with his civilities His answer too was so moving and full of Obligation that thereby I the more clearly discovered the height of my passion for the Princess Statira which made me deaf to friendship and justice and resign the power entirely even to a hopeless Love but yet to a Love so glorious and so charming that not to have given it the precedency of all other considerations would have been a greater Crime than to have done it What need I tell you more generous Princes than that this conference ended with the high satisfaction and trouble of us both the one to see we had such invitation to be friends and the other that there was such an impossibility of becoming so But before I took leave of the unhappy Nicomedes I begg'd him to tell me what was become of Atafernes to which he reply'd If he were living he was in the power of Murena's Soldiers for he had been taken by the Roman Legionaries This doubt rais'd in me so many fears and troubles that they were visible to the King of Bithynia who therefore assured me since he perceived I was concerned for him he would thenceforth be the like I pay'd him as many acknowledgments for that promise as for all his other respects which he increased by telling me Lest you may believe the denyal of your friendship to me has supprest mine to you Permit me to tell you Your disorders at Atafernes's danger may be prejudicial to you for I see your Army is ready to begin the Battel having Ariobarzanes and Murena to supply my absence and that yours probably having none to supply yours may sustain a prejudice which this way I would not have it endure were it commanded by Mithridates himself much less being 't is by the brave Callimachus whose refusal of my offers I cannot be offended at since by what he has told me I must believe it springs from a cause to which not only a desired friendship has been inferiour but even a formed one and which I have experimented has been so prevalent with me that I cannot be offended at its now being so against me These words made me at once joy'd and confounded this that he should know the truth of the thing though not of the person and that that it had produced so obliging an effect In brief we parted and I believe as full of thoughts at what had past as at what was to come he galloping to the head of his Troops as I did to the head of mine where I gave all the chief Officers a Relation of Nicomedes's desires to me which only had occasioned and continued our conference of which also I sent an account to the Pontick King that he might have no cause to suspect my fidelity which was tyed unto him by an Obligation though secret yet incorruptible This being done I forthwith sent every Commander to his respective place and having in a short speech incited the Soldiers to manifest their courages for and before their King I commanded the signal of Battel to be given and then the military Musick began to invite us to that glory which so Noble a Field was to present the Conquerour never perhaps was there a Battel in which so many Kings and of Royal blood were Actors or Beholders and never perhaps were Armies so brave and glittering as these The King of Bithynia and the King of Cappadocia appear'd in an Equipage and with Forces worthy their Titles and their hopes and Murena manifested that the people of Rome were sometimes as exorbitant as the Asâ—aticks which their pride or wisdom so much condemn'd On the other side Mithridates Troops which consisted for the most part of the young Nobility and Gentry of his Dominions which their honour as much as his danger had incited under his Ensigns were so gallant and rich in their Furnitures as were also all those Courtiers which shame or glory had drawn out of Nicomedia that they look'd rather like going to triumph after a Victory than to win one Who even that morning had beheld the various multitudes of Colours the Wind and those which carried them did wanton with The glistering of Arms and Swords the vast Numbers of brave Horse all seeming as impatient of delay as their very Riders the variety of Nations and Habits and their distinct Martial Countenances the exact regularity every individual Battalion had within its self and the perfect proportion all of them had with each other whoever too had heard the neighing of the Horse the shouts of the Soldiers and the Military Instruments could not but have confess'd how deformed soever the face of War uses to appear yet that day it had Charms enough to have captivated even that Sex whose Nature is compos'd of pity I must acknowledg how greedy soever I was of a Victory which I hoped might in some measure repair the unhappiness or ignorance of my Birth yet I was so delighted with that Noble entertainment and Prospect that it was with some reluctancy I put a period to it The Enemies Forces consisted as I may say of three Armies and were commanded by Nicomedes Ariobarzanes and Murena out of all which Archilaus and Neoptolemus had a great body of Horse and Foot given them to lead who acted so many high things that day that had it been for their Countrey as it was against it their precedent guilt might have been thereby entirely defas'd In imitation of the Enemies Order I had divided my Army into three equal parts having first chosen out a select Number as a general reserve to answer all Emergencies and because I was exceedingly over-power'd in Foot I placed behind every Battalion of my Foot a Reserve of Horse to countenance and second them which proved of no small use Secretly behind the outwardmost divisions of our wings of Horse I placed some of our best Archers who when we were going to charge discovered themselves and thereby not only amazed but so gall'd our Enemies with their Arrows that the wounded Horses by their disorders made sufficient breaches for us to enter at This too did not a little help us but that which did most was this which I am now going to tell you for I never saw it practis'd before and it was then of so great an advantage that you will perhaps pardon my particularizing of it and possibly one day have occasion to make use of it which if you have I wish it may be as successful to the followers as to the beginner of it I found when our Armies faced one another that the Enemy did much over-wing us and that possibly therefore he had neglected to secure his left Flank with a deep stream which ran some three furlongs from it so that he had so much of Champion-ground on that wing and had much more on the other In our embatteling therefore I let him see how much he outwinged us on both sides but when he moved to the Charge I gave strict order to all
hinder'd their assaulting so valiant an Enemy who by this time had so over-haras'd himself that Perolla who had more inclination to preserve than destroy so admirable a valour took occasion by hearing a division of Horse came trampling up the Street to offer him Quarter for he thought his Enemy was too gallant to resign his liberty to a single Sword having still his own in his hand to dispute it neither was he deceived in his conjecture for the other was so far from listening to a surrender or being terrified at that Troop which was coming towards him that he replyed Whosoever thou art that to give me a good opinion of thy civility assurest me thou hast an ill one of my courage know that I shall be more pleased to receive death than safety from my Enemies and have more cause to be joyed than troubled at this assistance which is near thee for I would not have Maharbal curst with so low a Fate as to fall by one Enemy which the arrival of so many will I hope prevent Oh gods said Perolla extreamly surpriz'd are you then the generous Maharbal I am what I told thee he reply'd but lest my being so ill-accompanied might induce thee to suspect the contrary or that by naming my self thou shouldst think I intend my preservation I will by a generous death hinder thee from justly assuming that thought but whilst those I elect for my Executioners are coming let me know I be seech thee who thou art that giv'st me so advantagious a Title Alas Sir said my generous friend my Name is much fitter to be conceal'd than known it may wound you more than my Sword has done and perhaps I shall be less injurious in declining than obeying your Commands but yet that you may learn 't was my ignorance made my offence and that I persevere not willingly in the former to continue the latter know I am called Perolla that same Perolla whom you so generously reveng'd on the false Oristes who would lose his life for you as he ows it to you and who now thinks your preserving him a misfortune since thereby he has lift up his prophane Arm against his generous Deliverer but that you may see I am unfortunate and not ungrateful Here Sir said Perolla presenting him his Sword this cannot make reparation for what it has acted but by becoming the Sword of Justice and by spilling some criminal Bloud for having shed so much innocent Mabarbal was as surpriz'd at this Gallantry as at the knowledge of him that performed it and being a Prince as great in Virtue as in Title and as loath to be vanquish'd in civility as fight having passionately embrac'd Perolla and as absolutely declin'd his Present told him If I had been kill'd as well as I am conquer'd by your Sword and that you had known who 't was you destroyed your injustice yet had been as great as your courage For my attempting to surprize a place for Hannibal where your Izadora is deserves that Fate But if you will credit to profession which my actions seem to contradict I do protest before those gods which punish perjury that when I could not obtain Hannibals permission to decline this attempt I put my self at the head of our first Troops that if we had been victorious I might have conveyed your Mistriss from his passion or revenge for both now seem so equally powerful that 't is difficult to know which of them is the most But it seems the gods would have Izadora derive her safety only from him from whom she does her felicity and I attest those Powers that I am more pleased with our defeat than I could have been at our victory and if I resent any trouble at it it is to be found in a posture wherein I must be wholly bound to your goodness not to be concluded your Enemy as much as I am your Prisoner which is a Fate I willingly embrace for I count it as little a dishonour to be vanquisht by Perolla as 't is a great one to be so by any other I should be Perolla hastily replyed because those Horse were so neer as much an Enemy to my contentment in believing you were so to me as to Virtue did I accept of my Protector for my Prisoner No generous Maharbal I assure you you are free and if you will be pleased to take off the Carthaginian and put on Roman Colours till I have disposed of this Troop you shall find I will turn my promises into action and that where I have any power it shall be still employed to evidence a gratitude which cannot be greater than what creates it The Salapians were by this so near that Maharbal wanted time to answer this civility and had scarce pulled off his own Scarfe and taken his friends before they were come up Perolla immediately commanded them to follow him out of the Brutian Gate to discover whether any of the Enemy were yet about the Walls which they were no sooner out of than he desired Maharbal in civilities proportionate to the favour to make use of that occasion to return to the Carthaginian Army Maharbal embrac'd the opportunity and him that gave it him to whom he said I am sorry generous Perolla that I must receive an obligation from you which I must not publish but be sure though I am silent I am not ungrateful and that I shall remember what I dare not speak of nor hope to requite That said Perolla which is the subject of your sorrow is of my contentment since it lets you see I ambition no other glory in serving you than that of doing so 'T was in as many expressions of this quality as the time would permit that Maharbal and Perolla took leave of one another the first immediately overtook the Carthaginian Army which he discovered by the help of the day that then began to dawn and the last seemed to have received satisfaction in what he never doubted returned into Salapia by the contrary Port to that through which he went out of it and then not staying to dress so much as some slight hurts he received in the Combat and from Maharbal he came to visit Blacius where having given him an exact account of all things but his own gallantry against his Enemies and to his friend he desired to receive his Commands if he had any to impose on him for he was determined immediately to return to the Roman Camp lest a longer stay might raise in him a suspition that he came for some other intent than the honor of his service This fresh evincement of affection wrought so powerfully on a heart which was already ballancing that it intirely dissipated that aversion which till then my Father had contracted for him and to publish a change which he thought too just to be conceal'd he told Perolla You have made your Virtue too well known to let your professions need a demonstration to prove their truth No generous Perolla
cannot call a crime because 't is to preserve you from one This only being the cause of my Arming I esteemed it not fit to divulge it but rather appear a Rebel than manifest your Passion is one to you when you can command it you shall command both me and those with me but till then I must preserve you from what virtue should and thereby merit the honour of your favour if I possess it not Arsaces detained this Messenger till he had formed a Reply which he was not a little troubled to do for if he continued his Passion he must the War and perhaps the despair of taking the cause of it and if he seemed to decline his Passion he must violate his engagement or what it may be he valued more Whilst this Dilemma was debating the Army and Garison were so too for there was during the Treaty no suspension of Arms and the Arsacians stormed an Out-work from whence they were beaten with loss and shame Surena to let his Enemies know he was well and could use his success so With the greatest part of his Garison and himself at the head of them made so resolute a charge upon three great Squadrons of Horse and Foot who were to justifie the Assaliants retreat that he forced them all to a precipitate one and doubtless had carried his Success to a sublimer degree had not Orodes in person with 3000 select Horse first put a suspension and then a period to his victory We saw all this from off the Castle and that Surena did miracles in his person to regain the victory or it but at length most of his Forces being cut in pieces or taken Prisoners he followed the fate of the latter which he received from a Gentleman in black Armour But we had hardly the leisure to deplore so sensible a loss since he that imposed it did redress it too by not only giving Surena his liberty again but by securing it till he came to the Graffe of the Castle Surena had but few wounds for so many dangers he had been engaged in but of 1000 Horse and Foot which made the Sally only two hundred returned alive and half of those by their wounds continued not so six days Our impatience to learn from whom both Surena and we had received so signal an obligation made us go meet him in the entrance of the Castle where he told us privately that it was from the Prince Ariobarzanes who upon his knowledg of him desired no other ransom for the restoring his freedom than to grant him his Pardon and procure him Zephalinda's for having deprived him of it This Gallantry both the Brother and Sister extolled in terms as great as it self and the latter perhaps esteemed her necessitated ingratitude to him as high a misfortune as Artabbanes's was to her The great loss we sustained by his Sally reduced us to a condition so deplorable that Surena himself began to apprehend it and to confess his best consolation was He should lose his Life in a Service in which he had vowed to spend it and thereby if he could not prevent my misfortunes yet he should not live to see them The morning which succeeded this sad day there came a Gentleman from the Camp attended by a Trumpeter who telling the Guards he was employed from the King to their Prince was admitted and received by him in the Court where to conceal our deficiency all the Garison but the Centries on the Line were assembled The Express presented from Orodes a Letter to Surena which without opening he immediately came and presented me in my Chamber where Lyndadory and Zephalinda were to learn the effect of it having there unsealed it we found 't was all written