Will in which he declared that Antipater should succeed him in the Kingdom But if he died before him then his Son that he had by Mariamne the Daughter of Simon the High Priest In the sixth moneth after John was conceived the Angel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth in Galilee to the blessed Virgin Mary betrothed to Joseph of the same Tribe with her viz. of the stock of David and declared to her that she should bring forth the Son of God and call his name Jesus and she being more fully taught of his admirable conception by the power of the Holy Ghost overshadowing her with great Faith said Be it to the Handmaid of the Lord according to thy word Luk. 1. 26 38. and presently after she went into the Hill-Countrey into a City of Judah viz. Hebron a City of the Priests scituated in the mountains of Judea Josh. 21. 10 11. where when she entred into the House of Zachary and saluted her Cousin Elizabeth the Babe sprang in her womb and she being filled with the Holy Ghost declared that Mary was blessed c. Luk. 1. 39 56. Herod banished his Brother Pheroras into his Tetrarchy because he would not part with his Wife who swore that he would never return till he heard of Herods death so that a little after Herod falling sick and often sending for him to receive some private instructions he refuled to come for his Oathsfake When Elizabeths time was come she brought forth a Son who was called John and Zacharies speech being restored to him he prophesied saying Blessed be the Lord God of Israel c. Luk. 1. 57 58. and Joseph finding his betrothed wife to be with child thought of putting her away privily but being warned by God in a dream he took her to wife Mat. 1. 24. Pheroras falling sick and Herod beyond expectation being recovered went to visit him and very kindly sought help for him but he died within a few dayes after whose Body was brought to Jerusalem and interred by Herod who honoured him with publick mourning At this time two of Pheroras's freed men declared to Herod how he was killed by poyson given him by Doris the Mother of Antipater which whilst Herod enquired into by little and little he found out greater Villanies and the manifest Treasons of his Son Antipater who when he went to Rome had delivered a deadly poyson to Pheroras that was sent him out of Egypt from his Unkle Theodore the Brother of Doris wherewithall to make away his Father that so the suspition of the Parricide should not lye upon him being so far absent Hereupon Herod put Doris out of the Palace and took from her Jewels that were worth many Talents He also put from him his Wife Mariamne the Daughter of the High Priest as a Partner of all these secrets and blotted her Son out of his Will and deprived her Father of the High Priesthood and substituted in his room Matthias the Son of Theophilus that was born at Jerusalem Presently after came Bathillus Antipaters freed man from Rome who being tortured confessed that formerly he had brought poyson and given it to Doris and Pheroras that if the first proved too weak they should be sure to dispatch Herod with the second There came also Letters from his Friends at Rome to the King written by the entreaty of Antipater in which Archelaus and Philip Herods Sons were accused for often complaining of the death of Alexander and Aristobulus pitying the misfortune of their murthered Brethren For these young men were studying at Rome and their Father had now commanded their return whereupon Antipater by great gifts corrupted those Friends that by their Letters they might make the young men suspected to their Father who if they lived might be an hindrance to his hopes About this time Augustus taxing all the Roman world our Lord Christ was born Luk. 2. 4 5. Shortly after there came Wise men from the East the Star being their guide to Herod at Jerusalem and there being taught that the birth-place of Christ was Bethlehem of Judea thither they went and entring into the house which was shewed them by the Star that stood over it they found the Child and fell down and worshipped him c. Mat. 2. 1. 12. After the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream warning him to fly into Egypt where he remained till the death of Herod Mat. 2. 13 14 15. Herod thinking that the Child was still at Bethlehem that he might destroy him amongst the rest killed all the children which were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time of the Star first seen in the East that he had enquired of the Wise men Mat. 2. 16. Herod receiving Letters from Antipater from Rome in which he signified that having dispatched all his business according to his own mind he would shortly return into his own Countrey he wrote back to him again dissembling his anger that he should make haste lest any thing should befall him in his absence that he should not like of and also gently complaining of his Mother he promised that he would remit all differences at his return Antipater heard uo news all this while either of the death of Pheroras or of those things that were on foot against him though there were seven months space between the wickedness proved against him and his return For in his journey at Tarentum he met with a Letter of the death of Pheroras and in Cilicia those Letters of his Father that
