both short-liv'd but one dy'd ere he had gain'd any honour For Lucius dy'd of a disease at Massilia Cajus in Lycia of a wound while he was employ'd about the reduction of Armenia then ready to revolt to the Parthians Pompey having vanquish'd King Tigranes had brought the Armenians to this point of bondage as to receive Governours from us That right of ours being interrupted was by this Caius reasserted after a bloody though short engagement For Domnes whom the King had made Governor of Artaxata pretending he would betray his Master runs him with his Sword into the Temples while he was earnestly perusing a scroll which he himself had presented to him containing the accounts of the Treasures But the Barbarian pursu'd on all sides by the incensed Army was destroy'd by a sword and a fire into which being wounded he cast himself and so made some satisfaction to Caesar not yet dead of his wound In the West all Spain was quiet save onely that part of it which is adjacent to the rocks of the Pyrenean Mountains and lies upon the hither Ocean Here were two most valiant Nations the Cantabrians and the Asturians who acâ—nowledg'd not jurisdiction of the Empire The Cantabrians were the first the more insolent and more obstinate in the revolt nay not content to maintain their own liberty they attempted to rule over their neighbours and harrassed the Vaccaeans the Curgonians and the Autrigonians with their frequent incursions Against these therefore as such as were reported to be the most daring Caesar did not put the expedition upon another but went in person Being come to Segisama he encamped afterwards dividing his Army he compassed the whole Country of Cantabria and subdu'd that savage Nation like wild beasts taken in a toyl Nor had they any quiet at Sea where our Navy charg'd the enemies in the reare The first engagement with the Cantabrians was under the Walls of Vellica Thence they fled to the most steepy Mountain Vindius where they thought the Ocean would ascend sooner than the Roman Armies Thirdly the City Arracillum made great resistance but at last was taken by the Siege of the Edulian Mountain compassed with a trench of fifteen miles by which means the Romans falling on of all sides and the Barbarians being reduc'd to the utmost extremities they anticipated their own deaths some by fire some by the sword in the midst of their banquets and some by poison which is there commonly extracted out of the Yew-trees and so the greater part of them prevented that captivity which they saw coming upon them Caesar wintring at Tarracon a Sea-Town receiv'd an account of these things done by Antistius Furnius and Agrippa his Lieutenants Being come to the Army he forc'd some out of the Mountains engaged others by Hostages and according to martial Law exposed some to sale as slaves The Senate thought the expedition worthy a Lawrel worthy a triumphal Charriot But Caesar was already so great as to slight Triumphs The Asturians having about the same time got a vast Army together were come down out of their Mountains * Nec temere sumptus ut Barbari impetus nor was their attempt inconsiderate as is ordinary with Barbarians but having encamped at the River Astura they divided their Forces into three bodies and design'd to set upon the three Camps of the Romans at the same time It had been a hazardous and a bloody bout * Et uticnam mutua clade certamen I wish the losse on both sides had been but equal we having to do with people so valiant and coming upon us so unexpectedly and with so much deliberation if they had not been betray'd by the Brigaecini by whom Carisius being forewarned came with the Army and frustrated their designs Yet was not that done without much bloodshed The remainders of that most valiant defeated Army escaped to the City Lancia where there was so sharp an encounter that the Soldiry desiring â—hat the City being taken might be fir'd the General with much ado prevayl'd with them That it should be a monument of the Roman victory rather as it stood than burnt Here Augustus put a period to his warlike exploits and this was the last rebellion of Spain From that time there was constant fidelity and a continual peace which proceeded partly from the inclinations of the Inhabitants then more bent thereto and partly from Caesar's prudence who fearing the confidence they deriv'd from their Mountainous habitations into which they retreated commanded them thence forward to inhabit in the plains where his Camp was * Ingentis ecce cousilii â—llud Observaâ—i caepit natuae c. Behold that indeed was an act of great policy Men began to make observations into the nature of the Country which was full of Gold-mines and well stor'd with borax and vermilion and other colours He therefore commanded the ground to be cultivated So the Asturians began to understand the wealth they had lying under ground while they digg'd it out for others All Nations to the West and South being quieted as also to the North onely within the Rhine and the Dannow and in like manner to the East between * Tigris Tigris and Euphrates those others also which were not subject to the Empire were yet sensible of its greatnesse and look'd on the Roman people as Conquerors of the world For even the Scyâ—hians and Sarmatians sent their Ambassadors to us desiring our friendship The Seres also and the Indians who live under the very Sun came with gems and precious stones and bringing also Elephants among their presents complain'd of nothing so much as the greatnesse of their journey which they compleated in four years and yet the very colour of the men argu'd their coming from under another Sun The Parthians also as if it repented them of the Victory of their own accord return'd the Ensignes at the overthrow given to Crassus So was all mankind reduc'd to a firm and uninterrupted peace either by conquest or compact And Caesar Augustus in the seven hundredth year from the first building of the City presum'd to shut the Temple of double-fac'd Janus which had been shut but twice before him under King Numa and after the first reduction of Carthage Thence forward giving his thoughts to peace he reform'd an age bent to all enormities and inclining to dissolution by many prudent and severe edicts For these so many transcendent Actions he was denominated Perpetual Dictator and Father of the Country It was debated in the Senate whether he should be called Romulus because he had establish'd the Empire But the name of AUGUSTUS was thought more sacred and more venerable that even while he lives on Earth he might in name and title be ranked among the Gods A TABLE Of the several CHAPTERS contained in the whole Book The first Book CHAP. I. THe Birth of Romulus first King of the Romans the actions of his youth the foundation of Rome the death of his
diligence was it done The War from the beginning to its period lasted but sixteen days as if it should seem the Dictator hasted to the Countrey-work he had left behinde him CHAP. XII The Veiëntes war with the Romanes the Family of the Fabij undertake the Engagement they are unfortunately defeated by the Enemies but that loss is recompens'd by many Victories obtain'd against the Falisci the Fidenates and the Veiëntes BUt our continual Enemies by reason of their yearly Incursions were the Veiëntes a people of Etruria so that the single Family of the Fabij promis'd an extraordinary Assistance and waged a private war against them But the misfortune which befel them was sufficiently memorable There were killed of them near Cremerae three hundred and six a Patrician Army and the gate at which they went out to that Engagement is called the Vnfortunate But that loss was retriv'd by great Victories several strong places being reduced by divers other Generals though with various success The Falisci came in of their own accord The Fidenates were burnt in the fire they had kindled themselves the Veiëntes spoil'd and utterly destroy'd The Falisci being besieged admired the integrity of the Romane General and justly since of his own accord he sent back bound unto them the Pedant who would have betrayed their City together with those children he had thence brought with him For Furius Camillus a pious and prudent person accounted that a true Victory which was obtained without breach of Faith or Honor. The Fidenates finding themselves too weak to do ought by open hostility to frighten their enemies march'd after a dreadful manner with Fire-brands in their hands and Garlands of divers colours twisted about like Serpents but the fatal Dress proved the fore-runner of their destruction How powerful the Veiëntes were a Siege of ten years shows Then was our first wintering in Tents and that the Garrisons were paid during that season and the soldiers of their own accord oblig'd themselves by oath not to return till the City were taken The Spoils of Lartes Tolumnius King of the Veiëntes were brought to Jupiter Fâ—retrius In fine the destruction of that City was not compass'd by Scaling-ladders nor Storming but by Mines and Stratagems Nay the prey was thought so excessive that the tenths were sent to Pythian Apollo and the whole Roman people was call'd to participate of the pillage Such were the Veientes then but now who remembers they ever had a being What remainders are there of them what track History can hardly persuade us that there were any such people as the Veientes CHAP. XIII The Gauls over-run Italy besiege Clusium raise the siege and march directly towards Rome by the way they fight the Roman Army and defeat it They fire Rome massacre the Senators besiege the Capitol into which Manlius had retreated with the choice of the Roman youth The besieg'd having held out long are at last forc'd to capitulate As they are paying the summe agreed upon Camillus charges the Gaules who are forc'd from Rome and extirpated AFter this either through the envy of the Gods or by destiny the swift current of the prosperous Empire was check'd a little by the incursion of the Galli Senones which time whether it were more dismal in respect of the losses which happened to the Romans or more memorable for the discoveries of their gallantry I know not So extraordinary was the calamity that I think it sent from above as a tryal whereby the immortal Gods would discover whether the Romane vertue might deserve the Empire of the World The Galli Senones a Nation naturally savage utterly unacquainted with morality besides of great stature and using armes proportionable thereto were so terrible in all respects that they seem'd born for the destruction of men and desolation of Cities These heretofore coming in great numbers from the utmost parts of * Et cingente omnia Oceano the Earth and the all-surrounding Ocean when they had wasted all lay in their way having planted themselves between the Alps and the River Po and not content there also wander'd up and down Italy and besieg'd the City Clusium The Romanes intercede for their Associates and Allyes According to custome Ambassadors were sent But what justice could be expected among Barbarians They grow the more insolent and thereupon resolve upon a fight Rising therefore from Clusium and taking their march towards Rome the Consul Fabius meets them with an army at the River Allia The defeat at Cremera was not more shameful and therefore Rome numbers that day among the unfortunate The Romane Army being defeated they approach'd the Walls of the City wherein there was no Garrison Then it was or never that the true Roman greatnesse of mind appeared First the more ancient who had exercised the highest charges of Magistracy meet in the Forum and the Priest performing there the ceremony of devowing they consecrate themselves to the Gods presiding over the dead and returning immediately thence every one to his own house as they were then in their long Robes and their richest ornaments they seated themselves in their Ivory Chairs that when the enemy came they might die in their dignity The Priests and Flamens taking what was most sacred in the Temples bury part in the ground put up in empty casks and carry part along with them in Wagons The Vestal Virgins also barefoot follow their sacred mysteries departing from the City Then is it reported that L. Albinius one of the meaner sort of people took in the distress'd Virgins into his cart putting out of it his wife and children So far at that time and amidst those extremities did the consideration of publick devotion smother private concernments The choice youth hardly amounting to the number of a thousand as is certain went into the Capitol under the command of Manlius praying Jupiter whom they consider'd as there present that as they were come thither to defend his Temple so he would protect their valour with his Deity In the mean time the Gaules were approach'd and finding the City open entred it at first with a certain fear lest there might be some ambush but afterwards finding all quiet they rush in with shouting and violence They go into the houses standing wide open where at first having worshipped the venerable Senators sitting in their Ivory Chairs having on their purple Robes as if they had been Gods or Genii afterwards finding them to be men and those not deigning to answer them they massacre them with a cruelty great as their former veneration burn the Houses and with fire sword and help of hands lay the whole City desolate and even with the ground Seven months who would believe it the Barbarians found work enough about one mount trying all the ways they could imagine both day and night to reduce it Whom at length coming under the Fortresse in the night time Manlius alarm'd by noise of a Goose forc'd down from the top of the mount and
to discourage the enemies though he was in great want of provisions yet to expresse his confidence he cast down loaves of bread from the Fort. And on a certain day he sent Fabius the Priest out of the Fort ordering him to passe through the enemies guards to perform a solemn sacrifice on the mount Quirinal And he by the protection of Religion return'd safe through the midst of the enemies weapons and brought word that the Gods were appeased At length the Barbarians wearyed out with their own siege selling their departure at a thousand weight of gold yet even in that insolent enough when into their ballance though unequal they also put a sword with this proud exprobration Wo to the vanquish'd Camillus falling of a sudden upon the rear of them made such a slaughter that all tracks of the former conflagration were defaced by a deluge of Gaulish blood Here we have reason to give thanks to the immortal Gods for the greatnesse of our misfortune Since that the fire took away the cottages of the Shepherds and that flame smother'd the poverty of Romulus For what was the effect of that conflagration but that a City design'd to be the mansion of Men and Gods should not be destroy'd or laid desolate but seem rather cleansed and expiated Being therefore preserv'd by Manlius and restor'd by Camillus it rose up against the neighbouring Nations with greater earnestnesse and vigour And first not thinking it enough to have forc'd that Nation of the Gauls from the walls of Rome under the conduct of the same Camillus it so pursued the wretched remainders of them stragling up and down Italy that now there is no track of their having been in the world Once they were put to the slaughter at the River Anien where Manlius having taken away from one of the Barbarians with whom he had fought hand to hand among other spoils a gold chain gave occasion for the name of the Torquati Another time in the Field of Pontinus at such another combat when M. Valerius assisted by a sacred bird brought away the spoils of the pursuing Gaul deriv'd to his family the name of Corvinus And not many years after Dolabella utterly destroy'd all that remain'd of them in Italy neer the Lake of Vadimon that there might not any one of that nation survive who should boast that Rome was set on fire by it CHAP. XIV The war against the Latines who enâ—y the glory of the Romans Manlius Torquatus put his Son to death for fighting contrary to his orders Decius devotes himself to death for the safety of the Army MAnlius Torquatus and Decius Mas being Consuls the people of Rome turn'd â—heir arms from the Gauls upon the Latines a people always indeed troublesome out of envy to their Empire and Magistracy but now somewhat the more out of a contempt upon the burning of the City So that they demanded to be made free Denizens of Rome and to participate of the Government and Magistracy and if they did not presum'd they could do more than fight the Romans But who will wonder that at that time the enemy should give way when one of the Consuls put his own Son to death though Conquerour for fighting contrary to his orders as preferring Obedience before Victory The other as it were by an instinct of the Gods having cover'd his face devoted himself to the Dii Manes at the head of the Army whereupon rushing in among the thickest of the enemies weapons he open'd a new way to victory