by the Romans Upon intelligence therefore that an ally'd City was besieg'd calling to mind the leaguâ— made with the Carthaginians they do not presently arm but chose rather after a legal way to make their complaints In the mean time the Inhabitants of Saguntus wearied out with famine and all the extremities of a siege in fine their fidelity being heightned into exasperation made a great pile in the midst of their City upon which being got themselves their relations and all their wealth perish'd by fire and sword Hannibal is demanded as Author of so great a calamity The Carthaginians seeming at a losse what to do What means this delay said Fabius the principal person of the Roman Embassy in this bosome I bring war and peace whether do you make choice of Take which you think best Whereto it being reply'd that he should produce which he pleased Take war then saith he and thereupon letting down the forepart of his garment in the midst of the Councel-room he did it with such a dreadfull noise as if he had really brought war in his lap The period of the war was suitable to the beginning of it For as if the last imprecations of the Saguntines at their publick self-slaughter and conflagration had commanded such obsequies to be performed for them their ghosts were appeased by the desolation of Italy the reduction of Africk and the destruction of those Kings and Generals who manag'd that war When therefore that sad and dismal violence and tempest of the Carthaginian war had in the fire at Saguntus forg'd out the thunder-bolt long before design'd against the Romans immediately as forc'd by some whirlewind it broke through the middle of the Alpâ— and fell down upon Italy from those incredible heights of snow as if it had descended from the Heavens The first eruptions of the storm broke forth about the Po and Ticinus Scipiâ— being then General our Army was defeated and he himself had fallen wounded into the hands of the enemies if his Son then but young had not reliev'd and rescu'd his Father from death it self This was the Scipio who afterwards grew up for the destruction oâ— Africk and had his surname from its misfortunes Trebia had the same fate as Ticinus Here rag'd the second tempest of the Punick war Sempronius being Consul At this time the crafty enemies having pitch'd upon a cold and snowy day after they had warm'd themselves at the fire and anointed themselves with oil though people coming from the southerly and Sunny parts of the world a thing hardly creditable made their advantage of our own Winter to overcome us Hannibal's third thunderbolt fell at the lake Trasimanenus Flaminius being General There also they made use of another knack of Punick artifice For the Horse being shadow'd by a misâ— arising from the Lake and the Osiars growing there abouts fell upon the rear of us being engag'd Nor can we complain of the Gods For swarms of Bees sticking to the Ensigns and the unwillingnesse of the Eagles to march out and a great Earth-quake happening at the joyning of the battel had forewarned the temerarious General of the approaching defeat unlesse that Earthquake might proceed from the trampling of Men and Horses and the over-violent handling of arms The fourth that is in a manner the last wound of the Empire was at Cannae an obscure village of Apulia but the greatnesse of the overthrow and the slaughter of forty thousand men hath made it famous There the General himself Earth Heaven the day in fine the whole course of nature combin'd to the destruction of an unfortunate Army For Annibal not contenting himself onely with counterfeit fugitives who fell upon the rear of us but the most subtle General having in a most spacious champion observ'd the scituation of the place as also that the Sun shin'd very hot and much dust arose and that the East-wind blew constantly as if it had been design'd to do it so order'd his Forces that the Romans were exposed to all these inconveniences and he favour'd by Heaven engag'd them with the advantage of wind dust and Sun Whereupon ensu'd the slaughter of two very powerful Armies till the enemies were glutted with killing and Annibal said to his Soldiers Give over One of the Generals made his escape the other was slain whether express'd greater courage is doubtful Paulus was asham'd Varro despaired not Demonstrations of the great slaughter were that the Anâ—idus continu'd bloody for some time that by the command of the Enemy there was a bridge of carcasses made over the torrent Gellus that two bushels of rings were sent to Carthage and so by measure it was known whaâ— number of Roman Knights were slain Then was it not doubted but that Rome was come to its period and that within five days Annibal might feast it in the Capitol if as was said by the Carthaginian Maherbal the Son of Bomiliar Annibal had known as well how to use a victory as gain it But then as is commonly said either the fate of that City which was to be Empresse of the world or his own evil Genius or the Gods averse from Carthage carried him another way When he might have press'd on his victory to the utmost advantage he chose rather to content himself with what had been done and leaving Rome took a progresse into Campania and Tarentus where in a short time both he and his army languished so that it was truely said that Capua had been as fatal to Annibal as Canna to the Romans For the warmth of Campania and the baths of Baiae who would believe it overcame him whom the Alps and arms had found unconquerable In the mean time the Romans took breath and seemed as it were to rise out of their graves Arms being wanting they took down those which had been set up in the Temples There wanted young men to â—ear them they set free their slaves and give them the military oath The Treasury was exhausted the Senate brought in their wealth reserving to themselves nothing of gold but what was in Jewels Belts and Rings The Knights follow'd their example and the Commonalty theirs In fine when the wealth of private persons was brought into the publick stock Levinus and Marcellus being Consuls the contributions were so great that there were hardly Registers or Writers enough to set them down But what did they in the election of Magistrates How great was the prudence of the Centuries When the younger asked Counsel of the ancient about the creation of Consuls For it concern'd them to fight against an Enemy so often Conquerour and so subtle not onely by valour but also by their Counsels The first hope of the recovering and as I may say reviving Empire was Fabius who found out a new way of vanquishing Hannibal which was not to fight Thence he got that new name so beneficial to the Commonwealth of Cunctator or Temporizer Thence that other given him by the people the Buckler of
before them at a publick assembly but also ordered appeals to the People from the Sentence of the Consuls And that his House built like a Cittadel might give no offence he caus'd it to be built lower in a plain place But Brutus courted the City-applause by the destruction and parricide of his own Family For having discover'd that his Sons endeavour'd the restauration of the Kings he dragged them into the Forum and before the whole assembly caus'd them to be scourg'd with Rods and afterwards cut off their heads that he might plainly seem as a publick Parent in stead of his own Children to have adopted the People of Rome The Roman People being thenceforth free first took up Arms against the Foreigners upon the account of Liberty next about Territories then for their Allies and lastly for Glory â—nd Empire the neighboring Nations assaulted them of all sides For having no Land of their own adjoyning to the City all but Rome belonging to the Enemies and lying as it were in a cross-way between Latium and the Tusci at which Gate soever they sallyed out they fell among enemies which continu'd till that as it were by a certain Contagion they over-run all and having possessed themselves of all the neighboring places they reduced all Italy under their Jurisdiction CHAP. X. Porsenna King of Etruria siding with the Tarquins comes with a powerful Army before Rome reduces it to extream necessity and is ready to force it but astonished at the prodigious gallantry of Mutius Horatius and Clelia he makes an allyance with the Romans The Combat between Brutus and Tarquin's Son wherein they both fell AFter the expulsion of the Kings the first arms the people took up were for assertion of their Liberty For Porsenna King of Etruria was in sight with a powerful Army and brought along with him the Tarquins However though he pressed hard upon them by Arms and Famine and having possess'd himself of Janiculum was lodg'd at the enterance of the City yet they broke his attempts nay beat him back and at last put him into such amazement that though he had much the advantage he entred into a friendly League with those whom he had almost overcome Then flourish'd those Romane Prodigies and Miracles Horatius Mutius Clelia of whom did not the Annals make mention they would now seem Fables For Horatius Cocles finding himself not able alone to remove the pressing Enemies the Bridge being broken down behinde him swam cross the Tiber with his Arms about him Mutius Scaevola attempted the Kings person in his Tent but finding his blow spent in vain upon one of his Courtiers he thrust his hand into the fire and heightens the Kings terror by policy That thou mayest be satisfied what a person thou hast escaped know that three hundred of us have sworn the same thing thy death when in the mean time a thing dreadful to relate he who spoke was undaunted the other the King trembled as if his own hand had been burning Thus the Men. But that no sex might want its praise see also the gallantry of Virgins Clelia one of the Hostages delivered to the King having got out of custody cross'd the Tiber on horseback So that the King startled at so many and so great Prodigies of Valour kindly dismiss'd them and set them at liberty The Tarquins continu'd the War till Brutus kill'd Aruntes the Kings Son with his own hand and dy'd himself upon him of a mutual wound he had receiv'd from his adversary as if he would have pursu'd the Adulterer even to hell CHAP. XI The Latines engage in the quarrel of the Tarquins give battel to the Romanes by whom they are defeated The other neighboring Nations disturb their quiet The Romanes fight for the dilatation of their Territories Quinctius Cincinnatus taken from the Plough to be Dictator He subdues the Aequi and treats them as beasts THe Latines also out of emulation and envy to the Romanes took up the quarrel of the Tarquins to the end that a people who commanded abroad might at least be made slaves at home Wherefore the whole Countrey of Latium under the Conduct of Mamilius Tusculanus couragiously undertake to revenge the Kings quarrel They engage at the Lake Regillus a long time with a suspence of success till the Dictator himself Posthumius cast one of his Ensigns among the enemies a new and remarkable stratagem that it might be recover'd again by running upon them * Titus AE E. Titus Aebutius Elva Master of the Horse commanded the Bridles to be taken off that also was strange that they might charge with with the greater violence In fine so sharp was the engagement that it is reported the Gods were present at it particularly two mounted on white Horses whom none doubted but they were Castor and Pollux Whereupon the General of the Romane Army worshipped and in case he had the victory promis'd them Temples which he afterwards performed accounting it as due pay to the Auxiliary Gods Hitherto all the wars were for Liberty Afterwards they were in perpetual hostility with the same Latines about their Confines Sora who would believe it and Algidum were formidable places Satricum and Corniculum were but Provinces For the reduction of Veij and the Boâ—illi two wretched places 't is a shame to say it but we triumphed Tibur which is now as it were the Suburbs of Rome and Praeneste a pleasant Summer-walk were not attempted till after Vows were made in the Capitol for their reduction â—aesulae was then what Taphra is of late the Grove of Aricinum what the Hyrcinian Forrest was Fregellae as considerable as Gesloriacum is now in our days * Or as others Tygris the common Edition not so well Tibris Liris then what Euphrates now to wit the limits of the Empire The taking of Corioli Oh shame was thought so glorious that C. Marcius Coriolâ—nus made the reduction of it part of his name as if he had subdu'd Numantia or Africk There are also to be seen the spoils taken from Antius which C. Maenius hung up in the most eminent place of the Forum after he had taken the Enemies Fleet if that were one for there were but six War-ships But that number in those beginnings of Empire made a considerable Naval Force But the most obstinate of the Latines were the Aequi and the Vosci and as I may say perpetual enemies But these were particularly subdu'd by L. Quinctius that Dictator taken from the Plough who by his incomparable Conduct reliev'd the Camp of the Consul L. Minucius though besieg'd and ready to be taken It happen'd to be then about the midst of Sowing-time when the Lictor took the Patrician at his work holding the Plough He went immediately thence to the Army where â—hat he might do nothing disconsonant from his Rural Employment he caused the subdued enemies like beasts to pass under the yoke So the Expedition being over the triumphant Husbandman return'd to his Oxen. Oh ye Gods With what
