thus enuironed within as it were an hunting toyle at all harbours bayes shelters creekes promontories straights halfe-iles were vtterly distressed Pompey vndertooke Cilicia the mother and fountaine of this warre And the enemies were forward to fight not for any hope they had but because that being ouerborne they would seeme to dare but yet no farther then as only to brooke the first shocke For when they beheld the beake-heads of our clashing gallies charge in ring vpon them they forthwith strooke saile threw away oares made a generall showt a signe among them of yeelding and begged life A victory gaind with lesse bloudshed then this as we at no time had so neither did wee euer finde a people more loyall to vs then they And that was long of our Generals high wisedome who transplanted this broode of mariners far of out of the very ken of the sea and as it were teddred them fast in the vplands Thus at the same time he recouerd the seas for the vse of merchants restored to land her owne men In this victory what should we first admire whether celerity because it was gotten is forty dayes or good fortune for that hee lost not a vessell or finally the lastingnesse for that there neuer was any pyrate after CHAP. VII The Creticke warre THe Creticke warre if wee will haue the truth our selues made to our selues onely vpon a desire to conquer that noble iland It seemd to haue fauord Mithridates for which seemings sake we meant to take reuenge by the sword Marcus Antonius was the first who inuaded it borne-vp with so wonderfull an hope and affiance of victory that hee fraught his ships with more fetters then weapons Therefore hee had the reward of his dotage for the Cretensians intercepted most part of his nauie and hoising the bodies of such as they tooke prisoners vp in sailes and tacklings rowed backe into their Ports as it were with a forewinde in triumph Then Metellus wasting the whole Iland with fire and sword pent them within their castles and cities Gnosus Erythraea and as the Greeks are wont to speake the mother of cities Cydona and hee so mercilessely plagued the captiues that most of the ilanders poysoned themselues other sent their surrenders to Pompey absent who busied in the enterprises of Asia and sending Octauius to Crete as gouernour was laughed to scorne for meddling in another mans prouince and prouoked Metellus to exercise the right of a conquerour the more bitterly vpon the Cretans and hauing vanquisht Lasthenes and Panares captaines of Cydona returnd victorious and yet brought nothing greater backe of so famous a conquest then the surname Creticus CHAP. VIII The Balearian warre THe house of Metellus Macedonicus was so farre forth accustomed to warlike surnames that the one of his sonnes obtayning the title Creticus another of them was eft-soones stiled Balearicus The Baleares had about the same time made the seas dangerous with their pyracies A man would wonder that those wilde and sauage people durst once so much as looke from their rocketoppes downe vpon the sea But more then so they ventur'd foorth to sea in bungled boates and now and then frighted such as saild by with suddaine on-sets and now also when they a farre off descry'd the Roman nauie approach in the maine sea conceiuing it to bee purchase they had the hearts to assaile it and at the first charge couerd it with an huge showre of small and great stone Each of them vseth three slings in battell Who will wonder if they bee excellent marke-men when these are the onely armes the nation hath and are bred vp in the practice of them from their child-hoode A boy gets no morsell at his mothers hands but that of which shee makes a white and which himselfe must hit But this kind of haile did not long terrifie the Romans After they came to hand-strookes and felt our beake-heads and iauelines comming they raised a bellowing crie like so many beasts and fled to shore where slipping in among the next hillockes the first worke was to find them out the next to conquer them CHAP. IX The voyage into Cyprus THe finall destinie of Ilands was at hand Cyprus therefore yeelded it-selfe without warre Of this ile abounding in ancient riches and besides that consecrated to Venus Ptolomic was king and the report of her wealth was such nor that vntruely that the people which were conquerours of the world and accustomed to graunt away whole kingdomes gaue in charge to Publius Claudius a tribune of theirs author of the motion to confiscate that prince though aliue and in league with them At the bruit whereof hee shortned his dayes by poyson The riches of Cyprus were conueighed in barges vp the riuer Tiber by Porcius Cato which brought more treasure to the treasury of the people of Rome then any triumph CHAP. X. The Gallick warre ASia subdued by the hand of Pompey fortune transfer'd vpon Caesar the conquest of that which was left vntoucht in Europe And there remained the most terrible of all other nations the Galls and Germans and Britaine though diuided from the whole world yet had notwithstanding one to conquer it The first cause of this trouble begun at the Heluetians who seated betweene the Rhene and Rhodanus and their countreys prouing to narrow for their swarmes came to demand of vs other habitations hauing first set their townes on fire A solemne signe among them of neuer returning thither But we asking time for deliberation and during that delay when Caesar by cutting downe the bridge ouer Rhone had taken from them the meanes of flying away hee by and by led backe that most warlike people into their olde homes as a shepheard driues his flocks to their sheep-folds The following battell which was fought against the Belgiās was much more bloudy as against men who fought for freedome Here the Romans did many famous feats of armes and this of Caesar's was most singular that his army inclining to flie hee snatcht the target from one who was running away and charging vpon the face of the enemies restored the battell with his owne hand After this hee encountred the Veneti at sea but the combat was greater with the Ocean then with the enemies shippes For they were bungerly made and mis-shapen and had presently beene split with our beake-heads but the shallow places hindred the fight that the tide withdrawing vpon course during the skirmish the Ocean might as it were seeme to haue beene stickler in the battell He had elsewhere also to deale with difficulties which grew from the nature of the nations and places The Aquitans a subtill generation betooke themselues to grots and holes vnder ground Caesar had damd them vp The Morini slipt aside into the woods hee commanded to fire them Let no man say the Galls are onely fierce they vse fraud also Induciomarus assembled the Treuirists Ambiorix the Eburones and making a combination among themselues in Caesars absence both
discontented with Gods and men the hauen-towne Ostia a pupill and foster-child of Rome was at the first assault taken and with horrible destruction pillaged From thence he enters the citie in foure battels Cinna Marius Carbo and Sertorius leading them where after that the whole band of Octauius was beaten from mount Ianiculum presently vpon a signe giuen they fell to killing the princes and chiefe lords much more sauagely then is vsed either in a Paenish or a Cimbrian citie The head of Octauius Consul was pitcht vpon a pole before the Rostra and the head of Antonius a Consularie man was set on the boord before Marius himselfe Casar and Fimbria were murthred in that place of their houses where their household Gods stood and Crassus the father and son each insight of other Bebius and Numitor were drawne with the hangmans hookes through the middle of the Forum Catulus freed himselfe from being made the scorne of his enemies by smothering Merula Iupiters priest bespurtled the eyes of Ioue himself with the bloud which sprung out of his veines in the Capitol Ancharius was runne through Marius himselfe looking on because when Marius saluted him hee reacht not out forsooth that fatall hand of his These Senators he massacred between the Calends and Ides of Ianuary in that seuenth Consulship of his What would haue become of things if after that proportion of killing hee had beene Consul but a yeere Scipio and Norbanus Consuls that third worst whirlwinde of ciuill surie thundred forth with all the violence it had at which time seuen legions of the one side on another fiue hundred cohorts stood in armes and Sulla hastned out of Asia with a victorious army And certainely Marius hauing shewed himselfe so mercilesse towards Sulla's friends how great cruelty was there neede of for Sulla to bee euen with Marius Their first encounter was at Capua by the riuer Vulturnus and there the army of Norbanus was quickly ouerthrowne and all Scipio's forces vpon colourable ouerture of peace speedily oppressed Then Marius the yonger and Carbo Consuls as if the hope they had to get the victorie were quite dead yet not to perish vnreuenged they parentated to themselues with the bloud of the Senate And besetting the Senate-house such of the Senate whose throats they meant to cut were drawne out from thence as out of a sheep-penne or prison What slaughters were there in the Forum in the Circus and open Temples For MVTIVS SCAEVOLA the priest embracing the altar of Vesta in his atmes is onely not buried in her fire Lamponius and Telesinus ringleaders of the Samnits waste Campania and Etruria more dreadfully then Pyrrhus and Annibal did and vnder the colour of siding reuenge themselues The whole forces of the enemies were quite distrest at Sacriport and port Collin or Hill-gate There Marius and here Telesinus were destroyed But warre and slaughter ended not together For the sword was vnsheathed euen in peace and they who freely yeelded themselues were also depriued of their liues It is not lesse hainous that Sulla at Sacriport and Hill-gate did cut in pieces aboue threescore and ten thousand But then it was war Hee commanded aboue foure thousand vnarmed citizens who had yeelded themselues to bee put to the sword in the publike village These though so many slaine in cold bloud yet are no more then foure thousand But who can number them who were kill'd euery-where thorowout the citie by any one who lifted till Furfidius admonished that some ought to bee left aliue that there might be ouer whom to commaund Hereupon was that huge table hung out in which two thousand by name cull'd forth of the very flowre of the Senate knights and gentlemen were proclaimed to die A new kinde of edict It were tedious after al these things to historifie the killing in cruel sport of Carbo of Soranus the Praetor and of Venuleius and how Baebius was not slaine with the sword but torne in pieces with hands as with the pawes of sauage beasts How Marius brother of the Generall Marius was thrust with his eyes hands and thighes into the earth before the tombe of Catulus and in that state kept so aliue as hee might sensibly feele himselfe die in euery part To let passe almost all the seuerall formes of death vsed vpon seuerall persons the statelyest free-townes of Italy were sold as at an outrop who would giue most Spoletum Interamnium Praeneste Fluentia For as for Sulmo that ancient confederate and friend-citie not yet conquer'd Sulla O vnworthy fact commanded it to bee vtterly razed condemning it no otherwise then as hostages condemn'd by the law of armes and accordingly sentenced to death are commanded forth to execution CHAP. XXII The warre with Sertorius WHat other thing else was the Sertorian warre then the inheritance of Sulla's proscription Whether I should stile it an hostile or a ciuill warre I know not as that which the Lusitanians and Celtiberians acted hauing a Roman to their Generall Hee was a man of an excellent rare but of a disastrous valour out-law'd for his life and flying that most deadly proclamation hee tossed both sea and land with mixture of his miseries and trying his fortune now in Africa then in the Balearies and sent from thence into the Ocean past thorow to the Fortunateilands and lastly armed Spaine where as a man with men hee easily made head nor did the couragious brauerie of Spanish souldiers appeare in any place more plainely then when a Roman led them though not contented with Spaine alone he minded Mithridates also and the Ponticks ayding him with a nauie What had beene able to resist so potent an enemie The world could not withstand by onely one captains meanes Cnaeus Pompeius was ioyned to Metellus They wasted the puissance of Sertorius in battell though it was long first and neuer but with doubtfull fight nor at last by faire warre for hee was dispatcht through the villanie and treason of his familiar friends and our captaines hauing traced his armies almost ouer all Spaine did neuer encounter his but the battell was alwayes long and hazardous The first proofe wee made of his abilities was by lieutenants generall when Domitius and Thorius vpon the one side and the Herculeij vpon the other made some light skirmishes but these being eftsoones slaine at Segouia and those at the riuer Anas the Generals themselues comming to try it out in person at Lauro and Sucron parted each with equall mischiefe done to either They turning then their power to waste the countrey and these to the subuersion of cities wretched Spaine smarted for the quarrels of the Roman captaines one against the other till such time as Sertorius muthered by practice of his house-hold friends and conquer'd Perperna submitting himselfe the cities Osea Terme Tutia Valentia Auximia and which had endured the worst of hunger Calaguris sware feaulty to the Romans So Spaine receiued into peace the victorious Generals had rather it should seeme a foraine warre
the Arsenal he dislodged the enemie who plide him from thence with shot From thence he suddenly escaped to the penile of Pharus Beaten out of that glad to plunge into the sea hee got with admirable good fortune to the next ships by swimming fain to leaue his robe in the waues whether by chance or of purpose that the aduersarie might pelt mawl it with stones and shot in stead of him Receiued at last among his own mariners assailing the enemy in all quarters at once hee paide the ghost of his son in law the vengeance due to it vpon that cowardly and trayterous nation For not onely the kings tutor Theodorus author of the whole warre but not so much also as those maskes of men the Eunuchs Photinus Ganymedes flying by sea and land came to euill ends The yong kings body was found as it lay wallowed vnder mud and known by the honor of a golden curace or brest plate vpon it New stirs were likewise in Asia begun in Pontus fortune watching as it were of set purpose to make this the end of Mithridates kingdom that the father should bee conquer'd by Pompey and the sonne by Caesar. King Pharnaces rather vpon trust of our discord then his owne valour fell vpon Cappadocia with an offensiue armie But Caesar setting vpon him in onely one and that too so to say not an whole battell ground him as it were to dust after the manner of lightning which at one and the same moment of time came hit and went away neither was it a vaine brag which Caesar made of himselfe that the enemie was ouerthrowne there before euer hee set eye vpon him Thus went matters in forreine parts But in Africk the fight of Romans with Romans was more deadly then it had beene in Pharsalia Hither the remaines of the shipwrackt faction were driuen by a certaine pang or fit of fury nor would you call them remaines but a whole and entire warre Pompeis forces were rather scatterd then consumed His tragedy made them more solemne and zealous to fight Nor did the succeeding Generals degenerate For Cato and Scipio founded full enough in the place of Pompeis name Iuba king of Mauritania made one in the quarrell forsooth that Caesar might haue the more to conquer There was therefore no difference nor oddes betweene Pharsalia and Thapsus sauing that the eagernesse of the Caesarians was both the more the more sharpe as chafing that the war grew though Pompey was dead To bee briefe a thing which neuer hapned till then the trumpets sounded a charge through the souldiers forwardnesse without the cōmandement of the General The ouerthrow beganne at Iuba whose elephants not throughly manned to fight and but lately taken wilde out of the woods quite confounded at the sudden shrilnesse forthwith dis-ranked their friends army made that the captaines could not escape by flying all of them comming to their ends remarkably For Scipio was now gotten on ship-boord but his enemies ouertaking him he ran his sword thorow his owne belly one asking after him in search he answered in these very words The Generall is well Iuba gotten into his palace after a royal banquet made to Petreius the companion of his flight among his cuppes and dishes call'd vpon him for a killing And Petreius had enough of that both for the king and himselfe so the viands halfe as it were eaten and the funerall messes swam mixt with royall and Roman bloud together Cato was not at this battell but encamping at Bagrada hee lay for defence of Vtica as at the other maine fort or barre of Africa But hearing the defeat of his partners hee dallied not at all but as it became a wiseman did euen ioyfully hasten his owne death For after hee had embraced and bidden good night to his son and companions hee reposed himselfe awhile in his bed hauing perused by a light Plato's booke of the Immortality of the soule and then about the first releeuing of the watch vnsheathing his sword hee therewith thrust himselfe with a re-enforced stroke into the body After which the physicians presumed to wrong the braue man with laying salues which he permitted till they were out of the roome but then hee rashed them away and the bloud following amaine he left his dying hands in the very wound Warre and sidings brake out againe as fresh as if there had neuer past a stroke in the quarrell and by how much the troubles in Africa were beyond those in Thessaly by so much Spaines surpassed those in Africa the brother linesse of the Generals drew exceeding sauor to that side when for one Pompey there stood vp two The encounters therfore were no where so terrible or hazardous The first conflict was in the very mouth of the maine Ocean Varius and Didius oppositely lieutenants generall but the strife with the sea it selfe was sorer then that of Fleete with Fleete for the Ocean as it were to chastize owne countreymen for their madnesse dasht indifferently of either of their nauies in pieces What a ghastly and hideous sight was that when at one and the same instant seas stormes and tackle fought together Adde to all this the fearefull situation of the place where the shores of Spain and Mauritania on this coast and on that doe offer in a manner to claspe and meete the sea both mediterranean maine Ocean and Hercules pillars opposite mountaines hanging ouer At which time foule weather and fierce battell raged round about After this both parts ranged here there employing themselues in the siege of cities whose case was miserable while betweene the leaders of seuerall sides they smarted deepely for their friendship with the Romans The last battell of all was at Munda Here the fight was not answerable to the felicity of other fights but doubtfull for a long time and discontentiue so as fortune plainely seemed to deliberate vpon the doing of some I know not what thing Certainely Caesar himselfe was seene before the armie sadder then for his wont whether in regard of humane frailty or as suspecting that the excesse of prosperitie would not hold out alwayes or as fearing the same things which Pompey found so soone as once he came to be what Pompey was but in the very battell it selfe after the armies had with equall slaughter done nothing for a long space but kill suddenly the like whereof no man liuing could remember in the most heate of the fight there was a deepe silence on both sides as if they were agreed this was euery ones coneit of it Last of all which Caesar in foureteene yeeres before had neuer seene the selected tride band of his old souldiers an hainous matter gaue backe so that although they fell not as yet to flat running away nothing was playner notwithstanding then that they resisted more for pure shame then valour Caesar therefore putting his horse from him ranne like a mad-man into the head of the battell there hee
