divers places else which is the nature of the ground About Babylon a field burneth day and night In Aethiopia certain fields about mount Hesperius shine all night like stars As for Earthquakes and wonders that thereby happened I will not speak but those strange grounds that never alter from such effects before mentioned beside the mettals the stones the herbs the trées and all other things are miraculous and strange as Pliny in divers places doth witnesse And as for fire it is too great a wonder that the whole world is not burned thereby sith the Sun the Stars the Elementary fire excell all miracles if God had not prevented in kéeping the same from damage and hurt to man yea appointed that the heat of the Sun should not kindle straws stubbles trées and such like where the heat thereof as we daily sée burneth stones lead and harder substances sith especially that fire is in all places and is able to kindle all things insomuch that the water Thrasimenos burneth out in flames which is unnatural and strange that fire kindles in water and likewise in Egnatia a City of Salentine there is a stone which if any wood touch it wilâ— kindle fire In the Well called Nympheus there is a stone likewise whence come flames of fire the stone it self burneth in the water A greater wonder it is that the fire should be kindled by water and extinguished by wind Fire flashed about the head of Servius Tullius being then a boy in sleep which did prognosticate that he should be King of the Romans Fire shined about the head of L. Marcius in Spain when he encouraged his souldiers to revenge manfully the deaths of those noble and famous Romans named Sipians The marvellous effects of fire are most wonderful and most strange CHAP. XXI Of the World and of the soul of Man with divers and sundry opinions of the Philosophers about the fame AMongst divers Philosophers and learned men grew a great controversie of the beginning of the world some of the best affirming that it had no beginning nor can have end as Aristotle and Plato applying incorruption and perpetual revolution to the same Some with Epicurus thought the world should be consumed Of this opinion was Empedocles and Herachius Some on the other side did judge with Pythagoras that so much of the world should be destroyed as was of his own nature Thales said there was but one world agréeing with Empedocles Democritus affirmeth infinite worlds and Metrodorus the Philosopher conceived worlds to be innumerable Thus hold they several opinions concerning the making the beginning the ending and the numbers of the world What child is there of this age but smileth at their folly reasoning largely one against another in applying the cause and the effect of things to their own inventions And as they have judged diversly of the world concerning the frame and nature thereof so were they as far off from the true understanding of the Creation of man Some grosly thought that mankind had no beginning Some judged that it had a beginning by the superiour bodies And for the antiquity of mankind some judge Egypt to be the first people some Scythia some Thrace some this countrey and some that countrey with such phantastical inventions as may well appear to the most ignorant an error And alas how simple are they in finding out the substance of the soul what it should be where it should be and by what it should be Some say that there is no soul but a natural moving as Crates the Theban Some judge the soul to be nothing else but fire or heat betwéen the undivisible parts others thought it an air received into the mouth tempered in the heart boiled in the lights and dispersed through the body Of this opinion was Anaxagoras and also Anaximenes Hippias judged the soul of man to be water Thales and Heliodorus affirmed it to be earth Empedocles is of opinion that it is hot bloud about the heart so that they vary in sundry opinions attributing the cause thereof either to the fire or else to water either to the earth or to the air and some unto the complexion of the four elements others of the earth and fire others of water and fire some again reason that the substance of the soul is of fire and of the air And thus of approved Philosophers they show themselves simple innocents How ignorant were they in defining the soul of man So far disagréeing one with another that Zenocrates thinketh again the soul to be but a number that moves it self which all the Egyptians consented to Aristotle himself the Prince of all Philosophers and his master Plato shewed in this their shifting reason which both agree that the soul is a substance which moveth it self Some so rude and so far from perfection in this point that they thought the heart to be the soul some the brain How ridiculous and foolish séemeth their assertion to this age concerning the soul and as childishly they dispute and reason again about the placing of the same where and in what place of the body the soul resteth For Democritus judgeth his seat to be in the head Parmenides in the breast Herophilus in the ventricles of the brain Strato doth think that the soul was in the space between the eye brow yea some were so foolish to judge it to be in the ear as Xerxes King of Persia did Epicurus in all the breast Diogenes supposed it to be in a hollow vein of the heart Empedocles in the bloud Plato Aristotle and others that were the best and truest Philosophers judged the soul to be indifferent in all parts of the body some of the wisest supposed that every peece and pâ—rceâ— of the body had his proper soul In this therefore they were much deceived in séeking a proper seat for the soul Even as before they erred shamefully and liâ—d manifestly about the essence and substance of the soul so now were they most simply beguiled in placing the soul as you have heard And now after I have opened their several opinions concerning what the soul is and where the soul is you shall here likewise hear whither the soul shall go after death according to the Philosophers which as diversly vary and disagrée in this as you before heard the diversity of opinions concerning the substance and the place And first to begin with Democritus who judgeth the soul to be mortal and that it shall perish with the body to this agrée Epicurus and Pliny Pythagoras judged that the soul is immortal and when the body dieth it sâ—éeth to his kind Aristotle is of opinion that some parts of the soul which have corporal seats must dye with the body but that the understanding of the soul which is no instrument of the body is perpetual Tho people called Drinda were of this judgement that souls should not descend to hell but should pass to another world as the Philosophers called Essei which suppose
fear the conspiracies of their own servants sometimes of their own children for you are to understand that in this nature the condition of Princes is of all most miserable How many Kings may I number up who have been all deprived of their lives by the unnatural conspiracy of their own children Justin makes mention of an Emperour of Persia who by divers Concubines had fifty sons who all held in a conspiracy with the eldest to take away the fathers life for no other cause but that they conceived he lived a little too long and they were resolved to depend no longer upon expectation And it appears to me a great wonder that the spirits of men should be so much blinded and that Princes should be so misguided by the Prince of the ayr that although they are assured within themselves and may be convinced by a thousand examples that a revenge not to be avoided doth attend such desperate contrivers yet no age almost hath béen without a President of such horrible Parricides Irenus King of the Molossi having conspired with some of the Nobility who were most near unto his father did not long after by poison take away his fathers life and being himself invested with the Crown although he injoyed a long time a happy and quiet life yet he was tormented in his conscience within him and having lost the love of his subjects he at last lost his own life his people having made war against him and being taken by them he was beheaded in the same place in which he conspired his fathers death The Histories can afford us a thousand examples of the same nature but Herodotus makes mention of Enanthus a Prince as unblemished in his conversation as innocence it self who passing through a world of afflictions which like waves came rowling upon him one on the neck of the other was first banished and afterwards put to death by his subjects and dying confessed that it was the first hour of his happinesse being to passe from a Labyrinth of sorrows and perplexity into an everlasting Elizium of Peace and Rest But to give you an instance what miserable Pilgrims Princes are you may behold Nebuchadnezzar who from the height of glory was by divine vengeance metamorphosed into a beast and wandring from field to field in a worse condition then a Pilgrim he fed on the grasse of the field for seven years together and was wet with the dew of heaven and at the last returning to himself he acknowledged the divine power and the divine Iustice which taught him to understand in what a frail condition he stood