CHAP. I.

WHen Romulus, being by order of Amulius, cast into the River, with his Brother Remus, could not be drown'd. For not only the Tiber check'd its current, but also a She-wolf, [Page 2] having left her whelps, and following the cry of the infants, suckled them, and became a mo­ther to them. Found thus under a tree, Faustu­lus the Kings Shepherd remov'd them to his cottage, and brought them up. Alba was then the Metropolis of Latium, built by Julus; for he had sligh [...]ed the Lavinium, the City of his Father Aeneas. Amulius, the fourteenth of the race of these Kings, then ruled; having ex­pell'd his Brother Numitor, of whose daughter was born Romulus. Therefore in the first heat of his youth, he forc'd his Uncle Amulius out of his Fortresse, and restor'd his Grand-father; but he himself, pleas'd with the River, and Mountains, wherin he had bin b [...]ought up, was designing within himself the walls of a new Ci­ty. They were Twins; and whether of them should first enter upon the Government, they thought fit to referre to the decision of the Gods. Remus took his station on Mount Aven­ [...]ine, the other on Mount Palatine. The former first saw six Vulturs, but the latter, though af­ [...]erwards, saw twelve. So having the better by augury, he layd the foundations of his City, great with hopes, that it would be a martial one; so those birds, accustom'd to blood and prey, promised. For the securing of the new Ci [...]y, a Trench seem'd sufficient, the narrow­nesse whereof while Remus derided, and scorn­ [...]ully leap'd over, he was put to death, whether [Page 3] by order from his Brother, is not certainly known. He certainly prov'd the first victime, and consecrated the fortification of the new City with his blood. He had fram'd rather the Idaea of a City, than a City. Inhabitants were wanting. Hard by, there was a grove; he made it a Sanctuary; and immediately great numbers of men, Latines, some Shepherds, Tuscians, and some from beyond the seas, Phry­gians, who came [into those parts] under the conduct of Aeneas, and Arcadians, under that of Evander, came into him. So, of diverse principles he made up one body as it were, and was himself the founder of the Roman people. But a people of men onely could last but one age. They therefore desired to inter-marry with their neighbours, which not obtain'd by fair means, was effected by force. For pretend­ing to shew some exercises on Horseback, the Virgins who came to the show, became a prey; and that occasion'd Wars. The Veientes are defeated, and put to flight: The City of the Caeninenses was taken and destroy'd. Besides, the King himself, with his own hands, brought the rich spoils of their King, to Jupiter Fere­trius. The gates [of Rome] were betrayd to the Sabines by a Virgin, not fraudulently; but she had desir'd for her reward what they had on their left arms; whether she meant their shields or bracelets is doubtful. They to keep [Page 4] their word, and be reveng'd of her, over­whelmed her with their shields. So the ene­mies being got to the walls, there was a sharp engagement in the very In Foro. Forum: so that Ro­mulus pray'd to Jupiter to put a stop to the shameful retreat of his people. Thence came the Temple, and [name of] Jupiter Stator. At length, the [Virgins who had been] surpriz'd, run in between the engaged parties, with their hair dishevell'd. So a peace was made with Tatius, and a league entred into; and a strange thing follow'd, [to wit] that the ene­mies, leaving their own habitations, remov'd into the new City, and bestow'd the wealth of their Ancestors on their Sons in law, as a portion [with their Daughters.] Their forces being in a short time increased, the most pru­dent King reduc'd the Commonwealth to this state, that the young men, being divided into Tribes, should be ready, with Horse and Armes, for any unexpected occasions of War; that the counsel of the Commonwealth should be managed by the old men, who, for their authority were called Fathers; for their age, a Senate. These things thus setled, while he was speaking to the people, without the City, neer the Pool of Capra, he was of a sudden taken out of their sight. Some think him cut to pieces by the Senate, for the harshnesse of his disposition; but the tempest then rising, with [Page 5] an Eclipse of the Sun, were look'd on as argu­ments of his Apotheosis. Which [opinion] Julius Proculus soon after confirm'd, affirming that he had seen Romulus in a more Majestick form, then he had bin in before; that he further commanded, they should honour him as a Deity; and that the Gods would have him called in Heaven by the name of Quirinus; and that so Rome should have the Soveraignty of the world.

CHAP. II.

NƲma Pompilius succeeded Romulus. They of their own accord desir'd this man [for their King] for the greatnesse of his piety. He instructed them in sacrifices, and ceremo­nies, and what ever relates to the worship of the immortall Gods. He instituted Priests, Augurs, the Saly, and the other sacerdoral Functions; and distributed the year into twelve months, and appointed the days of pleading and vacation. He gave them the [sacred] Bucklers, and the Image of Pallas, as certain secret pledges of the Empire, as also double-fac'd Janus, the Symbol of peace and war. [Page 6] He first appointed fire to be kept in by the Ve­stal Virgins, that in imitation of the celestial constellations, the Guardian-flame of the Em­pire should be vigilantly continu'd. These things [he pretended he had receiv'd] by the inspirations of the Goddesse Egeria, that his barbarous subjects might the more willingly submit thereto. In fine, he brought that unci­viliz'd people to so much moderation, that an Empire acquir'd by violence and usurpation, was administred with piety and justice.

CHAP. III.

A.V.C 82.NExt to Numa Pompilius came Tullus Ho­stilius, on whom the Kingdom was free­ly bestow'd, in acknowledgement of his ver­tue. This man introduc'd military discipline, and the art of war. Having therefore train'd up the young men in these exercises, he pre­sum'd to provoke the Albani, a considerable, and for a long time, a soveraign people. But [Page 7] their Forces on both sides being equal after many engagements, to bring the war to a pe­riod, the fates of both nations were committed to the decision of the Horatij and Curiatij, three Brethren twins, chosen of each side. 'Twas a doubtful and noble conflict, and the issue of it admirable. For the three on the other side being wounded, on this two slain, the survi­ving Horatius, adding subtilty to valour, that he might distract the enemy, counterfeits flight, and setting on them one after another as they were able to pursue him, overcomes them all. Thus (a glory not easily found else­where) by the hand of one man, there was gotten a victory which the Victor soon stain'd with Parricide. Seeing his [...]wn Sister bewail­ing to find about him the spoils of one indeed betroath'd to her, but an enemy, he reveng'd that so unseasonable an affection of the Virgin with his sword. The Laws would have pu­nish'd the act, but gallantry rescu'd the parra­cide, and his crime was much below his glory. Nor was it long ere the Albane broke his faith: For coming out as Auxiliaries to the Roma [...]s in the war against the Fidenates, according to the league, they stood between the two Armies, expecting whether of them Fortune would fa­vour. But the crafty King perceiving his Au­xiliaries ready to side with the enemy, takes courage as if he had commanded them so to [Page 8] do; whereupon our men were animated, the enemies cast down with fear. So the evil design of the revolting party prov'd fruitlesse. Therefore the enemy being defeated, he caus'd Metius Sufetius, the breaker of the league, to be fastened between two Chariots, and drawn to pieces by wild Horses. Nay he demolish'd the City Alba [treating it] though it had been a parent, now as a corrival [of Rome] ha­ving first translated all the wealth of the City, and the very Inhabitants, to Rome: that so an ally'd City might not seem to have been de­stroyd, but reunited to its own body.

CHAP. IV.

113 THen reigned Ancus Martius, Grand­child, by a daughter, to Pompilius, of a disposition like that of his Grand-father. This Prince therefore compass'd the ancient Fortifi­cations with a wall, and made a Bridge over the Tiber, and sent a Colony to Ostia, seated at the falling of the River into the Sea; as it were then foreseeing it would come to passe, [Page 9] that the wealth and provisions of the whole world, would be brought to that maritime store-house of the City.

CHAP. V.

NExt Tarquinius Priscus, although a Fo­reigner, 138 courting the Scepter, obtains it, for his industry, and accomplishments; for, born at Corinth, he had improv'd the Grecian inclinations, by the artifices of Ita­ly. This man heightned the majesty of the Senate, by adding to their number, and augmented the order of Knights with three Centuries, though Actius Nevius, chief of the Augurs, opposed that augmentation. Whom the King asked, by way of tryal, whether, that which he then thought of could be done? The other having consulted Augury answer'd, that it could. Now what I thought of, said he, was, whether I could cut that whetstone with [Page 10] the razor? Thou maist, said the Augur, and he cut it. Hence came Augury to be sacred among the Romans. Nor was Tarquinius less expert in war than peace; for by frequent en­gagements he subdu'd the twelve nations of Tuscia; and thence came the Fasces, the Robes us'd by Kings and Augurs, Ivory chairs, for Senators, Rings, Ornaments for the Knights, Heralds coats, the Robes borderd with pur­ple [worn by children of noble families.] Thence also came triumphing in gilt chariots, drawn by four horses, painted and triumphal garments, in fine, all the Ensigns and Orna­ments, which render imperial dignity the more conspicuous.

CHAP. VI.

172 NExt Servius Tullius invades the Govern­ment of the City; nor did the meanness [of his extraction] hinder him, though de­scended of a Woman-slave. For Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius, had brought him up nobly, encourag'd by the excellency of his [Page 11] endowments; and a flame seen surrounding his head had portended his future greatness. Therefore upon the death of Tarquinius, have­ing by the assistance of the Queen, gotten the Lievtenancy of the Government for a time, he managed affairs so prudently, that he seem­ed lawfully possess'd of a Kingdom, into which he had crept by fraud. By this man the Roman People were rejected in order to Taxes, distributed into several degrees, and disposed into Courts and Companies. By this King's prudence, the Commonwealth was brought to so good order, that all distin­ctions of Estates, Honours, Age, Professions, and Offices, were put into Tables, as if the government of the greatest City, should be as exactly regulated, as that of the meanest Family.

CHAP. VII.

TArquin, surnamed, from his deportment, the Proud, was the last of all the Kings. [Page 12] He chose rather violently to possess himself of, then patiently expect, the Kingdom of his Ancestors, held from him by Tullius: and ha­ving sent some to murder him, he no better manag'd his usurped power than he had ac­quir'd it. Of the same humour was his wife Tullia, who (to salute her Husband King) be­ing in a Charriot, drove the startled Horses over the bloody Corps of her Father. But he, grown insupportable to the Senate, by rea­son of the slaughters committed among them, to all, by reason of his pride (which to good men is more intollerable than cruelty) having glutted his inhumanity at home, at length turns against the Enemies. Whereupon Ar­dea, Ocriculum, Gabij, Suessa, Pometia, strong Cities of Latium were taken in. Nay even then his own issue felt his cruelty. For he stuck not to beat his own Son with Rods, to the end that, pretending himself a Renegado among the Enemies, he might be credited by them. Who being entertain'd by the Gabij, as he expected, and asking counsel by Messen­gers, of his Father what he would have done; the answer was (strange pride!) that he struck off the the tops of the highest Poppies with a Wand, intimating thereby, that the chiefest Persons among the Gabij were to be put to 240 death. Yet out of the spoils of the reduced Cities he built a Temple; which coming to [Page 13] be consecrated, all the other Gods complying (a thing hardly credible) onely Juventas and Terminus opposed it. The obstinacy of the Deities pleas'd the Augures, as promising all things should be firm and eternal. But what was dreadful, is, that, at the foundation of the Structure, a mans head was found; and it was the general perswasion, that the most fa­vourable prodigy portended [that Rome should be] the Seat of the Empire, and supream head of the World. So long did the Romans endure the King's pride, while lust was kept out; that insolency they thought intolerable in his Sons, one of whom having ravish'd Lu­cretia, a most accomplish'd Lady, the Matron, to avoid the infamy kill'd her self. Where­upon the Kings were deprived of their power.

CHAP. VIII.

THis is the first age, and as it were, infan­cy of the Roman People, while they li­ved under seven Kings, [persons] through a certain design of the Fates, so different in [Page 14] their inclinations as was requisite for the con­venience and advantage of the Common­wealth. For what more daring than Romu­lus? such a person was nec [...]ssary for the usur­pation of a Kingdom. What more religious than Numa? such a one affairs requir'd, that an unciviliz'd People might be softned by the fear of the Gods. What a person was that Author of military discipline Tullus? how ne­cessary to men of warlike spirits, that valour might be guided by conduct? What did the Architect Ancus? How fit to dilate the City by a Colony, enlarge it by a Bridge, fortifie it with a Wall. Again, what splendor acrew'd to the supream People [of the World] from the Ornaments and Ensigns of Tarquinius, that is, from the very habits? What did the taxes im­pos'd by Servius produce, but that the Com­monwealth might be assured of its own strength? in fine, the insupportable Tyranny of the proud [Tarquin] was of some, nay very great advantage. For so it came to pass, that a People, e [...]asperated by injuries, was in­flam'd with a desire of Liberty.

CHAP. IX.

THe Roman People therefore mov'd by a 244 certain inspiration of the Gods to rescue its liberty, and revenge the honor of [outrag'd] chastity, and putting themselves under the conduct of Brutus and Collatinus (to whom the noble Matron had at her death recom­mended her revenge) of a sudden forsake their King, spoyl his goods, and consecrate the Land he was posses'd of to their God Mars, and transfer the supream power to those asser­tors of their Liberty, with an alteration one­ly of the form Government and the Title. For where it had been perpetual, they would have it annual; in stead of a single person, two, lest the supremacy being in one, or too long con­tinu'd [in more] might be corrupted: and in stead of Kings they call'd them Consuls, that they might remember they were oblig'd to consult, or procure the good of their Citi­zens. [Page 16] So excessive was the joy conceiv'd a [...] this new [assertion of] Liberty, that they would hardly believe that change of Govern­ment, but displac'd one of the Consuls, and forc'd him to leave the City, for no other rea­son than his name and extraction from the [ejected] Kings. Whereupon Valerius Pub­licola, being put into his place, us'd his utmost endeavours to advance the majesty of a free People. For he not onely caus'd the Fasces [the Ensigns of Consular dignity] to be bow'd before them, at a publick assembly, but also ordered appeals to the People from the Sen­tence of the Consuls. And that his House, built like a Cittadel, might give no offence, he caus'd it to be built lower, in a plain place, But Brutus courted the City-applause, by the destruction and parricide of his own Family. For having discover'd that his Sons endea­vour'd the restauration of the Kings, he drag­ged them into the Forum, and before the whole assembly, caus'd them to be scourg'd with Rods, and afterwards cut off their heads: that he might plainly seem, as a publick Pa­rent, in stead of his own Children, to have adopted the People of Rome. The Roman People being thenceforth free, first took up Arms against the Foreigners upon the account of Liberty, next about Territories, then for their Allies, and lastly for Glory [...]nd Empire, [Page 17] the neighboring Nations assaulted them of all sides. For having no Land of their own ad­joyning to the City, (all but Rome belonging to the Enemies) and lying as it were in a cross­way between Latium, and the Tusci, at which Gate soever they sallyed out, they fell among enemies, [which continu'd] till that, as it were by a certain Contagion, they over-run all, and having possessed themselves of all the neighboring places, they reduced all Italy un­der their Jurisdiction.

CHAP. X.

AFter the expulsion of the Kings, the first arms the people took up, were for [as­sertion of] their Liberty. For Porsenna, King of Etruria, was in sight with a powerful Ar­my, and brought along with him the Tarquins. However, though he pressed hard upon them 246 [Page 18] by Arms and Famine, and having possess'd himself of Janiculum, was lodg'd at the enter­ance of the City, yet they broke his attempts, nay beat him back; and at last put him into such amazement, that though he had much the advantage, he entred into a friendly League with those whom he had almost overcome. Then flourish'd those Romane Prodigies and Miracles, Horatius, Mutius, Clelia, of whom did not the Annals make mention, they would now seem Fables. For Horatius Cocles, finding himself not able alone to remove the pressing Enemies, the Bridge being broken down be­hinde him, swam cross the Tiber, with his Arms about him. Mutius Scaevola attempted the Kings person in his Tent; but finding his blow spent in vain upon one of his Courtiers, he thrust his hand into the fire, and heightens the Kings terror by policy: That thou mayest be satisfied what a person thou hast escaped [know] that three hundred of us have sworn the same thing [thy death,] when in the mean time (a thing dreadful to relate) he [who spoke] was undaunted, the other [the King] trembled as if his own hand had been burning. Thus the Men. But that no sex might want its praise, see also the gallantry of Virgins! Clelia, one of the Hostages delivered to the King, having got out of custody, cross'd the Tiber on horse­back. So that the King startled at so many, [Page 19] and so great Prodigies of Valour, kindly dis­miss'd them, and set them at liberty. The Tarquins continu'd the War, till Brutus kill'd Aruntes the Kings Son, with his own hand, and dy'd himself upon him, of a mutual wound he had receiv'd from his adversary, as if he would have pursu'd the Adulterer even to hell.

CHAP. XI.

THe Latines also, out of emulation and en­vy [to the Romanes] took up the quarrel of the Tarquins; to the end, that a people who commanded abroad, might at least be made slaves at home. Wherefore, the whole Coun­trey of Latium, under the Conduct of Mami­lius Tusculanus, couragiously undertake to re­venge the Kings quarrel. They engage at the Lake Regillus, a long time with a suspence of success, till the Dictator himself Posthumius [Page 20] cast one of his Ensigns among the enemies, (a new and remarkable stratagem) that it might be recover'd again by running [upon them.] Titus. AE, E. Titus Aebutius Elva, Master of the Horse, commanded the Bridles to be taken off (that also was strange) that they might charge with with the greater violence. In fine, so sharp was the engagement, that it is reported the Gods were present at it, [particularly] two, mounted on white Horses, whom none doubt­ed but they were Castor and Pollux. Where­upon the General [of the Romane Army] worshipped, and, in case he had the victory, promis'd them Temples; which he afterwards performed, [accounting it] as due pay to the Auxiliary Gods. Hitherto all the wars were for Liberty. Afterwards they were in perpe­tual hostility with the same Latines, about their Confines. Sora (who would believe it) and 238 Algidum were formidable places. Satricum and Corniculum were but Provinces. For the reduction of Veij and the Bo [...]illi [two wretch­ed places] ('tis a shame to say it) but we tri­umphed. Tibur, which is now as it were the Suburbs [of Rome,] and Praeneste, a pleasant Summer-walk, were not attempted, till after Vows were made in the Capitol [for their re­duction.] [...]aesulae was then what Taphra is of late; the Grove of Aricinum, what the Hyrcinian Forrest was; Fregellae, as consider­able [Page 21] as Gesloriacum [is now in our days.] *Or, as others, Tygris: the com­mon Edition (not so well) Tibris. Liris then, what Euphrates now, [to wit, the limits of the Em­pire.] The taking of Corioli (Oh shame) was thought so glorious, that C. Mar­cius Coriol [...]nus made the reduction of it part of his name, as if he had subdu'd Numantia or Africk. There are also to be seen the spoils taken from Antius, which C. Maenius hung up in the most eminent place of the Forum, after he had taken the Enemies Fleet, if that were one, for there were but six War-ships. But that number in those beginnings [of Empire] made a considerable Naval Force. But the most obstinate of the Latines were the Aequi and the Vosci, and, as I may say, perpetual enemies. But these were particularly subdu'd by L. Quinctius, that Dictator taken from the Plough, who by his incomparable Conduct reliev'd the Camp of the Consul L. Minucius, though besieg'd and ready to be taken. It happen'd to be then about the midst of Sow­ing-time, when the Lictor took the Patrician at his work, holding the Plough. He went immediately thence to the Army [where] [...]hat he might do nothing disconsonant from his Rural Employment, he caused the subdued enemies, like beasts, to pass under the yoke. So the Expedition being over, the triumphant Husbandman return'd to his Oxen. Oh ye [Page 22] Gods! With what diligence [was it done?] The War, from the beginning to its period, lasted but sixteen days; as if it should seem, the Dictator hasted to the Countrey-work he had left behinde him.

CHAP. XII.

BUt our continual Enemies (by reason of their yearly Incursions) were the Veiëntes [a people] of Etruria; so that the single Fa­mily of the Fabij promis'd an extraordinary Assistance, and waged a private war against them. But the misfortune which befel them, 274 was sufficiently memorable. There were kil­led of them near Cremerae, three hundred and six, a Patrician Army: and the gate, at which they went out to that Engagement is called the Ʋnfortunate. But that loss was retriv'd by great Victories, several strong places being reduced by divers other Generals, though with various success. The Falisci came in of [Page 23] their own accord. The Fidenates were burnt in the fire they had kindled themselves; the Veiëntes spoil'd and utterly destroy'd. The Falisci being besieged, admired the integrity of the [Romane] General, and justly, since of his own accord, he sent back bound unto them 359 the Pedant, who would have betrayed their City, together with those children he had thence brought with him. For Furius Camil­lus, a pious and prudent person, accounted that a true Victory, which was obtained with­out breach of Faith or Honor. The Fidenates, finding themselves too weak to do ought by open hostility, to frighten [their enemies] march'd, after a dreadful manner, with Fire-brands [in their hands,] and Garlands of di­vers colours twisted about like Serpents; but the fatal Dress proved the fore-runner of their destruction. How powerful the Veiëntes were, 327 a Siege of ten years shows. Then was our first wintering in Tents, and that the Garri­sons were paid during that season; and the soldiers of their own accord oblig'd themselves by oath, not to return till the City were taken. The Spoils of Lartes Tolumnius, King [of the Veiëntes] were brought to Jupiter F [...]retrius. In fine, the destruction of that City was not 347 compass'd by Scaling-ladders nor Storming, 325 but, by Mines and Stratagems. Nay, the prey 357 was thought so excessive, that the tenths were [Page 24] sent to Pythian Apollo, and the whole Roman people was call'd to participate of the pillage. Such were the Veientes then; but now, who remembers they ever had a being? What re­mainders are there of them? what track? History can hardly persuade us that there were any such people as the Veientes.

CHAP. XIII.

AFter this, either through the envy of the Gods, or by destiny, the swift current of the prosperous Empire was check'd a little by the incursion of the Galli Senones, which time, whether it were more dismal in respect of the losses [which happened to the Romans,] or more memorable for the discoveries of their [Page 25] gallantry, I know not. So extraordinary was the calamity, that I think it sent from above, as a tryal, whereby the immortal Gods would discover, whether the Romane vertue might deserve the Empire of the World. The Galli Senones, a Nation naturally savage, utterly unacquainted with morality, besides of great stature, and using armes proportionable there­to, were so terrible in all respects, that they seem'd born, for the destruction of men, and desolation of Cities. These heretofore coming in great numbers from the utmost parts of *Et cingente omnia Oceano. the Earth, and the all-surrounding Ocean, when they had wasted all lay in their way, having planted them­selves between the Alps and the River Po, and not content there also, wander'd up and down Italy, and besieg'd the City Clusium. The Ro­manes 362 intercede for their Associates and Al­lyes. According to custome, Ambassadors were sent. But what justice [could be expe­cted] among Barbarians? They grow the more insolent, and thereupon resolve upon a fight. Rising therefore from Clusium, and taking their march towards Rome, the Consul Fabius meets them with an army, at the River Allia. The defeat at Cremera, was not more shameful; and therefore Rome numbers that day among the unfortunate. The [Romane] Army being defeated, they approach'd the [Page 26] Walls of the City, wherein there was no Gar­rison. Then it was, or never, that the true Roman greatnesse of mind appeared. First the more ancient, who had exercised the highest charges of Magistracy, meet in the Forum, and the Priest performing there the ceremony of devowing, they consecrate themselves to the Gods presiding over the dead; and returning immediately thence every one to his own house, as they were then in their long Robes, and their richest ornaments, they seated them­selves in their Ivory Chairs, that when the enemy came, they might die in their dignity. The Priests and Flamens taking what was most sacred in the Temples, bury part in the ground, put up in empty casks, and carry part along with them in Wagons. The Vestal Vir­gins also, barefoot, follow their sacred myste­ries departing [from the City.] Then is it reported, that L. Albinius, one of the meaner sort of people, took in the distress'd Virgins into his cart, putting out of it his wife and children. So far at that time, and amidst those extremities, did the consideration of pu­blick devotion smother private concernments. The choice youth (hardly amounting to the number of a thousand, as is certain) went into the Capitol, under the command of Man­lius, praying Jupiter, whom they consider'd as there present, that as they were come thither [Page 27] to defend his Temple, so he would protect their valour with his Deity. In the mean time, the Gaules were approach'd, and finding the City open, entred it, at first with a certain fear, lest there might be some ambush, but afterwards, finding all quiet, they rush in, with shouting and violence. They go into the houses standing wide open, where at first having worshipped the venerable Senators sit­ting in their Ivory Chairs, having on their purple Robes, as if they had been Gods or Genii, afterwards finding them to be men, and those not deigning to answer them, they massacre them with a cruelty great as their former veneration, burn the Houses, and with fire, sword, and help of hands lay the whole City desolate, and even with the ground. Seven months (who would believe it?) the Barbarians found work enough about one mount, trying all the ways they could imagine, both day and night, to reduce it. Whom at length coming under [the Fortresse] in the night time, Manlius, alarm'd by noise of a Goose, forc'd down from the top of the mount; and, to discourage the enemies, though he was in great want of provisions, yet to ex­presse his confidence, he cast down loaves of bread from the Fort. And on a certain day, he sent Fabius the Priest out of the Fort, order­ing him to passe through the enemies guards, [Page 28] to perform a solemn sacrifice on the mount Quirinal. And he, by the protection of Reli­gion, return'd safe through the midst of the enemies weapons, and brought word that the Gods were appeased. At length, the Barba­rians wearyed out with their own siege selling their departure at a thousand weight of gold, yet even in that insolent enough, when into their ballance, though unequal, they also put a sword, with this proud exprobration, Wo to the vanquish'd; Camillus falling of a sudden upon the rear of them, made such a slaughter, that all tracks of the former conflagration were defaced by a deluge of Gaulish blood. Here we have reason to give thanks to the im­mortal Gods for the greatnesse of our misfor­tune. Since that the fire took away the cot­tages of the Shepherds, and that flame smo­ther'd the poverty of Romulus. For what was the effect of that conflagration, but that a City design'd to be the mansion of Men and Gods, should not be destroy'd or laid desolate, but seem rather cleansed and expiated. Being therefore preserv'd by Manlius, and restor'd by Camillus, it rose up against the neighbour­ing Nations with greater earnestnesse and vi­gour. 306 And first, not thinking it enough to have forc'd that Nation of the Gauls from the walls of Rome, under the conduct of the same Camillus, it so pursued the wretched remain­ders [Page 29] of them stragling up and down Italy, that now there is no track of their having been in the world. Once they were put to the slaugh­ter 312 at the River Anien, where Manlius having taken away from one of the Barbarians, (with whom he had fought hand to hand) among other spoils, a gold chain, gave occasion for the name of the Torquati. Another time in the Field of Pontinus, at such another combat, when M. Valerius, assisted by a sacred bird, brought away the spoils of the pursuing Gaul, deriv'd to his family the name of Corvinus. And not many years after Dolabella utterly de­stroy'd 404 all that remain'd of them in Italy neer the Lake of Vadimon, that there might not any one of that nation survive, who should boast 429 that Rome was set on fire by it.