besiege him in the City of Mutina now Modena which being known in Rome Cicero his authority and credit in the Senate was such that Mark Anthony was declared an Enemy to the State and the new Consuls Hircius and Pansa were sent against him and with them was Octavian sent with Ensigns of a Consul and Title of a Pro-praetor having been first admitted into the Senate though so young which was done by the procurement of Cicero though he afterwards requited him ill for it Octavian with the Consuls drew neer to Mark Anthony Cicero remaining to command in chief in all matters at Rome and between the two Armies there passed many skirmishes and encounters and at last they came to Battel wherein the Consuls and Caesar had the Victory but Hircius was slain in the Battel and Pansa was so wounded that he died within few days after and both the Armies of the slain Consuls obeyed Caesar. By this means D. Brutus was freed from his siege and Anthony was forced to forsake Italy by a dishonourable flight leaving his baggage behind him In this service Octavian made marvellous proof of himself being but twenty years old performing the Office not only of a good Captain but also of a stout Souldier For seeing the Standard-bearer sore wounded and ready to fall Octavian took from him the Eagle and bare it a great while till he had lodged it in safety Mark Anthony after the Battel gathering the remainders of his Army passed tho Alps and went into France solliciting the Friendship of Lepidus who was there with an Army ever since the Death of Julius Caesar whom after some treaties he made his Friend and Octavian after the Victory obtained presently sent to the Senate to require a Triumph for his Victory as also the Consulship for the remainder of the year in the roome of the dead Consuls with their succession in their charge and command of the Army But the answer of the Senate was not according to his desire For the Friends and Kinsmen of those that had murthered Caesar began to fear him and to suspect his power wherefore they prevailed to delay that which he required and in the end they resolved to assign the Army to Decius Brutus and temporizing with Octavian they granted him a Triumph but denied him the Consulship whereat he was much discontented and therefore secretly treated of friendship with Mark Anthony and having drawn to himself the affection of the Army he therewith marched towards Rome and approaching near to the City in dispite of the Senate he caused himself to be chosen Consul being not fully twenty years old Then did he cause accusations to be exhibited against Brutus and Cassius and the rest of the Conspirators and in their absence having none that durst defend their cause they were condemned After this was done he left the City and with his Army marched toward Anthony and Lepidus who were already entred into Italy Decius Brutus hearing of the Treaties and League that was made between Octavian Lepidus and Mark Anthony not daring to stay in that Country departed with his Army which soon forsook him some going to Caesar others to Mark Anthony whereupon he fled but being at last taken he was brought to Mark Anthony who caused his Head to be cut off The Armies of these Captains drawing near together to whom Affinius Pollio and Planeus with their Legions were joyned these three Octavian Caesar Mark Anthony and Lepidus meeting after three days debate they concluded their accursed Peace and these fire-brands of sedition entered into a Tiumvirate with several intents and designs Lepidus was covetous and sought riches by troubling the State Anthony was by nature an enemy to Peace and to the Commonwealth desiring an opportunity to be revenged of those who had declared him an Enemy to the State And Octavian sought revenge upon Brutus and Cassius and those who had slain his adopted Father And to bring these things to pass Octavian put away his Wife who was Daughter to Servilius and contracted himself to Claudia Daughter in Law to Anthony by his Wife Fulvia who was now a child and from whom he was afterward divorced by reason of the discord that arose between Anthony and him In this League which they made besides dividing the Provinces amongst themselves they agreed to Proscribe and kill each of them his Enemies and the one delivered them into the others hands having more respect to be revenged upon an Enemy than to save a Friend and so there was made the most cruel and inhumane Proscription and Butchery that ever was before heard of giving and exchanging Friends and Kinsmen for Enemies For Mark Anthony gave up his Fathers Brother and Lepidus his own Brother Lucius Paulus and Octavian M. T. Cicero whom he called Father and who had intreated and honoured him as a Son And besides these they Proscribed and condemned to die three hundred other Principal men of Rome amongst whom were about one hundred and fourty Senators besides two thousand Romans of the order of Knighthood This agreement being made they all three went to Rome where they took upon them the Government of the Commonwealth by the name of Triumvirat the time being limited to five years though they never meant to leave the same And presently after those who were condemned and Proscribed were by their commandment put to death being sought out in all parts and places their Houses were ransacked and their goods confiscated Cicero understanding that his