with Arsaces's own hand and contained these words Arsaces King of Parthia To Surena THough the condition the gods have reduced you to might invite me by resentment as well as justice to employ my Power rather than my Mercy yet because you attribute your crime to a service to Parthenissa I shall esteem it one to me and not only pardon your having given her so bad a character of my Passion as what you have acted must make her assume but to divest her of Fear and you of Excuse I do hereby engage my self by all those obligations I esteem most sacred I will be so far from forcing her to be my Queen that I will not solicite it and I would even give her leave to seek a Sanctuary under some other King did I not know that would but too much cloud the Government of her own which could not but be abhorred when so much Beauty and Virtue should be necessitated to implore a Foreign Protection This Letter gave me joys which were uncapable of accession but by both your returns I told Surena that the cause of the War being taken away the effects ought to cease that doubtless Arsaces was real in his promises since he had when they were freely made as much the power to violate them as he could have when I was in his that probably my coldness had extinguished his flame which though it were no common operation in Love yet it was as Surena experimentally knew a possible one and therefore since Arsace's taking the Castle which he had as much the power as the will to do might inspire him with intentions our submission and reliance on him would suppress I esteemed it the best course to accept of what we could indeed no longer decline Surena was about to have replyed when one of his Servants advertised him That the Gentleman employed by the King had a Message to deliver him which he desired might be without witnesses I observed him a little surprised at my motion and it may be he was glad to cloud his disorder by this opportunity which he begged me to permit him to accept since it was not improbable but it might be much conducive to the forming our resolutions I know not whether he thought the making his request was sufficient towards the granting but he had no sooner desired my permission than he took it and whilst he was entertaining the King 's Express the fair Zephalinda was entertaining me with some fears she but then had assumed which were That I had avoided being a Prey to one of my Lovers but to be one to another This free declaration made me conclude she had but too pregnant evincements for the making it and that it was her knowleg not her suspition which gave me one of her Brother I acquainted her with this belief with as much clearness as she had me with hers but when she protested to me her apprehensions had only their being from the minute of Surena's disorders and at the overture which had created them I began to hope her affection for me made her suspect her Brother's having too much which the better to determine we jointly resolved to press the accepting the King's offer Surena by his return gave me leave to
his brother Archilaus led as many compos'd of various Eastern Nations Canzaber a famous Bactrian Prince led Thirty thousand foot of that wild Countrey and of the Zogdians and amongst many others the young Prince Archathias eldest Son to Mithridates by a Pâ—ntick Lady whose death had given him the libeâ—ty of making his addresses to Fontamyris was at the head of Ten thousand Armenian Horse and became his Command so well that his good meen and courage abundantly suppli'd the want of his experience To this immense Land-army Mithridates had as considerable a Naval one under the Command of Betuitus which Anchor'd at the mouth of the River Amadus near whose banks this fatal difference was decided and from which the ensuing battel took its name Nicomedes army though inferiour in Number yet was not so in the confidence of Victory for the Senate knowing how much depended on this great field had to their Legions under Cassius and Mannius sent Appius a noted Captain who had re-inforced his Romans with so considerable a Number of Cappadodocians that his Army only consisted of forty thousand Horse and Foot Mannius by those helps he had out of Pamphilia was no less not Cassius's neither who had newly received large accessional Forces out of Galatia and Phrâ—gia To all these Nicomedes had brought Fifty thousand foot and six thousand all natural Bythinians and that the Empire of the Sea as well as of the Land might be at once decided he sent Order to Minutius Russus and Caius Popilius to leave the Guard of the Pontick Sea which thitherto had been their employment by express Order from Rome to engage â—etuitus's Fleet when the Land forces began the battel The Armies being drawn up by that time the Sun had reach'd the South Nicomedes encouraged the Romans by the Glory which that day they might win and by the profit the Victory would present them which was no less than the civilized parts of Asiâ— Then addressing himself to his own Subjects he only told them 'T is this day O Bythinians that you will decide from whom you derived your Originals For if you seek your safety in any thing but your Valours your Enemies will not only stay but even your King will believe and you will prove That you are indeed descended from those Cowards which the unfortunate Rhesus led to the relief of Troy and which Diomed the first Night conquer'd and dispersed But if by your courages you successfully court Fortune and Victory for 't is only by Valour those are won the world will know you draw your extraction from the Lineage of the gods and that Bithis the Son of Iupiter and Thracis was the noble Source from whence you are descended Nicomedes said no more neither indeed needed he for the Bithynians were so jealous of their pedigree and so offended at their enemies saying they were descended from those Grecian Fugitives that they esteemed Death a much less misfortune than to be denied their true Original or to have that false one imposed on them upon both which scores only they had often in ancient times begun and continued bloody Wars The Military Musick was beginning to invite the hearers to drown it in their shouts when a Post came to Nicomedes from Fontamyris to acquaint him that the gods had given him the unfortunate Callimmachus which name Arsamnor my Governour gave me at Athens it signifying in the Bithynian language as much as unhappy at the Birth my own being Nicomedes which yet I never wore being but too much known by the misfortunes of it But with this desired news my Father begun the Battel having first communicated it to the Bithynians whose joy made the Enemy mourn for carried on with so high an Addition to their Valours they acted things which both the Romans and Mithridates admired Neither did Nicomedes performances exact a less debt for having now a successor he was the more prodigal of himself whereby all that durst resist him soon found the bloody punishment of that confidence But alas what certainty is there of humane things When the poor Nicomedes in the height of his Glory and at the head of a conquering Army from a single unknown hand received a Dart which piercing through his Body deprived him of speech and sense The Bithynians by a general groan solemnized his fall and the Mithridatians imagining what alone in so fair a way to Victory could produce so strange an effect by a shout of joy acquainted the sad Bithynians they knew what made them so But the passion of grief at the Bithynians loss being greater than their fury for it and at the same instant Craterus charging into their greatest Body with his armed Chariots brought so general a disorder to Nicomedes subjects that they scarce could carry off his wounded Body and the Romans with their Auxiliaries seeing the Bithynians flie from that Victory they had so generously courted and almost obtained despaired of recovering the day which they had much more cause for when Craterus and Arcathias charged Cassius in front and flank as Neoptolemus and Archilaus did Mannius and as Canâ—aber and Dorilaus did Appius where they found so poor an opposition that I may therefore truly say They got not the glory though they got the field Some affectionate Servants of my Fathers believing when his side lost his assistance they would also the Battel carried him away in a Litter past the fury of the execution and then by easie journeys brought him to Nicomedia so happy he was in his misfâ—rtune as to find by experiment that the Fate of Aâ—ia and the lives of some hundred thousands had depended on his sword and courage for whilst those did act Victory followed his side and abandoned it when they did not Nor was Mithridates obliged only to one Element for Victory for his Fleet had triumphed on the Sea as his Army had on the Land Betuitus presented him with the heads of Minutius Ruffus and Caius Popilius the two Roman Admirals who elected to share in their Navies Fate rather than to out-live it And that Mithridates might have no cloud to obscure his Glory though the number of his Army exceeded his Enemies yet the number of those which fought did not for eighty thousand horse and foot which composed his last Battalion obliged the rest of his Army only by their not contributing to their success Ten thousand Bythinian Officers and Soldiers who that fatal day had lost their liberty were the next brought before Mithridates who sent them all as a present to Fontamyris and as he said as so many witnesses of the error of her choice Nicomedes as soon as he was recovered rallied of all his Armies some Forty thousand Foot and Four thousand Horse with which he attempted Mithridates Army which was divided and secure by their former Victory But this Battel fought on the Banks of Gargarus was an exact Repetition of the former My Father had the Victory till by wounds he was disabled
be my reward This discourse of Evaxes had something of probability in it and knowing it was but fighting which I determin'd to do in case he should betray me I resolv'd rather to trust absolutely to him which if he had any principle of virtue would bind him then to evidence it than by sending two Gentlemen with him expose them to an unavoidable loss as likewise by trusting of him but in part invite him thereby to be false in the whole Having made this my election I told him Go Evaxes and by so handsom an action efface the guilt of your precedent Crimes you shall be accompanied with nothing but your goodness which I know will be a confinement to you to do well than if all our Swords were at your Brest to punish you should you do otherwise To which Evaxes reply'd that if he had been still in the darkness of his former Principles so perfect a truth would have lighted him into the way of virtue Having so said he advis'd me to withdraw my self into a small bottom nigh the high-way that I might remain undiscover'd till the Enemy were in the Toyle and I that would send one along with him to the top of the next Hill to give me warning when Palisdes and his friends should advance and to advertise me if I were betray'd These last words he said smiling and I having told him that I would send one for the first reason but not for the last Evaxes gallopt away accompany'd with a Gentleman whom he placed upon a rising ground where he might easily discover the effect of his Embassy To be brief Evaxes so ordered his affairs with Palisdes that he sent back his Troops and came along accompany'd with Twenty of his Friends that were the chief of the Conspiracy who carelesly riding fell into our hands and though surprized made so gallant a resistance that ten of them were kill'd before we could reduce the rest Those that remain'd alive in which number was Palisdes though somewhat wounded we resolv'd to present unto the King that justice not force might be their Executioner Having thus happily begun our first enterprize Evaxes offer'd to endeavor the delivery of Celindus into our hands by the like stratagem but were interrupted by Philanax who came all out of breath and told me that he saw many Soldiers in the Plain who fought so furiously that it was easie to be imagin'd the gaining the Victory was very considerable to them but that the number was unequal and that those which were the lesser seemed to have nothing but their resolutions to keep them from being vanquished The great apprehension I had least my relief might not come time enough gave me Wings so that though I came not so soon as I desir'd yet I had this consolation that I omitted nothing which was in my power When I was within some few paces of the Scene where this bloody Tragedy was acting I might perceive a small company of Gentlemen that had cast themselves into a Ring and in the hollow of the circle had placed one who I imagined was the King and defended him with courages fitter to be admir'd than describ'd but their virtue was yielding to their Enemies Numbers had not we then come to their rescue and the sight of so much barbarousness having inspir'd me and mine with as much Fury we fell upon them with such violence that we reduced them to that condition which their Rebellion deserv'd Artabazus for it was he finding himself so miraculously preserved came to me for he found by the respect all those of my Troop paid me that I was their Chief and told me that he must attribute so miraculous a deliverance to the Tutelary gods of Armenia whose Altars should speak him grateful and whose Instruments in his preservation should find him so if any thing in his power could do it and therefore he desir'd to know those to whom he owed his Life We told him that as soon as all was ended we should satisfy all his Commands and in the mean time we assur'd him that we had the Honour to have so near a dependance on him that all our actions were so far from meriting that they were less than our Duties But Sir I continued blushing and trembling I beseech you what is become of the Princess Alas said the King in the beginning of the Fight I sent her away under the Conduct of Nearchus with twenty Gentlemen more whom I soon observ'd were follow'd by near thrice as many of the Rebels what success Nearchus and his companions have had I know not but I am fearful by the Sacrificing of their Lives they have onely thereby assur'd their Fidelity and the Conquest of their Enemies As the King was speaking there came towards us one of the Princesses Pages who seeing the number of the Dead imagin'd that it was the Kings party defeated and tnrning about sought his preservation in the swiftness of his Horse but the Livery being known and guessing at the mistake I follow'd and cry'd out to him that we were the Kings Servants and desir'd to know where the Princess was but his fear made him suspect every one that had but a Sword in his Hand and certainly we had not overtaken him had not his too much haste been the cause of it for his Horse being run off his Legs fell so heavily that I had leisure to come up to him and having inquir'd where the Princess was I could get no other answer from him but Quarter Quarter and indeed he was so really possest that I was one of Tuminius's his party that nothing I could say for a long time could make him believe the contrary but at last some of the Kings Servants being come he perceiv'd his Error and then told us That Nearchus with those twenty Gentlemen he had taken with him were when he came away for relief generously disputing the Princess's safety in so advantageous a place that none could come behind and but five a-breast before but that most of them were dangerously wounded and if they had not a sudden relief they would be uncapable of any I commanded the Page to shew me immeditely where they were and having gotten some twenty of my friends with me I left the rest to guard the King and flew with them to the place where the Princess was Gods what fury was I possest with when I saw the poor Nearchus with four more disputing Altezeera's safety I fell upon them with all the rage her danger could inspire me with and cry'd out Courage brave Nearchus the gods who are concern'd in Altezeera's innocency and your Valour have sent them both this Relief My generous companions who were equally animated with me did actions almost worthy the cause they fought for and Nearchus finding so unexpected a succor gave proofs of an exceeding high courage but we found Tuminius his numbers might in time have made our success doubtful and knowing the influence a Commander has
