giuing Achilles armour to Vlisses that wise and politike men might be estemed as well for counsell as valiant men for valour Augustus the Emperour was written vnto by his deare friend Maecenas that if hee would haue a quiet Empire and his subiects to loue him he should cut off faction the chiefe cause of sedition and that the name of factions or any other new name tending to moue quarrels and debate might be quite excluded out of Rome And so doth Aristotle exhort that Magistratuum potentum contentiones the beginning of brawles Arist pol. 5. and contentions should be stayed and stopt by lawes if not by lawes by the sword Adulta seditio melioribus consilijs flectetur sayth Cicero What slaughter came of the cynders and ashes of Pompey the great of Cato of Scipio and of others to reuenge their death vpon Caesar and his friends What murther what warre was to reuenge the murthering of Caesar vpon Brutus Cassius and others The Lawe of Thrasybulus which curbed the thirty Tyrants in Athens could doe no good in Rome though Cicero did what he could in perswading Thrasybulus law to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place with the people For then euery man in Rome seemed as a Serpent one to another ready in armes one to kill another Orosius hereupon induceth a Fable of Medea of a Serpent slayne of whose teeth set in Oros li. 6. cap. 17. the ground by Medea grew so many armed men who presently fought so within themselues that one destroied another Such was the slaughter by the ciuill warres at Rome Sectio 7. THeopompus being demaunded why did Sparta flourish Is it for that their kings gouerne their subiects wisely or that their subiects obey their kings faithfully Theopompus answered We practise in Sparta but to indure labour Theopom saying of Sparta No seditiō in Sparta to ouercome our enemies and to obey our kings howsoeuer kings gouerne the commaundement is giuen to subiects frō God to vse their shield not the sword The law in Sparta was therefore that the souldier that lost his shield in the field among the enemies should dye for it The sword is put into the hands of princes to punish offendors and to cut off disobedient and seditious subiects Chirurgians cut off rotten putrified members from the sound members which may be well likened to Gangraena which must of necessity be cut off lest the whole body perish God vsed to shew such seuerity to those factious Rebells the Iewes for their disobedience that fire came from heauen aboue and burned them and the earth belowe swallovved them for their factious disobedience which of all other Nations were most factious to Moses in the wildernesse to Iosua at Iericho and from time to time to the Iudges in Israel It was euer the wonted practice of policy among the seditious and factious people to taunt Magistrates or to speake some whispering speech against a prince to feele and to heare who will ioyne with them to moue seditiō These be the Vipers that bite men priuily these be the domesticall Serpents the secret brue-bates of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commonwealths in whō there is no fayth found nor othes to be beleeued as Aristophanes sayth Augustus Caesar hearing that a slaunderous fellow one Elianus spake vnreuerent words of the Emperour the Magistrates willing to punish him Augustus commaunded Suet. in Aug. those that accused him to goe and tell Elianus Sciat Elianus Augustum habere linguam that Augustus had also a tongue both to punish and to pardon Philip of Macedon in like sort to his friends that perswaded him to banish the like lewd fellowes for their speach out of his court and countrey sayd God Plut. in Apotheg forbid lest they should speake of mee more in another Country then in Macedonia But these were dilatory plees to looke further vnto thē to find more fellowes of the like practice The example of Raymerus is much more commended which looked vnto the disposition of his Noble men and saw them vntractable little waying the care and loue the king had vnto them contemning despising both him and his lawes giuing eare to seditious men vntill the king saw their practice waxed angry perceiuing that they esteemed him not as their king caused 11. of these whom he saw most contentious to Lips lib. 3 be put to the sword in the City of Osca giuing them this taunt withall Nescit Vulpecula cum quo ludat A caueat not to pluck haires from Lions as the prouerb is Lecnem vellicare To serue a king saith Brasidas consisteth in three precepts Velle obedire vereri Brasida◠precepts A certayne king in Persia vsed in like sort as Raimerus did in Spayne but of meaner persons which for some reprochfull taunting wordes that they spake of the king he caused those scoffers nostrils quite on both sides to be cut off saying Ecce sigillum Regis in conuitiatores Behold the kings seale against scoffers This seuerity is more commended in these princes then the clemency of Philip or of Augustus What became of the taunt which the Egyptiās