CHAP. XIV.

MAnlius Torquatus and Decius Mas being 413 Consuls, the people of Rome turn'd [...]heir arms from the Gauls, upon the Latines, [Page 30] a people always indeed troublesome, out of envy to their Empire and Magistracy, but now somewhat the more out of a contempt, upon the burning of the City. So that they de­manded to be made free Denizens of Rome, and to participate of the Government and Ma­gistracy, and (if they did not) presum'd they could do more than fight the Romans. But who will wonder that at that time the enemy should give way; when one of the Consuls put his own Son to death, though Conque­rour, for fighting contrary to his orders, as preferring Obedience before Victory? The other, as it were by an instinct of the Gods, having cover'd his face, devoted himself to the Dii Manes, at the head of the Army; where­upon rushing in among the thickest of the e­nemies weapons, he open'd a new way to vi­ctory by the track of his own blood.

CHAP. XV.

403 AFter the Latines, they set upon the Sa­bines, who, unmindful of the Allyance entred into under Titus Talius, had, by a cer­tain [Page 31] contagion of war, joyn'd with the La­tines. But Curius Dentatus being Consul, they wasted with fire and sword all that Tract, compass'd by the Nar and the springs of Velini, as far as the Adriatick Sea. By which victory, so great a multitude [...]f people, and so great an extent of territory was reduc'd under their jurisdiction, that whether were more consi­derable, even he who had subdu'd them was not able to judge.

CHAP. XVI.

MOv'd at the petitions of Campania, they 41-. engage against the Samnites, nor upon their own, but, which is most glorious, the account of their Associates; There was indeed a league between the Romans and both those Nations; but the Camp [...]nians had treated first, and confirm'd what they had done, by an ab­solute surrender of all they had. So that the people of Rome manag'd the war against the Samnites, as if they had been themselves con­cern'd. [Page 32] Campania is the noblest region, not onely of Italy, but even of the whole world. Nothing more pleasant then its Aire; in a word it produces Flowers twice a year. Nothing more fertile then its Soile; whence it is called the Theatre of Ceres and Bacchus. Nothing more hospitable then its shores. Here are those noble harbors, Caieta, Misenus, and Baiae, famous for its baths, Lucrinus and Avernus, which are as so many with-drawing-rooms of the Ocean. Here the mountains are cloath'd with vines, as the Gaurus, Falernus, Massicus, and the most pleasant of all Vesuvius, Aetna's competitor in casting out fire. The maritine Cities are Formiae, Cumae, Puteoli, Naples, Her­culaneum, Pompeij, and Capua, the chiefest of all these Cities, heretofore accounted one of the three greatest, Rome and Carthage being the other two. For this City, for those Regions, the Roman people invaded the Sam­nites, a Nation, if you enquire after its wealth, armed with gold and silver weapons, and clad in garments of divers colours even to ex­cesse; if you respect their subtlety in laying ambushes, stragling in the recesses of Woods and Mountains; if their rage and fury, exas­perated for the destruction of Rome, by horrid imprecations, and humane sacrifices; if their obstinacy, the more enrag'd and irreconcile­able by their misfortunes, after six breaches [Page 33] of the League between them and the Ro­mans. Yet, in the space of fifty years, the Roman people subdu'd and tamed these people, by the Fabij and Papirij, the Fathers and their Children, so far that they laid waste the very ruins of their Cities, that at this day Samnium may be looked for even in Samnium, nor can it easily be seen, what should give occasion for four and twenty Triumphs. But the greatest and most remarkable overthrow we received from that Nation, was at the streight passage neer Caudium, under the Consulship of Vetu­rius 432 and Post-humius. For the Army being shut up by surprize within that wood, whence it could not get out, Pon [...]ius, General of the ene­mies wondring at so fair an opportunity, con­sulted his Father Herennius, who wisely, as an experienc'd man, advised him, to set them all at Liberty, or put them to the Sword. He chose rather to make them pass disarm'd under the Yoak, that they might not think themselves oblig'd by his kindness, but be the more ea­ger enemies after that affront. The Consuls therefore, by a voluntary surrender of them­selves, took off the dishonour of the Treaty, and the Souldiery crying for revenge (a thing strange to relate) under the conduct of Papi­ [...]ius, express'd their being enrag'd, with their Swords drawn all along the way, before they [...]ame to engage, and the enemy himself rela­ted, [Page 34] that in the engagement, the eyes of the Romans sparkled as fire. Nor was there any end of the slaughter, till they had brought the enemies, and the General of them under the yoke.

CHAP. XVII.

HItherto the people of Rome warr'd against particular nations one after another, but now it hath to do with them combin'd, yet is able to deal with all. The Etrusci, divided into twelve several people; the Ʋmbri, as yet untouch'd, the ancientest of all Italy, the re­mainders of the Samnites, all these upon a sud­den conspire together the utter *Etruscorum 12. populi▪ Ʋmbri in id tempus in­tacti, antiquissimus Italiae populus, Samnitium reliqui, in excidium Romani nomi­nis repente conjur [...]n [...]. Thus V [...]netus▪ and other Editions ruine of the Romane name. The conjunction of so many and so considerable Nations struck a great ter­ror. There march'd up and down Etruria the Ensigns of four hostile Armies. The Ciminian wood ly­ing in the midst, as unpassable before, as the [Page 35] Caeledonian or Hercynian Forrests, was so great 442 a terrour then, that the Senate ordered the Consul not to expose himself to so great a danger. But nothing of all this startled the General, or diverted him from sending his Brother before, to enquire into the Avenues of the Forrest. He having put on a shepherds habit, observed all in the night time, and brings an account of it. Thus then did Fa­bius Maximus without any hazard, terminate a most hazardous war. For falling upon them surpriz'd and in disorder, and possessing him­self of the most eminent places, he gall'd, as he pleas'd himself, those who were under­neath. For the Engagement was such, as if the Darts were thrown from the Heavens and the Clouds, at the Gyants upon earth. Yet was it not an unbloody Victory; for Decius, 458 one of the Consuls, being pressed upon by the Enemy in the bottom of the Valley, after his Fathers example, devoted himself to the Dii manes, and so purchased a Victory by that kinde of Consecration which was ordi­nary to those of his Family.

CHAP. XVIII.

472 NOw follows the Tarentine war, account­ed one particular war, as to the name, but containing several, if we repeat the Victo­ries. For this war involv'd the Campanians, Apulians, and Lucanians, and the Authors of it, the Tarentines, as also the whole Countrey of Italy, and with all these Pyrrhus, the most famous King of Greece, in one and the same ruine, that the Romanes might at the same time compleat the reduction of Italy, and be­gin their transmarine triumphs. Tarentum also, built by the Lacedemonians, was hereto­fore the Metropolis of Apulia and all Lucania, famous for its Greatness, Walls, and Port, and admirable for its scituation; for it lyes at the very entrance of the Adriatick Sea, and sends ships into our Coasts, as also to Istria, Illiri­cum, E [...]irus, Achaia, Africa, Sicily. Upon [Page 37] the Port, which hath a Prospect towards the Sea, stands the City-Theatre, which prov'd the occasion of all that Cities calamities. They were celebrating some solemn Sports, when they thence see the Romane Fleet sayl­ing by, and taking them to be Enemies, they hurry out, and disorderly fall upon them, not knowing either who the Romanes were, or whence they came. Whereupon an Embassy was sent from Rome with Complaints; this they violate by a disgrace, obscene, and not decently to be mentioned. That occasion'd a war. Dreadful were the preparations, when so many Nations engag'd in the quarrel of the Tarentines, especially one more violent than all the rest, Pyrrhus, who to defend a City half-Greek, as built by the Lacedemonians, brought along with him the whole strength of Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and (till then unknown) Elephants, coming upon us by Sea, by Land, and menacing us with the multitude of Men, Horses, Arms, and moreover the dreadfulness of wilde beasts.

The first fight was at Heraclea, and Siris, a 437 River of Campania, Levinus being Consul; which was so bloody, that Obsidius, Comman­der of a Party of Tarentines, setting upon the King, put him into disorder, and forc'd him to cast away his Royal Ensigns, and shift out of the Field. He had been clearly defeated, if the [Page 38] Elephants, the *Converso in spectacu­lum bello. Engagement being turn'd into a show, had not come into play; by whose bulk and defor­mity, as also by their scent and noise, the Horse being startled, and imagining the Beast [...] to them unknown, had been somewhat more than they were, occasion'd the first flight and 475 defeat [of the Romane Army.] Afterwards at Asculum in Apulia, we engag'd with better success, Fabricius and Aemilius being Consuls. For the terror of the Elephants being spent▪ C. Minucius, a Spear-man of the fourth Legi­on, having cut off the trunck of one of those beasts, made it appear they were mortal 504 Whereupon darts were cast also at them, and fire-brands being also thrown into the tower [...] [upon them] overwhelm'd the whole forces o [...] the enemies with burning ruins. Nor was th [...] overthrow at an end, till night divided th [...] engag'd; and Pyrrhus, last of all retreating was carried away arm'd and wounded in th [...] 476 shoulder, by his guard. The last fight was i [...] Lucania, in the Aurusinian fields, as they cal [...] them, under the same Consuls. And the [...] 478 chance put a period to that victory, which va­lour should have decided. For the Elephant being again brought into the front, one o [...] them, a young one, grievously wounded in th [...] head with a dart, turned back, and bemoan­ing its self by its noise, as it run over those o [...] [Page 39] the enemies whom it had thrown down, the damn knew it, and broke out of the rank, as it were to revenge the injury done it. Which put the enemies Camp into confusion; and so the same beasts which had gain'd the first fight, ballanc'd the second, made the Romans victors in the third, without any dispute. But they fought against Pyrrhus not onely by force of arms and in the open field, but they had to do with him also in their Counsels, and at home, within the City. For after the first vi­ctory, the crafty King, assured of the Romane valor, soon despair'd of effecting ought by arms & betook himself to artifices. He therefore burnt those who had been slain, treated the Priso­ners kindly, and dismiss'd them without ran­some. And afterwards sending Ambassadors to Rome, he endeavour'd all he could to be re­ceiv'd into friendship. But both in war and peace, abroad and at home, the Romane va­lour was remarkable upon all occasions, nor did any thing make a greater demonstration of the Romane prowesse, the wisdome of the Se­nate, and the gallantry of their Generals, then the Tarentine Victory. What brave persons were those whom we finde over-run by the Elephants at the first battel? Their wounds were all in their breasts, some found dead up­on their enemies, all swords in their hands, terrour appear'd in their countenances, and a [Page 40] lively draught of indignation even in thei [...] death. Which Pyrrhus so far admir'd, that he said, Oh how easie were it for me to possess m [...] self of the Worlds Empire, having Romanes t [...] my Soldiers, or for the Romanes to do it, having me for their King! What expedition did they who surviv'd use in re-inforcing the Army? when Pyrrhus said, I see plain [...]y that I was born under the Constellation of Hercules, against whom the heads of so many sl [...]in enemies wil start up out of their own blood, as if they issued out of the Lernaean Serpent. But what a glorious Senate was that? When, upon the remonstrance of Appius the Blinde, the Ambassadors were sent away from the City with their Presents, and their King ask­ing them, wha [...] they thought of the habitations of their enemies, they acknowledged, that The City seem'd to them a Temple; the Senate, a Consistory of Kings. Moreover, what persons were the Generals either in the Camp? When Curius sent back the Physician, who exposed the head of Pyrrhus to sale; when Fabricius refused part of the Empire profferr'd him by Pyrrhus. Or in peace? when Curius preferr'd his earthen Dishes before the Gold of the Sam­nites; when Fabricius, with a gravity beseem­ing a Censor, condemn'd Ru [...]inus, a Consular person, of superfluity, for having silver-plate to the weight of ten pound. Who therefore can wonder that the people of Rome should be [Page 41] victorious, being endued with such manners, so eminent in vertue, and such exact observers of Military Discipline? And that by this ve­ry war with the Tarentines, they should in the space of four years, bring under their Jurisdiction the greatest part of Italy, most power­ful Nations, most wealthy Cities, and most fruitful Countreys? Or what would be more incredible, if the beginning of the war be com­pared with the final issue of it? Pyrrhus, victor at the first Battel, having wasted Liris and Fregellae in Campania, *T [...]tâ t [...]emente Ita [...]iâ Campa­niam, &c. all Italy trembling, had a fight of Rome, then almost taken, from the for­tress of Praeneste, and at twenty miles distance fill'd the eyes of the startled City with smoke and dust. The same Pyrrhus being afterwards twice forc'd out of his Camp, twice wounded, and driven by Sea and Land back into his own Countrey, Greece, a deep Peace ensued, and the spoils of so many most wealthy Nations were so great, that Rome could not contain its own Victory. Nor did ever a nobler, or more magnificent Triumph enter Rome, when as before that day it had seen onely the Cattel of the Volsci, the Sheep of the Sabines, the Wag­gons of the Gauls, and the shatter'd Arms of the Samnites. Then if thou hadst beheld the Captives, thou mightst have seen Molossians, [Page 42] Thessalians, Macedonians, Bruttians, Apulians, and Lucanians; if the pomp; gold, purple, statues, pictures, the delicacies of the Taren­tines. But the people of Rome was pleased at no sight so much, as that of those beasts with towers on their backs (whereof they had been so much afraid) which, out of a sense of their captivity, bowing down their necks, follow'd the victorious Horses.

CHAP. XIX.

NOt long after, Italy enjoy'd an absolute peace. For who durst attempt any thing after Tarentines? had it not been that the Romans thought good, of their own accord, to make war on those who had associated themselves with their enemies. Whereupon the Picentes were subdu'd, and the Metropolis of the nation, Asculum, under the conduct of P. Sempronius, who, upon occasion of an Earth­quake, which happened during the fight, ap­peased the Goddesse Tellus, by a vow of build­ing a Temple to her.

CHAP. XX.

THe Sallentini follow'd the fate of the Pi­centes, and the chief City of the region, Brundusium, a place famous for its Port, was taken, under the conduct of M. Attilius. And in that engagement, Pales, Goddesse of Shep­herds, earnestly desir'd a Temple might be built to her, in acknowledgement of the vi­ctory.

CHAP. XXI.

THe last of all the several peoples of Italy that did yeeld themselves into the trust and tuition of the Romans, were the Vulsinians, the wealthiest of Etruria, imploring assistance against some, who, having formerly been their slaves, and set at liberty by them, had risen up [Page 44] against them, and assum'd the Government to themselves. But these also were chastiz'd [for their insolence] under the conduct of Fa­bius Gurges.

CHAP. XXII.

THis is the second age, and as it were adole­scency of the Roman people, and in which they were freshest, warm and vigorous in the flower of their strength. There re­main'd yet a certain tincture of the pastoral sa­vagenesse, which betray'd somewhat of incivi­lization. Thence it came that the army raising a mutiny in the Camp, stoned to death Posthu­mius the General, who deny'd them that part of the prey which he had promised; that un­der Appius Claudius they would not overcome the enemy, when they might; that, Valero being their Leader, the Fasces of the Consul were broken to pieces, most refusing to enter [Page 45] into the service. Thence it came, that they condemn'd to banishment the most eminent of the nobility, when they opposed their desires; that they would have done the like by Coriola­nus, who order'd they should follow Husbandry. Which injury he had as sharply reveng'd, had not his Mother Veturia, with her tears disarm'd her Son, when he was ready to fall upon them. The same treatment had Camillus himself, upon pretence that he had not made an equal divident of the Veientine prey, between the Soldiery and the Citizens. But he, a better person, provided for the besieg'd, the City being taken, and soon after, at their suit aven­ged them of the Gauls their enemies. They contended also with the Senate, about equity and right, so far as, tha [...] deserting their habi­tations, they menaced solitude and destruction to their Country.

CHAP. XXIII.

THe first discord was occasion'd by the ty­rannical 258 exactions of the Usurers, who exercising their rage even to the beating of their debtors on the back, the common people [Page 46] drew up in arms to the Sacred Hill, and was with much difficulty perswaded thence by the authority of Menemius Agrippa, an eloquent and wise man, yet not till they had got Tri­bunes. There is yet extant the story of that an­cient Oration which was so prevalent to in­duce them to concord; wherein it is reported, that heretofore, the members of mans body fell out among themselves, alledging, that, all of them exe­cuting their charges, only the belly was free from any; that afterwards, being ready to perish by the difference they were reconciled to it, when they were made sensible, that by its means, the nourish­ment being reduced into blood, they were sustained and kept in vigour.

CHAP. XXIV.

THe second discord broke forth in the midst of the City, occasion'd by the licentious­nesse of the Decemvirate. Ten of the most emi­nent [Page 47] of the City had, by order from the peo­ple, written down the Laws brought out of Greece; and the whole course of the administra­tion of Justice was set down in twelve Tables; which done, they would still keep the power once deliver'd to them in their hands, out of an humour which betray'd somewhat of ty­ranny. Above any of the rest, Appius Claudius came to that height of insolence, as to attempt the dishonour of a Virgin nobly descended, 304 having forgotten Lucretia, and the Kings, and the Law which himself had set down. There­fore when Virginius, her Father, saw that his daughter was, by an unjust sentence, to be con­demn'd to bondage, he immediately stuck not to kill her in the midst of the Forum, with his own hands; whereupon the bannerr of his Fellow-Soldiers being display'd, he carryes away those insolent Magistrates, surrounded with arms, from Mount Aventine, and disposes them into prisons and fetters.

CHAP. XXV.

THe third discord was raised upon occa­sion of the dignity of Marriages, that the Plebeians might inter-marry with the Patri­cians: which tumult broke forth in Mount 308 Janiculum, Canuleius a Tribune of the people, being the Author and fomenter of it.

CHAP. XXVI.

AMbition of honour occasion'd the fourth discord, that the Plebeians might be ad­mitted 385 into the Magistracy. Fabius Ambustus, Father of two daughters, bestow'd one on Sul­picius, a person of Patrician extraction, the other, on Stolo, a plebeian, who took it as an affront, that his wife frightned at the noise of [Page 49] the Lictor's rod (a thing not known at her own house) had been scornfully laugh'd at by her sister. Being therefore advanc'd to the Tri­bune-ship, he extorted from the Senate, though against their wills, a communication of Ho­nours and Magistracy. But in these very se­ditions, a man may find sufficient reason to admire the people of the world; in as much as one while they vindicate liberty, another, chastity, then the nobility of extraction, and then the marks and distinctions of honours. And among all these, they were not more vigilant in the assertion of any, than in that of Liberty, which they could never by cor­ruption be induc'd to betray, though in a people already great and growing dayly grea­ter, there must needs be some turbulent mem­bers. They put to present death Sp. Cassius, suspected of affecting soveraignty, by his pu­blishing of the Agrarian Law; and Maelius, [charg'd with the same ambition grounding their jealousie] upon his liberality [towards the people.] Of Spurius indeed, his own 314 Father had ordered the punishment: but Ser­vilius Ahala, Master of the Horse, run the other 360 through, in the midst of the Forum, by order from the Dictator Quinctius. Nay that Man­ [...]ius, who had preserv'd the Capitol, de­meaning himself more insolently and uncivilly [than he should have done] upon this ac­ccount, [Page 50] that he had freed most of the debtors, they cast him down headlong from the For­tresse which he had defended. Such was the people of Rome at home and abroad, such were they in peace and war. Thus did they passe through the streight of their Adolescency, that is, the second age of their Empire, during which they by their arms subdu'd all Italy, from the Alps to the Sea-side.

CHAP. I.

ITaly being brought under and subdu'd, the people of Rome was arrived near its five hun­dredth year, and to the height of its Adolescency; for if there be any strength, if any youth can be imagin'd, then was it truely vigorous, young, and in a condition to deal with all the world. That people therefore (a thing prodigious and [Page 52] hardly to be credited) which hath spent five hundred years in Contestations near home, (so great a work was it to give Italy a Head) in the ensuing two hundred years, over-ran Europe, Africk, Asia, nay the whole habitable World, with their wars and victories.

CHAP. II.

