staid such as were shrinking cōfirming them and finally cried and flew through all the squadrons with his eyes and hands in that perturbation it is reported hee debated within himselfe what to doe with himselfe if the worst befell and his countenance was as of a man who meant to make his owne hand his owne executioner had not fiue cohorts of the Pompeian horse crossing the battell as sent by Labienus to guard the campe in danger giuen a semblant of flying which either Caesar did himselfe beleeue or cunningly laying hold vpon the occasion of that seeming charged as vpon flyers and did thereby both put fresh spirit into his owne people and did also daunt his enemies for his people thinking they had the vpper hand followed the more boldly and the Pompeians while they supposed their fellowes ranne away did fall themselues to running How great the slaughter was of the enemies and the wrath and furie of the victorious may bee by this coniectured such as escaped out of the field betaking themselues to Munda and Caesar commanding them to bee forth with besieged a rampire was made by piling vp dead bodies dragg'd thither from all about and fastned together with speares and iauelins An abominable spectacle euen among the barbarous But Pompeis sonnes despairing in truth of victorie Cnaeus Pompeius flying out of the battell and wounded as he was in the legge seeking to saue himselfe in the desarts and vnfrequented places was ouertaken at the towne Lauro and there so little he as yet despaired was slaine by Pesennius who had him in chase Meanewhile fortune hid Sextus Pompeius safe in Celtiberia reserued for other warres after Caesars death Caesar returnes victorious home the pomp of his first triumph was furnished from the Rhene and Rhone and with the image of the captiue Ocean in gold The stuffe of the second was bay-tree of Aegypt and for shewes the images of Nile and Arsinoe and of the watch-towre Pharus as it burnt in the top like a flaming beacon The third was the chariot of Pharnaces and the spoyles of Pontus The fourth represented king Iuba and his Moores Spaine twice conquered Pharsalia Thapsus and Munda those greater arguments matters then ouer which hee triumpht were not mentioned Here for a while were weapons layd aside the following calme without bloud and the cruelties of warre were made amends for with goodnesse not a man put to death by commandement except Afranius for whom once pardoning was enough and Faustus Sylla because Caesar had learnd to feare him for his father in law and Pompeis daughter with her vncles by Sylla's side in this hee tooke care to make posteritie secure His countrey therefore not ingratefull all sorts of honours were heaped vpon this one prime man images about the temples in the theater a crowne deckt with rayes a chaire of state in the Senate-house a pinacle vpon his house top a month in the Zodiac and besides all these himselfe proclaimed Father of his countrey and perpetuall Dictator last of all and it was unknowne whether it were with his good liking Antonius Consull the ornaments of a king were offred all which prooued but as ribbands or trimmings of an host ordained to be slaine in sacrifice For the mildnesse of this prince was lookt vpon with enuious eyes and the power it selfe which conferred benefits was to free mindes cumbersome Nor was the forbearance of him an acquitall any longer for Brutus and Cassius and other Patricians Lords of the highest ranke conspired to assassinate him How great is the force of fate the conspiracy was knowne far abroade a scroll was giuen also to Caesar himselfe vpon the very day of the fact though an hundred beasts were sacrificed yet not one of them had any signe of luckines He came into the Senate-house with a meaning to aduance a warre against the Parthians there the Senators stabd at him as he sat in his court-chair with twenty three wounds he was driuē to the ground So he who had embrewed the whole earth with ciuill bloud did with his owne bloud ouerflow the Senat-house CHAP. III. CAESAR Octauianus CAesar and Pompey slaine the people of Rome seem'd to haue returned to the state of their ancient libertie and had returned indeed if Pompey had left no children nor Caesar an heire or which was more pestilent then both if once his fellow in office and then his riuall in honour that firebrand of Caesars power and whirlewind of the ensuing age Antonius had not ouer-liued For while Sextus Pompeius seekes to recouer his fathers estate no part of the sea was free from feare of him while Octauius reuengeth his fathers bloud Thessalia was againe to be stirred while Antonius variable-witted either disdained that Octauius should succeed to Caesar or for loue to Cleopatra takes vpon him to bee a king for hee had no other way to be safe but by turning vassall In so great preturbation we are to bee glad notwithstanding that the whole power of Rome came to be setled vpon Octauius first Caesar Augustus who by his wisedome and dexteritie reduced into order the body of the empire shaken and distempted on all sides which without all doubt could neuer haue been brought together and made to agree vnlesse it had beene