gaue to Ochus K. of Persia naming the K. the Asse of Persia King Ochus taunt to the Egyptians said Ochus Faciam vt hic asinus vestrū bouem depascat I wil make the Asse of Persia eate your Oxe of Egypt for the Egyptians worshipped an Oxe which they called Apis as one of their chiefe gods which within a while after Ochus surnamed Artaxerxes marched with a great Oros li. 3. cap. 7. army and subdued Egypt and sacrificed their Oxe and their god Apis according to his promise Cotis a Thracian K. answered one that said his seuere gouernmēt was rather fury then clemency towards his Cotis subiects Yea said Cotis hic furor meus sanos reddit subditós Clemency must be ioyned with seuerity This my seuerity said Cotis shall make my subiects both to loue me and to feare me Nimia clementia nocet Had Artabanus obserued the rule of Raymerus or the seuerity of Cotis he needed not to haue fled secretly Artabanus from Parthia to king Izetes beyond Armenia a far meaner king then himselfe neither to feare the snares and trappes of his subiects being so great a king called the king of kings for so the kings of Parthia are called but hee was restored to his kingdome by this meane king Izetes A thousand mishaps may happen to princes which subiects are free of Examples may be found of Iugurth king of Numidia and of Persius king of Persia who were taken Captiues in their owne kingdomes and dyed prisoners in Rome Charles surnamed sapiens the French king saw the king his father taken captiue in his owne kingdome and caried into England and the whole kingdome of Fraunce possest of Englishmen The Romane Histories are full of these horrible examples that by seditions and factions the whole Empire was welnigh destroyed that I
heauen to burne Samaria Nescitis cuius Spiritus estis Luc. 9. Many practise such policyes with such furyes as the Syrians that went from Damasco with two eyes to kyll Elizeus at Dothan but they were brought blinde 4. Reg. 6. from Dothan to Samaria among their enemies Others practise the like policy with Gehezi and run after Naaman the Syrian for gifts rewards vntill the 4. Reg. 5. leprosy of Naaman come vpon them and their houses for euer Some trusting to their strength put their hands to many dangers like Milo Cretoniates who drew a great yron wedge out of a strong clouē oake with one hand Gel. li. 15. cap. 16. thrust the other hand into the cleft where the wedge was but the oake fastned vpon his hand and held him vntill wild beasts came to deuoure him Hermes the Egyptian sayd that vngodlines is a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes cap. 12. heauy sicknes to the soule of man who is neuer quiet nor resteth but in actions of vngodlines Antiochus was so vngodly a king that he was wont to say that he would make Ierusalem a graue to bury the Iewes 2. Mac. 9. Benhadad would bragge that the dust of Samaria would not suffice that euery one of his soldiers should 3. Reg. 20 haue a handfull Sennacherib was wont to bragge of king Ezechias that neyther God nor man might deliuer him out of 4. Reg. 19 his hands Dripetine Mithidrates daughter Queene of Laodicea had double teeth set in a rowe one row beside another in such deformed sort that it loathed any man to looke vpon her and yet not so lothsome to behold as to heare the brags and blasphemies of these blasphemers The Greekes yeelded diuine honours to them that would kill a Tyrant neyther can it bee a greater sacrifice Alawe against Tyrants in Greece to the gods saith Seneca then the death of a Tyrant Spolia opima Ioui A rich spoyle vnto Iupiter Wherefore Hermodius and Aristogiton two Citizens of Athens for killing of Pisistratus the Tyrant had graunted them for honour that no man should euer be called after their names in Athens for that they were much plagued by Tyrants In Greece a Lawe was made that Tyrannorum filii conscii parentum sceleris haud secus morte et exilio mulctentur that Tyrants Children should be banyshed or dye with their parents Sectio 12. DARIVS Signet vpon Alexanders hand mooued much the Macedonians to doubt Darius Signet of their kings fauour Pompeyes Signet vpon Caesars finger much spited the Romanes that were Pompeyes friends The Signet of Marcellus the Consull vpon Hanibals finger being slain in an ambush so astonished the Army Marcellus Signet that Crispinus in great haste sent Letters to Salapia and to other ports and townes about Apulia that they should not giue credit vnto Hanibals Letters though they were sealed with Marcellus Signet It was the maner of Alexander after hee had conquered Darius when hee wrote his Leters to Persia to seale them with the Signet of Darius and when he wrote to Macedonia he vsed his owne Signet So Iulius Caesar after king Mithridates was subdued by Pompey soone vanquished king Pharnaces Mithridates sonne without any great warres but by yeelding of his Crown and his Signet vnto Caesar so he wrote to his friend Anitus to Rome but these three words Veni vidi vici No Nation resisted Caesar