by the track of his own blood CHAP. XV. The war with the Sabins the Romans waste all their Territories under the conduct of the Consul Curius Dentatus AFter the Latines they set upon the Sabines who unmindful of the Allyance entred into under Titus Talius had by a certain contagion of war joyn'd with the Latines But Curius Dentatus being Consul they wasted with fire and sword all that Tract compass'd by the Nar and the springs of Velini as far as the Adriatick Sea By which victory so great a multitude â—f people and so great an extent of territory was reduc'd under their jurisdiction that whether were more considerable even he who had subdu'd them was not able to judge CHAP. XVI The war with the Samnites siding with those of Capua the Soil whereof is commended The Romans spend fifty years in that war they are defeated at the streight of Arpaja they revenge that affront upon the Samnites MOv'd at the petitions of Campania they engage against the Samnites nor upon their own but which is most glorious the account of their Associates There was indeed a league between the Romans and both those Nations but the Campâ—nians had treated first and confirm'd what they had done by an absolute surrender of all they had So that the people of Rome manag'd the war against the Samnites as if they had been themselves concern'd Campania is the noblest region not onely of Italy but even of the whole world Nothing more pleasant then its Aire in a word it produces Flowers twice a year Nothing more fertile then its Soile whence it is called the Theatre of Ceres and Bacchus Nothing more hospitable then its shores Here are those noble harbors Caieta Misenus and Baiae famous for its baths Lucrinus and Avernus which are as so many with-drawing-rooms of the Ocean Here the mountains are cloath'd with vines as the Gaurus Falernus Massicus and the most pleasant of all Vesuvius Aetna's competitor in casting out fire The maritine Cities are Formiae Cumae Puteoli Naples Herculaneum Pompeij and Capua the chiefest of all these Cities heretofore accounted one of the three greatest Rome and Carthage being the other two For this City for those Regions the Roman people invaded the Samnites a Nation if you enquire after its wealth armed with gold and silver weapons and clad in garments of divers colours even to excesse if you respect their subtlety in laying ambushes stragling in the recesses of Woods and Mountains if their rage and fury exasperated for the destruction of Rome by horrid imprecations and humane sacrifices if their obstinacy the more enrag'd and irreconcileable by their misfortunes after six breaches of the League between them and the Romans Yet in the space of fifty years the Roman people subdu'd and tamed these people by the Fabij and Papirij the Fathers and their Children so far that they laid waste the very ruins of their Cities that at this day Samnium may be looked for even in Samnium nor can it easily be seen what should give occasion for four and twenty Triumphs But the greatest and most remarkable overthrow we received from that Nation was at the streight passage neer Caudium under the Consulship of Veturius and Post-humius For the Army being shut up by surprize within that wood whence it could not get out Ponâ—ius General of the enemies wondring at so fair an opportunity consulted his Father Herennius who wisely as an experienc'd man advised him to set
stand it out by force not that they had any hope left but out of a desire that their country should be deâ—troy'd rather by the enemies than themselves How great the fury of the discontented was may be inferr'd hence that they pull'd down â—heir houses to build a new Fleet that about â—heir Arms gold and silver was employ'd inâ—tead of iron and brasse and the Matrones parâ—ed with their haire to make cordage for the engines Afterwards Mancinus being Consul the siege was closely carried on both by Sea and Land The Haven and the first and second walls were already dismantled when the Castle notwithstanding called the Byrsa made such resistance as if it had been another City But though the destruction of the City was in a good forwardnesse yet was it consider'd that the name of the Scipio's was fatal to Africk The Commonwealth therefore pitching upon another Scipio was desirous the see an end of that war He was the Son of Paulus surnamed Macedonicus and had been adopted by the Son of the great Scipio Africanus presuming he would be an ornament to his race it being design'd that the Grand-child should absolutely lay desolate that City which the Grand-father had brought neer its destruction But as the bitings of dying beasts are most dangerous so we found more work with Carthage half ruin'd than when it was entire The enemies being forc'd into one Fortresse the Romans had also besieg'd the Port. Whereupon the Carthaginians made another Port on the other side of the City not with any design to get away but even from that place whence no man imagin'd it possible they should escape a new Fleet starts up In the mean time no day no night past but some new work engine or forlorn did appear like sudden flashes of fire out of the embers after some conflagration At last things growing desperate forty thousand men surrendred themselves and what is hardly credible Asdrubal being their Leader How much more gallantly did a Woman and that the same Asdrubal's wife behave her self when taking her two children she cast her self down from the top of the house into the midst of the fire therein imitating the Queen who founded Carthage How great a City was destroy'd to omit other things the very continuance of the fire makes apparent for during the space of seventeen days they could hardly quench the fire which the enemies themselves had been the occasions of by firing their own houses and Temples purposely that since the City could not be rescu'd from the triumphs of the Romans it should first be burnt CHAP. XVI Corinth the Metropolis of Achaia declaâ—ed an enemy to the people of Rome for the affronts done to their Ambassadors it is destroy'd and consum'd by fire COrinth Metropolis of Achaia the ornament of Greece and seated for the delightfulnesse of the prospect between the Ionian and Aegaean Seas immediately follow'd the fate of Carthage as if that age had been design'd for the destruction of Cities This City â—â— thing unworthy was destroy'd before it was certainly known to be of our enemies Critolaus was the cause of the war who employ'd the liberty given him by the Romans against them and affronted the Roman Ambassadors if not by blows at least in words The revenge therefore was put upon Metellus then setling Macedonia and hence came the Achaian war whereof the first action was that the Consul Metellus had the slaughter of Critolaus's party in the spacious Fields of Elis all long the River Alpheus And the war was ended in one battel and soon after the City was besieg'd but the fates so ordering things after Metellus had fought Mammius came in to compleat the Victory This latter by the advantages gain'd by the other General defeated the Achaian Army at the very entrance of the Isthmus and both the Ports of Corinth were stain'd with blood At length the Inhabitants having forsaken the City it was first plunder'd afterwards by sound of Trumpet destroy'd What abundance of statues what garments what pictures were taken burnt and cast about the streets What wealth was burnt and brought thence may be hence computed that all the Corinthian brasse now celebrated over the world was onely the remainders of that conflagration Nay the desolation of that most wealthy City enhanc'd the price of the brasse in as much as an infinite number of Statues and Images being burnt the Gold Silver and Brasse melted together flow'd in joynt veins CHAP. XVII An account of Transactions in Spain which is set upon by the Romans and the Provinces of it subdu'd by several Commanders the policy and valour of a Spanish Captain he is afterwards kill'd by a Roman Soldier Viriathus a Portuguez compar'd to Romulus Pompilius orders him to be murther'd AS Corinth follow'd Carthage so Numantia follow'd Corinth Nor was there afterwards any part free from war all over the world After the conflagration of those two famous Cities there was a general war all over at the same time as if those Cities seemed like violent winds to have spread the conflagrations of war into all other parts of the world Spain never had any design to make a general insurrection against us never thought â—â—t to unite all its strength nor yet to dispute the supremacy with us or attempt a publick assertion of its liberty which if it had it is so fortify'd all about by the Sea and the Pyrenaean Mountains that the very scituation secur'd iâ— from an invasion But it was straitned by the Romans before it knew it self and of all the Provinces it onely knew its own strength after it was conquer'd The contestation about this Province lasted neer two hundred years from the first Scipio's to Augustus Caesar not by a continu'd war but as occasions started Nor had we to do at first with the Spanyards but the Carthaginians Thence proceeded the contagion and series and cause of the wars The first Roman ensignes that past over the Pyrenaean Mountains were under the conduct of the Scipio's Publius and Cneus and they in memorable fights defeated Annon and Asdrubal Hannibal's Brother and Spain had been carried as it were by the first attempt if those gallant men supplanted in the height of their victory had not fallen by Punick treachery after they had got the better both by Sea and Land So that Scipio the revenger of his Father and Uncle who was soon after surnamed Africanus invaded it as it were a new and entire Province And he in a short time having taken Carthage and other Cities thinking it not enough to have forc'd the Carthaginians thence made it a tributary Province and reduc'd to the Empire all on both sides of the Iberus and was the first of the Roman Generals who prosecuted his victory to Gades and the entrance of the Ocean But it is a greater matter to retain a Province then to make one Generals were therefore sent into several parts sometime to one sometime to another and they with much difficulty
while longer the famine still continuing Afterwards they resolve to make an escape but that was prevented by their wives who committing a heinous offence out of their affection cut their horse-girts Whereupon reduc'd to despair and exasperated into fury and rage they at last resolve upon this kind of death They with the help of weapons and a general conflagration destroy'd their Captains their City and themselves Well! I should * Asserverim affirm it the most valiant and in my judgement the most happy City even in its greatest calamities since it hath with so great constancy towards its Allies by its own strength and for so long time held out against a people back'd by the forces of all the world In fine the City being forc'd by the greatest General that ever was left the enemy nothing to satisfie his vanity for there was not a man of all Numantia to be brought home in chaines spoil none because they were poor their Arms they had burnt themselves and so we had onely the name of a Triumph CHAP. XIX A summary of the Roman wars for the space of two hundred years HItherto the Roman people seem'd to expresse a certain Noblenesse Gallantry Sanctity and Magnificence in their actions * Reliqua saeculi The remainder of that age as it produc'd atchievements equally great so did they exceed in turbulence and infamy vices improving with the dilatation of the Empire So that if any one divide this its third age employ'd in forrein acquests he will acknowledge the former Century thereof wherein Africk Macedonia Sicily and Spain were subdu'd justly to have deserv'd as the Poëts speak the name of Golden and the ensuing Century to have been of Iron and sanguinary or if any thing can be more inhumane as comprehending the Jugurthine the Cimbrian the Mithridatick Gaulish and Germane wars whereby the Roman glory ascended up to the skies together with the Gracchian and Drusian massacres as also the Servile wars and to compleat our infamy our engagements even with the Gladiators At last the Commonwealth arming against it self by the commotions of Marius and Sylla and in fine by the wars between Caesar and Pompey as if possess'd with a spirit of madnesse and fury became * Per rabiem furorem nefas semet c. ô horrour it s own executioner Which transactions though ravell'd and confus'd together yet that they may the better appear and that there may be a difference between their Heynous and Heroick actions they shall be set down a part And in the first place we shall as we have already begun give an account of those pious and just wars with forreign nations that the continual augmentation of the Empire may be made manifest And then we shall return to the horrid actions and the foul and execrable broils of our own people CHAP. XX. Attalus King of Pergamus makes the peoples of Rome his Heir Astronicus takes occasion thence to enter into a war against them Crassus defeated and taken Prisoner Astronicus subdu'd and put into chains the unworthy procedure of Aquilius in poisoning the springs and by that means blasting the reputation of the Romans SPain being subdu'd in the western part of the world the people of Rome were at the East nay they not onely enjoy'd peace but by an unwonted and unknown kind of prosperity wealth left by regal bequeasts and whole Kingdoms came into them Attalus King of Pergamus Son of King Eumenes heretofore our Ally and fellow-soldier left this Will Let the people of Rome be the Heir of my estate Of which these were part Entring upon the inheritance the Romans became possessors of the Province not by war or force of Arms but what was more just in right of the Will But it is not easie to affirm whether they more easily * Occupaverit possess'd themselves of or lost that Province Aristonicus a fierce young man of the blood Royal easily drawes in some of the Cities formerly subject to Kings and take◠some others which stood out by force as Mindus Samos and Colophon He also defeated the Army of the Pro-consul Crassus and took him But he reflecting on his Family and the reputation of the Romans struck out the eye o◠his barbarous Keeper with a wand and so he incensed him as he would have it to his own destruction Not long after Aristonicus was subdu'd and taken by Perpenna and upon surrender of himself kept in chains M. Aquilius put an absolute period to the Asian war poisoning ô wicked act the springs in order to the rendition of certain Cities Which action as it hastned the victory so it rendred it infamous in as much as contrary to all Religion and the customes of our Ancestors the Roman Arms till then continu'd sacred were defiled by detestable compositions THE ROMAN HISTORY BY L. JULIUS FLORUS The Third Book CHAP. I. Jugurth King of Numidia wars against the Romans he endeavours to overcome them by artifices and presents At last after several defeats he is betray'd into the hands of Sylla by the means of Bocchus THus went things in the East But there was not the like quiet in the Southern parts Who would expect any war should break forth in Africk after the destruction of Carthage But there was no small disturbance in Numidia and there was next Hannibal what might be feared in Jugurth For when the Romans were glorious and unconquerable by the way of Arms this most subtle Prince engages against them by that of wealth and yet it fell out beyond expectation that a King famous for his artifices should be ensnar'd by artifice He being Grand-child to Massinissa and Son by adoption to Micipsa designing the murther of his Brethren incited thereto by a desire of Soveraignty and yet fearing not them so much as the Senate and people of Rome under whose tuition and protection the Kingdom was compass'd his first mischief by treachery and having taken off Hiempsal's head while he would have done the like to Adherbal who had fled to Rome he with the mony sent by his Ambassadors brought even the Senate to side with him And this was his first victory over us Afterwards he in like manner treated those who had been sent to divide the Kingdom between him and Adherbal and having in the person of Scaurus who suffer'd himself to be corrupted overcome the integrity and customes of the Roman Empire he prosecuted the wickednesse he had begun with greater confidence But wicked actions lye not long conceal'd The wickednesse of the corrupted Embassy of Scaurus came to light and a war was resolv'd upon against the Parricide The Consul Calpurnius Bestia was the first sent into Numidia But the King knowing by former experience that gold could do more against the Romans than Iron brought his peace Of which hainous action being guilty and summon'd upon a safe-conduct to appeare before the Senate he with equal confidence both came and got Massina Grand-son to Massinissa
