thousand Horse These were the Forces Brutus and Cassius had at the Black Gulf and with which they fought the Battel the remainder of their Forces being employed upon other Affairs The Army being here purged with the usual Ceremonies they payed what they had promised to those who had not yet received it for they had taken a course not to want Money because indeed they stood in need of it to gain by force of gifts the hearts of the Soldiers and especially of the Veterans who had born Arms under C. Caesar for fear left at the fight or name of his Son they should change their minds Besides they thought it convenient the Army should be spoke too and at the same time caused to be erected a great Tribunal whereon the Generals with the Senators only being mounted and all the Army as well their own Forces as the Auxiliaries drawn round about them they took great delight to view one another The Commanders began to take heart and to hope well in the great number of their Soldiers and the Soldiers began to grow in love with their Commanders for there is nothing unites hearts so much as common hopes Now because there was a great noise made by so vast a multitude silence was commanded by sound of the Trumpet and then Cassius who was the elder of the two advancing somewhat out of his place spoke in this manner The Oration of Cassius THat danger which is common to us Fellow Soldiers obliges us to be faithful one to another besides that you are farther engaged by receiving the Donative we had promised you which ought to beget a belief in you that we will keep our words with you for the future and you ought to hope for a happy success of this War from your own valour from our Conduct and from the Generosity of these great Men of the Senate whom you see here sitting We have as you well know great store of Munitions Provisions Arms Money Ships and many Provinces and Kingdoms which declare for us Wherefore we need not make use of words to exhort to resolution and concord those whom common defence and interest obliges As for the Calumnies which our two Enemies cast upon us you know them and 't is that knowledge binds you so firmly to our Party yet I shall be well content to give you this day an account of our Actions that you may the more clearly understand never was any War more honest and just than this we are now going upon By serving with you under Caesar in many Wars in some of which we likewise commanded we contributed to his Greatness and therefore were always his Friends that no Man may think we attempted his life out of any particular grudge Peace being made as he was Criminal he ought to have been accused not by us who were his Friends and whom he had raised to Honours in the City but by the Laws and by the Common-wealth but because neither the Laws nor the Determinations of the Senate nor the Decrees of the People were now any more of any account but he had thrown down all those things instituted by our Forefathers when they expelled Kings and swore never again to suffer the Regal Power we being their Successors have prevented the violation of their Oath we have diverted from our selves and cast off from our own Heads those imprecations they pronounced by not suffering one Man though so much our Friend and Benefactor to be longer Master of the Treasures and Forces of the Republick or have the dispose of all Dignities and Governments to the shame of the Senate and Roman People or in short change the Laws according to his fancy usurping over the People and Senate and absolute power and Sovereign Authority possibly in those times you did not make sufficient reflections on these things but regarded only in him the quality of Generalissimo But now you may better understand what I say by what particularly concerns you you are of the People during War you obey your General and in Peace have the right of giving your vote The Senate first deliberates all matters that you may not be deceived but it is you who in your Assemblies either by Tribes or Centuries create Consuls Tribunes of the People Pretors who give Sovereign Sentences and decree to us either Rewards or Punishments according as we have well or ill behaved our selves in our Charges Thus for giving to every Man according to his desert our Empire owes to you its felicity and when you distribute honours to those deserve them they have likewise to you a particular obligation 'T was by this very power you made Scipio Consul to whom in testimony of his valour you gave the sirname of African by this you created annual Tribunes of the People who had power to oppose the Senate when it was necessary for your advantage But what need I relate things your selves so well know Since Caesar made himself Master of the Common-wealth you have not by your Votes nominated any Magistrate neither Pretor nor Consul nor Tribune of the People you have given no person a testimonial of his Virtue nor have had the power to grant him any reward In short no person is obliged to you neither for his Government nor for Judgment given in his behalf and what is yet more worthy of compassion you have not been able to secure from outrage the Tribunes of the People who are your particular Magistrates and whom by your Decree you have declared sacred and inviolable But those inviolable persons you have beheld infamously degraded from a sacred Dignity devested of a sacred Habit without any legal trial by the command of a single person and that for maintaining your rights and declaring their indignation against those who would have given him the Title of King The Senate suffered it with regret for your sakes only for the Office of Tribune belongs to the People and not to the Senate But not having the power to accuse or bring to judgment this Man because of the great Armies whereof he made himself Master to the prejudice of the Roman People to whom they belonged we applyed the only remedy left for the chasing away the Tyranny by conspiring all together against his person for it was requisite this Affair should be assented to by all honest Men though it were executed but by a few And immediately after the Action the Senate declared it done by common deliberation when they forthwith proposed us rewards as for having slain a Tyrant But Anthony opposing it under pretence of appeasing the tumult and we our selves not desiring any greater reward than the service of our Country they were not ordered because they would not defame Caesar being content to have thrown down the Tyranny However they decreed a general Indemnity with prohibitions to all persons of prosecuting in form of Justice for the action done and a small time after because Anthony incensed the multitude against us by
see the present State of Affairs how Mithridates Dominion is lessened the entrance of the Sea stopt against him infinite Spoils carried off his Lands But we intreat you a second time Gentlemen either hinder Mithridates from being thus wrong'd either defend him from oppression or suffer him to defend himself without perplexing your affairs Pelopidas spoke this so sternly that though before they had resolved to support Nicomedes yet now they would heark to them both as Judges and because they had some respect for Pelopidas words and could not reproach Mithridates with any breach of Alliance they stuck at it a little but after long Consultation they at last Answered in these terms We will neither have Nicomedes to offend Mithridates nor suffer any to make War upon Nicomedes for we judge it the interest of the Commonwealth not to suffer him to be wronged After they had pronounced this sentence Pelopidas would have rejoyned as not thinking it reasonable but they made him depart the Assembly Wherefore Mithridates manifestly wrong'd by the Romans sent his Son Ariarathes with a Powerful Army to seise upon the Kingdom of Cappadocia who presently drove thence Ariobarzanes and setled himself in his place Whereupon Pelopidas going once more to the Commissaries spoke to them in this manner The Oration of Pelopidas YOU have lately been told Gentlemen with what patience Mithridates suffered Phrygia and Cappadocia to be taken from him contrary to all Reason You made no account of the injuries done by Nicomedes even in your sight and when we had recourse to your Friendship and Alliance you Answered us rather like Men accused than Accusers That your Republique would not have any injury done to Nicomedes as if any one had done it You then are the cause if there hath lately passed any thing in Cappadocia to the prejudice of your Republique for the disdain wherewith you treated us and your scornful Answers obliged Mithridates to what he has done and he is now sending Deputies to your Senate to complain of you Therefore if you please find some body to plead your cause but he conjures you not to attempt any thing which is not resolved on by the common consent of the Senate and People of Rome and to think of the importance of this War Consider that the Kingdom he holds by Succession from his Father is twenty thousand Furlongs in length and that he hath added to it many Neighboring Nations and among other Colchis full of Warlike People of Greeks that inhabit on the Euxine Sea and of Barbarians confining on them That he has Friends ready at his Service Scythians Taures Basternes Thracians Sarmatians and in short all the people near Tanais Ister and the Palus Maeotis that Tigranes King of Armenia is his Son in Law and Arsaces King of the Parthians his Friend in conclusion that he has a mighty power of Shipping all either fitted or almost ready with all their Gang. Besides the Bithynians told you no lie in what they said of the Kings of Egypt and Syria for it 's very likely if the War once begin they will declare for us and not only they but your Provinces of Asia Greece and Africa As for Italy the most part of it not able to suffer your boundless Avarice is already revolted and certainly it is matter of amazement to all the World that not being yet able to suppress that War you undertake Mithridates by setting on Foot intrigues sometimes with Nicomedes sometimes with Ariobarzanes whilst yet you make profession to be our Friends and Allies but it is only in appearance you are so for in effect you treat us like Enemies And if what has past displease you give better Orders for the future prevent Nicomedes from farther offending your Friends which if you do I promise you on the behalf of King Mithridates his Arms and Assistance against your Allies in Italy which have revolted If not break off that specious and vain Friendship or let us go to Rome and plead our Cause After Pelopidas had finished this Discourse the Romans thinking it too insolent Replyed That they forbad Mithridates from attempting any thing against Nicomedes and ordained him to quit Cappadocia in which they would take care to reestablish Ariobarzanes As for Pelopidas they enjoyned him a speedy departure no more to return unless the King disposed himself to do what they desired With this Answer he was sent away but under a good guard that by the way he might not corrupt any Person and forthwith without expecting from the Senate and People of Rome their advice upon a War of such Importance the Romans assembled all the Forces they could draw together in Bithynia Cappadocia Paphlagonia and Gallogrecia of Asia The Army which P. Crassus commanded and designed for the guard of Asia being in a readiness and all the Auxiliary Troops drawn to a head they divided themselves into three bodies Cassius went and encamped on the Confines of Bithynia and Galatia Manius in the passage by which Mithridates might enter Bithynia and Q. Oppius on the Frontiers of Cappadocia being all together about forty thousand Men Foot and Horse They had likewise a Fleet commanded by Minucius Rufus and C. Populius to guard the mouth of the Pontus Besides Nicomedes was likewise in Arms to second them with fifty thousand Foot and six thousand Horse all in good order As for Mithridates his Army alone consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand Foot and forty thousand Horse He had three hundred Ships of War and three hundred Gallies with all Stores and Ammunition necessary for so great a Fleet and Army Two brothers called Neoptolemus and Archelaus had the Command of all these Forces in quality of his Lieutenant Generals but the King had his eye upon all and did many things himself As for the Auxiliary Troops Archathias his Son brought him ten thousand Horse out of Armenia the Less Dorilaus Commanded the Phalanxes and Craterus one hundred and thirty Chariots armed with Scythes Such were the preparations on both sides when at first Mithridates and the Romans Armed against each other which was about the hundred sixty sixth Olympiad The first Engagement was near the River Amniae in a spacious plain where Nicomedes and Mithridates Generals met As soon as they discovered one the other they drew into Battalia Nicomedes had all his Forces but Neoptolemus and Archelaus had only their light Armed Souldiers and Arcathias Horse with some Chariots for the gross of the Army was a great way distant wherefore they espying a Rock in the middle of the plain sent to possess it that they might not be inclosed by the Bithynians who were much the greater number Those they sent being driven back Neoptolemus was more then ever in fear of being encompassed wherefore he posted in with all speed possible making Arcathias do the like Nicomedes who knew him came to meet him and now began a bloody battel wherein the Bithynians proved the stronger
