Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	work_n	world_n	write_v	71	3	4.8975	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49146	Notitia historicorum selectorum, or, Animadversions upon the antient and famous Greek and Latin historians written in French by ... Francis La Mothe le Vayer ... ; translated into English, with some additions by W.D. ...; Des anciens et principaux historiens grecs et latins dont il nous reste quelques ouvrages. English	La Mothe Le Vayer, François de, 1583-1672.; D'Avenant, William, Sir, 1606-1668.	1678 (1678)	Wing L301; ESTC R16783	125,384	274

confess Livy writes with no more likelyhood when he tells the same story and that Plutarch does no more than doubt of that of Cloelia who as many reported passed the Tiber by her self on Horseback thereby encouraging the rest of her Companions to Swim over it Nevertheless I dare say that the report of Valerius Maximus has much more appearance of truth in it than what the others related though he was less obliged than they to follow it strictly since he was not an Historian and his Subject ingaged him onely to enrich and if we may say so to illustrate with fine colours such memorable actions He writes that Cloelia under the favour of a dark Night escaped from the Enemies Camp mounted on a Horse which bare her to the other side of the Tiber amongst her friends and the Statue Equestris which was raised to her and which they all mention would even force them to be of this opinion if they had not rather chose to follow the most popular rumour and that which rendered their narration more agreeable because it seemed extraordinary and marvellous wherein it is almost incredible how much the greater part of Historians transgress I will not forget for a Corollary to what is above expressed that by the consent of all learned men Dionysius Halicarnesseus unfolds the Roman Antiquities not onely in respect of time as before mentioned but also in what relates to matter much better than any of the Latin Historians have done For his being a stranger was so far from being prejudicial to him that upon that account he made it his business to observe an infinite number of the most curious particulars of the Roman State that are found in his Books and which we do not learn in their own Authors either because they neglected to write that which was familiar to them which they thought all the World knew as well as themselves or because this Grecian was more careful and diligent than they to seek after that which might best conduce to make all the circumstances of their affairs known to Posterity And it is a great glory to him to have surpassed them all in things wherein they ought to have had such great advantage over him REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS A Certain Roman Consul was derided heretofore for writing a History in Greek who to excuse the impurity of his language alledged in his Preface that he was born in Italy where nothing but Latin was spoken Which Cato reading scoffingly said That Author was very ridiculous who chose rather to ask pardon for a fault than to avoid it when nothing obliged him to do it and the offence was not committed when he asked forgiveness Plutarch relates this after another manner and will have Cato pronounce the Consul most worthy of excuse if he could make it appear that he was forced to write in Greek by a Decree of the Amphictyones This ingenious reflection which imports that an excuse is alwaies unreasonable when it is not necessary cannot be applied to Josephus because though as a Jew he was as great a stranger to the Greek Tongue as the person before mentioned he was compelled to make use of it or the Latin to be understood by the Grecians and Romans for whom principally in his Prologue to the Judaick War he declares that he set Pen to Paper Few are ignorant that those Nations had no esteem for the Hebrew Language and it is evident that when the Great Captain Hannibal to recreate himself had a mind to set down in writing the actions of Cn. Manlius Volso in Asia he did it not in the Punick or Carthaginian Tongue which was a Dialect of the Hebrew but in Greek that he had learned of the Historian Sofilius of Lacedaemon his Master that his work might be understood in the world Josephus who had the same design found himself obliged to write in Greek which was familiar enough to him because he had been conversant in the greatest part of Syria Moreover had he been equally skill'd in these Two Tongues he ought to have preferred as he did the Greek which was then Mistriss of all Science and so much valued at Rome for that reason that some Roman Citizens chose rather in their writings to express themselves in Greek than Latin Such a one was Aelianus who soon after Josephus under the Emperors Nerva Trajanus and Adrianus writ de Animalibus de varia Historia de Re Militari and some other Treatises He was born in Praeneste and therefore reputed a Roman having composed his works in Greek in such rare expressions that Philostratus affirmed after he had placed him among his Sophisters that his Phrase was no less Attick than that which was spoken by the most Mediterranean in the Attick Territory