They both to keepe their promise and not to suffer her to escape ouer-whelmed her to death with their shields The enemies thus getting to the walls there rose a terrible conflict in the very entrance so farreforth that Romulus was glad to beseech Ioue to flay his people from their shamefull flying In this place there is a temple and the statue of IVPITER the Stayer At last they which had beene rauished came running-in tearing their haire betweene the two armies as they were furiously encountring So was peace made with Tatius and a league ratified There ensued a matter wonderfull to bee spoken The Sabine enemies leauing their ancient seate remoued with their whole families into the new citie and share their horded riches among their sonnes in law for portions Their ioynt forces quickly encreasing the most wise Romulus ordayned this forme of common-weale That the young men deuided into tribes should serue on horse-back and watch in armour to bee readie for all sudden occasions of warre the councell of estate should belong to the old and ancient who for their authoritie should be called Fathers and for their antiquitie Senators or Aldermen These things thus established he was taken out of sight in a moment as hee made an oration before the citie at the poole of Capra Some thinke he was torne in pieces by the Senate for his harsh and rough disposition but a tempest rising with an eclipse of the Sun made it seeme like the consecration of a God-head Which opinion Iulius Proculus caused to go presently currant by affirming that Romulus had appeared to him in a more maiesticall shape then euer hee was seene before that hee commanded they should adore him as a power diuine That the Gods had decreed his name in heauen should bee Quirinus and that Rome should so obtayne the empire of the world CHAP. II. Of NVMA POMPILIVS TO Romulus succeeded Numa Pompilius whom liuing at the Sabines Cures the Romans of their owne accord intreated to bee their king for the fame of his religion He taught them sacred rites and ceremonies and all the worship of the immortall gods Hee instituted their Colleges of priests of all sorts Pontifices Augures Salians and the rest distinguisht the yeere into twelue months markt out which dayes were luckie and which were dismall in them He gaue them their Ancilia shields and Palladium as certayne secret pledges of empire Hee gaue them their temple of Ianus to be the sure signe of peace or warre most specially the harth of Vesta for virgins to adore that in imitation of the starres of heauen the flame preserued there aliue might euer keepe awake for safegard of the state All these things he ordayned by as it were the oracle of the goddesse Egeria that the barbarous might so accept them the rather To conclude hee brought the fierce people to that passe that the kingdome which they had atchieued by violence and wrong they gouerned by religion and iustice CHAP. III. Of TVLLVS HOSTILIVS NEXT after Numa reignes Tullus Hostilius to whome the kingdome was freely giuen in honor of his vertue This prince founded all their martiall discipline and arte of warre Their young-men thereby wonderously practised in feates of Armes they durst prouoke the Albanes an honourable people which had long time borne chiefe sway But their forces being equall and their conflicts many when both sides were diminished the warre was drawne by consent to a short worke and the fortunes of both the nations were entrusted to a combat betweene the Horatij and Curatij being three to three of a side and brethren The fight was braue and doubtfull and admirable in the euent For three of the one side being wounded and two of the other slaine that Horatius who remayned aliue helping out his valour with his wit faynes himselfe to flie so to single forth the enemie and then turning vpon each as they were able to follow ouer-came them all So which was otherwise a rare glorie the victorie was gotten with one mans hand which hee forth with stained by parricide Hee saw his sister weepe at the sight of the conquered spoiles he wore being her betrothed husband's though an enemies Which vnseasonable tender-heartednesse he reuenged with sheathing his sword in her For this haynous fact hee was arraigned But the merit of his man-hood preserued the offendor from danger and the crime was hidden with in his valours glorie Nor did the Albanes long keepe their faith For being sent as aydes and fellowes in armes against the Fidenates according to the articles of their league they turned neutrall in battell for their owne aduantage But the politike king Hostilius so soone as hee saw his associates incline to the enemies partie he gathers fresh spirit as if hee had willed them so to doe which did put hope into our men and strooke feare into the foes So the treason came to nothing The battell therefore being wonne he causeth Metius Fufetius the breaker of the league to be tyed betweene two chariots and pluckt in pieces with swift horses and though Alba was the mother of Rome yet withall because it was a riuall he threw it to the ground after hee had first transported the whole riches and all the people thereof to Rome that a citie a kinne by the whole bloud might not altogether seeme to haue perished but to haue as it were turned againe into her proper Body CHAP. IIII. Of ANCVS MARTIVS THe next King was Ancus Martius Grand-Childe of Pompilius by his daughter and of such a wit Hee therfore girt the citie with a wall and ioyned both the sides thereof together with a bridge ouer Tibris which ran betweene and planted a Colonie at Ostia where that riuer falls into the sea His minde giuing him euen then that the wealth of the whole world and passengers to and fro out of all parts should be receiued there as in the hauen towne and maritim Inne of Rome CHAP. V. Of TARQVINIVS PRISCVS TArquinius afterward called Priscus though descended from forainers beyond sea yet of his owne free courage demaunding the kingdome had it as freely graunted for his industrie and noble carriage For sprung out of Corinth hee had mingled Greeke wit with Italian fashions This prince inlarged the maiestie of the Senate and augmented the Tribes with new Centuries notwithstanding that Attius Naeuius excellently seene in Augurie had forbidden the number to be encreased of whom the king to trie his skill demaunded Whether that might be done which hee at that instant had in his minde Naeuius hauing first put in practice the rules of his bird-flying mysterie answered That it might Then it was my thought quoth he whether I could cut that whetstone with a rasour And thou mayest said the Augur and he did it Hence the Augur-ship became sacred among the Romans Nor was Tarquinius better at peace then at warre For hee conquered the twelue Tuscan nations with often fighting and from thence came our
that he plainly seemed as a common father to haue adopted the people of Rome into the place of his children From henceforth free the first armes which the people tooke were against aliens for maintenance of their libertie secundly for their bounds thirdly for their associates as also for glorie and dominion their neighbours by all meanes daily vexing them For whereas they had in the beginning no land of their owne lying to their citie they forthwith enlarged their territories with that which they wonne from the enemie and being situated in the midst betweene Latium and Tuscanie as it were in a two-way-leet they neuer gaue ouer to issue out of their gates against the aduersarie till running like a kinde of plague through euery nation and alwayes laying hold of such as were next they brought all Italie at last to be vnder their subiection CHAP. X. The warre with the Tuscans and King PORSENA KIngs being driuen out of the city the first armes which the people tooke were for supportation of their freedome For Porsena king of Tuscans was at hand with huge forces and brought backe the Tarquins vnder his protection Neuerthelesse though he prest them to accept the king againe with fighting and with famine and had gotten mount Ianiculum which stood in the very iawes of the citie yet they both resisted and forced him also to retire and finally they strooke him into so great admiration that after hee was now growne too hard he voluntarily entred into a league of friendship with that people which he had almost ouercome Then were seene those braue Roman aduentures and wonders Horatius Mutius Claelia who if they were not in chronicles would at this day bee taken for fables For Horatius Cocles after that hee alone could not keepe off the enemies who assaulted him on all sides and that the bridge was broken downe behinde him hee crost ouer Tibris swimming and yet held his weapons fast Mutius Scaeuola came by a stratagem to the king and attempted to stabbe him in his campe but when hee saw the stroake lost by mistaking another for him he thrust his hand into the prepared fire and doubled the kings terrour by his cunning For thus he said That thou mayst know from what manner of man thou hast escaped three hundred of vs haue all sworne the same thing Meane while an horrible thing to be spoken Horatius stood vndaunted and the other shook with feare as if it had beene the kings hand which burned Thus much for men But that neither of the sexes should want their praise behold the courage of a noble damosel Claelia one of the hostages deliuer'd to the king breakes from her keepers and swam safe home on horsbacke through her natiue countreys riuer Porsena terrifide with so many and so notable faire warnings bade them farewell and bee free The Tarquins fought so long as till Brutus with his owne hand slue Aruns the guiltie sonne of king Tarquinius and till himselfe also being wounded by the same Aruns fell downe dead withall vpon the bodie as if he plainely meant to pursue the adulterer euen to hell CHAP. XI The warre with the Latins THe Latins in like sort vpon emulation and enuy tooke in hand the quarrell of Tarquinius that the people which were Lords abroad might be made vassals at home All Latium therefore hauing Manilius of Tusculum for leader was vp in armes vpon pretense to reuenge the kings wrong They encountred at sake Regillus in doubtfull fight for a long time till the Dictator himselfe Posthumius tost the standard among the enemies a new and famous deuice that it might bee recouered with running in and Titus Aebutius Elua Master of the horsemen commanded them to slippe their bridles ouer their horse heads and this also was a new deuice that they might charge the more desperately To conclude such was the furious brauerie of the battle that the Gods are said to haue giuen it the looking-on and that Castor and Pollux two of them did mounted vpon white coursers no mā doubteth Therefore the Generall of the Romans adored and vpon condition of victorie vow'd them a temple and duely performed it as pay to his fellow-souldiers Thus farre for libertie Their next warre with the Latins was concerning limits and bounders which brake out presently and continued without truce Sora who would beleeue it and Algidum petie cities were then a terrour to Rome Satricum Corniculum townes of no more fame were Prouinces Ouer Veij Bouilli a shame to say it yet wee triumphed Tibur which is now but a suburb and Praeneste but our summer-recreation were then demanded of the Gods as mighty maters with vowes for victory made solemnly first in the Capitol Faesulae were then what Taphrae were of late and the forest of Aricinum the same which in these dayes the huge Hercinian woods Fregellae what Gessoriacum and Tibrsis what Euphrates Nay it was then held an act of so great glorie to haue ouercome but Corioli that Caius Marcius fie vpon it was thereof called Coriolanus as if hee had cōquer'd Numantia in Spaine or the worlds third portion Africa There are at this day to be seene the tropheas of the sea-fight at Antium which Caius Maeuius hauing vanquisht the enemies nauie hung vp in the stage of the Forum if that at leastwise may bee termed a nauie for they were but sixe beak-heads But in those young dayes that number made a battle at sea The Aequi and Volscians were neuerthelesse of all the Latin nations the most obstinately bent and as I may cal them quotidian enemies But Lucius Quinctius chiefly brought them vnder that noble Dictator who taken from holding the plough did by his excellent vertue deliuer the Consul Lucius Minurius as he was besieged almost distressed in his campe It was then about the mid'st of seed-time when the officer of armes sent from the Senate found the honourable man at his plough-worke From thence setting forward to the army hee to shew hee had not left off any point of countrey-fashions compelled the conquer'd enemies to passe reproachfully vnder the yoke like cattle And so the seruice ending he returned home to his oxen a triumphall husbandman O the goodnesse of the Gods how great was the speed The warre was all begun ended within the space of two and twentie dayes that the Dictator might seeme to haue hastned home to his rurall taske left behinde vnfinished CHAP. XII The warre with the Falisci and Fidenates OVr daily and yeerely enemies were the Veientines people of Tuscanie so farre forth that the noble house of the Fabij promised to the state an extraordinarie band of voluntaries vndertooke their part of the warre vpon their priuate charge but with too too great calamitie to thēselues For at the riuer of Cremera three hundred and sixe of them a little armie of lords were slaine and that gate of Rome through which they issued to that encounter was thereupon entituled Dismall
the citie were blotted out with the inundations of the bloud of the Galls We may well giue thanks to the immortall gods in the behalfe it selfe of so great a calamitie That fire and flame which destroyed Rome buried the pouertie of Romulus For what other thing else did that burning but prouide that the citie which the Fates ordained to be the mansion seat of men gods might not seeme to haue beene consumed or ouer-whelmed but hallowed and expiated rather Therefore after Rome was thus defended by Manlius and deliuered by Camillus it rose vp against bordering nations more eagerly and vehemently then before And to begin at those very Galls themselues shee not satisfied with hauing driuen them out beyond her walls but drawing after her the ruines of countries wider ouer Italy did so bunt and pursue them vnder Camillus as that at this day there remains no footstep of such a people as the Senones Shee made one slaughter of them at the riuer Anien where Manlius in a single combat tooke from the aduersarie champion a Torques or chayne of gold Thence were the Manlij by-named Torquati Another time shee had the execution of them in the Pontin fields where Marcus Valerius in a like duëll seconded by a sacred bird reft his pursuing enemie of his armes of that bird Coruus a crow the Valerij were entituled Coruini Nor as yet giuing ouer Dolabella after some yeeres did vtterly extinguish the remaines of those generations at the lake of Vadimon in Tuscanie that none of them might be aliue to glorie they had burned Rome CHAP. XIIII Warre with the Latins MAnlius Torquatus and Decius Mus Consuls the Romans turned their weapons points from the Galls vpon the Latins men alwayes troublesome through emulation of being like in power and in bearing office but then specially out of contempt because the citie had beene fired and therefore they demaunded to bee absolutely free of Rome and to haue equall authoritie in state and comming to Magistracie as the Romans so that now they durst doe more then encounter At which time notwithstanding who will wonder if the Latins gaue way When one of the Consuls put his own sonne to death for hauing fought against the discipline of warre without leaue though hee got the vpper hand as thinking Obedience a more important matter then victorie and the other Consull as if counselled thereunto from heauen couering his head deuoued and gaue himselfe to the infernall gods before the first rankes of the armie and shooting himselfe forward into the thickest troupes of the enemies battell opened a new path to victorie by the track of his bloud CHAP. XV. Warre with the Sabins AFter warre with the Latins the people of Rome set vpon the Sabins who growne vnmindfull of that old alliance of theirs vnder Titus Tatius had ioyned themselues to the Latins as infected with a kind of martiall neighbourhood But Curius Dentatus Consull they wasted with fire and sword all the space of ground from the riuer Nar and the springs of Velinus vp as farre as to the Adrian sea By which conquest there was so much land and so much people subdued that whether of them were most not hee who had ouercome them could imagine CHAP. XVI Warre with the Samnits THen moued vpon the petition of the countrey of Campania they inuaded the Samnits not on behalfe of themselues but which was more honourable on behalfe of their associates Both the nations had strucken a league with the Romans but