more to act and of which never yet was heard an Example The Greeks made many Wars upon the Barbarians and you your selves have bore Arms against many other Nations yet neither of you ever raz'd a City that yielded without fight that had delivered up all they held most dear their Children and their Arms and are moreover ready to submit to whatever other punishment should be imposed We therefore implore you by those gods witnesses to our treaties by the fortune of mankind by those inward stings they who are in prosperity ought to feel and fear not to brand your success with so shameful a tyranny nor extend our miseries to the utmost extremities Or if for your parts you are resolved yet give us leave to send once more to Rome to present our request to the Senate 'T is but a short time we ask you yet during which our torment and trouble will increase through the incertainty of the event You are in ample power to do with us what you please either at present or afterwards but pray remember to act nothing contrary to Piety and Mercy To all this Censorinus replyed There needs no farther repetition of the Orders of the Senate they have ordained and it must be done did we treat you like Enemies we should only command and then force you to it but because the interest of our Commonwealth and possible the advantage of your own requires it I am content to make you apprehend the reasons and to perswade rather than constrain you As often as the sight of the Sea puts you in remembrance of your ancient Dominion and past Greatness it provokes your Arms and begets you a thousand calamities 'T was this Sea gave the first occasion of your Assaults on Sicily which since you have lost 'T was this Sea which made you invade Spain out of which you were soon after chased 'T was this Sea gave you the opportunity of robbing our Merchants contrary to your faith given in our Leagues and then to throw them over-board the better to conceal your crimes till being surprised in it you quitted Sardinia for reparation of that injury Thus you lost Sardinia by means of that Sea which by its nature inclines all the world to covetousness by reason of the yast profit it brings in in a little time By it formerly the Athenians skilful in Maritime Affairs grew suddenly and mightily great and by it were not long after as suddenly ruined for the Sea is a kind of Merchandise by which riches flow in full springs and suddenly ebbs as fast You know well that those people I am speaking of having extended their Dominion over all the Ionian Sea and even unto Sicily set no bounds to their avarice till they had lost all till they were forced to surrender their Havens and their Ships into their Enemies hands to receive a Garrison into their City and demolish with their own hands their lofty Walls so that they became almost a Plain which for a long time proved the means of their preservation And surely Gentlemen of Carthage there is more stability in a Country Life and more assurance in Labour and Tillage and though the profits are not so great as those reaped by the Sea yet are they much more certain and to tell you my thoughts I am clearly of opinion that a Maritime City is rather a Ship than firm Land so much is it tossed with variety of affairs and subject to infinite Revolutions whilst the Inland yields Fruits may be gathered without danger for this reason was it that anciently Kings chose their Seats within Land and that was it raised the Medes Persians Assyrians and many others to such a height of power but to what purpose give I you the examples of Kings let us speak of what concerns you Cast your eyes throughout all Lybia and chuse your selves a place where you may have Neighbours that you like but whence you may no more see this object that at present tempts you Thus you will rase out of your minds the memory of past miseries and indeed how can you look upon the Sea where now you have no Shipping without being tormented with the remembrance of those mighty Fleets which daily returned to your Ports loaden with booty or with the thoughts of the former Magnificence of your Ports your Arsenals and your Havens And when within your City you behold the Lodgings of the Soldiers unfurnished your Stables without Horses and your Stalls without Elephants what can all this move you to but grief and desire to recover if it were possible the same power 'T is ordinary among men that the memory of past felicity creates a hope of its return and on the contrary there is no better remedy against calamity than oblivion which can never be attained to but by distancing our selves from objects may keep it fresh in our minds An evident proof of this you may have in your selves who after having sundry times obtained pardon for your faults could never keep to constant Peace nor continue long without violation of your Treaties Wherefore if you have still thoughts of Dominion and that preserving your animosities against us you wait only a favourable opportunity to shake off the yoke you do well in endeavouring still to maintain your City your Ports your Honours and those lofty Walls which seem only built for War and we on our side should commit a great crime to pardon people that will not pardon us even then when fortune has submitted them to our power But if in truth and not in word only you yield the Dominion to us and that contenting your selves with what you possess in Lybia you will make a sincere peace with us deal faithfully and prove it by the effects retire your selves into Africa and willingly yield up to us that Empire of the Sea which by right of War belongs to us In vain to move us to compassion do you deplore your Temples your Gods your publick Places and your Sepulchres for we will not touch your Sepulchres and you shall have liberty when you please to come and sacrifice but all the rest must be demolished for you sacrifice not to Havens nor pay Funeral Honours to Walls for your Hearths your Altars and publick Places you may build them elsewhere and soon establish your selves a Residence in the same manner as when you left Tyre you came into Africa and gained this Seat which now you call the Seat of your Ancestors To tell you all in a word you may easily conceive what we now do is not out of malice but for our own security and to maintain publick concord if you remember that Alba which was no Enemy City inhabited not by Foes but Friends that loved us was transferred into our City for the publick good which succeded to both peoples satisfaction But we have say you multitudes of miserable people who gain their living by the Sea this hath likewise been thought on so far that it
all Kings he had ever heard speak of he had known none more hardy Scipio approved not this so well yet he asked him again To whom he gave the third place To my self said he for scarce crept out of my Infancy I made my self Master of Spain I am the first after Hercules that hath passed the Alps with an Army and being entred into Italy have struck a terrour through all places I have taken and sack'd four hundred Cities and all this without any assistance either of Men or Money from the Carthaginians Here Scipio interrupting these Bravadoes told him smiling And in what degree would you have placed youy self if I had not overcome you I would have then ranked my self said he before Alexander Thus without diminishing any thing of his own Glory he obliged Scipio with an ingenious praise telling him he had vanquished a Captain greater than Alexander Their conference ended Hannibal prayed Scipio to go and lye at his Apartment which Scipio answered he would freely have done had he not been with Antiochus whom the Romans had a present distrust of Thus did these great Captains by a Generosity worthy of themselves measure their enmities only by the Wars in which they were ingaged Flaminius did not so for finding after the defeat of Antiochus Hannibal who fled to have saved himself in Bithynia in the Court of King Prusias where that Roman was in Embassie upon other Affairs though he had never received any particluar offence nor had any order from the Senate there being now no reason to fear him Carthage being subdued yet he constrained him to end his days by Poyson 'T is said this death had been foretold him by the Oracle in these terms In the Libyssan land shall Hannibal dye But he himself was deceived for he hoped to dye in Libya never thinking that in Bithynia there was a River called Libyssa which gave name to the adjacent Country I have related these Examples as well of the Generosity of Scipio and Hannibal as of the contrary baseness of Flaminius because I thought them not unworthy to find a place in this History To proceed Antiochus upon his return from Pisidia after having given Audience to the Deputies of the Rhodians promised to leave in liberty both them the Byzantines and all the other Greeks bordering upon Asia in case he came to an agreement with the Romans but would not grant the same conditions to the Etolians and Ionians because they had already been accustomed to the Dominion of the Kings of Asia as barbarous as they were As for the Roman Ambassadors they returned without doing any thing nor indeed came they for any other intent but to gain knowledge of the Estate of Antiochus his Affairs After their departure came the Deputies of Etolia of whom Thoas was the Chief who offered the King all the Forces they had advising him to pass forthwith into Greece as to an easie Conquest Telling him There was no necessity he should stay for those Forces that were to come out of the midst of Asia for the Etolian Powers were more than sufficient and besides the Lacedemonians and Philip of Macedon sworn Enemy of the Romans would joyn with him as soon as he should be entred into Greece but that he could not use too much diligence Antiochus presently took fire nor could the news brought him of his Sons being dead in Syria hinder his embarquing but with ten thousand men only he went and landed in the Island of Euboea which he so terrified that they yielded to pay him Obedience