gouernd by the authoritie of some worthie one as with a soule or mind Marcus Antonius Publius Dolobella Consuls fortune now busie in transferring the empire to the house of the Caesars the troubles of the citie were various and manifold that as in the change of yeerely seasons the stirred heauens doe thunder and signifie their turnings by the weather so in the change of the gouernmēt of the Romans that is to say of all mankind the world troubled throughout and the whole body of the empire was turmoiled with all sorts of perils and with ciuill warrs both at land and sea CHAP. IIII. The Mutinensian warre THe first cause of ciuill breach was Caesars last will and testament in which Antonius being named but in the second place he grew starke mad that Octauius was preferred and for that cause opposed the adoption of that most spiritfull yongman with an inexpiable warre For seeing him not fully eighteene yeeres old tender fit to be wrought vpon and open to abuse both defaced the dignitie of Caesar's name with reuiling termes and diminisht his inheritance with priuie thefts disgraced him with foule phrases and gaue not ouer by all the wayes hee could inuēt to impeach his adoption into the Iulian family lastly enterprised a warre for ouer-bearing the yong noble gentleman and with an armie raised in Gall on this side the Alpes besieged Decimus Brutus for resisting his practices Octauius Caesar pitied for his youth and wrongs gracious for the maiestie of that name which hee assumed calling his adoptiue fathers old souldiers to arms hee then a priuate person who would giue credit to it sets vpon the Consull deliuers Brutus from siege and strips Antonius out of
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
it-selfe to the other side the king tyred with protraction of the siege famine bringing plague Lucullus ouertooke him in his retreat and made such worke among his men that the riuers Granicus and Aesopus ranne bloud the craftie king knowing the Romans couetousnesse will'd his people to scatter fardles and money as they fled to slacken the pursuers speed neither was his flight more fortunate by sea then it was by land for his nauie which consisted of one hundred saile deepe laden with munition ouertaken with a tempest in the sea of Pontus suffered such foule spoile as answered the mischiefe of a battel at sea no otherwise then as if Lucullus beeing as it were in league with the winds and waues might seeme to haue giuen order to the weather for beating down Mithridates Though all the strengths of that most powerfull kingdome were in this wise ground to pieces yet losses made his spirit greater Betaking himselfe therefore to his next neighbor nations he drew the whole East almost and North of the world to accompanie his ruine Iberians Caspians Albans and eitherr of the Armenia's were solicited to take part Pompet's fortune sought euery where about for dignitie name and titles with which to glorifie him who beholding Asia on fire with new combustions and that more kings sprung still out of other iudging it no wisedome to delay time while in the meane space the powers of enemy-countreys might vnite themselues he forthwith makes a bridge of boates and of all men before his dayes was the first of ours who passed ouer Euphrates and lighting vpon the flying king in the middle of Armenia made a dispatch of the warre how great was the happines of the man in one onely battel this was fought by night and the moone was also for vs for shining at the backe of the enemie as if shee were in pay on our side and in the faces of the Romans the Pontickes mistaking their owne shadowes proiected long as at her going down laid at them as at the verie bodies of their enemies So Mithridates was that night vtterly vanquished For from that time forward hee was able to doe nothing though trying all the wayes possible after the maner of snakes whose head being bruised they threaten last of all with the taile For after his escape his meaning was to terrifie Colchos the sea-coasts of Cilicia and our Campania with his sudden comming then ouerturning the port Pyraeus to ioyne the countreyes together as farre as betweene Colchis and Bosphorus from thence to march through Thracia Macedonia and Greece and so to assaile Italy vpon the sudden These were his projects and they went no farther For his subiects reuolting from him and himselfe preuented by the treason of his sonne Pharnaces hauing labourd in vaine to effect it by poison he kild himselfe with his sword Meane-while Cnaeus the Grreat pursuing the remainders of the rebellion of Asia flew vp and downe at pleasure through diuers countreys and nations For following the Armenians towards the east and taking Artaxata their principall citie he granted back the kingdom to Tigranes vpon his submission But in marching north towards Scythia he guided his course by starrs as if he had bin at sea puts the Colchians to the sword takes the Iberians to mercie spares the Albanes and encamping vnder mount Caucasus ir-selfe commanded Orodes the Cholchian king to descend from thence into the plaine Artoces prince of the Iberians to giue in his children for hostages