to use his own terms As for Josophus his Stile is very clear if we may believe Photius and with a great purity he joins to the weight of his reasons the force and elegancy of Expression so that he is as this Father relates very dexrerous as well in moving passions as in allaying them when he judges it requisite Nor is it a small honour to him to be so succesful in a forraign Tongue as to have purchased such high praise as is attributed by the learned to him But we must not forget that besides his merit this way Eusebius reports that he exposed his Books of the Jewish Wars and Antiquities in Hebrew as well as in Greek that they might be useful to more People His Extraction was very illustrious as well on his Fathers side who came from the High Priests of Hierusalem as on his Mothers who was of the Royal Blood of the Asamoneans or Machabees He came into the World in the time of Caligula about the Thirty Ninth year of the Incarnation of Christ and was in it under Domitian so that he lived during the Reign of Nine Emperors at least When he was Six and Twenty years old he made a voiage into Italy in favour of some Ecclesiasticks of his Nation whom Felix Governor of Judaea had sent Prisoners to Rome A Jewish Comedian beloved by Nero supported him at Court and brought him acquainted likewise with the Empress Poppaea Augusta from whom he received some benefit so that having brought his business to a happy issue he returned with content into Palaestine The Factions which were then in the Holy Land made him be chosen Captain of the Galileans a charge which he executed most worthily until Jotapata was taken where he was reduced to cast himself into a Wel which had already served for a retreat to Forty of his Souldiers wherein he suffered marvellous extremities but at last he became Prisoner to the Romans In that time of his Captivity he foretold to Vespasian his exaltation to the Empire and that he would soon deliver him from his bonds as Suetonius reports in the life of this Emperor and as Josephus writes himself

of Poets and that he alone is to use his term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it is usual to advise those who will profit in the understanding of Homer first to read Herodotus to the end that the Prose of the latter may prepare an easie access to the Poesie of the former by the affinity of stile between them Samos was the place where Herodotus form'd himself to the Ionick Dialect and compiled his History before he retired with a Colony of Athenians into Thurium a Citty of that part of Italy which was then called Great Greece for Suidas his opinion conformable to this is more followed than that of Pliny who holds that Herodo●us chose the time and place of his voluntaty exile to enterprise so great a Work in which he is very erronious for he had compiled his History long before this retirement as is recorded in the Chronicles of Eusebius It is true he was born in Halicarnassus a Citty of that part of Greece called Doris a Region confining on the Meleans and because his illustrious birth had engaged him in the expulsion of the Tyrant of his Citty he retired into Thurium where he died according to the opinion of many there being even some as Plutarch writes that make this place where he was buried to be the place of his Nativity It is not asserted by all that the book of Homer's Life which follows the Ninth Muse was composed by Herodotus but whoever is the Authour of it it is very ancient and makes the labour of those men ridiculous who even at this day take great pains to pretend to somthing more certain and considerable than is there writ touching the Country of Homer But this matter concerns not his History which was happily preserved notwithstanding the Epitomy of one Theopompus whom Suidas mentions for Justin is accused though so great an Authour of having been the cause of the loss of Trogus Pompeius his History and the loss of part of the works of Livy is imputed also to Lucius Florus by the Epitomys which both have made of these great works which probably had been preserved but for their abbreviations REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF THUCYDIDES AS those that search for Springs or conveyers of Water whom the Latins call Aquileges take it for a good Augury if they see smoak arise out of certain grounds in the Morning because it is one of the signes which makes them hope to find therein some good and abounding Springs so they who understand best the nature of our Souls rejoice when they observe in our tenderest years earnest desires of learning and certain transports of ardour in the pursuit of Science from whence they draw almost assured conjectures of the merit of our minds and of their future excellence upon such a conception was founded the predictions of Herodotus mentioned in the foregoing Chapter when he observ'd Thucydides moved even to tears by hearing him recite his rare Treatise of the Muses in one of the most celebrated Assemblies of Greece He took that for a sign of the growing greatness of his Genius and as a Thorn pricks as it grows he judged that so extraordinary an emotion in his tender Age proceeding from so rare a Subject would