inspire me by your Commands that I may perform things worthy your looking on and remember if I dye in the acting of them you lose the faithfullest servant that ever your perfections did acquire you But she was so perplext whether through apprehension or any other cause that she onely answer'd me in Tears which nevertheless coming from her fair Eyes enflam'd me with as high a Fire as ever they shot into any Lovers Heart Celindus by this time was come so near that I had only leisure to conjure the King that he and the Princess would fly to Artaxata whilst I amus'd the Enemy and having left 50 Horse for their Guard I divided those that remained into two Bodies as the Enemy had done theirs and having in few words told my companions how highly they were oblig'd to their fortunes that had furnisht them with an occasion to shew their valours before for the greatest Monarch of the East and the fairest Princess of the World and how the Victory which was the onely way to preserve them was as certain as their cause was just I began the Charge and fighting under the conduct of Justice Honour and Love I soon made a breach for my valiant friends who being carried on with a generous desire routed that Wing we attempted and thereby made a passage for Nearchus who lost no opportunity but got by with the King and Princess But Stratolis who commanded the left Wing of our Horse had not so good success for though he disputed the business with sufficient courage yet he was over-power'd and at last worsted so that in effect we were but as we begun for what I had gain'd he had lost onely the King and Altezeera by my good fortune got that other of passing by We instantly rallied again and determin'd onely by skirmishing to make good our Retreat and not to hazard all at one Charge lest if foil'd the King and the Princess might not recover Artaxara Our resolutions had such good success that I held the Enemy in play long enough for Nearchus design had not the subtile Celindus imagin'd that I would send the King and the Princess away with a small Guard and with the rest justify the retreat which caus'd him to lay a hundred Horse in Ambush betwixt us and the Town who falling suddenly upon Nearchus so terrified his Men that most of them were cut off before they put themselves in a posture of resistance One of the Run-aways fled to me and with a countenance which acquainted me with his fear told me all was lost if I did not instantly remedy it I left most part of my Horse with Stratolis whom I commanded to amuse the Enemy and with thirty of my friends ran to the place where my help was so needful But alas the first thing I saw was a rude Soldier who had dismounted Artabazus and was going to plant his Ponyard in his Breast This impious action gave me so just a resentment that I clove with one stroke the offenders Head in too and leaping off my Horse mounted the King upon him and seized on another that ran about the Field without a Master But gods to how unparallell'd a height was my anger rais'd when the piercing shreeks of the fair Altezeera reacht my Ears For Nearchus being kill'd one of Celindus Officers had seiz'd on her and was carrying her away I profess ingeniously my dear Artabanes that sight did so transport me that I think a Legion could not have hinder'd me from relieving her danger or killing the causer of it So that having made a passage through the throng I soon made another through him and by that thrust depriv'd him both of his Life and Hopes Then taking the overjoy'd Altezeera behind me I went to the King whom we overtook retreating towards Artaxata but when we were come within some ten Furlongs of it we discover'd a Body of near Five hundred Horse coming towards us in a cloud of Dust as fast as they could gallop Altezeera who had generously oppos'd all perils now began to faint but I told her Madam the god's who have hitherto protected you have therby taught you not to despair and I am confident you are so highly cherisht by them that if nothing but a Miracle can effect your preservation yet you shall not be deny'd it or fall into your Enemies hands at least that Fate shall not be yours whilst I have a Sword or Life to oppose it my duty and a higher consideration exacting it from me I begg'd her therefore not to contribute to the danger by being astonish'd at it nor to let go her hold for I was confident fighting for so transcendent a perfection my courage would proportion my cause Having thus said she embrac'd me with so great a satisfaction for the transported Artavasdes that had it proceeded from Love as it did from Fear I had wanted little of perfect happiness but though the effect came from a wrong cause yet I blest the danger that gave me so high a contentment But alas her apprehension soon ended and my joy with it for we found it was the young Amidor my Brother who by my Fathers command was come out to rescue us having received that advertisement I had sent him In this general satisfaction I alone was extreamly perplext having bought the publique security at too dear a rate for my particular yet the consideration that by it Altezeera was out of danger whose contentment I still preferr'd before my own did soon banish all those sad thoughts and having sent 200 of those Horse under my Brother to help Stratolis with the rest we marched to Artaxata where Anexander and all the City receiv'd us with Faces that spoke their contentments It were superfluous to tell you what Artabazus said to my Father and all those with him in my favour I will therefore onely acquaint you that Altezeera whose Beauty was grown to such perfection that it made me almost irreligious by desiring to see no other happiness having led me aside told me Artavasdes I should too much wrong my resentments if I coulp hope to describe them To save me from Tuminius's insolency and his Passion are obligations of so high a Nature that they resemble his Virtues which conferr'd them on me Madam I reply'd in serving you I have perform'd my duty and receiv'd my reward But Madam had Tuminius the confidence to make his addresses to you He had said she and would have perswaded me that this enterprize was onely the effects of his Love not his Fathers Ambition Alas Madam I answer'd then he was pardonable if at least he is so that cannot avoid committing of his fault How said Altezeera now you know the cause of his Crime you seem to approve it No Madam I reply'd but pitty his inevitable fate I say inevitable because experimentally I find it so This I spoke in disorder and trembling but alas I had immediately much more cause for both when I
course to elect and after many Proposals I resolv'd to pass through Mesopotamia and Syria and so thence by Sea for Italy and in the darkest horrors of those Mountains which separates that Countrey from the Gauls spend those sad days allotted to miserable life That which made me fix upon this place above any other was that the horridness of the Alpes would be more sutable to my melancholly than any other and by being in the heart of the Roman Empire I knew the innate hatred of the Parthians to that people would never permit those which should search after me to doubt of my residence or if they did the danger of coming into an Enemies Countrey might deter them from following me Here Artabanes putting a stop to his Narration addrest himself to Callimachus and told him I have Sir to obey your commands forc'd my inclination to relate unto you a part of my unfortunate Life least you might have fail'd in the knowledge of those particulars which perhaps Simander was not perfectly acquainted with But now what is remaining he has been an Actor or a Sufferer in and consequently will omit nothing that is worthy your knowledge I shall therefore beg you if you are not already tir'd with the hearing of my misfortunes permit Simander to put an end unto their Story and give me leave to absent my self from a relation that will awaken despair which of it self is but too apt to torment me The good Callimachus having by a thousand expressions excus'd the rudeness of his curiosity told him Generous Artabanes I have already I fear so far transgress'd that I cannot expect a pardon from a less goodness than yours and therefore will not persevere in a crime which may make you as justly my enemy as Fortune is unjustly yours Artabanes having made Callimachus a return suitable to his civility commanded his faithful Simander who was present at the latter part of his relation to satisfy his engagement and then retir'd into a Solitude to entertain his Melancholly which was too just not to be great Artabanes was no sooner gone than Callimachus invited his faithful Simander to obey his generous Prince which he did by continuing his Adventures in these words AFter my unfortunate Master had assum'd a resolution so suitable to his despair and that all those reasons my affection furnisht me with could no way alter it I thought it my duty as much as 't was my inclination to bear a share with him in all his miseries and justify by my sufferings how ambitious I was to deserve a favour which I had no title to but his having conferr'd it on me and though by many perswasions and commands he disswaded me from tying my Fortunes upon one to whom he said the gods had so much declar'd themselves Enemies yet I was as firm in my resolution of waiting on him as he was in his of abandoning the World By this time our Horses having taken that rest which we thought fitting we began to continue our journey the Moon affording us her Light and the first Village we came unto we waken'd some Peasants where my Prince having seal'd his Packet engag'd one of them by giving him a good reward to carry it the next day to the Court and present it to the generous Sillaces This being done we continued our voyage but because I have so many essential things to relate I will not load your patience by repeating all those accidents which happen'd in our crossing of Syria and Mesopotamia nor till our coming to Antioch since without any considerable adventures we at last safely arrived there onely I may not omit to inform you that in twenty days travel I never heard Artabanes repine at Parthemissa's cruelty either that his wrongs had extinguisht his Love or the greatness of his resentments hinder'd the expressions of them but I am the more inclin'd to believe the latter since his Sighs and Tears his inseparable companions acknowledged some internal grief produc'd them and truly he was thereby so chang'd that had not his griefs been an undeniable proof of him that utter'd them I should have suspected I had chang'd my Master But as if all things had contributed to hasten my Prince unto his solitude we met a Ship at Antioch ready to weigh Anchor for Cyprus where she was to unload her Merchandize in a Man of War that was directly bound for Ostia which is a small Harbor the Tiber makes when it falls into the Mediterranean sea This conveniency we joyfully embrac'd and the Wind blowing fair at East we were full of expectation in few days to arrive safely in that famous Island where the Queen of Love had chosen her earthly Residence We were not many Leagues from our desired Harbor when those upon the Main-top that were looking for Land cry'd out a Sail a Sail the Master of our Ship went instantly up to discover the truth of this Alarm and had not been long there but clapping his hands upon his Breast he said with great Passion we are all undone 't is Menas This was that Menas Pompey the Great took at Sea when he commanded the Roman Fleet and asking him how he durst commit so high sins as to kill those and take away their Goods which never did him any wrong was thus answer'd If said he my Actions are Crimes why then dost thou practise them but because thou rob'st securely with a whole Fleet thou givest thy self the name of a Conqueror and because I rob with more hazard and but with one single Gally thou call'st me a Pirate when there is no difference between our performances but that which Force and Numbers create This bold and perhaps true reply so operated on the generous Pompey that he gave Menas his life for which he did him such signal services that at last he gave him too his liberty but being accustomed from his Youth to that barbarous profession he could not decline it and in a short while after fell to a relapse He was indeed so famous in all those Seas that oftentimes his name presented him with Victory and truly I believe we should have felt as well as heard that Truth had not Artabanes perceiving our fears by a generous exhortation invited us to a defence For if said he your Enemies are generous your Gallantry if you be vanquisht will make your usage so if they are not your resistance may purchase your safety at least 't is more like Men to owe our sufferings to our misfortunes than our selves To be brief his ravishing Eloquence furnisht him with such powerful Arguments that those timerous Spirits which even now were ready co yield without disputing the Victory were now so alter'd that they breath'd nothing but the combat We were in all Passengers and Seamen about an hundred and my Prince taking upon himself the whole charge divided his Men into two Squadrons the one he took to himself the other he gave me the honour to command Then lest
since for my preservation he had undertaken so great a hazard that my duty would be resembling his care I too well knew those words related to my passion for Perolla which since the impossibility of declining was as great as the injustice I thought that as my silence was the best way of expresâ—ing my resentments for his affection so it was the civilest of assuring him of my legitimate obedience I know not whether he imputed it to my respect or my wilfulness for he went away without speaking one word which might be as pertinently attributed to his satisfaction as his aâ—ger Four days after the Senate sent a solemn Embassy to him to congratulate his success and to furnish him with a Garrison to secure it Though this soon came to Hannibals knowledge yet he was necessitated by the Pretor Cneius Fulvius besieging the City Herdonea to suspend a while his design upon Marcellus and Perolla but to appease so many Lybian Ghosts as were lost in Salapia and perhaps the loss of Izadora had some share in that fury he offered the unfortunate Pretor Battel whose courage being greater than his judgement accepted it and by that fault was rendred uncapable of ever committing any other being killed by Twelve of his Tribunes and the most of his Army That unhappy Plain near Herdonâ—a proved an unfortunate Theatre for the Fluvius's two of them in one year both Pretors and both Generals received the same fatâ— in the same place by the Carthaginian who raised by this accession of Glory march'd directly to Venusia where Marcellus and Crispinus were joyned the better to oppose their common Enemy But because I have not undertaken Hannibal's but Perolla's Story I will pass over all those memorable accidents which happened that active Summer by telling you that Hannibal knowing Asdrabal his Brother as well in Glory as in Bloud had crost France and was coming to him with neer 100000 men as a Torrent to throw down all opposition declined a Battel though often provok'd to it by Marcellus who being not ignorant of the danger of two such Men and Armies joyning thought himself always too far from his Enemy if not fighting with him resolved to remove his Camp to a Hill covered with Wood which lay betwixt his and Hannibals and not suspecting his Fate took Crispinus his fellow Consul with him 200 Hetrurian Horse for their Guard and went to view the commodiousness of the place where alas there lay in ambush above 1500 Numidian Horse who invironing those unfortunate Generals charged them with so much fury that all those false or timerous Hetrurians fled and left the two Consuls no hope but by a glorious death to justify how unworthy they were of so private a one and that Rome without losing a Battel might resent as high a grief as such a loss could inspire Perolla as the gods would have it had been that night upon a Party and was not returned when the Consuls went to perform so fatal a curiosity but he was no sooner come into his Tent than the Alarm of their danger was given by a timerous Hetrurean which Perolla understanding took the first horse he met with and ran full speed to the Theatre where this Tragedy was acting and where the first object he saw was a Numidian Officer that coming behind Marcellus ran that great Man through with his Launce but though my generous friend could not prevent yet he reveng'd his Death and by a furious blow sent that Affrican into the other world to see how great his Virtues were whom he had so treacherously kill'd in this Perolla having thus sacrific'd his Generals Murtherer to his Manes he