of his own meere motion he rewards Orodes sending vnto him out of his Albania a couch of gold and other gifts then turning his forces Southward marching through Libanus in Syria and Damascus he displaid the Roman ensignes round about passing through those odoriferous woods and groues of balme and frankincense The Arabians were at his seruice The Iewes assaid to defend Hierusalem But he forced that citie also and saw openly that grand mysterie as vnder a skie of beaten gold the brethren at ods about the kingdom and hee made vmpire adiudged the crowne to Hircanus claps Aristobulus into yrons for refusing to obey the award Thus the people of Rome by Pompei their captain generall ouerrunning al Asia in the greatest breadth thereof made that which was the vtmost prouince of the empire to bee now the middlemost for excepting the Parthians who did rather choose our friendship and the Indians who knew vs not as yet all Asia betwene the red sea the Caspian gulph and the Ocean was possest by vs as either tamed or distressed by the Pompeian legions CHAP. VI. The warre with the Pyrates WHile the Romane people was held bufied in diuers parts of the world the Cilicians inuade the seas destroy commerce breake the bonds of humane societie and hinder all nauigation like a tempest The troubles raised in Asia by the warres of Mithridates begate boldnesse in these desperate and raging theeues while vnder the tumults of a forraine warre and at the enuie of a stranger king they roued without punishment and contenting themselues in the beginning with the neighbouring seas vnder Isidorus captain they practised their robberies betwene Crete and Cyrenae Pyraeus and Achaia and cape Maleum which they entituled Cape gold by reason of braue booties Publius Seruilius was employd out against them and though he bulged their light and nimble friggats with his heauy and well-appointed ships of warre yet the victory hee got cost bloud nor satisfyed with driuing them from of the water hee subuerted their strongest cities which abounded with daily-gotten pillage as Phaselis Olympus and Isaurus the principall fortresse it selfe off all Cilicia and vpon the conscience of his great enterprise loued the surname Isauricus Neuerthelesse they could not be kept on shore though broken at sea with so many calamities but as certaine creatures who haue a double gift to liue in either clement the Romans were no sooner departed from thence but impatient of land-life they lanch againe into their water and somewhat farther out then formerly So Pompey fortunate before that time seemed now also worthy to haue the glory of this seruice as an accession to his imployments against Mithridates This pestilent plague dispiersed ouer the whole sea he resoluing to extinguish at once and for euer carryed his attempt with a kinde of diuine preparation For hauing abundance of ships aswell of the Romans as of our friends the Rhodians hee guarded both the sides of Pontus and the coasts of the Ocean with many vice-admirals commanders Gellius was set to waft vpon the Tuscan sea Plotius vpon the Sicilian Gratillius vpon the Ligustine bay Marcus Pomponius vpon the Gallicke Torquatus vpon the Balearian Tiberius Nero vpon the Gaditanian where our seas beginne Lentulus vpon the Libyc Marcellinus vpon the Aegyptian Pompeys young Sonne vpon the Adriatick Marcus Portius vpon the very iawes of Propontis who so shrowded his fleete that hee watcht at that passage as if it had beene at a gate So all the pyrates wheresoeuer
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
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
with his owne hand in the face of the Court and the companies of his fellow-souldiers displaying about him their banners they layd siege in armes to that whole vsurped soueraignetie and from mount Auentine where their first campe was dragd it downe into the gaole and fetters CHAP. XXV The cities third discord THe dignitie of marriages kindled the third sedition in which the commons stood for freedome of ioyning in marriage with the nobles And this tumult brake forth in mount Ianiculum by the instinct of Canuleius Tribune of the people CHAP. XXVI The cities fourth discord THe desire of honour in the commoners who aspired to be also created magistrates mooued the fourth great stirre Fabius Ambustus had two daughters one of which hee bestowed in marriage vpon Sulpitius a gentleman of Patritian bloud the other vpon Stolo a Plebcian He because his wife was frighted at the sound of the serieants rod on his doore which was neuer heard there till then and for that respect was proudly enough scoffed-at by her other sister brooked not the indignitie Therefore hauing gotten to bee Tribune he wrested from the Senate whether they would or no the participation of honors and high offices Neuerthelesse in the very hottest of these distempers a man shall see cause to admire the generous spirit of this princely people For so much as one while they busied themselues in the rescue of freedome another while of chastitie then stood for dignitie of birth and for the ensignes ornaments of honour But of all these worthie things there was not