after he had conquered the Gaules but his owne nation the Romanes Diuisions ouerthrew kingdomes and Empyres so was Greece by Graecians and not by Philip of Macedon so were the Israelites after their diuision into two kingdomes ouerthrowen within them selues by their owne nation the Israelites The Romanes though not equall in number to the Spaniards nor in strength to the French men nor in subtilty to the Affricans nor in knowledge to the Grecians yet in time the Romanes mastered all these and many more nations Armis et viribus sayth Vigetius Pietate et religione sayth Cicero but most writers affirme Viget lib. 1. cap. 28 that the Romanes became Conquerours Humanitate et vnitate which is the onely cause of all Conquests Cotys of Thracia seemed herein to imitate the Romanes who was certified that the Athenians had graunted him to bee free Denizin of Athens and I will sayd Cotys make all the Athenians free in Thracia Val. Max. li. 3. cap. 7 and wil make Athens and Thracia all one Sic Thraciam Athenis aequauit Cotys The sower of all discord is Sathan the Serpent that soweth Tares amongst good Wheat while we sleepe Math. 13. We haue no helpe against this Serpent but watching and praying The Hebrues that were bitten by Serpents in the wildernes were healed by looking vpon the brazen Numb 21 Serpent in that wildernes The Egyptians could saue themselues from Serpents of Ethiopia by their Birds Ibides The Arabians had remedies against their venemous red Serpents by eating of an Arabiā fruit where those Diodor. Serpents bred The Graecians by the counsell of Theophrastus and practice of Ismenias had their remedies against the stinging of Vipers The Apulians had their salue to saue them from the Alex. li. 2. cap. 17 biting of Tarantula by musike The Romans found meanes to mitigate the plague in Rome as you haue heard clauo fixo But a greater plague ceased in Israel by Iaels knocking Iud. 4. a great naile into Siseraes temples Yet against the Serpents teeth which Medea sowed whence sprang armed men out of the earth who deuoured one another no helpe no remedy was found against these Serpents The viperous biting of seditious treacherous men that bite a great way off that no man shall see them nor know them before they haue bitten Non prius intelligas proditorem quà m proditus sis sayth Seneca How then shal we preuēt such with all the wisdom we haue or punish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such with all the Lawes wee haue For sayth Cicero Crimen conceptum aut cogitatum paenam non meretur Faultes conceyued and thought on which no man knoweth but God himselfe ought not to be punished for sayth Cato Voluntates non sunt legibus obnoxiae A mans thought is vnder no law but vnder Gods lawe But yet in another place Cicero vrged before the Senators that Clodius seruant for that he thought to kyll Pompey the great being then a sole Consull of Rome which was the father of the countrey and as a king of the Romans thought no lesse in his heart then Caligula did that wished Rome to haue but one neck because he might cut it off with one stroke but that stroke fell vpon Caligulas necke so such cruell Tygers are often Curt. lib. 7 made foode to feede fowles Nothing is so strong saith Curtius but sometime the weakest may ouerthrowe it We see the long great trees that long were in growing in one howre to be cut downe All Countreyes ought to bee
need not declare of Tomoembeus the great Soldan of Egypt and Affricke king and Lord of so many Nations in his owne kingdome Tomoembeus Lip lib. 2. how cruelly and strangely he was both depriued of his kingdome and of his life And how the great king de nouo orbe Mexicanus after infinite good Mexicanus successe of great fame and fortune lost suddenly both fame and fortune I need not confirme these histories with authority as of Achab Zedechias other who felt the iust Iudgemēt of God neyther of Manasses and Nabuchadnezar one 2. Reg. 10 confessing the Lord to bee God being a king among beastes the other a captiue and a prisoner out of his owne kingdome of whom the Greeke Prouerbe is verified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misery captiuity and want make kings to know thēselues It is a true saying Miseria bona mater prudētiae Augustus Caesar would know of his friend Asinius Pollio if he would come with him to the battell of Actium betweene Mar. Antonius and him He answered the Emperour In ciuil warre I wil take no part but Vell. 11. I will rest and be a pray to the Conquerour Tit. Atticus though Pompey by a Decree pronounced him a Rebel that would forsake his Senators the Consuls and the state of the Common-wealth in so troublesome a time yet Atticus was of the like opiniō as Q. Hortensius Hortensius saying was who often vsed to brag that he had neuer byn in any ciuill warres Cicero wrote his Epistle to them being his deere frends that scattered cattel wil come to their flocke how much more should such wise men be a cōfort Cic. ad Att. to their afflicted