confidence is there where there is courage that simple people descended from Shepherds and wholly accustomed to the Land made it appear that it was indifferent to Valor whether the Engagement were on Horse-back or in Ships on Land or at Sea Appius Claudius being Consul they first went into a Sea infamous by reason of the fabulous Monsters within it and of an impetuous Current but they were so far from being frightned that they entertained that Violence of the rowling Sea as a kindness in so much that they overcame Hiero King of Syracuse with such expedition that he acknowledged himself conquer'd before he saw any enemy Duilius and Cornelius being Consuls they had another Engagement at Sea And then indeed the expedition us'd in building the Navy was a presage of the Victory For within sixty days after the felling of the Timber there was a Navy of a hundred and sixty Ships at anchor so that they seem'd not built by Art but that the Trees through a certain design of the Gods had been turn'd into Ships Now the relation of the Engagement is admirable when those heavy Sluggs of ours took the fleet * Loâ—ge illis nauticae artes detergere remos c. So Lipsius Brigantines of the Enemies Little availed their skill in Sea-fight either to justle a whole side of Oars or avoid the Beak of their Enemies by yare or ready turning For the Grapling-irons being fastened and other Engines cast into the Ships though they scornfully laugh'd at them yet were they by their means forc'd to engage as it were upon even ground Having therefore obtain'd a victory at Lyparae the Enemies Fleet being sunk and fled occasion'd the first Naval Triumph Whereat how great was the Joy when Duilus the General not satisfied with one dayes Triumph as long as he liv'd had Torches lighted and some Musick playing before him as soon as he rose from Supper as if he triumphed every day The loss at this Engagement was small considering the greatness of the Victory Cn. Cornelius Asina one of the Consuls was surpriz'd and call'd out under pretence of a Parley was carried away whereby we had an instance of the African perfidiousness During the Dictatorship of Calatrinus most of the Carthaginian Garisons were forc'd out of Agrigentum Drepanum Panormus Eryx Lilibaeum We were once at a loss near the Camarinensian wood but we recovered our selves through the extraordinary Conduct of Calpurnius Flamma a Military Tribune who taking a Party of three hundred choice men possess'd himself of a small piece of Ground where the Enemies were lodg'd to our annoyance and kept them play till the whole Army had march'd away and so by a most happy issue of his attempt he gain'd as great a reputation as that of Leonidas at Thermopylae Onely in this ours is more illustrious that he surviv'd the Expedition though he made no Inscription with his blood L. Cornelius Scipio being Consul when Sicily was become a Suburb-Province to Rome the war spreading farther they cross'd over into Sardinia as also into Corfica which is adjoyning to the other The * Annexâ—mque Corsicam trâ—â—siit Olbi â— hic Aleriae ibi urbis excidio incolâ—s terruit Thus restor'd by Salmâ—sius Inhabitants of the one they terrified by the destruction of the City Olbia those of the other by that Oleria and by Sea and Land so defeated the Carthaginians that there remained only Africk to make an absolute Conquest Under Marcus Attilius Regulus the war sayled over into Africk Yet were there some who trembled at the very name of the Carthaginian Sea the Tribune Mannus adding to the fear but the General threatning him with the naked Ax if he obey'd not encourag'd him to embarque out of a fear of death Whereupon they made all the haste they could with the advantage of Winde and Oars and the Carthaginians were so much startled at the arrival of their Enemies that Carthage had been almost surpriz'd with the gates open The first Booty gain'd by that war was the City Clypea for on the Carthaginian shore that was the first Fort and place of discovery and so that and three hundred Fortresses more were laid desolate Nor had we to do with men-onely but also with monsters when as if bred for the revenge of Africk a Serpent of extraordinary bulk infested our Camp at Bagrada But Regulus whom nothing withstood having spread the terror of his name far and near and either slain a great number of their young men and divers of their Commanders or made them prisoners and sent the Navy home before him loaden with prey and full of triumph had also besieg'd the Source of the war Carthage it self and lay close to the very gates of it Here fortune met with a check that there might be more demonstrations of the Roman Gallantry the greatneâ—â— whereof for the most part requir'd the test of calamities For the enemies being forc'd to make use of forreign Aid the Lacedemonians sent them Xantippus for a General who being a most experienc'd person in Military Affairs gave us so foul an Overthrow that the most valiant General of the Romanes fell alive into the hands of the Enemies But he was a man to support so great a misfortune For neither Imprisonment among the Carthaginians nor the Embassy they forced him upon could abate his constancy For being come to Rome he urged things much different from what the Enemies had enjoyn'd him to wit that no Peace should be made with them nor any exchange of Prisoners Nay his voluntary return to the enemies nor the extremities of imprisonment and ignominious crucifixion took off nothing of his gallantry but rather being the more to be admired in all these what may be said of him but that being vanquish'd he triumphed over his vanquishers and because Carthage had not yeelded of Fortune it self And the people of Rome were more eager and exasperated to prosecute the revenge of Regulus then to obtaine the victory The Carthaginians growing so much the more insolent and the war being brought back into Sicily the Consul Metellus gave the enemies so great an overthrow at Panormus that there was no contestation afterwards in that Island An argument of the greatnesse of the Victory was the taking of about a hundred Elephants which had been a great prey had they not been taken in war but in hunting P. Claudius being Consul the Romans were not worsted by the enemies but by the Gods themselves whose auspices they had slighted the navy being there sunk where he had commanded the birds to be cast over-board because they would have diverted them from engaging M. Fabius Buteo being Consul they defeated in the African Sea neer Aegyniurus the enemies Fleet then bound for Italy O what a great triumph happened then when their navy fraught with wealthy prey being forc'd by contrary winds fill'd Africk and the Syrtes and the coasts and shores of all nations and Islands with their own wrack Great was
his competitor to the Government assassinated This was another cause of the war against the said King The ensuing revenge is recommended to Albinus But ô dishonour he in like manner so corrupted his Army that by a voluntary flight of ours the Numidian overcame and became master of our Camp and by a dishonourable treaty he suffered the Army which he had before corrupted to escape About the same time not so much to revenge the Roman Empire as its honour rose up Metellus who craftily set upon the enemy with his own artifices while the other eluded him one while with intreaties another with threats making also his advantage of a feign'd as if it had been a real flight Not content with the devastation of Fields and Villages he made attempts against the principal Cities of Numidia and a long time endeavour'd the reduction of Zama but without effect But Thala he sack'd a place well furnish'd with ammunition and where the King's treasure waâ— Afterwards having depriv'd the King of his Cities he pursu'd him as a fugitive out of his own territories through Mauritania and Getulia At last Marius with a considerable recruit after he had taken into the Army persons of mean extraction upon an oath administred to them setting upon the King already defeated and wounded yet found it as hard a task to overcome him as if his Forces had been fresh and entire This man with extraordinary successe reduc'd Capsa a City built in honour of Hercules seated in the midst of Africk and surrounded with Sands and Serpents and by the assistance of a certain Ligurian forc'd his way to the City Mulucha built upon a rocky Mountain a place in a manner inaccessible After which he gave a signal overthrow not onely to Jugurth but also to Bocchus King of Mauritania siding with the Numidian upon the score of kinred neer the City Cirta Bocchus distrusting his affaires and fearing to be involv'd in another's ruine made King Jugurth the price of his agreement and friendship with the Romans So the craftiest of Kings was ensnared by the artifices of his Father in law and deliver'd into the hands of Sylla And at length the people of Rome beheld Jugurth loaden with chains led in triumph but he also though overcome and bound saw the City which he had falsely prophecy'd was to be sold and should be ruin'd if it met with a buyer But if ever saleable it had a Chapman in him and seeing he escaped not it will be an assurance that it shall never perish CHAP. II. The victory obtain'd by the Romans beyond the Alps over the Salii the Allobroges and the Aruerni Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabius Maximus erect Towers of stone and set up Trophies on them THus the Romanes demean'd themselves in the South In the North the troubles were greater and more bloody there being nothing more insufferable than that Coast where the Air is very piercing and the Inhabitants savage All along that quarter an implacable Enemy broke forth on all sides on the right the left and out of the midst of the North. The first who felt our Arms beyond the Alps were the Salii upon complaints made of their Incursions by the most faithful and friendly City Massilia Afterwards the Allobroges and Aruerni upon the like complaints of the Aedui who desired our assistance and relief against them Varus is a witness of the victory and Iscara and the River Vindelicus and the swiftest of Rivers the Rhone The greatest terror to the Barbarians were the Elephants whose bulk was answerable to that of the Inhabitants There was nothing so remarkable in the Triumph as the King himself Bituitus in his Arms of divers colours and a silver Chariot such as he had fought in For both which victories how great the rejoycing was may be imagined hence that Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabius Maximus erected Towers of stone upon the very places where they had fought and fasten'd Trophies thereon adorn'd with the Arms of the Enemies a thing not usual with our people For the Romans ever upbraided those whom they subdu'd with their victory CHAP. III. The Cimbri and Teutones design an Incursion into Italy they defeat several Armies of the Romans but are at last defeated themselves by Marius The strange resolution of their Wives A miraculous thing happen'd at Rome after the defeat THe Cimbrians the Teutones and the Tigurians fugitives from the extremities of Germany upon the Sea 's over-running their Countrey sought new habitations all the world over and being kept out of France and Spain as they were returning into Italy they sent Ambassadors to Silanus's Camp and thence to the Senate desiring the martial people of Rome would assign them some Countrey or other by way of pay which if granted they should dispose of their hands and arms But what Lands should the Romane people give then ready to fall into a Civil War about the Agragrian Lawes Being therefore repuls'd what they could not obtain by entreaty they resolve to get by force For neither could Silanus hold out against the first irruption of the Barbarians nor Manlius against the second nor Caepio against the third All had been lost if Marius had not lived in that age Nor durst he presently engage them but kept in his men within the Camp till that invincible rage and violence which the Barbarians account valour were somewhat remitted They therefore retreated from ours insulting and so great was their confidence of taking the City asking them whether they would any thing to their wives Immediately upon those threats dividing themselves into three Bodies they march'd over the Alps that is the Bars of Italy Marius presently with extraordinary expedition taking the nearer ways prevents the Enemy and pursuing the formost Body the Teutoâ—es at the descent of the Alps at a place caâ—led Aquae Vitae Oh heavenly powers what an overthrow did we give them The enemies were possess'd of the Valley and the River our people wanted water Whether the General did it purposely or made advantage of his Error is doubtful Certain it is Valour heightned by necessity occasion'd the Victory For the Army calling for water Ye are men said he there it is to be bad The Engagement was so sharp and the slaughter of the enemies so great that the Romane Conqueror drunk not so much water out of the river as Barbarians blood which ran down with it Nay the King himself Theutobocchus who was wont to vault over four or six horses could hardly get up one when he was to make his escape and being taking in an adjoyning Grove he was a remarkable Spectacle in as much as being a person of extraordinary stature he was higher than the very Trophies The Teutones being utterly destroy'd they march towards the Cymbrians These had already who would imagine it in the winter-time which raises the Alps to a greater height by the Mountains of Trent made a descent as if they had fallen down into Italy They
themselves among the rocâ—s they were to be sought out ere they could be overcome CHAP. IX Cyprus sack'd by the Romans and the wealth of it brought to Rome by Porcius Cato THe fate of Islands was come and so Cyprus was taken without any war â—tolomey had the government of this Island a place abounding in wealth and for that reason dedicated to Venus nay the report of its wealth was so great and that withal true that the very people which subdu'd Nations and was wont to bestow Kingdoms upon the sollicitation of P. Clodius Tribune of the people confiscated the estate of that King then alive and their Ally And he indeed upon the report of it poison'd himself Whereupon Porcius Cato brought the wealth of Cyprus in small light Vessels along the Tiber which thing filled the Romane Treasury more than any Triumph had done CHAP. X. A memorable Exploit of Caesars among the Gauls and in Great Britain He builds a Bridge over the Rhine Vercingetorix submits to him ASia being subdu'd by the Forces of Pompey fortune transferr'd what remain'd to be done in Europe to Caesar There were yet unreduced the most cruel of all Nations the Gauls and Germans and Brittany though divided from all the world yet met with one that conquered it The first commotions of the Gauls began among the Swissers who seated between the Rhone and the Rhine their Lands being too narrow for them came to seek out other habitations after they had fir'd the walls of their Cities and taken an oath never to return But time being required to consider of it and Caesar having in the interim by breaking down the Bridge over the Rhone deprived them of all means of flight he drove back that most warlike Nation to their former aboads as a Shepherd does his Flocks into the fold The following fight with the Belgae was far more bloody they being a people who fought for their liberty Though the Roman Soldiery did many great actions upon this occasion yet this of Caesar himself their General was highly remarkable when the Army being inclin'd to flight he took a Buckler from one that was running away and running to the very Front reinforced the fight with his own hands Afterwards there was an Engagement at Sea with the Veneti but we had a harder task with the Sea than with the Ships for these were rough unshap'd and soon sunk as soon as they felt our Beak-heads But the shallows hindred the fight as if the Ocean withdrawing it self by its ordinary refluxes during the Engagement seem'd to intercede in the Quarrel He had also to do with difficulties arising from the disposition of Nations and places The Aquitani a crafty people retired into Caves under-ground he commanded them to be pent up in them The Morini wandred into the Woods he ordered them to be burnt Let not any one say the Gauls were bruitishly simple they mannage their business with subtilty Induciomarus brought in the Treviri Ambiorix the Eburones Having entred into a conspiracy in Caesars absence they met with his Lieutenants But the former was gallantly defeated by T. Labienus who brought away the Kings head The latter having laid ambushes in the valley overcome us by craft whereupon our Camp was plunder'd and all the Gold carried away We there lost Cotta with the Lieutenant Titurius Rabinus Nor could we ever after be revenged of that King who got over the Rhine and could never be seen Nor did the Rhine therefore escape it being not just a place that entertain'd and