any one ouer which they held so wakefull an eye as ouer libertie nor could they bee corrupted by any gifts or good turnes as a value for betraying it For when in a mightie people and growing mightier daily there were in the meane space many pernicious members of them they punished Spurius Cassius suspected of affecting souereigntie because hee had published the Agrarian law Maelius for that hee gaue lauishly both of them with present death Indeed his owne father tooke reuenge vpon Spurius but Seruilius Ahala master of the Roman horsemen or cauallerie by comandement of Quinctius the Dictator ranne his sword through Maelius in the middle of the Forum But Manlius the preseruer of the Capitol carrying himselfe because hee had freed most men of their debts ouer loftily and aboue the garbe of a fellow-citizen they pitcht him headlong from the top of the castell which himselfe had defended Such were the people of Rome at home and abroad in peace and in warre during this working current of their youth the secund age of their empire in which they conquered all Italie betweene the Alpes and Sea by force of armes The end of the first Booke of Lveivs FLORVS THE HISTORIE OF THE ROMANS The second Booke CHAP. I. WHEN Italie was now brought vnder made mannageable the people of Rome hauing continued almost fiue hundred yeeres was in good earnest growne a man and if there be any such thing as strength and lustie youth then certainely they were strong and young and began to be hard enough for all the world They therefore which is a wonder and incredible to be spoken who had kept a struggling at home for well-neere fiue hundred yeeres so difficult it was to set vp an Head ouer Italy in onely the two hundred yeeres which ensued marcht thorow Afrike Europe Asia and in briefe thorow the whole world with their victorious armies CHAP. II. The first Carthaginian or Punike warre THe people therefore conquerours of Italie after they had runne thorow all the length thereof to the sea it selfe like a fire which hauing consumed all the woods in it's way is broken off at the bank of some riuer passing betweene in like sort stop a while But when they saw within kenn a wondrous rich bootie lopt off as it were and torne away from their Italie they burnt with so extreme a desire of atchieuing it that whereas they could not come at it by bridges nor shut out the sea they were resolute to vnite it to their dominion by force of armes and so to make it againe a parcell of their continent But lo the destinies willing to open them a way there wanted not a wished occasion Messana a confederate citie of Sicilia complayning of the Carthaginians out-rages who aymed at the conquest of Sicilia as well as the Romans both of them at the same time and with equall affections and forces hauing in proiect the lordship of the world Therefore for assisting their associates that was the colour but in very deed spurred on with loue of the prey though the newnesse of the attempt troubled them yet valour is so full of confidence this rude this shepheardish people and meere land-men did well shew that manhood made no difference whether it fought on horse-back or on shipboord vpon the earth or waters Appius Claudius Consul they first aduentured into those streights which had beene made hideous with poëticall monsters and where the current was violent but they were so farre from being deterred thereby that they made vse of the furie of the hurrying tide as of a fauour for falling in therewith they forthwith set vpon Hiero king of Syracuse with such celeritie that himselfe confest hee found himselfe ouercome before hee saw the enemy Duilius and Cornelius Consuls they durst also fight at sea And the speed then vsed to build and rigge a nauie was certainely a signe of speeding For within threescore dayes after the timber was fell'd an armada of one hundred and threescore saile ridde at anchor out of it so that they seemed not the worke of shipwrights but as if by a kind of metamorphosis the gods had turned them such and changed trees to vessels But the report which goes of the fight is maruelous where these slugges and heauie bottomes seized vpon the quick and nimble nauie of the aduersaries who were much more cunning at sea so farre as skill to shift aside oares and to dally out the strokes of beake-heads by yare and readie turning For the hands of yron and other the grappling engines of the Romans the enemie made much sport at before the battel 's ioyned but were then compelled to trie it out in good earnest as if they had fought on firme land Thus giuing the ouerthrow at the Iles of Liparae their enemies armada either sunke or fled this was their first sea-triumph The ioy whereof how great was it when Duilius Captaine generall in that seruice not thinking one daies triumph enough did neuer come home from any supper so long as hee liued but hee would haue torches borne lighted and flutes play before him as if hee triumphed euery day The losse in regard of so great a victorie was but light The other of the Consuls Cnaeus Cornelius Asina entrapt by the enemie vnder colour of parley so surprised became a lesson against giuing credit to the faithlesse Carthaginians Calatinus Dictator