countrey and follow the best sort seing Cato himselfe Viua virtutis Imago was a Captaine in these warres Obserue the nature of factions in the best men Cicero and Cato went out of Rome as men determyned and resolute to take part with the best men and with the state of the Empyre to abide what so euer came of it Pomp. Atticus Q. Hortensius men of no lesse iudgement and credit in Rome then they were forsooke to be factious or to take part with eyther Pompey or Caesar at that time spake Cato to Pompey to strike the ground according to his promise yet Solon in Athens decreed a law that they which would be neuters in ciuil warres Gel. li. 11. cap. 12. and seperate themselues in their Countries calamities they should be banished igne aqua The Prophet Elizeus spake to Ioas king of Israel being in such distresse as Rome was and bade Ioas smite the ground with his foot and Ioas smote the ground three times and ceased Elizeus was angry and sayd Thou shouldest haue smitten fiue sixe or seuen times and so 4. Reg. 13. many victories shouldest thou haue had ouer the Assyrians as thou strookest the ground So Pompey also sayd to Cato If he should but strike the ground of Italy with his foot hee should want no men Plut. in Pomp. on his side to fight against Caesar But Pompey could not keepe promise with Cato as Elizeus did with Ioas. Many promise more then they can performe and doe deceiue themselues and others I could well compare these seditious people to Balaam who being sent for by king Balac promising him great rewardes to come and curse Israel as Balaam rode on his iorney an Angel with a drawen sword in his hand stood in his way which the Asse sawe and started but Balaam sawe not the Angell vntill his Asse spake to him and asked Balaam why he strake him These Asses cary some false Balaam or other not on their backs but in their bellyes that had rather go with Balaam to Balak to curse Israel and to conspire against their owne natiue countrey and if they can not preuaile Num. 22. by cursing banning they will practise another way by policy and counsell as Balaam did to deceiue Israel But these practisers doe as Benhadad did when hee was ouerthrowen in the mountaines he said that the The blasphemy of Benhadad 3. Reg. 20. Gods of the mountaynes were against him and therfore Benhadad would haue a battell in the Valley with the Israelites so these Balaams Asses euer haue done and will do if they faile of their practice in the mountaine they wil practize in the valley if they fayle in the valley they will practise their policy in Kings Courts Rebelles haue their snares layd downe how treason may be wrought and their places appointed where their treason may be performed and their time when to execute their treason So did Pausanias kill Philip of Pausanias Chaerea Macedon at a Marriage So did Chaerea kill Claudius the Emperour going to the Theaters So did the fryer of Fraunce murther the King at his confession What dare not practisers of policy do if they dare kill Emperours Kings and princes Claudius Nero sound no better way to feare Hannibal his great enemy then to throw Hasdrubals head into the Tent of his brother Hannibal which so amazed Hannibal and his army that they made haste from Carthage to Italy That Hanibal had nothing to comfort him but to nippe the Romanes of so many heads of Senators of Consuls of Praetors and of Romane Magistrates at the battell of Canna of Trebeia and of Thrasimena that requited his brothers head But these nippes were betweene Hanibal and Scipio For it was Sillaes practice to put Italy in fright and to make Rome amazed at his tyranny against his countrey that Cato wondred much to see so many heads of Magistrates and of Roman Citizens vpon poles hanged Plut. in Caton Oros li. 5. cap. 21. on euery gate at Rome about the Capitoll and in the market place and that no Romane for Romes sake had killed Silla When Golias head was caried by Dauid to Saul the Philistines fled and they were followed vnto Geth and vnto Acaron and the slaughter was great of the Philistians and their terrour was more to see their Captaine Golias without a head and therefore was the Sword of Golias hanged in the Temple at Ierusalē as a Trophey of victorie as the picture of the Sun 1. Reg. 17 was vpon Ioshuas Tombe for his victory at Gibeon When Holophernes head was brought frō the campe to Bethulia by Iudyth a womā the slaughter was great of the Assyrians and much more were they astonished Inaith 14 and ashamed to find their General Holophernes without a head and that by a woman It was great policy in Alexander the great to commaund all his souldiers to shoote their pieces and their arrowes together toward king Perus in India perceyuing Ore lib. 3. cap. 19. Dioder lib. 17. that the soldiers would fly if the king were slaine And therefore diuers great Captaines did practise such policy afterward to their soldiers as Leuinus the Consul perswaded his souldiers and shewed them a naked bloudy sword in his hand