his competitor to the Government assassinated This was another cause of the war against the said King The ensuing revenge is recommended to Albinus But ô dishonour he in like manner so corrupted his Army that by a voluntary flight of ours the Numidian overcame and became master of our Camp and by a dishonourable treaty he suffered the Army which he had before corrupted to escape About the same time not so much to revenge the Roman Empire as its honour rose up Metellus who craftily set upon the enemy with his own artifices while the other eluded him one while with intreaties another with threats making also his advantage of a feign'd as if it had been a real flight Not content with the devastation of Fields and Villages he made attempts against the principal Cities of Numidia and a long time endeavour'd the reduction of Zama but without effect But Thala he sack'd a place well furnish'd with ammunition and where the King's treasure waâ— Afterwards having depriv'd the King of his Cities he pursu'd him as a fugitive out of his own territories through Mauritania and Getulia At last Marius with a considerable recruit after he had taken into the Army persons of mean extraction upon an oath administred to them setting upon the King already defeated and wounded yet found it as hard a task to overcome him as if his Forces had been fresh and entire This man with extraordinary successe reduc'd Capsa a City built in honour of Hercules seated in the midst of Africk and surrounded with Sands and Serpents and by the assistance of a certain Ligurian forc'd his way to the City Mulucha built upon a rocky Mountain a place in a manner inaccessible After which he gave a signal overthrow not onely to Jugurth but also to Bocchus King of Mauritania siding with the Numidian upon the score of kinred neer the City Cirta Bocchus distrusting his affaires and fearing to be involv'd in another's ruine made King Jugurth the price of his agreement and friendship with the Romans So the craftiest of Kings was ensnared by the artifices of his Father in law and deliver'd into the hands of Sylla And at length the people of Rome beheld Jugurth loaden with chains led in triumph but he also though overcome and bound saw the City which he had falsely prophecy'd was to be sold and should be ruin'd if it met with a buyer But if ever saleable it had a Chapman in him and seeing he escaped not it will be an assurance that it shall never perish CHAP. II. The victory obtain'd by the Romans beyond the Alps over the Salii the Allobroges and the Aruerni Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabius Maximus erect Towers of stone and set up Trophies on them THus the Romanes demean'd themselves in the South In the North the troubles were greater and more bloody there being nothing more insufferable than that Coast where the Air is very piercing and the Inhabitants savage All along that quarter an implacable Enemy broke forth on all sides on the right the left and out of the midst of the North. The first who felt our Arms beyond the Alps were the Salii upon complaints made of their Incursions by the most faithful and friendly City Massilia Afterwards the Allobroges and Aruerni upon the like complaints of the Aedui who desired our assistance and relief against them Varus is a witness of the victory and Iscara and the River Vindelicus and the swiftest of Rivers the Rhone The greatest terror to the Barbarians were the Elephants whose bulk was answerable to that of the Inhabitants There was nothing so remarkable in the Triumph as the King himself Bituitus in his Arms of divers colours and a silver Chariot such as he had fought in For both which victories how great the rejoycing was may be imagined hence that Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabius Maximus erected Towers of stone upon the very places where they had fought and fasten'd Trophies thereon adorn'd with the Arms of the Enemies a thing not usual with our people For the Romans ever upbraided those whom they subdu'd with their victory CHAP. III. The Cimbri and Teutones design an Incursion into Italy they defeat several Armies of the Romans but are at last defeated themselves by Marius The strange resolution of their Wives A miraculous thing happen'd at Rome after the defeat THe Cimbrians the Teutones and the Tigurians fugitives from the extremities of Germany upon the Sea 's over-running their Countrey sought new habitations all the world over and being kept out of France and Spain as they were returning into Italy they sent Ambassadors to Silanus's Camp and thence to the Senate desiring the martial people of Rome would assign them some Countrey or other by way of pay which if granted they should dispose of their hands and arms But what Lands should the Romane people give then ready to fall into a Civil War about the Agragrian Lawes Being therefore repuls'd what they could not obtain by entreaty they resolve to get by force For neither could Silanus hold out against the first irruption of the Barbarians nor Manlius against the second nor Caepio against the third All had been lost if Marius had not lived in that age Nor durst he presently engage them but kept in his men within the Camp till that invincible rage and violence which the Barbarians account valour were somewhat remitted They therefore retreated from ours insulting and so great was their confidence of taking the City asking them whether they would any thing to their wives Immediately upon those threats dividing themselves into three Bodies they march'd over the Alps that is the Bars of Italy Marius presently with extraordinary expedition taking the nearer ways prevents the Enemy and pursuing the formost Body the Teutoâ—es at the descent of the Alps at a place caâ—led Aquae Vitae Oh heavenly powers what an overthrow did we give them The enemies were possess'd of the Valley and the River our people wanted water Whether the General did it purposely or made advantage of his Error is doubtful Certain it is Valour heightned by necessity occasion'd the Victory For the Army calling for water Ye are men said he there it is to be bad The Engagement was so sharp and the slaughter of the enemies so great that the Romane Conqueror drunk not so much water out of the river as Barbarians blood which ran down with it Nay the King himself Theutobocchus who was wont to vault over four or six horses could hardly get up one when he was to make his escape and being taking in an adjoyning Grove he was a remarkable Spectacle in as much as being a person of extraordinary stature he was higher than the very Trophies The Teutones being utterly destroy'd they march towards the Cymbrians These had already who would imagine it in the winter-time which raises the Alps to a greater height by the Mountains of Trent made a descent as if they had fallen down into Italy They
exercised cruelty in stead of valour For what more insupportable than that one Edict of his whereby he commanded all the free Denizens of Rome that were in Asia to be put to death Whereupon Houses Temples Altars nay all divine and humane Rights were violated But this terror of Asia opened the King a way into Europe Having therefore sent Archelaus and Neoptolemus his Lieutenants the Cyclados Delos Euboea nay the very ornament of Greece Athens were taken onely Rhodes remain'd which stuck closer to â—â— than any of the rest Nay the terror of the Kings advance was come into Italy nay even to the very City of Rome Whereupon L. Sylla an excellent Soldier and no less daring gives a check to the Enemies further advance as if he had shov'd him with his hand And immediately thence who would believe it he went and press'd the City of Athens the parent of Corn with a Siege and Famine so far as that they were forced to eat mans flesh and afterwards having destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum and Walls to the extent of six thousand * Sex quoque amplius M pâ—mâ—ris paces and more after he had subdu'd the most ungratesul of men as he said himself yet in honor of their deceas'd Ancestors he restored them to their Temples and Reputation Afterwards having forc'd away the Kings Garrisons from Euboea and Boeotia he defeated all his Forces in two Battels one near Cheronaea the other near Orchomenos and therupon passing over into Asia he worsts him himself and he had been absolutely ruin'd if Sylla had not been more desirous to hasten than compleat his Triumph To this posture Sylla reduc'd Asia He made a League with the Inhabitants of Pontus Of King Nicomedes he receiv'd Bithynia of Arioborzantes Cappadocia and so Asia became ours as before Mithridates was onely forc'd out of his Territories So that the Inhabitants of Pontâ—s were not broken by these transactions but incens'd For the King as it were lur'd by the wealth of Asia and Europe endeavor'd the recovery of it by the Right of War not as belonging to another but because he had before lost it Therefore as fires not fully put out break forth into greater flameâ— so Mithridates having gotten greater Forces together came as it were with the whole strength of his Kingdom again into Asia by Land by Sea and by Rivers Câ—zicum a famous City is the Ornament of the Asian Coast as having a Fortress Walls a Port and Towers of Marble Against this place as if against a second Rome he directed all the stress of the War But the Citizens had the confidence to stand out upon intelligence of Lucullus's advance brought by a messenger who a thing strange to relate supported by a Goat-skin under the arms and guiding himself with his feet seeming to such as saw him at a distance a kinde of Sea-monster had escaped through the midst of the enemies ships Whereupon the posture of affairs changing the besieging King being first press'd with famine and afterwards with the pestilence Lucullus falls upon him as he was departing thence and gave him so great an overthrow that the Rivers Granius and Aesapus were all bloody The subtile King and acquainted with the avarice of the Romanes commanded baggage and money to be scatter'd by those that fled whereby to retard the pursuers Nor was his flight by Sea more fortunate than that by Land For a Fleet of above a hundred Ships well stored with Ammunition and Provision met with a Tempest in the Pontick Sea and was so shatter'd as if it had been in some engagement as if Lucullus having a certain correspondence with the Waves and Storms had recommended the King to be subdu'd by the Winds By this time were all the Forces of a most powerful Kingdom spent but the Kings courage was heightned by his misfortunes So that addressing himself to the adjacent Nations he involv'd in his ruine in a manner all the eastern and northern parts The Iberians the Caâ—pians the Albanians and both the Armenia's were courted and â—hrough all places Pompey's fortune sought him matter of glory reputation and titles He seeing Asia enflam'd by new Commotions and that Kings sprung out of Kings thinking it not fit to delay things till the strengths of several Nations were united a Bridge of Ships being of a sudden put together he first of any cross'd the Euphrates and having overtaken the retreating King in the midst of Armenia so extraordinary was the mans success he utterly ruined him at one battel The engagement happened in the night and the Moon seem'd to take our part in as much as she stood behinde the Enemies and appear'd in her full lustre to the Romanes whereby the Ponticks deluded by their longer shadowes made at them as at the bodies of their enemies So that Mithridates was subdu'd in that one night For afterwards he could do nothing though he essay'd all things like serpents which having lost their heads move their tails to the last For having escaped the enemy he would by his sudden advance have frightned Colchos as also the Cicilian Coasts and our Campania then having destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum he would have had the Bosphorus reach to Colchos and marching thence through Thrace Macedonia and Greece he thought to have made an unexpected invasion into Italy But prevented by the revolt of his subjects and the impiety of his son Pharnaces he with his sword thrust out that soul which poison could not force out of his body In the mean time the great Cneus prosecuting the rebellious remainders of Asia travers'd divers Nations and Provinces For following the Armenians eastward having taken the Metropolis of the Countrey Artaxata he ordered Tigranes upon his submission to reign over them But towards the North a Scythian Expedition wherein he had as if at Sea no guide but the stars he destroyed Colchos pardoned Iberia spar'd the Albanians having pitch'd his Camp at the descent of Caucasus he commanded Orodes King of Colchos to come down into the plains Artoces who rul'd over the Iberians to send in even his own children as Hostages nay he also requited the liberality of Orodes who had of his own accord sent him a Golden Couch and other presents from Albania And turning his Forces towards the South having past Mount Libanus in Syria and Damascus he led the Romane Ensigns thorow those odoriferous Forrests and Woods of Balm and Frankincense The Arabians were ready to obey his commands The Jews assay'd to defend Jerusalem against him but he forc'd his way into that also that great Mystery of an impious Nation lying open as it were under a golden roof Being Arbitrator between two Brothers in competition for the Kingdom he appointed Hyrcanus to reign Aristobulus not complying he put into chains Thus under the conduct of Pompey the Romanes over-ran all Asia where it is of greatest extent and made that a Middle-province of the Empire which had been the extremity of
dying CHAP. XVII Livius Drusus would inforce the Gracchane Laws Cepio violates the Senate The Consul Philippus opposing him is unworthily treated the sudden death of Drusus LAstly Livius Drusus not onely with the strength of the Tribuneship but also with the authority of the Senate and the consent of all Italy endeavours the establishment of the same Laws and attempting one thing after another caused so great a conflagration that the first eruptions of it could not be endur'd so that taken away by a sudden death he left a hereditary war to his posterity According to the judiciary Law C. Gracchus had devided the Roman people and made that a double-headed City which was but single before The Roman Knights invested with so great power as to have the fates and fortunes of the Senators and the lives of Princes in their power intercepting the tributes robb'd the Commonwealth at their pleasure The Senate being weakened by the exile of Metellus and the condemnation of Rutilius had lost all the lustre of Majesty While things were in this posture Servilius Caepio and Livius Drusus two persons equal as to courage wealth and dignity which begat the emulation in Drusus stood up for one the Knights the other the Senate The Ensignes Standards and Banners were ready to advance But they were divided in one and the same City as if they had been in two distinct Camps Caepio first assaulting the Senate pitch'd upon Scaurus and Philippus chief persons of the Nobility as chargeable with ambition Drusus to oppose these commotions by the Gracchane Laws got the common people to joyn with him and drew in the Allies by a hope of being made free of the City His saying upon this occasion is extant That he had not left any one ought to give away unlesse he would distribute dust or air The day for the promulgation of the Law was come when of a sudden so great a multitude came in from all parts that the City seem'd besieg'd by enemies Yet the Consul Philippus had the boldnesse to oppose the enaction of the Laws But the Viator taking him by the throat let him not go till the blood gush'd out his mouth and eyes So the Laws were enacted by force But our Allies immediately called for the reward of their assistance when in the mean time death took away Drusus unable to keep his word and troubled at the commotions he had rashly caused a seasonable death in so great a danger and yet the Allies ceased not by Arms to demand of the people of Rome the performance of Drusus's promises CHAP. XVIII All Italy in a commotion a general conspiracy which after great destructions of men is at last appeased THe war between us and our Socy or Allies I may call the Social War to make it lesse odious but the truth is it was a Civil war For the Roman people having shuffled together the Etrusci the Latines and the Sabines and deriving one blood out of them all of several members it made up a body and is but one consisting of all the parts Nor did the Allies lesse wickedly rebel within Italy than the Citizens did within Rome The Allies therefore justly demanded the freedom of that City to whose greatnesse they had contributed to which hope Drusus out of a desire of dominion had raised them and he afterwards destroy'd by the perfidiousnesse of his domesticks the same firebrand that consumed him enflam'd the Allies into Arms and a design of besieging the City What more lamentable than this destruction what more calamitious when all Latium and Picenum