protected our enemies should be free but of the first Fight between Caesar and the Germans there were just causes of his side For the Bequani made complaints of their incursions What an haughtiness was that of King Ariovistus when the Ambassadors of Caesar said to him Come to Caesar reply'd But who is Caesar And If he will let him come to me And What does it concern him what is done in our Germany Do I meddle with the Romane affairs So that there was so great a terror of this new Nation in the Camp that many made their Wills before they took up their Bucklers But those vaste Bodies the bigger they were the more open did they lye to the Swords and Darts What gallantry the Soldiery express'd in the fight cannot be reduced from any thing so much as from what they did when the Barbarians having lifted their Bucklers over their heads covering themselves as under a roof the Romans leap'd up on the very Bucklers and thence stooping down cut their throats Afterwards the Menapii making their complaints to Caesar â—gainst the Germanes he thereupon cross'd the Moseâ— nay the Rhine it self upon a Bridge oâ— Boats and seeks out the enemy in the Hercynian Forrests But all were fled into the Woods and Marshes so great confusion had the Romane Force brought along with it to that side of the river nor was the Rhine crossed onely once but several times and that by Bridges But there was a greater astonishment for perceiving their Rhine taken and as it were yoaked with a Bridge they again fled into the Woods and Marshes and what most troubled Caesar was that there were not any to be overcome Being Master of all both at Sea and Land he look'd upon the Ocean and as if this world were not enough for the Romanes he bethought him of another Having therefore got a Fleet together he sails towards Brittain He cross'd over with marvellous speed for weighing from the Port of Morinum at the third Watch he got the next day before noon into the Island The shores were full of hostile tumult and the chariots trembling at the sight of a strange thing went disorderly up and down Their fearfulness was look'd on as a presage of our victory He receiv'd their arms and hostages from the timerous and he had made a further progress had not the Ocean chastis'd his bold Fleet with a wrack Return'd thereupon into Gaul and having reinforc'd his Fleet and Forces he comes again into the same Ocean and pursues the same Brittains into the Calidonian Woods and puts Cavelianus one of their Kings into chains Content with these things for the design was not to get Provinces but Glory he return'd back with a greater booty than before the Ocean it self being also more calm and favorable as if acknowledging it self inferior to him But the greatest and last conspiracy of all was that of the Gauls when that Prince so dreadful for stature martial skill and courage and whose very name was made to strike a terror Vercingetorix brought together into one body the Aruerni and Biturigae as also the Carnutae and the Sequani He upon Festival days and days of Assembly when great numbers of them met in the woods heightned them by his haughty expressions to a recovery of their former liberty Caesar was then absent raising of new Forces at Ravenna and the Alps had so risen in the winter that they thought his passage stop'd But what
to discourage the enemies though he was in great want of provisions yet to expresse his confidence he cast down loaves of bread from the Fort. And on a certain day he sent Fabius the Priest out of the Fort ordering him to passe through the enemies guards to perform a solemn sacrifice on the mount Quirinal And he by the protection of Religion return'd safe through the midst of the enemies weapons and brought word that the Gods were appeased At length the Barbarians wearyed out with their own siege selling their departure at a thousand weight of gold yet even in that insolent enough when into their ballance though unequal they also put a sword with this proud exprobration Wo to the vanquish'd Camillus falling of a sudden upon the rear of them made such a slaughter that all tracks of the former conflagration were defaced by a deluge of Gaulish blood Here we have reason to give thanks to the immortal Gods for the greatnesse of our misfortune Since that the fire took away the cottages of the Shepherds and that flame smother'd the poverty of Romulus For what was the effect of that conflagration but that a City design'd to be the mansion of Men and Gods should not be destroy'd or laid desolate but seem rather cleansed and expiated Being therefore preserv'd by Manlius and restor'd by Camillus it rose up against the neighbouring Nations with greater earnestnesse and vigour And first not thinking it enough to have forc'd that Nation of the Gauls from the walls of Rome under the conduct of the same Camillus it so pursued the wretched remainders of them stragling up and down Italy that now there is no track of their having been in the world Once they were put to the slaughter at the River Anien where Manlius having taken away from one of the Barbarians with whom he had fought hand to hand among other spoils a gold chain gave occasion for the name of the Torquati Another time in the Field of Pontinus at such another combat when M. Valerius assisted by a sacred bird brought away the spoils of the pursuing Gaul deriv'd to his family the name of Corvinus And not many years after Dolabella utterly destroy'd all that remain'd of them in Italy neer the Lake of Vadimon that there might not any one of that nation survive who should boast that Rome was set on fire by it CHAP. XIV The war against the Latines who enâ—y the glory of the Romans Manlius Torquatus put his Son to death for fighting contrary to his orders Decius devotes himself to death for the safety of the Army MAnlius Torquatus and Decius Mas being Consuls the people of Rome turn'd â—heir arms from the Gauls upon the Latines a people always indeed troublesome out of envy to their Empire and Magistracy but now somewhat the more out of a contempt upon the burning of the City So that they demanded to be made free Denizens of Rome and to participate of the Government and Magistracy and if they did not presum'd they could do more than fight the Romans But who will wonder that at that time the enemy should give way when one of the Consuls put his own Son to death though Conquerour for fighting contrary to his orders as preferring Obedience before Victory The other as it were by an instinct of the Gods having cover'd his face devoted himself to the Dii Manes at the head of the Army whereupon rushing in among the thickest of the enemies weapons he open'd a new way to victory by the track of his own blood CHAP. XV. The war with the Sabins the Romans waste all their Territories under the conduct of the Consul Curius Dentatus AFter the Latines they set upon the Sabines who unmindful of the Allyance entred into under Titus Talius had by a certain contagion of war joyn'd with the Latines But Curius Dentatus being Consul they wasted with fire and sword all that Tract compass'd by the Nar and the springs of Velini as far as the Adriatick Sea By which victory so great a multitude â—f people and so great an extent of territory was reduc'd under their jurisdiction that whether were more considerable even he who had subdu'd them was not able to judge CHAP. XVI The war with the Samnites siding with those of Capua the Soil whereof is commended The Romans spend fifty years in that war they are defeated at the streight of Arpaja they revenge that affront upon the Samnites MOv'd at the petitions of Campania they engage against the Samnites nor upon their own but which is most glorious the account of their Associates There was indeed a league between the Romans and both those Nations but the Campâ—nians had treated first and confirm'd what they had done by an absolute surrender of all they had So that the people of Rome manag'd the war against the Samnites as if they had been themselves concern'd Campania is the noblest region not onely of Italy but even of the whole world Nothing more pleasant then its Aire in a word it produces Flowers twice a year Nothing more fertile then its Soile whence it is called the Theatre of Ceres and Bacchus Nothing more hospitable then its shores Here are those noble harbors Caieta Misenus and Baiae famous for its baths Lucrinus and Avernus which are as so many with-drawing-rooms of the Ocean Here the mountains are cloath'd with vines as the Gaurus Falernus Massicus and the most pleasant of all Vesuvius Aetna's competitor in casting out fire The maritine Cities are Formiae Cumae Puteoli Naples Herculaneum Pompeij and Capua the chiefest of all these Cities heretofore accounted one of the three greatest Rome and Carthage being the other two For this City for those Regions the Roman people invaded the Samnites a Nation if you enquire after its wealth armed with gold and silver weapons and clad in garments of divers colours even to excesse if you respect their subtlety in laying ambushes stragling in the recesses of Woods and Mountains if their rage and fury exasperated for the destruction of Rome by horrid imprecations and humane sacrifices if their obstinacy the more enrag'd and irreconcileable by their misfortunes after six breaches of the League between them and the Romans Yet in the space of fifty years the Roman people subdu'd and tamed these people by the Fabij and Papirij the Fathers and their Children so far that they laid waste the very ruins of their Cities that at this day Samnium may be looked for even in Samnium nor can it easily be seen what should give occasion for four and twenty Triumphs But the greatest and most remarkable overthrow we received from that Nation was at the streight passage neer Caudium under the Consulship of Veturius and Post-humius For the Army being shut up by surprize within that wood whence it could not get out Ponâ—ius General of the enemies wondring at so fair an opportunity consulted his Father Herennius who wisely as an experienc'd man advised him to set
the losse but without any derogation from the dignity of the supreme people that their Victory was intercepted by a Tempest and a wrack depriv'd them of their triumph And yet while the Carthaginian spoils floated up and down cast upon Promontories and Islands the people of Rome triumphed Lutatius Catulus being Consul there was a period put to the war at the Islands called Aegates Nor was there any greater Sea-engagement than this for the enemies Fleet being over burthen'd with provisions soldiers military engines ammunition as if all Carthage had been there it prov'd the occasion of its ruine On the contrary the Roman Fleet was clean light and nimble and as it were resembling a Land-Camp or an engagement of Horse and guided by the Oars as with reines and directed their beaks here and there as occasion serv'd as if they had been animate So that the enemies ships being shatter'd of a sudden cover'd the whole Sea between Sicily and Sardinia with the remainders of their wrack In fine so great was the Victory that there was no thought then of razing the walls of their enemies since they thought it frivolous to expresse their rage against Towers and Walls when Carthage had been already destroy'd upon the Sea CHAP. III. Several Nations make incursions upon the Romans but they are all brought under subjection THe Carthaginian war being over there ensued a short time of repose as much as suffic'd to take breath and as an assurance of peace and a cessation of arms in good earnest then was Janus's gate first shut ever since Numa's time But it was soon open again For the Ligurians the Insubrian Gauls as also the Illyrians began to be troublesome and with them the Nations inhabiting under the Alps that is seated at the very entrance of Italy some god or other perpetually egging them on to prevent the moldinesse and rusting of the Roman arms In fine a sort of daily and as it were domestick enemies exercised the young soldiery nor did the people of Rome make any other use of them then as of a whetstone to set an edge on their valour As to the Ligurians who were seated on the lower parts of the Alps between Varus and the River Macra it was a harder task to find them out then to vanquish them as being lodg'd among wild thickets They were a hardy and active people secur'd from our attempts by the places they liv'd in and their convenience of flight and rather committed robberies then wag'd a war Therefore when the Deceates the Oxybii the Euburiates the Ingauni all Nations of Liguria had a long time amused and eluded us by the advantages of their woods ways and lurking-holes at length Fulvius compass'd their recesses with fire Baebius forc'd them into the Champian and Posthumius so far disarm'd them that he hardly left them a piece of iron to till ground withal CHAP. IV. Britomarus Leader of the Insubrian Gauls is overcome by Aemilius the defeat of Astrionicus Marcellus kills King Virdomarus and consecrates his arms to Jupiter Feretrius THe Insubrian Gauls and the next adjoyning Inhabitans to the Alps as to their minds resembled wild beasts as to bodies exceeding the ordinary stature of men But it was found by experience that as at the first onset they behaved themselves beyond men so at the second their performances were below those of women The bodies bred about the Alps in a moist aire have somewhat in them resembling the snows for as soon as they are grown hot by fighting they are all of-a-sweat and are spent by the least motion as if they were melted by the Sun Now these as they had often done before commanded by Britomarus had sworn that they would not put off their belts till they had got up to the Capitol It happened accordingly for being vanquish'd by Aemilius they were taken off in the Capitol Soon after Astrionicus being their Leader they vow'd a chain out of the prey of our Soldiers to their God Mars Jupiter prevented the performance of their Vow for Flaminius erected a golden Trophy out of their chains to Jupiter Virdumarus being their King they had promised the arms of the Romans to Vulcan But their vowes were performed the contrary way for their King being slain Marcellus hung up the rich spoils taken from him to Jupiter Feretrius being the third offering of that kind that had been made since the time of Romulus the Father and founder of the City CHAP. V. The Roman Ambassadors barbarously massacred by the Liburnians the punishment inflicted on them and their Prince by Cneus Fulvius THe Illyrians or Liburnians live at the very bottom of the Alps between the Rivers Arsia and Titius spreading themselves all along the Adriatick Sea These under their Queen Teuta not satisfy'd with the incursions they made on the Romans added an execrable crime to their insolences For they put to death our Ambassadors calling them to account for their misdemeanors not with a sword but as victims with an axe and burnt the masters of our Ships and this was done to heighten the dishonor of it by the command of a Woman But Cn. Fulvius Centumalus being General they are brought under absolute subjection the heads of their Princes struck off with the axe were made expiatory sacrifices to the ghosts of our Ambassadors CHAP. VI. The second Carthaginian War Hannibal besâ—eges Saguntus the Romans to be reveng'd arm against the Carthaginians Hannibal's oversight after the great Victory at Cannae Fabius and Marcellus make it appear by their conduct that Hannibal was not invincible the same Hannibal besieges Rome thinking thereby to raise the siege before Capua Roman Armies sent into divers Provinces the first Scipios after they had been victorious in Affrick are at last defeated Publius Scipio undertakes the war and comes off with successe and renown AFter the first Carthaginian war we had hardly four years rest ere another breaks forth lesse indeed as to the space of time fâ—â— it lasted not above eighteen years but so far the more terrible in respect of the cruelty of the overthrows that the losses of both people being ballanc'd the Conquerours might be taken for the conquered 'T was a shame to a gallant people the Carthaginians after their losse of the soveraignty of the Sea and their Islands forc'd from them to pay tribute where they were wont to demand it Hereupon Hannibal yet very young made a vow at the Altar in the presence of his Father that he would revenge his country nor did he delay iâ— long To occasion a war Saguntus was destroy'd an ancient and wealthy City of Spain a great indeed but sad monument of fidelity towards the Romans which City though agreed to continue in its liberty by the common league between them Hnnibal seeking a pretence of new disturbances lays desolate with his own hands and the help of the Inhabitants that having broken the league he might open a way into Italy Alliances were most religiously observ'd