489 THe Victor-people of Italy, having reduc'd all, quite to the Sea, met with a little check, like a fire, which having consum'd the woods lying in its way, is stopp'd by some in­terposing river. Soon after, perceiving at no great distance a most wealthy prey, which seem'd in a manner forc'd and torn off from their [own Territory] Italy, they were so ex­treamly desirous of it, that in regard they could not come at it by the meanes o [...] [Page 53] Mo [...]e Moals, or Bridges, they resolv'd to joyn it to Italy, by arms and war. But see, the Fates themselves making way for them, there want­ed not an occasion, when Messina, an allyed City of Sicily, complained of the Tyranny of the Carthaginians, who, as well as the Romans, would gladly have been Masters of Sicily: nay they both at the same time, with equal ear­nestness and force, design'd to themselves the Empire of the world. Under pretence there­fore of assisting their Allies, but indeed lur'd by the prey, though startled at the strange­ness of the Attempt (yet so great confidence is there where there is courage) that simple people, descended from Shepherds, and whol­ly accustomed to the Land, made it appear, that it was indifferent to Valor, whether the Engagement were on Horse-back, or in Ships, on Land, or at Sea. Appius Claudius being 389 Consul, they first went into a Sea, infamous by reason of the fabulous Monsters within it, and of an impetuous Current; but they were so far from being frightned, that they enter­tained that Violence of the rowling Sea as a kindness, in so much that they overcame Hiero, King of Syracuse, with such expedition, that he acknowledged himself conquer'd be­fore he saw any enemy. Duilius and Corne­lius being Consuls, they had another Engage­ment at Sea. And then indeed the expedition, [Page 54] us'd in building the Navy was a presage of the Victory. For within sixty days after the fel­ling of the Timber, there was a Navy of a hundred and sixty Ships at anchor; so that they seem'd not built by Art, but that the Trees, through a certain design of the Gods, had been turn'd into Ships. Now the rela­tion of the Engagement is admirable, when those heavy Sluggs [of ours] took the fleet Lo [...]ge illis nauticae artes detergere re­mos, &c. So Lipsius. Brigantines of the Enemies. Little availed their skill in Sea-fight, either to justle a whole side of Oars, or avoid the Beak of their Enemies, by yare or ready turning. For the Grapling-irons being fastened, and other Engines cast into the Ships, though they scornfully laugh'd at them, yet were they by their means, forc'd to engage as it were upon even ground. Having therefore obtain'd a victory at Lyparae, the Enemies Fleet being sunk and fled, occasion'd the first Naval Tri­umph. Whereat how great was the Joy? when Duilus the General, not satisfied with one dayes Triumph, as long as he liv'd had Torches lighted, and some Musick playing before him, as soon as he rose from Supper, as if he triumphed every day. The loss at this Engagement was small, considering the 494 greatness of the Victory. Cn. Cornelius Asina, one of the Consuls, was surpriz'd, and, call'd [Page 55] out under pretence of a Parley, was carried away, whereby we had an instance of the Afri­can perfidiousness. During the Dictatorship of Calatrinus, most of the Carthaginian Ga­risons were forc'd out of Agrigentum, Drepa­num, Panormus, Eryx, Lilibaeum. We were once at a loss near the Camarinensian wood; but we recovered our selves through the ex­traordinary Conduct of Calpurnius Flamma, a Military Tribune, who taking a Party of three hundred choice men, possess'd himself of a small piece of Ground, where the Enemies were lodg'd to our annoyance, and kept them play, till the whole Army had march'd away: and so by a most happy issue of his attempt, he gain'd as great a reputation, as that of Leo­nidas at Thermopylae. Onely in this ours is more illustrious, that he surviv'd the Expe­dition, though he made no Inscription with his blood. L. Cornelius Scipio being Consul, when Sicily was become a Suburb-Province to Rome, the war spreading farther, they cross'd over into Sardinia, as also into Corfica, which is adjoyning to the other. The Annex [...]m (que) Corsi­cam tr [...]siit: Olbi [...] hic, Aleriae ibi urbis excidio incol [...]s terruit. Thus restor'd by Salm [...]sius. Inha­bitants of the one they terrified by the destruction of the City Olbia, those of the other by that Oleria: and by Sea and Land so defeated the Carthaginians, that there re­mained only Africk to make an absolute Con­quest. [Page 56] Under Marcus Attilius Regulus, the war sayled over into Africk. Yet were there some who trembled at the very name of the Carthaginian Sea, the Tribune Mannus adding to the fear; but the General threatning him with the naked Ax, if he obey'd not, encou­rag'd him to embarque, out of a fear of death. Whereupon, they made all the haste they could with the advantage of Winde and Oars▪ and the Carthaginians were so much startled at the arrival of their Enemies, that Carthage had been almost surpriz'd with the gates open. The first Booty gain'd by that war, was the City Clypea; for, on the Carthaginian shore, that was the first Fort and place of discovery; and so that and three hundred Fortresses more were laid desolate. Nor had we to do with men-onely, but also with monsters, when, as if bred for the revenge of Africk, a Serpent of extraordinary bulk infested our Camp at Ba­grada. But Regulus, whom nothing withstood, having spread the terror of his name far and near, and either slain a great number of their young men, and divers of their Commanders, or made them prisoners, and sent the Navy home before him loaden with prey, and full of triumph, had also besieg'd the Source of the war, Carthage it self, and lay close to the very gates of it. Here fortune met with a check, that there might be more demonstra­tions [Page 57] of the Roman Gallantry, the greatne [...] whereof, for the most part, requir'd the test of calamities. For the enemies being forc'd to make use of forreign Aid, the Lacedemo­nians sent them Xantippus for a General, who being a most experienc'd person in Military Affairs, gave us so foul an Overthrow, that the most valiant General [of the Romanes] fell alive into the hands of the Enemies. But he was a man to support so great a misfor­tune. For neither Imprisonment among the Carthaginians, nor the Embassy they forced him upon, could abate his constancy. For [being come to Rome] he urged things much different from what the Enemies had enjoyn'd him, to wit, that no Peace should be made with them, nor any exchange of Prisoners. Nay his voluntary return to the enemies, nor the extremities of imprisonment and ignomi­nious crucifixion, took off nothing of his gal­lantry; but rather being the more to be admi­red in all these, what may be said of him, but that being vanquish'd, he triumphed over his vanquishers, and, because Carthage had not yeelded, of Fortune it self? And the people of Rome were more eager and exasperated to prosecute the revenge of Regulus, then to ob­taine the victory. The Carthaginians growing so much the more insolent, and the war being brought back into Sicily, the Consul Metellus 502 [Page 54] gave the enemies so great an overthrow at Panormus, that there was no contestation af­terwards in that Island. An argument of the greatnesse of the Victory, was the taking of about a hundred Elephants; which had been a great prey, had they not been taken in war, but in hunting. P. Claudius being Consul, the Romans were not worsted by the enemies, but by the Gods themselves, whose auspices they 504 had slighted, the navy being there sunk, where he had commanded the birds to be cast over­board, because they would have diverted them from engaging. M. Fabius Buteo being Con­sul, they defeated, in the African Sea, neer Aegyniurus, the enemies Fleet then bound for Italy. O what a great triumph happened then! when their navy fraught with wealthy prey, being forc'd by contrary winds, fill'd Africk, and the Syrtes, and the coasts and shores of all nations and Islands, with their own wrack. Great was the losse, but without any derogation from the dignity of the supreme people, that their Victory was intercepted by a Tempest, and a wrack depriv'd them of their triumph. And yet, while the Carthaginian spoils floated up and down, cast upon Pro­montories and Islands, the people of Rome 512 triumphed. Lutatius Catulus being Consul, there was a period put to the war, at the Is­lands called Aegates. Nor was there any grea­ter [Page 55] Sea-engagement than this; for the ene­mies Fleet, being over burthen'd with provi­sions, soldiers, military engines, ammunition, as if all Carthage had been there, it prov'd the occasion of its ruine. [On the contrary] the Roman Fleet was clean, light, and nimble, and as it were resembling a Land-Camp, or an engagement of Horse, and guided by the Oars as with reines, and directed their beaks, here and there, as occasion serv'd, as if they had been animate. So that the enemies ships being shatter'd of a sudden, cover'd the whole Sea between Sicily and Sardinia with the remain­ders of their wrack. In fine, so great was the Victory, that there was no thought then of ra­zing the walls of their enemies, since they thought it frivolous, to expresse their rage against Towers and Walls, when Carthage had been already destroy'd upon the Sea.

CHAP. III.

THe Carthaginian war being over, there ensued a short time of repose, as much as [Page 56] suffic'd to take breath, and as an assurance of peace, and a cessation of arms in good earnest, then was Janus's gate first shut, ever since Numa's time. But it was soon open again. For the Ligurians, the Insubrian Gauls, as also the Illyrians, began to be troublesome, and with them the Nations inhabiting under the Alps, that is, seated at the very entrance of Italy; some god or other perpetually egging them on, to prevent the moldinesse and rusting of the Roman arms. In fine, a sort of daily and as it were domestick enemies exercised the young soldiery, nor did the people of Rome make any other use of them, then as of a whet­stone, to set an edge on their valour. As to the Ligurians, who were seated on the lower parts of the Alps, between Varus and the River Macra, it was a harder task to find them out, then to vanquish them, as being lodg'd among wild thickets. They were a hardy and active people, secur'd from our attempts by the pla­ces they liv'd in, and their convenience of flight, and rather committed robberies, then 574 wag'd a war. Therefore when the Deceates, the Oxybii, the Euburiates, the Ingauni [all Na­tions of Liguria] had a long time amused and eluded us, by the advantages of their woods, ways, and lurking-holes, at length, Fulvius compass'd their recesses with fire, Baebius forc'd them into the Champian, and Posthumius so far [Page 57] disarm'd them, that he hardly left them a piece of iron to till ground withal.

CHAP. IV.

THe Insubrian Gauls, and the next adjoyn­ing 528 Inhabitans to the Alps, as to their minds, resembled wild beasts, as to bodies ex­ceeding the ordinary stature of men. But it was found by experience, that as at the first onset they behaved themselves beyond men, so at the second, their performances were below those of women. The bodies bred about the Alps in a moist aire, have somewhat in them resembling the snows; for as soon as they are grown hot by fighting, they are all of-a-sweat, and are spent by the least motion, as if they were melted by the Sun. Now these (as they had often done before) commanded by Britomarus, had sworn, that they would not put off their belts, till they had got up to the Capitol. It happened accor­dingly; for being vanquish'd by Aemilius, 528 they were taken off in the Capitol. Soon after [Page 58] 530: Astrionicus being their Leader, they vow'd a chain out of the prey of our Soldiers to their God Mars. Jupiter prevented the perfor­mance of their Vow; for Flaminius erected a golden Trophy out of their chains to Jupiter. Virdumarus being their King, they had promi­sed the arms of the Romans to Vulcan. But their vowes were performed the contrary way; for their King being slain, Marcellus hung up the rich spoils taken from him, to Jupiter Fe­retrius, being the third [offering of that kind that had been made] since the time of Romu­lus the Father [and founder of the City.]

CHAP. V.

531 THe Illyrians or Liburnians, live at the very bottom of the Alps, between the Rivers Arsia and Titius, spreading themselves all along the Adriatick Sea. These under their Queen Teuta, not satisfy'd with the incursions they made [on the Romans] added an execrable crime to their insolences. For they put to death our Ambassadors, calling them to ac­count for their misdemeanors, not with a [Page 59] sword, but, as victims, with an axe, and burnt the masters of our Ships; and this was done, to heighten the dishonor of it, by the command of a Woman. But Cn. Fulvius Cen­tumalus 525 being General, they are brought un­der absolute subjection; the heads of their Princes struck off with the axe, were made expiatory sacrifices to the ghosts of our Am­bassadors.

CHAP. VI.

AFter the first Carthaginian war, we had 535 hardly four years rest, ere another breaks [Page 60] forth, lesse indeed, as to the space of time, (f [...] it lasted not above eighteen years) but so far the more terrible, in respect of the cruelty of the overthrows, that the losses of both people being ballanc'd, the Conquerours might be taken for the conquered. 'Twas a shame to a gallant people [the Carthaginians] after their losse of the soveraignty of the Sea, and their Islands forc'd from them, to pay tribute where they were wont to demand it. Hereupon Hannibal, yet very young, made a vow at the Altar, in the presence of his Father, that he would revenge [his country,] nor did he delay i [...] long. To occasion a war, Saguntus was destroy'd, an ancient and wealthy City of Spain, a great indeed, but sad monument of fidelity towards the Romans: which City though agreed to continue in its liberty by the common league between them, Hnnibal, seeking a pretence of new disturbances, lays desolate with his own hands and the help of the Inhabitants, that, having broken the league, he might open a way into Italy. Alliances were most religiously observ'd by the Romans: Upon intelligence therefore that an ally'd City was besieg'd, calling to mind the leagu [...] made with the Carthaginians, they do not pre­sently arm, but chose rather after a legal way to make their complaints. In the mean time the Inhabitants of Saguntus, wearied out with [Page 61] famine, and all the extremities of a siege, in fine their fidelity being heightned into exaspe­ration, made a great pile in the midst of their City, upon which being got, themselves, their relations, and all their wealth perish'd by fire and sword. Hannibal is demanded as Author of so great a calamity. The Carthaginians seem­ing at a losse what to do, What means this de­lay? said Fabius, the principal person of the Roman Embassy, in this bosome, I bring war and peace, whether do you make choice of? Take which you think best. Whereto it being reply'd that he should produce which he pleased. Take war then, saith he, and thereupon letting down the forepart of his garment, in the midst of the Councel-room, he did it with such a dread­full noise, as if he had really brought war in his lap. The period of the war was suitable to the beginning of it. For as if the last impre­cations of the Saguntines, at their publick self-slaughter, and conflagration, had commanded such obsequies to be performed for them, their ghosts were appeased by the desolation of Italy, the reduction of Africk, and the destruction of those Kings and Generals, who manag'd that war. When therefore that sad and dismal vio­lence and tempest of the Carthaginian war, had, in the fire at Saguntus, forg'd out the thunder-bolt long before design'd against the Romans, immediately, as forc'd by some whirle­wind, [Page 62] it broke through the middle of the Alp [...] and fell down upon Italy, from those incredi­ble heights of snow, as if it had descended from the Heavens. The first eruptions of the storm broke forth about the Po and Ticinus. Scipi [...] being then General, our Army was defeated, and he himself had fallen wounded into the hands of the enemies, if his Son, then but young, had not reliev'd and rescu'd his Fa­ther from death it self. This was the Scipio, who afterwards grew up for the destruction o [...] Africk, and had his surname from its misfor­tunes. Trebia had the same fate as Ticinus. Here rag'd the second tempest of the Punick war, Sempronius being Consul. At this time, the crafty enemies, having pitch'd upon a cold and snowy day, after they had warm'd themselves at the fire, and anointed them­selves with oil, though people coming from the southerly and Sunny parts of the world (a thing hardly creditable) made their advan­tage of our own Winter to overcome us. Han­nibal's third thunderbolt fell at the lake Trasi­manenus, 536 Flaminius being General. There also they made use of another knack of Punick arti­fice. For the Horse being shadow'd by a mis [...] arising from the Lake, and the Osiars growing there abouts, fell upon the rear of us being en­gag'd. Nor can we complain of the Gods. For, swarms of Bees sticking to the Ensigns, [Page 63] and the unwillingnesse of the Eagles to march out, and a great Earth-quake happening at the joyning of the battel, had forewarned the te­merarious General of the approaching defeat; unlesse that Earthquake might proceed from the trampling of Men and Horses, and the over-violent handling of arms. The fourth, that is, in a manner the last wound of the Em­pire, was at Cannae an obscure village of Apulia; 537 but the greatnesse of the overthrow and the slaughter of forty thousand men hath made it famous. There the General himself, Earth, Heaven, the day, in fine, the whole course of nature combin'd to the destruction of an un­fortunate Army. For Annibal, not conten­ting himself onely with counterfeit fugitives, who fell upon the rear of us, but the most subtle General, having in a most spacious champion, observ'd the scituation of the place, as also that the Sun shin'd very hot, and much dust arose, and that the East-wind blew constantly, as if it had been design'd to do it, so order'd his Forces, that the Romans were exposed to all these inconveniences, and he, favour'd by Hea­ven, engag'd them with the advantage of wind, dust, and Sun. Whereupon ensu'd the slaughter of two very powerful Armies, till the enemies were glutted with killing, and Anni­bal said to his Soldiers, Give over. One of the Generals made his escape, the other was slain, [Page 64] whether express'd greater courage, is doubtful. Paulus was asham'd, Varro despaired not. Demonstrations of the great slaughter were, that the An [...]idus continu'd bloody for some time; that by the command of the Enemy, there was a bridge of carcasses made over the torrent Gellus; that two bushels of rings were sent to Carthage; and so, by measure, it was known wha [...] number of Roman Knights were slain. Then was it not doubted, but that Rome was come to its period, and that within five days Annibal might feast it in the Capitol, if (as was said by the Carthaginian Maherbal the Son of Bomiliar,) Annibal had known as well how to use a victory as gain it. But then (as is commonly said) either the fate of that City which was to be Empresse of the world, or his own evil Genius, or the Gods averse from Carthage, carried him another way. When he might have press'd on his victory to the ut­most advantage, he chose rather to content himself with what had been done, and leaving Rome, took a progresse into Campania and Ta­rentus, where, in a short time, both he and his army languished, so that it was truely said, that Capua had been as fatal to Annibal, as Canna to the Romans. For, the warmth of Campa­nia, and the baths of Baiae (who would believe it?) overcame him whom the Alps and arms had found unconquerable. In the mean time the Romans took breath, and seemed as it [Page 65] were to rise out of their graves. Arms being wanting, they took down those which had been set up in the Temples. There wanted young men [to [...]ear them] they set free their slaves, and give them the military oath. The Treasury was exhausted; the Senate brought in their wealth, reserving to themselves no­thing of gold, but what was in Jewels, Belts, and Rings. The Knights follow'd their exam­ple, and the Commonalty theirs. In fine when the wealth of private persons was brought into the publick stock, Levinus and Marcellus being 543 Consuls [the contributions were so great that] there were hardly Registers or Wri­ters enough to set them down. But what did they in the election of Magistrates? How great was the prudence of the Centuries? When the younger asked Counsel of the an­cient about the creation of Consuls. For it 544 concern'd them to fight against an Enemy, so often Conquerour, and so subtle, not onely by valour, but also by their Counsels. The first hope of the recovering, and, as I may say, re­viving Empire, was Fabius, who found out a new way of vanquishing Hannibal, which was, not to fight. Thence he got that new name; so beneficial to the Commonwealth, of Cuncta­tor, or Temporizer. Thence that other given him by the people, the Buckler of the Empire. 538 He therefore so wearied Annibal, [by leading him] through the whole Country of the Sam­nites, [Page 66] and through the woods of Falernus and Gaurus, that he, who could not be overcom [...] by valour, was broken and harass'd by delay. Afterwards, Claudius Marcelius being General, the Romanes ventur'd to engage him: they drove him out of his [dear] Campania, and forc'd him to raise the siege from before Nola. Nay Sempronius Gracchus being General, they presum'd to pursue him through Lucania, and press hard upon him in his retreat, though then (ô what shame) they fought with servile hands. For the concurrence of so many disasters had forc'd them to it. *Sed liber­tate dona i; fecerat de ser [...]is v [...]tus Romanos.But they were made free [afterwards] though their own valour had made them Romans [before.] O the prodigious constancy in so many adversities! O the extraordinary courage and gallantry of the Romans, in the midst of so many extremi­ties! when they were not assur'd of Italy, they have the confidence to aime at other places; and when the enemies march'd up and down Campania and Apulia, ready to cut their throats, and had brought Africk into the midst of Italy, they at the same time kept Hannibal in play, and sent Forces into Sicily, Sardinia, 539 Spain, and other parts of the world. Sicily was the charge of Marcellus, nor did it hold out long; For the whole Island was reduc'd in one City. [...]yracuse, that great, and till then [Page 67] conquer'd Metropolis, though defended by the skill of Archimedes, yeelded at last. It was 541 compass'd at a good distance, by a treble wall, and had so many Fortresses; the port was built all about with marble, there was also the fa­mous Fountaine of Archusa: but what avayl'd they, save only that they occasion'd the sparing of the vanquish'd City, for its beauty sake? Grac­chus 576 reduc'd Sardinia, nor did the savagenesse of the Inhabitants, nor the excessive height of the Mad Mountains (so they call them) stand them in any stead. The Cities were treated with the extremities of hostility, especially the chiefest of all Caralis, that an obstinate Nation, which contemn'd death, might be brought down by the desolation of their native soile. Cneus, and Publius Scipio being sent into 536 Spain, had once depriv'd the Carthaginians of all hope; but, surpriz'd by their artifices, they lost all again; even after they had beaten the Carthaginian Forces, in very great fights. But the Punick treachery prov'd so successeful, that they kill'd one of them as he was encamping, and the other having escaped into a Tower, they set it a fire about him. Therefore to re­venge his Father and Uncle, there was sent thither with an Army, Scipio, for whom the Fates reserv'd the great surname deriv'd from Africk. He recover'd all Spain, that martial 542 country, famous for men and arms, the semi­nary [Page 68] of the enemies Army, and the Tutresse of Hannibal himself, all I say (though hardly to be credited) from the Pyrenean Mountains to Hercules Pillars, and the Ocean, whether with greater expedition, or lesse difficulty, is 547 not known. With what expedition it was ef­fected, four years witnesse: with how little difficulty, may be deduc'd from one City, for it was taken the same day it was first besieg'd; and it was an omen of our victory over Africk, that Carthage in Spain was so easily taken. Yet is it certain withal, that what most contri­buted to the reduction of the Province, was the admirable Sanctimony and continency of the General, who return'd back to the Barba­rians, young lads that had been taken, and Virgins of extraordinary beauty, not having suffered them to be brought into his sight, that he might not seem so much as with his eyes to have blasted the flower of their Virginity. Thus did the Romans do in forreign Coun­tries, yet could they not remove Hannibal, lodg'd in the heart of Italy. Several Nations had revolted to the enemy, who being exaspe­rated against the Romanes, made his advanta­ges 544 of the artifices of Italy. Yet had we forc'd him out of several Cities and regions. Ta­rentus was come in to us. We had also almost recover'd Capua, the seat, and mansion, and se­cond Country of Hannibal, the losse whereof [Page 69] gave him so much trouble, that he thereupon brought all his Forces against Rome. O people worthy the world's Empire, worthy the favour and admiration of Men and Gods! Being re­duc'd to the greatest extremities, they desisted not from their attempt, and while they pro­vided for the safety of the City, they neglected not Capua; but part of the Army being left there under the Consul Appius, part having follow'd Flaccus to the City, they fought both present and absent? What therefore do we wonder at? Hannibal, encamped within three 547 miles of Rome, and ready to come on, the Gods, I say the Gods (nor is it a shame to acknow­ledge it) once more prevented him; for there fell such excessive rains at every motion of his, and such extraordinary winds, that it should seem they had been sent from above, to remove the enemy, not from Heaven▪ [as the Gyants sometime were] but from the Walls of the City and the Capitol. He therefore departed, fled, and retired to the extremities of Italy, leaving the City when he was just upon the point of assaulting it. This is a thing hardly worth mentioning, yet a pregnant argument of the magnanimity of the people of Rome, that during the time the City was besieg'd, the ground on which Hannibal was encamped, being publickly set to sale, met with a pur­chasor. On the contrary, Hannibal desirous [Page 70] to imitate our confidence, proferr'd to sale the Goldsmiths shops of the City, but found no buyer: whence it may be seen, that the desti­nies had also their presages. But there had yet been nothing done answerably to so great va­lour, and favour of the Gods. For Asdrubal, Hannibal's brother, was upon his march from Spain with a fresh Army, new-raised Forces, and other requisites for the prosecution of the war. We had, no doubt, been ruin'd, if he had --6. joyn'd his Brother; but Claudius Nero and Li­vius Salinator defeat him as he was encamping his Army. Nero was employ'd about the dis­lodging of Hannibal in the most remote part of Italy. Livius was gone into the contrary part, so vast, that is, the whole territory of Italy, where it is longest, lying between them. By what intelligence, with what expedition the Consuls joyn'd their forces, and joyntly en­gag'd the enemy, and all without Hannibal's knowledge of any thing done, it is hard to give an account of. This is certain, that Han­nibal, being assur'd of it, when he saw his Bro­ther's head cast into his camp, said, I now see the unhappinesse of Carthage. This was the first acknowledgement of the man, not without a certain presage of the fate hanging over him. Now it was taken for granted, that Hannibal, even by his own confession, might be vanqui­shed. But the people of Rome heightned by so [Page 71] many prosperities, thought it a noble attempt to subdue that most irreconcileable enemy in his own Country Africk. Scipio therefore being 549 General, they removing the main stresse of the war into Africk, began to imitate Hannibal, and to revenge the miseries of Italy upon Africk. Good Gods! what forces of Asdrubal, what 550 Armies of Syphax did he defeat? How extraor­dinary were the two Camps which he de­stroy'd in one night by fire? In fine, he was not onely within three miles, but shook the very gates of Carthage with a siege. By which means he forc'd Hannibal out of Italy, where he 5-0. would have sate brooding and settled himself. This was the greatest day since the beginning of the Roman Empire, when the two greatest Generals of any that ever went before them, or came after them, one Conquerour of Italy, 5--. the other of Spain, were disposing their Ar­mies in order to an engagement. But there pass'd a Conference between them about some conditions of peace: They stood still a while, fix'd by mutual admiration; but not agreeing upon a peace, the signal was given. It is appa­rent from the confession of both, that the Ar­mies could not be better marshalled, nor a battel more sharply fought. This acknow­ledgement Scipio made of Hannibal's Army, Hannibal of Scipio's. But Hannibal was wor­sted, 552 and the reward of the victory was Africk, [Page 72] whose example the Universe, soon after fol­lowed.

CHAP. VII.

CArthage being subdu'd, none thought it a shame to be so. Macedonia, Greece, Syria, and all other Nations, as if carried away with the torrent of Fortune, follow'd the fate of Africk. But the first were the Macedonians, a people that sometimes aspir'd to the Empire. Therefore though at that time Philip had the Government, yet the Romans seem'd to fight 538 against King Alexander. The Macedonian war was greater in name, *Quam specta­tione gentis. than for any consideration of the Nation it self. It took its rise from the League between King Philip, and Hannibal, while he lorded it in Italy: the occasion of its prosecution was that Athens implored assistance against the in­juries done it by the King, who exceeding the limits of victory, wreaked his rage upon Tem­ples, Altars, and the very Sepulchres of the [Page 73] dead. The Senate thought fit to relieve sup­pliants 552 of that consideration. For now Kings, Generals, Peoples, Nations, sought Garrisons from Rome. Under the Consulship of Levinus, the Romans first took the Ionian Sea, and sail'd by the Grecian shore, with a kinde of trium­phant navy; for they had then aboard the spoils of Sicily, Sardina, and Africk. And the Laurel growing at the stern of the Admiral promised no lesse then certain victory. Attalus King of Pergameus came in to our assistance. There 555 came also the Rhodians, a people well versed in Sea affairs; and these doing their work by Sea, the Consul with his Horse and Men put all to the rout on Land. The King was twice overcome, twice forc'd to fly, twice driven out of his Camp, and yet nothing was more dread­full to the Macedonians than the very sight of the wounds, which were not made with darts, or arrowes, or any light Grecian weapon, but with huge Javelins, and as weighty swords, forcing their way even beyond death. Nay Flaminus being General, we made our way 555 through the till-then unpassable Chaonian Mountains, and cross'd the River Pindus, passing through abrupt places, and so got into the bowels of Macedonia. To have got in was 556 a victorie. For afterwards the King durst not meet us, but being worsted at one, and that no equal engagement, neer the Hills, called the Cynocephalae, the Consul granted him a peace, [Page 74] and left him his Kingdom. Soon after, that there might be left nothing thereabouts to oppose us, he subdu'd. Thebes, and Euboea, and the Lacedemonians, committing insolen­ces and depredations under their Capitain Nabis. To Greece indeed he restor'd its an­cient state, that it might live according to its 557 own Laws, and enjoy its former liberty. What rejoicing, what exclamations were there, when this was publish'd by the Cryer at the Quinquennial Games, in the Theatre at Ne­mea? What an emulation of applause was there among them? What flowers did they cast upon the Consul? And they commanded the Cryer, again and again to repeat that ex­pression, wherein the liberty of Achia was declared. Nor did they take lesse pleasure in that sentence of the Consul, than they wnuld have done in a concert of most pleasant musick.