â—ll Etruria and Campania lastly Italy rose up against its Parent and Mother-City when the flower of our most valiant and faithful Allies had those municipal prodigies each under their Ensignes Popedius led the Marsians and Latines Afranius the Vmbri the whole Senate and Consuls those of Samnium and Telesinus those of Lucania when that people which judg'd Kings and Nations could not govern it self and that Rome the Conqueresse of Asia and Europe might be assayled from Corfinium The first scene of the war was to have been upon Mount Albanus it being resolv'd that on the Festival day of the Latines the Consuls Julius Caesar and Martius Philippus should have been offer'd up amidst the Sacrifices and Altars But that treachery being discovered the whole fury broke out at Asculum the Ambassadors who had been sent from the City being murthered at the assembly of their solemne sports This was the engagement of that impious war Popedius the Author and Ring-leader of the war posting up and down spread the insurrection through several Nations and Cities The desolationâ— committed by Hannibal and Pyrrhus were not so great Behold Ocriculum behold Grumentum Faesulae Carceoli Nuseriae and Picentes are wafted with slaughter fire and sword Rutilius's Forces are defeated Coepio's defeated Nay even Julius Caesar himself after the losse of the Army being brought all bloody into the City the lamentable spectacle of his funeral was carried through the midst of the City But the great fortune of the Roman people and ever greater in extremities rose up a fresh with all their Forces and sending out several Commanders to engage against the several Nations Cato defeats the Etruscans Gabinius the Marsyans Cardo the Lucanians Sylla the Samnites But Strabo Pompeius having layd all waste with fire and sword never gave over destroying till that by the destruction of Asculum he had appeased the Manes of so many Consular Armies and ransack'd Cities CHAP. XIX An insurrection of the Slaves Sicily under the Government of a Syrian who feigns himself a Fanatick They are at last overcome and punish'd by the valour of Rupilius A second insurrection of the Slaves quieted by Aquilius THough we fought with our Allies dishonour enough yet we had to do with free persons and well educated But who can brook that the Soveraign people of the world â—â—ould arm against their Slaves The first serâ—ile war happen'd at the infancy of Rome and â—â—â—y'd within the City Herdonius Sabinus beâ—ng the Leader when the City being busied â—y the seditions of the Tribuneship the Capiâ—ol was besieg'd and taken by the Consul But that was rather a tumult then a war Soon after the Forces of the Empire being employ'd â—n several parts who would believe that Sicily was more cruelly desolated by the Servile then by the Punick war Being a Country plentiful in Corn and in a manner a Suburb-Province was possessed by Roman Citizens who had great inheritances there They had there many prisons full of chain'd Slaves for the cultivation of the ground and these occasion'd the war A certain Syrian named Eunus the greatnesse of the destruction makes us remember him counterfeiting a fanatick destraction while he boasteth of the * Câ—mas hair of the Syrian Goddesse animated the Slaves as it were by a command of the Gods to assert their liberty and take up Arms. And that he might prove it done by Divine inspiration having a nut-shell in
was grown too great to be destroy'd by any forrein Forces Fortune therefore envying the Soveraign people of the world armed it to its own destruction The rage of Marius and Cinna had kept within the Walls of the City as it were to make a tryal the storm raised by Sylla spread farther yet went not out of Italy but the fury of Caesar and Pompey as it were a delugâ— or genetal conflagration over-ran the City Italy Countries Nations and at last the whole Empire so that it cannot rightly be called a civil nor social nor forreign war but somewhat comprehending all these and indeed more then a war For if we consider the Generals the whole Senate was divided into factions if the Armies we find on the one side eleven Legions on the other eighteen both consisting of the flower and strength of Italy if the assistance of confederates there was on the one side the choice of the Gauls and Germans on the other Dejotarus Ariobarzanes Tarcondimotus Cothus the whole Force of Thrace Cappadocia Cilicia Macedonia Greece Italy and all the East if the continuance of the war we find four years a small time considering the destructions if the space and stage on which it was acted we and it begun in Italy and spread thence into Gaul and Spain and returning from the West it seated it self with its whole burthen in Epirus and Thessaly thence it made a sudden sally into Aegypt then return'd into Asia and stuck a while in Asia at last returning into Spain there after some time receiv'd its period But the animosity of the factions ended not with the war For they rested not till the malice of those who were conquer'd had satisfy'd it self with the murther of the Conquerour and that done in the very City nay in the midst of the Senate The cause of this so great a calamity was the same with that of all the rest to wit excessive prosperity For Quintus Metellus and Lucius Afranius being Consuls when the Majesty of Rome was spread all over the world and the City celebrated the late-gain'd victories and the Pontick and Armenian triumphs of Pompey in the Pompeain Theaters the over great power of that person raised a jealousy as it is often wont in some busy Citizens Metellus discontented at the abatement of his triumph over Creet Cato ever an enemy to the powerful calumniated Pompey and found fault with his actions The grief he conceavid thereat stuck like a dart in his bosom and forc'd him to endeavour the support of his authority As chance would then flourish'd Crassus a person eminent for his extraction wealth and dignity yet thought he not himself wealthy enough Caius Caesar was in great repute for his eloquence wit and his being then Consul Yet was Pompey more eminent than either So that Caesar being desirous to attain greater dignity Crassus to increase his and Pompey to retain his and all equally aiming at power they easily conspir'd together to invade the Commonwealth Making therefore every one of them his advantage of their mutual Forces Caesar invades Gaul Crassus Asia Pompey Spain with three very great Armies and so the Empire of the World was divided among three Princes That Government lasted ten years They had till then been ballanc'd by a mutual fear of each other but upon the death of Crassus among the Parthians and that of Julia Caesar's Daughter who married to Pompey maintain'd concord between the Father and Son-in-law emulation soon discover'd it self Pompâ—y was jealous of Caesar's wealth and Caesar could not brook Pompey's dignity the one could not endure an equal nor the other a superiour O horrour they so disputed for principality as if the fortune of so great an Empire could not suffice two Whereupon having during the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus made the first breach of the conspiracy the Senate that is Pompey by whom they were guided moved the appointing of a successor to Caesar nor was Caesar himself against it if in the first Assembly for the election of Consuls there were a respect had of him which honour ten Tribunes had decreed to him though absent and that with Pompey's approbation but now upon the same person's indifference it is deny'd alledginig that he should come and demand it after the ancient form On the contrary Caesar was earnest for the passing of the decrees protesting he would not disband the Army if they perform'd not their promises Whereupon they decree against him as an Enemy Caesar mov'd at these things resolv'd by Arms to maintain the rewards of Arms. The first scene of the civil war was Italy the Fortresses whereof Pompey had supply'd with slight Garrisons but all upon Caesar's sudden advance were reduc'd The First encounter was at Ariminum Whereupon Libo was forced out of Etruria Thermus out of Vmbria Domitius out of Corfinium And the war had been at an end without any bloodshed if Caesar as he had attempted it could have surpriz'd Pompey at Brundusium But he made his escape by night through the closures of the besieged port A shameful thing to be spoken that he who not long before had been chiefest of the Senate and the umpire of peace and war should venture himself in a torn and unarm'd vessel into that Sea on which he had triumphed Pompey had no sooner got out of Italy but the Senate left the City which almost emptied by fear Caesar entring into makes himself Consul He also commanded the sacred Treasury to be broke open because the Tribunes were tedious in the doing of it otherwise and violently seiz'd the revenue and patrimony of the people before he assumed the soveraignety Pompey being forc'd to flight he thought fitter to settle the Provinces then follow him Sicily and Sardinia he secur'd by his Lieutenants that he might be assur'd of provisions There was no hostility among the Gauls he himself had made a peace there But he passing through it against the Pompeian Armies in Spain Massilia presum'd to shut her gates against him Wretched Massilia out of a fear of war falls into a war But having strong walls he order'd it to be reduc'd in his absence That half-Greek City not so delicate as the name might intimate presum'd to force the enemies Trenches fire their Machines and give them a Sea engagement But Brutus who manag'd the war overcame it both by Sea and Land At length surrendring themselves all was taken from them their liberty onely excepted which they valued above all Caesar's war in Spain with Petreius and Afranius Lieutenants under Cneius Pompeius was various doubtful and bloody whom having their Camp at Illerda he attemps to besiege at the River Sicoris and to shut up in the Town In the mean time by the overflowing of the River happening commonly in the Spring he was reduc'd to a want of provisions So his Camp began to be sensible of famine and the besiege himself was in a manner besieged But the River returning within its channel he
scowres the coasts with devastation and fighting and fiercely playes upon them and pursuing them in their retreat into Celtiberia he compassed them in so with Trenches that thirst forc'd them to a surrender Thus the hither-part of Spain was reduc'd nor did the further stand out long For what could one Legion do after the defeat of other five Wherefore Varro submitting of his own accord Gades the streight adjoyning to it the Ocean it self all things comply'd with Caesar's prosperity Yet fortune would do somewhat in opposition to the absent General on this side of Illuricum and Africk as if of purpose to make his prosperities the more glorious by crosse accidents For Antonius and Dâ—labella being commanded to guard the entrance of the Adriatick and the one having encamped on the Illyrian shore the other on the Corcyrean Pompey being then master of the Sea all thereabouts Octavius his Lieutenant and Libo compasse them about with a great force of Sea-soldiers so that want of provisions forc'd Antonius to a surrender The boats sent to their relief by Basilius for want of better vessels were taken as in a toyl by a new stratagem of the Cilicians on Pompey's side by fastning rops under water Yet the Tyde got off two of them one wherein were the Opitergins running a-ground wrought an effect worthy to be transmitted to posterity For a party of somewhat lesse then a thousand young men held out a whole day against the force of the whole Army surrounding them of all sides and finding they could not extricate themselves by their valour to avoid a surrender upon the encouragement of their Commander Vulteius they slew one another In Africa also a ballancing of successe and misfortune attended Curio who being sent to reduce the Province and glorying in his defeating of Varus was not able to stand the sudden advance of King Juba and the Mauritanian horse The conquer'd had the convenience of flight but shame perswaded him to die with that Army which his temerity had lost But fortune desirous to quit scores Pompey had chosen Epirus for the seat of the war Nor did Caesar stay long behind for having setled all things behind him though it were the depth of winter he embark'd in order to the prosecution of the war and having encamped at Oricum and part of the Army being left with Antonius for want of Ships and so forc'd to continue at Brundusium he was so impatient that to get them over though the winds and Sea were very high he ventur'd out alone at midnight in a small scout-vessel His saying to the Master frightned at so great danger is extant What art thou afraid of said he thou carriest Caesar Having brought all his Forces together and the two Camps being neer one the other the designs of the Generals were different Caesar naturally daring and desirous to compleat his work embattell'd challeng'd provok'd the enemy one while besieging their Camp with a trench of sixteen miles but what injury could a siege do those who having the Sea open had plenty of all things another while by offering to assault Dyrrachium though in vain as being a place by its scituation inexpugnable and besides with dayly skirmishes as the enemy sally'd out at which time the extraordinary valour of Scaeva the Centurion was remarkable in whose Buckler were the marks of a hundred and twenty darts and at length by plundring the Cities associated with Pompey desolating Oricum and Gomphi and other Fortresses of Thessaly On the contrary Pompey hung off and delay'd what he could hoping to frighten the enemy compassed of all sides with want of provisions and that the violence of that most daring General might abate But he could make no longer advantage of that prudent resolution For the Soldiery blam'd the sloath the Associates the tediousnesse and the Senator the ambition of the General So the fates hastening his misfortune he resolv'd to fight it out in Thessaly and there in the Philippian Fields the fates of the City the Empire nay of mankind are disputed The people of Rome never saw so great Forces in any one place nor fortune persons of so great dignity engag'd There were on both sides above three hundred thousand men besides the assistance of Kings and the Senate Never were there more apparent prodigies of an imminent destruction victims ready to be sacrific'd getting away * Examina in signis swarms of Bees pitching upon the Ensigns darknesse in the day time Pompey himself dreamt over night that he heard the clapping hands in his own Theatre at Rome sounding like the noise made in mourning and in the morning he was seen before his tâ—nt unlucky fate in a black garment Caesar's Army never was more lively and cheerfull The charge came first from Pompey 's the darts from Caesar's The Javeline of Crastinus who gave the first onset was observable for he being afterwards run into the mouth with a sword and so afterwards found among the Carcasses shew'd by the strangenesse of the wound with what earnestnesse and rage he had fought Nor was the issue of the war lesse admirable For Pompey having so great a number of Horse as that he thought to have surrounded Caesar he himself was surrounded For having fought long without advantage of eitheir side and Pompey having commanded the Horse out of the right wing of a sudden upon a signal given the German Cohorts gave them so fierce a charge that they seem'd to have been foot and these mounted on Horses Upon that execution of the retreating Horse ensu'd the overthrow of the light-armed men Thereupon the terrour spreading farther and farther and the whole Forces put to the rout the remaining destruction was compleated with little trouble Nor did any thing contribute so much to the overthrow as the very greatnesse of the Army Caesar did nobly that day not only as General but also as Soldier His speeches were heard as he rid about the one bloody but witty and powerful for gaining the day to wit Soldier strick at the face the other discovering a certain ostentation Spare our own Country-man while he himself pursu'd them to the utmost Yet had Pompey been happy in his misfortunes if the same fortune had befallen him as had his Army But he surviv'd his dignity that being forc'd from Larissa he might with greater disgrace make his escape on Horseback over the Thessalian Tempe that upon a solitary rock of Cilicia he should consider whether it were best for him to fly into Parthia Africk or Aeâ—ypt in fine that being upon the Pelusian shore he should by order of a most unworthy King the Counsel of his Eunuchs and to compleat his misfortune fall by the sword of his own treacherous servant Septimius and die in sight of his Wife and Children Who would not have thought the war had been ended with Pompey But the embers of the Thessalian conflagration broke forth again into a much more violent flame and in Aegypt there was war without