rescued first the young Marcellus his Son and then perceiving that Crispinus was pierc'd with two Darts and thereby render'd uncapable any longer to defend himself he abandon'd his own Horse and vaulting up behind the Consuls upheld his tottering Body with one Arm and with the other forc'd his passage through a hundred Numidian Swords and brought him into the Roman Camp where their fears had so far clouded their judgements that they only remembred but did not relieve their Consuls danger Never Rome had at once a resembling misfortune and never was that Empire in worse condition to sustain it and though Hannibal was more satisfied at Marcellus death than he could have been at the cutting in pieces of the Roman Army without it yet he was so generous as to be content with the joy without giving any open demonstration of it For he first wept the fall of so eminent a person then in a military pomp burnt his Body and having put the Ashes in a Silver Urn and on it a Crown of Gold he sent it in great state with a condoling Letter to the young Marcellus and executed some Numidians for offering by the way to rob Marcellus Reliques of a Crown which his noble Life and valiant Death so justly merited Spartacus was extreamly satisfied to observe that Izadora's resentments did not silence her justice and that though she were an Enemy to Hannibal yet that she was not so to his Fame and Virtue But she continu'd though Crispinus was mortally wounded yet his care for the publique was as great as if he had been to live and enjoy the effects of it As an evincement of this Truth he sent certain Spies into the Affrican Camp to learn what advantage the Enemy propounded to himself by his success these perform'd their employment so happily that they brought the Consul word that Hannibal having an unextinguishable desire to be reveng'd on the Salapians and having too by the possession of Marcellus Seal which with his body remain'd in the Victors power found an expedient to effect it He had sent false Letters with the true Signet to Blacius in the dead Consuls name to let him know that that night he would come to Salapia and commanded all the Garrison to be in Arms without the Samnite Gate for some exploit he intended to employ them in Crispinus no sooner receiv'd this intelligence than he sent for Perolla to communicate it to him and knowing those concerns he had for the preservation of this place gave him Commission to command the Garrison till Hannibal had lost the hopes of taking it Perolla declin'd it because Blacius was Governor but the Consul told him that it was not to intrench on my Fathers authority but to strengthen him in it for he was confident Hannibals assault would be so vigorous that Blacius could not but think so powerful an assistant a blessing rather than an affront and that he was no true friend to Rome if for a temporary suspension of his power he hazarded so important a place Perolla finding Crispinus was unalterable took Horse and with that speed which Love and Revenge inspires came to Salapia where he soon found the truth of the Consuls intelligence and that all the Garrison were drawing out of the Samnite Gate which was the opposite one to that which
the very first day being impatient till he recoverd his honour by a Victory or by seeing the ruine of his unjust Countreymen satisfie himself with the joy of a great though not of an honest Revenge yet his intention was better than his words for at a place of advantage called Scaena-Gallica near the River of Metaurus he pitcht his Camp and by winning the Pass hindred Asdrubal's progress who by Letters advertised his Brother of it that then lay on the Banks of Aufidus near the same Plain of Cannes in which he had won his highest glory and that in few dayes he would storm the Roman Generals Camp rather than not join with him but these being intercepted by Nero's Scouts that Consul by the advice of Perolla to relieve Livius's danger took 6000 select Foot and 1000 Horse and having left the charge of his Army which Camp'd within 10 Furlongs of Hannibals to Veturius Philo his Lieutenant-General in six dayes by tedious Marches and with exceeding secresie he came to his Collegue and was received into his Camp by night without enlarging it or any loud demonstrations of joy where in a Council of War it was resolved next day to give Asdrubal Battel which Livius though provok'd unto had thitherto declined The next morning therefore a purple Coat was hung up over Livius's Pavilion and Perolla the better to delude Asdrubal desired the General that a Trumpet might sound in Nero's quarters as well as in Portius the Pretors to make the Enemy believe that either Hannibal was defeated by the Consuls being joined or that it was done in policy to supply the defects of their numbers the first if credited would invite them immediately to a Battel which next to a Victory was most in their desires This was much approved and readily practised and Asdrubal who was perfectly acquainted with the Roman Discipline was extremely surprized at it but yet attributing it to the latter and perceiving by the Signal the Consuls resolution he joyfully drew his Army in Battalia but then perceiving Livius's numbers to be increast and that some of his Enemies Horses look'd as if they had performed a long march this being an accident above his expectation he esteemed it rather a policy than a dishonour to defer an Engagement till he could discover the truth of that mystery and in order to this spent that day in slight skirmishes and by night retreated with all his Army towards the River of Metaurus from which the succeeding Battel took its name but he was followed by Nero and Perolla with all the Roman Cavalry and so vigorously prest that he resolved next morning to decide the difference by a pitch'd Battel lest if he gained any advantage by retiring it might be said a Victory was forc'd upon and not obtained by him and if he were defeated that at least he dyed like Amilcar's Son and Hannibal's Brother The day no sooner dawn'd which was the last that so many thousands were to see than those two great Bodies which consisted of about 150000 effective men were drawn up in a posture to determine all disputes The Carthaginian having the advantage of number and the Roman of resolution which was sufficiently â—vinc'd by their Enemies attending the Battel by necessity and not election Asdrubal placed his Gauls in whom he least rely'd in the Left Wing upon a Hill of impossible access in the Right were his Spaniards and Africans and himself at the Head of them his Lygurians formed the Battel and his Elephants he bestowed in the Front of his several Divisions The Right Wing of the Roman Army was led by Nero who was accompanied by Perolla that commanded those Thousand Horse his Uncle had brought with him the Left by Livius and the Battel by Porticus You cannot doubt the dispute was bloody if either you reflect upon the courage of the Soldiers the resolution and conduct of the Commanders or the glory and advantages which were to attend the Conquerors Livius found a generous resistance from the Africans and Spaniards Porticus from the Lygurians but Nero and Perolla found more difficulty to come to fight than I believe they would after it have found in obtaining a Victory but whil'st they were disputing against a Precipice the scaling of which was not much less difficult than to scale the Clouds the last of them perceiving what disorder Livius and Porticus were in besought Nero to leave those Gauls to a security which Nature and not their Courages had plac'd them in and who by the strange height they were upon were as uncapable of doing as receiving harm and that he would go to relieve the Consul and the Pretor Nero soon found the justness of this motion and imagining by the Precipice the Gauls were upon that Asdrubal had plac'd them there rather to amuse than oppose him yielded to his Nephews request and leaving some 3000 Foot and Horse to keep the Gauls at gaze followed him with all the rest but Perolla with admirable celerity having fetcht a compass behind all the Roman Army fell upon the Right Flank of the Carthaginian so opportunely that 't was when Livius was brought to the last exigency and so vigorously that by it he courted Victory so handsomly that though she were declaring for Carthage yet he won her absolutely for Rome The execution after the rout was excessive bloody the Romans remembring how freely the Africans had opened their veins were not ungrateful in their return The Gauls too found they had been more securely fortified by nature than by 80000 of their companions and though the Roman Swords were almost dull'd with blood before they came to them yet they 'scapt not absolutely that dayes Fate but that which brought a large accession to the honour of this success was the noble Asdrubal's fall who perceiving his glory fled resolv'd his life should accompany it and seeking some gallant Enemy to end his he found none which gave greater marks of that title than Perolla 't was therefore upon his Sword he resolv'd to receive it and 't was upon his Sword indeed that he found it I know continued Izadora that some alledge he had his death from many an Enemy and not from a single one but I know withall that that report had its rise from Perolla's modesty who learning afterwards how great a virtue he had kill'd rather deplored than gloried in the Action This Battel of Metaurus equal'd that of Cannes for in it were left 56000 upon the place 5400 taken Prisoners and 4000 Captive Romans releas'd But if in a Relation which my Sex renders me ignorant in I have failed in the former I have not in the truth for my concern in Perolla made me exactly learn it neither would I have so particularly inform'd you of it had it not so great a connexion to my generous Friends Story that in declining it I must have injured his Adventures as much as his Glory The day after this famous Battel Nero and Perolla march'd
the War that he would upon his own score begin it With this joyful Declaration the Roman Army set Sail from Lilibeum But while they are crossing the Mediterranean Sea it will not be amiss to tell you the cause of this barbarous Kings inconstancy The same Asdrubal to whom lately he had refus'd his friendship had a Daughter of such excellent beauty that Syphax who was not unapt to receive the flames of Love so abundantly admitted those which the fair Sophonisba's eyes inspir'd that it made him not only abandon his Faith but his Interest too and to purchase her for she was bought he offer'd to decline the Romans and declare himself Carthaginian This motion on so emergent a necessity was greedily embrac'd and Sophonisba deliver'd up a Sacrifice for the publick advantage For it is certain the Numidian King had nothing considerable but his Crown and she by that fatal Marriage declin'd Massanissa to whom she was contracted a Prince of so much virtue and so perfectly blesâ— with the gifts of Nature that I may truly say Sophonisba's preferment was her ruine This Massanissa was the Son of Gala Surnamed the Good King of the Massesily and though he were very young yet by his great courage and wisdom he recover'd his Fathers Kingdom involv'd in a dangerous and intricate Rebellion and by wayes which made all the world acknowledge him as worthy of it as by his Title His next care was to secure his Right both by Succession and Conquest To effect which and for the satisfying his inclination he made his Addresses to the fair Sophonisba whose Father Asdrubal had so large an interest in Carthage that whosoever obtain'd his Alliance might be said thereby to be Ally'd to that Empire The Title of a Queen and the Felicity of such a Husband so pleas'd the Father and the Daughter that the Marriage was as soon agreed upon as motion'd and the more to endear it to the Carthaginians it was resolv'd that a Contract should be perfected but before the consummation of the Nuptials Massanissa should go in person with an Army into Spain under his design'd Father-in-law which the young Prince more troubled to abandon his Mistriss than his Kingdom perform'd and in that Expedition acted things of so transcendent virtue that Carthage judg'd his Merit without his Title worthy the admirable Sophonisba but Asdrubal having undertaken that fatal Expedition being himself no excellent Captain met with disasters and oppositions which would have render'd his being otherwise of no great advantage for he began to move presently after the famous Battel of Metaurus in which I may say Spain was conquer'd in Italy for there all the Spanish Hostages were taken that Asdrubal the Son of Amilcar had brought with him out of that Countrey and by which he kept that Waâ—like Nation in more awe than by his Garisons or Army This success made the Spaniards consider the Romans as the Rising Sun and consequently adore the so that his Levying an Army prov'd more advantageous to his Enemies than his Friends for every day they abandon'd his Ensigns in whole Troops and put themselves under Scipio's who was a General that in Courage Patience and Conduct was hardly to be equal'd In a word in one Summer Asdrubal lost all Spain and Massanissa perhaps glad of any subject which might return him to Sophonisba joyfully abandon'd a great Kingdom to his Enemies as hoping in her embraces to lose all thoughts of misfortune but he too soon found his error for in his absence Syphax as I told you had seen Sophonisba and so passionately admir'd her that upon his promise to the Carthaginians not only of relinquishing Scipio who was preparing to invade their Countrey but to bring them an Army of 100000 Men they made of a particular Alliance a publick Concernment and in spite of Asdrubal and Massanissa who was as much his Rivals Superior in Virtue as he was his in Power gave that barbarous King the fair Sophonisba and Syphax no sooner was in possession of his felicity than proportioning Massanissa's resentments by the greatness of his loss resolv'd to take from him the power of acting them This particular Malice he made pass at Carthage for an Act of publick Security it being a folly as great as the injustice to trust an offended Enemy with a Kingdom therefore the Senate not only approv'd of their new Allies design but furnish'd him with additional Forces to expel the unfortunate Massanissa out of his Countrey which Syphax soon effected his Rivals virtue yielding to his numbers But though Massanissa lost his Crown yet did he not either his Courage or Judgement the first was too great to sit down with such an affront to his Passion and his Right and the latter lead him to offer his service to Scipio who having found how considerable an Enemy he had been doubted not but he would prove a resembling Friend wherein he was not deceiv'd for the Consul having acquainted him from Lilibeum where he shipt his Army that he would Land at the Promontory of Apollo he found Massanissa there with a gallant Body of Horse ready to join with him Their first Action was to cut off 500 Horse sent out of Carthage to interrupt the Romans descent which Massanissa perform'd as an earnest of his future Services The next was against Hanno a young Carthaginian Gentleman of as little experience as years who with 4000 select Horse lay at a Town of importance call'd Salera This hasty Commander Massanissa by braving him at his very Gates toll'd out into an Ambush then cut him with his small Army in pieces and in the heat of the pursuit enter'd the Town with some few Run-aways which presently he became Master of This shews that Scipio gain'd by the loss of Syphax for by his defection he sent him a friend whose gallantry was more considerable than the others Forces From Salera they march'd to besiege Vtica a place considerable for its strength and scituation but much more for the virtue of the Defenders which indeed was such that though it were the first Town attempted yet it was the last taken and the Consul would have given his hopes of winning it to avoid the disgrace he apprehended of having sate down before it but Syphax and Asdrubal whom the Carthaginians had made their General by approaching with two Armies which consisted of near 80000 Foot and 13000 Horse gave him an honourable pretence of abandoning Vtica which he readily embrac'd but the Winter was so far advanc'd that the three Generals did nothing in it but fortify their several Camps which were not seven miles assunder that of the Romans being excellently provided for by the providence and liberality of Massanissa who Reigned in his Subjects though not over them but the Spring being come Scipio who believ'd the natural inconstancy of the Affricans the tediousness of a winter Camp the hazard of a War whose Prologue had been unsuccessful and perhaps the society of a Wife might