CHAP. VIII.

NExt the Macedonians and King Philip, a 561 certain chance brought in Antiochus, things being purposely so disposed by For­tune, that the progresse of the Empire, as it had been out of Africk into Europe, so it should now (causes of war coming in unsought) march out of Europe into Asia, and that the order of victories should keep on its course according to the situation of the world. As to the report of it, there was no war more formidable than this; to wit, when the Romans reflected how they had to do with the Persians, the Inhabi­tants of the East, Xerxes and Darius; when they heard of ways to be cut through inaccessi­ble Mountains, and that the Sea was cover'd with Ships. Besides they were terrified by celestial menaces, when Cumaean Apollo was in a continual sweat. But that proceeded from the fear of the deity, who had a kindnesse for [Page 76] his [dear] Asia. There is not certainly any place better furnish'd with Wealth, Men, and Arms, then Syria is; but it was fallen into th [...] hands of a King so unactive, that Antiochus' [...] greatest reputation was, his being vanquish' [...] by the Romans. He was forc'd upon this war, on the one side by Thoas Prince of Aetolia, dis­satisfy'd that the Romans had not rewarded hi [...] assistance against the Macedonians: on the o­ther side, by Hannibal, who conquer'd in A­frick, droven thence, and impatient of peace, sought up and down the world to raise ene­mies to the people of Rome. And how dan­gerous might it have been, if the King would have been guided by his advice? If wretched Hannibal had had the management of th [...] whole strength of Asia? But the King relying on his own power, and priding it in the Title of King, thought it enough to have begun a warre. By this time, Europe belong'd to the Romans without any dispute. But Antiochus demanded the City Lysimachia, seated on the Thracian shore, as his by right from his Ance­stors. By the influence of this constellation the tempest of the Asian war was raised, and the greatest of Kings, Con­tentus contenting himself, that he had gallantly declared a warre, and ha­ving march'd out of Asia with a mighty noise and train, and possess'd himself of the Islands and shores of Greece, minded his divertisement [...] [Page 77] and luxury, as if he had been already Victor. The Euripus, by its intermissive waters, divi­ded the Island Eubaea from the continent onely by a small space which let in a small Arm of the Sea. Here Antiochus had his Tents of Gold and Silk, pitch'd within the noise of the water, and wanted not also his musick of flutes and other instruments amidst the waves, nor his Roses, which were brought from all parts, though it were Winter; nay that he might seem in all respects the General of an Army, he had also companies of Virgins and young Lads. Such a King therefore, already vanqui­shed by his own luxury, the Romans, under the conduct of M. Acilius Glabrio, assaulting in the very Island, forc'd him to forsake it upon the first news of their approach. Thence they went immediately into Asia. The Royal Navy was commanded by Polexenes and Han­nibal; for the King himself could not endure to look on the fight. Therefore Aemilius Re­gullus being General, it was absolutely de­feated by the Rhodian Gallies. Let not that Athens flatter it self; in Antiochus we over­came Xerxes; in Aemilius, we match'd Themi­stodes, and in taking Ephesus, we have gain'd as much honour, as they in taking Salamis. Afterwards, Scipio being Consul, (whose Bro­ther surnamed Africanus, late Conquerour of Carthage, went along with him, voluntary, as [Page 78] his Lieutenant-General) it is resolv'd that An­tiochus should be absolutely subdu'd: and in­deed he was already beaten out of the Sea; but we proceed further. We encamp at the River Maeander, and the Mountain Sipylus. There the King had taken up his post, with what Forces of his own, and A [...]xiliaries is in­credible. He had three hundred thousand Foot, and about the same number of Horse and Chariots of warre. Besides, he had sur­rounded his Army with huge Elephants, glit­tering in Gold, Purple, Silver, and their own Ivory. But all these preparations were obstructed by their own greatnesse: besides a sudden shower of rain that fell, had, to our advantage, made the Persian bowes uselesse. First, their consternation, then flight, made way for our triumph. To Antiochus van­quish'd and submitting himself, they granted peace, and part of his Kingdom; and that the more willingly, the more easily he had been defeated.

CHAP. IX.

THe Aetolian, as it ought, succeeded the 564 Syrian war. For Antiochus being van­quish'd, the Romans pursu'd the incendiaries of the Asian war. The revenge is committed to the charge of Fulvius Nobilior, who imme­diately with his engins batters the Metropo­lis of the Nation, Ambracia, sometime the aboad of K. Pyrrhus. Whereupon it was sur­rendred. The Athenians and Rhodians came thither upon the intreaty of the Aetolians: [upon their mediation] remembring the assi­stance we had received from them, it was thought fit they should be pardoned: But the war crept into the adjacent parts, and spread all over Cephalenia, and Zacinithos; and all the Island's scatter'd up and down that Sea, be­tween the Ceraunian Mountains, and the Pro­montory of Malaeum, came in occasionally by the Aetolian war.

CHAP. X.

576 THe Istrians follow the Aetolians; for they had assisted them not long before in their war: and the beginning of the fight was for­tunate to the enemy, and prov'd also the occa­sion of their ruine. For after they had plun­der'd the Camp of C. Manlius, and possess'd themselves of a rich booty, C. Claudius Pulcher falls upon them as they were feasting and sporting, nay many of them so overcome with drink, that they knew not where they were. So they cast up their surpriz'd Victory, with their blood and breath. The King himself, named Apulo, being set a Horseback as not able to stand through gluttony and lightnesse of the head, was with much ado perswaded that he was taken, even after he had recover'd him­self.

CHAP. XI.

THe Gallo-grecians were also involv'd in the ruines of the Syrian war. They had 564 been among the Auxiliaries of King Antiochus. Whether Manlius were over-desirous of a triumph, or that he maliciously charg'd them [with that offence] is doubtful: certain it is, that, though a Conquerour, a triumph was deny'd him, because the occasion of the war was not approv'd by the Senate. Now the Gallo-grecians, as appears by the very name, is an intermixt and mongrel people, the remain­ders of the Galls, who under Brennus had wa­sted Greece, going further Eastward, had after sometime plant'd themselves in the midst of Asia. But as the seeds of fruits degenerate, by change of soil, so that innate savagenesse of theirs was abated by the delicacies of Asia. They were therefore at two fights quite broken and de­feated, though upon the approach of an ene­my, forsaking their own habitations, they had retir'd to the highest Mountains, which the Tolistobogii and the Tectosagae were already pos­ses'd [Page 82] of. Ʋ ­trique Both of them being gall'd with slings and arrowes, accepted conditions of a perpetual peace. But being bound, they gave us occasion to wonder at them, when they proffer'd to bite off their chains, and offered their throats one to another to be strangled. And yet the wife of Orgiagon, a King among them, having been ravish'd by a Centurion of ours, got out of custody by a memorable ex­ample, and brought the Soldiers head to her [injur'd] husband.

CHAP. XII.

572 WHile Nations after Nations follow the fate of the Syrian war, Macedonia rose up a second time. The remembrance of thei [...] former nobility stirr'd up that most valian [...] people: and there had succeeded Philip, hi [...] Son Perses, who thought it a dishonour to the [Page 83] Nation, that Macedonia, being overcome once, should ever continue so. The Macedonians, rise with greater animosity under this man, than they had done under his father. For they had drawn in the Thracians to joyn with them. A [...]qu [...] ita [...]dustriam Mac [...]donum, vi [...]ibus Thracum; fero [...]i [...]m Thracum, disciplina Macedonum t [...]mpera­vere. And so they had ballanc'd the dexterity of the Macedonians by the robust valour of the Thra­cians, and the brutality of the Thracians by the discipline of the Mecedonians. What added to this, was the prudence of the chief Comman­der, who having observ'd the scituation of his countries, from top of Aeonus encamping his Forces in abrupt places, had so fortify'd Mace­donia with Men and Arms, that he seemed not to have left the enemies any way to enter into it, unlesse they should fall down from the Hea­vens. For Q. Martius Philippus being Con­sul, the Romans, having learn'd out the ave­nues, got into that Province, by the way of the marshes of Astrudes, through harsh and dan­gerous 574 places, nay such as seem'd inaccessible to birds, and by that means terrify'd the King, who lay secure and feared no such thing, wi [...]h an unexpected alarm of war. Whereat he was so star [...]led, that he commanded all his mony to be cast into the sea, that it might not be lost, and that the navy should be burnt, to prevent the firing of it by the enemy. Paulus [Page 84] being Consul, when the Garrison were better mann'd, and lay closer one to another than 576 they had done before, Macedonia was surpri­sed by another way, through the great policy and industry of the General, who offering to get in at one place, and breaking in at another, the King was so startled at his coming, that he durst not be present, but left the war to be managed by his Commanders. Being there­fore vanquish'd in his absence, he escaped to Sea, and so to the Island of Samothrace, pro­mising himself protection from the sanctity of the place, as if Temples and Altars could se­cure him, whom his own Mountains and Arms could not. None of the Kings longer regretted his losse of Fortune. Writing to our General as a supplyant, from the Temple into which he had fled, he set down to the E­pistle with his own name, his quality of King. But no man could expresse a greater respect towards captivated Majesty then Paulus did. As soon as the enemy came into his sight, he brought him into his Tent, and treated him with banquets, and admonished his Sons, that they should submit to Fortune; who was able to do so great things. Of all the most magni­ficent triumphs which the Romans had seen, this from Macedonia was one of the chiefest; for the show of it lasted three days. The first day, were brought in Images and Pictures; the [Page 85] second, Arms and Money; the third, the Captives, and among them the King himself, having not recover'd out of his astonishment, as if the disaster were but newly befallen him. But the people of Rome had receiv'd the joyful news of the Victory, before they had it by the General's Letters. For the very day that Per­ses was vanquish'd in Macedonia, the thing was known at Rome. Two young men mounted on white Horses, were seen washing off dust and blood at the Lake of Suturna. These brought the news. The common perswasion was, that they were Castor and Pollux, because there were two of them; that they had been present at the fight; because they were yet bloody; that they came out of Macedonia, be­cause they seem'd as it were out of breath.

CHAP. XIII.

THe contagion of the Macedonian war drew 576 in the Illyrians. They were Mercenaries under King Perses, and should have fallen on the rear of the Romans. They are without any trouble subdu'd by the Pro-praetor Anicius. It [Page 86] was thought sufficient, to lay Scodra, chief City of the Nation, level with the ground. Whereupon there ensu'd an absolute surrender of themselves to bondage. In fine, this war was at an end, before it was known at Rome that it was engag'd in.

CHAP. XIV.

605 THe Carthaginians and Macedonians, as if there had been some agreement between them, that they should be a third time van­quish'd, by a certain disposal of destiny, took up Arms at the same time. But the Macedo­nian shook off the yoke first, and was reduc'd with the more difficulty, because he had been slighted. The occasion of the war almost for­ces a blush; for one Andriscus, a person of mean descent, whether a slave or free is doubt­ful, but certainly a Mercenary, invades the Kingdom, and undertakes the war. But be­cause he was commonly known by the name of Philippus, by reason of his likenesse in the [Page 87] face to that Prince, he was called Pseudo-Phi­lippus, and as he had the resemblance, and had assum'd the title of a King, so he wanted not a courage beseeming a King. Therefore while the Romans slight these things, thinking it enough to send the Praetor Juventius against him, they rashly engage against a man grown powerful not only by the strength of the Ma­cedonians, but also by the great additional For­ces of Thrace, and are with much regret wor­sted, not by real Kings, but by that imagi­nary and personated Prince. But Metellus being Praetor, they were fully reveng'd for the former losse of a Legion and the Praetor, who commanded it. For Macedonia was made subject to bondage, and the chief Comman­der, deliver'd up by that Prince of Thrace to whom he had fled, was brought to the City in chaines; Fortune doing him a kindnesse even in his disasters, that the people of Rome made a triumph upon his account, as much as if he had really been a King.

CHAP. XV.

604 THe third war, with Africk, was short, both as to time (for it was compleated in four years) and in comparison of the for­mer, of lesse difficulty: for our businesse was not so much against men as against the City it self, but if we consider the event, it was of great consequence: for by that means Carthage was destroy'd. And if a man consider the cir­cumstances of former times; in the first, the war was onely begun, in the second, almost dispatch'd, in the third, quite ended. But the occasion of this war was, that, con­trary to the Articles of the Treaty, they had, but once indeed, prepar'd a Navy and Army against the Numidians, but had several times alarm'd the territories of Masinissa. For the Romans had a kindnesse for that good King, their Ally. When the war was resolv'd upon, it wat proposed, what should be done after it were ended. Cato, out of an irreconcileable animosity, gave his vote for the destruction of Carthage, even while other things were under [Page 89] debate. Scipio Nasica alledg'd that it should be preserv'd, lest the fear of the Rival-City being once taken away, the prosperity of Rome would be apt to break forth into debauches. The Senate took a course between both, to wit, that Carthage might be remov'd from the place where it stood. For they thought it a glorious thing there should be a Carthage, but such as should not be feared. Whereupon Manilius and Censorinus being Consuls, the 604 Romans set upon Carthage, and having the Na­vy, upon some overture of peace, surrendred to them, they set it afire in sight of the City. Then the chiefest among the Citizens being sent for, were commanded, if they would save their lives, to quiet Carthage. Which command seeming too cruel, so incensed them, that they would rather endure the greatest extremities. Whereupon they made publick lamentations, and unanimously cry'd out Arms: and they were absolutely resolv'd to stand it out by force; not that they had any hope left, but out of a desire that their country should be de­ [...]troy'd rather by the enemies, than themselves. How great the fury of the discontented was, may be inferr'd hence, that they pull'd down [...]heir houses to build a new Fleet, that about [...]heir Arms, gold and silver was employ'd in­ [...]tead of iron and brasse, and the Matrones par­ [...]ed with their haire to make cordage for the [Page 90] engines. Afterwards, Mancinus being Consul, the siege was closely carried on both by Sea and Land. The Haven, and the first and se­cond walls were already dismantled, when the Castle notwithstanding, called the Byrsa, made such resistance, as if it had been another City. But though the destruction of the City was in a good forwardnesse, yet [was it consider'd, that] the name of the Scipio's was fatal to Africk. The Commonwealth therefore, pitching upon 606 another Scipio, was desirous the see an end of that war. He was the Son of Paulus surnamed Macedonicus, and had been adopted by the Son of the great Scipio Africanus, presuming he would be an ornament to his race; it being design'd that the Grand-child should absolu­tely lay desolate that City which the Grand-father had brought neer its destruction. But as the bitings of dying beasts are most dange­rous, so we found more work with Carthage half ruin'd, than when it was entire. The ene­mies being forc'd into one Fortresse, the Ro­mans had also besieg'd the Port. Whereupon, the Carthaginians made another Port, on the other side of the City, not with any design to get away: but even from that place, whence no man imagin'd it possible they should escape, a new Fleet starts up. In the mean time, no day, no night past, but some new work, engine, or forlorn did appear, like [Page 91] sudden flashes of fire out of the embers, after some conflagration. At last, things growing desperate, forty thousand men surrendred themselves, and (what is hardly credible,) Asdrubal being their Leader. How much more gallantly did a Woman, and that the same As­drubal's wife, behave her self? when taking her two children, she cast her self down from the top of the house into the midst of the fire, therein imitating the Queen who founded Carthage. How great a City was destroy'd, to omit other things, the very continuance of the fire makes apparent: for during the space of seventeen days, they could hardly quench the fire, which the enemies themselves had been the occasions of, by firing their own houses and Temples, purposely, that since the City could not be rescu'd from the triumphs of the Romans, it should first be burnt.

CHAP. XVI.

COrinth, Metropolis of Achaia, the orna­ment 606 of Greece, and seated for the delight­fulnesse [Page 92] of the prospect, between the Ionian and Aegaean Seas, immediately follow'd the fate of Carthage, as if that age had been design'd for the destruction of Cities. This City ( [...] thing unworthy) was destroy'd, before it was certainly known to be of our enemies. Crito­laus was the cause of the war, who employ'd the liberty given him by the Romans against them, and affronted the Roman Ambassadors, if not by blows, at least in words. The revenge therefore was put upon Metellus, then setling Macedonia; and hence came the Achaian war, whereof the first action was, that the Consul Metellus had the slaughter of Critolaus's party, in the spacious Fields of Elis, all long the Ri­ver Alpheus. And the war was ended in one battel; and soon after the City was besieg'd: but the fates so ordering things, after Metellus had fought, Mammius came in to compleat the Victory. This latter, by the advantages gain'd by the other General, defeated the Achaian Army at the very entrance of the Isthmus, and both the Ports [of Corinth] were stain'd with blood. At length, the Inhabitants having forsaken the City, it was first plunder'd, after­wards by sound of Trumpet destroy'd. What abundance of statues, what garments, what pictures were taken, burnt, and cast about the streets? What wealth was burnt and brought thence may be hence computed, that all the [Page 93] Corinthian brasse, now celebrated over the world, was onely the remainders of that con­flagration. Nay the desolation of that most wealthy City enhanc'd the price of the brasse, in as much as an infinite number of Statues and Images being burnt, the Gold, Silver, and Brasse, melted together, flow'd in joynt veins.

CHAP. XVII.

AS Corinth follow'd Carthage, so Numantia follow'd Corinth. Nor was there after­wards any part free from war all over the world. After the conflagration of those two famous Cities; there was a general war all over, at the same time; as if those Cities seem­ed, like violent winds, to have spread the con­flagrations of war into all other parts of the world. Spain never had any design to make a general insurrection against us, never thought [...]t to unite all its strength, nor yet to dispute [Page 94] the supremacy with us, or attempt a publick assertion of its liberty; which if it had, it is so fortify'd all about by the Sea and the Pyrenaean Mountains, that the very scituation secur'd i [...] from an invasion. But it was straitned by the Romans before it knew it self; and, of all the Provinces, it onely knew its own strength af­ter it was conquer'd. The contestation about this Province lasted neer two hundred years, from the first Scipio's to Augustus Caesar, not by a continu'd war, but as occasions started. Nor had we to do at first with the Spanyards, but the Carthaginians. Thence proceeded the con­tagion, and series, and cause of the wars. The first Roman ensignes that past over the Pyre­naean Mountains were under the conduct of the Scipio's, Publius, and Cneus; and they, in memorable fights, defeated Annon, and Asdru­bal, Hannibal's Brother, and Spain had been carried as it were by the first attempt, if those gallant men, supplanted in the height of their victory, had not fallen by Punick treachery, after they had got the better both by Sea and Land. So that Scipio, the revenger of his Father and Uncle, who was soon after sur­named Africanus, invaded it as it were a new and entire Province. And he in a short time, having taken Carthage and other Cities, think­ing it not enough to have forc'd the Carthagi­nians thence, made it a tributary Province, [Page 95] and reduc'd to the Empire all on both sides of the Iberus, and was the first of the Roman Ge­nerals who prosecuted his victory to Gades, and the entrance of the Ocean. But it is a greater matter to retain a Province then to make one. Generals were therefore sent into several parts, sometime to one, sometime to another; and they, with much difficulty, and and many bloody engagements, brought into subjection those savage Nations, which till then were free, and impatient of bondage. Cato, the Censor, after some fights, worsted the Cel­tiberians, that is, the strength of Spain. Grac­chus, the Father of the Gracchi, plagu'd the same people by the desolation of a hundred and fitty Cities. Metellus ille, cui ex Macedonia co­gnome [...] (meruerat & Celtibericus fieri) quam Contrebiam memorabili cepisset exemplo, Vertobri­gis majori gloriâ pe­percit. That Metellus, who had his sirname from Macedo­nia (he also deserv'd that of Celti­bericus) having, by a memorable exploit, taken Contrebia, gain'd more glory by not taking Vertobri­gae. Lucullus reduc'd the Turduli and the Vaccaei, from whom the latter Scipio, having, upon a chal­lenge, fought a duel with the King, brought away rich spoils. Decimus Brutus went some­what further, brought in the Celtae, and the Inhabitants of Gallicia, and cross'd the River of Oblivion, so dreadful to the Soldiers; and having taken a victorious progresse all along [Page 96] the Ocean, he turned not back his Ensignes, till, with a certain horrour and apprehension of having committed some sacriledge, he be­held the Sun falling into the Sea, and its torch quench'd in the waves. But the sharpest en­gagements were with the Lusitanians and Nu­mantians; and justly, for they only of all the [Spanish] Nations, had excellent Leaders. We should also have had work enough with all the Celtiberians, if the Author of that in­surrection, a person of extraordinary subtilty and confidence, had not been kill'd at the be­ginning of the war, I mean, that Solundicus, who brandishing a silver speare, as if sent from Heaven, had, Prophet-like, gain'd the affe­ctions of all. But presuming, out of a boldnesse equal to his extravagance, in the night, to approach the Consul's Camp, he was taken off hard by the very Tent, with the dart of the Sentinel. The Lusitanians were stirr'd up by Vi [...]iathus, a man of incomparable subtlety, who of a Huntsman became a Robber, of a Robber, he got to be Captain and General, and, if Fortune had favoured, might have been the Romulus of Spain. For not content to maintain the liberty of his own people, but f [...]r the space of fourteen years he used all ho­stile ex [...]remities at all places both on this side and the other of the Rivers Iberus and Tagus. Nay he attempted the Camp and very Guard [Page 97] of our Praetors, he had in a manner quite de­stroy'd the Army under the command of Claudius Ʋnimanus, and had erected, in his own Mountains, memorable Trophies made of the [Roman] Ornaments and our Fasces. But at length the Consul Fabius Maximus had crush'd him; but the victory was soil'd by his Successor Servilius Caepio, who, desirous to put a period to the war, out of basenesse and trea­chery, got the defeated Captain assassinated by some of his own menial servants, even while he was contriving how to make a surrender of himself; and did thereby the enemy so much honour, as that it might seem he could not otherwise have been overcome.

CHAP. XVIII.

THough Numantia was inferiour to Car­thage, Capua, and Corinth, in point of wealth, yet in honour and reputation of gal­lantry, it was equal to them all, and, if we consider the Inhabitants of it, the greatest or­nament [Page 98] of Spain; in as much as being a place unwall'd, unfortify'd, and seated only upon a small ascent, neer the River Durius, it held out, for the space of fourteen years, onely with a garrison of four thousand Celtiberians, against an Army of forty thousand men, nay did not onely hold out, but sometimes also gave us great overthrows, and forc'd us to dishonour­able treaties. In fine, the reduction of it was thought so far impossible, that there was a ne­cessity of employing the same person against it who had destroy'd Carthage. To say the truth, we must acknowledge, that haply there was no war of ours, whereof the cause was more unjust then this. The Numantians had enter­tain'd into their City the Segidenses, their Al­lies and Relations; the mediation used on their behalf prevailed nothing; and while they would have absolutely disengag'd them­selves from having ought to do with the war, they were order'd to lay down their Arms, so to secure the Alliance desired by them. This was so heinously resented by the Barbarians, as if their hands were to be cut off. Where­upon, Megara, a person of great courage, being their Leader, they Arm, and having fought Pompey, they chose rather to enter into a League, even when they might have defeated him. They had afterwards an engagement against Hostilius Mancinus; him also they so [Page 99] worsted with continual overthrows, that scarce any one could endure to look upon, or hear of an Inhabitant of Numantia: and yet they thought fit to make a League with him also, contenting themselves with the spoils of the Arms, when they might have put all to the sword. But the people of Rome being no lesse incensed at the infamy of this Numantian Treaty, then they had been at that of Caudium, expiated the dishonour of the present miscar­riage, by the surrender of Mancinus; and af­terwards under the conduct of Scipio, whom the ruine of Carthage had improv'd for the de­solation of Cities, they resolv'd to revenge it. But then we had a harder service in our own Camp, than in the Field, more to do with our own Soldiery, than with the Numantians. For being orepress'd with continual, unne­cessary, and for the most part, servile employ­ments, they of our Soldiery who knew not how to handle their arms, were commanded to fill trenches, and they who would not be sprinkled with hostile blood should be [ignominiously] daub'd with dirt. They were moreover de­priv'd of their common prostitutes, the boys, and all unnecessary baggage. 'Twas truely said, that such as the General is, such is the Army. So the Soldiery being reduc'd to discipline, the Armies engag'd, and that hap­pen'd which no body hoped to have seen, that [Page 100] the Numantians were seen to run away. Nay they would have surrendred themselves, if things fit to be endur'd by men had been en­joyn'd them. But Scipio, desirous of a true and absolute victory, they were reduc'd to the ut­most extremities, so that their first resolve was to fight it out to the last man, having before­hand glutted themselves with a kind of fune­ral-banquet consisting of half-raw flesh, and a drinke made of Corn, by the natives called Caelia. The General having intelligence of their resolution, permitted not an engagement with persons defying death: but want of pro­visions so press'd upon them, being surrounded with a Trench, a Counterscarp and four Camps, that they begg'd an engagement of the General, to the end they might die like men. But that not obtain'd, they resolv'd up­on a Sally, wherein many were kill'd, by which means the survivers liv'd a while longer, the famine still continuing. Afterwards, they resolve to make an escape; but that was pre­vented by their wives, who committing a heinous offence out of their affection, cut their horse-girts. Whereupon reduc'd to despair, and exasperated into fury and rage, they at last resolve upon this kind of death. They with the help of weapons, and a general con­flagration destroy'd their Captains, their City, and themselves. Well! I should [Page 101] As­serve­rim. affirm it the most valiant, and in my judge­ment, the most happy City even in its greatest calamities, since it hath with so great constan­cy towards its Allies, by its own strength, and for so long time, held out against a people back'd by the forces of all the world. In fine, the City being forc'd by the greatest General that ever was, left the enemy nothing to satisfie his vanity; for there was not a man of all Nu­mantia to be brought home in chaines; spoil none, because they were poor; their Arms they had burnt themselves; and so we had onely the name of a Triumph.