the Empire He therefore so wearied Annibal by leading him through the whole Country of the Samnites and through the woods of Falernus and Gaurus that he who could not be overcomâ— by valour was broken and harass'd by delay Afterwards Claudius Marcelius being General the Romanes ventur'd to engage him they drove him out of his dear Campania and forc'd him to raise the siege from before Nola. Nay Sempronius Gracchus being General they presum'd to pursue him through Lucania and press hard upon him in his retreat though then ô what shame they fought with servile hands For the concurrence of so many disasters had forc'd them to it * Sed libertate dona i fecerat de serâ—is vâ—tus Romanos But they were made free afterwards though their own valour had made them Romans before O the prodigious constancy in so many adversities O the extraordinary courage and gallantry of the Romans in the midst of so many extremities when they were not assur'd of Italy they have the confidence to aime at other places and when the enemies march'd up and down Campania and Apulia ready to cut their throats and had brought Africk into the midst of Italy they at the same time kept Hannibal in play and sent Forces into Sicily Sardinia Spain and other parts of the world Sicily was the charge of Marcellus nor did it hold out long For the whole Island was reduc'd in one City â—yracuse that great and till then conquer'd Metropolis though defended by the skill of Archimedes yeelded at last It was compass'd at a good distance by a treble wall and had so many Fortresses the port was built all about with marble there was also the famous Fountaine of Archusa but what avayl'd they save only that they occasion'd the sparing of the vanquish'd City for its beauty sake Gracchus reduc'd Sardinia nor did the savagenesse of the Inhabitants nor the excessive height of the Mad Mountains so they call them stand them in any stead The Cities were treated with the extremities of hostility especially the chiefest of all Caralis that an obstinate Nation which contemn'd death might be brought down by the desolation of their native soile Cneus and Publius Scipio being sent into Spain had once depriv'd the Carthaginians of all hope but surpriz'd by their artifices they lost all again even after they had beaten the Carthaginian Forces in very great fights But the Punick treachery prov'd so successeful that they kill'd one of them as he was encamping and the other having escaped into a Tower they set it a fire about him Therefore to revenge his Father and Uncle there was sent thither with an Army Scipio for whom the Fates reserv'd the great surname deriv'd from Africk He recover'd all Spain that martial country famous for men and arms the seminary of the enemies Army and the Tutresse of Hannibal himself all I say though hardly to be credited from the Pyrenean Mountains to Hercules Pillars and the Ocean whether with greater expedition or lesse difficulty is not known With what expedition it was effected four years witnesse with how little difficulty may be deduc'd from one City for it was taken the same day it was first besieg'd and it was an omen of our victory over Africk that Carthage in Spain was so easily taken Yet is it certain withal that what most contributed to the reduction of the Province was the admirable Sanctimony and continency of the General who return'd back to the Barbarians young lads that had been taken and Virgins of extraordinary beauty not having suffered them to be brought into his sight that he might not seem so much as with his eyes to have blasted the flower of their Virginity Thus did the Romans do in forreign Countries yet could they not remove Hannibal lodg'd in the heart of Italy Several Nations had revolted to the enemy who being exasperated against the Romanes made his advantages of the artifices of Italy Yet had we forc'd him out of several Cities and regions Tarentus was come in to us We had also almost recover'd Capua the seat and mansion and second Country of Hannibal the losse whereof gave him so much trouble that he thereupon brought all his Forces against Rome O people worthy the world's Empire worthy the favour and admiration of Men and Gods Being reduc'd to the greatest extremities they desisted not from their attempt and while they provided for the safety of the City they neglected not Capua but part of the Army being left there under the Consul Appius part having follow'd Flaccus to the City they fought both present and absent What therefore do we wonder at Hannibal encamped within three miles of Rome and ready to come on the Gods I say the Gods nor is it a shame to acknowledge it once more prevented him for there fell such excessive rains at every motion of his and such extraordinary winds that it should seem they had been sent from above to remove the enemy not from Heaven as the Gyants sometime were but from the Walls of the City and the Capitol He therefore departed fled and retired to the extremities of Italy leaving the City when he was just upon the point of assaulting it This is a thing hardly worth mentioning yet a pregnant argument of the magnanimity of the people of Rome that during the time the City was besieg'd the ground on which Hannibal was encamped being publickly set to sale met with a purchasor On the contrary Hannibal desirous to imitate our confidence proferr'd to sale the Goldsmiths shops of the City but found no buyer whence it may be seen that the destinies had also their presages But there had yet been nothing done answerably to so great valour and favour of the Gods For Asdrubal Hannibal's brother was upon his march from Spain with a fresh Army new-raised Forces and other requisites for the prosecution of the war We had no doubt been ruin'd if he had joyn'd his Brother but Claudius Nero and Livius Salinator defeat him as he was encamping his Army Nero was employ'd about the dislodging of Hannibal in the most remote part of Italy Livius was gone into the contrary part so vast that is the whole territory of Italy where it is longest lying between them By what intelligence with what expedition the Consuls joyn'd their forces and joyntly engag'd the enemy and all without Hannibal's knowledge of any thing done it is hard to give an account of This is certain that Hannibal being assur'd of it when he saw his Brother's head cast into his camp said I now see the unhappinesse of Carthage This was the first acknowledgement of the man not without a certain presage of the fate hanging over him Now it was taken for granted that Hannibal even by his own confession might be vanquished But the people of Rome heightned by so many prosperities thought it a noble attempt to subdue that most irreconcileable enemy in his own Country Africk Scipio therefore being
out the avenues got into that Province by the way of the marshes of Astrudes through harsh and dangerous places nay such as seem'd inaccessible to birds and by that means terrify'd the King who lay secure and feared no such thing wiâ—h an unexpected alarm of war Whereat he was so starâ—led that he commanded all his mony to be cast into the sea that it might not be lost and that the navy should be burnt to prevent the firing of it by the enemy Paulus being Consul when the Garrison were better mann'd and lay closer one to another than they had done before Macedonia was surprised by another way through the great policy and industry of the General who offering to get in at one place and breaking in at another the King was so startled at his coming that he durst not be present but left the war to be managed by his Commanders Being therefore vanquish'd in his absence he escaped to Sea and so to the Island of Samothrace promising himself protection from the sanctity of the place as if Temples and Altars could secure him whom his own Mountains and Arms could not None of the Kings longer regretted his losse of Fortune Writing to our General as a supplyant from the Temple into which he had fled he set down to the Epistle with his own name his quality of King But no man could expresse a greater respect towards captivated Majesty then Paulus did As soon as the enemy came into his sight he brought him into his Tent and treated him with banquets and admonished his Sons that they should submit to Fortune who was able to do so great things Of all the most magnificent triumphs which the Romans had seen this from Macedonia was one of the chiefest for the show of it lasted three days The first day were brought in Images and Pictures the second Arms and Money the third the Captives and among them the King himself having not recover'd out of his astonishment as if the disaster were but newly befallen him But the people of Rome had receiv'd the joyful news of the Victory before they had it by the General 's Letters For the very day that Perses was vanquish'd in Macedonia the thing was known at Rome Two young men mounted on white Horses were seen washing off dust and blood at the Lake of Suturna These brought the news The common perswasion was that they were Castor and Pollux because there were two of them that they had been present at the fight because they were yet bloody that they came out of Macedonia because they seem'd as it were out of breath CHAP. XIII The Illyrians are vanquish'd by the Praetor Anicius Scodra the chief City of their Country layd desolate THe contagion of the Macedonian war drew in the Illyrians They were Mercenaries under King Perses and should have fallen on the rear of the Romans They are without any trouble subdu'd by the Pro-praetor Anicius It was thought sufficient to lay Scodra chief City of the Nation level with the ground Whereupon there ensu'd an absolute surrender of themselves to bondage In fine this war was at an end before it was known at Rome that it was engag'd in CHAP. XIV The third Macedonian war occasion'd by the usurpation of a mean person named Andriscus the Praetor Juventius is overcome by him but sufficiently reveng'd by Metellus who brings Andriscus captive to Rome THe Carthaginians and Macedonians as if there had been some agreement between them that they should be a third time vanquish'd by a certain disposal of destiny took up Arms at the same time But the Macedonian shook off the yoke first and was reduc'd with the more difficulty because he had been slighted The occasion of the war almost forces a blush for one Andriscus a person of mean descent whether a slave or free is doubtful but certainly a Mercenary invades the Kingdom and undertakes the war But because he was commonly known by the name of Philippus by reason of his likenesse in the face to that Prince he was called Pseudo-Philippus and as he had the resemblance and had assum'd the title of a King so he wanted not a courage beseeming a King Therefore while the Romans slight these things thinking it enough to send the Praetor Juventius against him they rashly engage against a man grown powerful not only by the strength of the Macedonians but also by the great additional Forces of Thrace and are with much regret worsted not by real Kings but by that imaginary and personated Prince But Metellus being Praetor they were fully reveng'd for the former losse of a Legion and the Praetor who commanded it For Macedonia was made subject to bondage and the chief Commander deliver'd up by that Prince of Thrace to whom he had fled was brought to the City in chaines Fortune doing him a kindnesse even in his disasters that the people of Rome made a triumph upon his account as much as if he had really been a King CHAP. XV. The third Pudick or Carthaginian war the deplorable destruction of the City of Carthage by young Scipio THe third war with Africk was short both as to time for it was compleated in four years and in comparison of the former of lesse difficulty for our businesse was not so much against men as against the City it self but if we consider the event it was of great consequence for by that means Carthage was destroy'd And if a man consider the circumstances of former times in the first the war was onely begun in the second almost dispatch'd in the third quite ended But the occasion of this war was that contrary to the Articles of the Treaty they had but once indeed prepar'd a Navy and Army against the Numidians but had several times alarm'd the territories of Masinissa For the Romans had a kindnesse for that good King their Ally When the war was resolv'd upon it wat proposed what should be done after it were ended Cato out of an irreconcileable animosity gave his vote for the destruction of Carthage even while other things were under debate Scipio Nasica alledg'd that it should be preserv'd lest the fear of the Rival-City being once taken away the prosperity of Rome would be apt to break forth into debauches The Senate took a course between both to wit that Carthage might be remov'd from the place where it stood For they thought it a glorious thing there should be a Carthage but such as should not be feared Whereupon Manilius and Censorinus being Consuls the Romans set upon Carthage and having the Navy upon some overture of peace surrendred to them they set it afire in sight of the City Then the chiefest among the Citizens being sent for were commanded if they would save their lives to quiet Carthage Which command seeming too cruel so incensed them that they would rather endure the greatest extremities Whereupon they made publick lamentations and unanimously cry'd out Arms and they were absolutely resolv'd to