name was in the Catalogue amongst the Proscripts only because he had been a lover of Roman Liberty he fled to the Sea where he embarked himself but so hard was his hap that by contrary winds he was driven back to the shore whereupon returning to some possessions of his near Capua not far from the Sea as he lay sleeping there he was awakened by some Crowes which with their bills pluckt his cloaths from his back His servants being moved with this ill presage put him into his Litter and again carried him towards the Sea but being overtaken by the murtherers he put his neck but of his Litter and they cut off his Head and his right hand wherewith he had written his Orations against Mark Anthony called Philippicks And thus was he slain by one whom he had defended and delivered from death Anthony joyfully received his â—and and caused it to be nailed up in the place where he was wont to plead to which all the People repaired to behold so woful and miserable a spectacle of whom there was not any one but was heartily sorry for the Death of so great a Personage and so fervent a lover of his Country Salvius Otho a Tribune of the People invited his Friends to his last Supper and as they were sitting in came a Centurion and in the presence of them all strake off his Head Minutius the Praetor was slain sitting in his seat of Judgment
Sons the tenth part of their Fathers Patrimony and to Daughters the twentieth part but few or none had any benefit by this promise yea on the contrary they sacked many of them that demanded these rights They exacted great sums of money in Rome and all over Italy and to encourage the Souldiers they gave them unmeasurable gifts and granted them daily new pillage The Legions they Wintered in the richest Cities upon free Quarter To be short men by fear and custome were so inured to slavery that they became more slaves than the Tyrants would have had them These three men having done what they would in Rome and knowing that Brutus and Cassius had a very great Army in Greece who called themselves the Deliverers of their Countrey saying that they would go and set Rome at liberty from Oppression Cassius having overthrown and slain Dolabella in Syria and being informed that by the assistance of their Friends they had gotten together eighteen Legions hereupon Mark Anthony and Octavian resolved to go against them wich the greatest Army that they could possibly make of old Souldiers and that Lepidus should stay to guard Rome and accordingly they departed and arrived in Greece and marching on they drew near to the place where Brutus and Cassius were encamped which was in Macedonia in the Philippick Fields Before they came to joyn Battel there were sundry Prodigies for Fowls of prey hovered about the Camp of Brutus as if it had been their own already and as they marched out to Battel a Blackmoor met them which they accounted an ill Omen Brutus being alone in his Tent at night a man sad and gastly appeared to him and being asked what he was he answered I am thy evil Genius and so vanished But on the contrary Birds and Beasts promised good success to Caesar. These Armies lying so near together had frequent skirmishes and at last came to a Battel where the Victory was strangely divided For Brutus on the one side of the Field did beat Octavian and put his Battalion to rout pursuing them into the Camp where many of them were slain and while Brutus was following his Victory his partner Cassius was overthrown by Mark Anthony though he did all that was possible to encourage his men and by reason of the clouds of Dust knew nothing of Brutus his Victory whereupon retiring to an high ground he there pitched his Tent and so standing and looking about he saw Brutus his Troops coming to his aid and to relieve him but he imagining that they came flying before their enemies commanded a slave of his whom he had made free to kill him who did it accordingly Octavians men that escaped by flight retired to Mark Anthonies Camp and had not Brutus his men busied themselves in ransacking Octavians Camp they had that day obtained an entire Victory for they might in due time have rescued and relieved Cassius and both of them being joyned together might easily have overthrown Mark Anthony but God had otherwise determined The Victory being thus divided the Generals of either party gathered their Forces together and of Brutus side were slain eight thousand men and of the Enemies side a far greater number Brutus did his best to encourage and comfort his Souldiers and the Gentlemen which followed Cassius and the next day though both Armies were put in battel Array yet they fought not but a few dayes after Brutus by his Souldiers was forced to come to another Battel who was of himself willing rather to delay and prolong the War knowing that his Enemies wanted Victuals and many other necessaries and because he reposed no great trust in the Forces of Cassius for he found that they were fearful and hard to be commanded because of their late overthrow When they came to the second encounter Brutus did all the Offices of an able General and of a Valiant Knight yet in the end his men were broken and overthrown by the Enemy Brutus having gathered his scattered Troops together found himself unable to make any farther resistance and being advised by some of his Friends to fly