Micithion one of his Captains began likewise prosperously enough for having found some Romans in the Island of Delos which is consecrated to Apollo he cut part of them in pieces and took the rest Prisoners Amynander King of the Athamanians joyned himself likewise to Antiochus and that for the reason we are about to relate A certain Macedonian called Alexander bred at Megalopolis to whom the Inhabitants had granted the freedom of becoming a Burgess of their City had perswaded them by extravagant lyes that he was of the Race of Alexander the Son of Philip and to gain the more credit to his knavery he called his Children the one Philip and the other Alexander and the last which was a Daughter Apamia whom he gave in Marriage to Amynander Philip Brother to the Maid and who had conducted her to her Husband seeing his weakness and ignorance in Affairs had staid with this his Brother-in-law to Govern his Estates in favour of the Alliance Antiochus took hold of this occasion putting this Philip in hopes that he would re-establish him in the Kingdom of Macedon which belonged to him by Succession from his Ancestors and by this means he drew the Athamanians to his party as he did likewise the Thebans by going to Thebes where he made an Oration to the people Thus having rashly enough undertook a War of such great importance founded on the assistance of Anynander the Thebans and the Etolians he held a Council concerning Thessaly whether he should presently siese it or stay till Winter were past Hannibal being at this Assembly where he had kept silence till the King desired his advice then gave it in these terms The Oration of Hannibal I Am of the opinion it is indifferent whether you siese upon Thessaly before Winter or after but know that people broken by a long train of misfortunes though they may at present testifie an inclination to you will not stick to range themselves on the Roman party if there happen to you the least disgrace Besides we are come hither without any Forces of our own perswaded by the Etolians that the Lacedemonians and Philip will joyn with us and yet I fear the Lacedemonians are no less our Enemies than the Achaians For Philip though he should declare for you I cannot perceive in the condition wherein things stand that it would be of much importance which party he takes but I am firm in this judgement that you forthwith cause your Troops to come out of Asia without placing your hopes either upon the Etolians or Amynander and that as soon as they are come you enter Italy that the Romans thereby sufficiently pestered to find remedies for Domestick mischiefs may attempt nothing against your Dominions nor fearing to leave home defenceless permit their Forces to range abroad To this purpose you must divide your Fleet into two parts one of which may waste the Coasts of Italy whilst the other is kept in readiness expecting some favourable conjuncture In the mean time you are to post your self with your Land Army on the Frontiers of Greece near unto Italy both to hold them always in terrour and to make an irruption as soon as you can possibly Then it will be to some purpose to use all sorts of means to engage Philip to your interests for which part soever he takes he will be of no small consequence And if you cannot gain him you must send
she at last was punished and for him he degenerated nothing from Cleopatra for he having advice of it declared War against his Brother drove him out of his Kingdom and made himself King of Syria he enjoyed it no long time being himself expelled by the Arms of Seleucus Son to Antiochus Grypus who respected not in him the Quality of Uncle but he became so violent and lived with so much Tyranny that being at Mopsa a City of Cilicia he was burnt alive in the place of publick Exercise His Successor was Antiochus the Son of the Cyzycenian whom the Syrians believed had escaped his Uncles traps only for his Piety wherefore they sirnamed him the Pious and yet he was only saved by a Curtezan fell in love with him because of his Beauty which makes me think the Syrians gave him that name only out of a jeer for this Pious man married Selene who had before been married to his Father the Cyzyoenian and to his Uncle Grypus Therefore Divine Justice suffered him in punishment of his Crime to be driven out of his Kingdom by Tigranes and the Son he had by Selene who being bred in Asia was called Asiatick to be deprived of his Kingdom by Pompey as we have before related having reigned only one year during which that General was elsewhere employ'd He was the seventeenth King after Seleucus without reckoning Alexander the Bastard or his Son who were not of the Race nor their Domestick Diodotus To conclude the Race of the Seleucides Reigned two hundred and seventy years and if we account from the time of Alexander the Great till this Kingdom was reduced into the form of a Province we must likewise add those fourteen years which Tigranes Reigned Thus much I thought good to say by the way concerning the Macedonians that were Kings of Syria though the Subject be somewhat separate from our History The End of the Syrian War APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA HIS HISTORY OF THE Roman Wars IN PARTHIA PART I. BOOK III. The Argument of this Book I. THE Introduction to the History II. Crassus chosen Consul leaves Rome to go against the Parthians III. Crassus first Expedition wherein he do's nothing memorable IV. Crassus preparations for his second Expedition and the presages of his misfortune V. His march and the treachery of Agbarus VI. Upon Intelligence that the enemy is not far off he draws up his Army in Battel VII Description of the Battel VIII Success of the Battel and the death of Crassus Son IX The end of the Battel wherein the Romans are worsted X. Crassus decamps by by night XI The Parthians pursue their Victory and Crassus is slain XII The Parthians rejoyce at Crassus death XIII The beginning of Anthony's War against the Parthians in which Ventidius makes great progress XIV Anthony's Preparations XV. Some fights between Anthony and the Parthians XVI Anthony's retreat XVII The rashness of Flavius Gallus who had nigh lost the Army XVIII Famine in the Army XIX Continuation of Anthony's retreat and the end of the War AFter Pompey and those who as we have already said succeeded him in the Government of Syria Gabinius was sent to Command in that Province whither as he was disposing himself to make War against the Arabs Mithridates King of Parthia driven out of his Kingdom by his brother Orodes came to him to request him to suspend his Expedition against the Arabs and march against the Parthians But Ptolemy the Eleventh King of Egypt had more prevalency over the Spirit of the Proconâ—ul and by the power of Mony wrought so far with him that in stead of going against the Parthians he led his Army to Alexandria After having reestablished that King he was condemned to Banishment for having without the Senates Order undertook a War in Egypt forbid by the Oracles and particularly by the Sibyls verses Crassus succeeded him who going to make War upon the Parthians perished with his whole Army After his death when L. Bibulus was governor of Syria the same Parthians made an irruption into the Province and afterwards under the Government of Saxa who succeeded him over-run all as far as Ionia the Romans being imbroiled in Civil Wars yet did they nothing memorable besides spoiling the Country rather like thieves then Men of War and all that was but the consequence of Crassus overthrow which had given them a boldness that Anthony was at last to give check to but to write the History of this Expedition we must begin our discourse farther of The day of Assembly for Election of Consuls being come C. Caesar Pompey the Great and Marcus Crassus being found Competitors the two last notwithstanding all the endeavors of Cicero Cato and those of the Contrary Faction obtained the Consulate by force and prolonged to Caesar the Government of Gaul for five other years Having drawn by lot the Governments of Syria and Spain Syria fell to Crassus and Spain to Pompey with which all Men were well satisfied For the people were pleased that Pompey should not go far from the City and there was great likelyhood because he extreamly loved his Wife that he would not willingly absent himself for any long time On the other side Crassus as soon as he saw himself Governor of Syria dissembled not his satisfaction He thought no greater happiness could have arrived him and so far did his Excess of Joy transport him as to make him in his familiar conversation with his friends utter a thousand extravagancies which savored of the young Man and seemed contrary to his nature who had never been taken for a Proud Man or a Boaster but now exalting his thoughts above their due level his judgment was perverted insomuch that he not only promised himself to subdue the Syrians and the Parthians but as if the Victories gained by Lucullus against Tigranes and by Pompey against Mithridates had been but sports his depraved imaginations carried him as far as the Bactrians the Indians and the Oriental Ocean Though in his Commission there was not any mention made of a War against the Parthians yet no Man doubted but he was resolved to undertake it Caesar himself writing to him from Gaul commended his design and exhorted him to pursue it but many good and understanding Men thought it strange he should go to make War against innocent people who only demanded peace Wherefore Crassus having intelligence that Atteius Tribune of the people had a design to hinder his going out of the City was afraid and intreated Pompey who had a great power over the spirits of the people to be his Conductor they found in the Street a great number of Persons disposed to Arrest him but Pompey observing them went to meet them and with a smiling countenance appeased them so that they held their peace and gave him passage Atteius only made opposition first by forbidding Crassus to pass any farther and then by commanding the Usher to sieze his person but the other Tribunes not thinking it convenient