they of Campania by surrender of their whole estate had made it more sincerely and before the other The Romans therefore vnder-went the warre with the Samnits as in their proper right Campania is the most faire and goodly countrey not only of Italie but of all the world Nothing is more delicate then the aire flowers spring there twice euerie yeere No soyle can be richer and therefore it is named the contention or wager of Bacchus and Ceres Nothing can be more harborous then the sea which lyes before it Here are those famous hauen-townes Caieta Misenus and Baiae warmed with her proper fountaines here are the lakes Lucrinus Auernus bowers of delight for the sea to recreate in Here the vines apparrell the mountaines Gaurus Falernus Massicus and the fayrest of all the rest Vesuuius Aetna's riuall for casting out flames Cities vpon the sea-coast Fermiae Cumae Puteoli Naples Herculaneum Pempeij and Capua Queene of Cities and once accounted after Rome and Carthage the third maine Citie of the world For this Seat and those Regions the people of Rome inuaded the Samnits a nation if you respect wealth glittering in armor of gold and siluer-plate and cloathed in diuerse-coloured garments who should be brauest if deceitfulness of ambuscadoes they are bold for the most part vpon the aduantage of wilde woods and mountaines fitted for the purpose if madnesse and rage they were bent to the subuersion of Rome and that intention of theirs solemnly bound vp with cursed lawes and humane sacrifices if their obstinacie after six breaches of league and many notable ouerthrowes they were still more stomachous All these things notwithstanding the Romans in fiftie yeeres space by the conduct of their Fabij and Papirij the fathers and the sonnes did so subdue and tame them and so razed downe the very ruines of their cities that Samnium is at this day sought for in vaine in Samnium nor doth the matter of foure and twenty triumphs easily appeare But the most notable and famous foyle which euer happened to the Romans by this nation was receiued at the Forkes of Caudium Veturius and Posthumius Consuls For our army being drawne by stratagem and shut vp within such a fastnesse as out of which it could not escape Pontius captaine generall of the Samnits amazed at his owne aduantage asked counsell of Herennius his father who as an old souldier wisely bade him either to let all goe free or to kill them all But hee following neither of the courses contented himselfe with only disarming and passing them naked vnder forkes or gallowses and so they neither became friends as in thankefulnesse for a benefit and yet after the foule dis-honour greater enemies then euer The Consuls therefore by voluntarie yeelding themselues back to the Samnits came gloriously off from the infamie of that league and the Roman souldiers crying for reuenge to Papirius their new Generall fell to raging an horrible thing to be spoken with their drawne swords vpon the very way it selfe before they came to fight and in the battell as the Samnits themselues gaue it out the eyes of the Roman were on a bright blaze of fire and neuer gaue ouer killing till they had payd the enemie and their captiue captaine their owne forcks home againe CHAP. XVII Warre with the Etruscans Samnits and Galls HItherto the people of Rome had to deale in battell with one nation after another apart but now in heapes with many at once and yet
euen so also were hard enough for them all The Tuscans stirred at that time with them the Samnits the most ancient people of Italy and all the rest suddenly concurre to raze out the Roman name The terrour of so many and so mightie conspired nations was extreme The ensignes of foure armies of their enemies waued in flanke vpon them from Etruria Meane while the Ciminian forrest which lay betweene Rome and that armie reputed as impassable till then as either the woods of Caledon or Hercinia was so much misdoubted that the Senate forbad the Consull from daring to venture vpon so great a perill But none of these things hindered the Generall from sending his brother in scowt to discouer the pase Hee in a shepheards disguise executes his part by night and vpon his returne makes full report Then Fabius Maximus by hazzarding one man made an end of a most hazzardous warre For falling in at vnawares vpon the enemie straggling loosly and making himselfe master of the highest grounds and tops of hills thundred from thence after his manner vpon them vnderneath For such was the face of that warre as if volleyes of lightning and thunder had beene discharged from the clouds of heauen vpon the old earth-borne Gyants Howbeit the victorie was not vnbloudie For Decius the other of the Consuls ouer-set in the bosome of the valley tooke vpon his owne head by his fathers example all the wrath of the Gods and made the vnder-going of generall curses for the generall good which was now growne appropriated to his familie to be the price and rate at which to purchase victorie CHAP. XVIII The warre of Tarent and with king Pyrrhus THe warre of Tarent followes single in name and title but affording many victories For this inuolued as it were in one ruin the Campanians Apulians Lucanians and the head or toppe of the warre the Tarentines all Italy and together with these the most noble prince in Greece king Pyrrhus so that at one and the same time the conquest of Italy was finisht and a luckie signe giuen of fetching home triumphs from beyond sea Tarentus it selfe sounded by the Lacedemonians was once the metropolis of Calabria and Apulia and of all Lucania aswell renowned for greatnesse fortifications and a port as admirable in its situation for placed at the very entrance into the Adriatick sea it fitly sends forth shipping for our coasts for Istria Illyricum Epyrus Achaia Africa Sicilia There lookes vpon the harbor in prospect of the sea the cities theater the originall cause of all her calamities They were then at their solemne sports when the fleet of Roman gallies was from thence espi'd to row by the shore and imagining them to bee enemies the Tarentines hurrie out and pell mell enter vpon them not well knowing either who or from what place they were Presently hereupon ambassadours from Rome brought a complaint but they violate their persons also after a lewd fashion and filthy to be spoken Thus rose the warre Dreadfull were the aduersaries preparations when so many nations stirred at once on behalfe of the Tarentines and fiercer then they all king Pyrrhus who as in defence of that citie which by reason of her Lacedaemonian founders was Greekish came attended vpon with the whole strengths of Epyrus Thessalie Macedonia of elephants till that time vnknowne of sea of land men horse armour and the terrour of those wilde beasts added The first battel was at Heraclea and Liris a riuer of Campania Laeuinus Consul which was so desperately heady that Obsidius captaine of the Farentan troupe chargeing king Pyrrhus home disordred and compelled him hauing first cast away his ensignes or notes of a king to abandon the fight There would haue beene an end had not the elephants come forth a sight of wonder made their race into the battell whose hugenesse hideous shape strange smell and braying noise amazed the horse and seeming huger then they were through being vnacquainted-with put the armie in rowt flying farre and neere and made a monstrous hauock The secund battell at Asculum in Apulia was more fortunate Fabricius and Aemilius Consuls For by this time the feare conceiued of the elephants was worne away and Caius Minucius a speare in the fourth legion cutting one of their trunkes off had made it appeare that they were mortall Therefore the iauelins were darted thicke at them also and firebrands hurld into the towres ouerwhelm'd all the aduersaries squadrons with the fall of their burning workes nor was there any other end of the ouerthrow but that which night made by parting king Pyrrhus himselfe last of them who fled being wounded in the shoulder was borne away armed by his guard The last battell was in Lucania neere the fields which they call Aurusin vnder the same Generals as before And that euent which vertue was about to haue giuen heere for an vpshot or clozing victorie fortune gaue For the elephants being brought againe into the vantgard one of them a yong one being grieuously wounded in the head with a weapon turn'd taile and as in flying it rusht thorow ouer the bodies of friends and bemoned it selfe in braying the dam knew it and as it were to take reuenge for her foale started out of her ranke then filled all with feare affright round about no otherwise then as if they had been her aduersaries so the same beasts which carried away the first day cleere and made the secund indifferent gaue away the third past controuersie But the warre with king Pyrrhus was not in the fields abroad with forces onely but with wit also and at home within the citie For the cunning prince after hee had obtained the first victory hauing well felt what manner of men hee had to deale with in the Romans despaired to preuaile by force betooke himselfe to deuices For hee burnt the slaine vsed his prisoners louingly and sent them home free without ransome And in the necke of that dispatching ambassadours to Rome labour'd by all possible meanes to be admitted as a friend But the Roman vertue approued it selfe then for excellent in warre and peace abroad at home in all points neither did euer any victorie rather show the valour of the people the high wisdome of the Senate and the magnanimity slenders then the Tarentine What kind of men were trampled to death in the first battell by the elephants all their wounds were forward some found dead vpon their enemies bodies in euery mans hand his sword threatnings left vpon their browes and anger liuing in death it selfe Which Pyrrhus so admired that hee said O how easie were it for mee to become lord of the world if I were captaine of the Roman souldiers or for the Romans had they mee for their king And what speed made they who suruiued the first ouerthrow in renforceing their powers when Pyrrhus said I see as sure as can bee that I am borne vnder the constellation of Hercules for that
so many more heads as I haue slain spring out of their owne bloud as it were out of Lernas serpent And what a Senate was that when vpon the oration of Appius the Blinde the kings ambassadours who were sent backe out of the citie with their gifts and presents confest to Pyrrhus vpon his demand of what they thought concerning the enemies seat that the citie seemed a temple the Senate a parliament of kings Againe what manner of men were the Generals themselues in camp when Curius sent the kings physician back who made offer in secret for a certain summe to poyson him and Fabricius hauing the choise giuen by Pyrrhus refused to share a kingdome with him Or what were they in time of peace when Curius preferred his earthen dishes before the Samnits gold and Fabricius vsing Censorian seueritie condemn'd it for riotous in Rufinus a Consularie nobleman because hee had siluer plate in all to a tenne pound weight Who wonders now if the people of Rome with such qualities courages and martiall discipline obtained victory or that by this one Tarentine warre they should in foure yeeres space bring into subiection as they did the greatest part of all Italy most puissant nations most rich common-weals most fertill countreys Or what doth so much surpasse beliefe as when you compare the beginnings of the warre with the conclusion Pyrrhus conquerour in the first field harrased trembling Italy Campania Liris and Fregellae came within ken of Rome then almost taken as he beheld it from the castell of Praeneste and within twentie miles off filled the eyes of the quaking citie with smoak and dust The same prince enforced twice after that to quit his campe twice wounded and beaten ouer land and sea into his Greece againe peace and quiet and the spoiles which were gotten from so many the richest nations so infinite as Rome was not wide enough to containe her owne victorie For there neuer entred a more glittering or more goodly triumph because before this time shee had beheld nothing but the cattell of the Volscians the heards of the Sabins the chariots of the Galls the manufactures of the Samnits armes But had you beene now a spectator the captiues were Molossians Thessalians Macedonians the Brutian Apulian and Lucaner the pompe consisted of gold purple statua's tables the delicacies of Tarent But Rome saw nothing which contented her more then those beasts with towrs on their backes of which shee had stood in such feare and they againe sensible of their captiuitie followed drouping with down-hanging neckes after the horse their Masters CHAP. XIX The Picenian Warre ALI Italie forthwith enioyed peace for after Tarent who should dare to do oughts sauing onely as the Romans thought it good of their own meere motion to prosecute the enemies friends Hereupon they conquer'd the Picentines and their chiefe citie Asculum by Generall Sempronius and the field in the time of battel suffring an earth-quake hee appeased the goddesse Tellus by promising to build her a Temple CHAP. XX. The Sallentine Warre THe Sallentines were added by Marcus Atilius cōmander in chiefe for that seruice to the Picentines together with the head-towne of that prouince Brundusium renowned for a port And in this conflict Pales the shepheards deitie of her owne accord demanded a Temple for her selfe in lieu of victorie CHAP. XXI The Vulsinian Warre THe last of the Italian nations who remained constant in their truth to vs were the Vulsinians the richest people of all Etruria and now humble suitours for assistance against their late slaues who had set vp the libertie giuen them by their lords ouer the giuers themselues and getting the power of the State among them did accordingly tyrannize But Fabius Gurges the Roman captaine made the villains smart for their villanie CHAP. XXII Of Seditions THis is the second age of the Roman people and as it were their youth a time in which they were most fresh and budding out in certaine fierie shoots boild ouer as it were in iollitie of spirit On the other side that wildenes which they retained of their shepheardish originall breathed foorth some-what still which was vntamed in thē Thence it came that the armie making a mutinie in the campe stoned Postumius their Generall to death for refusing to giue them the shares he promised That vnder Appius Claudius they would not ouercome the enemie whē they might That vnder Generall Volero most withdrawing their seruice they crusht the Consuls fasces Thence it was that they punisht the most honourable commanders they had with banishment for resisting their pleasure as Coriolanus whome they condemnd to the plough Which iniurie he would as harshly haue chastised with his sword if his mother Veturia when he was now readie to charge had not disweapond him with weeping Yea as Camillus himselfe because in their conceits hee had not made the shares of the Veientine spoiles indifferent between the Commonaltie and the souldier But he a much better man did rescue the besieged in Rome taken and reuenged their quarel vpon the Galls their enemies to whom but euen now they were humble suitours In such sort they contended also with the Se nate it selfe about settling the rules of right that abandoning their houses they threatned emptinesse and vtter decay to their natiue countrey CHAP. XXIII The cities first discord THe first intestine dissention hapned throgh the vnrulinesse of Vsurers who exercising villanous crueltie the whole people departed in armes to the Sacred Hill and very hardly not but vntill they had obtained Tribunes and were perswaded also by the authoritie of Menenius Agrippa a wise and eloquent man could be drawne to return The fable of that old oration effectuall enough to induce concord is extant In which is fained that The parts of mans bodie were once vpon a time at odds together for that all the rest doing their seuerall offices the bellie only was idle but in the end when they found themselues almost pined to death by the separation they became good friends againe for that by the meate which by the stomachs ministerie was conuerted into bloud the veines were filled with nourishment CHAP. XXIIII The cities second discord THE tyrannie of the Decemuirs embroiled the citie the second time in the very heart thereof Ten princes elected for that purpose had bookt the lawes cull'd out of such as were brought from Greece at the peoples commandement and the whole rule of Roman iustice was described by them in Tenne Tables after which though their commission determined they neuerthelesse retained the soueraigne power vpon a tyrannicall humor Appius Claudius was puft vp more then all his partners with so great pride as hee secretly resolued to deflowre a free-borne virgin forgetting Lucretia forgetting the expulsion of kings and the lawes which himselfe had enacted Virginius her father therefore when hee saw his childe by false practice iudged a bond-woman he made no bones to kill her