stand it out by force not that they had any hope left but out of a desire that their country should be deâ—troy'd rather by the enemies than themselves How great the fury of the discontented was may be inferr'd hence that they pull'd down â—heir houses to build a new Fleet that about â—heir Arms gold and silver was employ'd inâ—tead of iron and brasse and the Matrones parâ—ed with their haire to make cordage for the engines Afterwards Mancinus being Consul the siege was closely carried on both by Sea and Land The Haven and the first and second walls were already dismantled when the Castle notwithstanding called the Byrsa made such resistance as if it had been another City But though the destruction of the City was in a good forwardnesse yet was it consider'd that the name of the Scipio's was fatal to Africk The Commonwealth therefore pitching upon another Scipio was desirous the see an end of that war He was the Son of Paulus surnamed Macedonicus and had been adopted by the Son of the great Scipio Africanus presuming he would be an ornament to his race it being design'd that the Grand-child should absolutely lay desolate that City which the Grand-father had brought neer its destruction But as the bitings of dying beasts are most dangerous so we found more work with Carthage half ruin'd than when it was entire The enemies being forc'd into one Fortresse the Romans had also besieg'd the Port. Whereupon the Carthaginians made another Port on the other side of the City not with any design to get away but even from that place whence no man imagin'd it possible they should escape a new Fleet starts up In the mean time no day no night past but some new work engine or forlorn did appear like sudden flashes of fire out of the embers after some conflagration At last things growing desperate forty thousand men surrendred themselves and what is hardly credible Asdrubal being their Leader How much more gallantly did a Woman and that the same Asdrubal's wife behave her self when taking her two children she cast her self down from the top of the house into the midst of the fire therein imitating the Queen who founded Carthage How great a City was destroy'd to omit other things the very continuance of the fire makes apparent for during the space of seventeen days they could hardly quench the fire which the enemies themselves had been the occasions of by firing their own houses and Temples purposely that since the City could not be rescu'd from the triumphs of the Romans it should first be burnt CHAP. XVI Corinth the Metropolis of Achaia declaâ—ed an enemy to the people of Rome for the affronts done to their Ambassadors it is destroy'd and consum'd by fire COrinth Metropolis of Achaia the ornament of Greece and seated for the delightfulnesse of the prospect between the Ionian and Aegaean Seas immediately follow'd the fate of Carthage as if that age had been design'd for the destruction of Cities This City â—â— thing unworthy was destroy'd before it was certainly known to be of our enemies Critolaus was the cause of the war who employ'd the liberty given him by the Romans against them and affronted the Roman Ambassadors if not by blows at least in words The revenge therefore was put upon Metellus then setling Macedonia and hence came the Achaian war whereof the first action was that the Consul Metellus had the slaughter of Critolaus's party in the spacious Fields of Elis all long the River Alpheus And the war was ended in one battel and soon after the City was besieg'd but the fates so ordering things after Metellus had fought Mammius came in to compleat the Victory This latter by the advantages gain'd by the other General defeated the Achaian Army at the very entrance of the Isthmus and both the Ports of Corinth were stain'd with blood At length the Inhabitants having forsaken the City it was first plunder'd afterwards by sound of Trumpet destroy'd What abundance of statues what garments what pictures were taken burnt and cast about the streets What wealth was burnt and brought thence may be hence computed that all the Corinthian brasse now celebrated over the world was onely the remainders of that conflagration Nay the desolation of that most wealthy City enhanc'd the price of the brasse in as much as an infinite number of Statues and Images being burnt the Gold Silver and Brasse melted together flow'd in joynt veins CHAP. XVII An account of Transactions in Spain which is set upon by the Romans and the Provinces of it subdu'd by several Commanders the policy and valour of a Spanish Captain he is afterwards kill'd by a Roman Soldier Viriathus a Portuguez compar'd to Romulus Pompilius orders him to be murther'd AS Corinth follow'd Carthage so Numantia follow'd Corinth Nor was there afterwards any part free from war all over the world After the conflagration of those two famous Cities there was a general war all over at the same time as if those Cities seemed like violent winds to have spread the conflagrations of war into all other parts of the world Spain never had any design to make a general insurrection against us never thought â—â—t to unite all its strength nor yet to dispute the supremacy with us or attempt a publick assertion of its liberty which if it had it is so fortify'd all about by the Sea and the Pyrenaean Mountains that the very scituation secur'd iâ— from an invasion But it was straitned by the Romans before it knew it self and of all the Provinces it onely knew its own strength after it was conquer'd The contestation about this Province lasted neer two hundred years from the first Scipio's to Augustus Caesar not by a continu'd war but as occasions started Nor had we to do at first with the Spanyards but the Carthaginians Thence proceeded the contagion and series and cause of the wars The first Roman ensignes that past over the Pyrenaean Mountains were under the conduct of the Scipio's Publius and Cneus and they in memorable fights defeated Annon and Asdrubal Hannibal's Brother and Spain had been carried as it were by the first attempt if those gallant men supplanted in the height of their victory had not fallen by Punick treachery after they had got the better both by Sea and Land So that Scipio the revenger of his Father and Uncle who was soon after surnamed Africanus invaded it as it were a new and entire Province And he in a short time having taken Carthage and other Cities thinking it not enough to have forc'd the Carthaginians thence made it a tributary Province and reduc'd to the Empire all on both sides of the Iberus and was the first of the Roman Generals who prosecuted his victory to Gades and the entrance of the Ocean But it is a greater matter to retain a Province then to make one Generals were therefore sent into several parts sometime to one sometime to another and they with much difficulty
and and many bloody engagements brought into subjection those savage Nations which till then were free and impatient of bondage Cato the Censor after some fights worsted the Celtiberians that is the strength of Spain Gracchus the Father of the Gracchi plagu'd the same people by the desolation of a hundred and fitty Cities * Metellus ille cui ex Macedonia cognomeâ— meruerat Celtibericus fieri quam Contrebiam memorabili cepisset exemplo Vertobrigis majori gloriâ pepercit That Metellus who had his sirname from Macedonia he also deserv'd that of Celtibericus having by a memorable exploit taken Contrebia gain'd more glory by not taking Vertobrigae Lucullus reduc'd the Turduli and the Vaccaei from whom the latter Scipio having upon a challenge fought a duel with the King brought away rich spoils Decimus Brutus went somewhat further brought in the Celtae and the Inhabitants of Gallicia and cross'd the River of Oblivion so dreadful to the Soldiers and having taken a victorious progresse all along the Ocean he turned not back his Ensignes till with a certain horrour and apprehension of having committed some sacriledge he beheld the Sun falling into the Sea and its torch quench'd in the waves But the sharpest engagements were with the Lusitanians and Numantians and justly for they only of all the Spanish Nations had excellent Leaders We should also have had work enough with all the Celtiberians if the Author of that insurrection a person of extraordinary subtilty and confidence had not been kill'd at the beginning of the war I mean that Solundicus who brandishing a silver speare as if sent from Heaven had Prophet-like gain'd the affections of all But presuming out of a boldnesse equal to his extravagance in the night to approach the Consul's Camp he was taken off hard by the very Tent with the dart of the Sentinel The Lusitanians were stirr'd up by Viâ—iathus a man of incomparable subtlety who of a Huntsman became a Robber of a Robber he got to be Captain and General and if Fortune had favoured might have been the Romulus of Spain For not content to maintain the liberty of his own people but fâ—r the space of fourteen years he used all hostile exâ—remities at all places both on this side and the other of the Rivers Iberus and Tagus Nay he attempted the Camp and very Guard of our Praetors he had in a manner quite destroy'd the Army under the command of Claudius Vnimanus and had erected in his own Mountains memorable Trophies made of the Roman Ornaments and our Fasces But at length the Consul Fabius Maximus had crush'd him but the victory was soil'd by his Successor Servilius Caepio who desirous to put a period to the war out of basenesse and treachery got the defeated Captain assassinated by some of his own menial servants even while he was contriving how to make a surrender of himself and did thereby the enemy so much honour as that it might seem he could not otherwise have been overcome CHAP. XVIII The City of Numantia opposes the Romans for many years Hostilius Mancinus the Roman General defeated by the Numantians and by order of the Senate deliver'd into the hands of the enemies The constancy and cruel resolution of Numantia exercised on it self THough Numantia was inferiour to Carthage Capua and Corinth in point of wealth yet in honour and reputation of gallantry it was equal to them all and if we consider the Inhabitants of it the greatest ornament of Spain in as much as being a place unwall'd unfortify'd and seated only upon a small ascent neer the River Durius it held out for the space of fourteen years onely with a garrison of four thousand Celtiberians against an Army of forty thousand men nay did not onely hold out but sometimes also gave us great overthrows and forc'd us to dishonourable treaties In fine the reduction of it was thought so far impossible that there was a necessity of employing the same person against it who had destroy'd Carthage To say the truth we must acknowledge that haply there was no war of ours whereof the cause was more unjust then this The Numantians had entertain'd into their City the Segidenses their Allies and Relations the mediation used on their behalf prevailed nothing and while they would have absolutely disengag'd themselves from having ought to do with the war they were order'd to lay down their Arms so to secure the Alliance desired by them This was so heinously resented by the Barbarians as if their hands were to be cut off Whereupon Megara a person of great courage being their Leader they Arm and having fought Pompey they chose rather to enter into a League even when they might have defeated him They had afterwards an engagement against Hostilius Mancinus him also they so worsted with continual overthrows that scarce any one could endure to look upon or hear of an Inhabitant of Numantia and yet they thought fit to make a League with him also contenting themselves with the spoils of the Arms when they might have put all to the sword But the people of Rome being no lesse incensed at the infamy of this Numantian Treaty then they had been at that of Caudium expiated the dishonour of the present miscarriage by the surrender of Mancinus and afterwards under the conduct of Scipio whom the ruine of Carthage had improv'd for the desolation of Cities they resolv'd to revenge it But then we had a harder service in our own Camp than in the Field more to do with our own Soldiery than with the Numantians For being orepress'd with continual unnecessary and for the most part servile employments they of our Soldiery who knew not how to handle their arms were commanded to fill trenches and they who would not be sprinkled with hostile blood should be ignominiously daub'd with dirt They were moreover depriv'd of their common prostitutes the boys and all unnecessary baggage 'T was truely said that such as the General is such is the Army So the Soldiery being reduc'd to discipline the Armies engag'd and that happen'd which no body hoped to have seen that the Numantians were seen to run away Nay they would have surrendred themselves if things fit to be endur'd by men had been enjoyn'd them But Scipio desirous of a true and absolute victory they were reduc'd to the utmost extremities so that their first resolve was to fight it out to the last man having before-hand glutted themselves with a kind of funeral-banquet consisting of half-raw flesh and a drinke made of Corn by the natives called Caelia The General having intelligence of their resolution permitted not an engagement with persons defying death but want of provisions so press'd upon them being surrounded with a Trench a Counterscarp and four Camps that they begg'd an engagement of the General to the end they might die like men But that not obtain'd they resolv'd upon a Sally wherein many were kill'd by which means the survivers liv'd a