them Mean while false intelligence was brought to Surena that Crassus was escaped with all the considerable Persons in the Army and that those who were retired into Carres were only a company of wretches not worth any consideration Which was the reason that not thinking his Victory perfect and desiring to have more certain news he quitted his design of pursuing Crassus and sent one of his people who understood both Languages before the Walls of Carres to ask in Latin either for Crassus himself or Cassius as if Surena desired a conference with them which being heard and told to Crassus and his Friends displeased them not A little while after came on the part of the Barbarians certain Arabs who knew the faces of Crassus and Cassius having frequented their Camp before Battel These knowing Cassius upon the Wall told him that Surena would grant Peace to the Romans provided they would be friends to the King and depart out of Mesopotamia and that they believed they had better accept of that condition than reduce things to the last extremities whereupon Cassius demanded a time and place for a Conference betwixt the Generals and they promising to let Surena know it went their way Surena rejoying that he had now these two Men now shut up sent next Morniing under the City Walls some Parthians who injuriously reviling Crassus and Cassius demanded them to be delivered up if the Romans had a mind to Peace And now the Chiefs of the Roman Army knowing that they were betrayed fell into despair but yet consulting what was best to do they resolved on a sudden flight beseeching the Consul to give over those vain and distant hopes he placed in the assistance of the Armenians This design was not to have been communicated to any of the Inhabitants of Carres before the time of its execution and Crassus discovered it to the most perâ—idious of them all called Andromachus to whose Faith he committed himself taking him for the Guide of the Army So that by the means of this Traytor all the Roman designs were presently known to the Parthians And because these were not accustomed to fight in the dark as not easie for them to do Andromachus to retard the Romans March and by that means give the Enemy time to overtake them placed himself at the Head of them going sometimes on one side and sometimes on another till such time as he had engaged them in deep Marishes and places full of Ditches whose high Banks sorely perplexed the Army who yet followed this Traytor insomuch that they were often forced to go a great way about to find a passage This begat a distrust in some who imagining by the many twinings and windings that Andromachus had an ill intention refused to follow him of which number was Cassius who returned to Carres And when his Guides who were Arabs urged him to advance before the Moon had passed Scorpio For my part said he to them I am much more afraid of Sagittary However parting from Carres he took the way towards Syria with five hundred Horse and having found faithful Guides gained the Mountains called Synaces where before day there rallied together about five thousand Soldiers conducted by Octavius an excellent Man As for Crassus day surprised him as he followed Andromachus with incredible labour He was accompanied with four Cohorts with Bucklers some few Horse and five Lictors or Serjeants with whom having with all the pain and labour imaginable overcome the difficulty of the way the Enemies now drawing near he went and possessed himself of an Eminence distant about twelve Furlongs from that to which Octavius was retired but nothing so strong of situation nor of so difficult approach for the Horse but it lay under the Synbaces to which it was joyned with a long neck that crossed the Plain So that Octavius could not be ignorant of the danger in which the Consul was wherefore himself ran first to his assistance with a few people and soon after the rest of his Forces reproaching each other with cowardise followed They altogether drove the Enemy from the Hill and drawing up round about Crassus and lining their whole Body with their Bucklers bravely protested that no Arrow of the Parthians should reach their General 's Body so long as one of them remained alive Wherefore Surena who saw the Parthians gave ground and that if night came on the Romans who had already gained the Mountains would escape him assaulted Crassus with cunning he let go some Prisoners who had heard some of the Barbarians of purpose saying That the King would not be dissatisfied to have Peace with the Romans but desired their Friendship and that if he might obtain it by Crassus means he would treat him favourably In the mean time causing the fight to cease he after by little and little drew near to the Hill and unbending his Bow presented his hand to Crassus desiring him to consent to an accommodation he told him that the King having taken up Arms much against his will the Romans had made tryal of his Strength and Power and that now he would make them taste of his Goodness and Clemency by showing them his Favour and granting security for their Retreat Not only the soldiers but the Leaders glad to hear these fine words of Surena's easily believed them Crassus was the only man was not deceived Indeed he saw no reason for so sudden a change wherefore he would not presently consent but stood thinking what answer to return when the Soldiers began to cry out with one voice that they would have Peace and withal to revile him for exposing them to men he durst not himself approach disarmed as they were he endeavoured first to perswade them by entreaties and reasons to have patience the rest of that day since at night they might easily make their retreat by gaining the Mountains he showed them the way they should take begging them not to loose all hopes of safety which was now so nigh but when he saw that the Soldiers enraged threatned him and smote upon their Bucklers he was afraid of them and at parting said only these words to those about him The Oration of Crassus OCtavius and you Petronius and all you Gentlemen of Quality here present you see how I am forced to go you are witnesses of the violence done me yet tell all the World when you have gained a place of safety that Crassus lost his life deceived by his Enemies but not delivered up to them by his Citizens However Octavius and the rest staid not upon the Hill but went down with the Consul who would not suffer the Lictors to follow him As they were going down two Mongrels or half Greeks came to meet him and alighting made their Reverence to Crassus intreating him to send some of his people before to view Surena and his Train and espie if they were not armed To which the Consul made answer That if he had yet the least
were overcome or whether he had made Peace or whether the were in flight they continued their Robberies for they said that having lost their Goods and abandoned their Countries by reason of the War necessity had driven them from the Land to seek their Fortune for the future by Sea They elected among themselves Arch-pyrates who commanded a certain Number as if it had been a lawful War They assaulted weak Cities and sometimes very strong ones too whose Walls they either scaled or threw down They pillaged them after they had taken them carrying to their places of retreat all the rich men they took to make them pay their ransome and giving their Crimes honourable names they shook off the name of Pyrates and called themselves Soldiers adventurers They had likewise Artificers whom they kept in Fetters and continually stored up Wood Iron Brass and other Materials For their vast booty had so heightned their courages that preferring that kind of life before any other they imagined themselves Soveraigns and Kings comparing their Power to that of Armies and esteeming themselves invincible when ever they pleased to unite together they built Ships and forged Arms especially in Cilicia called the Rough which was the common retreat of all these Corsairs or as we may saw the principal Seat of War Not but that they had in other places Castles and Forts in desart Islands and cunning Harbours but they usually retired to that Coast of Cilicia the Rough which was inaccessible and bounded with Rocks reaching almost out of sight and therefore all the World commonly called them Cilicians This mischief which was begun in Cilicia infected likewise the Syrians Ciprians Pamphilians Pontick Nations and almost all the Oriental people who tyred with the length of the Mithridatick War and choosing rather to do ill then suffer it changed their dwellings on Land for the Sea so that in a short time they amounted to many thousands and not only become Masters of the Sea that wets the Oriental Coasts but spread themselves throughout all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules for they defeated some Roman Pretors in Sea Fights and among others the Pretor of Sicily No Ship durst appear about that Island the very Husband-man had abandoned the Fields because of the continual descents they made which very much annoyed he Romans for besides that they beheld their Provinces pillaged want of Corn brought a Famine into the Citie Besides it was not easie to defeat such great Forces that spread themselves over all parts both of the Sea and Land Who were alwaies ready either to fly or fight whilst none knew their Country or place of retreat nor indeed had they any residence or propriety but what fell in their hands Wherefore these extraordinary kind of Enemies who gave themselves a dispensation against all the Laws of War of whom nothing clear or certain could be made out were very formidable and few would have accepted a Commission for this War For Murena having undertaken these Pyrates did nothing memorable no more did after him Servilius Isauricus They were grown so bold as to Land upon the Coasts of Brundusium and Hetruria from whence they carried away some Women of Quality whom they found in the Country And defeated two Bodies of an Army whose Eagles they carried away The Romans no longer able to suffer these Losses and Affronts by Decree of the Senate gave to Pompey the greatest man of that time Command of their Armies for three Years with Authority over all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules and within all the Maritime Provinces for four hundred Furlongs from the Sea and to Command all Kings Governours and Cities to furnish him with necessaries They permitted him likewise to make new Leavies both of men and Monies and in the mean time gave him an Army composed of standing Legions all the Ships they had and six thousand Attick Talents in ready Money So difficult a thing they believed it to overcome so many Naval Armies to pursue them in so vast an extent of Seas and to seek them out in so many holes having to do with Enemies they could not get within reach of except they pleased and who were ready to fall on when they were least thought of Nor indeed did ever any Roman General go to War with so large a Commission as Pompey's Soon after they furnished him with sixscore thousand foot four thousand Horse and two hundred and seventy Ships comprizing the Brigantines and for his Lieutenants they gave him five and twenty Senators among whom he divided the Seas giving them Horse and Foot and Shipping with the Ensigns of Pretor Every Lieutenant had absolute power in the Quarter he Commanded and he like a King of Kings went from one part to another to disperse his Orders and to see that every one kept in his Post without quitting it or pursuing the Enemy far from it if he could not gain the Victory upon the place to the end that there being alwaies people in a readiness in all places to take up what others had not fully done the Pyrates might find no security in flying from place to place After having disposed things in this manner he gave the Commission of Spain and the Streit to Tib. Nero and Manlius Torquatus joyntly of the Celtrick and Ligustique Sea to Marius Pomponius of Affrica with Sardinia Corsica and the Circumadiacent Islands to Lentulus Marcellinus and P. Attilius of the Coast of Italy from Sicily to Acarnania to L. Gellius and Cn. Lentulus of the Ionian Sea to Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro of Peloponesus Attica Euboea Thessaly Macedon and Boeotia to L. Cinna of all the Aegaean Sea and the Hellespont to L. Cullius Of Bithynia Thrace the Propontick and the mouth of Pontus to L. Piso of Lycia Pamphilia Cyprus and Phoenicia to Metellus Nepos These were the Quarters he assigned every Lieutenant where they were to fight and to give them their Chase so that saving themselves from one they might fall into the hands of another forbidding them to pursue beyond their Bounds for fear lest those long Chases might be a means to delay the War for his own part he flew if one may so say from one part to another to see what passed and having in forty days gone the Circuit of the Western part of the Sea he returned to Rome from whence he went to Brundusium where again taking Shipping and running over all those vast Oriental Seas he brought every where a dread of his Name by the swiftness of his motion the greatness of his Force and Power and the opinion had of a Captain of such high reputation So that the Pyrates who as it was thought would have assaulted him or at least would have found ways to have made his Victory difficult presently raised their Siege before those Towns they had blocked up and out of the fear they had of him retired into their Forts and sheltring