he told them That so he would yet not with his feet but with his hands and thereupon taking a Sword from a Servant of his called Stratus he slew himself Thus Octavian and Mark Anthony remained Victors and Masters of the Field and all things succeeded according to Caesars desire for whom God in his secret Counsel had reserved the Monarchy of the whole World which for the present was divided between three These Wars being ended and the Legions of Brutus and Cassius reduced to the obedience of the Conquerours Octavian and Mark Anthony agreed and resolved that Anthony should remain to govern Greece and Asia that Lepidus should go into Africk and that Octavian should return to Rome and accordingly Mark Anthony went into Asia where he gave himself up to sensuality and delights with the fair but wanton Cleopatra Queen of Aegypt and Octavian though with some hindrances by reason of his health at last came to Rome Not long after there arose new Wars and troubles for though Octavian was at peace with Lepidus who was now in Africk Octavian having under his command Spain France part of Germany Italy and Illyricum yet Lucius Antonius who at this time was Consul being provoked thereto by his Sister in Law Fulvia Wife to Mark Anthony began to oppose himself against Lepidus and Octavian seeking to overthrow the Triumvirat which contention brake out about the division of Fields which Caesar had made to the Souldiers which had served him in his Wars Some say that Fulvia made this stir that she might procure the return of Mark Anthony to her of whom she was jealous hearing of his familiarity with Cleopatra The discord in Rome grew to that height that they came to Arms and Lucius Antonius went from the City and levied an Army against Octavian who also marched towards him with his Forces But Lucius not daring to joyn Battel shut himself up in Perugia where Caesar immediately besieged him and Divorced himself from Claudia the Daughter of Fulvia and was married to his third Wife Scribonia by whom he had one onely Daughter Octavian being about twenty three years old so strictly besieged Perugia that Lucius and his men were brought to such straits for want of Victuals that he was forced to yield up himself to Octavian who pardoned him and used him kindly and thus this War was ended without bloudshed And so Octavian returned to Rome of which he was now sole Lord and from hence some reckon the beginning of his Empire which was about four years after the Death of Julius Caesar and about thirty eight years before the Incarnation of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Caesar being now in quiet Fulvia by Letters and false Informations sought to stir up her Husband Mark Anthony against Octavian with which resolution she left Italy and
Fathers virtues and Valour leaving behind them Lewis their Brother with large Territories and few vertues to Govern so great an Estate After the Death of these two great Princes many enemies rose up against old Charlemagne who seemed as it were to have lost his two Arms as the Sarazins in Spain the Sclavonians and the Normans in the Northern Regions But he vanquished them all and brought them into his obedience and subjection old and broken as he was Charlemagne all his Life time held the Church in great reverence and had imployed his Authority to beautify it and bountifully bestowed his Treasure to enrich it But this great plenty joyned with so long and happy a Peace made the Church-men to live losely Charlemagne being himself well instructed in Religion knowing of what great importance it was to have such as should instruct others to be sound in the Faith and holy and exemplary in their lives he at sundry times called five Councels in sundry Places of his Dominions For as yet the Popes had not challenged that power to belong to them for the Reformation and good Government of the Church As at Mentz at Rheimes at Tours at Chaalons and at Arles and by the advise of these Ecclesiastical Assemblies he made and published many Orders for the good of the Church which were gathered together in a Book called Capitula Caroli Magni A worthy President for Princes who seek true Honour by virtue whereof the care of Piety is the chiefest Foundation In the Preface to this Book he thus saith that he had appointed these constitutions with the Advice of his Presbyters and Counsellers and that herein he had followed the Example of King Josias who endeavoured to bring the Kingdom which God had given him to the worship of the true God Some of his constitutions are these He commanded to look to and to try the learning and conversation of such as were admitted into the Ministry He forbad private Masses Also the confusion of Diocesses requiring that no Bishop should meddle in anothers Diocess He forbad that any Books should be read publickly but such as were approved by the Councel of Calcedon He forbad the worshipping of Saints He commanded Bishops not to suffer Presbyters to teach the People other things then what are contained in or according to the holy Scriptures And lib. 2. ch 3. he saith Although the Authority of the Ecclesiastical Ministry may seem to stand in our Person Yet by the Authority of God and Ordinance of man it s known to be so divided that every one of you in his own place and order hath his own power and Ministry Hence its