my self In short Mago and the Roman Army met in the Countrey of the Insubtians where was fought a Battel of as much variety and resolution as any since Rome or Carthage were founded twice the Romans and twice their Enemies were embracing Victory but at length Quintilius and I having rally'd the reliques of our scatter'd Horse and Mago of his we resolutely advanc'd to determine this bloudy dispute Hannibal's Brother who suspected his Men needed some high encouragement advanc'd about an hundred paces before them and invited the Pro-Consul by a single Combat to shew they were as prodigal of their own Bloud as of their Soldiers He not being present and the Pretor perhaps more concern'd in the publique Safety than in his particular Honor declining it with his permission I gallop'd up to Mago told him the Pro-Consul was on an employment which render'd him uncapable of hearing and consequently answering his Challenge and that therefore I was come naming my self to supply his place that so generous an invitation might not fall to the ground As soon as Mago heard the Name of Perolla his Eyes were all inflam'd and he was so transported with Passion he had scarce the patience to tell me that had he known of my being in the Roman Army he had addrest his words to me sooner than to the Pro-Consul and that the time was now come I must answer for Asdrubals bloud or shed more of it then not giving me the leasure of a reply we began a Combat of so peculiar a quality that it produc'd a resembling effect for both Armies were so concern'd in the dispute of their Combatants that forgetting their own as if it had been by mutual consent they became spectators of their Fates which they thought would be legible in that of their Champions But why do I so long protract my relation let it suffice I tell you that though Mago's Virtue relish'd of his Family yet his success was Carthaginian for I having receiv'd a wound on my Bridle-hand gave my Enemy so large an one in his Thigh that he fell from his Horse and had there lost his life had not I thought it more handsome to give than take it At this Victory the Romans gave so loud a shout that most of the Gauls and Lygurians were hardly able to abide it much less their victorious Arms but the Battel had so long continu'd that the approach of night hinder'd the Conquerors from making any considerable advantage by winning it and the vanquish'd during the obscurity made so long a march with their wounded General that in two days after they came into Lyguria where he receiv'd the sad Commands of Carthage without delay to return thither and rather employ his Bloud to preserve his own Countrey than to Conquer his Enemies This fatal Summons he obey'd in part but his wound open'd so large a way for his Soul that it flew out at that passage as he was as far as Sardinia in his return This loss the Carthaginians resented at a higher rate than that Battel which was the cause of it To contract my discourse I will pass over those Civilities not only the Pro-Consul and the Pretor but also the whole Roman Senate made me to let you know that those low submissions Carthage had made Scipio which indeed were too humble to be real were only to protract the time till those two famous Sons of Amilcar were come out of Italy for their deliverance the fate of the youngest and his Army Sir I have already told you that of Hannibal I am now going to relate and it shall be in as little a Volume as I can possibly contract so much Truth and Business in I will therefore in pursuance of this assurance pass by all his actions since that famous Battel of Metaurus and therein be no Enemy to his Glory which would be more obscur'd by saying he did little than that he did nothing and come to his receiving from Carthage the Orders for his return which though they were the same had been sent his great Brother yet he did not consider them with so Philosophical a temper for whereas Mago at their reception obey'd them with an absolute resignation Hannibal by a thousand extravagancies exprest his rage and discontent but after his fury gave him leave to speak he cry'd out to his Officers yet at least this is plain dealing and more handsome to let their Commands than their not supplying my necessities recall me besides he continu'd Rome nor Scipio cannot now glory they have sent Hannibal out of Italy no 't is Hanno and his Faction who not able any other way to effect the destruction of the Barcinians act it by that of Carthage But this great Captain whose providence extended over all events had in readiness a Fleet for so sad a Navigation in which he embark'd his Army but all such Italians as were not willing to follow his fortune nor able to fly his Power and Fury and had taken sanctuary in that sacred one of Iuno Lucinia he forc'd from thence and by putting them to several ignominious deaths did that for them which they merited of their Countrey After so bloudy a Sacrifice to the Manes of those friends he had left behind he took Ship himself more troubled at his abandoning Italy than at the cause of it cursing both the gods and his own stupidity that after the Battel of Cannes he had not led his Army all hot and bloudy to the Walls of Rome But whilist he is at Sea it will not be amiss to let you know what is done on Land The Carthaginian Ambassadors sent to Rome to ratify that Peace made with Scipio appear'd so ignorant in what they were sent to conclude and so uncertain in their desires and answers that the Senate easily discover'd their hearts and found what there presented to be their simplicity was their treachery whereupon that great Assembly return'd them back to Scipio by Lelius who had been sent to Rome with Syphax Lelius in a swift Gally accompanied with his false Ambassadors soon came to the Roman standing Camp where he learnt that the Carthaginians having certainly heard of that great Army following too the famous Name of Hannibal which was coming out of Italy asham'd of their tame submission and that they had despair'd of their fate whilst so fear'd a General was to dispute it and coming powerfully to their deliverance had not only broke the Treaty but by Asdrubal their Admiral had taken 200 Ships sent from Sicily to relieve the Roman Camp they being by extremity of weather cast into the Bay of Carthage and that Scipio having sent Ambassadors to complain of so barbarous a violation contrary to the Laws of Nations they had like to have been murther'd declaring their Ambassy but having strangely escap'd that misfortune returning by Sea to the Consul who then encamp'd not far from the River Bagradas they were encounter'd by the same Asdrubal who lay behind a Promontory
to intercept them which doubtless he had perform'd had not the Ambassadors in a swift Quinquereme-Gally avoided his stemming and run ashore to some Roman Companies which were sent for their rescue where though they sav'd themselves yet they lost many of their attendants followers which Aâ—rican proceeding had so incens'd the Consul that he was gone to vindicate it with his Army which now breath'd nothing but blood and fury Lelius surpriz'd at this strange true information went to Scipio who he found acting a Revenge proportionate to the greatness of those Crimes that made it just but the Carthaginian Ambassadors he left in the Roman Camp which then was commanded by Bebius one of those that had so narrowly scap'd in his late Embassy and though by Lelius he beg'd the Consul by the death of the Carthaginian Ambassadors to let his Enemies know and suffer for their fault yet the generous Scipio commanded him not only to spare their Lives but immediately to give them their liberty For he esteem'd it a nobler way so to reprove their sin than to imitate it This great Conquest over himself was but a Prophecy of that over his Enemies which now was not far off for their great Hannibal about this time landed at Leptis an hundred miles from Carthage which he did to refresh his men after their Navigation and to get some additional Forces especially of Horse in which he was most defective Tycheus and Mezetullus two African Princes brought him 3000 with which reinforcement having received positive orders from Carthage without protraction to determine their destiny by Battel he march'd directly to Zama not far from the place where the Consul lay from whence he sent out Spies to discover the Romans countenance and strength some of them being taken were brought to Scipio who instead of crucitying them which was then the general practice commanded an Officer to carry them about the Camp and punctually to shew them whatever they desir'd this done he sent them back to their General who admir'd at the bravery of his Enemy and concluded his Army was deficient in nothing since he was so ready to shew the posture it was in Hannibal immediately after but I cannot tell from which of those two causes it proceeded sent to desire a Parly with Scipio who assur'd him shortly to satisfie his request The next day after Massanissa who upon that false Peace was sent into his own Kingdom came to the Camp at the Consuls reiterated requests with 4000 Horse and 6000 Foot and the same day I arriv'd there to satisfie my Engagement and Revenge Those additional Forces gave the Consul so great a certainty of Victory that the next morning with all his Army he removed to Nadagara where mindful of his Engagement to Hannibal he sent him word he was then ready to discharge it The time and place was immediately appointed and those two great Men went out of their Camps to meet one another each of them with 1000 Horse for their Guard and I being desirous to see my Rival had the command of Scipio's No sooner were they come to a convenient distance then all the rest making a stand the two Generals advanc'd and for a while did nothing but view one another with mutual admiration perhaps to find out where that virtue lay which had render'd them so equally famous over all the world At length Hannibal saluting Scipio first told him It had been generous Enemy more advantageous both for Carthage and Rome if they had confin'd their Ambitions within the shores of Aâ—rick and Italy since the Kingdoms of Spain and Sicily about which our Fathers and we have so obstinately contended are not a sufficient recompence for that blood and treasure they have exhausted but though things past are irrevocable yet they may instruct us for the future and induce us by a serious reflection on those dangers we have expos'd our own Countries unto to conquer others to believe it necessary and just rather with safety to possess our own than run a hazard of that for an uncertainty of more To this temper my experience of the World and of Fortune has reduced me But I apprehend thy youth and heat will decline these thoughts till thou hast learn'd them in the same School but methinks thou may'st by my example be informed of a truth which if now unregarded thou may ' â—t learn at a more troublesom rate For I am that Hannibal which after many bloody Battels brought my victorious Arms to the walls of Rome and now behold here I come to offer Peace unto thee that thou may'st not do the like to Carthage Consider too the Fate of Marcus Atilius who for declining so advantageous an overture received a ruine from the gods which perhaps attends all those that delight in shedding humane blood Canst thou be content Scipio that Spain Sicily Sardinia and whatever other Islands lie between Africk and Italy be eternally abandoned by the Carthaginians 'T is a glorious bargain for the Romans and for our parts our future quiet shall be our satisfaction and the contentment which from thence we shall derive will be an abundant obligation to tye us faithâ—ully to observe the Peace that gives it But if thou esteemest all this too little reflect I beseech thee how great a hazard thou undergoest for the obtaining of a little more than thou may'st enjoy without any 'T is now in thy power to make thy Fate but if thou stayest till to morrow Night the gods will make it for thee let us therefore conclude on this universal blessing and reproach me not the late treachery of some false-hearted Citizens of ours it is Hannibal that now desires Peace which he would never do did he not find it expedient for his Countrey and knowing it so he will always maintain it as he did the War he began 'till the gods and Men did envy him To which Scipio reply'd 'T was not generous Hannibal the ambition of Rome which made them take up Arms but the defence of the Memertines and Saguntines their Confederates which action of theirs the gods by the issue of the War have and will declare was just For the mutability of Fortune I am not ignorant of it the condition which thou once didst reduce Rome unto and that which I have since Carthage does sufficiently evince it and therefore I would as willingly give Peace as thou desâ—â—est it if it were upon terms which might convince the world 't is the Roman magnanimity and not the Roman fear that grants it but by what thou offerest thou only givest what their Swords have given them already and whereas I expected that in recompence of thy Citizens perfidiousness thou wouldst enlarge the Articles of their late violated Peace thou dost exceedingly contract them and thereby wouldst have them gainers by their treachery No Hannibal those that will have Rome their friend must not do actions unworthy of that end and if the Carthaginians break an
Gallantry which compos'd them and that he gave me so few that my courage might be the more conspicuous I will not tell you in what words I cloath'd my Gratitude I rather was covetous to express it by my actions which the sooner to perform I went to the Rendezvous where I found my little Army ready to march I would not loose that good disposition they were in but having assur'd them I was as conscious of the Consuls injustice in putting me at their head as any of them could be and that I knew them so perfectly that I would make less scruple to Serve under than Command over them I immediately sent out my Forlorn-Hope which had not march'd Ten miles e're they return'd me word that they had discover'd the Enemy which could not be less than 15000 Horse I told the Messenger that sure they had seen with multiplying Eyes but yet the greater the number was the greater the Glory and then desir'd my Body to continue their march a Foot-pace and with twenty Horse I gallop'd to the place where my Advertizers were where again they confirm'd their first intelligence but Vermina had so cover'd his Army that I could not possibly satisfy my curiosity by my Eyes without beating in a Body of 500 Numidians which I elected with my 250 and perform'd The fruits of that little success was the discovery of our Enemies Army which I found was rather contracted than multiplied by my first Intelligences this had startl'd me but that I perceiv'd in my little Troop an augmentation of Courage by that of Danger and in them I found the pattern of the residue to whom I retreated all the way in view of the Enemy that prest us in all things well but in success By that time we came in sight of our Body the Sun was sett and Vermina perceiving so many Horse took them for the Van of the Consuls Army that too which fortify'd his belief was his own strength and Scipio's care of Intelligence in this faith he makes a stand and judging of the Cause of it I resolv'd whilst he was in so terrifying a belief to improve it to the best advantage in order to which I sent a Soldier of mine as if he had fled from me to let Vermina know that Hannibal was defeated and shut up within the Walls of Carthage and that all the Roman Army was ready to make him a companion of his Fortune as well as of his Cause this advertisement was given just as I fell on which was an hour before day for I would not give it him sooner lest he might have retir'd and had the benefit of the whole night to favour his retreat I sent also advertisement to Scipio of what I had discover'd and that he might think 't was my Duty and not my Fear produc'd it before I had any return or additional Forces I began the Battel The obscurity the news of Hannibal's defeat and the belief that we were all the victorious Roman Army excellently contributed to our advantage though the Numidians so resolutely disputed the difference that above 14300 found their Graves where they thought to have found their success but Vermina himself was none of that number my loss was about 900 and I receiv'd a slight hurt in the self same