Tigranes because he seemed grieved for his fathers fall he gave him the Crown yet he soon after raised War against Tigranes but being defeated in a Battel escaped to Phraates King of the Parthians who had newly succeeded in that Kingdom to his Father Syntricus Upon Pompey's approach the Fugitive Armenian by the Advice of his Host who for his own particular sought the favor of the General came and submitted himself to the Romans in the posture of a Suppliant though he were Grandchild to Mithridates being the Son of his Daughter but the reputation of the Justice and uprightness of Pompey was so great among the Barbarians that Tigranes himself relying upon it without so much as sending a Herauld before came to meet him to put his cause into his hands and to complain of his Son as to a Judge Pompey having sent some Officers before to receive the King in Honor of him those who accompanied him not thinking themselves in security because he had not sent a Herauld before turned tail but Tigranes continued on his way and being come near unto Pompey paid him his respects as to his Superior after the manner of the Barbarians Yet there are some say the Lictors brought him to Pompey by his Command However it were he came gave an account of his Actions made a present to Pompey of six thousand Talents fifty drams to every Soldier a thousand to every Centurion and ten thousand to every Tribune Pompey pardoned what was past reconciled the Son with the Father ordained that the Son should enjoy as King the Province of Sophena and Gordiana which are at this day comprised under the name of Armenia the less and adjudged to the Father the rest of Armenia on condition that he left it by succession to his Son and that he quitted to the Romans the Provinces he had conquered and indeed he quitted all Syria from the Euphrates to the Sea with part of Cilicia which he had possessed himself of after having driven out Antiochus the Pious The two Kings were not yet parted from the Roman Camp when the Son by perswasion of those Armenians who for fear had abandoned his Father when he came to meet Pompey designed an attempt on his life but he was discovered and Arrested and being afterwards Convicted that though Prisoner as he was he had solicited the Parthians to make War upon the Romans he was led in Triumph and afterwards put to death in Prison Pompey believing the War was ended built a City in Armenia the less in the same place where he had overcome Mithridates which because of his Victory he called Nicopolis He gave likewise the Kingdom of Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes and joyned to it Sophena and Gordiana which he had before given to the young Tigranes and which at present belong to the Province of Cappadocia He gave him likewise Cabala a City of Cilicia and some others so that Ariobarzanes left to a Son that succeded him all that Kingdom subject to many changes till the time of Augustus Caesar under whose Empire it was with many others reduced into the form of a Province Pompey after this passed Mount Taurus and went to make War upon Antiochus Commagenes to whom he afterwards granted Peace with the Title of Friend to the People of Rome he defeated likewise the Mede Darius because he had assisted Antiochus or possibly Tigranes before him Afterwards he led his Army against Areta King of the Arabian Nabathaean and at length against the Iews who were revolted against their King Aristobulus from whom he took by force their holy City Ierusalem besides all this he reduced under the Roman obedience without fighting and as it were only in passing by the remainder of Cilicia which yet acknowledged not the Roman Empire together with all the habitable Syria on this side Euphrates Coelosyria Phoenicia Palestine Idumea Ituria and all the other members of Syria Not that the Romans had any cause of complaint against Antiochus the Pious who was present at all this endeavoring to obtain the Kingdom of his Fathers by force of Prayers but the Roman General believed that having driven Tigranes out of these Provinces which he had conquered they by right of War belonged to the People of Rome As he was setling necessary Orders in his Conquests there came to him Ambassadors on the behalf of Phraates and Tigranes who began to make War on each other The Armenian demanded his assistance as his friend and the Parthians desired to be received into the friendship of the People of Rome and he unwilling to enter upon a War with the Parthians without a particular Order of the Senate sent Commissioners who made Peace between the two Kings Whilst he was employed in all these affairs Mithridates had taken the whole compass of the Euxine Sea and having siesed upon Panticapea a Merchant City situate in Europe on the mouth of Pontus very near the Strait he slew his Son Xiphares for a fault committed by his Mother in this manner Mithridates had great quantity of Vessels of Brass bound about with Iron and filled with Silver hid under ground in a certain Castle the Guard of which he had entrusted to stratonice one of his Concubines or of his Wives She only knew of it and yet whilst the King was making the Circuit of Pontus she delivered to Pompey the Castle and all the Treasures only on this condition that if her Son Xiphares fell into his power he should save his life in favor of his Mother he took the Mony promised to preserve her Son and permitted him to retire whither he pleased with his Equipage The King coming to know this slew Xiphares on the Sea-side in the sight of his Mother who stood on the other side the Strait and threw the body into the water not permitting it burial so small account he made of paternal piety that he might revenge himself of the Mother who had committed the fault After this he sent Ambassadors to Pompey who was in Syria and knew not that he was yet living offering to pay Tribute to the Romans if he would leave him the Kingdom of his Fathers to which Pompey sending him word that he should come and meet him as Tigranes had done he answered that he could not do it for that it would be unbecoming the Person of Mithridates yet offering to send his Sons and some of his Friends Upon this answer he began to make new Leavies of all Men of all sorts and conditions indifferently to cause to be made great quantity of Arms Bows and Engins without sparing any thing whatsoever the very Oxen used to Labour being killed only for their Nerves he imposed likewise new Tributes from which the very poorest were not exempt whilst those who had the charge of Collecting them committed a thousand Extortions unknown to Mithridates For he had got an Ulcer in his face which so disfigured him that he let no person see him but three Eunuchs that dressed
him being recovered he found all his Forces in a condition to march being composed of sixty Regiments of six hundred Men each besides multitudes of all sorts of People with quantity of Ships and strong places which his Captains had sieised upon during his distemper He therefore passed over a part of his Army to Phanagoria another Merchant City situate on the other side of the Strait to the end he might on both sides be Master of the passage Pompey was still in Syria but a certain Inhabitant of Phanagoria called Castor whom Tryphon the Kings Eunuch had formerly put to the Torture killed the Eunuch as he entred and began to cry out Liberty The people presently rose upon it and though the Fortress was guarded by Artaphernes and other Children of Mithridates yet they brought Wood round about it and set it on fire which so affrighted Artaphernes Darius Xerxes Oxathres and Eupator the Kings Sons that they yielded themselves They were all very beautiful but they were all but Children except only Artaphernes who might be forty years old there staid in the Fortress only one of their Sisters called Cleopatra who would not go out and whose generosity so much pleased the King that he sent Brigantines which brought her off All the Castles thereabouts which Mithridates had lately surprized followed the Example of Phanagoria Chersoneses Theodozia Nymphaea and other fortified Cities above in the Pontick Sea did the like insomuch that the King seeing so many revolts and not placing any confidence in the Fidelity of an Army most of whom went to the War by Constraint besides the great Exactions he had made to bring this Army on foot and his own unfortunate condition in which Estate a Prince can have no reliance on the Faith of his Subjects he sent some Eunuchs into Scythia with his daughters to give them in Marriage to the Kings of that Country entreating them to come to his succour with all the Force they had He had appointed these Eunuchs a guard of five hundred Soldiers for the Conduct of these Princesses but scarce had they lost sight of Mithridates but they slew the Eunuchs who by virtue of the power they had over the Kings Spirit had always tyrannized over them and carried the Ladies to Pompey The King though he had lost so many Children so many strong places nay indeed his whole Kingdom nor had now any hopes of aid from the Scythians abated not at all the fierceness of his courage nor entertained any thoughts that were mean or suitable to his present Calamity He formed a design to march into Gaul and stir up that people to Arms with whom he had to that purpose before hand made a league and entred into alliance thinking with them to cross the Alps and fall upon Italy where he had hopes many people would joyn with him out of the hate they bore the Romans for he had heard tell how Hannibal making Wars within Spain had laid the same design and succeeded and after so daring an attempt made himself formidable to his Enemies besides he had intelligence that almost all their allies in Italy were revolted against them out of a general hate and had a long time bore Arms against them and likewise favored to their prejudice the Gladiator Spartacus a vile fellow Upon these hopes he was ready to take his march towards Gaul if the Army terrifyed with such prodigious boldness had not made abortive these magnificent Designs The Soldiers seeing he had a mind to lead them so far off to encounter people they could not defend themselves from in their own Countrey thought that Mithridates despairing of his own Affairs thought it more honourable to die generously like a King then to lie idle and do nothing However they said nothing but received his orders without any murmuring for this King was a man of no mean Soul nor despisable in the very midst of Calamity Things being in this Estate Pharnaces the most beloved of all his Sons and whom he had often designed his Successor in the Kingdom laid a design against his life whether it were that he thought this expedition might prove prejudicial to his Affairs and blast the hopes he yet had the Romans would grant him pardon which he was sure they would absolutely refuse if his Father went to ravage Italy or whether it were for other reasons or else out of an impatient desire to reign His Complices being taken and put to torture Monophanes perswaded Mithridates that being ready to march it was not convenient to put to death a Son he had so tenderly loved that such disorders would happen during the War and would end with the War insomuch that he suffered himself to yield and pardoned his Son But Pharnaces being affrighted with some private intelligence given him and knowing that the Army had an aversion for this Expedition went by night and conferred with the Principal of the Roman Fugitives whose Tents were not far from the Kings aggravating to them the danger they ran into which was not unknown to them if they went into Italy and making them great Promises if they would stay with him he prevailed with them to forsake Mithridates At the same time he sent some of his people to the neighbouring Tents to make the same Proposition to the Officers who likewise gave him their word Morning being come the Runawayes began to shout all together to which those who were encamped next them answered in the same tone after them all the Army even to the very Fleet did the like It 's possible they were not all of the Conspiracy but those who were not engaged followed the others out of a natural facility men have to despise the miserable and to affect Novelty And some too not knowing the number of the Conspirators believed the whole Army concerned and believing themselves alone unable to resist such a Multitude shouted with the rest more for fear then good will Mithridates wakened by these cries sent some to them to know what they desired to whom they returned answer they demanded his Son for their King a young man for an old one overswayed by his Eunuchs and a Murderer of many of his Children Captains and Friends Having heard this return He came out to speak to them and in the mean time a Troop of his Guards going to joyn with the Runa wayes they told them they would not receive them unless to gain belief amongst them they would do some notable action and at the same time showed them the King They then killed his Horse seeing him dispose himself to flight and then as if they had done what was desired of them called Pharnaces King and some one having taken out of a Temple a certain Band of Parchment tyed it about his head instead of a Diadem the Old man seeing all this from a high Gallery whither he had escaped sent several Messengers one after another to his Son to desire security for his retreat but