a cold snowie day hauing first well warm'd themselues at fires and suppled their limbs with oyle men a wonder to bee spoken cōming out of the South and sun-burnt climats ouercame vs at home with our own winter The third lightnings of Annibal flew randome at vs by Trasimenus lake Flaminius our Generall There also the Carthaginians vented another new trick of their trade For the lake lying hiddē vnder a thick mist the cauallerie shadowed from sight with twigs long osiars which grew in the marsh gaue a suddē charge vpon our rere Neuerthelesse wee cannot blame the enemie but our selues For swarms of bees which clustred vpō the Romā ensigns their gilt eagles vnwilling to come out and an huge earthquake at the ioyning of the battels all of thē vnlucky signes had forewarned our rash Generall of the euent and preuented it but that the concourse of the horse foot the extraordinary lowd clashing of their weapons gaue to Flaminius alone the honor of leading them on against the other Consuls liking The fourth the almost deadly wound of the empire was at Cannae an obscure village of Apulia but through the greatnesse of the blow which was receiued there it got to be famous at the cost of fortie thousand liues In that place the General himselfe earth heauen the day and all things else consented to the fall of that vnfortunate army For Annibal not content to haue put counterfeit fugitiues vpon vs who seeing their vantage forthwith set vpon our men at their backs but that most dangerous captaine hauing moreouer in the open fields markt the nature of the place where the sunne-beams did beat hottest the dust was infinite and the easterne winde blew stint as it were he so marshall'd his battels that the Romans standing with their faces towards all these disaduantages himselfe had the whole fauour of the skie the winde the dust sun at once to fight for him The enemies therfore were so glutted with the execution of two most mighty hosts that Annibal himself bade his souldiers spare the sword Of the two Consuls the one fled the other was slaine hard to say whether of them the more braue therein Aemilius ashamed to suruiue Varro despaired not of better Signes of the greatnes of the ouerthrow were these the riuer Aufidus ran bloud for a while a bridge of dead carcases made at Annibals commādemēt ouer Gellus brooke two bushels of gold rings sent to Carthage and the estimate of Roman gentlemen slaine calculated not by tale but measure It was then past all doubt that Rome had seene her last day that Annibal within fiue dayes might haue feasted in the Capitol if as the Carthaginian Maharbal Bumilcar's sonne is reported to haue said Annibal had as well vnderstood how to make vse of his victory as how to obtaine it But as the common voice goeth either the fate of Rome ordain'd to bee empresse of the earth or Annibals euill Genius or the Gods of Carthage now auerted carried him a diuerse way For when hee might haue put his victory home he rather made choise to enioy it suffred Rome to rest while hee progrest to Campania Tarent where both he and his armie lost by and by their spirit so as it was truly said that Capua was Annibals Cannae For him whom neither the Alps nor force of armes could daunt Campania alone and the delicate warme springs of Baiae did who would beleeue it subdue Meanwhile the Romans tooke breath and rise as it were from death to life againe Weapons wanted they tooke them downe out of the temples Fresh souldiers wanted they minister the oath of warre to their bondmen and make them free Treasure wanted the lords of the counsell bring gladly all they had leauing no gold to themselues but what was in their brooches belts and rings the knights and gentlemen followed the Senatours example and the comoners the gentlemens to bee briefe Leuinus and Marcellus Consuls such abundance of riches was brought together out of priuate contributions for the publike seruice that the eschequer had scarcely bookes and clerks enow to enter the particulars What shall we say of them at this time in the choise of magistrats how great was the wisdome of the centuries or hundred-men when the yonger sort askt coūsel of the ancient whom they should nominate for Consuls For it stood them vpon not to deale with faire force onely against so cunning an enemie who had so often beaten them but to meet with him also in his owne policies The first hope of their empires recouerie and as I may say reuiuall thereof was Fabius who inuented a new method of vanquishing Anibal Not to fight And from hence it was that in happie time for Rome hee got the nick-name to bee called The draw-backe or Cunctator and from hence it came that the people stiled him The shield of the state Hee therefore so ground and punned Annibal by coasting him thorow all Samnium the forrests of Falernus and Gaurus that whom plaine strength could not breake in pieces delay might fret and weare Soone after Claudius Marcellus Generall they durst also encounter him came hand to hand draue him out of his Campania and forced him to rayse his siege from before Nola. They durst in like sort Sempronius