by frequent engagements he subdu'd the twelve nations of Tuscia and thence came the Fasces the Robes us'd by Kings and Augurs Ivory chairs for Senators Rings Ornaments for the Knights Heralds coats the Robes borderd with purple worn by children of noble families Thence also came triumphing in gilt chariots drawn by four horses painted and triumphal garments in fine all the Ensigns and Ornaments which render imperial dignity the more conspicuous CHAP. VI. Servius Tullius comes to the Government by subtilty He causes an estimate to be taken â—f the Roman wealth and distinguishes the People into several Orders and Degrees NExt Servius Tullius invades the Government of the City nor did the meanness of his extraction hinder him though descended of a Woman-slave For Tanaquil the wife of Tarquinius had brought him up nobly encourag'd by the excellency of his endowments and a flame seen surrounding his head had portended his future greatness Therefore upon the death of Tarquinius haveing by the assistance of the Queen gotten the Lievtenancy of the Government for a time he managed affairs so prudently that he seemed lawfully possess'd of a Kingdom into which he had crept by fraud By this man the Roman People were rejected in order to Taxes distributed into several degrees and disposed into Courts and Companies By this King's prudence the Commonwealth was brought to so good order that all distinctions of Estates Honours Age Professions and Offices were put into Tables as if the government of the greatest City should be as exactly regulated as that of the meanest Family CHAP. VII Tarquin comes to the Crown by the Massacre of Servius the horrid wickedness of his wife Tullia His cruelty and pride render him odious to the People he causes his own Son to be scourged out of a design to abuse the Gabij and builds a Temple at the Capitol Presages of Romes continuance TArquin surnamed from his deportment the Proud was the last of all the Kings He chose rather violently to possess himself of then patiently expect the Kingdom of his Ancestors held from him by Tullius and having sent some to murder him he no better manag'd his usurped power than he had acquir'd it Of the same humour was his wife Tullia who to salute her Husband King being in a Charriot drove the startled Horses over the bloody Corps of her Father But he grown insupportable to the Senate by reason of the slaughters committed among them to all by reason of his pride which to good men is more intollerable than cruelty having glutted his inhumanity at home at length turns against the Enemies Whereupon Ardea Ocriculum Gabij Suessa Pometia strong Cities of Latium were taken in Nay even then his own issue felt his cruelty For he stuck not to beat his own Son with Rods to the end that pretending himself a Renegado among the Enemies he might be credited by them Who being entertain'd by the Gabij as he expected and asking counsel by Messengers of his Father what he would have done the answer was strange pride that he struck off the the tops of the highest Poppies with a Wand intimating thereby that the chiefest Persons among the Gabij were to be put to death Yet out of the spoils of the reduced Cities he built a Temple which coming to be consecrated all the other Gods complying a thing hardly credible onely Juventas and Terminus opposed it The obstinacy of the Deities pleas'd the Augures as promising all things should be firm and eternal But what was dreadful is that at the foundation of the Structure a mans head was found and it was the general perswasion that the most favourable prodigy portended that Rome should be the Seat of the Empire and supream head of the World So long did the Romans endure the King's pride while lust was kept out that insolency they thought intolerable in his Sons one of whom having ravish'd Lucretia a most accomplish'd Lady the Matron to avoid the infamy kill'd her self Whereupon the Kings were deprived of their power CHAP. VIII A short account of the reign of the seven Kings and a rehearsal of what was most remarkably done by them in order to the advancement of the Commonwealth THis is the first age and as it were infancy of the Roman People while they lived under seven Kings persons through a certain design of the Fates so different in their inclinations as was requisite for the convenience and advantage of the Common-wealth For what more daring than Romulus such a person was necâ—ssary for the usurpation of a Kingdom What more religious than Numa such a one affairs requir'd that an unciviliz'd People might be softned by the fear of the Gods What a person was that Author of military discipline Tullus how necessary to men of warlike spirits that valour might be guided by conduct What did the Architect Ancus How fit to dilate the City by a Colony enlarge it by a Bridge fortifie it with a Wall Again what splendor acrew'd to the supream People of the World from the Ornaments and Ensigns of Tarquinius that is from the very habits What did the taxes impos'd by Servius produce but that the Commonwealth might be assured of its own strength in fine the insupportable Tyranny of the proud Tarquin was of some nay very great advantage For so it came to pass that a People eâ—asperated by injuries was inflam'd with a desire of Liberty CHAP. IX The Regal Dignity transferr'd to the Consuls Brutus and Collatinus the latter of whom is depos'd for his being descended from the Royal Family Publicola is put into his place Brutus disscovering his own Sons siding with the Tarquins puts them to death THe Roman People therefore mov'd by a certain inspiration of the Gods to rescue its liberty and revenge the honor of outrag'd chastity and putting themselves under the conduct of Brutus and Collatinus to whom the noble Matron had at her death recommended her revenge of a sudden forsake their King spoyl his goods and consecrate the Land he was posses'd of to their God Mars and transfer the supream power to those assertors of their Liberty with an alteration onely of the form Government and the Title For where it had been perpetual they would have it annual in stead of a single person two lest the supremacy being in one or too long continu'd in more might be corrupted and in stead of Kings they call'd them Consuls that they might remember they were oblig'd to consult or procure the good of their Citizens So excessive was the joy conceiv'd aâ— this new assertion of Liberty that they would hardly believe that change of Government but displac'd one of the Consuls and forc'd him to leave the City for no other reason than his name and extraction from the ejected Kings Whereupon Valerius Publicola being put into his place us'd his utmost endeavours to advance the majesty of a free People For he not onely caus'd the Fasces the Ensigns of Consular dignity to be bow'd
before them at a publick assembly but also ordered appeals to the People from the Sentence of the Consuls And that his House built like a Cittadel might give no offence he caus'd it to be built lower in a plain place But Brutus courted the City-applause by the destruction and parricide of his own Family For having discover'd that his Sons endeavour'd the restauration of the Kings he dragged them into the Forum and before the whole assembly caus'd them to be scourg'd with Rods and afterwards cut off their heads that he might plainly seem as a publick Parent in stead of his own Children to have adopted the People of Rome The Roman People being thenceforth free first took up Arms against the Foreigners upon the account of Liberty next about Territories then for their Allies and lastly for Glory â—nd Empire the neighboring Nations assaulted them of all sides For having no Land of their own adjoyning to the City all but Rome belonging to the Enemies and lying as it were in a cross-way between Latium and the Tusci at which Gate soever they sallyed out they fell among enemies which continu'd till that as it were by a certain Contagion they over-run all and having possessed themselves of all the neighboring places they reduced all Italy under their Jurisdiction CHAP. X. Porsenna King of Etruria siding with the Tarquins comes with a powerful Army before Rome reduces it to extream necessity and is ready to force it but astonished at the prodigious gallantry of Mutius Horatius and Clelia he makes an allyance with the Romans The Combat between Brutus and Tarquin's Son wherein they both fell AFter the expulsion of the Kings the first arms the people took up were for assertion of their Liberty For Porsenna King of Etruria was in sight with a powerful Army and brought along with him the Tarquins However though he pressed hard upon them by Arms and Famine and having possess'd himself of Janiculum was lodg'd at the enterance of the City yet they broke his attempts nay beat him back and at last put him into such amazement that though he had much the advantage he entred into a friendly League with those whom he had almost overcome Then flourish'd those Romane Prodigies and Miracles Horatius Mutius Clelia of whom did not the Annals make mention they would now seem Fables For Horatius Cocles finding himself not able alone to remove the pressing Enemies the Bridge being broken down behinde him swam cross the Tiber with his Arms about him Mutius Scaevola attempted the Kings person in his Tent but finding his blow spent in vain upon one of his Courtiers he thrust his hand into the fire and heightens the Kings terror by policy That thou mayest be satisfied what a person thou hast escaped know that three hundred of us have sworn the same thing thy death when in the mean time a thing dreadful to relate he who spoke was undaunted the other the King trembled as if his own hand had been burning Thus the Men. But that no sex might want its praise see also the gallantry of Virgins Clelia one of the Hostages delivered to the King having got out of custody cross'd the Tiber on horseback So that the King startled at so many and so great Prodigies of Valour kindly dismiss'd them and set them at liberty The Tarquins continu'd the War till Brutus kill'd Aruntes the Kings Son with his own hand and dy'd himself upon him of a mutual wound he had receiv'd from his adversary as if he would have pursu'd the Adulterer even to hell CHAP. XI The Latines engage in the quarrel of the Tarquins give battel to the Romanes by whom they are defeated The other neighboring Nations disturb their quiet The Romanes fight for the dilatation of their Territories Quinctius Cincinnatus taken from the Plough to be Dictator He subdues the Aequi and treats them as beasts THe Latines also out of emulation and envy to the Romanes took up the quarrel of the Tarquins to the end that a people who commanded abroad might at least be made slaves at home Wherefore the whole Countrey of Latium under the Conduct of Mamilius Tusculanus couragiously undertake to revenge the Kings quarrel They engage at the Lake Regillus a long time with a suspence of success till the Dictator himself Posthumius cast one of his Ensigns among the enemies a new and remarkable stratagem that it might be recover'd again by running upon them * Titus AE E. Titus Aebutius Elva Master of the Horse commanded the Bridles to be taken off that also was strange that they might charge with with the greater violence In fine so sharp was the engagement that it is reported the Gods were present at it particularly two mounted on white Horses whom none doubted but they were Castor and Pollux Whereupon the General of the Romane Army worshipped and in case he had the victory promis'd them Temples which he afterwards performed accounting it as due pay to the Auxiliary Gods Hitherto all the wars were for Liberty Afterwards they were in perpetual hostility with the same Latines about their Confines Sora who would believe it and Algidum were formidable places Satricum and Corniculum were but Provinces For the reduction of Veij and the Boâ—illi two wretched places 't is a shame to say it but we triumphed Tibur which is now as it were the Suburbs of Rome and Praeneste a pleasant Summer-walk were not attempted till after Vows were made in the Capitol for their reduction â—aesulae was then what Taphra is of late the Grove of Aricinum what the Hyrcinian Forrest was Fregellae as considerable as Gesloriacum is now in our days * Or as others Tygris the common Edition not so well Tibris Liris then what Euphrates now to wit the limits of the Empire The taking of Corioli Oh shame was thought so glorious that C. Marcius Coriolâ—nus made the reduction of it part of his name as if he had subdu'd Numantia or Africk There are also to be seen the spoils taken from Antius which C. Maenius hung up in the most eminent place of the Forum after he had taken the Enemies Fleet if that were one for there were but six War-ships But that number in those beginnings of Empire made a considerable Naval Force But the most obstinate of the Latines were the Aequi and the Vosci and as I may say perpetual enemies But these were particularly subdu'd by L. Quinctius that Dictator taken from the Plough who by his incomparable Conduct reliev'd the Camp of the Consul L. Minucius though besieg'd and ready to be taken It happen'd to be then about the midst of Sowing-time when the Lictor took the Patrician at his work holding the Plough He went immediately thence to the Army where â—hat he might do nothing disconsonant from his Rural Employment he caused the subdued enemies like beasts to pass under the yoke So the Expedition being over the triumphant Husbandman return'd to his Oxen. Oh ye Gods With what
them all at Liberty or put them to the Sword He chose rather to make them pass disarm'd under the Yoak that they might not think themselves oblig'd by his kindness but be the more eager enemies after that affront The Consuls therefore by a voluntary surrender of themselves took off the dishonour of the Treaty and the Souldiery crying for revenge a thing strange to relate under the conduct of Papiâ—ius express'd their being enrag'd with their Swords drawn all along the way before they â—ame to engage and the enemy himself related that in the engagement the eyes of the Romans sparkled as fire Nor was there any end of the slaughter till they had brought the enemies and the General of them under the yoke CHAP. XVII The nations of Italy conspire against Rome Fabius Maximus defeats their Army His fellow Consul Decius following the example of his Father devoted himself to death HItherto the people of Rome warr'd against particular nations one after another but now it hath to do with them combin'd yet is able to deal with all The Etrusci divided into twelve several people the Vmbri as yet untouch'd the ancientest of all Italy the remainders of the Samnites all these upon a sudden conspire together the utter * Etruscorum 12. populi Vmbri in id tempus intacti antiquissimus Italiae populus Samnitium reliqui in excidium Romani nominis repente conjurâ—nâ— Thus Vâ—netus and other Editions ruine of the Romane name The conjunction of so many and so considerable Nations struck a great terror There march'd up and down Etruria the Ensigns of four hostile Armies The Ciminian wood lying in the midst as unpassable before as the Caeledonian or Hercynian Forrests was so great a terrour then that the Senate ordered the Consul not to expose himself to so great a danger But nothing of all this startled the General or diverted him from sending his Brother before to enquire into the Avenues of the Forrest He having put on a shepherds habit observed all in the night time and brings an account of it Thus then did Fabius Maximus without any hazard terminate a most hazardous war For falling upon them surpriz'd and in disorder and possessing himself of the most eminent places he gall'd as he pleas'd himself those who were underneath For the Engagement was such as if the Darts were thrown from the Heavens and the Clouds at the Gyants upon earth Yet was it not an unbloody Victory for Decius one of the Consuls being pressed upon by the Enemy in the bottom of the Valley after his Fathers example devoted himself to the Dii manes and so purchased a Victory by that kinde of Consecration which was ordinary to those of his Family CHAP. XVIII The Tarentines affront the Romanes who arm against them Divers people of Italy assist the Tarentines Pyrrhus King of Epirus engages in their quarrel is victorious at the first Engagement against the Romanes and defeated at the two ensuing Battels At last he is forc'd out of Italy and driven back into Greece NOw follows the Tarentine war accounted one particular war as to the name but containing several if we repeat the Victories For this war involv'd the Campanians Apulians and Lucanians and the Authors of it the Tarentines as also the whole Countrey of Italy and with all these Pyrrhus the most famous King of Greece in one and the same ruine that the Romanes might at the same time compleat the reduction of Italy and begin their transmarine triumphs Tarentum also built by the Lacedemonians was heretofore the Metropolis of Apulia and all