exercised cruelty in stead of valour For what more insupportable than that one Edict of his whereby he commanded all the free Denizens of Rome that were in Asia to be put to death Whereupon Houses Temples Altars nay all divine and humane Rights were violated But this terror of Asia opened the King a way into Europe Having therefore sent Archelaus and Neoptolemus his Lieutenants the Cyclados Delos Euboea nay the very ornament of Greece Athens were taken onely Rhodes remain'd which stuck closer to â—â— than any of the rest Nay the terror of the Kings advance was come into Italy nay even to the very City of Rome Whereupon L. Sylla an excellent Soldier and no less daring gives a check to the Enemies further advance as if he had shov'd him with his hand And immediately thence who would believe it he went and press'd the City of Athens the parent of Corn with a Siege and Famine so far as that they were forced to eat mans flesh and afterwards having destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum and Walls to the extent of six thousand * Sex quoque amplius M pâ—mâ—ris paces and more after he had subdu'd the most ungratesul of men as he said himself yet in honor of their deceas'd Ancestors he restored them to their Temples and Reputation Afterwards having forc'd away the Kings Garrisons from Euboea and Boeotia he defeated all his Forces in two Battels one near Cheronaea the other near Orchomenos and therupon passing over into Asia he worsts him himself and he had been absolutely ruin'd if Sylla had not been more desirous to hasten than compleat his Triumph To this posture Sylla reduc'd Asia He made a League with the Inhabitants of Pontus Of King Nicomedes he receiv'd Bithynia of Arioborzantes Cappadocia and so Asia became ours as before Mithridates was onely forc'd out of his Territories So that the Inhabitants of Pontâ—s were not broken by these transactions but incens'd For the King as it were lur'd by the wealth of Asia and Europe endeavor'd the recovery of it by the Right of War not as belonging to another but because he had before lost it Therefore as fires not fully put out break forth into greater flameâ— so Mithridates having gotten greater Forces together came as it were with the whole strength of his Kingdom again into Asia by Land by Sea and by Rivers Câ—zicum a famous City is the Ornament of the Asian Coast as having a Fortress Walls a Port and Towers of Marble Against this place as if against a second Rome he directed all the stress of the War But the Citizens had the confidence to stand out upon intelligence of Lucullus's advance brought by a messenger who a thing strange to relate supported by a Goat-skin under the arms and guiding himself with his feet seeming to such as saw him at a distance a kinde of Sea-monster had escaped through the midst of the enemies ships Whereupon the posture of affairs changing the besieging King being first press'd with famine and afterwards with the pestilence Lucullus falls upon him as he was departing thence and gave him so great an overthrow that the Rivers Granius and Aesapus were all bloody The subtile King and acquainted with the avarice of the Romanes commanded baggage and money to be scatter'd by those that fled whereby to retard the pursuers Nor was his flight by Sea more fortunate than that by Land For a Fleet of above a hundred Ships well stored with Ammunition and Provision met with a Tempest in the Pontick Sea and was so shatter'd as if it had been in some engagement as if Lucullus having a certain correspondence with the Waves and Storms had recommended the King to be subdu'd by the Winds By this time were all the Forces of a most powerful Kingdom spent but the Kings courage was heightned by his misfortunes So that addressing himself to the adjacent Nations he involv'd in his ruine in a manner all the eastern and northern parts The Iberians the Caâ—pians the Albanians and both the Armenia's were courted and â—hrough all places Pompey's fortune sought him matter of glory reputation and titles He seeing Asia enflam'd by new Commotions and that Kings sprung out of Kings thinking it not fit to delay things till the strengths of several Nations were united a Bridge of Ships being of a sudden put together he first of any cross'd the Euphrates and having overtaken the retreating King in the midst of Armenia so extraordinary was the mans success he utterly ruined him at one battel The engagement happened in the night and the Moon seem'd to take our part in as much as she stood behinde the Enemies and appear'd in her full lustre to the Romanes whereby the Ponticks deluded by their longer shadowes made at them as at the bodies of their enemies So that Mithridates was subdu'd in that one night For afterwards he could do nothing though he essay'd all things like serpents which having lost their heads move their tails to the last For having escaped the enemy he would by his sudden advance have frightned Colchos as also the Cicilian Coasts and our Campania then having destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum he would have had the Bosphorus reach to Colchos and marching thence through Thrace Macedonia and Greece he thought to have made an unexpected invasion into Italy But prevented by the revolt of his subjects and the impiety of his son Pharnaces he with his sword thrust out that soul which poison could not force out of his body In the mean time the great Cneus prosecuting the rebellious remainders of Asia travers'd divers Nations and Provinces For following the Armenians eastward having taken the Metropolis of the Countrey Artaxata he ordered Tigranes upon his submission to reign over them But towards the North a Scythian Expedition wherein he had as if at Sea no guide but the stars he destroyed Colchos pardoned Iberia spar'd the Albanians having pitch'd his Camp at the descent of Caucasus he commanded Orodes King of Colchos to come down into the plains Artoces who rul'd over the Iberians to send in even his own children as Hostages nay he also requited the liberality of Orodes who had of his own accord sent him a Golden Couch and other presents from Albania And turning his Forces towards the South having past Mount Libanus in Syria and Damascus he led the Romane Ensigns thorow those odoriferous Forrests and Woods of Balm and Frankincense The Arabians were ready to obey his commands The Jews assay'd to defend Jerusalem against him but he forc'd his way into that also that great Mystery of an impious Nation lying open as it were under a golden roof Being Arbitrator between two Brothers in competition for the Kingdom he appointed Hyrcanus to reign Aristobulus not complying he put into chains Thus under the conduct of Pompey the Romanes over-ran all Asia where it is of greatest extent and made that a Middle-province of the Empire which had been the extremity of
it For they onely excepted who preferr'd a League and the Indians who are not yet known to us all Asia between the Red-sea the Caspian and the Ocean was under our Jurisdiction either subdu'd or reduced by the Pompeian Legions CHAP. VI. The Cilician Pirates scour the Seas and hinder Commerce Pompey's miraculous success in the reduction of them in forty days IN the mean time while the Romanes are dispers'd into several parts of the world the Cilicians invade the Seas and taking away all Commerce by a breach of the Bonds of humane Society they had made the Seas as impassable by the War as they might have been by a Tempest The desperate and enraged pirates deriv'd a confidence from the unquiet state of affairs in Asia by reason of the wars with Mithridates and making their advantages of anothers war and the envy of a forreign King they roved up and down without controul And at first commanded by one Isidorus they kept within the next Seas and exercised their piracies between Creet and Cyrenae Pyreum and Achaia and Maleus which from their booties they named The Golden Gulf. And P. Servilius being employ'd against them though he worsted their light and nimble Brigantines with his heavy and well appointed Ships of War yet was not the Victory without bloodshed Nor thought he it enough to force them out of the Sea but he also destroy'd their strongest Cities and such as daily Spoils had enrich'd to wit Phaselis and Olympus and Isaurus the greatest Fortress of Cilicia whence imagining to himself he had done a great Exploit he assumed the sirname of Isauricus Yet could they not keep ashore after so many defeats but as certain creatures whose double nature gives them the advantage of living upon land or in the water so they upon the first retreat of an enemy impatient of being a shore got into the waters and ventured somewhat farther out than they had done before So that Pompey who had been so successful before was now thought worthy this Victory and it was look'd upon as an addition to what he had done against Mithridates He desirous to give an absolute check to a plague which had spread it self over all the Sea set upon it by a certain divine fore-cast For having a great number of Ships of our own and our Allies the Rhodians he possess'd himself of both sides of Pontus and the Ocean Gellius was to guard the Tuscian Sea Plotius the Sicilian Gratillius the Ligurian Gulf M. Pomponius had charge of the Gallick Torquatus of the Balearick Tiberius Nero of the Streights of Gades which is the first entrance of our Sea Lentulus the Lybian Marcellinus the Aegyptian the young Pompeys the Adriatick Terentius Varro the Aegean and Pontick Metellus the Pamphylian Caepio the Asian Portus Catâ— guarded the Entrance of Propontis blocking it up with Ships as if it had been a gate Thus all Sea-ports Gulfs Bays Creeks Promontories Streights Peninsula's being secured the Pirates were surrounded as in a toil Pompey himself took his way toward Cilicia the source of the war Nor did the enemies decline an Engagement not that it proceeded out of any confidence but being surpris'd they would seem to dare something yet so as that they endur'd onely the first On-set For perceiving themselves surrounded of all sides by our Ships casting away their Saylâ— and Oars and giving a general shout which is a sign of submission they begg'd quarter We never before had a victory with less bloodshed nor indeed was there any Nation so faithful to us And that was to be attributed to the Generals prudence who transplanted those who had been us'd to the Sea to a grâ—â—â— distance from it and oblig'd them to cultivate the In-land part of the Countrey Thus with the same labor he gave Ships the freedom of Navigation and restor'd to the Land its Inhabitants What occurs to be first admir'd in this Victory the expedition of it in that it was compleated in forty days or the extra-ordinary success in that it was done without the loss of a Ship or the perpetuity in that they never afterwards became pirates CHAP. VII The Cretians set upon by the Romanes defeat the Army of M. Antonius Metellus revenges the affront and treats them most cruelly THe Cretian war if we would know the truth we our selves began onely out of a desire to reduce that Noble Island under our Jurisdiction It seem'd to have favored Mithridates and we thought fit to revenge it by force of Arms. M. Antonius first invaded the Island with a great confidence of victory insomuch that his Ships were better furnish'd with Chains than Arms. He therefore was punish'd for his presumption for the enemies intercepted many of his Ships and hung up the bodies of the prisoners at the Shrouds and Tackling as if they return'd to their Ports in Triumph Afterwards Metellus laying the whole Island desolate with fire and sword confin'd them within their Fortresses and Cities Gnofon and Erythraea and as the Greeks are wont to call it the Mother of Cities Cydonia and so great cruâ—lty was used on the prisoners that many poison'd themselves others sent to Pompey then absent an acknowledgment of their surrendring themselves Upon which he carrying on the affairs of Asia and sending Octavius to Creet as his Lieutenant he was derided for concerning himself in another mans Province and occasion'd Metellus to exercise greater cruelties on the enemies and having overcome Lasthenes and Panares Captaines of Cydonia he return'd Victor yet brought home with him after so notorious a Victory onely the surname Greticus CHAP. VII The Inhabitants of the Balearick Islands turn Pirates and engage with the Romane Fleet by which they are defeated THe House of Metellus Macedonicus was so accustomed to Military Surnames that one of his sons having obtain'd that of Creticus another of them came soon after to be called Balearicus The Balâ—ares Islands had about that time infested the Seas with Piracies One would wonder that a savage people living in Woods should have the confidence so much as to look on the Sea from their very Rocks On the contrary they ventured out in Boats built without any design and frightned such as sayl'd by with their unexpected surprizals Nay when they saw the Romane Fleet at a distance making towards them conceiving it to be purchase they ventur'd to meet it and at the first Onset cover'd the Ships with a shower of stones of all sorts Every one had three Slings to fight withal That they did execution is no wonder when the Nation hath no other Arms and is brought up to that exercise from their infancy A childe has no meat from his mother but what he strikes down from a place shown him by her But the Romanes were not long â—â—rified at that shower of stones Upon the close when they felt our Beaks and the Darts falling on them crying out like beasts they made what haste they could to the shore and having sheltered
Forces a long time and with doubtfull successe yet was he not overcome by war till he was betray'd by his own domesticks Having pursu'd his Forces all over Spain they had many and those doubtful engagements The first were managed by Lieutenants when of one side Domitius and Thorius and the Herculians on the other met as forlorns Soon after the latter being defeated neer Segovia the former at the River Ana the Generals themselves approaching one the other had another tryal neer Lauro and Sucro and the losse was equal on both sides Whereupon one side minding the desolation of the Country the other the destruction of Cities wretched Spain ru'd the differences of the Roman Generals till that Sertorius being murther'd by his servants and Perpenna vanquish'd and having surrendred himself the Cities also reacknowledg'd the jurisdiction of the Romans to wit Osea Terme Tutia Valentia Auxima Calaguris after it had endur'd the extremities of a famine So Spain being restor'd to peace the victorious Generals would have it accounted rather a forreign than a civil war that they might have the satisfaction of a triumph CHAP. XXIII Lepidus raises new commotions he is vanquish'd and dies in Sardinia MArcus Lepidus and Q. Catulus being Consuls there broke forth a civil war which was extinguish'd in lesse time then it had been begun But how far soever the fire-brand of that commotion spread it was a spark arising from the funeral pile of Sylla For Lepides insolently desirous to see some alteration would abrogate the acts of so great a person not unjustly could it have been done without injury to the Commonwealth For the Dictator Sylla having prescrib'd his enemies by the Law of Arms those who surviv'd to what end should they be called together but to war And the estates of the condemn'd Citizens being bestow'd by Sylla upon others though it were a thing unjustiable in it self yet done with a certain form of Justice the restitution thereof to the former proprietors must no doubt disturb the tranquillity of the City It therefore concern'd the Commonwealth now indisposed and wounded to rest though upon any terms that the wounds of it might not be opened in order to its cure Lepidus therefore having startled the City with seditious remonstrances as with an alarm he went into Etruria and thence brought an Army against Rome But Lutatius Catulus and Cn. Pompeius the Captains and Promoters of Sylla's tyranny had already possessed themselves of Milvius bridge and mount Janiculus with another Army By whom being forc'd back at the first onset and declar'd an enemy by the Senate he retreated without any bloodshed to Etruria afterwards into Sardinia and there of sicknesse and grief died The Conquerours a thing rarely seen in any of the other civil wars contented themselves onely with the peace THE ROMAN HISTORY BY L. JULIUS FLORUS The Fourth Book CHAP. I. The detestable conspiracy of Catiline against his Country he is assisted by several persons of the Noblest Families in Rome Cicero discovers the design the punishment of the Conspirators Antonius gives Catiline and his Army an absolute overthrow FIrst luxury and what is the effect of that the want of things necessary and withall opportunity in regard the Roman Armies were distant as far as the uttermost parts of the world forc'd Cataline upon these hainous designs of oppressing his Country murthering the Senate killing the Consuls firing the City robbing the Treasury overturning the whole Commonwealth and