and how uncertain is life and the glory of mortality like the Lilly in the field which appears in the morning in all its beauty and more richly apparelled then Solomon in all his glory and before the evening it is gathered and fades away is seen no more Just so are Kings the flourishing array Of the proud Summers meadow which to day Weares his green plush and is to morrow Hay Therefore Philip the father of Alexander the great revolving with himself what a pilgrimage this life is and especially the life of a King which as it is more full of state then the life of others so it is also more full of danger commanded his Page every morning to come unto him and to pronounce a loud O Philip remember that thou art mortal which though his son seemed to forget and therefore would be estéemed immortal and have divine honours done unto him yet whosoever shall take the pains to behold him aright in the height of all his victories he shall find that his life was the greatest pilgrimage nay I may say the arrantest slavery that was in the world for what did he do but became onely a slave to his own ambition to inslave the world and to make it stoop to his yoak A plundring Pilgrim he was and under the pretence of glory and of conquest he enjoyed no rest either by day or by night but travelled from place to place uncertain in the morning in what field to take up his lodgings the night following or where he should dine the next day but as if he would try providence as well as victory he did put all things to the adventure and indeed it was providence that did protect him for into how many dangers did he rashly run from which he was miraculously preserved and by a rare happinesse made his rashnesse alwaies to be the increase of his glory I shall on this subject speak something of him which Curtius never thought on which is that when he took a poor Pyrat prisoner he asked him how he durst be so insolent as to commit such robberies on the seas The Pyrat nothing dismaied made answer he did it with the same confidence as Alexander himself who went up and down plundering and destroying the world And when Fate had put a period to his life and Empire it is observable how this invincible spirit became heavy and timerous which on purpose in this place I do insert because many who have delivered his atchievements to memory have left it out and it may more plainly appear what momentary things great Princes are when that power doth forsake them which doth lead them to their high undertakings Alexander being come to Babylon he put off his cloaths one evening to anoint himself to make his body more nimble in some exercises in the field with his companions in which hee much delighted The sport beeing ended as hee returned to put on his cloaths the young Nobles who were with him beheld a man who sate in the Kings seat and had put on his royall habiliments and the Diadem on his head They amazed at it demanded who he was the man would make no answer at all at last being threatned that he should indure the greatest torments if he would not confesse what he was he at last spake in Greek that he was a poor fellow who being unjustly condemned to death was delivered from it by the God Seraphis who seated him in that place and commanded him to put on the royal habiliments The wonder increasing that there being so many of the guard and of the Kings associates in the field and in and about the Pavillion and not any of them should either discover the man either coming into the Pavillion or putting on the cloaths Alexander was so possessed with horrour at the strangenesse of the spectacle that he became as a dead man and for the thrée days following was so mute and stpid that he appeared as another creature he would neither speak to any nor return any answer being spoken unto till he went unto the house of Thessalus Medius where he drank the fatal poison and being carried afterwards to his own chamber he lamented with himself the condition of man and more precisely of Princes who in the height of all their lustre like the sun at noon were suddenly eclipsed by ungrateful clouds howsoever
it is worth your observance that even in his death desiring to traduce the world with a false belief of his immortality he desired Roxane who was present with him and at that time great with child by him that she would give way that some who were most faithfull to her and to himself might take his body he finding an impossibility of recovery and death apparently to grew upon him and throw it into the River of Euphrates that the army and the world might conceive that invisibly he was advanced from mortality and translated into the number of the Gods which when Roxane by no means would give way unto affirming that the power which protected him from so many dangers would preserve him still he was passionate against her that in pretence of love she should deny him immortality and dying in the flower of his youth he acknowledged how momentary and uncertain at the best is the condition of Princes And thus Alexander you see who contended to be above the reach of mortality and to be no Pilgrim became the greatest Pilgrim in the world for he not onely living was in a perpetual travel both of body and of mind but he did not rest being dead for his body was carryed from place to place until it was brought at last to Alexandria and afterwards conveyed unto Memphis And to speak the truth the condition of Kings is more lamentable then the meanest of their subjects who may enjoy their lives with safety which is permitted but to a few Kings so true is that of Juvenal Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguini pauci Descendunt reges sicca morte tyranni By a dry Death without a bloudy end Few Kings to Ceres son in Law descend For this reason the Honourable Sir Francis Bacon who said That God did most for Kings and that Kings did least for God did affirm That there was so many cares and dangers depending on a Crown that no wise man would take it up to have it especially considering how many excellent Princes who have been as admirable for their justice as for their fortitude and for their continence as for either have violently lost their lives by their ungratefull subjects Of this I shall give you examples pregnant enough in its due place and conclude this chapter That Princes are the greatest Pilgrims by the example of the best of Princes which was David himself And this is as easie to prove by his confession as by his sufferings He is hunted he saith like a Partridge upon the mountains he is like a Pelican in the wilderness he is as a Sparrow upon the house top You may behold him persecuted from place to place yet giving life to the King who would take his life from him You may behold him flying out of the Kingdom and disguising himself in a safe madness to protect him from the violence of his adversaries You may behold him exposed to all the dangers that malice could imagine reviled by his own wife cursed by his own servants and conspired against by his own son and driven out of his City by him so that he might well say I am a stranger in the land and my life is waxen old with heaviness and my years with mourning CHAP II. The attractive Liberality of Princes BVt before I proceed to give you examples of it I shall exhibit to you that the pleasures and the splendours which commonly attends the Court and do cast such a false shew of Glory on it are but as so many flatterers who would perswade to things which are not onely leave a dazle on the eye the easier to delude and betray the underastnding It is vertue only that maketh Princes glorious I will first give you a general survey of the vertues and vices of Princes by which in the pilgrimage of this life some have attained to the heighth of honour and others have sunk into the lowest infamy And first to deface the vice of Avarice I will in this place shew you the vertue of Liberality to put the churlish covetous out of countenance I will extol the liberal which in taking is shamefaced in giving joyfull For a measure in taking and in giving is the true nature of liberality Neither can he that taketh all things though he give much be named liberal in nothing Agesilaus King of the Lacedemonians so observed the laws and rules of Lycurgus that he was wont to say unto the Citizens of Sparta that gifts are more dangerous sometime to be received then hurtfull to be refused Which Phocion the whole glory of Athens at what time Alexander the Great had sent him great gifts wealthy presents jewels and treasures from Persia did shew a true example thereof of in refusing the same saying I will not learn to take lest I forget to give The like answered Zenocrates the Philosopher to the self same Alexander when that he did send great sums of gold and silver for love and affection unto Zenocrares he said he wanted neither gold nor silver Which when it was told unto Alexander he said Hath Zenocrates no friends then that want money Alexander hath more friends then either the substance of Darius or the wealth of Persia can suffice A Question is here to be demanded Whether of them both was more liberal the Prince in giving or the Philosopher in refusing When certain Embassadours of the