place that Hannibals Sword had made one which was in effect but opening a little wider that which was not yet well clos'd up and consolidated But the Allarm of the Numidian strength no sooner came to the Consul who was then visiting Massanissa than that valiant Prince who merited a Kingdom from Rome though he had had no Title to one caus'd himself to be led to his Horse and though Scipio earnestly disswaded him from so dangerous a Gallantry yet with all the rest of the Roman Cavalry and some Foot he advanc'd to my assistance I know not whether their appearance was any advantage to my little Army for they came in sight assoon as we could see but I am sure their actions were not for they saw us Conquerors asson as they perceiv'd us and their generous Commander to give those entirely the glory that had won it would not so much as permit his Soldiers to follow the Execution or to share in that spoil which had been purchas'd at the expence of our Bloud Indeed the Pillage was great and their civility too which had got it for they brought me a proportion that might have as much satisfy'd my avarice as the cause of their being so liberal did my honor and though I accepted their Present it was only to deny them nothing for immediately I had it all divided amongst those Soldiers whose wounds disenabled them to seize upon what they had purchas'd by them This just distribution wrought so powerfully on all the rest that they thought I had only perform'd that action to shew them what they had omitted and in that belief they made amongst themselves new Collections of as great a value as the former which they begg'd me passionately to accept for as they alledg'd 't was unjust I should devest my self of what was my due to repair their fault This Gallantry from common Men was extraordinary and if I have insisted so long upon 't 't was to acquaint you with theirs not my own To conclude this business I declin'd the repetition of their Civility and though it were in terms as obliging as I was capable of yet I found to have left them rich was to have injur'd them Massanissa after we had ended the Execution came to embrace me and to be civil he was so unjust as to protest that though Rome had made him a King and Scipio gave him the Crown yet 't was I by Vermina's defeat that had given him the Kingdom I did not answer this Complement lest he might believe I was so vain as to think I had a Title to it I cannot tell you generous Spartacus all the Tryumphs anâ— Joys at the Armies return since alas I was torn from them by a storm greater than the reception the Consul prepar'd for us for as I was within two miles of the Roman Camp a Stranger having drawn me aside as I was riding with the Numidian King told me if I were at leasure to hear him he had something of high concernment for me from Izadora who had expresly sent him That fair Name surpriz'd me and made me use the Ambassador from such a perfection with Civilities that manifested the respect I paid her after a thousand embraces I told him Yes my dear Friend if you come from the fair Izadora I am not only at leasure to hear you but to desert all the Glory of the Earth for that of obeying her Commands You will said the Messenger somewhat confounded with those Civilities at the head of the Army receive them in this Paper which I took with a transcendent greediness and devotion and having open'd it found it contain'd these words IZADORA to PEROLLA BLacius will give
transcends it I hope a part of it will be manifested in forgiving a Confidenc which is impos'd and not sought and has indeed no title to your Mercy but that is great enough for it which though infinite cannot exceed the Ioy with which it will be receiv'd nor the Truth which presumes Madam to tell you that I am Your most Humble most Faithful And most obedient Servant PARTHENISSA THE THIRD PART BOOK I. THE News which the Priest of Venus brought to his Superior and Symander was very true for whilest the last was acquainting the first with his generous Princes Adventures he himself as has been related was retir'd into a solitude which that morning he had discover'd where by Fortunes giving him some ease the better to enable him to support her longer cruelties he was fallen into a slumber and though his cares were so unusually civil as not to interrupt it yet it was suddenly by a noise of Horses and clashing of Swords and Arms which reach'd his ear which invited him to take his Horse and gallop to the place from whence this Alarm came to learn the subject of it the continuance of the noise and the swiftness of his Horse faithfully and suddenly bâ—ought him to see a Combat which struck him both with admiration and anger the first was caus'd by a single Valor which could not be but transcendent since it had such an Admirer and the last was occasion'd by six armed men which endeavor'd to destroy the possessor of it who to sell his life at a rate worthy so high a purchase and to make his Enemies deplore the destruction of so great a Courage or the effects of it had already kill'd two of them with blows that struck as great a terror into the rest as the very example of those deaths but finding at last that his Courage might be worsted by though not yield to his Enemies numbers he was retir'd to a little Thicket that shelter'd him behind and his Horse being kill'd in the retreat defended his right side doing him service even after death 't was in this little fortification and posture Artabanes found him and there being no greater invitation to his generous mind for the relieving of virtue than to find it in distress he instantly took up one of the dead mens Helmets to join himself to the opprest stranger who as he was coming full speed towards him thinking the now wearer of the Helmet as much his Enemy as he that had so lately worn it cry'd out to Artabanes Make haste make haste and help those whose hearts are as ill as their cause and who need relie on their number since they cannot on their quarrel Our Hero esteem'd it more handsom and necessary to shew the generous Stranger his error by his actions than words and at his first strokes so abundantly did it that he which he reliev'd thought his mistake a greater misfortune than that which he had now more than hopes to be freed from and indeed Artabanes perform'd things so far above his strength though not himself that three of the surviving four left the Stranger to employ their Swords against an Enemy who they concluded would render the odds as needful as it was dispoportionate but the valiant Stranger finding he had to deal but with one and that his relief might endanger the Bestower of it suddenly abandon'd his intrenchment and as suddenly made his Adversary abandon his life but his Horse he made use of to assist his unknown Friends who was already in a condition not to need it for he had killed one of the three and the other two perceiving how powerful an addition was coming endeavor'd in their Horses feet to find a security they despaired of from their own hands Artabanes and the Stranger followed them awhile but finding more difficulty in the Chace than the Quarry merited and that the way they had taken to avoid their resentments rendered them unworthy of them they gave over the pursuit and then the Stranger having with as much grace as civility beg'd a Pardon from Artabanes for a mistake created by the Arms he had on told him Though my life is rather a misfortune than the contrary yet my obligation to my Deliverer is nothing inferior and what my miseries made me desirous to lose though not in so unhandsom a way my gratitude now obliges me to preserve since I esteem the giver of my lite has too great a share and title in it to dispole of it without him Aâ—tabanes extremely satisfied with so obligaing a civility told the maker of it I have generous Stranger as little title to your life as to your relief and if by drawing my Sword in your quarrel I have done any thing it deserves rather your resentment than your thanks since I have contributed but to a Victory that was certain without my assistance and under a pretence of serving you â—ob'd you in part of a glory which your courage only had won Were not your performance the Stranger reply'd of a quality that manifests you injure your actions when you decline their merit I might as easily evince that Truth as acknowledge it and if you refuse that Present I offer you as having receiv'd it from you I shall esteem your declining it as high a misfortune as any that has made me esteem my life so If said Artabanes there be any obligation in what I have done it wholly reflects upon me that have more obliged my self than you in serving so prodigal a gratitude but he continu'd perceiving some blood dropping from the Stangers wounds as well as from his own let us not lose the benefits of your safety by disputing who you deriv'd it from and though I am a Stranger in these Parts as well as you and as much your Equal in misery as you are my Superior in those virtues of which that ought not to be the reward yet I can offer you a retirement till your health or business invites you to prosecute your journey I am reply'd the Stranger so miserable a creature that nothing can increase my being so but the belief that you are a more and though I accept of your civility till my wounds be healed yet I must beg your pardon if I first learn from whom I receiv'd them Are you said Artabanes yet ignorant of that Yes said the Stranger and cannot fancy any that knows me and are my Enemies can be so much mistaken in their revenge as to think killing me is any 'T was such discourses as these that brought them where the marks of their Courages and Victory lay where the Stranger pulling off all the Murtherers Helmets to learn if he knew any of them found himself as ignorant in their faces as in the cause of their malice yet one of them by the benefit of the Air and by the turning of his Body faintly open'd his eyes and being ask'd of the Stranger who 't was that had invited them to so unfortunate
will give me too that of repeating them I will deduce the Story from its Original not only because I esteem the strange changes and intricacies it is replenish'd with worthy your attention but that by the knowledge of my sufferings I may be oblig'd to your reason as much as goodness to pardon those esseminacies which I believe only and then absolutely excusable when you learn their cause You may remember I told you that I met the generous Falintus at his Landing as Ventidius and I was diverting our selves upon a pleasant Strand not far from his Palace where Falintus desir'd me to retire since his intelligence was of a length which by continuing where I was might impair a health he found by my looks was but newly restor'd I obey'd this request and we were no sooner return'd than locking our selves up in my Cabinet Falintus addressing his discourse to me began it in these words As soon as you were so far from Armenia as Crassolis was confident you could not receive intelligence time enough to repent his practices the first he disclos'd was the annihilating the gallant Phanasder's Commission and the conferring it on a Creature of his own both which he effected by the unlimited power he has over his King and though Altezeera and Orodes too were unsatisfy'd with it yet the latter had been more to have declin'd his Favourites Council but no sooner was Phanasder retir'd to his Government than Pacorus with all the Gallantry of Parthia which by Pompey's precipitate return to Rome was safely united in one Body presented himself on the Banks of Euphrates absolutely determind'd to repeat or repair his disgrace some were of opinion that Phanasders displacing gave him the invitation to invade us others thought he began the War upon intelligence of Annexander's Treaty at Rome with hopes to determine it before Crassus could come either to divert him or assist us whether the causes were great I know not but I am sure the success was for the Armenian Army consisting of those who sought for Pay and not for Glory all of the latter quality having flung up their Commission with Phanasder and the General being one whose suddain elevation had astonish'd him the Armenians in the first Battel were render'd uncapable of a second for they left above 40000 on the place but that which diminish'd the loss was the addition of one unto it their General This Victory being too infamous to be insisted on I will pass it over to tell you the effects it produc'd one of the first was the invironing of Tygranocerta near which it was won next morning with an Army of 30000 Horse where the King with the Princess in his company had remov'd the better to act upon any emergency But Artabazus found himself no sooner besieg'd than he repented but would not repair his injury to Phanasder's Authority and to yours which was violated in his As soon as the news was divulg'd in Parthia that Artabazus was besieg'd with as little hope of relief as resistance Arsaces came in person to Tygranocerta where he solemnly protested he would be reveng'd for the Bloud of his Subjects at Offala and for Artabazus's having hir'd the Romans to his destruction The gallant Phanasder at the intelligence of the Kings misfortune forgets his injury to remember his duty neither were the tyes of Friendship and Love less invitations to his performances the first of those were on your score to the Princess Altezeera and the latter on his own to the Princess Theoxcena to whom Tygranocerta not only belong'd but was then the place of her residence and who indeed was blest with such charms both of the Body and Mind that Phanasder was as unable as unwilling to resist them But why do I so much abuse the fair Theoxcena and my self as to endeavour to give you a description of a person that is above any and who if I be not much mistaken you did assiduously visit in your Friends favour a little before you left Armenia I must confess I reply d that asâ—oon as Phanasder had acquainted me with his Passion I acquainted Theoxcena with it and with the merit of her Servants of which she was so absolutely convinc'd that upon that score she not only pardon'd but receiv'd his Flame and being at his own disposal she thought no argument could more evince how much she merited that liberty than to give her self to Phanasder without those nice formalities authoriz'd rather from Custom than Reason and besides she esteem'd it both an injury to her own election and her Servants Virtues only to be satisfy'd of their greatness by time This generous declaration my concern in my Friend and his impatience made me the more sollicitous before my departure to bring this affair to a conclusion which might be uncapable of change I believe said Falintus you have so well effected that design that if all her Sex were as constant as Theoxcena I had been exempted from an employment which I detest though in it you may find I will decline nothing for your Service since I do it not when 't is to your trouble But whilst Phanasder was levying of Forces to hinder or at least protract the loss of Tygranocerta he receiv'd an advertisement from thence that his Kings Fear or Weakness had made him already offer to capitulate with Arsaces upon tearms so low that an absolute ruine had been a fitter election who yet return'd him word That he fought not for Glory but Revenge and Empire and therefore the destruction and not the submission of his Enemies should be the evincement of his success This answer made Phanasder conclude that either Arsaces's cruelty or advantage was great and to hinder both finding that to raise an Army would be a work of time and consequently of danger with 3000 select Horse he advanc'd towards Tygranocerta and at noon-day passing over the Bellies of as many Parthians with the loss of 300 enter'd the Town and so much reviv'd the Besieged's hopes and the Kings goodness that the former cast away their fears and the latter his ingratitude There Theoxcena's reception of her Servant was more full of satisfaction to him than the Triumph but that all our enemies might know as well as hear of the relief Phanasder and I for I had the honor to be with him and to compose a third part of his Forces made such brisk and successful Sallies that though the number of the Fighters hindred them from the name of Battels yet the number of the Dead would have made them thought so which so transported Arsaces that he solemnly protested Tyranocerta should be either his Tomb or Artabazus's and it may be we had made him keep the first part of his Vow had not the Divine Sword destroy'd more Lives than the Parthian for not long after our flinging our selves into Tygranocerta there fell into it from Heaven if such a Curse can come from thence a Mortality of so strange nature