draue the Carthaginian garrisons out of Agrigentum Drepanum Panormus Eryx Lilybaeum well-neere all they had The Romans were once in great feare of a mischiefe about the forrest of Camarina but through the excellent vertue of Calpurnius Flamma a tribune of souldiers wee escaped For hee with a choise band of three hundred did beat the enemie from a ground of aduantage which hee had taken and meant to haue made good against vs holding play till our whole armie was gotten out of danger By which his so prosperous successe hee matcht the glory of Leonidas at the straits of Thermopylae in this one point our Calpurnius more famous then the other that hee ouer-liued the exploit though he drew no characters in bloud Lucius Cornelius Scipio when Sicilia was now become a purliew or suburbe-prouince of the Roman state and warre crept farther crost ouer into Sardinia and Corsica neighbour Ilands where he so affrighted the inhabitants by rasing the citie Carala and so vanquisht all the Carthaginians or Paenish-men as well by land as sea that nothing now was left to be conquered but Africa it selfe Marcus Atilius Regulus sayled with warre aboord him into Africa Yet there wanted not some who fainted at the terrible name which the Carthaginian seas had gotten Mannius the tribune also augmenting by his feare this fearfull conceit till the Generall menacing him with the naked axe vnlesse hee obeyed made him take heart and put to sea for feare of his head They forthwith plyde it with oare saile and the feare of our comming was such among the Paenish-men that Carthage had almost set open her gates and been taken The first reward of this martiall voyage was the taking of the citie Clypea for that stands first in sight vpon the Punick shore like a fort and sentinell and aboue three hundred castles besides the same were sackt and rased Nor fought they only with men but with monsters also for a serpent of prodigious bignesse and bred as it were to take vengeance on behalfe of Africa vext our campe at Bagrada But Regulus who conquerd all things hauing spred the terrour of his name farre and neare multitudes of their youth slaine their captaines dead at his foot or fast in chains his nauie fraighted with infinite spoiles which he had sent heauie laden away to Rome as stuffe for triumph laid siege to the chiefe seate of that warre Carthage itselfe and lodged close at the very gates Here fortune wheeld about a little only that Rome might haue the more glories to adorne it whose greatnesse is for the more part most improued by great mischances For the enemies turning themselues to make vse of forreine aids the Lacedemonians sent them Xantippus for a Generall who being most expert in the Art of warre gaue vs a grieuous ouerthrow the most stout Regulus himselfe a misfortune which had neuer hapned to the Romans before fell aliue into the enemies hands But he was a man able to beare so great a distresse For his mind could neither be conquered by imprisonment nor with the message he vndertooke because quite contrary to that which hee had in charge from the Carthaginians he deliuered his opinion in the Roman Senate That they should not make peace nor yeeld exchange of prisoners But neither was the maiesty of the man embased by voluntarie returne to the foe in discharge of his honour nor finally by captiuitie nor by nayling on a gibbet for punishment nay all these things increased the admiration of him For what other thing was all this else then that the vanquisht did triumph ouer the vanquishers and though not ouer Carthage yet ouer fortunes selfe And the Romans were more eager more offensiuely bent to take reuenge for Regulus then to cōpasse victory The Carthaginians therfore bearing their crests aloft the warre comming back into Sicilia Metellus Consul made such a slaughter of the enemie at Panormus that there was no more stirre in that Iland An argument of a most braue day gained was the seisure of an hundred and twentie elephants a great prey had such an heard been gotten not by warre but by hunting Publius Claudius Consull the Romans were ouercome not by the enemie but by the Gods thēselues whose ceremonies they had contemned their nauie forthwith sinking in the place where he had commanded the birds to be cast in because they had giuen signes he should not fight Marcus Fabius Buteo Consul met the enemies nauie in the African sea about Aegymurus sailing onward to the inuasion of Italy and ouerthrew it O how great a triumph perished vtterly at that time by stresse of weather when the pillage of the enemies ships driuen by diuerse winds filled the shores of Africa the Syrts the coasts of all nations and the Ilands about with wrecks and ruins A mighty losse but it was not without some respect to the honour of the prince of people the Romans that the victorie was intercepted by tempest and the triumph miscarried by shipwracke And yet when the Carthaginian spoyles floated vp downe and were split vpon all the capes of land Iles about the Romans triumpht notwithstanding Lutatius Consul an end was made of this warre at the Ilands called Aegates A soret sea-fight was there neuer for in the enemies armada was their prouant their land-forces their engines their weapons and as it were all Carthage which burthen was their bane the Romans nauie yare light vnincumbred in one kind like a landcampe and in another like a fight on horsebacke they were so guided with their oares as with bridles the gallies themselues seemed liuing creatures their prowes and beakes nimbly fitted to strike here or there at pleasure The enemies vessels therefore torne to pieces in a trice couer'd all the sea with their shipwracks betweene Sicilia and Sardinia So exceeding great was that victorie as no question was moued now about razing the bulwarks of their enemies townes It seemed friuolous to rage against the castell stone-walls thereof when Carthage it selfe was swallowed thus in the bottom of the sea CHAP. III. The Ligurian warre THe first Carthaginian warre thus sinisht a short repose such as might serue as it were to take breath in followed and for a sure signe of peace and that armes were laide aside indeed then first after the dayes of king Numa the temple-gate of Ianus was shut in but it was forthwith set open againe For the Ligurians the Galls of Insubria and the Illyrians prouoked them as in like sort did the nations from vnder the Alps that is from vnder the very entrances into Italy some one or other of the Gods daily egging them on that the armes of the Romans might not take dust or cancker-fret to be briefe quotidian and as it were domestike enemies were as a schoole of warre to the young frie of souldiers nor did the people of Rome vse this or that nation of them otherwise then as a whetstone to sharpen the
edge-toole of their vertue vpon The Ligurians dwelling close vpon the lowest ridges of the Alpes betweene Varus and the riuer Macra sheltred among wilde thickets were more difficult to come at then to conquer This tough and swift generation of men trusting to their fastnesses and feet rather made inroades by flealth like high-way theeues then an orderly warre Therefore after that the Deceates Oxibians Euburiades and Ingaunians nations of Liguria had thus for a long time shifted for themselues by aduantage of their woods wayes and starting holes Fuluius at the last shuts vp their lurking places with smoake and fire Baebius drawes them downe into the champaine and Posthumius so disarmed them as hee scarcely leaues them yron enough to shooe a plough CHAP. IIII. The Gallick warre THe Galls of Insubria who also dwel vnder the Alps had the mindes of wilde beasts and bodies huger then for men It is neuerthelesse found true by experience that as their first brunt is more forceable then a mans so their second is weaker then a womans Bodies bred about the Alps vnder a moist skie are somewhat answerable in nature to the snow of their seats for so soone as they waxe hot thorow with fighting they forthwith melt into sweat and are as it were dissolued with the sunne in a moment These as at other times often but specially now Britomarus being their captaine solemnly swore neuer to vnbuckle their belts till they had mounted the Capitoll It fell out iust For Aemilius hauing the victorie vngirdled them in the Capitoll Soone after Ariouistus their captaine they vow'd to consecrate a golden chaine to their God of Warre to be composed of such spoils as they tooke from our souldiers Iupiter intercepted their vow for Flaminius erected a golden trophea to Ioue of the chains they wore Verdumarus being their king they promised to offer the armours of the Romans vp to Vulcan but their vowes ranne bias For Verdumarus was slaine and Marcellus hung vp the third magnificent pompous spoiles which since the reigne of Romulus had beene offred to Iupiter Feretrius CHAP. V. The Illyrian warre THe Illyricans or Liburnians inhabit at the farthermost roots of the Alps betweene Arsia and the riuer Titius vpon the whole length of the coast of the Adrian sea for a very mightie way They not contenting themselues vnder the reigne of Queene Teuta with spoiles gotten by incursions added one heinous act to many bold ones For they tooke our ambassadours as they sought for an orderly redresse by law in the points of wrong and slue them not with the sword but like beasts of sacrifice with the butchers axe burnt the masters of the shippes and to make the matter fuller of dishonour all this in a womans reigne Therefore Cnaeus Fuluius Centumalus our Generall they were brought into subiection farre and neere So chopping off the chiefe Lords heads we sacrificed to the ghosts of our ambassadours CHAP. VI. The second Carthaginian warre FOure yeeres were scarcely now ouerpast after the first Carthaginian warre when lo another brake forth lesse in respect of the time for it lasted not aboue eighteene yeeres but so farre beyond the former in respect of terrible ouerthrowes that if a man compare the losse together which both the sides sustained hee would rather thinke the victors part to bee the partie vanquished The noble Carthaginians were ashamed seeing themselues thrust out of the seas possession and their Ilands violently taken from them and they to pay tribute who were wont to impose it Herevpon Annibal then a boy bound himselfe by oath to his father before the altar to take reuenge wherein hee was not slacke Therefore to beget matter for a warre he razed Saguntus to the ground an ancient rich citie of Spaine and a great but grieuous moniment of her truth and faith to the Romans whose freedome being by name prouided for in the generall articles of league Annibal seeking causes of new quarrels ouerthrew to the ground with his owne and others hands that by breach of peace hee might open Italy for himselfe The Romans make not a greater conscience of any thing then of keeping the faith of leagues Vpon aduertisement therefore that their confederate citie was besieged they did not presently runne to their weapons but did rather first choose to assay by way of orderly complaint what amends could bee had as remembring they were also in amity with Carthaginians Meane-while the Saguntines tired with hunger batteries assaults and fire and their constancie turning into madnesse and furie they make a monstrous funerall pile in the most open space of their citie and laying then themselues and their whole substance on the top thereof made an end of all together with sword and fire For this so foule a destruction the Romans demanded the deliuerie vp of Annibal But the Carthaginians paltring in the case quoth Fabius the chiefe ambassadour of the Romans What meanes this delay lo in this lappe I bring you war and peace choose which of them you like best and take it among you And when at these words the voice went round hee should giue them at his pleasure which he would Bee it war then said he and therewithall flinging open the skirts of his robe in the midst of the Counsel-house which hee had gather'd hollow and held vp till then hee did it with such an horrour as if hee had indeed powr'd warre among them out of his lap or bosome The end of this war was sutable to the beginning For as if the last curses of the Saguntines in that their publike self-slaughter finall fire had commanded such obsequies to bee celebrated their ghosts were sacrificed vnto with the deuastation of Italy the captiuitie of Africa and the destruction of kings and Generals of armies by whom that warre was managed When as therefore that sad and dismall storm and tempest of the Carthaginian warre once stirring in Spaine had forged out of the Saguntine fires those lightnings and thunders now long in breeding and aim'd at Rome immediately then as carryed with a whirl-winde it rusht thorow the middle of the Alps and fell vpon Italy from the snowie toppe of those mountaines made higher then they were of themselues by fame and fables as if it had beene from heauen The first rages of the charge burst streightway forth with horrible violence betweene the riuer of Po and Ticinum There Scipio Generall the Roman army was put to flight and the Generall himselfe had falne wounded as hee was into the hands of the enemy if his sonne then wanting of eighteene yeeres old had not rescued his father from certaine death it selfe with bold bestriding him And this shall bee that Scipio who growes vp to the destruction of Africa and shall make a surname to himselfe out of her calamities After this ouerthrow at Ticinum followed that of Trebia This second storme of warre wrought the furious effects thereof Sempronius Consul There the craftie enemies in
of the aduersarie The Scipio's had gotten indeede great dayes when they gaue ouerthrowes but the one of them was circumuented and slaine by their dangerous deuices as hee was busie to entrench and the other of them hauing fled into a tower was ouerwhelmed frō round about with fire-brands That Scipio therefore who dispatcht with an armie into Spaine to reuenge his father and his vncles death was the man to whom the fates decreed so great a surname out of the conquest of Africa recouered all Spaine that braue martiall countrey ennobled for cheualrie and men of the sword that seed-plot of the enemies armies that schoole-mistresse of Annibal himselfe he conquered all of it I say though incredible to say it from the pillars of Hercules to the Ocean and I know not whether more speedily or more easily the speed foure yeeres speake the easinesse one onely citie manifesteth being taken vpon the same day in which it was besieged and it was a fortunate signe of Africa's conquest to ensue that Carthage in Spaine was so easily taken Certaine it is notwithstanding that the admirable continencie of the Generall was of greatest force to subdue the prouince for he restored their yong sonnes and daughters were they neuer so pleasing or faire back to the barbarous without permitting them to come in his sight that hee might not seeme to haue once sipt or skimd the honour of their chastitie so much as with beholding them This was then the carriage of the Romans in diuers countreys abroad who yet for all that could not be rid of Annibal who stuck close to them in the bowels of Italie for most nations had reuolted vnto him and himselfe a most smart and excellent captaine vsed Italian forces against Italy We neuerthelesse had triced him out of most of her townes and countries Tarentus came in againe of it selfe Capua the seat dwelling house and the other as it were Carthage of Annibal was now also gayned backe the losse whereof so greatly grieued the man that thereupon hee turned all his strengths vpon Rome O people worthie to bee lords of the earth worthie of all fauour and to haue the gouernment of the affaires of men and gods Driuen to the worst of feares yet gaue they not ouer their enterprise and doubtfull how to keepe their owne citie they for all that quitted not Capua but entrusting a part of their armie to Appius Consull and the residue following Flaccus into Rome they fought where they were not as well as where they were Why wonder we therefore For Annibal encamping within three miles of Rome was resisted by the Gods nor will I shame to confesse it I say by the Gods themselues because such store of raine fell at euery remoue of his that he seemed put backe by diuine prouision not as in defence of heauen but to keepe him off from the citie-walls and Capitol Hee therefore departed fled and retired into the farthest nooke of Italy hauing done all he could against Rome sauing only giuen it assault It is but a trifle to speake of but yet of much efficacie to shew the magnanimitie of the Romans in that the very field it selfe where Annibal encamped being during the siege set to sale found a chapman On the other side Annibal to imitate their confidence cryed the goldsmiths row in the citie but no man would buy of him And thus we may see there were presages enow But so great vertue of men and so much fauour of the Gods came to nothing For Asdrubal brother of Annibal came out of Spaine with a new armie new strengths new weight of warre Rome had beene vndoubtedly quite ruined had that man ioyned with his brother but Claudius Nero and Liuius Salinator vtterly distrest him as he was encamping Nero kept Annibal off in the farthest corner of Italy Liuius marcht with ensigns spred into the quite opposite quarter that is vp to the very iawes of the first descence from the Alpes into Italie the distance as great from our other camp as all the length of Italie It is not easie to say with what high wit and speed the two Consuls vnited their campes and giuing battell to Asdrubal not aware of that vnion destroid him vtterly Annibal al this while not once dreaming what was done Sure it is that when the newes came to Aniball and hee saw his brothers head tost out before his trenches I acknowledge quoth hee the vnluckines of Carthage This was the mans first confession not without a sure presage of the fate which hung ouer his head And now it was certaine out of Anibals own mouth that Aniball might be vanquished But the people of Rome full of confidence after so many fortunate successes held it a gallant attempt to make an end of the quarrell with the sorest enemie they had and that at his owne home in Africa Scipio therefore captain general they transported thither the whole weight of warre beginning to imitate Aniball and to pay him backe in his Africa for the mischiefes hee did in their Italy O yee Gods what forces of Asdruball what armies of king Syphax did hee ouerthrow what and how great were those two camps which hee in one night consumed with fire To conclude hee was not now within three miles of Carthage as Aniball had beene of Rome but battred besieged gates themselues therof and thereby wrung Aniball out of Italie vpon which hee lay hard and heauie Since Rome stood there was neuer a grater day then that in which two the most famous captaines that euer were before or since the one of them conquerour of Italy the other of Spain confronted each the other in battle-ray But yet they came first to a parley about articles of peace at which both of them stood a good while without speaking a word as if mutuall admiration had fixt them to the ground But when they could not agree vpon a peace the trumpets sound a charge It is cleare by confession of both parties that no armies could bee better marshall'd nor any battell be sorer fought as Scipio reported of Anibal's armie and Anibal of Scipio's But Aniball notwithstanding gaue place and Africa became the conquerours reward and after Africa the whole earths empire also CHAP. VII The first Macedonian or Philippian Warre NOne thought it now a shame to be ouercome when Carthage was Macedonia Greece Syria and all other nations as if carried with a certaine current and torrent of fortune by and by followed Africa But the first who followed were the Macedonians a people which had once affected the worlds Monarchie Though therefore a Philip was king then the Romans notwithstanding seemed to thēselues to haue to deal in him with great Alexander The Macedonian warre was greater in the name therof then was answerd in the performances of the nation The cause of the war grew by reason of the league which Philip had made with Anibal hauing then a long while tyrannized Italie which cause increased when