Samnites came to Rome and being at Fabritius house they perceiving the liberality of Fabritius to be such as it were pity wealth should want to so noble a Gentleman at their return from Rome unto their Countrey not forgetting the free dealing of Fabritius at Rome these Embassadours minding to gratifie Fabritius with the gold of the Samnites sent gifts and presents to him unto Rome for their noble entertainment which were refused with an answer that Fabritius had rather rule and govern them that were ruled by gold then to be subject unto gold alledging the answer of M. Curius to the Embassadors of Macedonia offering large gifts and treasure after the like sort That to possess much is no wealth but covetousness to desire nothing and to give is perfect wealth and liberality A sound proof of two liberal Gentlemen When such ruled Rome then the Romans excelled all the world bountifull and free and most beneficial unto all and covetous unto none When L. Lucullus house was a common hospital to all the poor Gréeks that travelled from Athens Sparta and Thebes yea from al Greeâ—e unto Rome then Rome was liberal When Pomponius Atucus did send unto Cicero being banished two hundred thousand Sesterces unto Volumnius and Brutus as much then Rome was beneficial When the Senators restored Faucula and Oppia two poor women of Campania not onely unto their ancient liberty but doubled their wealth and riches for their true meaning and service to the Romanes the one praying and sacrificing for their good success the other toyling and travelling about the souldiers
Sabines Paul Aenilius over the Lygurians Marius over the Numidians Pompeius over Armenia and Pontus Scipio sirnamed Affricanus over Carthage and all Lybia Julius Caesar over all Europe and Affrick Rome was then feared of all the world and now Rome is despised then Rome might say Roma vincit now Rome may say Roma vista then Roma at mata now nermis then Roma now Ruina But time consumeth all things That victory that was not manfully gotten and valiantly won in the field was rather counted tyranny then victory For when Lucius Pius in a banquet that he made had filled the people of Sarmatia full of wine and made them so drunk that all the Nobles and Captains of Sarmatia yéelded themselves as subjects unto the Empire of Rome for which at his return home to Rome he required according to the custome to have a triumph done unto him for the victory of Sarmatia the Senators having understood the manner of the victory and how and after what sort Lucius Pius subdued the Sarmatians he was openly beheaded by decrée of all the Senate and a slanderous Epitaph set upon his grave to manifest the deceit he used in stead of magnanimity that he deceived them by wine whom he ought to have subdued by force The Romans were not in those days contented that any of their Captains should use vicious dealing or shew any fraud or guile in wars unto their enemies but at last as wars grew common in all Countreys so deceit and craft was thereby augmented and triumph exiled Then the Assyrians warred on the Persians the Persians on the Argineans the Argineans on the Athenians the Athenians on the Lacedemonians the Lacedemonians on the Sydonians the Sydonians on the Rhodians and the Rhodians on the Scythians with all kind of policy right or wrong they cared not so that victory were gotten So that the triumph then is now turned into captivity magnanimity then unto craft and deceit now In fine victory then unto tyranny now And so with Caesar I end Ex bonis principtis mala or iuntur Such is the state of life the pilgrimage of man which is daily worse and worse as it waxeth to the end For in the beginning renown and honour was the cause that all men attempted dangers and great perils and now in the end gain and profit moveth wars then was their desire to overcome Lions Bears Elephants Tygers Panthers Rhinocerots and such wild and savage beasts that might renown their atchievements and now for the most part forgotten they descend into the Vale of Death CHAP. VI. Of the first finding out of Laws and Orders and of all invention of things general and of Time THe world growing into its maturity divers men found means to set things in order which at the beginning were rude and barbarous as amongst the Athenians Draco amongst the Egyptians Mercury amongst the Argives Phoroneus In Arcadia Apollo in Tyre Charandes in Italy Pythagoras Other things no lesse necessary for the manners and civility of men then for the life and food of men were found And because Time is the beginning and end of all things terrestrial I think it expedient in this place to declare the cōputation of Times and Ages For with the Egyptians at the first they counted their years by the Moon attributing unto every year thirty days as both Herodotus and Macrobius do agrée The The Arcadians as Putarch in the life of Numa doth write had three moneths in every year appointed The people of Caria finished and ended their year every sixth Moneth The Greeks did number three hundred fifty and four days in their years which want of our years eleven days and six hours The Romans at the beginning in the time of Romulus who was their first King had their year in ten Moneths compted counting their first moneth March and giving that name unto it after his fathers name Mars April was named of Aphros in Greek which is Fome whence Venus was born May was called a Majoribus of the Elders Iune of the youth called Juniores These four were of Romulus named The fifth moneth was then called by Romulus Quintil which Julius Caesar in his time named Iuly and Augustus Caesar named the moneth called Sexulis August and so in order September October November December Numa Pompunus who succeeded Romulus added Ianuary and February and so named them according to the name of Janus who was the first King of the Latines and Februus who was supposed to be the inventer of the Lustration For as the Greeks did count all things by their Olympiades so did the Romans by their Lustra Then was the use of Clocks unknown insomuch that Authors herein do much vary and seem to be ignorant of the inventers of them First some think that Herme in Egypt found them out by a beast sacrificed unto Seraphis some again attribute the invention unto Anaximines in Lacedemonia and that they were found out by a shade some unto Scipio sirnamed Nasica in Rome by a water But uncertain it is by whom and by what means Clocks first were found Some again do count their day which is four and twenty hours from sun rising unto sun rising as the Babylonians use some from sun setting to sun setting as the Athenians some from midnight to midnight as the Egyptians some again from midnight to noon again as the Vmbrians do Thus diversly have hours and days been counted Now after laws were invented and orders made and time divided men as yet rude and raw leading their lives beastly and bruitishly for want of civility having neither houses Towns or Cities to inhabit but some having in Caves of the ground their chief mansions others had their best garments made of green bows and branches of trées some hid themselves in shadows of the woods some in Dens like wild beasts untill nature first by reason opened a way and a means thus unto further civility Then houses were made and Cities builded high towers raised strong walls invented King Cerops erected Athens Phoroneus builded Argos Diospolin in Egypt was by Threson builded Likewise the first tower after the deluge of Noah was made by Nimrod then Temples were builded Pythias in Perenna made a temple unto Minerva Romulus in Rome builded a temple unto Jupiter and thus divers men in sundry countries have béen the builders of monuments By this means came Pallas unto great fame for that she was supposed to be the first that invented sciences amongst the Grecians in Athens for this purpose was Ceres in Sicilia renowned for that she was thought to be the first that sowed corn and taught husbandry for this reason were Typhis and Jason so worthily commended that they among the Gréeks were the first that sailed the seas Then was money found in Mount Pangaeum and coined in Aegineta which as Plini saith had béen better unknown then found money being found wars insued by Ninus who was the first that ever warred after the deluge Then