then almost ready for their Sickle or else he destroyed or burnt it These things being understood at Rome the Fathers sent Fabius Aemilianus Maximus Son to Aemilius Paulus who subdued Perseus King of Macedon with Power to raise an Army who because the strength of the City was in a manner exhausted first by the subversion of Carthage then by subduing the Greeks and lastly by bringing to a happy issue the Macedonian War that he might spare those had out-lived so many Engagements enrolled two Legions of raw young Men and having procured some further assistance from the Associates with an Army of about fifteen thousand Foot and two thousand Horse came to Orso a City of Spain from thence that he might not throw himself upon the Enemy with an undisciplined and unexperienced Force that had never yet seen any fighting he crossed over into Cadiz to sacrifice to Hercules Viriatus met with a party of his men going to wood slew a great many and put the rest to flight and his Lieutenant again bringing them out to engage Viriatus again defeated them and took a great booty but when Maximus himself came bringing armed Soldiers to try if he could entice him to a Battel and daily provoking him seeing Viriatus avoided a general Engagement sending out parties by frequent skirmishes he made trial of the Enemies strength and increased his own mens courage and confidence aed whenever he sent out to Forrage he gave a Convoy of Legionary Soldiers and Horse to the light armed Foot for this Discipline he had learn'd from his Father in the Macedonian War Winter being past and his Army well exercised and confirmed he made a sharp War upon Viriatus and putting himself to flight took two of his Cities and burnt another Viriatus himself flying to a place called Baecor he followed and slew many of his men and then went and wintred at Corduba Viriatus being now no longer secure as formerly drew off from the Roman Alliance the Arvacci Titthi and Belli warlike people who waged another long and laborious War by themselves which from Numantia one of their Cities was called the Numantine which immediately after the Viriatick we shall proceed to treat of Viriatus therefore in another part of Spain coming to a set Battel with Quintius another Roman General and being overcome retreated to the Mountains of Venus from whence turning again upon the Enemy he slew some of Quintius men took some Colours and forced the rest into their Camp He likewise by force drove out the Garrison at Ituca and wasted the Country of the Basitani whilst Quintius out of weakness and want of Military knowledge lay shut up in Corduba where in the midst of Autumn he took up his Winter Quarters and only now and then sent out C. Martius a Spaniard of the Italian City against the Enemy That year being expired so Quintius Aemilianus succeeded his Brother Fabius Maximus Aemilianus bringing with him two Roman Legions and some Allies so that all his Forces might be about sixteen thousand Foot and sixteen hundred Horse He wrote likewise to Micipsa King of Numidia to send him with all speed some Elephants but hastning to Ituca and leading with him only part of his Army Viriatus met with six thousand men coming on with great noise and clamour and with long hair which the Barbarians used to wear and shake in time of fight to terrifie their Enemies yet he bore his charge with so much courage that the Enemy was repulsed without effecting any thing But when the other part of the Army with ten thousand Elephants and three hundred Horse from Lybia were come to him enlarging his Camp he first drew out his Army against Viriatus and over-powring him routed and put him to flight but when breaking their Ranks in the pursuit Viriatus observed the confusion rallying he slew about three thousand men and drove the rest to the Camp He likewise assaulted their Camp while scarce any would shut the Gates again the invading Enemy but most struck with pannick fear hid themselves in their Huts and neither by the General nor Military Tribunes could be got out to fight yet above all Fannius the Brother-in-Law of Laelius did in this Battel in a singular manner make his courage manifest Night coming on favoured and saved the Romans But Viriatus night and day omitted no opportunity sometimes with light armed Foot and sometimes with nimble Horse to weary out the Romans till at last he forced Servilianus to raise his Siege from Ituca And himself beginning to be pinched with hunger and having but slender Forces setting on fire his Tents by night marched towards Lusitania Servilianus in his going off not being followed translated the seat of War into Baeturia where he seised upon five Cities that bore good will to Viriatus Thence led his Forces among the Cunei from whence he again marched into Lusitania against Viriatus himself In this way meeting with two Captains of Thieves Curius and Apuleius with ten thousand men they very much vexed the Romans acd joyning Battel wherein Curius was killed they yet got some booty all which Servilianus not long after recovered and likewise took by force the Cities Escadia Gemella and Obolcola in all which Viriatus had placed Garrisons some of which he made Captains and others he let go Of ten thousand Prisoners he had five hundred he made pass under the Ax and sold the rest After this he went to Winter Quarters leaving the War to him that was to Command next year and these things done returned to Rome Quintius Pompeius Aulus succeeded him in Command Mean while his Brother Maximus Aemilianus having received upon submission one Connoba a Captain of Thieves did indeed pardon him but cut of all his Companions hands but when pursuing Viriatus he was about to inclose Erisane one of his Cities with a Trench and Palisado Viriatus entring the City by night and making a Sally by break of day not only drove those that were working upon the Lines from their labour making them throw away their Spades and Mattocks but likewise forced all the rest of Aemilianus Forces ready drawn up and in a posture to engage him to flee among the Rocks and Precipices from whence there was no way to escape yet here succes made not Viriatus insolent but supposing he now might upon fair Conditions lay down Arms and enter into friendship with the Romans he contracted a League which the people of Rome afterwards confirmed and called Viriatus friend giving Orders his Associates should enjoy the Lands they possessed Thus a War heavy to the Romans seemed on easie Conditions quite extinct but this Peace proved not lasting for Cepio brother to Aemilianus Author of this League and his Successor in Command finding fault with the Conditions as dishonourable to the Roman people prevailed with the Senate to have leave privately to incommode Viriatus as he thought fit and continually urging them and plying them with Letters at length procured a
they broke open House carrying away all they found and killing the first they met and some of them were found abusing their own Masters He had tryed several ways to correct them but seeing he lost his labour he caused them all one night as they slept to be encompassed by the Gaul Infantry who cut them in pieces Thus were they punished for their Perfidiousness as they deserved The Consuls named for the year following were Cinna for the Second Time and Marius for his Seventh so that in spite of his Banishment and Proscription the Augury of the seven Eaglets was accomplished But whilst he was contriving ways to ruin Sylla he was carried away by a Distemper in the first Month of his seventh Consulate Cinna caused Valerius Flaccus to be substituted in his place whom he sent into Asia where he dying he took Carbo for his Colleague Mean while Sylla hastning his Return to be revenged upon his Enemies after having in a short time vanquished Mithridates as we have before related killed one hundred and sixty thousand Men in less than three Years re-conquered Greece Macedon Ionia and Asia and the other Countries which Mithridates had siesed upon despoiled that King of his Fleet and reduced him to the Kingdom of his Predecessors he begun his Journey towards Italy with an Army that loved him accustomed to Labour and heightned with the happy Success of his Arms. He had likewise store of Ships and Money and was in short in a Power capable of undertaking the greatest things so that his Enemies began to be terrified And for fear of him Carbo and Cinna sent Men through all Italy to raise Money and Soldiers and lay up Stores of Corn for their Service in the Depending War They endeavoured likewise to engage on their side all Persons of Riches and Authority and to gain the People particularly the new Citizens perswading them they had not fallen into the present danger but for espousing their Interests They fitted out a Fleet and gave Orders to guard the Coasts with Ships they had caused to be brought from Sicily In short they forgot nothing that could be done to make speedy Preparations for their Defence against such an Allarm As for Sylla he wrote to the Senate a Letter full of Anger wherein after having made an Enumeration of all the Labours he had undergone for the Commonwealth in Numidia against Iugurtha Questor in the Cimbrian War Lieutenant in Cilicia Pretor and in the War with the Allies Consul besides those great things he came from doing against Mithridates Amplifying each Action in particular and principally the great number of Provinces he had reconquered from Mithridates and reduced under the obedience of the Roman People But above all he put a value upon the Obligation they had to him for having been the Refuge of those Roman Citizens driven from the City by the violence of Cinna and for having comforted and assisted them in their Calamities and Distresses Adding that for a full Acknowledgment of so many good deeds his Enemies had proscribed and set a price upon his Head demolished his House killed his Friends and driven away his Wife and Children who with much difficulty escaped to him but he should now suddainly be in the City where he would revenge both private and publick Injuries and punish the