Gracchus Generall pursue him thorow Lucania and set vpon his backe in his retreat though O the shame the Romans were compelled to fight with the hands of their bondslaues O the horrible confidence of a people among so many aduersities O the high haughtinesse and brauerie of their spirit in their so extreme afflicted estate that being doubtfull of keeping Italy they durst notwithstanding tend to other places and when their enemies flew vp and downe at their throats ouer all Campania and Apulia and made halfe Afrike in Italie did both at one time beare the brunt of his assaults and at the same time dispatched forces into Sicilia Sardinia Spaine and other parts of the world Marcellus was sent into Sicilia which held not out long for the power of the whole Iland was put apart into one citie Syracusae that great and till that time vnconquered chiefe-towne though defended by the wit of Archimedes did yeeld at last Her treble wall alike number of castles her hauen of marble and her fountaine Arethusa so farre renowned what auayled they other then thus farre onely that the citie was spared in respect of her beautie Gracchus seized Sardinia neyther did the wildnesse of the Ilanders nor the monstrous cragges of their mad mountaines for so they were called stand them in any stead A terrible course was taken with their cities and with their Citie of cities Caralis that the head-strong nation scarce worth killing might bee tamed at last with the lacke of their natiue soyle The two Scipio's Cnaeus and Publius sent into Spaine had pluckt away once all hope from the Carthaginians but lost their hold againe being destroyed by the cunning inuentions
for subuersion of cities Corinth the beauty of Greece is situated vpon a narrow necke of land betweene the Ionian and Aegaean seas as a spectacle or pageant it was destroyed alas the wrong before it was registred in the list of proclaimed enemies Critolaus was the cause of this warre who made vse of the freedome giuen by the Romans against the Romans and it being vncertain whether hee did not also strik their ambassadors with the hand he for certain did it with his tongue Metellus therefore chiefely busie in ordering the affaires of Macedonia had now this also added to his charge to take reuenge From hence grew the Achaian warre and Metellus Consull had the chase and execution of Critolaê° his first forces through the open fields of Elis all along the bankes of Alpeus One battell made an end of the warre And now the citie it selfe was begirt with a siege when as the fates would haue it Mummius came to the victory which Metellus had foughten for Mummius by the aduantage of that honour which the other had atchieued vanquisht the enemies armie at the very entrance of the Isthmus or land-necke and dyed the heauens on each side thereof with bloud Finally the inhabitants abandoning the citie it was first sackt and then at sound of trumpet quite defaced What store of statues rich garments and goodly moniments in tables were torn downe burnt and cast about what riches were carred away and fired you may from hence coniecture that al the Corinthian brasse which is at this day so much commended through the world is found to bee but the remayne of these consumings for the violence vsed against this most wealthy citie set an higher rate vpon the brasse therof because multitudes of statues and pictures consisting of brasse gold and siluer melting in the fire the veines of the metall ranne in one and mixt together CHAP. XVII Acts done in Spaine AS Corinth followed Carthage so Numantia followed Corinth And it was not long first before no part of the world was free from armes After these two most famous Cities were consumed warre did spread it selfe euery where about nor that by turnes in places but together as though it were but one warre ouer all so that the whirling flames thereof seemed carryed about ouer the whole earth as if dispersed with windes Spaine neuer had a disposition to rise vniuersally against vs nor at any time a minde to put all her strengths into one either for trying mastries or for maintayning her libertie in common being otherwise so inuironed with seas and with the Pyrenaean hils that by aduantage of her situation shee had beene inaccessible But the Romans had enstraitned her before she was aware thereof and was of all other prouinces the onely one which neuer vnderstood her owne abilities till shee was conquerd The warre lasted here almost two hundred yeeres from the times of the first Scipio's till Caesar Augustus not continually or cohaerently but as causes were ministred nor with Spaniards at first but with the Carthaginians or Penish-men in Spaine Thence grew the contagion connexion and cause of the warres The first Roman ensignes which euer were displayd ouer the toppe of the Pyraenees the two Scipio's Publius and Cnaeus aduanced and in terrible great battels slew Anno and Asdrubal the brother of Anibal so as all Spaine had beene conquerd in a moment had not those most gallant gentlemen supplanted by the Arts of Africa beene destroyd in their owne victorie after they had gotten the vpper hand both at land and sea That