Chariot as a Prince and not as a poor Philosopher Might not that poor midwife named Phanaerara rejoyce to have such a son as Socrates who being estéemed of all men to be best learned being counted of all men most Orthodor and taken of all men to be most modest and most grave was also judged by the Oracle of Apollo to be the wisest in all the world How happy was Elbia How famous was Creithes who nursed two such sons as Cicero and Homer the one the glory of Rome the other the sugred and sweet Oratour of all Greece Thus diligence and travel brought them to fame that being poor men they were honoured of rich men being base men they were exalted of Princes Oh happy countries of such women oh happy women of such children Oh twice happy children of such learning and knowledge The poor Smith which was Demosthenes father and the silly Potter who was Virgils father are more renowned by their children this day being dead then known by their own wealth being alive Thus much happened unto the silly Smith and unto the poor Potter their names shall never die whilest either Demosthenes is read or Virgil heard What might be spoken of that poor Physitian Nichomachus son I mean that famous and learned Philosopher Aristotle whom King Philip of Macedonia so estéemed that he counted himself happy to have his son Alexander the great born in Aristotles time whose diligence and study was such that he had the guard and tuition of that renowned Conqueror Alexander five years together who was honoured of Alexander and not onely esteemed of King Philip but Athens being destroyed by Alexander it was restored by Aristotle Such was the diligence of men their care and industries that their large volumns and infinite books are witness of their well occupied minds How became Plutarch Master to Traian the Emperor How was Seneca appointed the Tutor and Schoolmaster of the Emperor Nero How came Zeno unto such favour with King Antigonus but by diligence and not by idleness by travel and not by slothfulness by learning and not by ignorance Why did that great and famous Roman Scipio sirnamed Affricanus esteem so much the poor Poet Ennius alive that being dead he caused his picture to be set before his eys as a pledge of his great love and earnest good will It was for the desert that Scipio found in Ennius Why did Augustus Caesar that wise and Godly Emperor make so much of Maro's books but because he was in his time the lamp of Rome he honoured no lesse his books after he was dead then he embraced him alive The great King Artaxerxes thought himself half dead without the company of Hippocrates Pomponius Atticus did think him happy when either Cicero was in his sight or some of his books in his bosome Alexander never went to bed without Homer under his pillow Who will not praise the diligence of poor Cleanthes the Philosopher Who will not commend the travel of Plautus the comical Poet the one living with a Baker the other with a Bruer with much care and pain in the day time that they might study in the night time Such was their poverty and necessity that they were urged to labour in the day such was their affection and desire unto learning that they were willing to study in the day time Who will not extol Euclides to take such pains and to incur such danger to go in the night time in the apparel of a woman because he might not be known to hear Socrates read Philosophy Oh painfull men Oh worthy members of their country that so sought by diligence that so travelled by study and industry and in fine so found by wit and reason the redresse of things to disperse that diffused Chaos which Time said Cicero had then scant opened the doore unto Then after private pain and special study of sundry men in several countries knowledg came to that perfection that from one man in one place divers grew learned and pollitick Thus from Romulus the first builder and King of the Romans Rome in short time had wise and discréet Counsellours to govern the City From Solon the first law-giver after Draco amongst the Athenians by and by learned and eloquent Oratours flourished in Athens From Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians straight grew modest and grave Senators called Ephori And thus from one in the beginning divers procéeded forth in the end Thus the Prophets began amongst the Egyptians the Gimnosophistes among the Indians the Caldeans amongst the Babylonians the Sages called Magi amongst the Persians And so of others in other countries And thus by diligence were all men first commended by their pilgrimage and labour of life and were well recorded in memory for their service to their countrey Prince and friends that so having finished their pilgrimage in this life the fame of their merits were a perpetual memory to them after death CHAP. XIII Of the first inventors of artes countenanced by Princes and of the use of southsaying TThe world being raw and rude and barbarous without all civil pollicy Nature of it selfe first mooved men to civilize their manners and instructed the ignorant to séek and search things unknowne This Nature wrought in divers men in sundry countries a desire to knowledge whereby men exercised their gifts to the advancement and commendation of their countries following as Cicero saith Nature as a good guide and a Captaine to finde out that which was not known And because nature was alwayes desirous to be acquainted with art as a thing to exornate and beautifie her selfe she first invented letters as the foundation and the ground whence all learning doth procéed Afterwards letters were invented amongst the Hebrews by Phylo and brought unto Gréece by Cadmus and practised first in Egypt by Memnon from Egypt unto Phrygia brought by one named Hercules an Egyptian born Again among the Hetruscans letters were first invented and written by Demaratus a Corinthian Amongst the Romanes as both Plutarch and Solinus do affirm the Pilagians invented letters and taught the use thereof And some Authors of great credit affirm that Nicostrata the mother of Evander the Areadian invented letters first in Rome So Radamanthus in Syria and so others in divers places of the world were studious and carefull to search a way by reason to practise the same by wit and to disperse the lumpish Chaos which yet for want of knowledge had no perfect forme And now letters being invented Grammer worthyly came to claime the second seat of fame whose beginning and entrance unto Rome was celebrated by Epicurus brought by one Crates being sent as Ambassador from king Attalus unto the Senatours at the time of the second wars of Carthage This is the well whence flow all other sciences for from the faculty of writing and the art of speaking do the rest procéed Macrobius preferreth Dydimus for his excellency herein Cicero commendeth one named Antonius Enipho whose schoole and lecture Cicero
he began to be moved with pity and mercy possest the chief place in his heart so that when the women of the City brought their children in their arms to crave mercy at Merellus hand he avoided the calamity and misery that was ready to fall on Centobrica and spared the City and removed his Camp being conquered himself with pity and mercy of the ruthfull women and innocent children Thus gentle Metellus where he might have béen a Conqueror over men did suffer himself to be conquered by little Infants O Rome happy were those golden days wherein through clemency and gentleness thou wast as much loved and honoured as thou hast béen by valiant Captains trembled at and feared Pompieius the great when Tigâ—anes King of Armenia being by him conquered had knéeled before Pompeius face yéelding his Crown and Scepter at Pompeius his foot and himself unto his gentleness as a captive took him in his arms embraced him put his Crown on his head and restored him to to the Kingdome of Armenia again The like courtesie he used toward Mithridates King of Pontus being dead in giving him a royal burial though he knew well the great hatred that Mithridates had fourty years against the Romans yet in stead of just revengement Pompey used Princely clemency The gentleness that was then used in Rome yet betwixt foes was such that Julius Caesar that valiant Emperor and Conqueror was as willing to revenge the death of his great enemy Pompey upon Photina and Bassus who slew Pompey and did send his head to Caesar as L. Parâ—lus was courteous and favourable to his most mortal foe Perseus Hannibal though he was counted the most and greatest enemy that ever Rome felt yet moved with Princely clemencie he won more commendations for the burial of P. Aemilius Gracchus and Marcellus three noble Romans then he wan fame by overcomming two thousand Romans in field The chief fame that Hannibal was worthy of was for his humanity and gentlenesse as is proved by these two noble Romans before mentioned whose dead carcasses Hannibal caused diligently to be sought for in the field and solemnly to be buried with honour and renown though they were his enemies And as Hannibal was much commended in Rome and well beloved of the Romans for his humanity so was he feâ—red much in Rome for his prowesse and valiant déeds of arms Polycrates that Tyrant of Samos was chiefly commended for his gentlenesse and courtesie shewed towards women which were the wives and mothers of the dead souldiers in restoring them unto liberty in giving them wealth to live and a great charge that no man should do them any wrong Augustus the Emperor when he beheld in the City of Alexandria the sword wherewith Marcus Antonius slew himself could not refrain from tears to shew his humanity and opening his clemency of nature to his enemy he commanded that he should be honourably buried with his dear friend Cleopatra in one grave Cicero in his first book of Tusculans commendeth much the clemency of Cleobes and Bâ—ton in shewing such love and obedience to their mother who being in her Chariot ready to go to the solemn feast of the Goddesse Juno the horses suddenly died and there being no other remedy least their mother should go on foot they yoked themselves to draw the Chariot ten miles to their immortal praise and