Authors of these Disorders which notwithstanding he did not impute to any of the Citizens either Ancient or New This Letter read in the Senate struck a terror into all the World wherefore they sent to him Deputies to â—econcile him with his Enemies with Order to tell him that if he desired any Security the Senate would become bound for what they agreed on provided he would forthwith declare his Intentions And in the mean time they forbad Cinna from making any new Levies until Sylla had returned an Answer Hereupon Cinna said that he would put all his Concerns into the hands of the Senate But scarce were the Deputies gone but he designed himself with his Colleague Consuls for the following Year that he might not be obliged to return to the City to hold the Assembly That done they both left Rome and coasting all Italy enrolled some Legions and sent over several Troops one after another to Dalmatia with which they pretended to go and meet Sylla The first arrived safely at those Ports where they designed landing but those who embarked afterwards were by Storms cast back on the Coast of Italy where the Soldiers coming again to their Homes protested that never by their good will would they bear Arms against their Citizens Which coming to the knowledge of others that were ready to depart they refused to pass into Dalmatia Cinna enraged at this Refusal gave them order to come to the Assembly thinking to oblige them to obey by force of threats They came thither as angry as he not sticking to say that if they were too much pressed upon they knew how to defend themselves But as he was going away the Lictor who marched before to make way for him having pushed one of them to that purpose a certain Soldier returned him a Blow whereupon the Consul commanding the Soldier to be arrested a great noise suddainly arose which was followed by throwing of Stones and some that stood next to Cinna drawing their Swords ran him through and through Cinna thus slain in his Consulate Carbo caused those Troops carried over into Dalmatia to be brought back and so doubtful he was what to do in this Conjuncture that he durst not return to the City though the Tribunes of the People had summoned him to come to the end he might in a lawful Assembly substitute another Consul in the place of him that was slain At last however when they threatned to reduce him to the Rank of private Men he went and appeared at the day appointed for the Nomination of a Consul but because the Birds gave ill Omens of that day he adjourned the Assembly to a farther day on which the Thunder falling on the Temples of Luna and Ceres the Augurs were the occasion that the Nomination of a Consul was deferred till after the Solstice and that till then Carbo remained singly in that Dignity Mean while Sylla had returned in Answer to the Senate's Deputation That he would not contract Friendship with Men blackned with such horrible Crimes However he would not hinder the People of Rome from giving them security but there would be much more for those who would joyn with him being Master of an Army affectionate to his interests This word alone was sufficient to make them believe he was resolved to keep his Command and that he had a design to seise on the absolute Dominion for he demanded likewise that they should entirely restore his first Dignity his Goods his Priesthoods and in short all the Honours that he had and indeed he had sent with the Deputies of the Senate some to demand all these things but when they heard at
to be put to death and sent his head to Sylla After he had thus treated his Enemies to his hearts content so that there remained none of the contrary Faction but Sertorius and he a great way off he sent Metellus into Spain against him and began to dispose of the Affairs of the City at his pleasure There being now no regard to the Laws or Votes or any of the ancient Formalities all people hiding themselves for fear or at least holding their peace the People and Senate of Rome ratifyed all that Sylla had done as well in his Charge of Consul as in the Quality of Pro-Consul and caused to be erected for him in the place for Orations a guilt Statue on Horse-back with this Inscription To CORNELIUS SYLLA Emperor the Happy For his Flatterers called him happy because of the continual Success of his Arms against his Enemies and it was only Flattery gave him that Sirname I my self found in certain Memoirs that in the same Sessions of the Senate they gave him the Title of THE GRACIOUS which I the easier believe because himself afterwards took the name of FOELIX not much different in signification from that of GRACIOUS There was likewise found an Oracle which confirmed him in the Resolution of undertaking all these things and ran thus Believe brave Roman Venus guides thy Fate Knowing thee sprung from Great Aeneas Line By mighty Actions then advance thy State Sure of Assistance from the Powers Divine But let not Gods their Favours cast away Delphian Apollo waits for Gifts of thine And when War brings thee to Mount Taurus pay A Golden Axe to Carian Venus Shrine However it were or whoever it was that wrote either of these two Epithites on his Statue in my Opinion good Raillery might be made of either But they stopped not here to gain the good Grace of the Conqueror they sent to that place an Axe with a Crown of Gold and put on it this Inscription Great Venus let this Gift Acceptance meet Which Sylla head of Rome lays at thy Feet Dreaming he saw thee ready for the Fight Provoke his Soldiers to maintain his Right Being then in Effect King or Tyrant since he mounted not to this Supreme Power by the consent of the People or the Authority of the Senate but by force yet standing in need of some pretence that he might seem lawfully elected he made use of this Artifice Formerly in Rome the most vertuous were Kings and when any King died the Senators by turns from five days to five days presided over the Government of the Commonwealth till such time as another elected by the Votes of the people succeeded in the Kingdom and this Five Days-Magistrate was called Inter-rex Afterwards when the Republick was governed by Consuls instead of Kings only those Consuls going out of Office had Right to call an Assembly for the naming new and if by any Accident they happened to be wanting they created an Inter-rex to preside in the Assembly According to this custom Sylla took the occasion now there were no Consuls in the Commonwealth Carbo being cut off in Sicily and Marius in Praeneste and retiring for some time out of the City sent word to the Senate they should create an Inter-rex The Senate having received his Orders gave that Dignity to Valerius Flaccus hoping that by this means they should soon have an Assembly for the Election of new Consuls But Sylla writ to Flaccus to acquaint the Senate from him that the present Estate of Affairs required they should name a Dictator not for a certain time as the ancient Custom which had lasted four hundred years required but till the Affairs of the City of Italy and of the whole Empire which till now had been shaken with continual Wars were settled and put in better order There is no doubt this new Proposition meant only himself and indeed he was not shy in shewing the desired it for in the end of the Letter he wrote that if the Fathers thought good he offered himself to render that Service to the Commonwealth When this Letter was read in the City the Senate and people of Rome were grievously perplexed They saw now they must no more hope for a lawful Assembly and that they were no longer Masters wherefore under the Mask of an Assembly they willingly accepted of this false Appearance of Liberty granted them and created Sylla Tyrant with an absolute Power for as long time as he pleased for formerly the Dictatorship was a bounded Tyranny for a certain time of short continuance But having taken away these Bounds there wanted nothing to make it an accomplished Tyranny Yet they gave him a more honest name saying that he was created Dictator to make such Laws as he should judge profitable to the Commonwealth and to apply necessary Orders Thus the People of Rome who had been under the Dominion of Kings about a hundred Olympiads and almost as long under Popular Government where Consuls presided and changed every Year returned under a Form of Royalty in the Seventy fifth Olympiad of the Greeks there was now no fighting at the Olympick Games nor any other Exercise but running For Sylla after the War with Mithridates was ended and the Intestine Disorders appeased sent for all the Combatants and whatever else could give any pleasure to the City under pretence to recreate the people wearied with so many Toyls And that he might not seem to incroach upon the ancient form of Government he permitted the People to chuse Consuls They gave that Dignity to M. Tullius and Cornelius Dolobella but he in Quality of Dictator reigned absolutely even over the Consuls themselves for they carried before him four and twenty Axes as they did before the other Dictators and as formerly before the Kings and he always went encompassed with Guards Besides he cancelled Laws and made new ones Among others he made one by which he enacted that none for the future should receive the Office of Praetor till he had been Quaestor nor be Consul till he had been Praetor nor obtain one Dignity twice until ten years after he had exercised it As for the Tribuneship he so enâ—eebled it that it seemed quite under foot making a Law by which it was enacted that after being Tribune no Man should be admitted to any other Dignity so that no Person either of Quality or desirous of Honour would accept that Charge Yet it is not positively certain whether it was he that transferred it from the People's Choice to the Senate's as it is at present However it were seeing the Senators reduced to a small number by reason of the Tumults and Wars he added three hundred whom he took from the principal Cavaliers yet not till having first demanded the Suffrage of the Assembly for each of them He augmented likewise the number of the People with all the Slaves of the Proscripts whom he found well made and in the Flower of their Age to the number of ten