CHAP. XIX.

HItherto the Roman people seem'd to ex­presse a certain Noblenesse, Gallantry, Sanctity and Magnificence in their actions. *Reliqua sae­culi. The remainder of that age, as it produc'd atchievements equally great, so did they exceed in turbulence and in­famy; vices improving with the dilatation of the Empire. So that if any one divide this its third age, employ'd in forrein acquests, he will acknowledge the former Century thereof, [Page 102] wherein Africk, Macedonia, Sicily and Spain were subdu'd, justly to have deserv'd (as the Poëts speak) the name of Golden; and the en­suing Century to have been of Iron, and san­guinary, or if any thing can be more inhu­mane; as comprehending the Jugurthine, the Cimbrian, the Mithridatick, Gaulish and Ger­mane wars (whereby the Roman glory ascended up to the skies) together with the Gracchian and Drusian massacres, as also the Servile wars, and, to compleat our infamy, our engage­ments even with the Gladiators. At last, the Commonwealth arming against it self, by the commotions of Marius and Sylla, and in fine by the wars between Caesar and Pompey, as if pos­sess'd with a spirit of madnesse and fury, be­came ( *Per rabiem & furorem, nefas! semet, &c. ô horrour!) its own executioner. Which transactions though ravell'd and confus'd to­gether, yet that they may the better appear, and that there may be a difference between their Heynous and Heroick actions, they shall be set down a part. And in the first place, we shall as we have already begun give an account of those pious and just wars with forreign nati­ons, that the continual augmentation of the Empire may be made manifest. And then we shall return to the horrid actions, and the foul and execrable broils of our own people.

CHAP. XX.

SPain being subdu'd in the western part of the world, the people of Rome were at the East; nay they not onely enjoy'd peace, but by an unwonted and unknown kind of prosperity, wealth left by regal bequeasts, and whole Kingdoms came into them. Attalus King of Pergamus, Son of King Eumenes, hereto­fore our Ally and fellow-soldier, left this Will, Let the people of Rome be the Heir of my estate. Of which these were part. Entring upon the inheritance, the Romans became possessors of the Province, not by war, or force of Arms, but (what was more just) in right of the Will. But it is not easie to affirm, whether they more easily Oc­cupa­verit. possess'd themselves of, or lost that Province. Aristonicus, a fierce young man, of the blood Royal, easily drawes in some of the [Page 104] Cities formerly subject to Kings, and take [...] some others, which stood out by force, as Mindus, Samos and Colophon. He also defeated the Army of the Pro-consul Crassus, and took him. But he reflecting on his Family, and the reputation of the Romans, struck out the eye o [...] his barbarous Keeper with a wand; and so he incensed him, as he would have it, to his own destruction. Not long after, Aristonicus was subdu'd and taken by Perpenna, and upon sur­render of himself kept in chains. M. Aquilius put an absolute period to the Asian war, poi­soning (ô wicked act!) the springs, in order to the rendition of certain Cities. Which action as it hastned the victory, so it rendred it infamous; in as much as, contrary to all Religion, and the customes of our Ancestors, the Roman Arms, till then continu'd sacred, were defiled by detestable compositions.

CHAP. I.

THus went things in the East. But there was not the like quiet in the Southern parts. Who would expect any war should break forth in Africk, after the destruction of Carthage? But there was no small disturbance in Numidia, and there was, next Hannibal, what might be feared in Ju­gurth. [Page 106] For when the Romans were glorious, and unconquerable by the way of Arms, this most subtle Prince engages against them by that of wealth; and yet it fell out beyond ex­pectation, that a King famous for his artifices should be ensnar'd by artifice. He being Grand-child to Massinissa, and Son by adopti­on to Micipsa, designing the murther of his Brethren, incited thereto by a desire of Sove­raignty, and yet fearing not them so much as the Senate and people of Rome, under whose tuition and protection the Kingdom was, compass'd his first mischief by treachery; and having taken off Hiempsal's head, while he would have done the like to Adherbal, who had fled to Rome, he with the mony sent by his Ambassadors brought even the Senate to side with him. And this was his first victory over us. Afterwards he in like manner treated those who had been sent to divide the King­dom between him and Adherbal, and having in the person of Scaurus [who suffer'd himself to be corrupted] overcome the integrity and customes of the Roman Empire, he prosecuted the wickednesse he had begun with greater confidence. But wicked actions lye not long conceal'd. The wickednesse of the corrupted Embassy [of Scaurus] came to light, and a war was resolv'd upon against the Parricide. The Consul Calpurnius Bestia was the first sent into [Page 107] Numidia. But the King knowing by former experience, that gold could do more against the Romans than Iron, brought his peace. Of which hainous action being guilty, and sum­mon'd upon a safe-conduct to appeare before the Senate, he with equal confidence both came and got Massina, Grand-son to Massinis­sa, his competitor to the Government, assassi­nated. This was another cause of the war against the said King. The ensuing revenge is recommended to Albinus. But (ô disho­nour!) he in like manner so corrupted his Army, that by a voluntary flight of ours, the Numidian overcame, and became master of our Camp: and by a dishonourable treaty, he suffered the Army, which he had before cor­rupted, to escape. About the same time, not so much to revenge the Roman Empire, as its honour, rose up Metellus, who craftily set up­on the enemy with his own artifices, while the other eluded him one while with intreaties, another, with threats, making also his advan­tage of a feign'd as if it had been a real flight. Not content with the devastation of Fields and Villages, he made attempts against the principal Cities of Numidia, and a long time endeavour'd the reduction of Zama, but with­out, effect. But Thala he sack'd, a place well furnish'd with ammunition, and where the King's treasure wa [...]. Afterwards having de­priv'd [Page 108] the King of his Cities, he pursu'd him as a fugitive out of his own territories, through Mauritania and Getulia. At last Marius, with a considerable recruit, after he had taken into the Army persons of mean extraction upon an oath administred to them, setting upon the King already defeated and wounded, yet found it as hard a task to overcome him, as if his Forces had been fresh and entire. This man with extraordinary successe reduc'd Capsa, a City built in honour of Hercules, seated in the midst of Africk, and surrounded with Sands and Serpents, and by the assistance of a certain Ligurian, forc'd his way to the City Mulucha, built upon a rocky Mountain, a place in a manner inaccessible. After which he gave a signal overthrow not onely to Jugurth, but also to Bocchus King of Mauritania, siding with the Numidian upon the score of kinred, neer the City Cirta. Bocchus distrusting his affaires, and fearing to be involv'd in another's ruine, made King Jugurth the price of his agreement and friendship with the Romans. So the craftiest of Kings was ensnared by the artifices of his Father in law, and deliver'd into the hands of Sylla. And at length the people of Rome be­held Jugurth loaden with chains led in tri­umph; but he also, though overcome and bound, saw the City, which he had falsely pro­phecy'd was to be sold, and should be ruin'd, if [Page 109] it met with a buyer. But if ever saleable, it had a Chapman in him, and seeing he escaped not, it will be an assurance that it shall never perish.

CHAP. II.

THus the Romanes demean'd themselves in the South. In the North the troubles were greater and more bloody; there being nothing more insufferable than that Coast, where the Air is very piercing, and the Inha­bitants savage. All along that quarter, an im­placable Enemy broke forth on all sides, on the right, the left, and out of the midst of the North. The first who felt our Arms beyond the Alps were the Salii, upon complaints made of their Incursions, by the most faithful and friendly City Massilia. Afterwards, the Al­lobroges and Aruerni, upon the like complaints of the Aedui, who desired our assistance and relief against them. Varus is a witness of the victory, and Iscara, and the River Vindelicus, [Page 110] and the swiftest of Rivers the Rhone. The greatest terror to the Barbarians were the E­lephants, whose bulk was answerable to that of the Inhabitants. There was nothing so re­markable in the Triumph as the King him­self, Bituitus, in his Arms of divers colours, and a silver Chariot, such as he had fought in. For both which victories, how great the re­joycing was, may be imagined hence, that Domitius Aenobarbus, and Fabius Maximus erected Towers of stone upon the very places where they had fought, and fasten'd Trophies thereon, adorn'd with the Arms of the Ene­mies, a thing not usual with our people. For the Romans ever upbraided those whom they subdu'd with their victory.

CHAP. III.

THe Cimbrians, the Teutones, and the Ti­gurians, fugitives from the extremities of Germany, upon the Sea's over-running their [Page 111] Countrey, sought new habitations all the world over: and being kept out of France and Spain, as they were returning into Italy, they sent Ambassadors to Silanus's Camp, and thence to the Senate, desiring the martial peo­ple [of Rome] would assign them some Coun­trey or other, by way of pay, which if grant­ed, they should dispose of their hands and arms. But what Lands should the Romane people give, then ready to fall into a Civil War, about the Agragrian Lawes? Being therefore repuls'd, what they could not ob­tain by entreaty, they resolve to get by force. For neither could Silanus hold out against the first irruption of the Barbarians, nor Manlius against the second, nor Caepio against the third. All had been lost, if Marius had not lived in that age. Nor durst he presently en­gage them; but kept in his men within the Camp, till that invincible rage and violence, which the Barbarians account valour, were somewhat remitted. They therefore retreat­ed from ours, insulting, and (so great was their confidence of taking the City) asking them, whether they would any thing to their wives. Immediately, upon those threats, di­viding themselves into three Bodies, they march'd over the Alps, that is, the Bars of Italy. Marius presently, with extraordinary expedition, taking the nearer ways, prevents [Page 112] the Enemy, and pursuing the formost Body, the Teuto [...]es, at the descent of the Alps, at a place ca [...]led Aquae Vitae. Oh heavenly powers▪ what an overthrow did we give them? The enemies were possess'd of the Valley and the River, our people wanted water. Whether the General did it purposely, or made ad­vantage of his Error, is doubtful. Certain it is, Valour heightned by necessity, occasion'd the Victory. For the Army calling for water. Ye are men, said he, there it is to be bad. The Engagement was so sharp, and the slaughter of the enemies so great, that the Romane Conqueror drunk not so much water out of the river as Barbarians blood, which ran down with it. Nay the King himself Theutobocchus, who was wont to vault over four or six hor­ses, could hardly get up one, when he was to make his escape; and being taking in an ad­joyning Grove, he was a remarkable Spe­ctacle, in as much as being a person of extra­ordinary stature, he was higher than the very Trophies. The Teutones being utterly de­stroy'd, they march towards the Cymbrians. These had already (who would imagine it?) in the winter-time which raises the Alps to a greater height, by the Mountains of Trent made a descent, as if they had fallen down into Italy. They cross'd over the river Athe­sis, not by the help of Bridge or Boats, but [Page 113] upon Trees cast into it, after they had out of a barbarous stupidity in vain attempted to stop its course, first with their own bodies, and afterwards with their hands and shields: and if they had immedia [...]ly taken their march to the City, the case might have been very dangerous. But about Venice, the most deli­cious part of Italy, their fierceness was soften­ed by the very mildness of the Air and Soyl. Besides Marius opportunely falls upon them, effeminated by the use of bread, boil'd flesh, and sweet wines. They soon desired Marius to pitch upon a day to figh [...], and he appoint­ed the next. They metri [...] a most spacious field, called Claudius; on their side there fell a hundred and forty thousand, on ours, not three hundred. They had the slaughter of the Barbarians for the space of a whole day. Our General also had help'd our valour with arti­fice, imitating Annibal, and his Conduct at Cannae. Fi [...]st having got a cloudy day, that he might charge the enemy ere he expected it; besides a windy, that the dust rais'd might flie into their eyes and faces; then having his Army drawn up towards the East, that, as was soon known by such as were taken, the Air might seem to be on fire, by reason of the glittering of our Helmets, and the Suns reflection on them. Nor was the Engage­ment with their wives less than with them: [Page 114] when being surrounded with Carts and Wa­gons, they fought from them as it were from Towers, with Clubs and Lances. Their death was equally gallant with their way of fight­ing. For when, upon an Embassy sent to Marius, they could attain neither liberty, nor the priviledge of celibate (which it was not lawful to grant them) having strangled and dash'd their childrens brains out, they either fell by mutual wounds, or, with strings made of their own hair, hung themselves on trees, or their Cart-tayls. Their King Beleus died fighting gallantly in the field, and fell not un­revenged. The [...]ird Body was that of the Tigurians, which as a relief to the others had possest it self of the hills of the Alps towards Noricium, dispersing, some basely running away, others betaking themselves to robbe­ries, mouldred away. The joyful and happy news of Italy's liberty, and the Empire vindi­cated, came not to the people of Rome by men, as is wont, but (if credible) by the Gods themselves. For the same day the thing was done, before the Temple of Castor and Pollux, young men crown'd wi [...]h Laurel, were seen delivering Letters to the Praetor, and there was a common report in the Theatre of a happy Victory over the Cimbrians. Then which what could be more miraculous, what more remarkable? As if Rome, rais'd above [Page 115] her mounts, had been Spectatrix of the war, as it had been at the Duels between Gladia­tors; since at the same time the Cimbrians fell in the field, the people made acclamations in the City.

CHAP. IV.

AFter the Macedonians (the Gods so pleased) the Thracians rebelled, al­though heretofore Tributaries to the Ma­cedonians; nor were they content to make incursions onely into the adjacent Provinces, but they got into Thessaly and Dalmatia, even to the Adriatick Sea, where stopping, as if Na­ture interpos'd, they cast their darts at the ve­ry waves. In the mean time they were so in­humane as to leave no cruelty unexercis'd on such as they took prisoners. For they offer'd mans blood in sacrifice to the Gods, they drunk in mens sculls, and by such insolences, they aggravated their punishments, whom they put to death with fire and Fer­ro. sword; nay they forc'd by tortures the infants out of their [Page 116] mothers wombs. The most savage of all the Thracians were the Sordisci, a people as subtle as stout. The scituation of their woods and mountains was correspondent to their dispo­sitions. Accordingly, the whole Army com­manded by Cato, was not onely defeated by those people, and put to flight, but, what is prodigious, all cut to pieces. Didius, finding the Thracians stragling and dispers'd in prose­cution of booty, forc'd them back into their Countrey; Drusus drove them yet further, and kept them from crossing the Dannow; Minucius destroy'd all along the [...]iver Aebrus, with the loss indeed of many of his men, while the Horse pass'd over the Ice of that traiter­ous river. Piso forc'd his way through the mountains of Rhodope and Caucasus. Curio went as far as Dacia, but w Ps frightned at the obscurity of the woods. A pius got even into Sarmatia; Lucullus, to the, extremities of the world, the River Tanais and the Lake of Maeotis. Nor were the most bloody of our ene­mies subdu'd by any other treatment than was suitable to their own disposition; for such of them as were taken felt the extremities of fire and sword. But nothing seem'd more in-sup­portable to the Barbarians, than that, having their hands cut off, they seem'd to out-live their punishment.

CHAP. V.

THe Pontick Nations are seated North­wards, towards the Euxine Sea, which is on the left hand, so called from the Pontick Sea. Of these Nations and Countreys the most ancient King was Atheas, afterwards Artabazes, descended from the seven Gover­nours of Persia. After him Mithridates, the mightiest of them all; since that whereas Pyr­rhus was defeated in four years, Hannibal in seventeen, this man stood out forty years, till that being subdu'd in three great Battels, he was brought to nothing, by the happy con­duct of Sylla, the gallantry of Lucullus; and greatness of Pompey. His pretence of war, as [Page 118] he alledged to the Praetor of Asia, Cassius, was, that Nicomedes King of Bithynia invaded his Territories. But indeed being transc [...]dently ambitious, his design was to become Master of Asia, and if he could, of Europe too. He deriv'd his hope and confidence from our vi­ces. For we being divided by civil wars, gave him the occasion; and Marius, Sylla, and Ser­torius shew'd him at a distance the naked side of the Empire. Amidst these wounds and distractions of the Commonwealth, an op­portunity being taken of a sudden, the storm of the Pontick War broke forth, as it were out of the uttermost den of the North, upon a people then wearied & minding other things. The first eruption of the War took away Bi­thynia from us. Afterwards Asia was subject to the same terror. Nor was it long ere the Cities and Nations thereof revolted from us, to the King. He was himself present, impor­tun'd them, and exercised cruelty in stead of valour. For what more insupportable than that one Edict of his, whereby he command­ed all the free Denizens of Rome that were in Asia, to be put to death? Whereupon Houses, Temples, Altars, nay all divine and humane Rights were violated. But this terror of Asia opened the King a way into Europe. Having therefore sent Archelaus and Neoptolemus, his Lieutenants, the Cyclados, Delos, Euboea, nay [Page 119] the very ornament of Greece, Athens were ta­ken onely Rhodes remain'd, which stuck clo­ser to [...] than any of the rest. Nay, the ter­ror of the Kings advance was come into Italy, nay even to the very City of Rome. Where­upon L. Sylla, an excellent Soldier, and no less daring, gives a check to the Enemies fur­ther advance, as if he had shov'd him with his hand. And immediately thence (who would believe it?) he went and press'd the City of Athens, the parent of Corn, with a Siege and Famine, so far as that they were forced to eat mans flesh; and afterwards ha­ving destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum, and Walls, to the extent of six thousand Sex quoque & amplius M p [...]m [...] ­ris. paces and more, after he had subdu'd the most ungratesul of men, as he said him­self, yet in honor of their deceas'd An­cestors, he restored them to their Temples and Reputation. Afterwards having forc'd away the Kings Garrisons from Euboea and Boeotia, he defeated all his Forces in two Battels, one near Cheronaea, the other near Orchomenos: and therupon passing over into Asia, he worsts him himself; and he had been absolutely ruin'd, if Sylla had not been more desirous to hasten, than compleat his Triumph. To this posture Sylla reduc'd Asia. He made a League with the Inhabitants of Pontus. Of King Nicomedes he receiv'd Bithynia; of Arioborzantes, Cap­padocia; [Page 120] and so Asia became ours, as before. Mithridates was onely forc'd out of his Terri­tories. So that the Inhabitants of Pont [...]s were not broken by these transactions, but incens'd. For the King, as it were lur'd by the wealth of Asia and Europe, endeavor'd the recovery of it by the Right of War, not as belonging to another, but because he had before lost it. Therefore as fires not fully put out, break forth into greater flame [...]; so Mithridates, ha­ving gotten greater Forces together, came as it were with the whole strength of his Kingdom again into Asia, by Land, by Sea, and by Rivers. C [...]zicum, a famous City, is the Ornament of the Asian Coast, as having a Fortress, Walls, a Port, and Towers of Mar­ble. Against this place, as if against a second Rome, he directed all the stress of the War. But the Citizens had the confidence to stand out, upon intelligence of Lucullus's advance brought by a messenger, who (a thing strange to relate!) supported by a Goat-skin under the arms, and guiding himself with his feet, seeming to such as saw him at a distance a kinde of Sea-monster, had escaped through the midst of the enemies ships. Whereupon, the posture of affairs changing, the besieging King being first press'd with famine, and af­terwards with the pestilence, Lucullus falls upon him as he was departing thence, and [Page 121] gave him so great an overthrow, that the Ri­vers Granius and Aesapus were all bloody. The subtile King, and acquainted with the avarice of the Romanes, commanded baggage and money to be scatter'd by those that fled, whereby to retard the pursuers. Nor was his flight by Sea more fortunate than that by Land. For a Fleet of above a hundred Ships, well stored with Ammunition and Provision, met with a Tempest in the Pontick Sea, and was so shatter'd, as if it had been in some engage­ment, as if Lucullus, having a certain corre­spondence with the Waves and Storms, had recommended the King to be subdu'd by the Winds. By this time were all the Forces of a most powerful Kingdom spent, but the Kings courage was heightned by his misfortunes. So that addressing himself to the adjacent Na­tions, he involv'd in his ruine in a manner all the eastern and northern parts. The Iberians, the Ca [...]pians, the Albanians, and both the Ar­menia's were courted, and [...]hrough all places Pompey's fortune sought him matter of glory, reputation, and titles. He seeing Asia en­flam'd by new Commotions, and that Kings sprung out of Kings, thinking it not fit to de­lay things till the strengths of several Nations were united, a Bridge of Ships being of a sud­den put together, he first of any cross'd the Euphrates, and having overtaken the retreat­ing [Page 122] King in the midst of Armenia (so extraor­dinary was the mans success?) he utterly rui­ned him at one battel. The engagement hap­pened in the night, and the Moon seem'd to take our part, in as much as she stood behinde the Enemies, and appear'd in her full lustre to the Romanes, whereby the Ponticks delu­ded by their longer shadowes, made at them, as at the bodies of their enemies. So that Mithridates was subdu'd in that one night. For afterwards he could do nothing, though he essay'd all things, like serpents, which having lost their heads, move their tails to the last. For having escaped the enemy, he would by his sudden advance, have fright­ned Colchos, as also the Cicilian Coasts, and our Campania; then having destroy'd the Port of Pyraeum, he would have had the Bosphorus reach to Colchos, and marching thence through Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, he thought to have made an unexpected invasion into Italy. But prevented by the revolt of his subjects, and the impiety of his son Pharnaces, he with his sword thrust out that soul, which poison could not force out of his body. In the mean time, the great Cneus, prosecuting the rebel­lious remainders of Asia, travers'd divers Na­tions and Provinces. For following the Ar­menians eastward, having taken the Metropo­lis of the Countrey Artaxata, he ordered Ti­granes, [Page 123] upon his submission, to reign over them. But towards the North, a Scythian Expedi­tion, wherein he had, as if at Sea, no guide but the stars, he destroyed Colchos, pardoned Iberia; spar'd the Albanians; having pitch'd his Camp at the descent of Caucasus, he com­manded Orodes King of Colchos to come down into the plains; Artoces, who rul'd over the Iberians, to send in even his own children as Hostages; nay, he also requited the liberality of Orodes, who had of his own accord sent him a Golden Couch, and other presents from Albania. And turning his Forces towards the South, having past Mount Libanus in Syria, and Damascus, he led the Romane Ensigns tho­row those odoriferous Forrests, and Woods of Balm and Frankincense. The Arabians were ready to obey his commands. The Jews assay'd to defend Jerusalem against him; but he forc'd his way into that also, that great Mystery of an impious Nation, lying open as it were under a golden roof. Being Arbitra­tor between two Brothers in competition for the Kingdom, he appointed Hyrcanus to reign; Aristobulus, not complying, he put in­to chains. Thus under the conduct of Pompey the Romanes over-ran all Asia, where it is of greatest extent, and made that a Middle-pro­vince of the Empire, which had been the ex­tremity of it. For they onely excepted, who [Page 124] preferr'd a League, and the Indians, who are not yet known to us, all Asia, between the Red-sea, the Caspian, and the Ocean, was un­der our Jurisdiction, either subdu'd or redu­ced by the Pompeian Legions.

CHAP. VI.