some trecherous cōpanions familiar friends of Viriathus and got him murthred being alreadie brought low and ready to yeeld vpon any termes and thereby gaue the enemie so much honor as to make it thought that hee could not otherwise bee conquerd CHAP. XVIII The Numantine warre AS Numantia was inferiour to Carthage Capua and Corinth for riches so for vertue and honour it was equall to them altogether and if wee respect the men thereof it was simply the greatest glorie of Spaine for hauing neither wall nor bulwarke and beeing but onely situated vpon a little rising knoll or hill by the riuer Durius with no more then foure thousand it endured fourteene yeers siege against an armie of fortie thousand And not endured onely but gaue also terrible ouerthrowes and forced vs to accept of shamefull conditions And remayning vnconquer'd after all was done that could bee no other person would serue the turne to subuert it but he who subdued Carthage To speake ingenuously there was no warre of ours the cause whereof was more vniust then was this For the Segidensers their friends and kinsfolke escaping our hands were entertained by them No intercession vsed on their behalfe would be heard And albeit they abstained from intermedling in any broils of warre they were notwithstanding commanded if they would haue a firme and formall peace to purchase it by parting with their armes This proposition was so interpreted by the barbarous as if they must goe hide away their heads in holes Hereupon they forth with fell to armes Megaera a most braue souldier their captaine generall and charging Pompei home in fight they did choose to enter league when they could haue made an end of him After this they set vpon Mancinus whom they so amated with daily slaughters that he had not a souldier in his army durst looke a Numantine in the face or stand his voice yet such was their noblenesse that they were content to make a peace with him also when they might haue had the killing of all his army to a man But the people of Rome no lesse ashamed nor storming lesse at the reproach of these conclusions of peace with the Numantines then they did for those at Caudium discharged themselues from the dishonour of that base treatie by yeelding vp Mancinus to the enemie But Generall Scipio one throughly season'd for the ouerthrow of cities by the burning of Carthage grew hot at length vpon reuenge But hee had more worke within his owne campe then in the open field with his owne men then with the Numantians For his armie hauing vnder other captaines beene formerly tired with dayly and iniust but specially seruile labours such of them as knew not how to vse their weapons were commaunded for their ease who knew the vse to carry more stakes and earth to the rampire and that those should be rayed with durt who would not be smeared with bloud Besides that strumpets scullions and all things else which were not of necessitie to be vsed were cut away It is a saying that Such as the captaine is such is the souldier The armie thus reduced vnder discipline encounters the enemie and then came that to passe which no man did euer hope for the Numantians in sight of all men ranne away They would likewise haue yeelded themselues if the conditions would haue beene but tolerable for men to accept But nothing contenting Scipio sauing a real and absolute victorie they in such extremities resolue to make a desperate sallie after they first had feasted well as at their last viands with halfe-raw flesh and a kinde of broth or drinke made of corne and called by the inhabitants keale or Caelia This resolution of theirs discouer'd to Scipio hee would not afford to men so minded the fauour of battell but girts them vp close with foure camps and hemming them round within trench and counterscarph they besought him for fight that so hee might dispatch them like men But when that would not bee granted they agree to rush out howsoeuer and comming so to handy-strokes very many of them were slaine and famine now comming fast vpon the residue they liued yet a little longer Their last helpe was to flie but their wiues brake their horse-bridles and committing an heinous offence through loue bereft them of that remedy Their end therefore being now no longer to bee deferred their sufferance turnes into furie decreeing among themselues to die in this manner They made away their captains themselues and towne with the sword with poyson and with setting all on fire Goe thy wayes O thou most valiant citie of the world and in mine opinion most happy withall in the very worst that happened vpon thee being that for protection of thy friends thou didst defend thy selfe with thine owne hand and for so long a time against that people which had all the earth to backe and beare them out To conclude the citie which was thus taken by the greatest captaine vnder heauen lest nothing of it selfe for the enemie to reioyce in ouer it For there was not a man of all Numantia left aliue to bee trail'd in chaines spoile and bootie as among poore folkes there was not any their armor munition were burnt So all the triumph which could bee had was ouer a name alone CHAP. XIX A briefe repetition ALl this while the people of Rome were in their actions faire noble pious holy and magnificent The ages following as they were as full of great acts so were they also more troublesome and foule vices still growing as the empire grew So that if a man diuide into two parts this third age of their power emploi'd by them in attempts out of Italy he must worthily confesse the first hundred yeeres thereof in which they tamed Africke Macedonia Sicilia and Spaine to bee as the poets sing them the golden age the other hundred to bee plainely the yron and bloudy one and whatsoeuer else is more horribly cruell as that which with the Iugurthine Cimbrian Mithridatick Parthian Gallick and German warres whose acts made our glorie mount to heauen it selfe did mingle those Gracchian and Drusine massacres yea the bondmens warre and that no dishonour might hee wanting the warre against the fensers also And finally turning their weapons each vpon the other they tore themselues into pieces with the hands of Marius and Sylla and lastly of Pompei and Caesar as it were in fits of rage and furie and in contempt of all religion Which actions though they are intricately wrapt one within the other and confounded among themselues neuerthelesse to make them the better to appeare and that their heinous facts may not trouble their heroick they shal be set forth apart Therefore to follow our first method wee will commemorate those iust and solemne warres against forein nations that the degrees of greatnesse by which the empire was day by day augmented may bee manifest Then will wee returne to those blacke deeds of theirs in their monstrous
Massilia a friend-towne most true firme to vs had made of their incursions The next were the Allobroges and Aruernois for that the Aedui implored our helpe and assistance against them as vsing the like vexations Varus and Isara which run through Vindilicia and the swiftest of riuers the Rhone are witnesses of our victory the thing which most frighted the barbarous was the sight of the elephants as those which matcht themselues in boistrousnes The brauest obiect in this triumph was the king himselfe Bituitus presented to vs in discolourd armes and siluer chariot iust as hee fought How great and how greatly important the victory was in the opinion of both may be coniectured by this that Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabius Maximus reared towres of stone vpon the places of battell and fixed tropheas on their tops adornd with the enemies spoyles which was not our wont till then For the people of Rome neuer vpbraided the vanquisht enemie with their ouerthrow CHAP. III. The Cimbrian Theutonicke and Tigurin warre THE Cimbrians Theutons and Tigurins flying from the vtmost bounds of Gallia the Ocean hauing swallowed their countreyes sought newe habitations where they could finde them out through the world and being bard all entrance into Gall Spain they wheeling about to Italie sent their ambassadors to Silanus where hee lay encamped and from thence to the Senat entreating that martiall common-weale to allot them out some proportions of land in stead of pay for which they should alwayes vse the seruice of their hands and swords at their good pleasure But what land should the Roman people diuide among them who were ready to goe together by the eares among themselues about lawes touching the allotting out of grounds Their petition therefore being reiected what they could not compasse by entreaties they concluded to winne by force Nor could Silanus hold out against them in the first brunt of the barbarous nor Manilius in the second nor Caepio in the third They were all of them defeated and driuen out of their tents and trenches They had made an end of vs had not Marius hapned to liue in that age Yet euen hee himselfe not daring presently to encounter them held his souldiers within their strength till that inuincible rage and furious onset which goes current with the barbarous for true valour fell Thereupon they marcht about back craking and vpbrayding vs and asking in scorn so confident they were of sacking the citie what they would haue home to their wiues Nor more slowly then was menaced they rusht thorow the Alps that is to say the very barres of Italy in three maine battels Marius makes wondrous speed after and out-stripping the enemy by shortest cuts ouertakes the Theutons who had the vantguard at the very climbe of the Alps in a place called Aquae Sextiae and quite distrest them in their ouermuch security The enemy was master of the valley and riuer and our men had no water to drinke at all Whether Marius tooke that drie ground of purpose or turn'd by wit his errour to aduantage is doubtfull to say but courage inforced by necessity was for certaine the cause of victorie For his army crying out for water Yee are men quoth hee and there it is they fought therfore with such courage made such slaughter of the enemies that the Romans hauing the day dranke not more water out of the colour'd riuer then they did of the bloud of the barbarous Surely king Theutobocchus himselfe who was wont to vawt ouer foure or fiue horses let together had scarce any time to get one now for himselfe to flie away vpon and being apprehended in the next forest was single an whole shew himselfe being a person of so huge an height as hee ouertopt the tropheas selues The Theutons vtterly thus destroide hee turnes vpon the Cimbrians who would beleeue it clambring ouer at the crags of Tridentum through the snow which makes it winter all wayes on the Alps and raiseth them higher then naturally their ridges are came rolling down vpon Italy in plumps They attempted to passe the riuer Athesis not by bridge or boat but according to their lubberly wits assaid to stop it first with their bodies but when they saw they could not stay the streame with their hands and targets they plasht downe trees and so crost ouer and had they immediately set on towards the citie the perill had beene extremely great But in the Venetian grounds whose mould is in a manner the finest of all Italie the daintinesse of the ayre and soile entendred their spirits and being otherwise well softned with the vse of bread sodden flesh and sweete wines Marius in very good season sets vpon them they praid him to assigne them a day of battell which hee named to be the next of all They ioyned in a most spacious champaine called Caudium and there one hundred and fortie thousand of them left their liues so they were fewer now in the whole first number by another third They had the execution of the barbarous for an whole dayes space These also taught our captaine generall to piece out manhood with martiall cunning imitating Anibal and his artes at Cannae for hauing to beginne with a mistie day by that an aduantage to charge them at vnaware the same a windie one also which might serue to carry the dust into their eyes and faces Marius making vse of all ranged his battell towards the rising Sunne so that the brightnesse and repercussion of the beames vpon our helmets made the heauens seem as if they were on fire as was by and by afterwards vnderstood by the captiues nor was it a lesse worke to ouercome their wiues then themselues For hauing made a barricado about them with carts and waggons they strooke at vs from aloft as it were from towrtoppes with slaues and lances Their death was as gallant as their fight For when the ambassage which they dispatched to Marius could not obtaine liberty at his hands and priesthood nor was it lawfull they euery-where strangled their infants or pasht out their braines and either one of them kill'd the other or making halters of their tresses of haire trust themselues vp by the necks vpon boughs or the rails of their carts King Beleus fighting couragiously was beaten downe dead and not against his will The other battell consisting of the Tigurins which had taken vp the smaller hils of the Norick Alps as it were for a back or succour to their fellowes betaking themselues to base flight and trading in robberies slipt away whither they could and vanished These so glad and glorious newes concerning the libertie of Italy and the deliuerance of the empire came first to the peoples eares not by men as the manner is but if it be not against religion to beleeue it by the Gods themselues For the same day vpon which the thing was done young men crown'd with laurel were seene before the temple of Castor and Pollux reaching letters to
into the midst of the open desarts of the country betrayd it to the enemy on all sides Crassus therefore was scarce approached to Carrhae when Syllax and Surena the kings chiefe captaines display'd florisht their flags wouen of silke and gold And presently thereupon the enemies Cauallery gaue in on euery hand powring their shot of arrowes vpon vs as thicke as the drops of haile or raine So the legions beaten miserably to the earth himselfe allured out to a parley had vpon a signe giuen by the enemy come quick into their hands if the resistance of the Tribunes had not moued the barbarous to preuent his escape by killing him That notwithstanding they chopt off his head made themselues merrie with it As for his sonne they ouerwhelm'd him with shot euen almost in his fathers sight The remaines of that vnfortunate host shifting each man for himselfe scatter'd by flight into Armenia Cilicia and Syria did scarce afford a man aliue to bring the newes The head and right hand of Crassus were brought to king Orodes made sport for him nor that vnfitly For they powr'd molten gold in at his open mouth that hee who was on fire with the thirst of gold while hee liued his dead bloudlesse carcase might haue enough thereof to serue his turne CHAP. XII The recapitulation THis is that third transmarine age of the people of Rome in which employing themselues vpon exploits out of Italy they display'd their aduenturous armes ouer the whole earth Of which age the first hundred yeeres were holy pious as we haue already said the age of gold voide of hainous fact or foule black deed all the while the simplenesse and puritie of that shepheardish originall continued and the immiuent feare of the Paenish-men maintain'd among vs ancient discipline The other hundred yeeres which wee reckon from the destruction of Carthage Corinth Numance and from the date of the last will and testament of king Attalus in which hee deuised his kingdome in Asia vp to Caesar and Pompey and to Augustus who followed them as the glorie of martial acts made stately great of so vast domestick mischiefes made wretched worthie to bee blushed at For as it was noble and goodly to haue conquer'd Gallia Thrace and Cilicia most fertil and most powrfull prouinces the Armenians also Britans great names but more for the honour of the empire then for the vses thereof so was it a brutish and a shamefull thing to fight and bicker at home at the same time with our owne citizens associates bondmen fencers and the whole Senate with it selfe And I know not whether it had not beene better for the people of Rome to haue rested content with Sicilia and Africk yea or to haue wanted them also hauing Italie at command then to growe to such greatnesse as to bee consumed with their proper strengths For what other things else bred ciuill furies but the too much ranknesse of prosperitie The first thing which corrupted vs was the conquest of Syria next after that the heritage of the king of Pergamus in Asia The wealth and riches of those countries were the things which crusht vnder them the morall vertues of that age and ouerthrew the cōmonweal drownd in her owne vices as in a common sinke For what cause was there why the people of Rome should stand so hard for fields or foode but as they were driuen by the hunger which prodigalitie had procured From hence therefore sprang the first and second Gracchan seditions that third Appuleian And out of what other ground did it growe that the knights and gentlemen of Rome separated themselues from the Lords to haue soueraigne power in seates of iudgement but meerely out of couetousnes that so they might conuert to priuate lucre the customary paiments due to the State and euen iudgements in law it self This brought in the promise of making all Latium free of Rome from whence rose the war with associats And what bred the warre with bondmen what but the great nūber of them in families whence came the armies of fensers against their owners but for the excessiue prodigality vsed in showes for gaining popular fauour While the Romans giue themselues ouer to showes of sword-players they brought that to bee a profession and Arte which was before those times the punishment of enemies And to touch our more gallant vices was it not ouer-much wealth which stirr'd among vs riualities in honours Or did not the stormes of Marius and Sylla and the magnificent furniture of feasts sumptuous presents rise out of that abundance which are long would bring forth beggerie This was it which made Catiline fall foule vpon his countrey To bee briefe what other fountaine had that very desire in some of soueraignty to rule alone but too much store of wealth But that desire did mutually arme Caesar and Pompey with those mortall enmities which like the furies firebrands set Rome on a bright blaze Our purpose therefore is to handle these ciuill quarrels distinguished from iust and foreine warres in order as they fall CHAP. XIII Of the Gracchan Lawes THe power of the Tribunes stir'd the causes of all seditions vnder pretext of defending the common people for whose helpe that power was ordained but in very truth that the Tribunes might ingrosse absolute authoritie to themselues and for that cause courted the commons for their speciall fauour good will by enacting lawes which allotted them land corne and seates of iudgement gratis There was a colour of equitie in each for what so iust as the people to receiue their right at the hands of the Fathers of the State for them who were the lords of nations and possessors of the earth not to liue like strangers to their owne homes and temples what more reasonable then that the poor should liue vpon their own eschequer what could be more effectuall to make the templer of liberty euen and indifferent then the Senate gouerning prouinces that the cheualrie and gentlemen of Rome to support their authoritie at home should haue the as it were kingdome of iudgement-seates Yet euen these very things turnd pernicious the wofull common-weale came thereby to be the wages of her proper ouerthrow for the cheualrie and inferiour nobles being made iudges which till then the lords of Counsell were they purloynd the publike incomes that is to say the patrimonie of the empire and the paying for the common peoples corn out of the publike money suckt dry the very sinewes of State the treasury and how could the cōmon sort be made landed men without eiecting thē who were already in possession and were themselues also a portion of the people and who held their seates of abode left them from their ancestors by prescription as a title of inheritance CHAP. XIIII The sedition of Tiberius Gracchus TIBERIVS GRACCHVS who had not his equall for birth person eloquence kindled the first firebrand of contention This man