commendations I remember a history in Patritius of one Simonides who for that he was moved with pity to bury a dead corps left in the way where no man put it into the earth as he was passing with his fellows over the seas that night before they should sail in the morning appeared unto Simonides the self-same man whom he had buried upon the way warning him that day not to go to sea so when he should take shipping he remembring his dream told if unto his fellows desiring them to stay that day but his company laughing him to scorn leaving Simonides on the shore sailed to the seas where in sight of Simonides the ship and all his fellows were lost The like pity was found in Simon the son of that most valiant Gréek Militiades who being elected Generall over the Athenians against the great might and force of puissant Zerxes in the wars of Marathon was nothing inferiour unto his renowned father in prowesse but far passed him in clemency and curtesie this young man for his lenity and pity being joined with valiantnesse was appointed by the City of Athens to incounter with Xerxes whom his father Militiades often plagued at the first time of trying his magnanimity inforced Xerxes after spoil of his souldiers and victory of field to fly unto Persia he was so pittifull that he paied a great sum of monies to have his father Militiades buried who after many conquests and fawning of fortune in victories died in prison whose death and burial shewed no lesse love and faithfulnesse in Simon towards his father then it shewed evidently the pity and mercy he had in redéeming his fathers corps to be buried Wherefore that pitifull Emperour Alexander Severus being demanded what is that which is chief felicity in this world said to foster friends with benefits and gentlenesse and to reconcile foes with pity and rewards Alphonsus at what time a certain dog barked at him took a toast out of his cup and cast it to the dog then saying gentlenesse and clemency shall make foes friends I know not what greater humanity could be then was in Vespasian the Emperour after that Vitellius had killed his brother Sabinus and had long persecuted Vespasians son being at last subdued he spared not to shew gentlenesse to Vitellius his daughter and gave her a great sum of money towards her marriage Agesilaus King of the Lacedemonians after he had the victory of Corinth did not so joy in his conquest as he lamented the deaths of so many Athenians and Corinthians and as Plutarch doth witnesse he said wéeping O Greece thou spillest more men with civil wars by discord then would defend thy state against all the world with courage To use victory genty is more famous then to conquer cruelly As the Emperour Adrian was wont to say that Princes ought rather with pity to say this I can do then with tyranny to say this I will do Augustus that most pittifull Prince after he had conquered that famous City Alexandria which the great Conquerour Alexander had builded and named it according unto his own name being moved with pity stirred with mercy in sight of the Citizens who hoped to have nothing but death said for the beauty of your city and memory of Alexander as also for the love I have unto Prius your Philosopher and for the pity I bear unto you all I spare unto you your City and grant you your life O swéet sounding words from a pittifull Prince not much unlike his predecessour Julius Caesar his own mothers brother who after vanquishing of Pompey at Pharsalia sent letters unto
the cause thereof being demanded by Marius and orderly declared by Trebonius where as it was thought he should be hanged drawn and quartered and suffer most ignominious death he was rewarded with a Crowne of gold upon his head written about with this sentence This crowne and garland won Trebonius by temperance Had Demetrius King of Macedonia embraced sobriety of féeding Democles had not béen so famous by abstinence as Demetrius might have béen renownes through temperance Had that Roman Lucius loved continency as Trebonius honored chastity Trebonius had not had of Marius Lucius his uncle the praise the garlaÌ„d of commendations and he so vile and shameful a death Certainly when the people of Athens fed on figs the Arcadians on Acorns or Walnuts the Argives on Parsly the Terinthians on Pears the Scythians on herbs the inhabitants of Carmenia and Meâ—cica on poor fare yea when the whole world fed on those fruits which our old mother the earth naturally brought forth before corne was sowne then kingdomes and nations were ruled by the law of nature to imbrace temporance to honour abstinence and to observe chastity which since grew to that aboundance and excesse that the law of God which was first the law of nature which was the second the law of Princes which was the last could not kéep men from the excesse of meat which onely was the cause of the sinking of Sodom and Gamorrha of the often plaguing of the Israelites of the just confusion of gluttony and drunkards When the Gymnosophistes of India fed onely with apples when the Priests of Egypt abstained from flesh and wine and fed on bread and oyl when the Sages of Persia fed on fruits and herbs then temperance bare rule then sobriety governed then abstinence was honoured then Egypt flourished through temperance and is now destroyed by gluttony Then India prospered through continencie and sobriety and is now vanquished by drunkennesse and temerity Then Persia was famous and conquered Kingdomes by abstinencie and is now convicted and conquered by abundance and excesse Where is learned Athens famous Sparta stately Thebes These while temperance ruled were feared of all kings and are now by meanes of excesse hated and despised of all Princes All the while that the Lacedemonians observed the laws of Lycurgus in abstaining from brave banquets and excesse of chéer yea when they might not passe unto Asia for fear they should be allured and entiled with the sight of the junkets of Asia then saith Cicero were the people of Sparta so temperate that the men did never sit with women nor the women with the men The Milesians made a straight law as Theophrastus doth witnesse that neither their wives their daughters nor maids might taste wine neither durst any man by the same law praise any wine in presence of women for wine causeth heat heat moveth lust lust causeth murther Wherefore wise men write that it is dangerous to prayse three things in presence of the people As for a man to prayse the beauty of his wife for fear of fornicators for so did King Candaules of Lidia praise his wife unto his friend Giges and he was murthered thereby and the Queene his wife afterward married unto Giges for a man to brag of his riches and substance for so did Sichaeus shew his substance unto Pigmalion king of Tyre who married the kings daughter named Eliza and was slaine by the selfe same Pigmalion king of Tyre and his owne brother in law lastly to commend swéet wine in presence of the people doth bréed a desire unto lust and lust unto death The famous Romans for a long while kept so streight an order to observe temperance so streightly was this law looked unto that Eg. Maecenius having slain his own wife as Pliny recordeth for that she loved wine he was by the law of Romulus made for that purpose saved from death In the same place of Plini it is read that a certain matron of Rome was adjudged to die for that she had a privy key unto a cellar of wine So much did they observe this temperance that Cato the Censor appointed by a law certain men to kisse the women of Rome to know whether they smelled of wine by their breath No man of what degree soever he was Consul Censor Tribune or Senatour might drink wine in Rome before he was thirty and five years of age The people of Messaliâ—tica made and ordained that the women should drink no other drink then water Amongst the Egyptians there was by a law appointed how much wine their Princes might drink and no more The Persians fed onely then on bread salt and water The prophets of Jupiter in Créet abstained from flesh and wine In Rhodes he was taken a grosse brained man that fed on any thing else but on fish The Lacedemonians were most severe against those that waxt fat by féeding insomuch that they would punish their own children with hunger if they waxed fat either by feeding or by idlenesse Thus abstinence was fostred as a nurse unto chastity and temperance then Princes lothed vice and loved vertue then they abhorred gluttony and drunkennesse and honoured abstinence and sobriety The learned and sage Phylosophers and men of passing abstinence and sobriety being no lesse studious then careful of temperance despised banquets refused feasts lothed and defied belly chéere and being allured of Princes enticed of noble men sought of all men they forsook and fled from the same saying we eat to live we live not to eat A golden sentence and worthy to be observed Rather had Diogenes féed and lick dishes at Athens then to féed daintily at Alexanders table Rather had that learned Gréek noble Zeno drink water and féed poorly as an example unto his schollers of temperance then to pamper his belly at Antigonus princely table to shew them the way unto gluttony and drunkennesse Rather had Plato forsake Dionisius table than to abstain from his wonted Philosophicall cheere This vertue of abstinence was of noble Socrates maintained with bread and milk onely and learned Homer honoured it with pottage made of herbs and ancient Pythagoras with beans Anacharsis a Scythian Phylosopher being demanded of his estate how he fed how he did lye and how he was clothed answered I feed on hunger I lye on the ground and am clothed like a Scythian The famous Athenian Aristides at what time king Dionisius made sute for his daughter in marriage though he was a puissant Prince a mighty king yet for his gluttony and prodigal drinking for his tyranny and excesse Aristides who abhorred such vices in Princes soberly and temperately answered that he would rather kill his daughter with his own hands then to give his daughter in marriage unto Dionisius So odious unto good Princes was that excesse of eating and prodigal drinking and so highly esteemed was abstinence and temperance that in Athens a long while in the temple of Ceres of all the laws of Triptolemus three onely commandements as