produce one day something memorable and be follow'd by those ag●reable watchings and disquiets which give Immortality to the learned of Mankind Thucydides lived about Four hundred and Thirty years before the Incarnation of Christ Anno Mundi 3520. and as he was a person of illustrious Birth and a great Fortune added to the excellency of his Indowments he had no temptation to betray truth in what he was to deliver to posterity and though some have censured the manner of his writeing few ever questioned the truth of it He was rich and of Royal extraction but his opulency was augmented by his Marriage to a very rich Wife a Daughter of a King of Thrace and being very curious to have perfect intelligence of affairs in order to the compiling of his History he emploied great summs of money to procure memorials comperent to his design not only from the Athenians but the Lacedemonians also that out of his collections from both the great Transactions of that might be the better and more impartially discovered as a Monument to instruct the Ages to come for he intituleth his History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which signifies a possession for Everlasting It comprehends the Peloponnesian War which lasted one and Twenty years for though some Writers make it to continue six years longer yet others and perhaps the more judicious observers do make what follows in the succeeding six years after our Historiographer had ended his work to be rather the consequences of that War than truly a part of it but what was deficient in the affairs of those years was since supplied by Theopompus and treated on by Xenophon who begins his History where Thucydides ended There are some Criticks that do not believe his Eighth Book according to the ordinary division to have been written by him some ascribe it to his Daughter others to Xenophon or Theopompus but the more discerning part beleeve the contrary When the Peloponnesian War began to break out Thucydides conjectured truly that it would prove an argument worthy of his labour and it no sooner began than he began his History pursuing the same not in that perfect manner in which we now see it but by way of Commentary or plain Register of the actions and passages thereof as from time to time they fell out and came to his knowledg but such a Commentary it was as might perhaps deserve to be preferred before a History written by another hence it is very probable that the Eighth Book is left the same it was when he first writ it neither beautified with Orations nor so well cemented at the transitions as the former seaven Books are And though he began to write as soon as ever the War was on foot yet he began not to perfect and polish the History till after he was banished and why he did not refine his last Book equal to the rest is not known for he our-lived the whole War as appears by what he relates in his fifth Book where he saies he lived in banishment Twenty years after his charge at Amphipolis which was in the Eighth year of that Wat which in the whole by the largest computation lasted but seven and twenty years It is hard to judge whether the method and disposition of the History or the Stile of it be most to be praised since he hath in both shewed himself so great a Master that none that have writ since have exceeded him in either As to the disposition we shall in this place only observe that in his first Book he hath first by way of proposition derived the State of Greece from its Infancy to the vigorous stature it then was at when he began to write and next declareth the causes both

had given the world a proof of his clemency by his gentle usage not only of the Vandal Kings but of Vi●ges and Gilimer those very Subjects who had conspired against his person and Government Johannes de Cappadocia his prefect and the valiant Captain Artaban● convicted of perfidiousness escaped with imprisonment only and the Last in a short time was restored to his offices and the favour of that Prince from whom he would have taken both life and Empire I know that he is reproached for having been too severe to Belisarius Yet we read nothing of it in Procopius who in all likelihood would not have concealed it Agathias writes plainly that those who envied this great Captain were the cause that his services were not worthily rewarded without speaking one word either of the condemnation or confiscation of his goods Gregory of Tours alledges that Justinian was necessitated to substitute in his place the Eunuch Norses in Italy because he was too often defeated there by the French adding that to humble him the Emperor reduced him to his first place of Consta le which could not be so considerable at Constantinople aa it was not long since in France Some but petty writers of no Authority affirm that being reduced to extream misery he was forced to beg but that must be accounted as a Fable and on the contrary we may observe in his person the bounty of his Prince who having heaped riches and Honours on him never treated him worse although endeavours were thrice used to render him suspected of designing to be master of the State It is also strange that he upbraids Justinian with his buildings