manifest that I should admonish you all and you all should further and help us He admonished Bishops especially to teach both by Life and Doctrine both by themselves and the Ministers that were under them as they would answer the contrary in their accounts at the Great Day He Ordained that the Bishop of the first See should not be called the Prince of Priests or the highest Priest or have any such Title but only should be called The Bishop of the first See That none can lay another foundation then that which is laid which is Christ Jesus and that they which lay Christ for their foundation it s to be hoped that they will be careful to shew their Faith by bringing forth good Works He held also a great Councel in the City of Frankfort of the Bishops of France Germany and Italy which himself honoured with his own presence where by general consent the false Synod of the Greeks they are the words of the Original untruly called the seventh was condemned and rejected by all the Bishops who subscribed to the condemnation of it This was that Counsel spoken of before called by Irene at Nice wherein the bringing of Images into Churches for devotion was established In a Word if Charlemagnes medling with Italy and his advancing the Pope for confirming that which he had taken could be excused he was unto all Princes a pattern of magnificence of Zeal in Religion of learning eloquence temperance prudence moderation c. Alcwin saith of him Charles was a Catholick in his Faith a King in power a High Priest in preaching a Judg in his equity a Philosopher in liberal Studies famous in manners and excellent in all honesty He was so temperate that notwithstanding his great revenues he was never served at the Table with above four Dishes at a Meal and those of such Meat as best pleased his taste which he used to the same end for which God created them which was for sustenance and to support his Body not for shew and pomp His ordinary exercise was hunting when he was at leisure in time of War and in times of Peace he attended to such as read Histories to him and sometimes he heard Musick with which he was much delighted having good skill therein himself He was very charitable and a bountiful Alms-giver and so careful to provide for the poor Cristians that in Syria in Africa and in Aegypt and in other Provinces of the Infidels where Christians lived he found means to have Almes-houses and Hospitals erected and endowed for those thar were Poor But there fell out a new accident which drew out Great Charles again to Arms in his old Age and that was this Alphonso King of Navarr surnamed the Chast by reason of his singular and signal temperance in that kind did inform and advertise him that there was now a very fit opportunity and means offered for him utterly to subdue the Sarazins in Spain Charlemagne who infinitely desired to finish this work which he had so often attempted with no great success gave ear to the information and advice whereupon he raises an Army and marches into Spain relying on the Spaniards favour and assistance they being Christians Indeed Alphonso meant plainly and sincerely but so did not his Courtiers and Nobles nor Associates who feared Charles his forces no less than they did the Sarazins and if Charles prevailed the most confident of Alphonso's Servants and Officers doubted to be dispossessed of their places and Governments by a new Master and therefore they laboured to cross Alphonso and to countermand Charles but the Lot was cast his Army was in the Field and he was resolved to pass on But when he was entred into Spain he encountered with so many difficulties that being discouraged he returned back into France and so concluded and put a period to all his Warly enterprises embracing again the care of the Church and of Religion as a fit subject for the remainder of his days Charlemagne was threescore and eight years old when he left the Wars after which he spent three whole years in his study to prepare himself for Death in which time he read much in the Bible and read over also St. Augustines Works whom he loved and preferred before all the
other Doctors of the Church He resided also at Paris that he might have opportunity of conferring with learned men There he erected a goodly University which he furnished with as learned men as those times could afford and endowed it with great priviledges For he had an exceeding great care to make it a Nurcery for the holy Ministry that from thence the Church might be supplied with able Teachers whence also grew so many Colleges of Cannons with sufficient revenues annexed thereunto Thus Charlemagne spent three years happily in the only care of his Soul leaving an illustrious example to all Princes to moderate and ennoble their greatness with Piety and so to enjoy their Temporal estates as in the mean time not to neglect their eternal concernments and to think of their departure out of this Life in time Foreseeing his Death whereunto he prepared himself by these exercises he made his last Will and Testament leaving his Son Lewis the sole Heir unto his great Kingdoms and bequeathed to the Church much Treasure But all things and Persons in this World have an end His Testament was but the Harbinger to his Death for presently after he was taken with a pain in his side or Plurisie and lay sick but eight days