sacrifice unto death for a pledge of their true and faithfull love What means doth love séek to save it self and to be acquainted with ease and pleasure how carefully the Greek Poet Antimachus bewailed the death of his wife Lisidides in such mourning verses and wofull plaints that whosoever did read them he would be as ready to weep in reading the dolefull Epitaph of Lisidâ—des as was Antimachus her husband sorrowfull for her death Pericles was so loving to his wife being a noble Captain of Athens and he was withal so chast that when Sophocles espied a marvellous beautifull young maid saying Behold a passing fair young maid Pericles answered and said Not onely the heart and the hands of a Magistrate must be chast but also his eys must refuse the sight of any but his wife It is read that Pericles being at Athens he was found kissing and making much of his wife and being from Athens he was found as sad to depart from his wife as he was willing to die for his countrey Orpheus loved so well his wife Euridice that as the Poets feign he feared not the power of King Pluto to redéem his wife with hazard and danger of his own body Innumerable are they that deserve the like fame so that these few may be a sufficent proof of others And now I will produce a few examples to prove the like good will and love from the wives shewed toward their husbands as hitherto you heard the great love of husbands towards their wives Alcestes a noble Qu. of Thessaly at what time K. Admetus her husband should die having received an answer by an Oracle that if any would die for the King he should live which when all refused his wife Queen Alcestes offered her self to die to save her husbands life Julia the wife oi Pompey the great and onely daughter to that famous and renowned Julius Caesar Emperour of Rome was no lesse obedient to her father Caesar then she was loving to her husband Pompey who though they both were enemies one to to another yet she shewed her self a loving daughter unto her father and a true wife to her husband and so true that when she saw her own Pompey coming bloudy from the field as his apparel made a shew a great way off she supposing that her husband was hurt being great with child did straight fall into travel and died before Pompey had yet come in The love of Artemisia Quéen of Caria towards her husband King Mausolus is as well declared by the sumptuous Tomb. and gorgeous Grave which she made for him when he died counted for the excellency thereof to be one of the seven wonders of the world it was also truly verified by ceremonies at his death in making the scull of his head her drinking cup in drinking all the ashes of his body as sugar to her wine and in knitting of his heart to her body saying Though our bodies be parted yet our hearts shall never be asunder That noble Greek Laodamia loved her husband so well that when she heard that her husband Protesilaus was slain by Hector at the siege of Troy she desired onely of God that she might see his shadow or likenesse once before she died which when she saw embracing the likenesse of her husband as she thought in her arms she then presently died We read that Quéen Ipsicratea loved her husband King Mithridates so entirely that she shaved off all the hairs of her head and did wear mans apparel and followed him like a Lackey for that he should not know her to be his wife she had rather go to the wars with her husband like a Lackey then tarry from her husband in Pontus like a Quéen Paulina when she heard that her husband Seneca was put to death by that cruel Emperour and Tyrant Nero whom Seneca sometime taught in his youth but was at length requited with death when I say Paulina heard thereof she enquired what kind of death her husband suffered which being known she attempted to die the same kind of death her self as Seneca her husband Likewise that noble Portia daughter to Cato and wife to Brutus hearing that her husband was slain at Phillipi for that she could not procure a knife she choaked her self with coals The like History is read of Triata who when she knew by letters that her husband Vitellius was environed by his enemies and no way able to escape his wife rushed into the Camp and preast near her husband ready to die or to live in the field with him What can be so hard to take in hand but love will hazard it What can be so perilous but love will venter it Neither water can stay it nor fire stop it Sulpitia the wife of Lentulus the daughter of that worthy Roman Paterculus when she perceived that her husband was appointed by the Magistrates of Rome to passe unto Sicilia as an Embassador and there to continue for a season though her mother had great charge over her and very carefull and studious she was to comfort her daughter in the absence of her husband yet she deceived her mother she changed her apparel and caused her two maids likewise to be disguised and went all by night from Rome to Sicily Aemilia the wife of Affricanus and mother to the noble Cornelia who was mother to those famous Romans called Gracchi perceiving her husband to be in love with one of her maids in the house and often to use the maid as his wife though Aemilia knew well of it yet she never hated the maid nor opened it unto her husband But after that her husband was dead she gave unto this Maid a great summe of money and married her wealthily in Rome A rare thing to be found in a woman What shall I speak of the love of Penelope in Gréece towards her husband Ulysses or shew the constancy of Lucreece in Rome towards her husband Collatine the one twenty years was proved by divers noble Greeks yet she remained true unto Ulisses the other through force being ravished by proud Tarquinius son named Sextus would not be false to Collatinus but opened the same and revenged it with her own death Now again how well did Queen Tomiris love her son Margapites the death of great Cyrus King of Persia with two hundred thousand of his souldiers can testifie or how Aegeus loved his son Theseus who when he had perceived the black sail he supposing his son was slain in that Labyrinth he threw himself from a high rock into the sea Why should I molest the Reader herein since an end can hardly be found I will but onely recite one worthy History out of Valerius of a servant to one named Panopion who hearing that certain souldiers came to the City of Reatina in purpose to kill his master he changed apparel with his master and conveyed his master first away safe from the enemies and he went unto his masters bed as though he had béen
Athens Lentulus the defendour of Italy exiled from Rome Dion of Siracusa hunted out of his country by Dionisius even that renowned Hannibal that long protector of Carthage was compelled after long service for his country to range about like a pilgrim every where to séek some safe-guard for his life Too many examples might be brought from Gréek and Latine histories for the proof hereof The chiefest bulwark of a Common-wealth saith Demosthenes is assured faith without flattery and good will tried in the Commons and plainnesse without deceit boldnesse and trust in the Nobility Flattery is the onely snare that wise men are deceived withall and this the pharisées knew well who when they would take our Saviour Christ tardy in his talk they began to flatter him with fair words saying Master we know that thou art just and true and that thou camest from God Even so Herod willing to please the Iews in killing James the brother of John and in imprisoning Peter he so pleased the people with flattery that they cried out this is the voice of God and not the voice of men so sweet was flattery amongst the Iews The flattering friends of Ammon knowing the wickednesse of his mind and his perverse dealing toward Mardocheus did not perswade Ammon from his tyranny but flattered him with fair words and made him prepare a high gallows for Mardocheus where Ammon and his children were hanged But the young man that came to flatter king David saying Saul and his children are dead was by David for his flattery commanded to die CHAP. XLIIII Of the Pilgrimages of Princes and Misery of