doing what Hannibal seems not to have wish'd What complices had he to compasse that horrid act He himself was of the order of the Patricii but that amounted to little There were engag'd with him in the same design some of the Curii the Porcii the Sylla's the Cethegi the Antronii the Vargunteii and Longini How great Families were these What ornaments of the Senate Nay Lentulus also then Praetor had entertained all these as instruments to carry on his most horrid attempt The conspiracy was seal'd with humane blood which carried about in goblets they drunk one to another a crime the most enormous in the world that onely excepted upon the account of which they drunk it There had been an end of the Noblest Empire in the World if that conspiracy had not happened in the time of the Consulship of Cicero and Antonius of whom the one discovered it by his industry the other quashed it by force The discovery of so great a wickednesse came from Fulvia a common Strumpet but not guilty of the intended parricide Whereupon Cicero assembling the Senate made an Oration against the Parricide Catiline present than among them but that proceeded no further then that the enemy might escape openly professing that he would extinguish the conflagration of the City by the utter destruction of it He goes to the Army raised by Manlius in Etruria with a design to bring it against the City Lentulus prophecying to himself the Government design'd his Family by the Sibylline verses disposes at set places about the City Men Firebrands and Arms against the day appointed by Catiline and not content with a civil conspiracy he drew into Arms the Ambassadors of the Allebroges then casually at Rome And the fury had spread beyond the Alps if upon another discovery of Vulturius the Praetor's letters had not been intercepted Whereupon by the order of Cicero the Barbarians were secured The Praetor is openly convicted in the Senate Being in consultation about their punishment Caesar would have had him spar'd upon the account of their quality but Cato would have them punish'd according to the horridnesse of the crime Which opinion the rest fellowing the Parricides were put to death in prison Though some part of the Conspiracy were smother'd yet Catiline persisted in his design and upon his march from Etruria with an army against his country he is defeated by Antonius How sharply they fought the event made appear not one of the enemies surviv'd the encounter that place which every one fought upon prov'd that whereon his body reposed after death Catiline himself was found at a great distance from his own people among the carcasses of his enemies a most noble death had he so fallen for his Country CHAP. II. A Relation of the War between Caesar and Pompey which was rather an universal one than a civil The league between Pompey Crassus and Caesar the distrust between Caesar and Pompey upon which ensu'd an open war Pompey flies out of Italy Caesar's exploits he besieges Marseils passes over into Spain defeats Pompey's Lieutenants and follows him into Epirus The courage and fortune of Caesar Pompey vanquish'd by him in Thessaly his deplorable death in Aegypt Caesar utterly destroys the Army of Pharnaces Scipio defeated Cara and Juba the bloody fight against Pompey's Sons the valour conduct and incomparable fortune of Caesar his clemency the great honours attributed to him he is envied at Rome and murthered THe whole world being now in a manner overcome the Roman Empire
busied in a mutual execution in the greatest heat of the work there was of a sudden a deep silence on both sides as if it had been by consent This was the general conceit of it At last happen'd a misfortune which Caesar had not seen before the choice band of Veterans gave ground And though that they had not fled yet was their resistance to be attributed rather to a certain shame than valour Whereupon Caesar lighting off his Horse runs like a distracted person to the front of the Battel There he stay'd such as were shrinking encourag'd them and finally by his eyes hands and voice assures the whole body It is reported that in that disturbance he was thinking of killing himself and that it was apparent in his countenance he would have hasten'd his own death if five Cohorts of the enemies crossing the Battel being sent by Labienus to reinforce the Pompeian Camp then in some danger had not seem'd as if they fled Which Caesar either really believ'd or cunningly laying hold upon that occasion and charging them as a flying party he both heightned the courage of his own people and gave the enemy an overthrow For the Caesarians imagining themselves Conquerors pursue the more eagerly on the other side the Pompeyans supposing their party ran away began to fly How great the slaughter of the enemies was and how great the fury and animosity of the victorious may be guessed hence When such as had escaped out of the fight had retreated to Munda and Caesar had given order that the vanquish'd should immediately be besieg'd there was a rampire made of the carcasses brought together which were fasten'd and kept in with spears and Javelins a spectacle would have been abominable even amongst Barbarians But Pompey's Sons despairing of the victory Cneus escaping out of the fight wounded in the leg and going towards the desarts and unfrequented places was overtaken at the Town of Lauro by Cesennius who there kill'd him fighting so that he had not as yet despaired In the mean time fortune kept Sextus undiscover'd in Celtiberia and reserv'd him for other wars after Caesar's time Caesar returns victor into his Country His first triumph over Gaul was brought in by a representation of the Rhine and the Rhone and the captive Ocean in gold The second the Aegyptian Lawrel In that was represented the Nile Arsinoë and the Pharus on fire The third triumphal Chariot brought in Pharnaces and Pontus The fourth Juba and the Mauritanians and exposed Spain twice subdu'd Pharsalia and Thapsus and Munda appeared not amongst his triumphs And how many greater victories had he obtain'd for which he triumphed not Here at last arms were laid down the rest of the peace was without bloodshed Caesar's clemency made amends for the cruelties of the war No man was put to death by his command but Afranius 't was enough that he had been pardoned once and Faustus Sylla he had learnt to fear his Sons-in-law and the Daughter of Pompey with her Cousin-germans descended from Sylla This was to secure his posterity His Citizens not ungrateful bestow all honours upon this one Prince his Images are set up in the Temples he hath in the Theatre a Crown surrounded with rays a Chair of State in the Senate a Terret upon his House top and is assign'd a month in the Heavens and withal this is entituled Father of his Country and perpetual Dictator lastly it is a question whether with his consent regal ornaments were proffer'd him before the Rostra by the Consul Antonius all which honours were done him and seem'd as the garlands set about a Victim design'd to die For the clemency of this Prince was envy'd and the great power he had to confer benefits was insupportable to free persons Nor did they delay it any longer but Brutus and Cassius and others of the Senators conspir'd the Prince's death How inevitable is the blow of fate The conspiracy was known to many nay a paper discovering it was presented that very day to Caesar himself and of a hundred victims sacrific'd not one propitious Yet he went to the Senate thinking on the Parthian expedition There the Senate set upon him sitting in his Chair of State and layd him on the ground with three and twenty wounds So he who had fill'd the world with the blood of his Citizens at length fill'd the Senate with his own CHAP. III. Sextus Pompeius demands his Father's estate Octavius resolves to revenge Caesar's death Mark Antony a slave to Cleopatra CAesar and Pompey being slain the people of Rome seem'd to have return'd to the state of their former liberty and had really done so if Pompey had not left children and Caesar an heir or what was more pernicious than either if Antonius heretofore Colleague and since a competitor of Caesar's power the firebrand and disturber of the ensuing age had not surviv'd them For while Sextus demands what had been his Father's his fear spreads over all Seas while Octavius revenges his Fathers death Thessaly must into arms again while Antonius a person of a fickle disposition disdains that Octavius should be Caesar's successor or for the love of Cleopatra would basely have condescended to accept the title of a King the people of Rome could not otherwise have been safe without returning to servitude In so great a disturbance we had this to rejoyce at that the Soveraign authority was devolv'd to Octavius Caesar Augustus who by his prudence and conduct reduc'd to order the body of the Empire then so shaken and disturbed on all sides that no doubt it could never have been reunited had it not submitted to the authority of one Governor as unto one and the same soul and mind Marcus Antonius and Publius Dolabella being Consuls fortune transferring the Roman Empire to the Cesars there happen'd diverse commotions in the City And as it comes to passe in the annual revolution of the Heavens that the motion of the Stars cause Thunder and discover their periods by the weather so in the change of the Roman Government that is that of mankind the body of the Empire in a manner shook and was distracted with all the misfortunes consequent to civil insurrections and wars as well by Sea as Land CHAP. IV. The quarrel between Octavius Caesar and Marcus Antonius the siege of Mutina raised THe first occasion of the civil Commotions was Caesar's Will whose second heir Antonius enrag'd that Octavius was preferr'd before him undertook an irreconcileable war against the adoption of that most forward young man For seeing him not fully eighteen years of age apt to be wrought upon and receive affronts he derogated from Caesar's dignity by calumnies and purloyn'd his inheritance and ceased not to persecute him with opprobrious speeches and by all imaginable artifices to oppose his adoption into the Julian Family Nay at last to oppresse the young man he broke forth into open hostility and having raised an Army in that part of Gaul on this
Senate and being shut up by him within the Walls of Perusia he forc'd him to the extremities of a surrender after a famine wherein even the filthiest things were fed upon CHAP. VIII Young Pompey possesses himself of Sicily and Sardinia his flight and shameful death CAesar's murtherers being taken out of the waY there remain'd onely the House of Pompey One of the young men died in Spain the other had escap'd by flight and rallying the remainders of an unfortunate war and put Slaves into arms was possessed of Sicily and Sardinia He had also a Navy at Sea ô how different from his Father for he had destroy'd the Cilicians but this man had pirates under his command With these so great preparations of war was the young man quite overthrown in the Sicilian Sea and he had carried along with him into the other world the reputation of a great Captain if he had attempted nothing afterwards but that it argues a noble mind ever to be in hope Being defeated he fled and set sail for Asia where he must fall into the hands of his enemies and chains and what is most insupportable to gallant men be adjudg'd at the discretion of his enemies to die by the hand of an Executioner There was not a more deplorable flight since that of Xerxes For he who ere while had three hundred and forty Ships under his command fled onely with six or seven having put out the light at the Admiral 's stern and cast his rings into the Sea trembling and looking back yet fearing nothing lesse then that he should perish See the remainder of this Chapter at the beginning of the Tenth as D.C. would have it placed CHAP. IX The incursions of the Parthians under the Conduct of young Pacorus They are defeated by the prudence of Ventidius Pacorus's death THe Parthians upon the defeat of Crassus had reassum'd greater courage and gladly receiv'd the intelligence of civil commotions among the Romans so that upon the first opportunity they stuck not to break out being withal animated thereto by Labienus who sent thither by Cassius and Brutus how implacable is mischief had importun'd our enemies to their assistance and they under the conduct of Pacorus their young Prince dismantle all the garrisons of Marcus Antonius Saxa Lieutenant to Antonius to avoid falling into their power was oblig'd to his own sword At length Syria falling off from us the mischief had spread still further the enemies under pretence of assisting Brutus conquering for themselves if Ventidius another Lieutenant of Antonius had not with incredible prosperity defeated the Forces of Labienus and Pacorus himself and all the Parthian Cavalry all along the Champian between the Rivers Orontus and Euphrates There fell twenty thousand men Nor was the work effected without the prudence of Ventidius who pretending fear suffer'd the enemies to come up so close to his Camp that being within reach of our darts they could make no advantage of their arrows The King was slain fighting valiantly and his head being carried about to the Citties which had revolted Syria became ours again without any war So by the death of Pacorus we were even for the overthrow given to Crassus CHAP. X. The Alliance between the Romans and the Parthians broken through the vanity of Marcus Antonius The inconveniences endur'd by the Roman Army and the generous resolution of the Soldiery the insolence and brutality of Antonius THough in Cassius and Brutus Caesar had smother'd the factions and in Pompey taken off the very name of them yet had he not proceeded so far as to settle a firm peace in as much as the shelf the knot and obstacle of publick security Antonius was still alive Nor did he want vices to bring him to his ruine nay having out of ambition and luxury made tryal of all things he delivered in the first place his enemies then his fellow-Citizens and at length the age he liv'd in from the terrour he gave them by procuring his own death The Parthians and Romans having made tryal of each other and Crassus on the one side and Pacorus on the other being testimonies of their valour there was a league made between them with equal reverence and absolute friendship and that by Antonius himself But the excessive vanity of the man while out of a lust to enlarge his titles he was desirous to have the Araxes and the Euphrates written under his Images made him leave Syria of a sudden and without any cause or advice or so much as any imaginary pretence of war as if it had been the part of a great Captain to steal upon his enemies make an unexpected incursion among the Parthians That Nation besides the confidence they repose in their peculiar Arms is subtle and pretends fear and flight crosse the Fields Antonius as if already victorious immediately pursues them when of a sudden an unexpected yet no great party of the enemies fell upon our men wearied with marching and in the evening as it had been a shower and shooting their arrows of all sides two Legions were in a manner cover'd therewith Yet was not this any thing in comparison of the overthrow which was to have been the next day if through the clemency of the Gods one who had surviv'd the defeat of Crassus riding about the Camp in a Parthian habit after he had gain'd credit with the Commanders acquainted them with what was to happen to wit that the King himself withal his Forces was coming upon them that they should retreat and get into the Mountains and that so doing they should not haply be to seek an enemy And so it happen'd that a smaller force of the enemies pursu'd them then was design'd to do it Yet they came on and the remainder of our Forces had been destroyed had it not been that when the Parthian arrows fell like hail upon the Soldiers luckily fell on their knees and lifting their Bucklers over their heads seem'd as if they were slain Then the Parthians gave over shooting with the bows Whereupon the Romans rising up the thing was thought so miraculous that one of the Barbarians said Go and do well oh ye Romans justly does Fame speak you the Conquerours of Nations who are able to endure the darts of the Parthians We suffer'd afterwards as much through want of water as we had done by the enemies First the Region it self was oppressed with drought then to some of us the water of the River Salmacis prov'd more destructive and lastly being drunk excessively by such as were unhealthy even sweet waters prov'd hurtful to us Afterwards the sultrinesse of Armenia and the snows of Cappadocia and the sudden change of air from one to the other were a kind of pestilence So hardly a third part of sixteen Legions being left Antonius that gallant General after his mony was cut to pieces with chizzels by the mutining Soldiery and he himself had in the interval begg'd death at the hands of his Gladiator