IN the mean time, while the Romanes are dispers'd into several parts of the world, the Cilicians invade the Seas, and taking a­way all Commerce by a breach of the Bonds of humane Society, they had made the Seas as impassable by the War, as they might have been by a Tempest. The desperate and en­raged pirates deriv'd a confidence from the unquiet state of affairs in Asia, by reason of the wars with Mithridates, and making their ad­vantages of anothers war, and the envy of a forreign King, they roved up and down with­out controul. And at first, commanded by one Isidorus, they kept within the next Seas and exercised their piracies between Creet and Cyrenae, Pyreum, and Achaia, and Maleus, which, from their booties, they named The [Page 125] Golden Gulf. And P. Servilius being employ'd against them, though he worsted their light and nimble Brigantines, with his heavy and well appointed Ships of War, yet was not the Victory without bloodshed. Nor thought he it enough to force them out of the Sea, but he also destroy'd their strongest Cities, and such as daily Spoils had enrich'd, to wit, Pha­selis, and Olympus, and Isaurus, the greatest Fortress of Cilicia; whence imagining to himself he had done a great Exploit, he as­sumed the sirname of Isauricus. Yet could they not keep ashore after so many defeats; but as certain creatures, whose double nature gives them the advantage of living upon land, or in the water, so they, upon the first retreat of an enemy, impatient of being a shore, got into the waters, and ventured somewhat far­ther out, than they had done before. So that Pompey, who had been so successful before, was now thought worthy this Victory, and it was look'd upon as an addition to what he had done against Mithridates. He, desirous to give an absolute check to a plague, which had spread it self over all the Sea, set upon it by a certain divine fore-cast. For having a great number of Ships of our own, and our Allies the Rhodians, he possess'd himself of both sides of Pontus and the Ocean. Gellius was to guard the Tuscian Sea; Plotius the Sicilian; Gratil­lius, [Page 126] the Ligurian Gulf; M. Pomponius had charge of the Gallick; Torquatus, of the Bale­arick; Tiberius Nero, of the Streights of Gades, which is the first entrance of our Sea; Lentu­lus, the Lybian; Marcellinus, the Aegyptian; the young Pompeys, the Adriatick; Terentius Varro, the Aegean and Pontick; Metellus, the Pamphylian; Caepio, the Asian; Portus Cat [...] guarded the Entrance of Propontis, blocking it up with Ships, as if it had been a gate. Thus all Sea-ports, Gulfs, Bays, Creeks, Promon­tories, Streights, Peninsula's being secured, the Pirates were surrounded as in a toil. Pom­pey himself took his way toward Cilicia, the source of the war. Nor did the enemies de­cline an Engagement; not that it proceeded out of any confidence, but being surpris'd, they would seem to dare something, yet so as that they endur'd onely the first On-set. For perceiving themselves surrounded of all sides by our Ships, casting away their Sayl [...] and Oars, and giving a general shout, which is a sign of submission, they begg'd quarter. We never before had a victory with less blood­shed, nor indeed was there any Nation so faithful to us. And that was to be attributed to the Generals prudence, who transplanted those who had been us'd to the Sea, to a gr [...] distance from it, and oblig'd them to cultivate the In-land part of the Countrey. Thus with [Page 127] the same labor; he gave Ships the freedom of Navigation, and restor'd to the Land its In­habitants. What occurs to be first admir'd in this Victory? the expedition of it, in that it was compleated in forty days; or the extra-ordinary success, in that it was done with­out the loss of a Ship? or the perpetuity, in that they never afterwards became pirates.

CHAP. VII.

THe Cretian war, if we would know the truth, we our selves began, onely out of a desire to reduce that Noble Island under our Jurisdiction. It seem'd to have favored Mi­thridates; and we thought fit to revenge it by force of Arms. M. Antonius first invaded the Island with a great confidence of victory, insomuch that his Ships were better furnish'd with Chains, than Arms. He therefore was pu­nish'd for his presumption; for the enemies intercepted many of his Ships, and hung up the bodies of the prisoners at the Shrouds and Tackling, as if they return'd to their Ports in Triumph. Afterwards Metellus laying the [Page 128] whole Island desolate with fire and sword, confin'd them within their Fortresses and Ci­ties, Gnofon, and Erythraea, and (as the Greeks are wont to call it) the Mother of Cities, Cydo­nia: and so great cru [...]lty was used on the pri­soners, that many poison'd themselves, others sent to Pompey, then absent, an acknowledgment of their surrendring themselves. Upon which he carrying on the affairs of Asia, and sending Octavius to Creet, as his Lieutenant, he was derided for concerning himself in another mans Province, and occasion'd Metellus to exercise greater cruelties on the enemies; and having overcome Lasthenes and Panares, Cap­taines of Cydonia, he return'd Victor, yet brought home with him, after so notorious a Victory, onely the surname Greticus.

CHAP. VII.

THe House of Metellus Macedonicus was so accustomed to Military Surnames, that one of his sons having obtain'd that of Creti­cus, another of them came soon after to be called Balearicus. The Bal [...]ares Islands had, [Page 129] about that time, infested the Seas with Pira­cies. One would wonder that a savage peo­ple, living in Woods, should have the confi­dence so much as to look on the Sea, from their very Rocks. On the contrary, they ven­tured out in Boats built without any design, and frightned such as sayl'd by with their un­expected surprizals. Nay, when they saw the Romane Fleet at a distance making towards them, conceiving it to be purchase, they ven­tur'd to meet it, and at the first Onset, cover'd the Ships with a shower of stones of all sorts. Every one had three Slings to fight withal. That they did execution, is no wonder, when the Nation hath no other Arms, and is brought up to that exercise from their infancy. A childe has no meat from his mother, but what he strikes down from a place shown him by her. But the Romanes were not long [...]ri­fied at that shower of stones. Upon the close, when they felt our Beaks, and the Darts fal­ling on them, crying out like beasts, they made what haste they could to the shore, and having sheltered themselves among the roc [...]s, they were to be sought out ere they could be overcome.

CHAP. IX.

THe fate of Islands was come, and so Cyprus was taken without any war. [...]tolomey had the government of this Island, a place abounding in wealth, and for that rea­son dedicated to Venus; nay, the report of its wealth was so great, and that withal true, that the very people, which subdu'd Nations, and was wont to bestow Kingdoms, upon the sol­licitation of P. Clodius Tribune of the people, confiscated the estate of that King, then alive, and their Ally. And he indeed upon the re­port of it poison'd himself. Whereupon Por­cius Cato brought the wealth of Cyprus in small light Vessels along the Tiber; which thing fil­led the Romane Treasury more than any Tri­umph had done.

CHAP. X.

ASia being subdu'd by the Forces of Pom­pey, fortune transferr'd what remain'd to be done in Europe to Caesar. There were yet unreduced the most cruel of all Nations, the Gauls and Germans, and Brittany, though divided from all the world, yet met with one that conquered it. The first commotions of the Gauls began among the Swissers, who, seated between the Rhone and the Rhine, their Lands being too narrow for them, came to seek out other habitations, after they had fir'd the walls of their Cities, and taken an oath never to return. But time being required to consider of it, and Caesar, having in the inte­rim, by breaking down the Bridge over the Rhone, deprived them of all means of flight, he drove back that most warlike Nation to their former aboads, as a Shepherd does his Flocks into the fold. The following fight with the Belgae was far more bloody, they be­ing a people who fought for their liberty. [Page 132] Though the Roman Soldiery did many great actions upon this occasion, yet this of Caesar himself their General was highly remarka­ble, when, the Army being inclin'd to flight, he took a Buckler from one that was running away, and running to the very Front, reinfor­ced the fight with his own hands. After­wards there was an Engagement at Sea with the Veneti; but we had a harder task with the Sea, than with the Ships: for these were rough, unshap'd, and soon sunk as soon as they felt our Beak-heads. But the shallows hindred the fight, as if the Ocean withdrawing it self by its ordinary refluxes during the En­gagement seem'd to intercede in the Quarrel. He had also to do with difficulties arising from the disposition of Nations and places. The Aquitani, a crafty people, retired into Caves under-ground; he commanded them to be pent up in them. The Morini wandred into the Woods; he ordered them to be burnt. Let not any one say the Gauls were bruitishly sim­ple, they mannage their business with subtil­ty. Induciomarus brought in the Treviri; Am­biorix, the Eburones. Having entred into a conspiracy, in Caesars absence, they met with his Lieutenants. But the former was gallant­ly defeated by T. Labienus, who brought away the Kings head. The latter having laid am­bushes in the valley, overcome us by craft; [Page 133] whereupon our Camp was plunder'd, and all the Gold carried away. We there lost Cotta, with the Lieutenant Titurius Rabinus. Nor could we ever after be revenged of that King who got over the Rhine, and could never be seen. Nor did the Rhine therefore escape, it being not just a place that entertain'd and protected our enemies should be free; but of the first Fight between Caesar and the Germans, there were just causes of his side. For the Bequani made complaints of their incursions. What an haughtiness was that of King Ario­vistus, when the Ambassadors of Caesar said to him, Come to Caesar, reply'd, But who is Cae­sar? And, If he will, let him come to me; And, What does it concern him what is done in our Germany? Do I meddle with the Romane af­fairs? So that there was so great a terror of this new Nation in the Camp, that many made their Wills before they took up their Bucklers. But those vaste Bodies, the bigger they were, the more open did they lye to the Swords and Darts. What gallantry the Sol­diery express'd in the fight, cannot be redu­ced from any thing so much as from what they did, when the Barbarians having lifted their Bucklers over their heads, covering themselves as under a roof, the Romans leap'd up on the very Bucklers, and thence stooping down cut their throats. Afterwards, the Me­napii, [Page 134] making their complaints to Caesar [...] ­gainst the Germanes, he thereupon cross'd the Mose [...], nay the Rhine it self, upon a Bridge o [...] Boats, and seeks out the enemy in the Hercy­nian Forrests. But all were fled into the Woods and Marshes, so great confusion had the Romane Force brought along with it, to that side of the river: nor was the Rhine cros­sed onely once, but several times, and that by Bridges. But there was a greater astonish­ment; for perceiving their Rhine taken, and as it were yoaked with a Bridge, they again fled into the Woods and Marshes, and what most troubled Caesar was, that there were not any to be overcome. Being Master of all both at Sea and Land, he look'd upon the Ocean, and as if this world were not enough for the Romanes, he bethought him of another. Ha­ving therefore got a Fleet together, he sails towards Brittain. He cross'd over with mar­vellous speed; for weighing from the Port of Morinum at the third Watch, he got the next day before noon into the Island. The shores were full of hostile tumult, and the chariots, trembling at the sight of a strange thing, went disorderly up and down. Their fearfulness was look'd on as a presage of our victory. He receiv'd their arms and hostages from the ti­merous, and he had made a further progress, had not the Ocean chastis'd his bold Fleet [Page 135] with a wrack. Return'd thereupon into Gaul, and having reinforc'd his Fleet and Forces, he comes again into the same Ocean, and pur­sues the same Brittains into the Calidonian Woods, and puts Cavelianus one of their Kings into chains. Content with these things, (for the design was not to get Provinces, but Glory) he return'd back with a greater booty than before, the Ocean it self being also more calm and favorable, as if acknowledging it self inferior to him. But the greatest and last conspiracy of all, was that of the Gauls, when that Prince so dreadful for stature, martial skill, and courage, and whose very name was made to strike a terror, Vercingetorix, brought together into one body, the Aruerni and Bitu­rigae, as also the Carnutae and the Sequani. He, upon Festival days, and days of Assembly, when great numbers of them met in the woods, heightned them by his haughty expressions, to a recovery of their former liberty. Caesar was then absent, raising of new Forces at Ra­venna; and the Alps had so risen in the win­ter, that they thought his passage stop'd. But what a fortunate temerity did this Message force him upon? Over till then unpassable crags of Mountains, through unbeaten ways and snows, taking his march with a choice light-arm'd party, he comes into Gaul; he brought together his winter Garisons, though [Page 136] at great distances, and was got into the midst of Gaul, ere it was fear'd he might be coming from the remotest part of it. Then assaulting the Cities that were the causes of the War, he destroy'd the Avaricum, though defended by forty thousand men; he fir'd Alexia, al­though maintained by two hundred and fifty thousand young men. The whole stress of the War was about Gergovia. For that vaste City having fourscore thousand men to defend it, with the help of its Walls, a Castle, and its precipices, was by Caesar compassed with Works, Palizadoes, and a Trench, through which he drew the River, besides eighteen Bastions, and a kinde of huge Counterscarp, by which means he first reduc'd it to a famine; afterwards killed those, who attempted to make sallies, in the very Trenches with swords and palizadoes, and at last forced the besie­ged to a surrender. Nay the King himself, the greatest Ornament of the Victory, com­ing as a Suppliant to the Camp, cast his equi­page and arms at Caesars feet, saying, Thou hast, O most valiant of men, a valiant man before thee, whom thou hast overcome.

CHAP. XI.

WHile the Romanes, by Caesar, subdue the Gauls in the northern part of the world, they receive a grievous wound in the East from the Parthians. Nor can we com­plain of Fortune, our disaster admits not that comfort. The covetousness of this Consul Crassus, (a vice hateful to Gods and men) while he mindes nothing but Parthian Gold, was punish'd with the loss of eleven Legions, and that of his own head; for that the Tri­bune of the people Metellus, had made horrid imprecations against him at his departure from Rome. And when the Army was past Zeugma, the Euphrates swallow'd our Ensigns forc'd into it by sudden Whirlwindes; and when he had encamped at Nicephorium, the Ambassadors from King Orodes press'd him to call to minde the Leagues made with Pompey and Sylla. But he, bent upon the Kings Treasures, without the least imaginary cause, made them onely this return, That he would give them his answer at Seleucia. Wherefore [Page 138] the Gods, avenger of Leagues, promoted the Artifices and Valour of the Enemies. And first, Crassus left behinde him the Euphrates, the onely river whereby he could be supply'd with provisions, and which serv'd him for a Rampart. Then he gave credit to a counter­feit Renegado, a Syrian, named Mazaras, by whose advice the Army being brought into a spacious Champian, lay open to the enemies of all sides. So that he was hardly got to Carrae, but the Kings Generals, Syllaces and Surenas, display'd their Ensigns glittering with Gold and Silk. Then without any more ado, the Parthian Horse falling on of all sides, pelted them with Darts so fast, as if it had been showres of Hail or Rain. So the Army receiv'd a dreadful overthrow; Crassus him­self cajoll'd into a parley, had, upon a signal given, fallen alive into the enemies hands, if the resistance of the Tribunes had not moved the Barbarian General to prevent his escape by killing him. So having carried away his head, the enemy made sport with it. His son they had kill'd with the same weapons, in his fathers sight. The remainder of that unfortu­nate Army, every one shifting for himself, was dispersed into Armenia, Cilicia, and Syria, so that there was hardly one left to bring the news of this defeat to Rome. His head and right hand being cut off, were carried to the [Page 139] King of Parthia, who justly made sport there­with. For melted Gold was pour'd into his gaping mouth, that his dead and breathless body should be burnt with Gold, whose mind had been inflamed with an insatiable de­sire of it.

CHAP. XII.

THis is the third Age of the Romane peo­ple, spent in foreign parts, during which, assuming the confidence to go out of Italy, they display'd their Ensigns all over the world. Of which age, the former Century was sa­cred, just, and, as we said, Golden, not stain'd with any wickedness or impiety, while there yet remain'd the sincere and inno [...]ent integri­ty of that pastoral origine, and the imminent fear of our Carthagenian enemies kept up the ancient Discipline. The latter Century, which we have deduced from the destruction of Carthage, Corinth, and Numantia, and the inheritance left us in Asia by King Attalus, to [Page 140] him who succeeded them, Augustus, of whom we shall speak hereafter, as it was more mag­nificent in respect of Military Exploits, so was it lamentable, and to be blush'd at, in re­spect of the domestick Disturbances that hap­pened therein. For as it was noble and praise-worthy to have reduc'd Gaul, Thrace, Cilicia, wealthy and powerful Provinces, as also the Armenians and Brittains, though not so much for the advantage, as the greater reputation of the Empire; so to have at the same time broke forth into civil distractions, and fought with our Allies, our Slaves, and Gladiators, and that the Senate should be divided into Factions, is shameful and to be lamented. And I know not whether it had not been better for the Romane people to have contented them­selves with Sicily and Africk, or indeed to have been without them, and confin'd their Government to Italy, than to arrive at so much greatness, as to be destroy'd by their own strength. For what but an excess of prosperity bred those civil Distractions? Our first corruption proceeded from the Conquest of Syria, the next from the Inheritance left us by the King of Pergamus in Asia. That ex­cessive wealth corrupted the manners of that time, and prov'd the destruction of the Com­monwealth, then sunk into its own vices as into a common Shore. For whence should [Page 141] it proceed, that the people should desire Lands and Food, but from the famine which luxury had occasioned? Thence therefore proceeded the first and second Gracchane, and the third Apuleian sedi [...]ion. Whence came it that the Knights dissented from the Senate, to assume to themselves the cognizance of judgements in Law, but from avarice, that the tributes of the Commonwealth, and the very judge­ments in Law might be converted to private lucre? Hence again came both the promise of communicating the freedom of Rome to all Latium, and by the means the wars with our Allies. What occasion'd the servile wars, but the abundance of Families? What occasion'd the Gladiators to raise Armies against their Masters, but the profuse liberality used to court the favour of the populace, who, being excessively taken with showes, made that a profession which was at first the punishment of our enemies? And now that we may come to some more specious vices, did not that ambi­tion of honours take its rise from the same cause, Wealth? Thence also came the storms of Marius and Sylla's times. The magnificence of entertainments, and excessive profusions, were they not the effects of wealth, which must in time bring in want? That also made Cati­line an enemy to his Country. Lastly that in­satiable desire of principality and rule, whence [Page 142] came it but from excessive riches? Nay these arm'd Caesar and Pompey with fatal firebrands to the destruction of the Commonwealth. We shall in order give an account of these dome­stick destractions of the Roman people, distinct from their forreign and justifiable wars.

CHAP. XIII.

THe power bestow'd on the Tribunes was the source of all the seditions; in as much as under pretence of asserting the rights of the people, for whose ease it was establish'd, they made it really their businesse to assume autho­rity to themselves, and courted the favour and applause of the people by the Agrarian, the Frumentarian, and the Judiciarii Laws. There seem'd to be in all of them a kind of equity. For what so just as that the common people should receive their right from the Senate; that the people which had conquer'd all Na­tions and was possessed of the world, might not be like vagabonds without Houses or Temples? What so just, as that a people redu­ced to want should live upon their own trea­sury? What more conduc'd to the equality [Page 143] of freedom, than that the Senate having the Government of Provinces, the Order of Knights, should have the advantage of Judi­cial proceedings? Yet these things became pernicious, and the wretched Commonwealth prov'd the reward of her own overthrow. For the management of Judicial proceedings be­ing transferr'd from the Senate to the Knights, suppressed the tributes, that is, the patrimony of the Empire; and the buying of corn exhau­sted the Treasury, the very sinews of the Com­monwealth. And could the people be put in­to possession of their Lands, without the eje­cting of those that were in actual possession, and themselves a part of the people? And yet these were possess'd of their habitations left them by their Ancestors, as it were by pre­scription of time and right of inheritance.

CHAP. XIV.

THe first firebrand of sedition was kindled by Tiberius Gracchus, a person highly eminent for his extraction, comelinesse and eloquence. But this man, whether fearful of being involv'd in the surrender of Manci [...] [Page 144] (for he was surely for our part of the league at Numantia) and thereupon desirous to ingra­tiate himself with the people; or proceeding with a good intention, as pittying to see the common people turn'd out of their Lands, that they who had conquer'd Nations and were Masters of the world, might not be ba­nished out of their own habitations; or what­ever design he had, attempted a very remar­kable thing; when that, the day for propound­ing the Law being come, attended by a great number of people, he ascended the Rostra, nor wanted there on the other side all the Nobili­ty with armed force to oppose him, and some of the Tribunes were also against him. But when Gracchus finds M. Octavius opposing the Laws he would have had enacted, contrary to the dignity of Colleagueship, and the right of his authority, he thrust his Colleague out of the Rostra, and put him into such a fright of present death, that he was forc'd to quit the Magistracy. By which means being created Triumvir for the distribution of the Lands, when to compleat what he had begun, he would, upon an assembly day, have had his au­thority continu'd for longer time, meeting a party of the Nobility and of those whom he had put out of their Lands, the slaughter be­gan at the Forum. He escaped thence to the Capitol, and putting his hand to his head, as [Page 145] it were to exhort the people to endeavour his safety, he seem'd as one desiring Royalty and a Diadem: and so the people having taken up arms, by the encouragement of Scipio Nusica, he was cut off as it were by a due course of Ju­stice.

CHAP. XV.

CAius Gracchus attempted with no lesse violence to revenge the death and Laws of his Brother. And with equal tumult and terrour inviting the people to their ancient Lands, and promising them for provisions, the newly-fallen inheritance of Attalus, and being grown too high and powerful upon a second Tribuneship, he was absolutely assur'd of po­pular favour. So that Minutius the Tribune presuming to abrogate his Laws, having got together a party of his Complices, he invaded the Capitol, a place fatal to his Family. Whence being forced with the losse of his friends, he got to Mount Aventine, where met with by a party of the Senate, he is defeated by Opimius. Nay they insulted over [Page 146] the dead carcasse, and the most sacred head of a Tribune of the people was sold by those who kill'd him for its weight in gold.

CHAP. XVI.

NOtwithstanding these things, Apuleius Saturninus forbore not to assert the Grac­chane Laws. So much was he encourag'd by Marius, who was always an enemy to the No­bility, and withall presuming upon his Con­sulship; after he had caused his Competitor A. Nonius, to be openly murther'd, at a gene­ral Assembly, endeavour'd to get into his place C. Gracchus, a person without tribe or name, and one who had by a foisted pedigree adop­ted himself into the Family. Thus while he triumphed by these affronts without any fear of punishment, he was so earnest to have the Gracchane Laws establish'd, that he forc'd the Senate to a complyance, threa [...]ing the refu­sers with banishment. One of them made it [Page 147] his choice. Whereupon after the departure of Metellus, all the Nobility being discourag'd, Saturninus being in the third year of his Tri­buneship, grew so insufferably impudent, as to disturb the Consular Assemblies with new slaughters. For, that Glaucias, the instru­ment of his fury might be made Consul, he caused C. Memmius his Competitor to be slain; and he gladly understood from some of his followers, that in that tumult he had been called King. But at length, the Senate conspiring against him, and Marius the Con­sul opposing, as being no longer able to de­fend him, armies were drawn up in the Fo­rum, whence being beaten he got into the Ca­pitol. But while he was besieg'd (the con­duit-pipes being cut off) and by messengers would have assur'd the Senate of his repen­tance, he came down out of the Castle, and was with the Ring-leaders of the faction re­ceiv'd into the Curia. Being there the peo­ple broke in, and fell upon him with stones and staves, tearing him to pieces even as he was dying.

CHAP. XVII.

LAstly, Livius Drusus, not onely with the strength of the Tribuneship, but also with the authority of the Senate, and the consent of all Italy, endeavours the establishment of the same Laws, and, attempting one thing after another, caused so great a conflagration, that the first eruptions of it could not be endur'd, so that taken away by a sudden death, he left a hereditary war to his posterity. According to the judiciary Law, C. Gracchus had devided the Roman people, and made that a double-headed City, which was but single before. The Roman Knights invested with so great power, as to have the fates and fortunes of the Senators, and the lives of Princes in their power, intercepting the tributes, robb'd the Commonwealth at their pleasure. The Se­nate being weakened by the exile of Metellus, and the condemnation of Rutilius, had lost all the lustre of Majesty. While things were in this posture, Servilius Caepio, and Livius Drusus, [Page 149] two persons equal as to courage, wealth, and dignity (which begat the emulation in Drusus) stood up for, one, the Knights, the other, the Senate. The Ensignes, Standards, and Ban­ners were ready to advance. But they were divided in one and the same City as if they had been in two distinct Camps. Caepio first as­saulting the Senate, pitch'd upon Scaurus and Philippus, chief persons of the Nobility, as chargeable with ambition. Drusus, to oppose these commotions, by the Gracchane Laws, got the common people to joyn with him, and drew in the Allies by a hope of being made free of the City. His saying, upon this occa­sion, is extant, That he had not left any one ought to give away, unlesse he would distribute dust or air. The day for the promulgation of the Law was come, when of a sudden, so great a multitude came in from all parts, that the City seem'd besieg'd by enemies. Yet the Consul Philippus had the boldnesse to oppose the enaction of the Laws; But the Viator ta­king him by the throat, let him not go, till the blood gush'd out his mouth and eyes. So the Laws were enacted by force. But our Allies immediately called for the reward of their as­sistance, when in the mean time death took away Drusus, unable to keep his word, and troubled at the commotions he had rashly caused, a seasonable death, in so great a danger: [Page 150] and yet the Allies ceased not by Arms to de­mand of the people of Rome the performance of Drusus's promises.

CHAP. XVIII.

THe war between us and our Socy, or Al­lies, I may call the Social War, to make it lesse odious; but the truth is, it was a Civil war. For the Roman people, having shuffled together the Etrusci, the Latines, and the Sa­bines, and deriving one blood out of them all, of several members it made up a body, and is but one consisting of all the parts. Nor did the Allies lesse wickedly rebel within Italy, than the Citizens did within Rome. The Allies therefore justly demanded the freedom of that City, to whose greatnesse they had contribu­ted, to which hope, Drusus, out of a desire of dominion, had raised them; and he after­wards destroy'd by the perfidiousnesse of his domesticks, the same firebrand that consumed him, enflam'd the Allies into Arms, and a design of besieging the City. What more la­mentable than this destruction? what more [Page 151] calamitious? when all Latium, and Picenum, [...]ll Etruria and Campania, lastly Italy, rose up against its Parent and Mother-City? when the flower of our most valiant and faithful Al­lies had those municipal prodigies each under their Ensignes. Popedius led the Marsians, and Latines, Afranius the Ʋmbri, the whole Senate and Consuls those of Samnium, and Telesinus those of Lucania: when that people which judg'd Kings and Nations could not govern it self, and that Rome the Conqueresse of Asia and Europe might be assayled from Corfinium. The first scene of the war was to have been upon Mount Albanus, it being resolv'd, that on the Festival day of the Latines, the Consuls Julius Caesar and Martius Philippus should have been offer'd up amidst the Sacrifices and Altars. But that treachery being discovered, the whole fury broke out at Asculum, the Am­bassadors who had been sent from the City be­ing murthered at the assembly of their so­lemne sports. This was the engagement of that impious war. Popedius the Author and Ring-leader of the war posting up and down spread the insurrection through several Nati­ons and Cities. The desolation [...] committed by Hannibal and Pyrrhus were not so great. Behold Ocriculum, behold Grumentum, Faesulae, Carceoli, Nuseriae, and Picentes, are wafted with slaughter, fire, and sword. Rutilius's For­ces [Page 152] are defeated; Coepio's defeated. Nay even Julius Caesar himself, after the losse of the Ar­my, being brought all bloody into the City, the lamentable spectacle of his funeral was car­ried through the midst of the City. But the great fortune of the Roman people, and ever greater in extremities, rose up a fresh with all their Forces, and sending out several Com­manders to engage against the several Nati­ons, Cato defeats the Etruscans; Gabinius the Marsyans; Cardo, the Lucanians; Sylla the Samnites. But Strabo Pompeius having layd all waste with fire and sword, never gave over destroying, till that by the destruction of Ascu­lum, he had appeased the Manes of so many Consular Armies, and ransack'd Cities.