Mortality THere is neither beast on the earth nor fowl in the ayr nor fish in the sea that séeks his own decay but man onely as by experience we sée all things to have a care of their own lives The Lion when he féeleth himself sick he never ceaseth till he féedeth upon an Ape whereby he may recover his former health The Goats of Créet féeding on high upon the mountains when any of them is shot through with an arrow as the people of that Countrey are most excellent archers they seek out an herb called Dictamum and assoon as they eat any part of it the arrow falleth down and the wound waxeth whole incontinently There are certain kinds of Frogs in Egypt about the floud of Nilus that have this perceiverance that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is which is great a murtherer and spoiler of Frogs they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed which groweth about the banks of Nile and as this fish doth gape thinking to feed upon the Frog the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the Frog and so they save their lives If the Goats of Creet if the Frogs of Egypt have this understanding to avoid their enemies how much more ought man to be circumspect of his life who hath millions of enemies neither seen nor known We read in the first book of Aelian that the rude swine if at any time by chance they eat of that herb called Hiosciamus which so contracteth draweth their veins together that they can hardly stir they will strive for remedy to go under the water where they feed upon young Crabs to recover health In the same book you may read of a sea Snail which from the water doth come to land to breed and after she hath egged she diggeth the earth and hideth her egs and returneth to the sea again and there continueth fourty days and after fourty days she commeth to the self same place where she hid her egs and perceiving that they are ready to come out of the shell she openeth the shell and taketh her young ones with her into the sea And thus have they a care not onely of their own states and lives but also of others and by some shew of sence they help that which is most dangerous and hurtfull The little Mice have this kind of fore-knowledge that when any house waxeth old and ruinous they forsake their old dwelling and creeping holes and flee and seek refuge in some other place The little Ants have such fore-sight that when penury and want of relief draweth near they wax painfull and laborious to gather victuals as may serve them during the time of famine If these small creeping worms and simple beasts provide for themselves what shall we say of man the King and ruler over all beasts who hath not onely a body to provide for but also a soul to save More happy are these worms and beasts in their kind then a number of Princes are for that they by nature onely are taught to avoid their foes we neither by nature neither by God the cause of all goodnesse can love our friends Therefore very well it is said of the wise man that either not to be born or else being born straight to die is the happiest state that can chance to man For living in this vale of misery we see the Pilgrimage and travel of life to be such that better far it were to be a poor quiet man then a proud ambitious Prince And since death is the last line of life as well appointed for Princes as for poor men who in reading of the lives of Emperors Kings and Princes and the Nobles of the world seeth not their unhappy states which come into the world naked and depart from the same naked yet like proud Pilgrims are busie one to destroy another not content with countreys and Kingdomes they go from place to place like Pilgrims to be more acquainted with misery and to seek death Alexander the great conquerourâ— taking his voyage from his Kingdome of Macedonia unto India in a desire to destroy all the world he was in the City of Babylon prevented by Antipater and Iola with poyson and there he died Philopomenes a great Emperor sometime in Gréece being taken prisoner in the wars of Messena was so cruelly handled that he besought Dinocrates who then was Prince of that countrey and conquerour over him one drâ—ught of poyson to end his life Thus he that could not be content to be Emperor and ruler of Gréece was moved to seek death in a strange Countrey amongst his foes Ladislaus King of Apulia endeavouring to subdue the Florentines and séeking to be King over the Florentines lost the Kingdome of Apulia and by them was at length poysoned and so bereft both of Kingdome and life With this unhappy kind of death many Princes have been prevented and no lesse threatned are these Princes by their own houshold friends then by forraign foes No lesse do their children their wives brethren and kinsmen study to destroy them Thus Claudius Caesar an Emperor of Rome was poysoned by his own wife Agrippina Antiochus King of Syria was poysoned by his Quéen Laodice so that he was in love with Berenices King Ptolomy's sisterr Constantine the Emperor the son of Heraclius being
but one year a ruler in the Empire was poysoned by his mother in Law named Martina The very cause of the Emperor Conradus death who was Fredericks son was onely the Empire and rule of Rome for Manfredus his successour hired the Physitians to poyson him that he might have the onely sway O unhappy state of Princes whose lives are desired both of friends and foes No lesse danger it is to be in favour with Princes sometime then perillous to be Princes We read of a Quéen named Rosimunda the daughter of King Cunimund of Gepida who after she had poysoned Albonius King of the Longobards her first husband did marry a Prince of Ravenna named Helinges whom likwise she thought to poison but being warned in the middest of his draught he caused his wife to drink the rest which drink was the cause of both their deaths How many noble Princes in the middest of their pilgrimages have died that death as Dioclesian the Emperour of Rome Lotarius King of France Charls the eight of that name with divers others as Hannibal prince of Carthage Aristobulus King of Iudea and Lucullus Generall of Rome Princes and noble men do sometime poison themselves lest they should be inforced to serve their foes as Themistocles being banished from his country of Athens being in service under Artaxerxes King of Persia poisoned himself with the bloud of a Bull in presence of all the Persians lest he should be compelled to fight in wars against Gréece his country Even so Aratus prince of Sicionia perceiving Philip the younger would banish and exile him out of his country was inforced with poison to drink his own death out of his own hand Even after this sort after long administration of the Commonwealth did noble Socrates learned Anaxagoras worthy Seneca and famous Demosthenes poison themselves Thus their pilgrimages were ended and their lives finished their honour and dignity their fame and renown did purchase them death Happy then are those whom the world knows not who desire not to be acquainted with the world but quiet and contented do finish the course of their pilgrimages Had not Jugurthus thirsted for the Kingdom of Numidia he had not slain his two brethren Adherbal and Hempsal which were partakers of the Crown for the which vengeance fell upon him being subdued by Marius and dying afterwards in prison Had not King Siphax thirsted after the Empire of Rome he had never béen taken captive and prisoner by Tiberius where he at length out of his Kingdome died in prison Henry the third was of his own son named Henry put again in prison where he died Aristonicus for all his businesse and great doings was vanquished by the Consull Aquilius and put in prison where likewise he died In prison divers princes have ended their lives in forrein countries Strange kinds of deaths happen upon Princes more then on any other men as orderly I shall prove by their pilgrimages and lives Some by fire as the Tyrant Phalaris of Agrigentum who was burned with all his children and his wife in the Brasen Bull which Perillus made for others was first of all put into it himself By fire was the Emperour Valentine burned by the Goths by fire was that famous Greek Alcibiades destroied in Phrygia and burned in bed with his mistresse Timandra after he had ruled Athens and all Greece a long while Sardanapalus that great King and last prince of Assyria fearing to fall into the hands of Arbactus and detesting to die by his enemies made a solemn fire when after his lewd life wantoning in lust and following his desires he burned himself it was the end of the renowned Hercules who conquered Monsters subdued Serpents Lions Dragons and wild beasts at the last he put on the shirt of Nestus the Centaur which burned him alive What shall I speak of Boges the dear friend sometime of King Xerxes who when he knew that he could not escape the hand of Cimon and the power of Atâ—ens he made a great fire where he caused his wife and concubines his children and family to be burned and then his gold silver and treasure and last of all he burned himself Empedocles Catullus Luctatius Asdrubal and Poâ—tia died this death So desirous were men alwaies to become princes so ambitious of honour so greedy of wealth that