Scipio therefore who was shortly afterwards surnamed Africanus inuaded Spaine in reuenge of his father and his vncle as a prouince vntoucht in a manner new to vs as till then Hee presently tooke Carthage in Spaine and other cities nor contented to haue driuen the Penish-men out layd tribute vpon it also and subdued all on this side the riuer Iberus and beyond himselfe the first of Roman leaders who ranne vp victoriously as far as Gades the shores of the Ocean Ther is more in it to keepe a prouince then to make one Captaines therefore were sent with forces hither and thither part after part to compell the siercest people of Spaine and the nations thereof free till that time and for that cause impatient of bearing any yoake though not without much labour and bloudshed to obey vs. That Cato who was termed Censorius brake the hearts of the Celtiberians the stoutest men of Spaine by certaine encounters That Gracchus who was father of the Gracchi punisht them with the subuersion of one hundred and fiftie of their cities That Metellus who was stiled Macedonicus deserued to bee also called Celtibericus hauing gotten Contrebia by a memorable exploit and gaind more glorie by forbearing Vertobrigae Lu-cullus subdued the Turdulans and Vaccaeans ouerwhome that later Scipio Aemilianus obtained pompous spoils in a single combat in which the king was challenger Decimus Brutus went somwhat farther ouercomming the Gallicians and al the Gallician nations beyond the riuer Obliuion which the souldiers quaked to behold and marching along the Ocean shore as conquerour hee turnd not his ensignes another way till hee saw the Sunne stoop vnder the sea and his fires ouer whelmed as it were with waters not without some scruple in Brutus who was chill'd at the sight lest perhaps it had beene in him a kind of sacrilege But the hardest hold of all was with the Lusitanians and Numantines nor that without cause for only they in all those countreys were fitted with captaines And we had found no lesse worke with the Celtiberians had not Solundicus chiefe author of that commotion beene destroid in the beginning a most dangerous and desperate man had he prosperd who twirling a certaine speare of siluer which was pretended by him to be sent from heauen counterfeited the prophet and drew all to admire and follow him But the same rashnesse which had put him on making him also aduenture after twylight towards the Consuls campe a souldier chopt his iaueline into him close at the pauilion it selfe But Viriathus made the Lusitanians plucke vp their courages a maÌ„ of a most sharp and cunning wit from huntsman turning high-way thiefe and from high-way thiefe turning prince and captaine generall and had fortune said the word the Romulus of Spaine For not contented to maintain the freedome of his nation hee destroyed all the countreys on either side the riuers of Iberus and Tagus with fire and sword fourteene yeeres together and assailing the camps of Praetors Presidents had the slaughter of Claudius Vnimanus or One-hand and of his whole armie to almost the last man and in his mountaines erected tropheas of such ensignes robes and maces of state as hee had wonne away of ours At the last hee was brought into extremities by Fabius Maximus Consul But his successor Seruilius Cepio staind the victorie For greedie to bee ridde of the trouble once for all he entred into practice with
the Praetor and a common rumour without a knowne author luckily ran in the theater The Cimbrians are ouercome Then which thing what could be more admirable or glorious for Rome as if lifting her selfe on tiptoe vpon her owne hils she had beene present at the sight of the battell the people as is vsuall in a shew of sword-players clap their hands in applause at the self-same instant in which the Cimbrians were ouerthrowne in battell CHAP. IIII. The Thracian warre AFter the Macedonians the Thracians if the Gods will rebelled who themselues were tributaries to the Macedonians nor content to make inroads into the next prouinces they did the like in Thessaly Dalmatia running out as farre as to the Adrian sea and stopping there as at natures entreatie they threw their darts into the waues themselues Meane-while there was no kinde of cruelty left vnpractised vpon the captiues during all that time They sacrifice mans bloud to the Gods quaffing it out of their enemies sculls by this kinde of mockage defiling death aswell with fire as fume and teare infants quick out of their mothers wombs with torments The Sordiscans were of all the Thracians the most sauage had as much craft as wildenesse of courage The situation of their woods mountaines conspired with their shrew'd wily wits All the army therefore which Cato led was not only put to rowt or flight by them but which is like a wonder was wholly entrapt and way-laid Didius beats thē back into their own Thrace as they straggled dispersed themselues here and there on boot-haling Drusus draue them farther off and forbad them to passe Danubius Minucius destroyd them all about Aebrus not without losse I confesse of many of his owne while they ride vpon the false crusts of yce breaking vnder Piso scowred