Court taking him by the throat did not let him goe till the bloud started into his face and eyes So the lawes were enacted perforce and commanded to passe for current Our fellowes or associats call'd out of hand for the reward of their partaking Which Drusus vnable to performe and sicke of the troubles into which he had rashly entred died in season confidering the danger But our fellowes in armes forbare not neuerthelesse to seeke the accomplishment of Drusus his promises by hostility CHAP. XVIII The Social warre THe warre against our fellowes associats howsoeuer it be termed but the Social warre that so we might extenuate the enuy yet if wee will haue the truth it was a ciuill warre Because the people of Rome hauing mixt the Etruscans Latins and Sabins and deriuing one bloud out of all made an entire body out of parts and of them all together is but one Nor was the rebellion of our associats within Italy lesse heinous then that of the Romans within the citie When therefore our fellowes and allyes most iustly demanded equall priuiledge with the Romans whose greatnes they had increased with their supports and to the hope whereof Drusus had raized them vpon a desire to predominate and when also he was opprest by the wickednesse of those at home the same firebrand of mischiefe which consumed him inflamed our cōpanions and allyes to take armes and force the citie what thing could be sadder thē this vast mischief what more calamitous when all Latium 〈…〉 Etruria and Campania finally Italie rose ioyntly in armes against the mother and foster citie when euery armie of our most valiant and most loyall fellowes had vnder each ensigne those municipall bad members and monsters of men Popedius led the Marses and Latins Afranius the Vmbrians the whole Senate and Consuls Samnium Telesinus led Lucania when the people which was the disposer of kings and nations could not gouerne it-selfe so that Rome conqueresse of Asia and Europe might bee assailed from Corfinium The beginning of the warre was plotted to be in mount Alban where on the festiuali day of the Latins Sextus Iulius Caesar and Marcius Philippus Consuls should haue beene sacrificed betweene the rites and the altars but that treason being frustrated by discoury the whole cōspiracie brake out in Asculum our ambassadours who were then present in that citie being killd in the assembly it-self at the publike playes This was the solemne signe of the wicked war and from thence the alarme was euery-where taken by al the parts of Italie Popedius posting vp and downe as the captaine and author of it Neither Pyrrhus nor Aniball committed so great a spoile Behold Ocriculam behold Grumentum behold Faesulae Carscoli Nuceria and Picentes are wasted with slaughter sword and fire The armie of Rutilius is discomfired discomfited also is that of Caepio's for Lucius Iulius Caesar himself when the armie which he led was ouerthrowne his dead body brought all bloudy into Rome made such a solitarinesse with the pitious spectacle that one might haue euen past through the middle of the citie quietly But the great good fortune of the people of Rome alwayes better when at worst puts at last their vniuersal forces to the worke singling out seuerall captaines against seuerall people Cato scatters the Etruscans Gabinius the Marses Carbo the Lucans Sylla the Samnites But Strabo Pompeius hauing made hauocke of all with fire and sword neuer gaue ouer destroying till he had sacrificed the subuersion of Asculum to the ghosts of so many Consulary armies and to the Gods of so manie ransackt cities CHAP. XIX The bondmens warre THough wee fought with our associates an hainous matter yet were they free-men howsoeuer and at leastwise generous persons Who can patiently brook that the soueraigne people of the earth should arme against their slaues The first troubles of that base nature were attempted in the yonger dayes of Rome within the citie it-selfe by Herdonius Sabinus captaine when the state busied with the quarrels stirred by the Tribunes the Capitoll was besieged and taken by the Consull But this was rather an vprore then a war But now the empire being mightily enlarged with diuers countreys who would beleeue that the Iland of Sicilie should be more cruelly wasted in the warre against slaues then in the Carthaginian An excellent corne countrey and as it were a purlieu of Rome where the Latine people had their farmes and granges for furniture of tillage ther wer very many bride-wels husbandmen kept in chaines which ministred matter for warre A certaine Syrian called Eunus the great mischiefs he did makes vs remember his name faining himselfe inspired with a diuine furie while hee vaunts the ceremonies of his Syrian goddesse call'd bondmen to armes and libertie as it were by authoritie from heauen and to get credit in that point he iuggled a nut into his mouth filld with brimstone and fire and blowing it softly spat fire as he spake This coozning wonder drew at the very first two thousand of such as came in his way and eftsoones breaking vp the worke-iails or bride-wells by right of warre he made vp an host of aboue fortie thousand that nothing might bee wanting to the euill hee pranckt himselfe vp like a king in royall ornaments and made miserable spoile of castles towns and villages for a last disgrace the campes of our Praetors were taken by him nor shames it to tell their names the camps of Manlius Lentulus Piso Hysaeus They therefore who ought to haue beene fetcht backe by officers as fugitiues pursued our Pratorian Generals whome they had made to runne away in set battell In the end yet we had the punishing of them Publius Rupilius our captaine Generall for after he had vanquisht them in the field and last of all besieged them in Enna where hunger like a plague of pestilence consumed them hee bound the remaynes of those strong theeues in chaines and fetters trussed them on gallowses and for this seruice contented himselfe with anouation lest he should dishonour the dignitie of triumph with carrying in the inscription the title of villaines The Iland had scarce taken breath when by and by wee came from the bondmen and the Syrian to the Cilician Athenio a shepheard swaine murthers his master and freeing his fellowes out of the work-iayle puts them vnder banners into battel-ray himselfe in a robe of purple with a staffe of siluer and about his head a royall wreath pieceth together no lesse an armie then the former mad man but rageth farre more eagerly against masters and bondmen as if against fugitiues and as if he would reuenge the Sicilian bond-slaues cause sacking castles townes and villages This varlet also had the killing of Praetorian armies the campe of Seruilius taken by him and that of Lucullus in like sort But Aquilius vsing the example of Publius Rupilius vtterly distrest the enemie by staruing they who were otherwise hard to ouercome
then a ciuill because they would triumph CHAP. XXIII The ciuill warre vnder Lepidus MArcus Lepidê° Quintus Catulus Consuls the ciuill warre was almost sooner determined then taken in hand But how much and how far soeuer in compasse the firebrand of that commotion blazed it rose all out of Sylla's ashes for Lepidus in his insolencie desirous to innouate prepared to annull the acts of that mighty man nor without good cause if at least wise it could haue beene done without great calamitie to the common-weale For when Sulla the Dictator had by the aduantage of the vpper hand proscribed his enemies such of them as ouerliued being recalled from banishment by Lepidus to what else were they called but to warre and when the goods of attainted citizens were adiudged and giuen away by Sulla vnto others though they were but badly taken yet being they were taken by law the repleuin of them did doubtlesly endanger the greene raw peace of the State For which respect it was expedient that the common-weale sore sicke and hurt should rest it selfe howsoeuer lest the wounds thereof should breake out and bleede afresh in the curing When therefore he had frighted the citie with his turbulent orations as with an alarme he went into Etruria and from thence presented an armie against Rome But before this time Lentulus Catulus and Cnaeus Pompeius the captaines and as it were ensigne-bearers of Sulla's tyranny had planted an army at Miluius bridge mount Ianiculus and by them repulsed at the very first brunt and proclaimed traitor by the Senate hee fled backe without bloudshed into Etruria from thence retired to Sardinia and there in sicknesse and repentance ended his dayes The victors a thing rarely seene in ciuill warres moderated their affections and contented themselues to hold all quiet Deo gratias THE HISTORIE OF THE ROMANS The fourth Booke CHAP. I. CATALINES warre CATALINE mooued to it first with riot and then with want the effect of that excesse together with the opportunitie our armies beeing then in warfare at the vtmost bounds of the earth was thrust into a treason for inthralment of his natiue countrey for assassinate of the Senatours for murther of the Consuls for firing the citie in many places at once for robbing the Exchequer and in a word for vtter extirpation of all common-weale and for doing that whatsoeuer else which euen Anniball himselfe would not haue seem'd to haue wished All which purposes with what complices O the sinne were they by him attempted himselfe a Patritian a Senatour of the highest ranke but that is not so much there were in of the Curij Porcij Sullae Cethegi Autronij Vargunteij and Longini and what potentates were they by birth what ornaments of the Senate Lentulus likewise chiefely at that time Praetor had all of these for a blacke guard to his most black designes Mans bloud was added as a pledge of the conspiracie which carried about in cups and goblets they dranke a most horrible thing had not the end for which they dranke it beene more horrible The goodliest empire vnder heauen had seene the last daies of it selfe had not that plot hapned in the Consulship of Cicero and Antonius one of which discouered the same by his diligence the other confounded it by force The intelligence of this so vast a treason was giuen by Fuluia a base cheape trull but not so wicked as to be guiltie of paricide Then Cicero the Consull calling a Senate made an oration against the hainous traytor to his face against the guiltie person there in presence but wrought no greater effect then onely to make the foe shift for himselfe and openly professing to bee such threatned to put out the fire with pulling downe all So he departs to the armie which Manlius had prepared in Etruria with purpose to assaile the citie Lentulus diuining that himself was the man of his family to whom soueraigntie was destinated in Sibylls verses had in fit places against the set day dispersed men fire-workes and weapons ouer the whole citie nor contented with complices at home onely the ambassadours of the Allobroges at that time as it hapned in towne were dealt with to stirre their nation to armes and the frensie had gadded ouer the Alpes if vpon another discouerie made by Vulturius the letters of the Praetor had not beene attached in the going Hands were hereupon forthwith laid at Cicero's commandement vpon the Allobroges and the practice was openly proued against Lentulus in the Senate It being put to the question what should be done with the malefactors Caesar was of opinion their liues should be spared because they were persons of great honor Cato censur'd them to death for their treason which opinion was seconded by all and they were strangled accordingly in prison Though thus a part of the conspiracie was choakt yet Catiline desisted not from his enterprise but with ensignes spred marcheth out of Etruria against his natiue countrey and encountred on the way by the armie of Antonius is beaten downe and slaine How grimly they fought the euent sheweth not a man of the enemies was left and looke what place each one fought in vpon the same he lost his life and couerd it with his body Catiline was found starke dead farre off from his own company among the carkases of his enemies a most braue end had he made it for his countrey CHAP. II. The warre of CAESAR and POMPEY THe whole world almost being now in peace the Roman empire was greater then that it could be extinguisht by any foraine violence Fortune therefore beating enuie to that people which was soueraigne of al other armd their own selues to their owne destruction The madnesse of Marius and Ginna confined it-selfe within the citie as if shee tride how it would doe the tempest of Sulla spred wider yet did it not thunder out of Italy but the furie of Caesar and Pompey did hurrie sucke into it both the citie Italy races nations in a word the vniuersall empire with a kind as it were of deluge and gulph of fire so farre forth that it cannot rightly bee onely called a ciuill neither yet a sociall no nor a foraine but rather a certaine common of all together and more then a war For if wee looke vpon the captaines the whole Senate was in sides if the armies on the one part eleuen legions on the other eighteen the flower strength together of all the Italian bloud if the aides of the confederates on this side the choise of the Galls Germans on that Deiotarus Ariobarzanes Tarcondimotus Cothus the whole powers of Thrace Cappadocia Cilicia Maccdonia Greece Italy and all the Orient if the space of the warre foure yeeres and that considering the destructions it wrought but a short time if the place and flage vpon which it was acted Italy froÌ„ whence it turn'd it selfe into Gall and Spaine and fetching a compasse from the west it sat down with the whole
burthen thereof vpon Epirus and Thessaly thence it crosseth suddenly into Aegypt then it glanced into Asia and lay heauy vpon Africk last of all it reel'd back into Spaine and there at length it went out and died But the warre and hatred of the factions ended not together For that rested not til the rancour of the conquer'd parties had in the heart of the citie middle of the Senate satisfide it self with the bloud of their conquerour The cause of so monstrous mischiefs was the same which it vseth to be of al too too much prosperity For Q. Metellus and Lucius Afranius Consuls when the maiestie of Rome preuailed through the world and the people chanted the fresh victories of Pompey the Pontick and Armenian triumphs in Pompeis theaters his ouer-great power as it often falleth out moued enuy among the leysurable citizens Metellus for abatement of his triuÌ„ph ouer Crete Cato who alwaies ranne bias to the mighty detracted Pompey found fault with his actions The griefe hereof draue him awrie and compelled him to prouide strengths for vpholding his dignitie It hapned Crassus at that time flourished in honour of bloud riches and authoritie and yet still coueted more The name of Caius Caesar was vp for eloquence and spirit and had the honour of a Consulship But Pompey ouertopt them both Caesar therefore struggling to get dignity Crassus to increase it Pompey to keepe what he had and all of them alike greedie of great power easily made a match to set vpon the common-weale Therefore while each of them vseth the others strengths for his own glory Caesar inuaded Gall Crassus Asia Pompey Spain three most puissant armies And thus the whole world was now become to bee held by three princes in partnership This domination wore out ten yeeres time From that time forward because til then they were ballanced among theÌ„selues through a mutuall feare vpon the slaughter of Crassus by the Parthians and the death of Iulia Caesars daughter who marrying to Pompey maintained concord between the son and father in law by the league of nuptial loue emulation brake forth presently Pompey now was iealous of Caesars greatnesse and Caesar badly endured Pompeis supereminencie The one brookt no equall the other no superior But O the sinne they stroue in such sort for principality as if so great a fortune of empire had not beene ennough for two Therefore Lentulus and Marcellus being Consuls and the affiance of the first pact among them once broken the Senate consulted to disemploy Caesar and Pompey labour'd the same nor was Caesar himselfe against it if in the first comitiall assembly or choise-moot there had beene respect had of him for the Consulship which honour ten Tribunes had with Pompeis good liking decreed him in his absence and was afterwards vpon Pompeis dissembling denyed it He should haue come sued for it after the old wont On the other side hee earnestly demanded execution of the decree would not cashier his armie vnlesse they at home were as good as their word to him For this cause he was proclaimed enemy Caesar throughly nettled at the newes resolued to maintaine with the sword the rewards of his sword The first field Sand-plot of ciuil war was Italy whose castels Pompey had furnisht with slight-garrisons But all of them were as it were ouerwhelmed with Caesars sudden comming-on The first alarm was sounded at AriminuÌ„ Then was Libo more theÌ„ al