and so yielded up his Spirit unto God that gave it Anno Christi 814. and of his Age seventy one and of his Reign forty seven including fifteen years of his Empire His Body was interred in a sumptuous Church which he had caused to be built in the City of Aquisgrave or Aix la Capelle where he was born and his memory was honoured with a goodly Epitaph He was one of the greatest Princes that ever lived His virtues are a pattern to other Monarchs and his great successes the subject of their wishes The greatness of his Monarchy indeed was admirable For he quietly enjoyed all France Germany the greatest part of Hungary all Italy and a good part of Spain At the time of his Death he was in peace with the other Kings of Spain as also with the Kings of England Denmark Bulgary with the Emperour Leo of Constantinople and with all the Princes of that time This Noble Prince was endued with so many excellent Virtues that we read of very few in antient Histories that excelled him so that he may be justly compared with the best of them For in Martial Discipline in Valour in Dexterity in Feats of Arms there are none that exceeded him He obtained as many Victories fought as many Battels and subdued as many fierce and Warlike Nations as any one we read of and that both before and after that he was Emperour He was tall of Stature very well proportioned in all his members passing strong of a fair and grave countenance valiant mild merciful a lover of Justice liberal very affable pleasant well read in History a great Friend of Arts and Sciences and sufficiently seen into them and a man who above all loved and rewarded Learned men He was very charitable in his Kingdoms yea in his very Court he harboured and relieved many Strangers and Pilgrims In matters of Faith and Religion he was very zealous and most of the Wars which he made were to propagate and enlarge the Christian Faith He being mis-led by the darkness of the times wherein he lived superstitiously honoured and obeyed the Church of Rome and the Pope that was Bishop thereof together with other Bishops and Prelates commanding his Subjects also to do the like He was also very devout and spent much of his time in Prayer Hearing and Reading In his Diet he was very temperate and a great enemy to riot and excess and though he was Rich and Mighty yet fed he his Body with what was necessary and wholesome not rare costly and strange And yet his Virtues were not without their blemishes as the greatest commonly are not without some notable Vices For in his younger dayes he was much given to Women adding Concubines to his lawful Wives by whom he had divers children but this was in the time of his Youth For afterwards he contented himself with his Wife and for a remedy of this imperfection though he was three or four times a Widower yet he ever married again the Daughter of some great Prince or other To conclude all he was an excellent Emperour that loved and feared God and died when he was very Old and full of Honour leaving Lewis the weakest of his Sons the sole heir of his great Empire but not of his Virtues So that this great building soon declined in his posterity He had engraven upon his Sword Pro Deo Religione For God and Religion He used to set his Crown upon the Bible as our Canutus sometime put his Crown upon the Rood both of them thereby intimating that as all honour was due to God so true Religion was the best Basis of Government and that Piety was the best Policy The Epitaph which I spake of was this Sub hoc conditorio situm est Corpus Caroli Magni atque Orthodoxi Imperatorisqui Regnum Francorum nobiliter ampliavit per annos Quadraginta septem foeliciter tenuit Decessit Septuagenarius Anno Domini 814. Indicti one 7. Quinto Calend. Febr. Under this Tomb lieth the Body of Charles the Great and Catholick Emperour who most Nobly enlarged the Kingdom of the French and most happily ruled it for the space of forty and seven years He died in the seventy and one year of his Age In the year of our Lord eight hundred and fourteen the seventh Indiction on the fifth Calend of February He had five Wives the first was called Galcena the Daughter of the King of Galistria by whom he had no Children The second was Theodora the Sister or as others say the Daughter of Didier King of Lombardy whom he kept not long but repudiated her for sundry reasons The third was Hildebranda Daughter of the Duke of Suevia whom he loved exceedingly and had by her three Sons viz. Charles his Eldest whom he made King of the greatest and best part of France and Germany Pepin his Second whom he made King of Italy Bavaria c. Lewis his Youngest to whom he left the Empire intire his Brothers being both dead in their Fathers Life time This Lewis was sirnamed Debonaire or the Courteous He had also three Daughters the Eldest was called Rothruda the Second Birtha and the Youngest Giselia who would never marry His fourth Wife he had out of Germany called Fastrada And his fifth and last was also a German Lady called Luithgranda of the Suevian Race by whom he had no Children He shewed his love to Religion by having one during his Meal-times that either read to him some part of the Holy Scriptures or else some part of Saint Augustines Books especially that De Civitate Dei or some History He was also a great Friend to Learning and therefore erected three