Lucania famous for its Greatness Walls and Port and admirable for its scituation for it lyes at the very entrance of the Adriatick Sea and sends ships into our Coasts as also to Istria Illiricum Eâ—irus Achaia Africa Sicily Upon the Port which hath a Prospect towards the Sea stands the City-Theatre which prov'd the occasion of all that Cities calamities They were celebrating some solemn Sports when they thence see the Romane Fleet sayling by and taking them to be Enemies they hurry out and disorderly fall upon them not knowing either who the Romanes were or whence they came Whereupon an Embassy was sent from Rome with Complaints this they violate by a disgrace obscene and not decently to be mentioned That occasion'd a war Dreadful were the preparations when so many Nations engag'd in the quarrel of the Tarentines especially one more violent than all the rest Pyrrhus who to defend a City half-Greek as built by the Lacedemonians brought along with him the whole strength of Epirus Thessaly Macedonia and till then unknown Elephants coming upon us by Sea by Land and menacing us with the multitude of Men Horses Arms and moreover the dreadfulness of wilde beasts The first fight was at Heraclea and Siris a River of Campania Levinus being Consul which was so bloody that Obsidius Commander of a Party of Tarentines setting upon the King put him into disorder and forc'd him to cast away his Royal Ensigns and shift out of the Field He had been clearly defeated if the Elephants the * Converso in spectaculum bello Engagement being turn'd into a show had not come into play by whose bulk and deformity as also by their scent and noise the Horse being startled and imagining the Beastâ— to them unknown had been somewhat more than they were occasion'd the first flight and defeat of the Romane Army Afterwards at Asculum in Apulia we engag'd with better success Fabricius and Aemilius being Consuls For the terror of the Elephants being spent C. Minucius a Spear-man of the fourth Legion having cut off the trunck of one of those beasts made it appear they were mortal Whereupon darts were cast also at them and fire-brands being also thrown into the towerâ— upon them overwhelm'd the whole forces oâ— the enemies with burning ruins Nor was thâ— overthrow at an end till night divided thâ— engag'd and Pyrrhus last of all retreating was carried away arm'd and wounded in thâ— shoulder by his guard The last fight was iâ— Lucania in the Aurusinian fields as they calâ— them under the same Consuls And theâ— chance put a period to that victory which valour should have decided For the Elephant being again brought into the front one oâ— them a young one grievously wounded in thâ— head with a dart turned back and bemoaning its self by its noise as it run over those oâ— the enemies whom it had thrown down the damn knew it and broke out of the rank as it were to revenge the injury done it Which put the enemies Camp into confusion and so the same beasts which had gain'd the first fight ballanc'd the second made the Romans victors in the third without any dispute But they fought against Pyrrhus not onely by force of arms and in the open field but they had to do with him also in their Counsels and at home within the City For after the first victory the crafty King assured of
the Romane valor soon despair'd of effecting ought by arms betook himself to artifices He therefore burnt those who had been slain treated the Prisoners kindly and dismiss'd them without ransome And afterwards sending Ambassadors to Rome he endeavour'd all he could to be receiv'd into friendship But both in war and peace abroad and at home the Romane valour was remarkable upon all occasions nor did any thing make a greater demonstration of the Romane prowesse the wisdome of the Senate and the gallantry of their Generals then the Tarentine Victory What brave persons were those whom we finde over-run by the Elephants at the first battel Their wounds were all in their breasts some found dead upon their enemies all swords in their hands terrour appear'd in their countenances and a lively draught of indignation even in theiâ— death Which Pyrrhus so far admir'd that he said Oh how easie were it for me to possess mâ— self of the Worlds Empire having Romanes tâ— my Soldiers or for the Romanes to do it having me for their King What expedition did they who surviv'd use in re-inforcing the Army when Pyrrhus said I see plainâ—y that I was born under the Constellation of Hercules against whom the heads of so many slâ—in enemies wil start up out of their own blood as if they issued out of the Lernaean Serpent But what a glorious Senate was that When upon the remonstrance of Appius the Blinde the Ambassadors were sent away from the City with their Presents and their King asking them whaâ— they thought of the habitations of their enemies they acknowledged that The City seem'd to them a Temple the Senate a Consistory of Kings Moreover what persons were the Generals either in the Camp When Curius sent back the Physician who exposed the head of Pyrrhus to sale when Fabricius refused part of the Empire profferr'd him by Pyrrhus Or in peace when Curius preferr'd his earthen Dishes before the Gold of the Samnites when Fabricius with a gravity beseeming a Censor condemn'd Ruâ—inus a Consular person of superfluity for having silver-plate to the weight of ten pound Who therefore can wonder that the people of Rome should be victorious being endued with such manners so eminent in vertue and such exact observers of Military Discipline And that by this very war with the Tarentines they should in the space of four years bring under their Jurisdiction the greatest part of Italy most powerful Nations most wealthy Cities and most fruitful Countreys Or what would be more incredible if the beginning of the war be compared with the final issue of it Pyrrhus victor at the first Battel having wasted Liris and Fregellae in Campania * Tâ—tâ tâ—emente Itaâ—iâ Campaniam c. all Italy trembling had a fight of Rome then almost taken from the fortress of Praeneste and at twenty miles distance fill'd the eyes of the startled City with smoke and dust The same Pyrrhus being afterwards twice forc'd out of his Camp twice wounded and driven by Sea and Land back into his own Countrey Greece a deep Peace ensued and the spoils of so many most wealthy Nations were so great that Rome could not contain its own Victory Nor did ever a nobler or more magnificent Triumph enter Rome when as before that day it had seen onely the Cattel of the Volsci the Sheep of the Sabines the Waggons of the Gauls and the shatter'd Arms of the Samnites Then if thou hadst beheld the Captives thou mightst have seen Molossians Thessalians Macedonians Bruttians Apulians and Lucanians if the pomp gold purple statues pictures the delicacies of the Tarentines But the people of Rome was pleased at no sight so much as that of those beasts with towers on their backs whereof they had been so much afraid which out of a sense of their captivity bowing down their necks follow'd the victorious Horses CHAP. XIX The Romans engage in a war against those who had favour'd the Tarentines Ascoli taken Sempronius's vow NOt long after Italy enjoy'd an absolute peace For who durst attempt any thing after Tarentines had it not been that the Romans thought good of their own accord to make war on those who had associated themselves with their enemies Whereupon the Picentes were subdu'd and the Metropolis of the nation Asculum under the conduct of P. Sempronius who upon occasion of an Earthquake which happened during the fight appeased the Goddesse Tellus by a vow of building a Temple to her CHAP. XX. The war with the Sallentini Brundusium taken a Temple vow'd to Pales Goddesse of the Shepherds THe Sallentini follow'd the fate of the Picentes and the chief City of the region Brundusium a place famous for its Port was taken under the conduct of M. Attilius And in that engagement Pales Goddesse of Shepherds earnestly desir'd a Temple might be built to her in acknowledgement of the victory CHAP. XXI The Vulsinians implore the assistance of the Romans against their slaves who are brought to their duty by Fabius Gurges THe last of all the several peoples of Italy that did yeeld themselves into the trust and tuition of the Romans were the Vulsinians the wealthiest of Etruria imploring assistance against some who having formerly been their slaves and set at liberty by them had risen up against them and assum'd the Government to themselves But these also were chastiz'd for their insolence under the conduct of Fabius Gurges CHAP. XXII Of the Seditions which happened at Rome Posthumius General of the Roman Army is kill'd with stones The insolence of the Soldiery refusing to fight an insurrection of the people who banish the chiefest of the Nobility the unworthy treatment of Coriolanus and Camillus dissensions between the Senate and the people THis is the second age and as it were adolescency of the Roman people and in which they were freshest warm and vigorous in the flower of their strength There remain'd yet a certain tincture of the pastoral savagenesse which betray'd somewhat of incivilization Thence it came that the army raising a mutiny in the Camp stoned to death Posthumius the General who deny'd them that part of the prey which he had promised that under Appius Claudius they would not overcome the enemy when they might that Valero being their Leader the Fasces of the Consul were broken to pieces most refusing to enter into the service Thence it came that they condemn'd to banishment the most eminent of the nobility when they opposed their desires that they would have done the like by Coriolanus who order'd they should follow Husbandry Which injury he had as sharply reveng'd had not his Mother Veturia with her tears disarm'd her Son when he was ready to fall upon them The same treatment had Camillus himself upon pretence that he had not made an equal divident of the Veientine prey between the Soldiery and the Citizens But he a better person provided for the besieg'd the City being taken and soon after at their suit avenged them of the
out the avenues got into that Province by the way of the marshes of Astrudes through harsh and dangerous places nay such as seem'd inaccessible to birds and by that means terrify'd the King who lay secure and feared no such thing wiâ—h an unexpected alarm of war Whereat he was so starâ—led that he commanded all his mony to be cast into the sea that it might not be lost and that the navy should be burnt to prevent the firing of it by the enemy Paulus being Consul when the Garrison were better mann'd and lay closer one to another than they had done before Macedonia was surprised by another way through the great policy and industry of the General who offering to get in at one place and breaking in at another the King was so startled at his coming that he durst not be present but left the war to be managed by his Commanders Being therefore vanquish'd in his absence he escaped to Sea and so to the Island of Samothrace promising himself protection from the sanctity of the place as if Temples and Altars could secure him whom his own Mountains and Arms could not None of the Kings longer regretted his losse of Fortune Writing to our General as a supplyant from the Temple into which he had fled he set down to the Epistle with his own name his quality of King But no man could expresse a greater respect towards captivated Majesty then Paulus did As soon as the enemy came into his sight he brought him into his Tent and treated him with banquets and admonished his Sons that they should submit to Fortune who was able to do so great things Of all the most magnificent triumphs which the Romans had seen this from Macedonia was one of the chiefest for the show of it lasted three days The first day were brought in Images and Pictures the second Arms and Money the third the Captives and among them the King himself having not recover'd out of his astonishment as if the disaster were but newly befallen him But the people of Rome had receiv'd the joyful news of the Victory before they had it by the General 's Letters For the very day that Perses was vanquish'd in Macedonia the thing was known at Rome Two young men mounted on white Horses were seen washing off dust and blood at the Lake of Suturna These brought the news The common perswasion was that they were Castor and Pollux because there were two of them that they had been present at the fight because they were yet bloody that they came out of Macedonia because they seem'd as it were out of breath CHAP. XIII The Illyrians are vanquish'd by the Praetor Anicius Scodra the chief City of their Country layd desolate THe contagion of the Macedonian war drew in the Illyrians They were Mercenaries under King Perses and should have fallen on the rear of the Romans They are without any trouble subdu'd by the Pro-praetor Anicius It was thought sufficient to lay Scodra chief City of the Nation level with the ground Whereupon there ensu'd an absolute surrender of themselves to bondage In fine this war was at an end before it was known at Rome that it was engag'd in CHAP. XIV The third Macedonian war occasion'd by the usurpation of a mean person named Andriscus the Praetor Juventius is overcome by him but sufficiently reveng'd by Metellus who brings Andriscus captive to Rome THe Carthaginians and Macedonians as if there had been some agreement between them that they should be a third time vanquish'd by a certain disposal of destiny took up Arms at the same time But the Macedonian shook off the yoke first and was reduc'd with the more difficulty because he had been slighted The occasion of the war almost forces a blush for one Andriscus a person of mean descent whether a slave or free is doubtful but certainly a Mercenary invades the Kingdom and undertakes the war But because he was commonly known by the name of Philippus by reason of his likenesse in the face to that Prince he was called Pseudo-Philippus and as he had the resemblance and had assum'd the title of a King so he wanted not a courage beseeming a King Therefore while the Romans slight these things thinking it enough to send the Praetor Juventius against him they rashly engage against a man grown powerful not only by the strength of the Macedonians but also by the great additional Forces of Thrace and are with much regret worsted not by real Kings but by that imaginary and personated Prince But Metellus being Praetor they were fully reveng'd for the former losse of a Legion and the Praetor who commanded it For Macedonia was made subject to bondage and the chief Commander deliver'd up by that Prince of Thrace to whom he had fled was brought to the City in chaines Fortune doing him a kindnesse even in his disasters that the people of Rome made a triumph upon his account as much as if he had really been a King CHAP. XV. The third Pudick or Carthaginian war the deplorable destruction of the City of Carthage by young Scipio THe third war with Africk was short both as to time for it was compleated in four years and in comparison of the former of lesse difficulty for our businesse was not so much against men as against the City it self but if we consider the event it was of great consequence for by that means Carthage was destroy'd And if a man consider the circumstances of former times in the first the war was onely begun in the second almost dispatch'd in the third quite ended But the occasion of this war was that contrary to the Articles of the Treaty they had but once indeed prepar'd a Navy and Army against the Numidians but had several times alarm'd the territories of Masinissa For the Romans had a kindnesse for that good King their Ally When the war was resolv'd upon it wat proposed what should be done after it were ended Cato out of an irreconcileable animosity gave his vote for the destruction of Carthage even while other things were under debate Scipio Nasica alledg'd that it should be preserv'd lest the fear of the Rival-City being once taken away the prosperity of Rome would be apt to break forth into debauches The Senate took a course between both to wit that Carthage might be remov'd from the place where it stood For they thought it a glorious thing there should be a Carthage but such as should not be feared Whereupon Manilius and Censorinus being Consuls the Romans set upon Carthage and having the Navy upon some overture of peace surrendred to them they set it afire in sight of the City Then the chiefest among the Citizens being sent for were commanded if they would save their lives to quiet Carthage Which command seeming too cruel so incensed them that they would rather endure the greatest extremities Whereupon they made publick lamentations and unanimously cry'd out Arms and they were absolutely resolv'd to