and Cassius Tribunes go to Caesar who receives them as Friends X. Caesar passing the Rubicon strikes a general terrour into Rome XI Pompey leaves Rome goes to Capua the Consuls and most of the Senate follow him He carries over his Forces to Dyrrhachium which he makes his Seat of War XII Caesar comes to Rome thence goes to Spain to make War with Petreius and Afranius XIII Curio goes to Africa is defeated and slain XIV Caesar appeases a Mutiny of his Army at Placenâ—ia and prepares to pass into Epire. XV. Pompey having made his Preparations makes a Speech to his Army and sends Garrisons into Thessaly XVI Caesar after encouraging those Forces he finds at Brundusium goes over Sea in Winter and takes some places XVII Caesar endeavouring to seize Dyrrhachium is prevented by Pompey XVIII Caesar endeavouring to come over Sea himself to fetch the Remainder of his Forces out of Italy being driven â—ack by Storm sends Posthumus in his stead XIX Anthony being landed with the rest of Caesar's Forces in Dalmatia some light Skirmishes happen XX. Pompey gains a great Victory over Caesar. XXI Caesar retreats with his Army into Thessaly and encamps about Pharsalia XXII Pompey hopes to overcome him by Famine without fighting XXIII At length he yields to give him Battel XXIV Number of the Forces on both sides XXV Pompey and Caesar encourage their Armies XXVI They draw into Battel and give Orders XXVII The Battel of Pharsalia XXVIII Pompey escapes into Egypt where he is murdered XXIX Caesar follows revenges his death and thence goes against Pharnaces in Asia XXX He returns to the City where after appeasing his mutinous Soldiers he resolves on his Expedition into Africa XXXI He defeats Scipio and the rest of Pompey's Party XXXII The death of Cato at Utica and the end of the African War XXXIII Caesar returns to the City triumphs and rewards his Soldiers XXXIV He goes into Spain and puts an end to the whole War XXXV He returns to the City where he takes on him the Sovereign Authority XXXVI Lays a Design of War against the Parthians and is thereupon slain in the Senate XXXVII Brutus and Cassius retire to the Capitol XXXVIII They treat an Accommodation with Lepidus and Anthony XXXIX Question put in the Senate if they ought to be justified which Anthony with much Artifice opposes XL. He comes to the place of Orations where the People applaud him he speaks against Brutus and Cassius in open Senate XLI Piso about to produce Caesar's Will Brutus and Cassius endeavour to justifie their Action XLII They descend from the Capitol but are forced to leave the City Caesar's Funeral Honours celebrated XLIII His Elegy and Comparison between him and Alexander THe Dominion of Sylla and all those things which passed afterwards in Spain under the Conduct of Sertorius and Perpenna were followed by divers Commotions till the Civil War of Caesar and Pompey which ended by the death of Pompey after which Caesar himself was slain in the Senate as may be seen in this Second Book of the Civil Wars Now when Pompey had cleared all the Seas of Pyrates than whom a greater Number was never seen in the Memory of Man brought to his end Mithridates King of Pontus and reduced his Kingdom and those other Countries he had conquered into what Form he pleased Caeser was yet but a very young Man he was Eloquent Capable of great things Hardy Presumptuous Ambitious beyond his Power and being yet but Aedile and Praetor was run prodigiously in debt to gain the favour of the People which is usually given to the most prodigal Catiline now likewise appeared at Rome being of one of the best Families of the City but of no sound Wisdom and besides of an ill Reputation being suspected to have committed a Parricide on his own Son that he might espouse Aurelia Oristilla whom he was in Love with and who would not contract Marriage with him as long as he had Children He was with all this a great Friend of Sylla's and very affectionate to his Party Being fallen into Poverty by his ambitious Profuseness and yet considerable among many powerful Persons as well Men as Women he set himself to demand the Consulate as a Step to raise him to the Tyranny But he fell from his hopes most Men having conceived an ill Opinion of him because they perceived him affect an Authority not fit to be suffered in a Free City Being then refused the Consulate which was given to Cicero a Man well spoken of and very eloquent he began to mock at the Suffrages of the People who had chosen this Consul whom out of Raillery he called New Man for they had got a custom to give that name to those who rendred themselves Illustrious not by the Glory of their Ancestors but their own proper Vertue and because that he was not born in the City they said that he was an Inmate like those that lie in hired Lodgings After that time he medled no more with the Government of the Commonwealth judging that it exposes Men to Trouble and Envy and sets them not a Round higher towards mounting to the Tyranny Notwithstanding he drew great Summs of Money from many of those Women who weary of their Husbands hoped to get rid of them if any Change happened in the State and with some Senators a quantity of Roman Knights Plebeians Slaves nay very Strangers formed a Conspiracy to seize on the Commonwealth But his greatest Confidents in this Affair were Cornelius Lentulus and Cethegus at that present Proetors of the City He sent likewise throughout all Italy people to solicite those who being enriched in Sylla's time had ill spent what they had ill got and would be very well content to reach at such another Fortune He sent C. Manlius to Fesulae and others to the Marches of Ancona and into Pouilla secretly to levy Soldiers The first advice of all these secret Preparations was given to Cicero by Fulvia a Woman of Quality with whom Q. Curius one of the Conspirators expelled the Senate for his scandalous life was deeply in Love He boasted to his Mistress that in a short time she should see him a great Lord. Already the noise of the Attempts of those who had been sent throughout all Italy increased when the Consul set Guards in the City and sent certain Persons of Quality to the suspected Places But Catiline though no one durst yet arrest him because the business was not absolutely discovered was fearful lest Delay should increase the Suspition and hoping that the greatest diligence would be most advantageous to him sent Money before to Fesulae gave Order to the Conspirators to kill Cicero and be night to set fire on divers Quarters of the City and he causing Rods and Axes to be bore before him as a Pro-Consul and raising Soldiers all the way he passed goes to find out Caius Manlius with design to fall upon the City as soon as it should be set on fire
great War with his five thousand Men and seise of some places of Italy were commodious for him first he sent before to Rimini some Centurions and Men who were to enter the City as Passengers and then all of a sudden to seise on that City the first that offers it self coming from Gaul and himself in the Evening going out as if he had found himself ill after a Feast leaves his Friends and mounting in a Chariot drove himself the same way followed at a distance by his Cavalry when he came to the Banks of Rubicon he stopped some time looking upon the water and thinking of the calamities he went about to be the cause of if he passed that River in Arms. At length turning to those of his Train My Friends said he if I pass not this River immediately it will be to me the beginning of all misfortunes and if I do pass it I go to make a world of people miserable and therewithal as if he had been pressed forward by some Divinity he drave into the stream and crossing it cries with a loud voice The Lot is cast From whence continuing on his way with speed he seised on Rimini by break of day and all in an instant places Garrisons in all the good places of that Country which he reduced either by force or favour Mean while as it happens in these unexpected Allarms the whole Country was filled with people flying the Countrymen forsaking their Habitations and nothing was to be heard but Cries and Lamentations and Groans yet no man knew from whence this disorder came but all imagined that Caesar was upon them with all his Forces The Consuls receiving the news gave not Pompey who perfectly understood War leisure to prepare himself and take his own time they began to press him to be gone out of the City and make Levies of Forces in Italy as if Rome had been in immediate danger of being taken and plundered And the Senate surprised with so unlooked for an irruption were terrified and began to repent they had not accepted those reasonable conditions offered by Caesar but this was not till fear had opened their eyes and led them back from Partiality to Reason for now men talked of a great many Prodigies and extraordinary Signs which had appeared in the Heavens that it had rained Blood in many places that in others the Statues of the Gods had sweat that many Temples had been struck with Thunderbolts that a Mule had engendred besides an infinite of other things which seemed to foretel the change of the present state and the ruine of the Common-wealth so as it should never be re-established wherefore they made Vows and Prayers as in a publick Consternation And the people remembring again the miseries they had suffered because of the Dissentions of Sylla and Marius cryed out that they ought to take away the Command as well from Caesar as from Pompey since that was the only means to prevent a War Cicero himself was of opinion that Deputies should be sent to Caesar to treat an Accommodation but the Consuls absolutely opposed it Favonius quipping at Pompey because of a word he had once said with too much arrogance Bid him stamp on the ground with his Foot and see if any armed Men would rise To which Pompey answered You will want none so you will follow me and are not troubled to leave the City and Italy it self if there be occasion for people of courage said he do not make liberty consist in the possession of Lands and Houses they cannot want in any place they come to and if they lose not their courage will soon recover their Houses and Lands After having said these words and protested he would hold him for an Enemy that out of fear to lose what he possessed deserted the Common-wealth in extreme danger he went out of the Palace and soon after out of the City to joyn the Army that was at Capua The Consuls followed him presently but the other Senators weighted it a little longer and spent all the night in the Palace without resolving any thing and at length as soon as it was break of day the greater part followed the same way after Pompey Mean time Caesar having reached at Corfinium L. Domitius whom they had sent for his Successor with four thousand Men of which he had already lost a part he besieged him in the City from whence endeavouring to escape the Inhabitants stopped him at the Gate and brought him to Caesar to whom the Remainder of his Forces yielded themselves he received them kindly that he might draw others by their example and without doing any wrong to Domitius he suffered him to go whither he pleased with all his Equipage hoping by this courtesie to oblige him to take his Party yet without hindring him from going to find out Pompey These things being done in such an instant Pompey on the other side marches from Capua to Nucera and from Nucera to Brundusium that he might from thence pass to Epire where he designed to establish the Seat of the War he writ to all Provinces and those that commanded them to Kings themselves to Sovereigns and particular Cities that with all convenient speed they should send him what Forces they could supply him with in which every one laboured with all his power He had his own particular Army in Spain ready to march at his first command and for those Legions he had with him he gave one part of them to the Consuls whom he sent before into Epire they embarquing at the same time at Brundusium happily crossed the Gulf and landed at Dyrrachium which some by mistake think to be Epidamnum for Epidamnus King of the Barbarians who inhabited those Countries built near the Sea the City to which he gave his own name and Dyrrachus his Grand-son by his Daughter whom they said was begot by Neptune added to this City a Port which they call Dyrrachium This Dyrrachus being in War with his Brother Hercules returning from Erythrea assisted him on condition to have a part of the Country for his reward Hence comes it that the Dyrrachians call him their Founder as having part in the Lands which they possessed not that they disavow Dyrrachus but they are well pleased out of vanity to derive their original from a God rather than a Man 'T is reported that in the Fight Hercules ignorantly slew Ionius the Son of Dyrrachus and after having payed him all Funeral Honours threw the Body into the Sea which from him was called Ionian Some Phrygians having deserted their Country seised afterwards on this and on the City it self where they remained a long time till after them the like was done by the Taulantieni who are a people of Illyria and again by the Liburnians another Nation of Illyria who used to rob their Neighbours in very swift Brigantines which the Romans afterwards making use of called Liburnicks The Dyrrachians chased away by the Liburnians having called