Rhodope and Caucasus Curio pierced as farre as Dracia but the gloominesse of the woods coold his courage Appius ranne vp as farre as to Sarmatia Lucullus to Tanais the bounder of those nations and to the lake Maeotis Nor were these most mercilesse enemies otherwise tamed then by vsing their owne measure towards them no pitie was taken of their prisoners but all of them rid out of the world with fire and sword But nothing so terrifide the barbarous as the chopping off their hāds by which they seemd to ouerliue their owne punishment CHAP. V. The war with Mithridates THe Pontick nations are planted towards the North vpon the sea on the left hand of vs and are so called of the Pontick sea The first king of all these nations and countreys was Atheas afterwards Artabazes who descended of the seuen Persians Mithridates comming of him was the mightiest of them all For whereas foure yeeres serued against Pyrrhus seuenteene yeeres against Anibal he resisted fortie yeeres till finally subdued in three huge warres the felicity of Sulla the vertue of Lucullus and the mightinesse of Pompei brought him to nothing Hee pretended for the cause of his hostility before lieutenant Cassius Nicomedes of Bithynia whom hee charged with inuading his confines But the truth is that blowne-out with ambition hee coueted the monarchie of all Asia and if hee could of Europe also Our vices gaue him hope and confidence vnto it For being diuided among our selues with ciuill warres the verie opportunitie allured him and Marius Sulla and Sertorius laid that remote side of the empire open In these wounds of the commonweale and amidst these tumults this sudden whirlewinde of the Pontick warre as if taking aduantage of the times blew from off as it were the farmost watch-towre of the Northerne world at vnawares vpon vs being both wearie then and diuersely distracted The first blast of this warre swept away Bithynia from vs in a trice Then the like terrour fell vpon the rest of Asia Nor were the cities and nations thereof slow in reuolting to the king And hee was at hand and prest them hard vsing crueltie as a vertue For what was more deadly dire then that one edict of his by which hee commaunded all men thorow Asia who were free of Rome to be massacred At that time certainely houses temples altars and all sorts of lawes aswell diuine as humane were violated But this terrour vpon Asia vnlockt Europe also to the king By Archelaus therefore and Neoptolemus hee disseised vs there of all excepting Rhodes onely which held for vs more firmely then the rest of the Iles of the Cyclades Delos and Eubaea yea and Athens also the glorie it selfe of Greece The terrour of the kings name breathed now vpon Italy it selfe and vpon the verie citie of Rome Lucius Sulla therefore an excellent good man while hee was in action of armes and of no lesse violence shoued the enemie backe as it were with one of his hands from encroaching anie farther And first hee brought Athens to such extremities by siege that hee made that citie what man would credit it which was the mother of corne to eate mans flesh for hunger and vndermining their port Piraeus and more then sixe walls of theirs after he had tamed them yet though himselfe called them the most ingratefull men hee neuerthelesse restored to them their temples and reputation for the honor and reuerence of deceased ancestors and when Eubaea Baeotia had now chased the garrisons away which the King had billetted vpon them hee discomfited all the royall forces together in one set battell at Cheronaea and in another at Orchomenus and from thence crossing forthwith into Asia distrest Mithridates himselfe and there also had beene an end of the quarell if his desire had not rather bin to haue triumpht speedily ouer the enemie then cōpletely this was the state in which Sulla left Asia The league with the Pontickes recouerd Bithynia of Nicomedes and Cappadocia of Ariobarzanes as if Asia had againe beene ours as at the beginning but Mithridates was but repulsed only This course therefore daunted not the Ponticks but set them more on fire For the king hauing had Asia and as it were tasted the bait of Europe sought to recouer it now by the law of armes not as belonging to others but because hee had once lost it as his own These fires therefore as not sufficiently quencht brake out into a greater flame then before wherevpon the king repairing his armies augmented with greater numbers thē earst and to bee briefe with the whole powers of his realm he inuaded Asia againe by sea and land and riuers Cyzicum a citie ennobled with a castle walls port towers of marble beautifies the shores of Asia Against this place as if it were another Rome hee bent his vtmost abilities but the citie was encouraged to withstand vpon the newes of Lucullus his approach who a wondrrous thing to bee spoken floting on a blowne bladder and steering himself with his feete seeming to such as lookt-on a farre off like some swimming whale escaped thorow the middle of the enemies fleete and calamitie foorthwith turning
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
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