and and many bloody engagements brought into subjection those savage Nations which till then were free and impatient of bondage Cato the Censor after some fights worsted the Celtiberians that is the strength of Spain Gracchus the Father of the Gracchi plagu'd the same people by the desolation of a hundred and fitty Cities * Metellus ille cui ex Macedonia cognomeâ— meruerat Celtibericus fieri quam Contrebiam memorabili cepisset exemplo Vertobrigis majori gloriâ pepercit That Metellus who had his sirname from Macedonia he also deserv'd that of Celtibericus having by a memorable exploit taken Contrebia gain'd more glory by not taking Vertobrigae Lucullus reduc'd the Turduli and the Vaccaei from whom the latter Scipio having upon a challenge fought a duel with the King brought away rich spoils Decimus Brutus went somewhat further brought in the Celtae and the Inhabitants of Gallicia and cross'd the River of Oblivion so dreadful to the Soldiers and having taken a victorious progresse all along the Ocean he turned not back his Ensignes till with a certain horrour and apprehension of having committed some sacriledge he beheld the Sun falling into the Sea and its torch quench'd in the waves But the sharpest engagements were with the Lusitanians and Numantians and justly for they only of all the Spanish Nations had excellent Leaders We should also have had work enough with all the Celtiberians if the Author of that insurrection a person of extraordinary subtilty and confidence had not been kill'd at the beginning of the war I mean that Solundicus who brandishing a silver speare as if sent from Heaven had Prophet-like gain'd the affections of all But presuming out of a boldnesse equal to his extravagance in the night to approach the Consul's Camp he was taken off hard by the very Tent with the dart of the Sentinel The Lusitanians were stirr'd up by Viâ—iathus a man of incomparable subtlety who of a Huntsman became a Robber of a Robber he got to be Captain and General and if Fortune had favoured might have been the Romulus of Spain For not content to maintain the liberty of his own people but fâ—r the space of fourteen years he used all hostile exâ—remities at all places both on this side and the other of the Rivers Iberus and Tagus Nay he attempted the Camp and very Guard of our Praetors he had in a manner quite destroy'd the Army under the command of Claudius Vnimanus and had erected in his own Mountains memorable Trophies made of the Roman Ornaments and our Fasces But at length the Consul Fabius Maximus had crush'd him but the victory was soil'd by his Successor Servilius Caepio who desirous to put a period to the war out of basenesse and treachery got the defeated Captain assassinated by some of his own menial servants even while he was contriving how to make a surrender of himself and did thereby the enemy so much honour as that it might seem he could not otherwise have been overcome CHAP. XVIII The City of Numantia opposes the Romans for many years Hostilius Mancinus the Roman General defeated by the Numantians and by order of the Senate deliver'd into the hands of the enemies The constancy and cruel resolution of Numantia exercised on it self THough Numantia was inferiour to Carthage Capua and Corinth in point of wealth yet in honour and reputation of gallantry it was equal to them all and if we consider the Inhabitants of it the greatest ornament of Spain in as much as being a place unwall'd unfortify'd and seated only upon a small ascent neer the River Durius it held out for the space of fourteen years onely with a garrison of four thousand Celtiberians against an Army of forty thousand men nay did not onely hold out but sometimes also gave us great overthrows and forc'd us to dishonourable treaties In fine the reduction of it was thought so far impossible that there was a necessity of employing the same person against it who had destroy'd Carthage To say the truth we must acknowledge that haply there was no war of ours whereof the cause was more unjust then this The Numantians had entertain'd into their City the Segidenses their Allies and Relations the mediation used on their behalf prevailed nothing and while they would have absolutely disengag'd themselves from having ought to do with the war they were order'd to lay down their Arms so to secure the Alliance desired by them This was so heinously resented by the Barbarians as if their hands were to be cut off Whereupon Megara a person of great courage being their Leader they Arm and having fought Pompey they chose rather to enter into a League even when they might have defeated him They had afterwards an engagement against Hostilius Mancinus him also they so worsted with continual overthrows that scarce any one could endure to look upon or hear of an Inhabitant of Numantia and yet they thought fit to make a League with him also contenting themselves with the spoils of the Arms when they might have put all to the sword But the people of Rome being no lesse incensed at the infamy of this Numantian Treaty then they had been at that of Caudium expiated the dishonour of the present miscarriage by the surrender of Mancinus and afterwards under the conduct of Scipio whom the ruine of Carthage had improv'd for the desolation of Cities they resolv'd to revenge it But then we had a harder service in our own Camp than in the Field more to do with our own Soldiery than with the Numantians For being orepress'd with continual unnecessary and for the most part servile employments they of our Soldiery who knew not how to handle their arms were commanded to fill trenches and they who would not be sprinkled with hostile blood should be ignominiously daub'd with dirt They were moreover depriv'd of their common prostitutes the boys and all unnecessary baggage 'T was truely said that such as the General is such is the Army So the Soldiery being reduc'd to discipline the Armies engag'd and that happen'd which no body hoped to have seen that the Numantians were seen to run away Nay they would have surrendred themselves if things fit to be endur'd by men had been enjoyn'd them But Scipio desirous of a true and absolute victory they were reduc'd to the utmost extremities so that their first resolve was to fight it out to the last man having before-hand glutted themselves with a kind of funeral-banquet consisting of half-raw flesh and a drinke made of Corn by the natives called Caelia The General having intelligence of their resolution permitted not an engagement with persons defying death but want of provisions so press'd upon them being surrounded with a Trench a Counterscarp and four Camps that they begg'd an engagement of the General to the end they might die like men But that not obtain'd they resolv'd upon a Sally wherein many were kill'd by which means the survivers liv'd a
his mouth which he had fill'd with Brimstone and fire when he breath'd gently the flames came forth with his words This miracle at first drew together two thousand of such as were next met but after breaking open the prisons he made up an Army of above forty thousand And being adorn'd with Royal ornaments that our miseries might be compleat he made a lamentable desolation of Castles Towns and Villages Nay for an absolute dishonour the Camps of the Praetors were taken nor are we asham'd to name them the Camps of Manilius Lentulus Piso Hypsaeus They therefore who should have been reduc'd as fugitives pursu'd our Praetorian General whom they had defeated in fight At length P. Rupilius being General they were punish'd For having overcome them and at last besieg'd them at Euna after he had wasted them with famine as if it had been with a pestilence he put the remainders of the villains into chaines and fetters and crucify'd them For his Victory over the Slaves he was content with an Ovation that he might not derogate from the dignity of a Triumph by a servile inscription The Island had hardly taken breath ere we return from the Slaves and the Syrian to a Cilician Athenio a Shepherd having kill'd his Master puts the Family deliver'd out of prison into Arms. He himself clad in a Purple garment and having a silver staff and his forehead bound about after a Kingly manner got together an Army not inferiour to that of the formentioned Fanatick and with greater violence as if he would avenge him plundring Castles Towns and Villages he exercised his cruelty upon Masters but more insupportably upon Slaves as so many Renegadoes By this fellow also were Praetorian Armies slain the Camps of Servilius and Lucullus taken But Aquilius following the example of P. Rupilius reduc'd the enemy debarr'd from provisions to extremities and easily destroy'd by famine the Forces he had worsted by Arms and they had surrendred themselves if they had not preferr'd a voluntary death to avoid torments Nay the Ring-leader of them mist the punishment he should have had though he came alive into our Lands for that while the multitude strove about the taking of him the prey was torn to pieces between them CHAP. XX. Spartacus a Gladiator heads an Army of Slaves and puts many affronts on the Romans at last Licinius Crassus vindicates the honour of Rome by the death of the Gladiator A Man may support the dishonour of a war with Slaves for though fortune hath made them subject to all things yet are they as it were a second kind of men and capable of the same happinesse of liberty with us But I know not by what name to call the war raised by Spartacus as where the Soldiery were Slaves and the Commanders Gladiators those the meanest of men by their condition these added to their calamity by the scorn of their profession Spartacus Crixus and Oenoma breaking Lentulus's Fencing-school with seaventy or more of the same quality got away from Capua and having call'd the Slaves into their assistance and put them under their Ensignes when they had got together above ten thousand men were not content onely to have made their escape but would also be revenged The Vesuvius was the first refuge these men were pleased to pitch upon Where being besieged by Clodius Glaber they slip'd down the rifts of the hollow mountain with the help of cords made of vine branches and got down to the very foot of it and at the same time of a sudden surpriz'd the General 's Camp who feared no such thing They afterwards took another Camp Then they wander up and down Thora and all Campania And not content with the devastation of Villages and Hamlets they destroy all in Nola and Nuceria and Metapont Forces coming in daily they became a compleat Army and made themselves Bucklers of twiggs and the skins of beasts and swords and other weapons of the Iron about the prisons And that nothing might be wanting to compleat the Army they get horse by taming those they met with wild and the Ensignes and Fasces taken from our Praetors they brought to their General Nor did he refuse them though a person who of a mercenary Thracian became a Soldier of a Soldier a Renegado then a Robber and at last upon the presumption of his strength a Gladiator He also celebrated the funerals of his Commanders kill'd in fight with Princely exequies commanding such as he had taken prisoners to fight about the funeral pile as it were to expiate all Praetorian dishonour by becoming of a Gladiator a rewarder of those who found him that divertisement Afterwards engaging with Consular Armies he defeated that of Lentulus in the Appenine and destroy'd the Camp of C. Cassius at Mutina Puffed up with these victories he design'd to invade the City of Rome which was shame enough for us In fine we rise with all our Forces against this wretched Fencer and Licinius Crassus vindicated Rome's honour by whom the enemies being put to flight escaped to the extremities of Italy Being there shut up into a corner of Brutium they prepared to escape into Sicily but wanting vessels to transport themselves and having try'd to supply that defect with boats of hurdles and barrels fasten'd together with twigs but vainly by reason of the swiftnesse of the current at last sallying out they dy'd like men and as was fit under the conduct of a Gladiator fought without reprieve Spartacus behaving himself gallantly in the front of the battel fell like a General CHAP. XXI The Civil War of the Romans occasion'd by the ambition of Marius and Sylla THis onely wanted to compleat the misfortunes of the Romans that they might have a parricidial war amongst themselves and that Citizens should engage one against another like Gladiators in the midst of the City and Forum as in a Theatre Yet would it grieve me the lesse if the wickednesse had proceeded from Plebeian Leaders or if from Noble persons bad ones But ô indignity what men what Generals were they Marius and Sylla the glory and ornaments of their age promoted that execrable evil with dignity and it was carried on by three different constellations as I may say The first was mean and slight and rather a tumult then a war the cruelty being onely between the Leaders the next was more cruel and bloody the victory spreading through the Bowels of the Senate the last exceeded in point of rage not onely a civil but even a hostile fury when the horrour of the war engag'd all the Forces of Italy the animosities being exaspâ—ted so far till there were not any to be kill'd The beginning of the war proceeded from Marius's insatiable desire of honours while he laboured to deprive Sylla of the Province design'd him But Sylla impatient of the injury brought about his Legions and deferring the war with Mithridates pour'd into the City at the Esquiline and Colline gates with two great bodies
Brother Remus the establishment of a Sanctuary in Rome the surprizal of the Sabine Virgin Romulus his death and translation among the Gods Page 1. CHAP. II. Numa Pompilius succeeds Romulus his Piety his setlement of Religious affairs 5 CHAP. III. Tullus Hostilius succeeds Numa He instructs the Romans about military engagements declares a war against the people of Alba The famous engagement between the three Horatii and the three Curiatii The treachery of the Latines in the War against the Fidenates 6 CHAP. IV. Ancus Martius Numa's Grand-son is advanc'd to the Throne after Tullus Hostilius he builds the Walls of Rome and a Bridge over the Tiber and sends a Colony to Hostia page 8 CHAP. V. Tarquinius Priscus a foreigner is for his vertue advanc'd to Royalty heightens the glory of the Senate would have encreased the order of Knights but is diverted from it by the Augur Nevius his military atchievements what ornaments of the Empire were of his invention 9 CHAP. VI. Servius Tullius comes to the Government by subtilty He causes an estimate to be taken of the Roman wealth and distinguishes the people into several Orders and Degrees 10 CHAP. VII Tarquin comes to the Crown by the Massacre of Servius the horrid wickedness of his wife Tullia His cruelty and pride render him odious to the people he causes his own Son to be scourged out of a design to abuse the Gabii and builds a Temple at the Capitol Presages of Romes continuance 11 CHAP. VIII A short account of the reign of the seven Kings and a rehearsal of what was most remarkably done by them in order to the advancement of the Commonwealth page 13 CHAP. IX The Regal Dignity transfer'd to the Consuls Brutus and Collarinus the later of whom is deposed for his being descended from the Royal Family Publicola is put into his place Brutus discovering his own Sons siding with the Tarquins puts them to death 15 CHAP. X. Porsenna King of Etruria siding with the Tarquins comes with a powerful Army before Rome reduces it to extream necessity and is ready to force it but astonished at the prodigious gallantry of Mutius Horatius and Clelia he makes an Allyance with the Romans The Combat between Brutus and Tarquin's Son wherein they both fell 17 CHAP. XI â—he Latines engage in the quarrel of the Tarquins give battel to the Romans by whon they are defeated The other neighboring Nations disturb their quiet The Romans fight for the dilatation of their Territories Quinctus Cincinnatus taken from the Plough to be Dictator He subdues the Aequi and treats them as beasts 19 CHAP. XII The Veientes war with the Romans the Family of the Fabii undertake the Engagement they are unfortunately defeated by the Enemies but that loss is recompensed by many Victories obtain'd against the Falisci the Fidenates and the Veientes age 22 CHAP. XIII The Gauls over-run Italy besiege Clusium raise the siege and march directly towards Rome by the way they fight the Roman Army and defeat it They fire Rome massacre the Senators besiege the Capitol into which Manlius had retreated with the choice of the Roman youth The besieg'd having held out long are at last forc'd to capitulate As they are paying the summe agreed upon Camillus charges the Gauls who are forc'd from Rome and extirpated 24 CHAP. XIV The war against the Latines who envy the glory of the Romans Manlius Torquatus put his Son to death fâ—r fighting contrary to his orders Decius devotes himself to death for the safety of the Army CHAP. XV. The war with the Sabins the Romans waste all their Territories under the conduct of the Consul Curius Dentatus CHAP. XVI The war with the Samnites siding with those of Capua the Soil whereof