Madam with Arsaces I am convinced would make you wish when perhaps too-too late that you had prevented it by greater troubles than I hope you will suffer in your journey for I have so well deluded him that you may take your own hours of travel and that which will end yours will be a Castle of Merinzor's in Media the first place to which we intended our flight had not an unhappy accident prevented it and Media Madam being the Kingdom your Artabbanes must one day possess I elect to wait on you thither that your Reason if not your justice may be secured of the innocency of my designs for had I any which were criminal I would not have chosen that place for the Scene to act them where your happy servant cannot want hands to act his Revenge Surena said Parthenissa told me many things of this quality and so protested his ambition was to solicite not force my Affection that I determined since I could not prevent the former not to provoke him to the latter which the uttering of my just resentments I apprehended would 't was therefore I told him Though your past Crimes might invite me rationally to conclude you capable of any yet I will not disbelieve your vows and professions which if ever you design to violate I have the power and the resolution to prevent Do not necessitate me to owe that safety to my self which I am not unwilling to derive from you nor attempt to practice that which you so justly condemn in another and which you esteemed so foul a Sin that to prevent it you esteemed Rebellion None Madam said Surena did it not too much wrong the Beauty of Truth to arm it with many protestations I should by reiterated ones bind my self by Religion to that which I am sufficiently confined unto without it and were it lawful for Surena to repine at any thing the fair Parthenissa says he had now but too abundant an occasion to do it for she must believe him as wicked as unfortunate to conclude he stood in need of any other Argument to deter him from attempting against her honour than the greatness of the Crime but Madam my deportment shall be so innocent that you will in the future esteem your doubts as great an injury to your self as I can now esteem them to me I found though his Expressions were humble that he was highly mov'd at the cause of my fears 't was therefore I replyed I hope Surena you will not much condemn me for running into an error where the discovery of its being one will prove my satisfaction Your satisfaction Madam said Surena shall be still more considerable to me than my own and since I have that invitation as well as that of virtue I shall as much apprehend any criminal designs as the fair Parthenissa does detest them thereupon having wish'd me but as much rest as I could confer on him he withdrew himself to leave me to mine But I took none out of an apprehension that I had done amiss in acquainting him with my fears for 't was not impossible but to think him capable of that Sin was to provoke him to it since the very performance could not raise in me a worse belief of him than that was of fearing he would perform them This reason and many another of a resembling efficacy made me conclude that my having declared my doubts was a greater prejudice than those assurances I had from thence derived was an advantage You may believe in such disturbances of the Mind the Body could not but participate so that I was earlier up than he that was more concerned in my being so and I quitted my Bed not only because I could take no rest in it but that I resolved to add to the obligation of virtue that of trust and to go freely to what else I knew I should be constrained unto Surena therefore found me dress'd when he came to tell me all things were ready for our Journey if I was which having told him he led me to the Chariot that had all the Journey the same 30 Horse for Convoy that it had at first Surena begged and had my permission to ride with me in it The Fifth day after we had left the Castle of Eden we came into Media which we learned was all involved in a Domestick War This made Surena travel with more caution than he had thitherto observed so that constantly he left a couple of his Guard some four or five Furlongs behind and sent half a score before that he might not be surprized The third day after he had settled this order one of those to whose care all Intelligence which should happen in the rear was left came full speed to acquant his Prince that his Companion had been killed by a Party of Horse which followed him a round Gallop Surena at this Intelligence leap'd out of the Chariot and whilst he was arming himself made me many apologies for so rude a proceeding but he was no sooner fitted to receive his Enemies than he perceived them who without any cheapening charg'd him so roundly that he found he might need those Ten Horse for the Fight which he had sent for Intelligence one of his Pages went therefore to call them but two of the unknown Party having charged through all Surena's came to my Chariot and having beg'd me to pardon a rudeness which was for my service one of them immediately killed the Driver of it and the other with his sword cut the Traces asunder but this performance cost them their Lives which they lost by Three of their Enemies who feared those came not to hinder my flight but to contribute to it The Combat being performed by Men of singular valour was very bloody and in less than half an hour were reduced to so few as only the chief of either Party He of the unknown one by his unimitable courage had reduced his Adversary to a condition which needed help when the generous Artabbanes interposed himself for their reconciliation and then from an Intercessor became a Party not knowing he that was vanquished was guilty but he abundantly repaired that mistake by defending after the return of those Ten Horse which were recalled a Life I am much more concerned to have preserved than to have Surena's destroyed 'T was thus said Symander that the fair Parthenissa put a period to a relation which had as much taken up Artabbanes and Sillace's wonder as attention I will not tell you how infinitely the first of them exclaim'd against the perversness of his Fate for having rendered the acting his Revenge as great an offence against his Friendship as the omission of it was one against his Love But the fair Parthenissa who desired no greater punishment for Zephalinda's Brother and who indeed could wish him no greater than to be out of his protection and under his Rivals conjured him to be contented with that Revenge with which she was Artabbanes was
Horse which yielded nothing to my Prince's and indeed both of them seem'd not only to know but act their Princes design The Rivals whose Armors in the beginning of the day were of a different colour now began to wear one Livery by the many fountains of blood which sprung out of them If Parthenissa had beheld so fatal a sight she could not but have deplor'd a Beauty which at the same time that it evidenc'd destroyed Courages as great as it self and perhaps a friendship too Twice already the generous Combatants had grappl'd because their Horses grown furious with Heat made many of their blows only wound the air which to avoid in the future they clos'd so strongly that their Bridles being abandon'd and their Horses left to their own dispose the Riders forc'd each other out of the Saddle and fell on the dust in those cruel embraces as their design was so were their advantages for they saluted the ground with their sides only Surena's Sword falling between his and the earth inconvenienc'd him but so little that Artabbanes had only the internal satisfaction of resolving he would take no advantage of it for before he could manifest that generosity his enemy was in a condition not to need it Their Horses as I have said sympathizing in their Masters concerns were no sooner eas'd of their burthen then they also began a furious sight which ended not but with the life of Surena's but then the survivor fetching two or three groans over his dead enemy fell down eternally by his side You may think it strange continuâ—d Symander that any could so misimploy his sight as to be able to give this relation but it is certain that the rareness of the spectacle and the general belief that the Riders fates would be seen in their Horses drew the eyes of many from the dispute of the former upon the latter The two Generals already so weakned by those streams of blood they had mutually lost that 't was no more their strength but their resolution which continu'd the Combat this being observ'd by many of both Armies they advanc'd to separate them as they were leaning on the Hilts of their Swords to take breath Those which came to my Prince had only these words Do you fear my Courage or my Quarrel But they had a look which told them more Surena's had a resembling entertainment and to take from their Armies the opportunity of the like offence they renew'd the fight again with so much strength that those which fear'd they had too little left now did they had too much by the fatal way they employ'd theirs in You will dispence with me generous Hearers said Symander if I tell you not every blow in this fatal relapse since I know so well your concerns for Artabbanes that in so relating the Combat I should almost act it by wounding him afresh in your sorrows 't is enough you know that both of them so prodigally spent the treasure of their Breath and Blood that if Parthenissa had been a spectator she must have confest her self too well disputed and in brief our Heroes having perform'd actions even as worthy our wonder as grief Surena fell and afterwards Artabbanes but then their knees serv'd them for feet as if their hearts the throne of their Courages had been strong forts and were to be won by approaches Who can tell how much Parthenissa was hated for being so much lov'd and how many a Curse was utter'd against her for that which was the greatest to her self and that which she more participated in than any of her Blasphemers To finish this fatal Dispute I shall acquaint you that their knees being not so active as their feet only serv'd them to receive wounds not avoid them and their mutual weakness made them so apprehend they scarcely should have life enough left to act their deaths that it extinguish'd all thoughts of avoiding them Surena like a blaze before the extinction of a Lamp united his expiring forces with a design in one blow to perform what so many had but too far advanc'd but as his Sword was in the air his body fell on the ground and thereby seem'd to tell him that his life was more just than he by abandoning him when he intended so fatally to employ it his eyes also as needing no more the light after the gods had decreed Parthenissa from him shut their lids as if they intended to impose on themselves an eternal night Artabbanes employ'd not that moment of breath which was left him to ascertain a success which he feared was too much so already but he resolv'd since Surena by his Letter had left the least unworthy title to Parthenissa to the gods decision that he would employ his fading strength to declare not act his victory so that having waved his sword over his dead Rivals body he fell down on it and by embraces seem'd to beg pardon for an insulting which his own declaration had necessitated him unto and which he could not have perform'd in a less criminal way PARTHENISSA THE FOURTH PART The Fourth BOOK OH gods continu'd Symander who can tell you with how many acclamations and tears this fatal Victory was celebrated in by the Median Army which being fill'd with those two most predominant passions of joy and grief in the dictates they inspir'd flew on the Parthians who being possest only with the last of them which rather stupisies than enflames the Courage lost the Victory with their General and left his body as one manifestation of it For my part said Symander I contributed nothing to it for taking with me an experimented Chyrurgeon I ran to my Prince's body which I found too large a subject for the evincement of his Art his wounds being bound up though with no signs of life we erected his Tent over his body and laid him on a Pallate And because I knew if the gods would restore him to life that nothing would more accelerate his recovery than my assurance that Surena had wanted nothing for his I caused the care of them to be as equal as their danger and carri'd Surena's body to a neighbour-Tent left their being in one might have been prejudicial to both It was at the least three hours that Artabbanes continu'd in his Swound for his recovery out of which he had no water but my tears at length the gods were pleas'd by the opening of his eyes to dry up mine which joy was increast by his speaking and the first occasion of it was though with pain equal to the generosity which caus'd it to enquire after Surena I gave him a true account of what I had done for which he embrac'd me one part of his strength being employ'd to enquire after his Enemy and the other to reward the care of him The ensuing night was given entirely to rest by which he receiv'd so high a refreshment that next morning he had perfectly recover'd the use of speaking The first employment he
upon But when you do evince that Time which heals all others griefs does but increase yours and that every moment your Princess's death makes you willing ready to act your own that will evidence your Love and sorrow equal their causes and that the effects of your Passion are as peculiar as the Beauty which inspir'd it Even Arsaces would in the first fury of Parthenissa's Loss have done as much as you shall the deprived hopes of a vicious Flame have as high a production as those of a virtuous one Ah Sir provoke not the world so much to mistake the nature of your grief as to give them but equal illustrations shew us what was but fury in the Tyrant is Reason in you by acting your Death for Parthenissa's when he has forgotten hers The highest production of grief being to dye and he having elected that you have no way but by Time to make the difference It would cloud the beauty of your performance if it were in the heat of your Loss and make that look but like the greatest Rage which is the greatest Love I should be endless generous Hearers did I tell you all our reasonings 't is enough you know that at length I obtained the victory and that which chiefly gave it me were the two inducements I mention'd last I must not omit acquainting you that I elected the Oracle of Hierapolis for the place where my King was to learn his Fate not only because it was the most celebrated in all Asia but also because it was so distant from the place we then were in that it would necessitate him to a perfect recovery to enable him to perform the journey Never any man lost his health with more unwillingness than Artabbanes recovered his and those things prescribed him he took in such a way as manifested Life was his obedience not desire Should I tell you all his extravagant reasonings his vows of acting his own death if the Oracle gave him any ambiguous answer and his high repinings against the gods for having kept the power of punishing when they had lost that of rewarding him I should injure your patience too much in apprehension I have done so already I shall conclude all by acqainting you That I wondered he had so much obedience for those Powers for whom he had so little respect to whose Providence he yet owed the recovery of his wounds which being so well clos'd as to permit him to ride we began our journey which was the saddest that ever was perform'd for my King for the most part kept a deep silence and when at any time he broke it it was in sighs and groans or in repeating the fair Name of Parthenissa evidencing thereby that she only occasion'd them The third Night we came into a Village whither after Artabbanes was gone into his Chamber there came certain Gentlemen from Selutia all in mourning of whom I had the curiosity to enquire what News that place afforded one of them told me That the Death of the Princess Parthenissa and the Princess Zephalinda took up all the sorrow and business of the Court and that Arsaces continued in as deep a Melancholly as if the cause of it had been recent that he had lately celebrated their Funerals distinctly That though Zephalinda's was with much solemnity and State yet Parthenissa's was with much more and that in imitation of Alexander's Funerals for Hephestion Arsaces had caused all the Spires the Pinacles and the Battlements