who writ a book purposely in their commendation and who describing the lofty structure of so many Churches Hospitals and Monasteries did no less admire the Piety than the magnificence of their Founder Evagrius attributes unto him the reparation or re-establishment of a Hundred and Fifty Cities But I see no reason for this to be imputed to his disadvantage Nor has the love of Women for which his reputation is blemished any better foundation For though he may be blamed for having ingaged himself so far in the affection of Theodora as to extort from his Predecessor Justin new laws in favour of Actresses that she might be qualified to marry him we cannot therefore accuse him like Procopius for having abandoned his thoughts to Women without specifying any particulars when neither his own History or any other mentions those Ladies to whom he was so passionately addicted and who doubtless would have prevailed on his weakness if he had been so fond on that side as the Anecdota would make it be believed I could not forbear to manifest in some sort the absurdity of these Two or Three heads of accusation by which one may judge of the rest though they were not confuted either by themselves or by what we had observed before we proposed them I must nevertheless add this only word on the Subject of the Stupidity of Justinian that though he had wagging Ears as the Satyr applies to him he was never so blockish as he represents him The truth is a fault which was committed a a Hundred and Fifty years ago by one Chalcondylius that then printed Suidas by a corrupt Copy where the name of Justinian passed for that of Justin with the Surname of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiterat man which even Procopius attributes only to the last who could not so much as write his name has made worthy men mistake amongst which Alciatus and Budaeus when upon this false Authority which all the Vatican Manuscripts contradict they ranked Justinian with the most ignorant Princes that ever were I was curious to see in the King of France his Library Three other Manuscripts of Snidas which are there to assure me of the mistake which happened in that impression Two of the best account were very correct and ascribe this ignorance to Justin alone who was known to be a mean keeper of Oxen before he bore Arms by which he attained to the Empire but the Third was false and in that Justinian was called Justin which shews that the Impression before mentioned probably followed a Copy as erronious as the printed Book In the mean time it is notorious that Justinian had made a great progress in learning under his Tutor the Abbot Theophilus Many Books are ascribed unto him by Isidorus and others Cassiodorus his letters stile him most learned And this observation has been also made that many crowned Heads at the same time made profession of Philosophy Chosroes in Persia the unfortunate Theodahatus in Italy and our Justinian at Constantinople which plainly discovers the injury that is done him by those tearms of stupid and ignorant Though Procopius is to blame for having yeilded so much to his particular resentments against Justinian the reading of his History is of great moment because we can learn from no other what he delivers as an Eye-witness of the Wars of this Emperor in Persia of the Vandals in Affrick and of the Goths in Italy It was that which made Leonard Aretin commit the crime of a Plagiary for we have no other tearm to signifie that sort of theft when he had a mind to publish their History in Latin For being not able to learn almost any thing of them elsewhere he resolved to Translate the Three books of Procopius into the Roman Language dividing them into Four by making Two of the last and rescinding in some places what he judged less important to his Country and adding something in others as the burning of the Capitol by Totilas by whom as Procopius affirms so much of Rome was not consumed by fire as Aretin reports In the mean time he is contented to say in his Preface that he used some Forreign Commentaries or Greek relations not naming the person of whom he is meerly a bad translater by an affected forgetfulness which cannot be too much condemned We have already in our foregoing Sections exclaimed upon those who counterfeit Authors ascribing books to persons that never thought upon making of them And certainly it is a great point of infidelity thus to deceive as much as one can even all mankind But as this vice is very great I find that of a Plagiary which is the contrary and takes away instead of giving to be much the more shameful because there is nothing more vile or infamous than to steal and they who apply to themselves other mens labours confess their own inability to produce something of value But to return to Procopius he was acquainted under Belisarius with almost all the secrets of State of that Age which renders his History of great weight But the excessive zeal which he has for this General makes Bodin amongst others accuse him of too much partiality towards him Thus Eginard is reproved for having alwaies flattered Charlemagne Eusebius Constantine Paulus Jovius Cosmodi Medici Sandoual Charles the Fifth and