is commended The Roman spend fifty years in that war they are defeated at the streight of Arpaja they revenge that affront upon the Samnites page 31 CHAP. XVII The nations of Italy conspire against Rome Fabius Maximus defeats their Army His fellow Consul Decius following the example of his Father devoted himself to death 34 CHAP. XVIII The Tarentines affront the Romans who arm against them Divers people of Italy assist the Tarentines Pyrrhus King of Epirus engages in their quarrel is victorious at the first Engagement against the Romans and dâ—feated at the two ensuing Battels At last he is forc'd out of Italy and driven back into Greece 36 CHAP. XIX The Romans engage in a war against those who had favour'd the Tarentines Ascoli taken Sempronius's vow 42 CHAP. XX. The war with the Sallentini Brundusium taken a Temple vow'd to Pales Goddesse of the Shepherds 43 CHAP. XXI The Vulsinians implore the assistance of the Romans against their slaves who are brought to their duty by Fabius Gurges page 34 CHAP. XXII Of the Seditions which happened at Rome Posthumius General of the Roman Army is kill'd with stones The insolence of the Soldiery refusing to fight an insurrection of the people who banish the chiefest of the Nobility the unworthy treatment of Coriolanus and Camillus dissensions between the Senate and the people 44 CHAP. XXIII A civil discord occasion'd by the Vsurers and appeased by an Oration of Menenius Agrippa 45 CHAP. XXIV Another civil discord occasion'd by the insolence and tyranny of the Decemvirs Appius Claudius would have ravish'd Virginius's daughter who is kill'd publickly by her Father The Decemvirs displac'd 46 CHAP. XXV The third civil Discord 48 CHAP. XXVI The fourth discord occasion'd by the people's desire to be admitted to dignities the jealousy and vigilancy of the Romans in what concerns their liberty upon which account Spurius Cassius Melius and Manlius are put to death ibid. The Second Book CHAP. I. THe greatness of the people of Rome they subdue Europe Asia and Africk in the space of two hundred years page 51 CHAP. II. The war between the Romans and Carthaginians grounded on the relief of those of Messina The victories gained at Sea by the Romans against Hieron King of Sicily and the Inhabitants of Carthage The Lacedemonians send assistance to the Carthaginians The Commander in chief of the Romans taken prisoner and unworthily treated The destruction of Carthage 52 CHAP. III. Several Nations make incursions upon the Romans but they are all brought under subjection 55 CHAP. IV. Britomarus Leader of the Insubrian Gauls is overcome by Aemilius the defeat of Astrionicus Marcellus kills King Virdomarus and consecrates his arms to Jupiter Feterius page 57 CHAP. V. The Roman Ambassadors barbarously massacred by the Liburnians the punishment inflicted on them and their Prince by Cneus Fulvius 58 CHAP. VI. The second Carthaginian War Hannibal besieges Saguntus the Romans to be reveng'd arm against the Carthaginians Hannibal's oversight after the great Victory at Cannae Fabius and Marcellus make it appear by their conduct that Hannibal was not invincible the same Hannibal besieges Rome thinking thereby to raise the siege before Capua Roman Armies sent into divers Provinces the first Scipios after they had
been victorious in Affrick are at last defeated Publius Scipio undertakes the war and comes off with successe and renown 59 CHAP. VII The Romans enter into a war against the Macedonians who had assisted Hannibal The Macedonians defeated King Philip makes a peace the Romans give liberty to the Grecians page 72 CHAP. VIII Antiochus King of Syria demands a City of Thrace of the Romans who thereupon take occasion to enter into a war against him He is overcome by Aemilius Regulus A second defeat of Antiochus upon which he accepts of a peace 75 CHAP. IX The Rhodians and Athenians use their mediation with the Romans on the behalf of the Aetolians Cephalenia and other Islands subdu'd by the Romans 79 CHAP. X. The Istrians plunder Manlius's Camp but afterwards being surpriz'd in the midst â—f the jollity are defeated and their King taken prisoner 80 CHAP. XI The Gallo-grecians are subdu'd by the Romans the great courage and gallâ—ntry of a Ladâ— in revenging her self of a Centurion who had done her violence CHAP. XII The second Macedonian or Persian war the allyance between the Macedonians and the Thraciansâ— the policy of K. Perses who yet is overcome by P. Aemilius The description of a magnificent triumph the news of the Victory brought to Rome the very day of the Engagement by the means of two young men who were thought to be Castor and Pollux page 82 CHAP. XIII The Illyrians are vanquish'd by the Praetor Anicius Scodra the chief City of their Country layd desolate 85 CHAP. XIV The third Macedonian war occasion'd by the usurpation of a mean person named Andriscus the Praetor Juventius is overcome by him but sufficiently reveng'd by Metellus who brings Andriscus captive to Rome 86 CHAP. XV. The third Pudick or Carthaginian war the deplorable destruction of the City of Carthage by young Scipio 88 CHAP. XVI Corinth the Metropolis of Achaia declared an enemy to the people of Rome for the affronts done to their Ambassadors it is destroy'd and consum'd by fire 91 CHAP. XVII An account of Transactions in Spain which is set upon by the Romans and the Provinces of it subdu'd by several Commanders the policy and valour of a Spanish Captain he is afterwards kill'd by a Roman Soldier Viriathus a Portuguez compar'd to Romulus Pompilius orders him to be murther'd page 93 CHAP. XVIII The City of Numantia opposes the Romans for many years Hostilius Mancinus the Roman General defeated by the Numantians and by order of the Senate deliver'd into the hands of the enemies The constancy and cruel resolution of Numantia exercised on it self 79 CHAP. XIX A summary of the Roman wars for the space of two hundred years 101 CHAP. XX. Attalus King of Pergamus makes the people of Rome his Heir Astronicus takes occasion thence to enter into a war against them Crassus defeated and taken Prisoner Astronicus subdu'd and put into chains the unworthy procedure of Aquilius in poisoning the springs and by that means blasting the reputation of the Romans 103 The Third Book CHAP. I. Jugurth King of Numidia wars against the Romans he endeavours to overcome them by arâ—ifiâ—es and presents At last after several defeats he is betray'd into the hands of Sâ—lla by the meaâ—â—â—â— Bocchus page 105 CHAP. II. The victory obtainâ—d by the Romans beyond the Alps over the Salii the Allobroges and the Aruerni Domitius Aenobarbus and Fabus Maximuâ— erect Towers of stone and set up Trophies on them 109 CHAP. III. The Cimbri and Tentones design an Incursion into Italy they defeat several Armies of the Romans but are at last defeated themselves by Marius The strange resolution of their Wives A miraculous thing happen'd at Rome after the defeat 110 CHAP. IV. The Thracians revolt commit many insolences and â—nhumanities Porrius Cato defeated by them at last they are defeated by divers Roman Generals The Victory obtain'd by Lucullus 115 CHAP. V. Mithridates wars against the Romans and takes Bithynia from them and bring all Asia into an inclination to revolt He causes all the Roman Citizens to be massacred in the Provinces of Asia Sylla defeats him in two battels Mithridates raises a greater Army besieges Cyzicum and is overcome by Lucullus The signal Victory of Pompey over both Mithridates and Tigranes He over-runs all Asia and brings it in subjection to the Romans page 117 CHAP. VI. The Cilician Pirates scour the Seas and hinder Commerce Pompey's miraculous success in the reduction of them in forty days 124 CHAP. VII The Cretians set upon by the Romans defeat the Army of M. Antonius Metellus revenges the affront and treats them most cruelly 127 CHAP. VIII The Inhabitants of the Balearick Islands turn Pirates and engage with the Roman Fleet by which they are defeated 128 CHAP. IX Cyprus sack'd by the Romans and the wealth of it brought to Rome by Porcius Cato 130 CHAP. X. A memorable Exploit of Caesars among the Gauls and in Great Britain He builds a Bridge over the Rhine Vercingetorix submits to him 131 CHAP. XI Crassus vanquish'd and kill'd by the Parthians the indignity exercised by his enemies upon him after his death CHAP. XII A Recapitulation comprehending a Description of the Misfortunes of the Romans proceeding from plenty and that their arming against themselves is to be attributed to the same cause page 139 CHAP. XIII Of the Sedition occasion'd by the power bestow'd on the Tribunes 142 CHAP. XIV The Sedition occasion'd by Tiberius Gracchus who is opposed and kill'd 143 CHAP. XV. Caius Graachus attempts to prosecute the design of his Brother Tiberius and is murthered by Opimius upon Mount-Aventine 145 CHAP. XVI Apuleius Saturninus renews the quarrel of the Grachii he is assisted by Marius and commits many outrages Marius is forced to desert him He gets into the Capitol and surrenders himself to the Senate The people tear him to pieces 146 CHAP. XVII Livius Drusus would inforce the Graachane Laws Cepio violates the Senate The Consul Philippus opposing him is unworthily treated the sudden death of Drusus 148 CHAP. XVIII All Italy in a commotion a general conspiracy which after great destructions of men is at last appeased page 150 CHAP. XIX An insurrection of the Slaves Sicily under the Government of a Syrian who feigns himself a Fanatick They are at last overcome and punish'd by the valour of Rupilius A second insurrection of the Slaves quieted by Aquilius 152 CHAP. XX. Spartacus a Gladiator heads an Army of Slaves and puts many affronts on the Romans at last Licinius Crassus vindicates the honour of Rome by the death of the Gladiator 155 CHAP. XXI The civil War of the Romans occasion'd by the ambition of Marius and Sylla 158 CHAP. XXII The valour of Sertorius banish'd Rome by the proscription of Sylla He makes an insurrection in Spain and after many gallant exploits is kill'd by treachery 164 CHAP. XXIII Lepidus raises new commotions he is vanquish'd and dies in Sardinia 166 The Fourth Book CHAP. I. The detestable conspiracy of Catiline
Gauls their enemies They contended also with the Senate about equity and right so far as thaâ— deserting their habitations they menaced solitude and destruction to their Country CHAP. XXIII A civil discord occasion'd by the Vsurers and appeased by an Oration of Menenius Agrippa THe first discord was occasion'd by the tyrannical exactions of the Usurers who exercising their rage even to the beating of their debtors on the back the common people drew up in arms to the Sacred Hill and was with much difficulty perswaded thence by the authority of Menemius Agrippa an eloquent and wise man yet not till they had got Tribunes There is yet extant the story of that ancient Oration which was so prevalent to induce them to concord wherein it is reported that heretofore the members of mans body fell out among themselves alledging that all of them executing their charges only the belly was free from any that afterwards being ready to perish by the difference they were reconciled to it when they were made sensible that by its means the nourishment being reduced into blood they were sustained and kept in vigour CHAP. XXIV Another civil discord occasion'd by the insolence and tyranny of the Decemvirs Appius Claudius would have ravish'd Virginius 's daughter who is kill'd publickly by her Father The Decemvirs displac'd THe second discord broke forth in the midst of the City occasion'd by the licentiousnesse of the Decemvirate Ten of the most eminent of the City had by order from the people written down the Laws brought out of Greece and the whole course of the administration of Justice was set down in twelve Tables which done they would still keep the power once deliver'd to them in their hands out of an humour which betray'd somewhat of tyranny Above any of the rest Appius Claudius came to that height of insolence as to attempt the dishonour of a Virgin nobly descended having forgotten Lucretia and the Kings and the Law which himself had set down Therefore when Virginius her Father saw that his daughter was by an unjust sentence to be condemn'd to bondage he immediately stuck not to kill her in the midst of the Forum with his own hands whereupon the bannerr of his Fellow-Soldiers being display'd he carryes away those insolent Magistrates surrounded with arms from Mount Aventine and disposes them into prisons and fetters CHAP. XXV The third civil Discord THe third discord was raised upon occasion of the dignity of Marriages that the Plebeians might inter-marry with the Patricians which tumult broke forth in Mount Janiculum Canuleius a Tribune of the people being the Author and fomenter of it CHAP. XXVI The fourth discord occasion'd by the people's desire to be admitted to dignities the jealousy and vigilancy of the Romans in what concernes their liberty upon which account Spurius Cassius Melius and Manlius are put to death AMbition of honour occasion'd the fourth discord that the Plebeians might be admitted into the Magistracy Fabius Ambustus Father of two daughters bestow'd one on Sulpicius a person of Patrician extraction the other on Stolo a plebeian who took it as an affront that his wife frightned at the noise of the Lictor's rod a thing not known at her own house had been scornfully laugh'd at by her sister Being therefore advanc'd to the Tribune-ship he extorted from the Senate though against their wills a communication of Honours and Magistracy But in these very seditions a man may find sufficient reason to admire the people of the world in as much as one while they vindicate liberty another chastity then the nobility of extraction and then the marks and distinctions of honours And among all these they were not more vigilant in the assertion of any than in that of Liberty which they could never by corruption be induc'd to betray though in a people already great and growing dayly greater there must needs be some turbulent members They put to present death Sp. Cassius suspected of affecting soveraignty by his publishing of the Agrarian Law and Maelius charg'd with the same ambition grounding their jealousie upon his liberality towards the people Of Spurius indeed his own Father had ordered the punishment but Servilius Ahala Master of the Horse run the other through in the midst of the Forum by order from the Dictator Quinctius Nay that Manâ—ius who had preserv'd the Capitol demeaning himself more insolently and uncivilly than he should have done upon this acccount that he had freed most of the debtors they cast him down headlong from the Fortresse which he had defended Such was the people of Rome at home and abroad such were they in peace and war Thus did they passe through the streight of their Adolescency that is the second age of their Empire during which they by their arms subdu'd all Italy from the Alps to the Sea-side THE ROMAN HISTORY BY L. JULIUS FLORUS The Second Book CHAP. I. The greatness of the people of Rome they subdue Europe Asia and Africk in the space of two hundred years ITaly being brought under and subdu'd the people of Rome was arrived near its five hundredth year and to the height of its Adolescency for if there be any strength if any youth can be imagin'd then was it truely vigorous young and in a condition to deal with all the world That people therefore a thing prodigious and hardly to be credited which hath spent five hundred years in Contestations near home so great a work was it to give Italy a Head in the ensuing two hundred years over-ran Europe Africk Asia nay the whole habitable World with their wars and victories CHAP. II. The war between the Romanes and Carthaginians grounded on the relief of those of Messina The victories gained at Sea by the Romanes against Hieron King of Sicily and the Inhabitants of Carthage The Lacedemonians send assistance to the Carthaginians The Commander in chief of the Romanes taken prisoner and unworthily treated Thâ— destruction of Carthage THe Victor-people of Italy having reduc'd all quite to the Sea met with a little check like a fire which having consum'd the woods lying in its way is stopp'd by some interposing river Soon after perceiving at no great distance a most wealthy prey which seem'd in a manner forc'd and torn off from their own Territory Italy they were so extreamly desirous of it that in regard they could not come at it by the meanes oâ— * Moâ—e Moals or Bridges they resolv'd to joyn it to Italy by arms and war But see the Fates themselves making way for them there wanted not an occasion when Messina an allyed City of Sicily complained of the Tyranny of the Carthaginians who as well as the Romans would gladly have been Masters of Sicily nay they both at the same time with equal earnestness and force design'd to themselves the Empire of the world Under pretence therefore of assisting their Allies but indeed lur'd by the prey though startled at the strangeness of the Attempt yet so great