Etruria Thermus then Vmbria Domitiê° then Corfinium And the war had bin made an end of without bloud if as hee attempted it he could haue oppressed Pompey at Brundisium But he escaped by night through the closures of the besieged hauen A shamful matter to be spokeÌ„ the late president of the Senat vmpire of peace war fled in a torne almost naked vessell ouer that sea which himself had triuÌ„pht Nor is Pompey sooner driueÌ„ out of Italy then the Senat out of the citie into which almost empty of people throgh feare Caesar entring made himself Consul The sacred inmost treasury because the Tribunes op'ned it somewhat too slowly he coÌ„manded to be broken vp violently seis'd the reuenew and patrimony of the people of Rome sooner then he did the soueraignty PoÌ„pey driuen away fled he had a more minde to take order for securing the prouinces then to pursue him He kept Sicilia Sardinia the publick pledges of corn by deputies or lieutenants generall there was not an enemy in Gall himself had made it all peace there But passing in persoÌ„ against the Pompeis in Spaine Massilia was so bold as to shut her gates Poore Massilia while it would faine haue peace fel into a war throgh feare of warre But because it had strong walls he commanded it should be taken for him in his absence A Greekish citie but which more hardly then for the name it had lopt bauins for rampire durst burn the engins bent against it and encounter vs at sea But Brutus who had the charge of the war tamed them quite both at land sea wherupon yeelding themselues they were stript out of all they had excepting that which they prized aboue all their common libertie Caesar's war in Spaine with Petreius Afranius lieutenants generall to Cnaeus Pompeius was doubtfull various and bloudy attempting to besiege their campe at Ilerda by the riuer Sicoris and to thrust betweene them and the towne In the meane-while by stopping the stream whichin the spring-time vsed to swell they depriued him of victuals So his campe was assaulted with famine and the besieger himselfe remain'd as it were besieged But so soone as the water was down he scowres the coasts with fire and sword and fiercely re-enforceth his pursuit ouertaking them vpon their retreate into Celtiberia hee drew a trench about and so compeld them to yeeld for thirst Thus was the hither Spaine taken in and the farther Spaine delayd not For what could one legion do when fiue could doe nothing Varro therefore of his owne accord giuing way the Gades the streights the Ocean and all followed the luckinesse of Caesar. But fortune durst doe somewhat against that captaine in his absence on this side Illyricum and in Africa as if his faire successes were of purpose to be styrped and inter-wouen with crosse accidents for when Dolabella and Antonius being commanded by Caesar to guard the iawes of the Adriaticke gulph and the one had pitcht his camp vpon the Illyrian shore the other on the Corcyrean Pompey being master then at sea Octauius his lieutenant generall and Libo with huge numbers of mariners closed them in vpon all hands and Antonius despite of his most resistance was enforced to yeelde through famin and those long boats sent to his aide by Basillus such as for lacke of ships they were faine to shift with were taken as it were in an hunting toyle by a new stratagem of the Cilicians on Pompeis side the fastning of ropes vnder water
doth most afflict an heroicke spirit to die by an executioner at the pleasure of a foe There was no flight since that of Xerxes more miserable For he who late was Lord of three hundred and fiftie shippes of warre escaped away with onely sixe or seuen of them putting out the light in the admirall throwing his rings into the waues quaking and euer looking backe and yet not fearing lest hee should perish Though in Cassius and Brutus Caesar had ridded the power of the faction out of the world and in Pompey had abolished the whole name and title of it yet could not hee settle a sound peace while Antonius the rocke the knot and the common let of assured quiet was aliue and there was no want in him why vices made not an end of him nay his pride and riot hauing made triall of all things hee first ouercame enemies then citizens and lastly the times with the terrour hee had raised of himselfe CHAP. IX The warre with the Parthians by Generall VENTIDIVS THe miserable ouerthrow of Crassus made the Parthians higher crested and they were glad to heare the newes of the ciuill warres of Rome So soone therefore as any occasion glimmer'd out they stuck not to breake in vpon vs Labienus euen inuiting them who employed by Cassius and Brutus dealt with the enemie O the madnesse of wickedesse for their assistance who therevpon chase away the garrisons of Antonius ledde on by the gallant young king Pacôrus Saxa deputie of Antonius obtained of his owne sword to keepe him out of their fingers After Syria was wonne away the mischiefe had crept farther the enemie vndercolour of giuing ayde conquering for himselfe had not Ventidius who also was Antonius his deputie with incredible good fortune both defeated the forces of Labienus slaine Pacôrus himselfe and followed in execution vpon all the cauallerie of Parthia ouer the whole space of countrey betweene the riuers Orontes and Euphrates The slaine were aboue twentie thousand as Ventidius handled the matter For counterfeiting a feare hee suffered the enemie to come vp so close to his campe that they wanted roome to plie their shotte of arrowes The king himselfe most valiantly fighting was killed and his head carryed about and shewed to all the reuolted cities Syria was thus recouered without warre and so by the slaughter of Pacôrus wee were euen for Crassus ouerthrow CHAP. X. The warre of ANTONIVS with the Parthians THE Parthians and Romans hauing made tryall each of other Crassus and Pacôrus being lessons to both sides of eithers forces league was made againe with equall reuerence and entirenesse of amitie and that by Antonius himselfe But the infinite vanitie of the man while hee coueted to adde the conquest of Araxes and Euphrates to the titles of his images suddenly leaues Syria and inuades the Parthian without anie either cause or wise counsell or so much as an imaginarie colour of warre as if so to steale-vpon were also a part of a captaines dutie The Parthians besides affiance in their peculiar weapons pretend likewise to bee afraid and flie into the open fields Hee forthwith pursues them as victorious when vpon a sudden though in no great numbers they burst out neere twi-light at vnawares like a showre vpon the Romans now wearie with trauaile and with their arrowes ouerwhelme two legions But this was nothing in comparison of the calamitie which hung ouer their heads the verie next day had not the compassion of the Gods come betweene One whose life was spared in Crassus his ouerthrowe comes ryding to the trench attired like a Parthian and hayling them in Latin after hee had gotten to bee beleeued informes them what was at hand that the king would come vpon them with all the power of the realme that therefore they should march back and recouer the mountaines though euen so perhaps they should haue store of enemies By this meanes a lesser force came against them then was in readinesse Yet they fell on and the remaines of the armie had beene quite destroyed but that when the Parthian shot flying as thicke as haile the souldiers taught wee know not how dropt on their knees and casting their targets ouer their heads seem'd as if they had beene slaine then staid the Parthians their bowes whereupon the Romans starting vp on their feete againe did againe moue such wonder as that one of the barbarous vsed this speech Goe Romans and fare well fame with good cause termes you the Conquerors of nations who can outstand the shot of Parthia Water afterwards did no lesse mischiefe then the armed enemie first the countrey was naturally dry off-springs then the riuer Salmadicis was to some more noyous then the drouth and last of all when the weake dranke deepe of the riuer euen the sweete waters also proued poisonous Moreouer the heats of Armenia and the snowes of Cappadocïa and the sudden change of one ayre into another was itselfe in stead of a plague So a third part of sixteene legions hardly remayning when the siluer which hee had in the armie was euerywhere chipt with chisils and himselfe betweene the fittes of the mutinie calld euer now and then to a sword-player of his to kill him the doughtie Generall fled at last into Syria where like a man in a manner besotted hee became somewhat more brag and loftie then before as if he who had brought himselfe away had gotten the victory CHAP. XI The Actian war with ANTONIE and CLEOPATRA THe furie of Antonie which ambition could not kill was quencht with wanton lust and riot for after his Parthian iourny growing into hatred with warre he gaue himselfe ouer to rest and surprised with the loue of Queene Cleopatra solaced on her bosome as freely as if all other matters had succeeded well This Egyptian woman did value her companie at no lesse a rate to Antonie drunken with loue then the whole Roman empire he promised it as if the Romans were more easily to be dealt with then the Parthians Therefore hee began to plot a tyrannie nor that couertly but forgetting his countrey his name his gowne his fasces hee absolutely degenerated into no lesse a monster in his vnderstanding then he did in his affection and fashion hee went with a staffe of gold in his hand a Persian sword by his side a purple robe buttond with huge precious stones and a diadem in readinesse that a king might inioy a Queene At the first bruite of these stirres Caesar crosseth ouer from Brundisium that hee might giue warre the meeting and pitching his tents in Epirus did beset the iland Leucades and the rocke Leucades and the points or nesses of the Ambracian bay with his ships of warre wee had aboue foure hundred saile the enemies not fewer then two hundred but what they wanted in number was made vp in bulke for they had from sixe to nine bankes of oares besides that their fights were raised so high with decks and turrets as they resembled
castles and cities making the very sea grone vnder the windes out of breath to carry them which hugenesse of theirs was it selfe their bane Caesar's nauie had not in it any vessell but from three bankes of oares to sixe and none aboue therefore they are yare ready for all the needes of seruice whether to charge recharge or turne about those of the other side were meere slugges and vnwieldie for all worke vpon euery of which many of ours setting and plying them what with darts and all sorts of flingings what with beak-heads or prows and castings of fire scattred them all at pleasure nor did the greatnesse of the enemies preparations appeare at any time more then after the victorie for the huge armada bulged split in the fight was carryed in the wracks thereof vp and downe ouer the whole sea containing the spoiles of Arabia and Saba and of thousand other nations of Asia and the waues stirred with the winds did daily belch vp gold and purple vpon the shores the first who led the way to running away was the Queen who in a galleon whose poope was of gold and saile of purple thrust into the deepes Antonius forth-with following her but Caesar was at his heeles So that neither the preparations which he had made to fly into the Indian Ocean nor Paraetonium and Pelusium the two corner coasts of Aegypt stuft by him with garrisons stood him in any stead all were so quickly seized Antonius was the first of the two who slew himselfe the Queene kneeling at the feete of Caesar laid baits for his eyes but in vaine her beauties were beneath that princes chastitie nor was life her suit for that was offered but her care was for a part of the kingdome which when she despaired to obtaine of the prince and saw her selfe reserued for triumph the guard put about her being negligent she betooke herselfe to the Mausolie so cal they the sepulchres of their kings where attired in most pompous habit as her custome was shee seated herselfe in a throne sweetned with rich perfumes close to her Lord Antonius and clapping serpents to her veines died away in a slumber CHAP. XII Warres against foraine nations HEre ended the ciuill wars the rest were against strangers who while the empire was turmoild with these intestiue miseries sallied out against vs in diuers quarters of the world For peace was but greene and the stif-swoln necks of nations not yet inured to the curbe of seruitude slipt the yoke which had but newly beene imposed the climat which is almost vnder the north-pole bare it selfe more roughly the Noricks Illyrians Pannonians Dalmatians Mysians Thracians and Dacians Getes and Sarmatians and Germans The Alps and snow vpon them whither warre could not climbe gaue incouragement to the Noricks But Caesar throughly quieted all the nations of that tract the Brenns Senons Vindelicians by his son in law whose mother hee had married Claudius Drusus How sauage those crafty people were appeared wel enough by the women who for want of mischieuous weapons pasht their sprawling babes on the ground and hurld them in the souldiers faces as they came against them The Illyrians also liue vnder the Alps possesse the vallies between and guard certaine passages at it were barres themselues wrapt in with abrupt water-falls Against them hee went in person commaunding bridges to be made Here the waters and enemies empeaching him as our souldiers were slacke to scale hee rasht a target out of one of their hands and led the way the troupe then following thick but the Illyrian hauing with their multitude saw'd in sunder the bridge his hands and legges were wounded in the fall so the bloud which dropt from him making him shew the brauer and his danger it selfe the more maiesticall he assaild the enemy at the back The Pannonians are wall'd in with two wilde forests and three great riuers Drauus Sauus and Ister and they hauing first foraged their next neighbours retired themselues within their defences For taming these hee sent out Vibius who slue them on either banke of their riuers The armours of the vanquisht were not consumed with fire as the fashion of warre was but were preserued and throwne into the streames that the newes of their fellowes ouerthrow might so be conueighed to the residue The Dalmatians for the most part dwell close at wood-sides which makes them wondrous forward more then all other to commit robberies Marcius by burning Delminium their principall citie had now as it were cut off their head Asinius Pollio amerced them with the losse of their cattell armes and tillage but Augustus commanded Vibius to subdue them vtterly Who made those fierce nations digge in mines and to refine gold-oare which they the most couetous men of the world doe search for with careful diligence that they may seeme to hoord it for their proper vses How wilde and grimme the Mysians be and how barbarous aboue all barbarisme is horrible to bee spoken One of their captaines stepping out before the armie pray'd silence and said Who are yee answere was made We are lords of the world They replide Yee may well say so if you conquer vs Marcus Crassus General tooke the word as a faire forebodeing The Mysians forthwith offer-vp an horse before their battalions vowing to sacrifice and eat the bowels of those captaines of ours whom they should kill I may very well beleeue the Gods heard their speech they could not stand out the sounding of a trumpet Domitius a captaine strooke no little terrour into the barbarous himselfe a man of a barbarous blunt wit but which did well enough among his likes who carrying for as it were his crest a chafing-dish or little harth vpon his helmet and the coales thereof kindling with the motion of his body the flames seemed to blaze as if his head were on fire Before them in time the most mightie people of Thrace rebelled who as barbarous as they were yet were accustomed to militarie ensignes and discipline yea and to Roman weapons also but being vtterly subdued by Piso they shewed their wood rage in their very bondage it selfe For attempting to gnaw their chaines in sunder with their teeth they punisht their owne wildenesse The Dacians keepe them to their mountaines till the yce haue knit both the bankes of Danubius together and then as often as it is hard frozen ouer they passe it as vnder the guidance of Cotiso their king and destroy the border-countreys Caesar Augustus thought good to make that practice too hot for them though it was a most difficult matter to come where they were Sending Lentulus therefore against them he draue them beyond the farther banke and planted garrisons on the hither If Dacia was not conquer'd then it was put by and deferred The Sarmatians gallop and ride in champaine fields and it was held enough to command them by the same Lentulus not to approach Danubius They haue nothing but snow and thinne woods Their