CHAP. XIX.

THough we fought with our Allies (disho­nour enough!) yet we had to do with free persons and well educated. But who can brook that the Soveraign people of the world [Page 153] [...]ould arm against their Slaves? The first ser­ [...]ile war happen'd at the infancy of Rome, and [...]y'd within the City, Herdonius Sabinus be­ [...]ng the Leader, when, the City being busied [...]y the seditions of the Tribuneship, the Capi­ [...]ol was besieg'd and taken by the Consul. But that was rather a tumult then a war. Soon after, the Forces of the Empire being employ'd [...]n several parts, who would believe that Sicily was more cruelly desolated by the Servile then by the Punick war? Being a Country plenti­ful in Corn, and in a manner a Suburb-Pro­vince, was possessed by Roman Citizens who had great inheritances there. They had there many prisons full of chain'd Slaves for the cul­tivation of the ground, and these occasion'd the war. A certain Syrian named Eunus (the greatnesse of the destruction makes us remem­ber him) counterfeiting a fanatick destraction, while he boasteth of the C [...] ­mas. hair of the Syrian Goddesse, animated the Slaves as it were by a command of the Gods to assert their liberty, and take up Arms. And that he might prove it done by Divine inspiration, having a nut­shell in his mouth, which he had fill'd with Brimstone and fire, when he breath'd gently, the flames came forth with his words. This miracle at first drew together two thousand of such as were next met, but after breaking open the prisons, he made up an Army of above [Page 154] forty thousand. And being adorn'd with Royal ornaments, that our miseries might be compleat, he made a lamentable desolation of Castles, Towns, and Villages. Nay for an absolute dishonour, the Camps of the Praetors were taken, nor are we asham'd to name them, the Camps of Manilius, Lentulus, Piso, Hypsaeus. They therefore who should have been reduc'd as fugitives, pursu'd our Praetorian General, whom they had defeated in fight. At length, P. Rupilius being General, they were punish'd. For having overcome them, and at last be­sieg'd them at Euna, after he had wasted them with famine, as if it had been with a pesti­lence, he put the remainders of the villains in­to chaines and fetters, and crucify'd them. For his Victory over the Slaves he was content with an Ovation, that he might not derogate from the dignity of a Triumph, by a servile in­scription. The Island had hardly taken breath ere we return from the Slaves and the Syrian, to a Cilician. Athenio, a Shepherd, having kill'd his Master, puts the Family deliver'd out of prison into Arms. He himself clad in a Purple garment, and having a silver staff, and his forehead bound about after a Kingly man­ner, got together an Army not inferiour to that of the formentioned Fanatick, and with greater violence, as if he would avenge him, plundring Castles, Towns, and Villages, he [Page 155] exercised his cruelty upon Masters, but more insupportably upon Slaves, as so many Rene­gadoes. By this fellow also were Praetorian Armies slain, the Camps of Servilius, and Lu­cullus taken. But Aquilius, following the example of P. Rupilius reduc'd the enemy, de­barr'd from provisions, to extremities, and easily destroy'd by famine the Forces he had worsted by Arms: and they had surrendred themselves, if they had not preferr'd a volun­tary death, to avoid torments. Nay the Ring-leader of them mist the punishment he should have had, though he came alive into our Lands, for that while the multitude strove a­bout the taking of him, the prey was torn to pieces between them.

CHAP. XX.

A Man may support the dishonour of a war with Slaves, for though fortune hath made them subject to all things, yet are they as it were a second kind of men, and capable of the same happinesse of liberty with us. But [Page 156] I know not by what name to call the war rai­sed by Spartacus: as where the Soldiery were Slaves, and the Commanders Gladiators, those the meanest of men by their condition, these added to their calamity by the scorn of their profession. Spartacus, Crixus, and Oenoma, breaking Lentulus's Fencing-school, with sea­venty or more of the same quality, got away from Capua, and having call'd the Slaves into their assistance, and put them under their Ensignes, when they had got together above ten thousand men, were not content onely to have made their escape, but would also be re­venged. The Vesuvius was the first refuge these men were pleased to pitch upon. Where being besieged by Clodius Glaber, they slip'd down the rifts of the hollow mountain with the help of cords made of vine branches, and got down to the very foot of it, and at the same time of a sudden surpriz'd the General's Camp, who feared no such thing. They after­wards took another Camp. Then they wan­der up and down Thora, and all Campania. And not content with the devastation of Vil­lages and Hamlets, they destroy all in Nola and Nuceria, and Metapont. Forces coming in daily, they became a compleat Army, and made themselves Bucklers of twiggs and the skins of beasts, and swords and other weapons of the Iron about the prisons. And that nothing [Page 157] might be wanting to compleat the Army, they get horse by taming those they met with wild, and the Ensignes and Fasces taken from our Praetors they brought to their General. Nor did he refuse them, though a person who of a mercenary Thracian, became a Soldier; of a Soldier, a Renegado, then a Robber, and at last upon the presumption of his strength, a Gla­diator. He also celebrated the funerals of his Commanders kill'd in fight with Princely exe­quies, commanding such as he had taken pri­soners to fight about the funeral pile, as it were to expiate all Praetorian dishonour, by becoming, of a Gladiator, a rewarder of those who found him that divertisement. After­wards engaging with Consular Armies, he defeated that of Lentulus in the Appenine, and destroy'd the Camp of C. Cassius at Mutina. Puffed up with these victories, he design'd to invade the City of Rome, which was shame enough for us. In fine, we rise with all our Forces against this wretched Fencer, and Li­cinius Crassus vindicated Rome's honour, by whom the enemies being put to flight, escaped to the extremities of Italy. Being there shut up into a corner of Brutium, they prepared to escape into Sicily, but wanting vessels to trans­port themselves, and having try'd to supply that defect with boats of hurdles and barrels [Page 158] fasten'd together with twigs, but vainly, by reason of the swiftnesse of the current, at last sallying out, they dy'd like men, and (as was fit under the conduct of a Gladiator) fought without reprieve. Spartacus behaving him­self gallantly in the front of the battel, fell like a General.

CHAP. XXI.

THis onely wanted to compleat the mis­fortunes of the Romans, that they might have a parricidial war amongst themselves, and that Citizens should engage one against another, like Gladiators, in the midst of the City and Forum, as in a Theatre. Yet would it grieve me the lesse, if the wickednesse had proceeded from Plebeian Leaders, or if from Noble persons, bad ones. But (ô indignity, what men, what Generals were they!) Ma­rius and Sylla, the glory and ornaments of their age, promoted that execrable evil with dignity, and it was carried on by three diffe­rent constellations, as I may say. The first was mean and slight, and rather a tumult then [Page 159] a war, the cruelty being onely between the Leaders: the next was more cruel and bloo­dy, the victory spreading through the Bowels of the Senate: the last exceeded in point of rage, not onely a civil but even a hostile fury, when the horrour of the war engag'd all the Forces of Italy, the animosities being exasp [...] ­ted so far, till there were not any to be kill'd. The beginning of the war proceeded from Marius's insatiable desire of honours, while he laboured to deprive Sylla of the Province de­sign'd him. But Sylla impatient of the injury, brought about his Legions, and deferring the war with Mithridates, pour'd into the City at the Esquiline and Colline gates, with two great bodies. Whence Sulpitius and Albinovamis opposing them with their Forces, and as also with poles and stones, and darts cast of all sides from the walls, Sylla also falls a throwing, and forc'd his passage by fire, and possessed himself as Conquerour, of the Fortresse of the Capitol, which had escaped the Carthaginians, and the Gaules. Then by an edict of the Se­nate, Sylla's adversaries being adjudg'd ene­mies to the State, they exercised their fury on the present Tribune, and others of the contra­ry faction. Marius by a servile flight escaped, or rather fortune reserv'd him for another war. Cornelius, and Cn. Octavius being Consuls, [Page 160] the fire not well quench'd broke forth again, and that proceeded from their not agreeing among themselves, when it was referr'd to the people, whether those whom the Senate had condemn'd should be recalled. They came to that assembly with their swords about them; but they who desired quietnesse prevailing, Cinna, leaving his Country, fled to the con­trary party. Marius returns from Africk grown greater by his losse, in as much as imprison­ment, chains, flight, and exile had heightned his dignity. At the name of so great a person they flock to him from all parts; Slaves, and persons condemn'd to prisons (ô horrour!) are put into Arms, and the unfortunate Ge­neral easily got an Army together. Where­upon returning to his Country by force, as he had by force been driven out of it, he might seem to have proceeded with some Justice, if he had not stain'd his cause with cruelty. But returning hateful to Gods and Men, at the first eruption of his fury, Ostia, a place under the tuition and oversight of Rome, is with a horri­ble destruction pillaged. Afterwards, with four Battalions he enters the City, the Forces being commanded by Cinna, Marius, Carbo, and Sertorius. Here all the Forces of Octavius were beaten off at the Janiculum, whereupon a signal was given for the murthering of the [Page 161] Senators, which was effected with greater cruelty, than was exercised at the sacking of Carthage, or the City of the Cimbri. The head of the Consul Octavius is exposed on the Ro­stra: that of Antonius a Consular person is serv'd up to Marius's table. Caesar and Fim­bria are murther'd in their own Houses. The two Crassus's Father and Son were kill'd in fight one of the other; Baebius and Numitorius were drawn through the midst of the Forum by hooks of the common Executioners. Catulus avoided the sport his enemies would have made with him, by swallowing burning coals. Merula, Jupiter's Priest in the Capitol, opening his veins made the blood gush out into Jupi­ter's eyes. Ancharius was run through the body in the presence of Marius, because when he saluted him, Marius did not reach to him that fatal hand of his. All these massacres of the Senate happen'd between the Calends and Ides of January, in the seventh Consulship of Marius. What had been done, had he com­pleated the year? Scipio and Norbanus being Consuls, the third tempest of that civil rage, broke forth with greatest fury, there being of one side eight Legions, on the other five hun­dred Cohorts standing to their Arms, besides Sylla returning from Asia with a victorious Army. And certainly, Marius having been [Page 162] so cruel, what cruelty must Sylla needs use to be reveng'd of him? The first engagement was at Capua, neer the River Vulturnus, where Norbanus's Army was soon defeated, and soon after all Scipio's Forces, baited with a hope of peace, worsted. Whereupon young Marius and Carbo being made Consuls, as it were despairing of the victory, yet not to die unreveng'd, celebrated their own funerals with effusion of the blood of the Senators, brought forth, as it were out of a prison, to be kill'd. What funerals were there in the Forum, in the Circus, and in the open Temples? For Mutius Scaevola, the Priest, flying to the Altars of the Vestals, hardly escapes burying in the same fire. Lamponius and Telesinus, the Leaders of the Samnites, waste Campania and Etruria with greater cruelty than Pyrrhus and Hannibal had done, and, under pretence of siding with Marius, reveng'd themselves upon the Romans. At Sacriportus and the Colline-gate all the Forces of the enemies are cut off; at the former Marius, at the latter Telesinus was defeated: yet did not the war end with the massacres. The sword was drawn even in the time of peace, and they punish'd those who had voluntarily surrendred themselves. It is no lesse remarkeable, that at Sacriportus and the Colline gate, Sylla slew above seventy thou­sand [Page 163] men. Then it was a war. But he com­manded four thousand unarm'd Citizens, who had surrendred themselves, to be kill'd in the place called Villa Publica. Are not these a great number considering it was in a time of peace? But who is able to compute those whom any one that would might kill about the City? till Furfidius advising, that some should be left alive, that there might be some over whom they should rule, that great table was hung out, whereby two thousand out of the order of Knights and the Senators were condemn'd to die. A strange kind of Edict. It grieves me to relate after these things, the opprobrious treatment of Carbo, Soranus, the Praetor and Venuleius after their death. Boebius dy'd not by a sword, but was torn to pieces as they do wild beasts. Marius, the Generals Brother, having his eyes put out, and his hand and leggs cut off; at the Sepulchre of Catulus, was kept a while, that he might dy by degrees. The pu­nishments of particular persons being over, the noblest municipal Cities of Italy were exposed to sale, Spoletium, Interamnium, Praenesto, and Fluentia. But Sulmo, that ancient and friend­ly City in Allyance with us, not yet reduced, Sylla (ô heynous fact!) commanded it to be utterly destroy'd, as Hostages condemned [Page 164] by the Law of Arms and Sentences to death, are commanded forth to execution.

CHAP. XXII.

THe Sertorian war, what was it but a con­sequence of Sylla's proscription? Whe­th [...]r I should call it Hostile or Civil I know not, as being managed by the Lusitanians and Cel­tiberians, under the conduct of a Roman. That person, a man of great but unfortunate ver­tue, being an exile upon the account of that fatal table of Sylla, communicated his misfor­tunes to Sea and Land, and having try'd his fortune in Africk and the Balearick Island, got into the Ocean, and passed into the Fortu­nate Islands. At last he put Spain into Arms; where the gallant man easily prevail'd with such as were so; nor was the vigour of the Spanish Soldiery ever so remarkable as under this Roman Commander. Nor was he con­tent with Spain, but had also an eye to Mithri­dates, and the Inhabitants of Pontus, and assi­sted [Page 165] the King with a Navy. And what would have suffic'd so great an enemy? The Roman affairs were not in such a posture as to be able to oppose him with one General; Cn. Pom­peius was joyn'd with Metellus. These weak­ned his Forces a long time, and with doubt­full successe; yet was he not overcome by war, till he was betray'd by his own domesticks. Having pursu'd his Forces all over Spain, they had many, and those doubtful engagements. The first were managed by Lieutenants, when, of one side Domitius and Thorius, and the Herculians on the other, met as forlorns. Soon after, the latter being defeated neer Segovia, the former at the River Ana, the Generals themselves approaching one the other had another tryal neer Lauro and Sucro, and the losse was equal on both sides. Whereupon one side minding the desolation of the Coun­try, the other, the destruction of Cities, wretch­ed Spain ru'd the differences of the Roman Ge­nerals: till that Sertorius, being murther'd by his servants, and Perpenna vanquish'd and having surrendred himself, the Cities also re­acknowledg'd the jurisdiction of the Romans, to wit, Osea, Terme, Tutia, Valentia, Auxima, & Calaguris, after it had endur'd the extremities of a famine. So Spain being restor'd to peace, the victorious Generals would have it accoun­ted [Page 166] rather a forreign than a civil war, that they might have the satisfaction of a triumph.

CHAP. XXIII.

MArcus Lepidus, and Q. Catulus being Consuls, there broke forth a civil war which was extinguish'd in lesse time then it had been begun. But how far soever the fire-brand of that commotion spread, it was a spark arising from the funeral pile of Sylla. For Le­pides, insolently desirous to see some alteration, would abrogate the acts of so great a person; not unjustly, could it have been done without injury to the Commonwealth. For the Di­ctator Sylla having prescrib'd his enemies by the Law of Arms, those who surviv'd, to what end should they be called together but to war? And the estates of the condemn'd Citizens be­ing bestow'd by Sylla upon others, though it were a thing unjustiable in it self, yet, done with a certain form of Justice, the restitu­tion thereof to the former proprietors, must no doubt disturb the tranquillity of the City. It therefore concern'd the Commonwealth [Page 167] now indisposed and wounded, to rest, though upon any terms, that the wounds of it might not be opened in order to its cure. Lepidus therefore having startled the City with sedi­tious remonstrances, as with an alarm, he went into Etruria, and thence brought an Army against Rome. But Lutatius Catulus, and Cn. Pompeius, the Captains and Promoters of Sylla's tyranny, had already possessed them­selves of Milvius bridge and mount Janiculus, with another Army. By whom being forc'd back at the first onset, and declar'd an enemy by the Senate, he retreated without any blood­shed to Etruria, afterwards into Sardinia, and there of sicknesse and grief died. The Conque­rours, a thing rarely seen in any of the other civil wars, contented themselves onely with the peace.

CHAP. I.

FIrst luxury, and, what is the effect of that, the want of things necessary, and withall opportunity, in re­gard the Roman Armies were di­stant as far as the uttermost parts of the world, forc'd Cataline upon these hainous designs of [Page 169] oppressing his Country, murthering the Se­nate, killing the Consuls, firing the City, rob­bing the Treasury, overturning the whole Commonwealth, and doing what Hannibal seems not to have wish'd. What complices had he to compasse that horrid act? He him­self was of the order of the Patricii, but that amounted to little. There were engag'd with him in the same design some of the Curii, the Porcii, the Sylla's, the Cethegi, the Antronii, the Vargunteii, and Longini. How great Fami­lies were these? What ornaments of the Se­nate? Nay Lentulus also, then Praetor, had entertained all these as instruments to carry on his most horrid attempt. The conspiracy was seal'd with humane blood, which car­ried about in goblets they drunk one to ano­ther, a crime the most enormous in the world, that onely excepted upon the account of which they drunk it. There had been an end of the Noblest Empire in the World, if that conspiracy had not happened in the time of the Consulship of Cicero and Antonius, of whom the one discovered it by his indu­stry, the other quashed it by force. The discovery of so great a wickednesse came from Fulvia, a common Strumpet, but not guilty of the intended parricide. Where­upon Cicero, assembling the Senate, made an [Page 170] Oration against the Parricide Catiline, pre­sent than among them; but that proceeded no further, then that the enemy might escape, openly professing, that he would extinguish the conflagration of the City by the utter destruction of it. He goes to the Army raised by Manlius in Etruria, with a design to bring it against the City. Lentulus prophecying to himself the Government design'd his Family by the Sibylline verses, disposes, at set places about the City, Men, Firebrands, and Arms, against the day appointed by Catiline; and not con­tent with a civil conspiracy, he drew into Arms the Ambassadors of the Allebroges then casually at Rome. And the fury had spread beyond the Alps, if, upon another discovery of Vulturius, the Praetor's letters had not been intercepted Whereupon by the order of Cicero, the Barbarians were secured. The Praetor is openly convicted in the Senate. Being in consultation about their punish­ment, Caesar would have had him spar'd up­on the account of their quality; but Cato would have them punish'd, according to the horridnesse of the crime. Which opinion the rest fellowing, the Parricides were put to death in prison. Though some part of the Conspiracy were smother'd, yet Catiline per­sisted in his design, and upon his march from [Page 171] Etruria with an army against his country, he is defeated by Antonius. How sharply they fought, the event made appear: not one of the ene­mies surviv'd the encounter; that place which every one fought upon prov'd that whereon his body reposed after death. Catiline him­self was found at a great distance from his own people among the carcasses of his enemies, a most noble death had he so fallen for his Country.

CHAP. II.