having the name of a King they thought to avoid and escape that which alwaies waits on the heels of Princes I mean death Were not princes hanged by their own subjects which is the vilest and most ignominious death that can be Achaeas King of Lidia for that he troubled his subjects with new taxes and subsedies was hanged by his own subjects at the river of Pactolus Bomilchar a Prince of Libia being suspected by the Carthaginians that he had conspired with Agathocles unto the annoiance of the subjects was hanged in the City of Carthage in the middest of the Market Policrates who was supposed to be the happiest Prince that ever reigned in Samos and never sustained any losse by fortune was at last by Orontes the Persian King Darius General hanged in sight of Samos Herodotus doth affirm that Leonides that famous King of Sparta who long ruled the Lacedemonians with great fame and renown was by Xerxes King of Persia after his head was smitten off commanded notwithstanding to be hanged Trogus doth write of Hanno a prince of Carthage which flourished in the time of King Philip father to Alexander the great who for his prosperous successe that he had in all his attempts waxed to be such a tyrant that his own people first bound him with cords whipt him with rods pluckt out his eys brake his legs cut off his hands and at last to recompence his tyranny they hanged him up in Carthage These were no mean men that thus were hanged in their own country and by their own people Thus Princes in the middest of their lives have béen arrested by death and by divers kinds of death Some as you have heard by poison some by fire some by hanging have ended their pilgrimages some again have been devoured by their own horses as Diomedes King of Thracia became food himself to those beasts which before he fed with mens bodies The King of Eubea for his tyranny in Boetia was given by Hercules to be eaten by his own horses Licinius the Emperour at what time he had appointed that his daughter Hâ—rina should be given to his horses to be eaten he himself giving her as food unto them was torn in pieces It hâ—ppened that Neocles the son of that noble Greek Themistocks was by a horse likewise devoured And this was not strange unto princes for they were alwaies subject unto all kind of deaths After that the famous prince Mâ—â—us Captain of the Lybians had broken truce with the Romans he was afterward as Livi doth witnesse taken and drawn by four great horses alive at the cemmandement of Tullus Hostilius being then King of Rome Hâ—ppâ—litus son
Honorificus King of the Vandales and Herode King of the Iews were eaten up alive with vermine and Lice Pliny and Plutarch say that proud Sylla which sore plagued Rome and Italy had all his flesh converted into Lice and so died Herodotus doth likewise report of one Pheretrina a Quéen of the Barceans who died of this filthy and horrible death God hath taken them away in the midst of their pleasure even eating and drinking as Septimus and Valentianus two famous Emperours who died both of a surfeit for want of digestion Archesilaus died presently with one draught of wine What is the life of Princes but an uncertain Pilgrimage Nay women are famous for their pilgrimage therein As the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to hear and to learn Solomon's wisdome Cornelia from Rome being a noble woman went to Palestina to hear Saint Hierome teach Christians The pilgrimage of our life is nothing else but a continual travel until we come to our last journey which is Death then is the end of all pilgrimage and just account to be made for the same CHAP. XLV Of Death the End of all Pilgrimage THe last line of all things is death the discharge of all covenants the end of all living creatures the onely wish of the good and the very terrour of the wicked And for that the life of man is divers so is death variable after sundry manners and fashions as by experience is séen and known in all Countreys Nothing is surer then death yet nothing is more uncertain then death For Pindarus that wise King of the Liricans being demanded of certain Beotians what might best happen to man in this world Even that said he which chanced to Trophonius and Agâ—medes meaning Death For these men after they had builded a new Temple to Apollo demanded of Apollo the best reward that he could give them they thinking to enjoy some dignity or worldly substance were seven days after rewarded with death The like we read in the first Book of Herodotus where the mother of Biton and Cleobes two young men of Argos knéeling before the Image of Juno besought the Goddesse to bestow some excellent good thing upon her two sons for their pain and travel that they shewed toward her in drawing her Chariot ten miles in stead of horses The Goddesse willing to grant them the best thing that could be given to man the next night quietly in bed as they slept they both died Wherefore very well did Aristippus answer a certain man who asked how Socrates died Even in that order said he that I wish my self to die Giving to understand that any death is better then life That noble Philosopher Plato a little before he died as Sabellicus doth write did thank nature for three causes the first that he was born a man and not a beast the second that he was born in Gréece and not in Barbary the third that he was born in Socrates time who taught him to die well Hermes that great Philosopher of Egypt even dying so embraced death that he called upon that that divine spirit which ruled all the heavens to have mercy upon him being right glad that he had passed this toyling life Such is the uncertainty of death that some in the half of their days and in the midst of their fame and glory die So Alexander the great died in Babilon Pompey died in Egypt and Marcellus being a young man of great towardnesse and by adoption heir unto the Empire of Rome died It is strange to sée the varieties of death and in how divers and sundry fashions it hath happened unto Great men always Some being merry in their banquets and drinking were slain so Clitus was slain by Alexander the great being his chief friend Amnon being bidden to a banquet by Absalom was slain by him Yea all the Embassadors of Persia were commanded to be slain even drinking at the table by Amintas King of Macedonia Some end their lives wantonning with women and playing in chambers as that renowned Alcibiades being taken in wantonnesse with Timandra was slain by Lisander Even so Phaon and Speusippus the Philosopher died likewise Some bathing and refreshing themselves have perished by their own wives so Agamemnon that famous Gréek was killed by his wife Clitemnestra and Argirus Emperor of Rome by his wife Zoe Divers in prison have died as captives so Aristobulus Eumenes Aristonicus Marius Cleomenes Jugurth Siphax famous and renowned Princes Divers have béen slain in the draught as that beast Heliogabalus whom Rome so hated that he fled to a draught and there was slain and after was drawn through the streets and thrown into the river of Tyber Cneius Carbo a man of great dignity and power in Rome was commanded that he should be slain as he was sitting on his stool of ease by Pompey in the third time of his Consulship in Rome Thus shamefully have some died and thus famously others died Patroclus knew not that he should be slain by Hector Hector never thought he should be killed by Achilles Achilles never doubted his death by Paris Paris never judged that he should be vanquished by Pirrhus Neither did Pirrhus know that he should be overcome by Orestes so that no man knoweth his end where how and when he shall die and yet all men are certain and sure that they have an end that they must néeds die And yet the fear of death hath overcome the stoutest souldiers We read that Asdrubal of Carthage a noble and a famous Captain â—verthrown by Scipio for fear of death knéeled before Scipio embracing his féet and was so fearfull that his own wife was ashamed of his doings Yet had this famous Generall rather be a laughing stock to the Romans a bond man to Scipio running a foot like a lacky after his triumph then to die manfully in the behalf of his countrey which valiantly for a time he defended Perpenna likewise a famous Roman being taken in Spain by the souldiers of Pompey in a place full of Groves fearing lest at that instant he should be slain by Pompey's souldiers he made them believe that he had divers things to speak to Pompey of some designs that the enemies had in hand against him rather had Perpenna betray his friends and his fellows yea and all his country to his enemy then suffer a sudden death A greater fear of death we read in that book of Fulgosius of the Emperour Vitellius who after he had vanquished and slain divers nobles and shewed great wrongs unto the Emperour Otho and to Sabinus brother to Vespasian the Emperour being in fear of his life by Vespasian and being taken by the souldiers hee besought them rather then die presently that hee might be kept safe in prison untill he might sée and speak with Vespasian the Emperour such was his fear that he did hide himself in a chest to prolong his wretched life So fearful was Caligula of death that he would never go abroad at any