barbarousnesse is so great as they vnderstand not what peace meanes Would Germany also had not thought it so great a matter to ouercome It was more basely lost then gloriously gained But Augustus forsomuch as he knew his father hauing twice past ouer Rhene by bridge had sought warre there in honour of his memorie he desired to make a prouince of it and it was done could the barbarous aswell haue brookt our vices as obeyd our commands Drusus sent into those regions first tamed the Vsipetes then ouer-ran the Tencthers the Catti For hee had trimm'd a certaine high hillock in manner of a trophea with the most speciall spoils of the Marcomanni After that he inuaded these other most puissant nations the Cherusci Sueuians Sicambrians at once who burning twenty captains of ours had bound themselues by that fact to maintaine warre against vs with so assured hope of victory that they diuided the prey by bargaine before-hand The Cherusci they would haue the horse for their share the Sueuians the gold and siluer the Sicambrians the prisoners But all went quite backward on their sides For Drusus preuailing did share and sell their horses cattel and chaines of gold and themselues as lawfull prize Moreouer hee left garrisons euery-where behinde him and guards for defence of the prouinces Vpon the riuer of Mose of Albis of Visurgis and the banke of Rhene hee planted aboue fiftie castels Hee ioyn'd Bonna and Gelduba together with bridges and strengthened them with shipping Hee opened the Hercinian wood till that time pathlesse and vnseene To conclude such was the peace in Germany that the men seemed not the same men the soile seemed other then it had bin and the ayre it selfe more milde and temperate then euer And that most gallant yong gentleman I call him not so out of flatterie but as he well deserued dying there the Senate which it neuer had done to any other surnamed him of Germanie Germanicus But it is more difficult to keepe a prouince then to conquer it Prouinces are atchieued by the sword but retayned by iustice Therfore that reioycement was short For the Germans were rather ouercome then tamed and vnder Generall Drusus they rather admitted our customs then submitted to our forces When hee was once dead they beganne to hate the lawlesse humour and pride of Quintilius Varus no otherwise then as they would haue hated crueltie But hee durst set vp a Law-Court and sit in iudgement within his campe as if hee had beene able to restraine the violence of the barbarous with his serieants roddes and cryers voice But they who now a good while since had seene their blades canker'd with rust and their horse of seruice growne foggie with ease no sooner saw our gownes and lawes more cruell then our weapons but they make Arminius captaine and fall to armes When Varus in the meane space was so aduenturous vpon trust of peace as hee tooke no heed at all though the conspiracie of the captains was foretold and disclosed to him by Segestes a prince among them Therfore O strange securenes as hee sat vpon the tribunal citing parties they at vnawares assaile him on all hands taken absolutely vnprouided and fearing no such matter sacke his campe and destroy three legions Varus followed the vtter losse of things there with the same fate and minde that Paulus Aemilius did the deadly blow at Cannae Nothing was more bloudie then the slaughter which was made through the woods and marshes nothing more intolerable then the insultings of the barbarous specially against pleaders at the bar plucking out the eyes of some and lopping-off the hands of other some one had his mouth stitcht-vp after his tongue was first cut out which the sauage actor grasping in his hand sayd to it Thou viper at last giue ouer hizzing The body of the Consul himself which the souldiers had in their pietie buried was digged out of his graue The barbarous doe as yet withhold two of our ensignes two of our eagles the third the eagle-bearer plucking off before the enemies layd hand vpon him and carrying it hidden in the hollow of his belt was plunged so into the bloudy marsh By this ouerthrow it came to passe that the course of empire which had not stopt at the Ocean stayd vpon the banke of Rhene These things hapned north-ward In the South of the world there were rather hurly-burlies then war The Musulanians Gaetulians who border vpon the Syrts were chastised by Cossus captain generall at Caesars commandement who was therfore proper-named Gaetulicus The victory spreds wider Hee left the Marmarians Garamants for Furnius who subdued them might haue return'd entituled Marmaricus but that his modesty rated not his conquest so high In the orient there was more to doe with the Armenians Thither Caesar sent one of his nephewes Both were of short life and the one of them inglorious For Lucius died of sicknes at Massilia Caius died in Lycia of a wound as he recouerd Armenia withdrawing it selfe to the Parthians Pompey hauing vanquisht king Tigranes tide the Armenians to this only poynt of bondage that they should haue no gouernours but at our appointment This right of ours hitherto intermitted was reuiued by Caius not without bloudshed and yet without much bickering for Domnes whom the king had made gouernour of Artaxat faining a reuolt assailes him as he was busie in perusing a scroll which himselfe had reacht vnto him pretending it containd an account of the treasures and with his drawne sword runnes him into the forehead but the Barbarian was tilted at on all sides by the armie who being destroyd with sword and fire into which hee threw himselfe wounded satisfied Caius ouerliuing him but did not satisfie Caesar. In the west part of the world all Spain was at quiet excepting that quarter which abutting close vpon the rocks where the Pyrenaean mountaines end is washt with the hither Ocean Here two most puisant nations the Cantabrians and Asturians liued free from command the Cantabrians were the more forward of the two the haughtier also and stifer in holding out a rebellion for not contented to maintaine their owne freedome they sought to encroch vpon their neighbours and wearied the Vaccaeans Curgonians and Autrigons with often incursions against these men because they were said to deale more outragiously then ordinarie Caesar commanded not an expedition to be made by any other but went in person came himselfe to Segisama pitcheth his camp and from thence euen then diuiding his armie into diuers parts hemd all Cantabria about and conquerd that wilde nation by inuironing them as beasts within a toyle nor was the Ocean theirs for our army well-appointed for warre plaid vpon the backs of the enemie His first battell against the Cantabrians was vnder the walls of Vellica from hence they fled into that most steep high mountaine Vindius whither they beleeued the waues of the Ocean might as soone haue clambred as the Roman
of them found out his seueral lieutenants generall But Titus Labienus stoutly repulsed the one of them brought that kings head away The other laying an ambuscado in the vally ouercame vs by craft and so the campe was sackt and the gold thereof taken There wee lost Cotta with Titurius Sabinus lieutenāt generall Nor could wee euer bee-meet with that king after for hee plaide least in sight beyond the Rhene perpetually But Rhene for all that escaped vs not as neither was it fit that it should be a free receiuer and defender of our enemies But Caesar's ground of warre against the Germans was at first most iust For the Sequani complain'd of their incursions How great was then the pride of Ariouistus when our ambassadours said Come thou to Caesar What is that Caesar quoth the king And let him come to mee if hee will and what concernes it him what our Germanie doth am I a meddler in the Roman affaires The terrour therfore of this new nation was so great throughout the campe that they who were of the maine battell made euery-where their last wills and testaments But those giant like bodies by how much the huger they were by so much were they the fairer marke for a sword or dart to hit What the feruour of our souldiers was in the fight cannot bee set forth in any example more clearely then in this that when the barbarous whelm'd their shields ouer their heads couering themselues as vnder a roofe or pent-house or as a tortoys vnder the shell the Romans sprung vp vpon the shields and from thence did cut their throats Againe when the Menapians complaind to vs of the Germans Caesar passeth ouer the Mose vpon a bridge of boats seekes out Rhene it selfe and the enemies among the Hercinian woods But all the whole race of them was fled into the wildes and marshes the army of the Romans appearing on a sudden on this side the banke of Rhene strooke such an amazement among them Nor did we crosse that riuer onely once but againe also and that by a bridge made ouer it At which time their affright was much augmented when they beheld their Rhene taken prisoner as it were and yoaked with a bridge betaking themselues afresh in flight to their forests and fennie places that which most fretted Caesar being that hee had not whom to conquer Thus all made ours both at land and sea hee casts his eye vpon the Ocean and as if the Roman world sufficed not his minde was set how to atchieue another For this cause gathering a nauie he made for Britaine Hee crost into Britaine with marueilous speed for weighing anchor out of the harbour of the Morini at the third watch hee was landed in the Iland before noone The shores there were full of the enemies troubled troups and the chariots of war whirled vp and downe disorderly their riders quaking at the wonder of the sight their feare therefore was instead of a victorie The timorous Britans yeelded vp their armes and gaue hostages and Caesar had then marcht farther had not the Ocean giuen his shatterd fleete a sore scourging with his billowes Thereupon he returnd into Gall and with a greater armada and more forces then before did thrust out once againe into the same Ocean and againe pursuing the same Britans into the Caledonian woods he also caused Cauelianus one of their kings to bee fast bound in chaines Contenting himselfe with this for his intention was not to get prouinces but glorie he makes back into Gall with more spoiles then at first the Oceans selfe more quiet and fauourable as if it confest it selfe too weake for Caesar. But the last mightiest conspiracie of the Galls was when that prince so dreadfull for stature martiall skill and courage and whose very name seem'd deuised to strike a terrour Vercingetorix drew at once all the Aruernois and Bituriges the Carnutes and Sequani into a league by speaking bigge among them when the assemblies of people were thickest as in their groues vpon festiuall and counsel-dayes erecting their mindes thereby for recouerie at their antient libertie Caesar was at this time absent out of Gallia busie in taking fresh musters of Rauenna and the Alps themselues heapt high with winter snowes and so the wayes cloyed vppe they presumed hee was fast and safe enough But of how fortunate a rashnesse was hee at the newes Ouer cragges and cliffes of mountaines thorow wayes and drifts of snow till that time pathlesse hee with light-armed bands of souldiers got into Gall vnited his winter-camps there which stood farre distant and was himselfe in person in the middle of Gallia before the remotest part feared his comming Then assaulting the heart-strengths of the warre hee destroy'd Auaricum and a garrison in it of fortie thousand and leuel'd Alexia to the ground with fire which had two hundred and fiftie thousand fighting men to rescue it The whole stresse of the warre was about Gergouia For that most spacious citie hauing foure score thousand defendents walls also a castell and craggie cliffes was girt-in round by Caesar with workes stakes and a ditch through which hee drew the riuer and with eighteene seuerall camps in the whole compasse and an huge counterscarpe by which meanes he tamed it first with famine and such of the defendents as durst sally out being either cut in pieces in the trenches with the sword or gored vpon the stakes hee at last constrained it to yeeld That very king himselfe the principall glorie of Caesars conquest both came like an humble suitor into the campe and throwing his caparisons and armes at his foote said thus vnto him O thou most valiant of men thou hast conquer'd a valiant man CHAP. XI The Parthian warre WHile the people of Rome vtterly distrest the Galls towards the North of the world they receiue a grieuous wound in the East by the Parthians For which wee cannot blame fortune The discomfiture afforded no kinde of comfort The greedy humor of Crassus Consul which had neither Gods nor men to friend gaping for Parthian gold cost eleuen legions their liues and him that head of his vpon which Metellus Tribune of the people had powred hostile curses at his setting out And when the army was past Zeugma sudden whirle-windes threw our standards into Euphrates where they sunke when he encamped at Nicephorium ambassadours from king Orodes summon'd him to remember the leagues which Parthians had formerly made with Pompey and Sulla but his minde wholy bent how to swallow the treasures of that realme without pretending so much as an imaginary cause of warre only said he would answer at Seleucia The Gods therfore who take reuenge for violating publike leagues did both prosper the stratagems and strokes of the enemies For first Euphrates the onely riuer to conueigh our victuals and defend vs was now betweene vs and home then againe credit was giuen to a certaine counterfeit fugitiue one Mazara a Syrian who trayning the army out
but the tide comming in freed two of the vessels one of them which carryed the Opitergins was entangled in the cords produced an effect worthy to be commended with honour to posterity for a band of scarce one thousand young fellowes held play from morning till night against the force of an whole armie enuironing them on all sides and when by manhood they could finde no way forth at the encouragement of Vulteius their Coronel they slue one the other In Africke also such like was the valour and aduersitie of Curio who sent by Caesar with commission to receiue that prouince proud for hauing repulsed and put Varus to flight was vnable to stand the sudden comming-on of king Iuba and the cauallerie of the Mauritanians Hee might haue fled but shame perswaded him to die together with that army which his temerity had cast away But fortune now importunately demanding to make scores euen Pompey had chosen Epirus for the seate of war nor was Caesar slowe for hauing made all safe at his backe though it were the depth of winter and so the season vnfit yet hee embarkt for battell and encamping at Oricum when that part of his forces which was left behinde with Antonius for want of shipping staid with the longest at Brundisium hee was so impatient that for fetching them hee attempted at midnight and in a frigat to venture ouer though the sea was terrible rough His words to the master afraid at so great a danger are not forgotten What fearest thou thou carryest Caesar. When all the forces which either side could make were drawne together their camps confronted each the other the generals gouernd themselues by diffrēt courses Caesar naturally fierce longing to dispatch offers battell eggeth and prouoketh to it one while by besieging the camp about which his workes ran sixteene miles but what could besieging hurt them who hauing the sea open abounded thereby with all prouisions another while with assaulting Dyrrhachium in vaine for the situation of it made it inexpugnable and besides all this with daily skirmishes as the enemie sallied forth at which time captain Sceua's manhood was admired in whose target one hundred twenty shot were found sticking now with sackage of Pompeis confederate cities as when hee wasted Oricum and Gomphi and other fortresses of Thessali Pompei on the contrarie contriues delayes and wayes of putting of that by closing the enemy on all parts hee might breake his heart with lack of victuals and the violent humor of his most fiery aduersarie might coole falter This wholsome counsell did not long auaile the author the soldier hee blames lying idle confederates cry out vpon delay and the great lords tax him with ambition So the destinies thrusting thinges headlong on in Thessaly and the champain fields of Philippi chosen for the place of fight the fortunes of Rome the world and all mankinde were set vpon a cast The people of Rome neuer saw in one place together so great forces nor fortune so many mighty persons at a time There were aboue three hundred thousand in both the armies besides the aides of kings and Senators Signes of an imminent downefall were neuer more apparent runnings away of beasts ordaind for sacrifice swarmes of bees notable ouercastings of the skie in day time Pompey himselfe dreamt ouernight that he heard a noise in his owne theater at Rome sounding about him in the nature of a mourning and in the breake of day hee was seene fie vnluckie before his maine battel in a black vpper garment Caesars armie was neuer more fresh fuller of spirit The sound of the charge came first from Pompeis side but the shot from the other The iauelin of Crastinus who began the fight was noted and being runne into the gaping mouth with a sword and found dead with it so among the carcases did by the nouelty it selfe of the wound well declare with what choler and madnesse hee fought neither was the issue of the battell lesse admirable for whereas Pompey had such multitudes of horse as hee thought to circumuent Caesar easily himselfe was circumuented for after they had fought a long time vpon euen termes and at a signe giuen them by Pompey his troupes of horse fell on in flanke the Germane cohorts made so boystrous an impression vpon the riders that they seemd footmen these to haue come on horsbacke the ouerthrow of the light-armd souldiers ensued vpon the slaughter of the flying horstroupes then the terrour striking farther one companie putting another into rowt the rest of the destruction was made as it were at a stroke Nothing was more the bane of that day then the hugenesse it-selfe of the armie Caesar was much in that battell and halfe between souldier and soueraigne speeches of his were ouer-heard as hee rid vp and downe the one bloudy but according to the Art of the sword and powerfull for gaining the day Souldiers foine at the face the other tending to vaine glorie Souldiers spare our countrey-men when his owne selfe notwithstanding chased them Happie Pompey for all this miserie had hee shared in the fortune of his slaughtred armie but he ouer-liued his own glorie that with the more dishonour he might poste for his life through Thessalian Tempe bee beaten from Larissa and vpon a forlorn rocke of Cilicia studie whether he should flie into Parthia Africa or Aegypt briefely that vpon the Pelusian shore by the command of a most vnworthie king by the counsell of gelded-men and to take all the misfortunes together that murthred by the sword of Septimius his fugitiue vnder the eyes of his wife children he should conclude his dayes Who would thinke that the war should not bee determined with Pompeis life But the embers of the Thessalian fire waxt much more hot and forceable then euer and in Aegypt there was warre without any partakings of ours for when Ptolomea king of Alexandria had committed the most hainous act of all those other which were committed during the ciuill warre and had by means of Pompeis head settled his owne termes with Caesar fortune casting about for a reuenge therby to appease the ghost of so great a potentate wanted not occasion Cleopatra that kings sister throwing herselfe at Caesars feet besought restitution to her part of the realme To plead for her came the ladies beauty which was doubled by this that so rare a creature seem'd to haue wrong the hatred born to the king himselfe who in killing Pompey gratifide the fortune of the contrarie faction not Caesar against whom hee would also without all question haue dared as much if it would haue serued his turn Whē Caesars pleasure therefore was that shee should bee restored to her kingdome by as it were a Gauelkind he being forthwith be-set in the palace roial by the same instrumēts who murthred Pompey with wondrous valour a slender company did beare the brunt of a mighty army For by firing the next tenements