fled at length into Syria where out of an incredible stupidity he became more insolent than before as if he who had made his escape had gain'd the victory CHAP. XI Antonius besotted with the love of Cleopatra promises her the Roman Empire the preparations for the war a Naval engagement between Octavius and Antonius the death of him and Cleopatra LUst and Luxury put an end to Antonius's fury though ambition could not For after the expedition against the Parthians detesting war and giving himself over to sloath he fell in love with Cleopatra and as if he had manag'd things excellently well he enjoy'd himself in the embraces of a Princesse This Aegyptian woman desires of the besotted General for the reward of her lust no lesse then the Roman Empire And Antonius promised it her as if the Romans were more easily overcome than the Parthians He therefore began to plot Soveraignty not covertly but having forgot his Country Name Habit and Dignity he absolutely degenerated into that monster a tyrant not onely in his thoughts but also in his inclinations and attire He walk'd with a golden staff in his hand had a Cimitar by his side was clad in a purple garment beset with large Pearls nay he wanted not a Diadem that he might enjoy a Queen as a King Upon the first intelligence of these new commotions Caesar crossed the Sea at Brundusium to prevent the approaching war and having encamped in Epirus he surrounded the Island Leucades and the Mount Leucates and the points of the Ambracian Bay with a powerful Fleet. We had above four hundred Ships the enemies about two hundred but their Bulk made up their number For they had from six to nine Banks of Oars besides being raised up high with turrets and decks like Castles and fortify'd Cities they made the Sea groan and put the winds out of breath to carry them and that excessive Bulk prov'd the occasion of their destruction Caesar's Ships had from three to six banks of Oars and none beyond so that they were in readinesse to take all advantages whether to charge recharge or turn about and diverse of them at the same assaulting those heavy and unweildy slugges with their beaks as also with darts and fire cast into them they dispersed them as they pleased themselves Nor did the greatnesse of the enemies Forces appear in any thing so much as after the victory For that prodigious Fleet having been wrack'd in the engagement was scatter'd all over the Sea became the spoil of the Arabians the Sabaeans and a thousand other Nations of Asia and the Waves continually stirr'd by the Winds cast up Purple and Gold upon the shores The Queen beginning the flight made to Sea with her Ship all gilt at the stern and purple sails and soon after Antonius follow'd but Caesar was not far behind him So that neither their design'd escape into the Ocean nor the two points of Aegypt Paretonium and Pelusium which they had fortify'd with Garrisons stood them in any stead in as much as they were in a manner within his reach Antonius kill'd himself first The Queen falling at Caesar's feet endeavour'd to dazzle his sight but in vain for her beauty prevayled not upon that Prince's chastity Her suit was not for her life which was proffer'd her but to obtain part of the Kingdom Which when she was out of all hope to obtain and perceiv'd she was reserv'd for a triumph taking advantage of the negligence of her guard she fled into the Mausoleum so they call the Sepulchres of their Kings And there having put on her most sumptuous garments as she was wont and seated her self close to her Antonius in a Throne fill'd with rich perfumes she apply'd Serpents to her veins and died as it were in a slumber CHAP. XII A war raised by the Germans in Augustus's time his exploits in the Northern Provinces the valour and conduct of Drusus who is surnam'd Germanicus his death Quintilius surpriz'd by the Germans his defeat A war in Armenia the attempt of a Barbarian on the person of Caius Augustus's conquests in Spain a general Peace the most remote Nations submit to the Roman Empire the Parthians return the Ensignes taken from Crassus Octavius Caesar shuts Janus Temple He is named Father of the Country and Augustus HEre ended the civil wars what follow'd were against forreign Nations who duâ—ing the Empire 's conflict with his own miseâ—ies began to stir in divers parts of the world For Peace was a new thing and the necks of those proud and insolent Nations being not accustom'd to the curb of bondage they slipp'd out of the yoke not long before imposed upon them That part of the world which is towards the North the Inhabitants whereof are the Noricians the Illyrians Pannonians Dalmatians Mysians Thracians and Dacians Sarmatians and Germans was the most violent The Noricians were encourag'd by the Alps and snows thinking the war could not get over them But Augustus quieted all those parts to wit the Brenni the Senones and the Vindelici by his Step-Son Claudius Drusus How strangely barbarous these Nations were may be easily seen by their women who having spent their weapons flung their groveling infants at our Soldiers races The Illyrians also live under the Alps and guard the lower Valleys and certain passages thereof where they are secured by impetuous torrents Caesar himself engag'd against these and ordered a Bridge to be made to get over into their Province Being here put to a stand by waters and the enemy he snatch'd the Buckler out of the hand of a Soldier who seem'd loath to get up on the Bridge and march'd in the front of the Forces when * Oum lubricus multitudine pons succidisset the untrusty Bridge shrinking down by reason of its being o'repressed with multitude he was hurt in the hands and leggs yet so as that deriving Majesty from the danger and the blood he had lost rendring him the more amiable he had the pursuit of the retreating enemy The Pannonians are compassed by two Forrests and three Rivers Dravus Savus and Ister These having wasted their neighbouring Countries retreated within the banks of their Rivers He sent Vibius to reduce them and they were destroy'd upon the two Rivers the Arms of the conquered were not burnt according to the custom but were taken and thrown into the Rivers to assure the rest who stood out of our victory The Dalmatians live for the most part in woods and so ly most conveniently for Robberies Marcius having fir'd the City Delminium had already given these a great blow Afterwards Asinius Pollio had punish'd them with the losse of their Flocks Arms and Fields But Augustus recommends the subduing of them to Vibius who forc'd those Savages to dig the Earth and fetch pure gold out of its veins which that most covetous Nation is sufficiently inclined to do it self as if they seem'd to keep it for their own use 'T is a horrid thing to
both short-liv'd but one dy'd ere he had gain'd any honour For Lucius dy'd of a disease at Massilia Cajus in Lycia of a wound while he was employ'd about the reduction of Armenia then ready to revolt to the Parthians Pompey having vanquish'd King Tigranes had brought the Armenians to this point of bondage as to receive Governours from us That right of ours being interrupted was by this Caius reasserted after a bloody though short engagement For Domnes whom the King had made Governor of Artaxata pretending he would betray his Master runs him with his Sword into the Temples while he was earnestly perusing a scroll which he himself had presented to him containing the accounts of the Treasures But the Barbarian pursu'd on all sides by the incensed Army was destroy'd by a sword and a fire into which being wounded he cast himself and so made some satisfaction to Caesar not yet dead of his wound In the West all Spain was quiet save onely that part of it which is adjacent to the rocks of the Pyrenean Mountains and lies upon the hither Ocean Here were two most valiant Nations the Cantabrians and the Asturians who acâ—nowledg'd not jurisdiction of the Empire The Cantabrians were the first the more insolent and more obstinate in the revolt nay not content to maintain their own liberty they attempted to rule over their neighbours and harrassed the Vaccaeans the Curgonians and the Autrigonians with their frequent incursions Against these therefore as such as were reported to be the most daring Caesar did not put the expedition upon another but went in person Being come to Segisama he encamped afterwards dividing his Army he compassed the whole Country of Cantabria and subdu'd that savage Nation like wild beasts taken in a toyl Nor had they any quiet at Sea where our Navy charg'd the enemies in the reare The first engagement with the Cantabrians was under the Walls of Vellica Thence they fled to the most steepy Mountain Vindius where they thought the Ocean would ascend sooner than the Roman Armies Thirdly the City Arracillum made great resistance but at last was taken by the Siege of the Edulian Mountain compassed with a trench of fifteen miles by which means the Romans falling on of all sides and the Barbarians being reduc'd to the utmost extremities they anticipated their own deaths some by fire some by the sword in the midst of their banquets and some by poison which is there commonly extracted out of the Yew-trees and so the greater part of them prevented that captivity which they saw coming upon them Caesar wintring at Tarracon a Sea-Town receiv'd an account of these things done by Antistius Furnius and Agrippa his Lieutenants Being come to the Army he forc'd some out of the Mountains engaged others by Hostages and according to martial Law exposed some to sale as slaves The Senate thought the expedition worthy a Lawrel worthy a triumphal Charriot But Caesar was already so great as to slight Triumphs The Asturians having about the same time got a vast Army together were come down out of their Mountains * Nec temere sumptus ut Barbari impetus nor was their attempt inconsiderate as is ordinary with Barbarians but having encamped at the River Astura they divided their Forces into three bodies and design'd to set upon the three Camps of the Romans at the same time It had been a hazardous and a bloody bout * Et uticnam mutua clade certamen I wish the losse on both sides had been but equal we having to do with people so valiant and coming upon us so unexpectedly and with so much deliberation if they had not been betray'd by the Brigaecini by whom Carisius being forewarned came with the Army and frustrated their designs Yet was not that done without much bloodshed The remainders of that most valiant defeated Army escaped to the City Lancia where there was so sharp an encounter that the Soldiry desiring â—hat the City being taken might be fir'd the General with much ado prevayl'd with them That it should be a monument of the Roman victory rather as it stood than burnt Here Augustus put a period to his warlike exploits and this was the last rebellion of Spain From that time there was constant fidelity and a continual peace which proceeded partly from the inclinations of the Inhabitants then more bent thereto and partly from Caesar's prudence who fearing the confidence they deriv'd from their Mountainous habitations into which they retreated commanded them thence forward to inhabit in the plains where his Camp was * Ingentis ecce cousilii â—llud Observaâ—i caepit natuae c. Behold that indeed was an act of great policy Men began to make observations into the nature of the Country which was full of Gold-mines and well stor'd with borax and vermilion and other colours He therefore commanded the ground to be cultivated So the Asturians began to understand the wealth they had lying under ground while they digg'd it out for others All Nations to the West and South being quieted as also to the North onely within the Rhine and the Dannow and in like manner to the East between * Tigris Tigris and Euphrates those others also which were not subject to the Empire were yet sensible of its greatnesse and look'd on the Roman people as Conquerors of the world For even the Scyâ—hians and Sarmatians sent their Ambassadors to us desiring our friendship The Seres also and the Indians who live under the very Sun came with gems and precious stones and bringing also Elephants among their presents complain'd of nothing so much as the greatnesse of their journey which they compleated in four years and yet the very colour of the men argu'd their coming from under another Sun The Parthians also as if it repented them of the Victory of their own accord return'd the Ensignes at the overthrow given to Crassus So was all mankind reduc'd to a firm and uninterrupted peace either by conquest or compact And Caesar Augustus in the seven hundredth year from the first building of the City presum'd to shut the Temple of double-fac'd Janus which had been shut but twice before him under King Numa and after the first reduction of Carthage Thence forward giving his thoughts to peace he reform'd an age bent to all enormities and inclining to dissolution by many prudent and severe edicts For these so many transcendent Actions he was denominated Perpetual Dictator and Father of the Country It was debated in the Senate whether he should be called Romulus because he had establish'd the Empire But the name of AUGUSTUS was thought more sacred and more venerable that even while he lives on Earth he might in name and title be ranked among the Gods A TABLE Of the several CHAPTERS contained in the whole Book The first Book CHAP. I. THe Birth of Romulus first King of the Romans the actions of his youth the foundation of Rome the death of his