both of the Temples and the Palaces in Babylon Niniveh and Selutia to be beaten down and ordered that all in his Empire which were able should for the revolution of twelve Moons wear close Mourning That he had caused Parthenissa's Statue to be made by an admirable Artist which he had erected at the end of a large Gallery all hung with black which had no other light but what it received from One hundred Chrystal Lamps whose flames were continually fed by an artificial oyl which hardly admitted of any diminution That at the feet of this Statue he had placed his own kneeling weeping and fixing his Eyes on that Beauty who seemed to have communicated to the Alablaster her living insensibility That every day when Arsaces's grief gave him strength to visit this Gallery he constantly spent half of it at the fair Princess's feet and imitated or relieved his Statue This Gentleman further told me that though these Deaths and this strange way of deploring them in Orodes left little room for other sorrows or discourses yet some there were who did both grieve and wonder at the strange forcing of the Princess Lyndadorie's Palace at her being carried away by unknown persons and at the not hearing since what was become of her or the Prince Sillaces who the same Night had follow'd her Ravishers This News continued Symander I thought unfit to communicate to my Prince lest it might bring an accession to that grief whose extinction was my highest care The next morning therefore we continued our journey with our accustomed silence but when we came within a days journey of this Palace there happened an accident which I cannot but acquaint you with Not far from the Road in which we travelled near the side of a little Grove we discovered eight Horsemen who assaulted a Gentleman that defended himself with so much resolution as shewed the difference of the numbers did but render the Combat equal My Prince moved with the generous Strangers Courage and apprehending at length he might stand in need of his pulling down the sight of his Helmet with his Sword drawn he gallop'd up to him just as one of his Enemies had killed his Horse by whose fall he was so much disordered that had not Artabbanes by a furious blow killed one of those who press'd him the most the Stranger undoubtedly had exchanged Fates with his Enemy Artabbanes having thus reliev'd a danger which was impossible any other way to be effected suspending his Sword in the Air and commanding me to do the like with mine address'd himself to one who seem'd to be the chief of those who had begun so unequal a Combat and told him Though I am ignorant in the cause of your Quarrel yet I have some reason to suspect it is not just because you depend upon your numbers for your success yet if you please to acquaint me with it I will ingage my self no longer to defend your enemy than I find my self confin'd unto it by the duty of Justice Whoever thou art the other replyed with an insolent tone who hast made thy self my Enemy and then wouldst have me make thee my Judg know our difference does not concern thee but since thou hast made thy self so much a Party I will make my self the Judg and do condemn thee to share in that death thou vainly endeavourest to hinder Thereupon he darted his Javelin at my Prince who received it in his shield and then charged him so briskly that he found his
Pharnaces and thereby end both Wars before he had begun one Neither was I altogether indebted to my hopes for so flattering an imagination but to my reason also for Lingarus had so intently and actively imploy'd himself that when I was come within a days march of Nicomedia he overtook me with the flower of the Nobility of Bosphorus who perhaps thereby endeavoured to let Mithridates see they were too considerable not to be continued his friends or to be made his enemies But alas my satisfaction then could not transcend my sorrow soon after when by an Express from the King I understood that the same morning on which the Letter was writ the Prince Atafernes being furiously assaulted by the Enemy who knowing their condition admitted no recovery if they were not conquerors of Nicomedia and of one Army before the other had joined with it and having with wonderful resolution beat them off had so far and so briskly followed this dawning success with all his horse that before he saw his mistake he was not in a capacity of remedying it the whole Army having interposed between him and his retreat which finding 't was impossible to make he and his were resolved so to signalize their defeat that his foes might have as much cause to mourn as to rejoice at it This design he had fully acted and at length he and all that followed him overpressed with multitudes were every one kill'd or taken and whether he himself had fallen into the first or last of these misfortunes was yet uncertain so that the Forces in Nicomedia being deprived of him seem'd to be deprived of what had animated them defending now the Enemies renewed and universal assault with such coldness that 't was deeply apprehended their ressistance would not be long enough to render my relief worthy that name Oh Gods you alone can tell my trouble at this sad advertisement having of two persons I most valued lost one and being but in too high a probability of losing the other But I had not time given me to deplore my unhappiness nor hardly enough to prevent the encrease of it Therefore immediately marching away all the Horse I had and appointing Megabizes a gallant and experienc'd Officer to follow me expeditiously with the Foot I bent my course with all imaginable celerity toward Nicomedia resolv'd to put a period to the danger of those in it or to my life By the dawn of the day I was come near enough to hear the shouts and cryes of the Assailants and Defendants and soon after to see all Nicomedes Army except those employ'd in the storm under their Colours By this I knew the place was not lost and that the Enemy had no small hopes that it would soon be won Thrust on by this apprehension and elevated by that joy I flew to charge a Body of near Ten thousand Horse which lay ready to receive that relief they believed Mithridates needed and I would bring him I strictly order'd all my Soldiers not to follow any success the gods and their courages should give them farther than might contribute to our entring of the City which was then only our design The Fight was furious and bloody the hopes of both parties depending upon the event of it but at last I singled out the General of their Horse and in sight of both parties kill'd him at which our Enemies gave ground and soon after so precipitately lost all that we entred Nicomedia not having lessened our Numbers above four hundred and having lessened five times as many of our Adversaries But as if Fate had designed that both the Streets and the Fields should be equally moistned with human blood as I entered the West-gate Nicomedes in person entred the East having left the generous Craterus for dead in the mouth of the breach and fill'd up the graâ—t with the dead bodies which had so resolutely defended it thereby having rendered those which had been the obstacle of their entrance now the means of having it more easie Had you seen the faces of the Nicomedians you might have read their condition for they equally participated of joy and fear their friends being triumphant at one end of the Town and their Enemies at the other But the last News coming earlier to Mithridates than the first he thought it no longer courage but frenzy to expect relief in a place which he now esteemed uncapable of any He therefore hastily abandoned the Palace with the Queen the Princess Statira the Princess Roxana and the young Princess Cleopatra and flying with them towards a little Fort which stood at the extremity of the Street I was entred and commanded the Sea to which Element he now only hoped to owe his deliverance he met me at the head of my Forces covered with dust and blood as most in the first Ranks were The posture we were in joyn'd with the intelligence of the Enemies having entred the City made him no longer doubt but that his Fate was come and in that belief he was going to act it with his own hands but perceiving his mistake by the flight of those few Guards he had left and by the cryes of the Princesses lifting up my Helmet and turning the point of my Sword to the ground I rode up to the King and conjur'd him not so much to wrong the gods and his own Soldiers as by abandoning Nicomedia to evidence he doubted the goodness of the one or the courages of the other their having so freshly defeated a considerable part of the Enemies Forces and their now having so opportunely sent him a more considerable part of his own were such good earnests of future mercies if not themselves present ones that to doubt a deliverance afterwards were but to provoke them to deny it Never words had a more fruitful effect than these not only upon Mithridates but even upon the fair Statira too who lifting up her fair eyes eclips'd with weepings fix'd them so obligingly on me that my felicity was thereby higher in my own apprehension than their late danger had been in hers Here generous Princes continued Callimachus I must acknowledg my crime for I could not but bless the gods which had cast her into such misfortunes since they had destin'd me to free her from them As soon as I was alighted the King flew into my arms and in expressions great as his joy he began to give me acknowledgments of the same nature but he was cut off in the midst of them for by this Nicomedes had so far enter'd the City that her Inhabitants and Garison by their hasty flight and confused cryes seem'd to acquaint him all was lost I had only time to conjure him to return to his Palace which he was not many paces from and to beg him to rest assur'd of a Victory which our Swords had in some measure begun and were now going to perfect Mithridates whilst he was acting my desire gave me so many assurances of his confidence
my Army to shog still toward the right hand so that by the time we came to mingle we outwinged their Left Flank as much as their Right Wing outwinged our Left and thereby in a great measure shared the inconveniences with them which by their numbers they might have entirely cast upon us if they had taken the advantage of the place in keeping the stream on their left Flank I shall not trouble you in giving a minutes description of this days action 't is enough you know though the Mithridatians did behave themselves like men of Honour yet the Romans led by Nicomedes for Murena had been dangerously wounded and was carried off in the beginning of the Fight and all Nicomedes's Forces had been broken and dispers'd so signally manifested their Courages and kept their Discipline that I was twice reduced to our general Reserve and to a Body of Foot which had been kept entire only by the help and countenance of some Horse which had been their Reserve That which had reduced us to this extremity was not only the fall of Megabizes who though he lost his Life yet he got a Reputation which was much more worth but also the dangerous wounds which Lingarus received who thereby was carried out of the Field sensless and speechless yet accompanied with so many elogies that none which was a friend to Honour would have declin'd the bloody rate at which he had purchas'd his Great gods what did I not think and what did I not say when I saw my self reduced to so sad an extremity to be worsted in Statira's quarrel nay even in her sight and thereby expose her to lose her own Liberty whose Beauties were capable to deprive all men of theirs To presume to lift up my eyes to such a person and be defeated at the head of such an Army To have had success enough to give me such exalted hopes and then from the height of them to precipitate me were considerations too too sufficient to make me cast my self into the arms of death to put a period unto them I may truly say generous Princes that this despair made me act strange things even worthy the fair Mithridatia's sight and perhaps her commendation which yet I even blusht at to find that any motive could inspire my Arm more than the Noblest Passion for the Noblest Object I kill'd in this fury Neoptolemâ—◠〈◊〉 the head of his Forces and took Ariobarzanes in the Center of his and by the help of Lingarus's Son who had rallied a body of the young Bosphorian Nobility I stop'd the current of Nicomedes's success and thereby gave my own Forces time and opportunity to Rally which they did and with which we soon made our Friends see we were Conquerors and our Enemies feel it Never was there in such a number so horrid an Execution scarcely Nicomedes and Murena loaden with wounds could recover a little Boat which with much hazard carried them to Archilaus's Fleet where he himself soon after did arrive cursing Fortune which had given them such hopes only to make their loss the more unsupportable But amidst the blood and confusion of our Victory I caus'd the Name of Atafernes to be ecchoed in all places and by all Persons under my Command promising high Rewards to any which could bring me News of him but finding those ways unsuccessful I sent several parties of Horse towards the Sea presupposing when the Enemy had seen the probability of their Defeat they might have sent him towards their Fleet as the only place to secure so considerable a Prisoner in And that nothing might be left unessay'd and something acted according to my own mind galloped I my self away at the head of some Horse to seek that generous Prince for whose Freedom I had higher desires than for Victory I was already come within sight of the Sea without discovering what I sought and was even turning back when I perceived coming out of a small Wood a body of Horse who bended their course towards a Galley which rode near the Shore but yet they marched so leisurely that I concluded in so general a Flight they carryed off some considerable Person whose then condition would not admit of a speedier motion I therefore resolved to attempt them and having sent some Horse to engage them and to retard their March I came up at last with those I had with me and after some Resistance broke and defeated the Enemy But O gods what was my joy when I found in a Litter the Prince Atafernes alive but so weak and changed with his wounds that 't was some time before I knew him and 't was with much difficulty that he embraced me This addition to the winning of the Battel made me need but one desire more With Atafernes I joyfully took up our way to the Camp whither as we were going he so signally owned the services I pay'd him and his Family and in such pressing words assur'd me they had nothing in their power above my Merit that thereby he flatter'd a Despair which his fair Sister could only suppress He told me too that he owed his life to me before I had this last time redeem'd it for Murena enraged at his wounds and thinking the day would be lost since those necessitated him to retire had commanded his Soldiers to whom I was a Prisoner and who then guarded me that if they could not recover the Fleet before they were overtook they should put him to Death which being once pursued they were about to perform when by accident Nicomedes in his flight passing by not only hindred but discharged those Romans of Murena placed a Troop of Bithynians and Cappadocians about me with order if they were overtook or worsted they should leave me untouch'd and having acquainted me therewith he added 'T was for Callimachus's sake who had desired his care of me This generosity I was inform'd of with much satisfaction and with no less trouble to find my Fate had destin'd me to be an Enemy to a Prince who by many confinements merited my Service We were no sooner arrived at the Camp than the shouts of Victory were drown'd in those Atafernes's life and Liberty occasioned in the Soldiers whose joys yet had not a higher production than a cause 'T was then I waited upon Ariobarzanes where having pay'd him all the civilities due to his Title and given him all those consolations due to his condition I sent him to Mithridates accompanied with the chief Officers of the Army But to let you see the instability of the most promising earthly condition as I was inviron'd with some thousands of Conquerors and in the embraces of a generous Prince there came a young man of an excellent Meen and in a Garb which shewed him to be of some quality who desired to speak with me promising a piece of intelligence worthy my knowledg I must confess I trembled at it fearing it might be some discovery where Nicomedes was concealed and