THe whole world being now in a manner overcome, the Roman Empire was grown too great to be destroy'd by any forrein Forces. Fortune therefore, envying the Soveraign people of the world, armed it to its own de­struction. The rage of Marius and Cinna had [Page 173] kept within the Walls of the City, as it were to make a tryal; the storm raised by Sylla spread farther, yet went not out of Italy; but the fury of Caesar and Pompey, as it were a de­lug [...], or genetal conflagration, over-ran the City, Italy, Countries, Nations, and at last the whole Empire, so that it cannot rightly be called a civil, nor social, nor forreign war, but somewhat comprehending all these, and indeed more then a war. For if we consider the Generals, the whole Senate was divided into factions; if the Armies, we find on the one side eleven Legions, on the other, eigh­teen, both consisting of the flower and strength of Italy; if the assistance of confederates, there was on the one side the choice of the Gauls and Germans, on the other Dejotarus, Ariobarza­nes, Tarcondimotus, Cothus, the whole Force of Thrace, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, and all the East; if the continu­ance of the war, we find four years, a small time, considering the destructions; if the space and stage, on which it was acted, we and it begun in Italy, and spread thence into Gaul and Spain, and returning from the West, it seated it self with its whole burthen in Epi­rus and Thessaly; thence it made a sudden sally into Aegypt, then return'd into Asia, and stuck a while in Asia; at last, returning into [Page 174] Spain, there after some time receiv'd its pe­riod. But the animosity of the factions ended not with the war. For they rested not till the malice of those who were conquer'd had sa­tisfy'd it self with the murther of the Conque­rour, and that done in the very City, nay in the midst of the Senate. The cause of this so great a calamity was the same with that of all the rest, to wit, excessive prosperity. For Quintus Metellus, and Lucius Afranius being Consuls when the Majesty of Rome was spread all over the world, and the City celebrated the late-gain'd victories, and the Pontick and Ar­menian triumphs of Pompey, in the Pompeain Theaters, the over great power of that per­son, raised a jealousy (as it is often wont) in some busy Citizens. Metellus, discontented at the abatement of his triumph over Creet, Cato, ever an enemy to the powerful, calum­niated Pompey, and found fault with his actions. The grief he conceavid thereat stuck like a dart in his bosom, and forc'd him to endeavour the support of his authority. As chance would, then flourish'd Crassus, a person eminent for his extraction, wealth, and dignity; yet thought he not himself wealthy enough. Caius Caesar was in great repute for his eloquence, wit, and his being then Consul. Yet was Pompey more eminent than either. So that Caesar being [Page 175] desirous to attain greater dignity, Crassus to increase his, and Pompey to retain his, and all equally aiming at power, they easily con­spir'd together to invade the Commonwealth. Making therefore every one of them his ad­vantage of their mutual Forces, Caesar invades Gaul; Crassus, Asia; Pompey, Spain, with three very great Armies, and so the Empire of the World was divided among three Princes. That Government lasted ten years. They had till then been ballanc'd by a mutual fear of each other; but upon the death of Crassus among the Parthians, and that of Julia, Cae­sar's Daughter, who, married to Pompey, main­tain'd concord between the Father and Son-in-law, emulation soon discover'd it self. Pom­p [...]y was jealous of Caesar's wealth, and Caesar could not brook Pompey's dignity; the one could not endure an equal, nor the other a superiour. O horrour! they so disputed for principality, as if the fortune of so great an Empire could not suffice two. Whereupon, having, during the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus, made the first breach of the conspiracy, the Se­nate, that is Pompey [by whom they were guid­ed] moved the appointing of a successor to Caesar; nor was Caesar himself against it, if in the first Assembly for the election of Consuls there were a respect had of him: which ho­nour [Page 176] ten Tribunes had decreed to him though absent, and that with Pompey's approbation, but now upon the same person's indifference, it is deny'd; alledginig that he should come and demand it after the ancient form. On the con­trary Caesar was earnest for the passing of the decrees, protesting he would not disband the Army, if they perform'd not their promises. Whereupon they decree against him as an Enemy. Caesar mov'd at these things, resolv'd, by Arms, to maintain the rewards of Arms. The first scene of the civil war was Italy, the Fortresses whereof Pompey had supply'd with slight Garrisons; but all, upon Caesar's sudden advance, were reduc'd. The First encounter was at Ariminum; Whereupon Libo was for­ced out of Etruria, Thermus out of Ʋmbria, Domitius out of Corfinium. And the war had been at an end without any bloodshed, if Caesar, as he had attempted it, could have surpriz'd Pompey at Brundusium. But he made his escape by night through the closures of the besieged port. A shameful thing to be spoken, that he, who not long before had been chiefest of the Senate, and the umpire of peace and war, should venture himself in a torn and unarm'd vessel into that Sea, on which he had trium­phed. Pompey had no sooner got out of Italy, but the Senate left the City, which almost [Page 177] emptied by fear, Caesar entring into, makes himself Consul. He also commanded the sa­cred Treasury to be broke open, because the Tribunes were tedious in the doing of it otherwise, and violently seiz'd the revenue and patrimony of the people, before he assu­med the soveraignety. Pompey being forc'd to flight, he thought fitter to settle the Provin­ces, then follow him. Sicily and Sardinia, he secur'd by his Lieutenants, that he might be assur'd of provisions. There was no hostility among the Gauls, he himself had made a peace there. But he passing through it against the Pompeian Armies in Spain, Massilia presum'd to shut her gates against him. Wretched Massi­lia, out of a fear of war, falls into a war. But having strong walls, he order'd it to be reduc'd in his absence. That half-Greek City, not so delicate as the name might intimate, presum'd to force the enemies Trenches, fire their Ma­chines, and give them a Sea engagement. But Brutus, who manag'd the war, overcame it both by Sea and Land. At length surrendring themselves, all was taken from them, their li­berty onely excepted, which they valued above all. Caesar's war in Spain with Petreius and Afranius, Lieutenants under Cneius Pompeius was various, doubtful, and bloody, whom having their Camp at Illerda he attemps to be­siege [Page 178] at the River Sicoris, and to shut up in the Town. In the mean time by the overflow­ing of the River, happening commonly in the Spring, he was reduc'd to a want of provi­sions. So his Camp began to be sensible of famine, and the besiege himself was in a man­ner besieged. But the River returning within its channel, he scowres the coasts with deva­station and fighting, and fiercely playes upon them, and pursuing them in their retreat into Celtiberia, he compassed them in so with Tren­ches, that thirst forc'd them to a surrender. Thus the hither-part of Spain was reduc'd, nor did the further stand out long. For what could one Legion do, after the defeat of other five? Wherefore Varro submitting of his own ac­cord, Gades, the streight adjoyning to it, the Ocean it self, all things comply'd with Caesar's prosperity. Yet fortune would do somewhat in opposition to the absent General, on this side of Illuricum and Africk, as if of purpose to make his prosperities the more glorious by crosse accidents. For Antonius and D [...]labella being commanded to guard the entrance of the Adriatick, and the one having encamped on the Illyrian shore, the other on the Cor­cyrean, Pompey being then master of the Sea all thereabouts, Octavius his Lieutenant, and Libo compasse them about with a great force [Page 179] of Sea-soldiers, so that want of provisions forc'd Antonius to a surrender. The boats sent to their relief by Basilius for want of better ves­sels were taken as in a toyl by a new strata­gem of the Cilicians, on Pompey's side, by fast­ning rops under water. Yet the Tyde got off two of them, one, wherein were the Opiter­gins, running a-ground wrought an effect worthy to be transmitted to posterity. For a party of somewhat lesse then a thousand young men, held out a whole day against the force of the whole Army, surrounding them of all sides; and finding they could not extricate themselves by their valour, to avoid a surren­der, upon the encouragement of their Com­mander, Vulteius, they slew one another. In Africa also, a ballancing of successe and misfor­tune attended Curio, who being sent to reduce the Province, and glorying in his defeating of Varus, was not able to stand the sudden ad­vance of King Juba and the Mauritanian horse. The conquer'd had the convenience of flight, but shame perswaded him to die with that Ar­my, which his temerity had lost. But fortune desirous to quit scores, Pompey had chosen Epirus for the seat of the war. Nor did Caesar stay long behind; for having setled all things behind him, though it were the depth of win­ter, he embark'd in order to the prosecution of [Page 180] the war: and having encamped at Oricum, and part of the Army being left with Antonius for want of Ships and so forc'd to continue at Brundusium, he was so impatient, that to get them over, though the winds and Sea were very high, he ventur'd out alone at midnight in a small scout-vessel. His saying to the Master frightned at so great danger is extant; What art thou afraid of? said he, thou carriest Caesar. Having brought all his Forces together, and the two Camps being neer one the other, the designs of the Generals were different. Caesar naturally daring, and desirous to compleat his work, embattell'd, challeng'd, provok'd the enemy, one while besieging their Camp with a trench of sixteen miles (but what injury could a siege do those who having the Sea open, had plenty of all things?) another while by offering to assault Dyrrachium, though in vain (as being a place by its scituation in­expugnable) and besides with dayly skirmi­shes, as the enemy sally'd out (at which time the extraordinary valour of Scaeva the Centu­rion was remarkable, in whose Buckler were the marks of a hundred and twenty darts) and at length by plundring the Cities associated with Pompey, desolating Oricum and Gomphi, and other Fortresses of Thessaly. On the contra­ry, Pompey hung off, and delay'd what he could, [Page 181] hoping to frighten the enemy, compassed of all sides, with want of provisions, and that the violence of that most daring General might abate. But he could make no longer advan­tage of that prudent resolution. For the Sol­diery blam'd the sloath, the Associates, the te­diousnesse, and the Senator, the ambition of the General. So the fates hastening his mis­fortune, he resolv'd to fight it out in Thessaly, and there in the Philippian Fields, the fates of the City, the Empire, nay of mankind are disputed. The people of Rome never saw so great Forces in any one place, nor fortune, persons of so great dignity engag'd. There were on both sides above three hundred thou­sand men, besides the assistance of Kings and the Senate. Never were there more appa­rent prodigies of an imminent destruction: victims ready to be sacrific'd getting away, *Examina in signis. swarms of Bees pitching upon the Ensigns, darknesse in the day time. Pompey himself dreamt over night that he heard the clapping hands in his own Theatre at Rome sounding like the noise made in mour­ning, and in the morning, he was seen before his t [...]nt (unlucky fate!) in a black garment. Caesar's Army never was more lively and cheer­full. The charge came first from Pompey,'s, the darts from Caesar's. The Javeline of Cra­stinus, [Page 182] who gave the first onset, was observa­ble; for he being afterwards run into the mouth with a sword, and so afterwards found among the Carcasses, shew'd, by the strange­nesse of the wound, with what earnestnesse and rage he had fought. Nor was the issue of the war lesse admirable. For Pompey having so great a number of Horse as that he thought to have surrounded Caesar, he himself was sur­rounded. For having fought long without ad­vantage of eitheir side, and Pompey having com­manded the Horse out of the right wing, of a sudden, upon a signal given, the German Co­horts, gave them so fierce a charge, that they seem'd to have been foot, and these mounted on Horses. Upon that execution of the re­treating Horse ensu'd the overthrow of the light-armed men. Thereupon the terrour spreading farther and farther, and the whole Forces put to the rout, the remaining destru­ction was compleated with little trouble. Nor did any thing contribute so much to the over­throw, as the very greatnesse of the Army. Cae­sar did nobly that day, not only as General but also as Soldier. His speeches were heard as he rid about; the one bloody but witty, and powerful for gaining the day, to wit, Soldier, strick at the face; the other discovering a cer­tain ostentation, Spare our own Country-man, [Page 183] while he himself pursu'd them to the utmost. Yet had Pompey been happy in his misfortunes, if the same fortune had befallen him as had his Army. But he surviv'd his dignity, that, be­ing forc'd from Larissa, he might with greater disgrace make his escape on Horseback over the Thessalian Tempe; that upon a solitary rock of Cilicia he should consider whether it were best for him to fly into Parthia, Africk, or Ae [...]ypt; in fine, that being upon the Pelu­sian shore, he should, by order of a most un­worthy King, the Counsel of his Eunuchs, (and, to compleat his misfortune) fall by the sword of his own treacherous servant Septi­mius, and die in sight of his Wife and Chil­dren. Who would not have thought the war had been ended with Pompey? But the embers of the Thessalian conflagration broke forth again into a much more violent flame; and in Aegypt there was war, without any of Pom­pey's party engag'd in it. For Ptolemey, King of Alexandria, having committed the most heynous act of any during the civil war, and assur'd his Allyance with Caesar by the means of Pompey's head, fortune desiring the manes of so great a person should be revenged, there wanted not an occasion. Cleopatra, the King's sister, falling at Caesar's feet, demanded a re­stitution of one part of the Kingdom. The [Page 184] young Virgin was beautiful, and what height­ned her beauty was, that, being such, she had suffered an injury; besides he could not but have a horrour for the King himself, who had murther'd Pompey, not so much out of love to Caesar, as out of complyance with the present conjuncture, and would have treated him af­ter the same manner, if it had been expedient. Caesar therefore having commanded that Cleo­patra should be restor'd to her own, was im­mediately besieg'd in the Palace by the same persons who had murther'd Pompey, and yet with a small force stood out against the at­tempts of a vast Army. And first, firing the next Houses and Ships, that were in the Port, he avoided the darts of his importunate ene­mies; then he got off of a sudden into the Peninsula of Pharos; and thence being forced into the Sea, by a strange good fortune he swam to the Navy, that lay hard by, leaving behind him his Soldiers coat in the water, ei­ther by chance or out of design, that that might receive the darts and stones cast by the ene­mies. Being thus received by his own Fleet and Soldiers, assaulting the enemies of all sides, he performed the last obsequies to the manes of his Son-in-law, by being reveng'd on that cowardly and perfidious Nation. For not only Theodorus, the Kings Tutor (occasio­ner [Page 185] of the whole war) but also those men-mon­sters, the Eunuchs, Photinus and Ganimedes, making their escape differently by Sea and Land were consum'd by exile and death. The King's body was found cover'd with slime, known onely by the gaudinesse, of a golden breast-plate. In Asia also, there broke forth now Commotions in Pontus, as if fortune had design'd the period of Mithridates's Kingdom, that as the Father was overcome by Pompey, the Son should be by Caesar. King Pharnaces presuming more upon our distractions then his own valour, with an offensive Army inva­ded Cappadocia. But Caesar engaging him de­feated him at one, and (as I may say) that not a compleat Battel: taking him like a thun­derbolt, which in the same moment, comes, strikes, and is gone. So that it was no vain assertion of Caesar's, That the enemy was over­come ere he was seen. Thus went affairs with forreign enemies. But he had a harder task with our Country-men in Africk then at Phar­salia. Into these parts had some fluxe of fury forc'd the remainders of the wrack'd party; not remainders, but an entire war. The Forces were rather scatter'd than defeated. Nay the misfortune of their General engag'd them to a stricter prosecution of the war, nor did the succeeding Commanders degenerate from [Page 186] those who had gone before them. For Cato and Scipio sounded full enough in stead of Pom­pey's name. There were brought in additio­nal Forces by Juba King of Mauritania, to the end Caesar's conquests might spread the far­ther. There is therefore no difference between Pharsalia and Thapsus, save that in the latter the efforts of the Caesarians, were greater and more violent, as being incensed that the war should have increased after Pompey's death. Lastly, what never happened before, the trum­pets sounded a charge, before the General gave order for it. The overthrow began with Juba; his Elephants not accustomed to war, and not long before brought out of the woods, were startled at the sudden noise of the trum­pets. Whereupon the Army was put to flight, and the chief Commanders could do no otherwise then endeavour an escape, when all were cut off nobly before them. Scipio was got away in a Ship, but the enemies having overtaken him, he fell upon his own sword; and one asking, where he was, he himself re­turn'd this answer, The General is well. Juba being got into his Palace, and having magni­ficently treated his companion in flight Pe­treius, proffered himself to be killed by him in the midst of the entertainment. Petreius dis­patch'd both the King and himself; and so the [Page 187] half-eaten meats and the funeral messes were mixt with the blood of a King and a Roman. Cato was not in the fight, but having encamped at Bagrada, kept Ʋtica, as another main Fort of Africk. But hearing of the defeat of his party, without any further delay (as became a Wiseman) he cheerfully hasten'd his own death. For having dismissed his Son and Com­panions with embraces, he went to bed, and after he had, by a light, read a while in Plato's Treatise, concerning the Immortality of the Soul, he took a little rest: then about the first watch, having drawn his sword, he thrust it twice into his uncover'd breast. After which the Physicians would needs by violence trou­ble the man with plaisters. He bore with them till they were gone, but then opened the wounds afresh, and there came forth such abundance of blood, that his dying hands were congeal'd to the place. New Armies, and parties arose, as if there yet had been no figh­ting, and Spain exceeded Africk, as much as Africk had done [...]h [...]ss [...]ly and wha [...] gave a great advantage to the parties, was, that there were two Brothers Generals, and instead of one Pompey, there were two. Never was there a more cruel, and withal a more doubtful en­counter. The first engagement happened be­tween Varus and Didius, the Lieutenants of [Page 188] the several parties, at the very entrance into the Ocean. But the opposition they both met with from the Sea was sorer than that of the several Fleets. For as if the Ocean would chastise the fury of enrag'd Country men, both Fleets were wrack'd. What horrour must there be, when at the same time there was a confused conflict between the Fluctus, [...]rae­cellae, viri, na­ves, armamen­ [...]a. waves, the storm, Men, Ships, & Arms? Adde to this the dreadful scituation of the place it self, the shores on the one side of Spain, on the other, of Mauritania, as it were closing, the Mediterra­nean Sea and the Ocean joyning together, and Hercules Pillars hanging over; and with this all the extremities of a fight and tempest. Af­terwards, both sides fell to the besieging of Cities, which, between both, miserably smar­ted for their friendship with the Romans. The last of all the engagements was at Munda. Here, not answerably to former prosperity, there was so doubtful and lamentable a fight, as if Fortune seem'd to be in suspence what to do. Nay Caesar himself seem'd dejected before the Army, not as he was wont to be, either out of a regard of humane frailty, or a mistrust of a too long continu'd prosperity, or fearing Pompey's fate, since he began to be what Pom­pey was. But in the midst of the fight, there [Page 189] happen'd an accident which no man could re­member he had heard before, when the two Armies were upon equal terms, and busied in a mutual execution, in the greatest heat of the work, there was of a sudden a deep silence on both sides, as if it had been by consent. This was the general conceit of it. At last hap­pen'd a misfortune which Caesar had not seen before, the choice band of Veterans gave ground. And though that they had not fled, yet was their resistance to be attributed rather to a certain shame, than valour. Whereupon Caesar, lighting off his Horse, runs like a distra­cted person to the front of the Battel. There he stay'd such as were shrinking, encourag'd them, and finally by his eyes, hands, and voice assures the whole body. It is reported that in that disturbance, he was thinking of killing himself, and that it was apparent in his countenance, he would have hasten'd his own death, if five Cohorts of the enemies, crossing the Battel, being sent by Labienus, to rein­force the Pompeian Camp then in some danger, had not seem'd as if they fled. Which Caesar either really believ'd, or cunningly laying hold upon that occasion, and charging them as a flying party, he both heightned the courage of his own people, and gave the enemy an over­throw. For the Caesarians, imagining them­selves [Page 190] Conquerors, pursue the more eagerly; on the other side, the Pompeyans, supposing their party ran away, began to fly. How great the slaughter of the enemies was, and how great the fury and animosity of the victorious, may be guessed hence. When such as had esca­ped out of the fight, had retreated to Munda, and Caesar had given order that the vanquish'd should immediately be besieg'd, there was a rampire made of the carcasses brought toge­ther which were fasten'd and kept in with spears and Javelins; a spectacle would have been abominable, even amongst Barbarians. But Pompey's Sons despairing of the victory, Cneus escaping out of the fight, wounded in the leg, and going towards the desarts and unfrequented places, was overtaken at the Town of Lauro by Cesennius, who there kill'd him fighting, so that he had not as yet despai­red. In the mean time fortune kept Sextus undiscover'd in Celtiberia, and reserv'd him for other wars after Caesar's time. Caesar returns victor into his Country. His first triumph over Gaul was brought in by a representation of the Rhine and the Rhone, and the captive Ocean in gold. The second, the Aegyptian Lawrel. In that was represented the Nile, Arsinoë, and the Pharus on fire. The third triumphal Cha­riot, brought in Pharnaces and Pontus. The [Page 191] fourth Juba and the Mauritanians, and exposed Spain twice subdu'd. Pharsalia, and Thapsus and Munda, appeared not amongst his tri­umphs. And how many greater victories had he obtain'd, for which he triumphed not! Here at last, arms were laid down, the rest of the peace was without bloodshed, & Caesar's cle­mency made amends for the cruelties of the war. No man was put to death by his com­mand but Afranius, ('twas enough that he had been pardoned once) and Faustus Sylla, (he had learnt to fear his Sons-in-law) and the Daughter of Pompey with her Cousin-germans descended from Sylla. This was to secure his posterity. His Citizens, not ungrateful, be­stow all honours upon this one Prince; his Images are set up in the Temples, he hath in the Theatre a Crown surrounded with rays; a Chair of State in the Senate; a Terret upon his House top, and is assign'd a month in the Heavens, and withal this is entituled, Father of his Country, and perpetual Dictator; lastly, it is a question whether with his consent, regal ornaments were proffer'd him before the Rostra by the Consul Antonius: all which honours were done him, and seem'd as the garlands set about a Victim design'd to die. For the cle­mency of this Prince was envy'd, and the great power he had to confer benefits was insuppor­table [Page 194] to free persons. Nor did they delay it any longer; but Brutus and Cassius, and others of the Senators conspir'd the Prince's death. How inevitable is the blow of fate! The con­spiracy was known to many; nay a paper, dis­covering it, was presented that very day to Caesar himself, and of a hundred victims sacri­fic'd, not one propitious. Yet he went to the Senate thinking on the Parthian expedition. There the Senate set upon him sitting in his Chair of State, and layd him on the ground with three and twenty wounds. So he who had fill'd the world with the blood of his Ci­tizens, at length fill'd the Senate with his own.

CHAP. III.

CAesar and Pompey being slain, the people of Rome seem'd to have return'd to the state of their former liberty, and had really done so, if Pompey had not left children, and Caesar, an heir, or, what was more pernicious than either, if Antonius, heretofore Colleague, [Page 195] and since a competitor of Caesar's power, the firebrand and disturber of the ensuing age, had not surviv'd them. For while Sextus de­mands what had been his Father's, his fear spreads over all Seas; while Octavius revenges his Fathers death, Thessaly must into arms again: while Antonius, a person of a fickle disposition, disdains that Octavius should be Caesar's successor, or for the love of Cleopatra would basely have condescended to accept the title of a King; the people of Rome could not otherwise have been safe, without returning to servitude. In so great a disturbance we had this to rejoyce at, that the Soveraign authori­ty was devolv'd to Octavius Caesar Augustus, who by his prudence and conduct reduc'd to order the body of the Empire then so shaken and disturbed on all sides, that no doubt it could never have been reunited, had it not submitted to the authority of one Governor, as unto one and the same soul and mind. Marcus Anto­nius and Publius Dolabella being Consuls; for­tune transferring the Roman Empire to the Cesars, there happen'd diverse commotions in the City. And as it comes to passe in the an­nual revolution of the Heavens, that the mo­tion of the Stars cause Thunder, and discover their periods by the weather: so in the change of the Roman Government, that is, that of man­kind, [Page 194] the body of the Empire in a manner shook, and was distracted with all the misfor­tunes consequent to civil insurrections and wars, as well by Sea as Land.

CHAP. IV.

THe first occasion of the civil Commotions was Caesar's Will, whose second heir An­tonius, enrag'd that Octavius was preferr'd be­fore him, undertook an irreconcileable war against the adoption of that most forward young man. For seeing him not fully eigh­teen years of age, apt to be wrought upon, and receive affronts, he derogated from Caesar's dignity by calumnies, and purloyn'd his inhe­ritance, and ceased not to persecute him with opprobrious speeches, and by all imaginable artifices to oppose his adoption into the Julian Family. Nay at last to oppresse the young man, he broke forth into open hostility, and having raised an Army in that part of Gaul on this side the Alps, besieg'd Decimus Brutus, who opposed his designs. Octavius Caesar, favour'd upon the account of his age and the injury [Page 195] done, him as also the Majestical title he had as­sum'd, got together the Veterane Bands, and though but a private person, (who would cre­dit it?) engages against a Consul, relieves Brutus besieg'd at Mutina, and forces Antonius out of his Camp. Besides he behav'd himself ver [...] gallantly upon that occasion; for being all bloody and wounded, he brought back up­on his own shoulders the Eagled Ensigne, which had been deliver'd to him by the dying bearer of it.

CHAP. V.

AS if Antonius had not been a sufficient obstructer of peace, and burthen to the Commonwealth, Lepidus, as an additional fire, must needs joyn with him; so that to se­cure himself against two Armies, it was of ne­cessity that Caesar entred into that bloody asso­ciation. These conflagrations proceeded from different designs. Lepidus's thoughts were wholly bent upon wealth, which he hoped to acquire by the disturbance of the [Page 196] Commonwealth; Antonius's upon his being reveng'd of those who had declar'd him an enemy; and Caesar minded his unreveng'd Fa­ther, and his Manes unappeased by the survi­vance of Cassius and Brutus. Upon this asso­ciation there is a peace concluded between the three Generals; they shake hands between Perusia and Bononia, and the Armies salute each other, at the place where the two Rivers meet. So they enter upon the Triumvirate against all right. The Commonwealth being oppressed by an armed force, the Syllanian proscription is reviv'd, the fury whereof inclu­ded no lesse than one hundred and forty Sena­tors; shameful, cruel, and miserable were the ends of those who fled into all parts of the world. For whom who can do lesse, consi­dering the heynousnesse of the thing, than con­dole? When Antonius, with Caesar's consent, proscrib'd his Uncle, L. Caesar, and Lepidus did the like with his own Brother L. Paulus, At Rome, to expose the heads of those who had been kill'd, on the Rostra, was a thing had been usually done. But the City could not forbear tears, when they saw the head of Cice­ro exposed at that very place; and they throng'd no lesse to see that spectacle, than they had sometime done to hear him there. These impieties proceeded from Antonius [Page 197] and Lepidus. Caesar contented himself with the murtherers of his Father; the slaughters of whom might be accounted just enough, had they not reach'd so great a number of per­sons.

CHAP. VI.

BRutus and Cassius imagin'd to themselves that they had put Caesar out of the Govern­ment as King Tarquin had been: but that li­berty which they thought to have restor'd they lost by that very parricide. Being therefore afraid, after they had committed the murther of Caesar's Veteranes, they fled out of the Se­nate into the Capitol. The Soldiers had a desire to be reveng'd, but they wanted a Com­mander. When therefore it was apparent what destruction hung over the Commonwealth, all thoughts of revenge were layd aside, upon an act of oblivion put out by the Consul. However to be out of the eye of publick grief, Brutus and Cassius went into Syria and Mace­donia, [Page 198] the Provinces which had been bestowed on them, by that Caesar, whom they had mur­ther'd. So Caesar's revenge was rather put off for a time, than quit smother'd. The Com­monwealth therefore being setled rather as it could, than as it ought, upon the Triumviri, and Lepidus left for the defence of the City, Caesar and Antonius engage in a war against Brutus and Cassius. They having got very great forces together, pitch'd upon the same scene which had been fatal to Cneus Pompeius; nor wanted there at this time the manifest presages of a decreed destruction: for those birds which are wont to feed on dead carcasses were already seen flying about their Camp. A Negro meeting them as they were going to engage, was an apparent sign of a dismal event. And Brutus himself being retired after night, and a light brought him according to his custom, a dreadful apparition stood be­fore him, which being by him asked what it was? reply'd, Thy evil Genius. This said, it vanish' [...] leaving him amaz'd. In Caesar's Camp, all the presages, the Birds, and the Victims, promised prosperity: but nothing more remarkeable, than that Caesar's Physician was admonished in a dream, that Caesar should depart out of his own Camp, which were in danger to be taken, as it afterwards [Page 199] happened. For the Armies being engaged, when they had fought some time with equal eagernesse, and though the chief Comman­ders were not then present, one by reason of sicknesse, the other through fear & cowardize, the invincible fortune both of the person re­venging and him whom he reveng'd, declar'd which was to be the victorious side. At first the danger was doubtful and equal on both sides, as the event of the battel made appear; on the one side Caesar's Camp was taken, on the other, Cassius's. But how far more prevalent is fortune then vertue? and how true is that which Brutus said at his death, That vertue was but a name, no real thing? The victory in this battel proceeded from a mistake. Cassius observing a wing of his Army to give ground, and seeing his Horse retreating in full speed, after they had taken Caesar's Camp, upon an imagination that they were upon the rout, got to a Hillock, where the dust and noise, and the approaching night, not permitting him to see what was done, and the scout he had sent, to bring him an account, coming later than he expected, looking on his party as lost, got one that was neer him to strike off his head- Brutus having lost all courage in the losse of Cassius, that he might keep his promise with him (for so they had agreed to be equal survi­vors [Page 200] of the war) got one of his companions to run him through the body. Who cannot but admire, that these wise persons would not dispatch themselves with their own hands? unlesse it may be out of this perswasion, that they might defile them; but that, in the sur­render of their most sacred and pious souls, the directions should be theirs, and the crime of the execution another's.

CHAP. VII.

ANother war was occasion'd by the distri­bution of the Lands which Caesar assign'd the Veteranes, as a reward for their service. Antonius, a person, upon all other occasions, of a lew'd disposition, was now egg'd on by his wife Fulvia, who with a sword by her side served in the wars as a man. Wherefore ani­mating those Husband-men, who had been forc'd out of their Lands, she occasion'd another war. In this case, Antonius is set up­on by Caesar, not upon any private account, [Page 201] but as one adjudg'd an enemy by the suffrages of the whole Senate; and being shut up by him within the Walls of Perusia, he forc'd him to the extremities of a surrender, after a fa­mine, wherein even the filthiest things were fed upon.

CHAP. VIII.

CAesar's murtherers being taken out of the waY, there remain'd onely the House of Pompey. One of the young men died in Spain, the other had escap'd by flight, and rallying the remainders of an unfortunate war, and put Slaves into arms, was possessed of Sicily and Sardinia. He had also a Navy at Sea, ô how different from his Father! for he had destroy'd the Cilicians, but this man had pi­rates under his command. With these so great preparations of war was the young man quite overthrown in the Sicilian Sea, and he had carried along with him into the other world the reputation of a great Captain, if he had attempted nothing afterwards; but [Page 202] that it argues a noble mind, ever to be in hope. Being defeated, he fled, and set sail for Asia, where he must fall into the hands of his ene­mies, and chains, and what is most insuppor­table to gallant men, be adjudg'd, at the dis­cretion of his enemies, to die by the hand of an Executioner. There was not a more de­plorable flight since that of Xerxes. For he who ere while had three hundred and forty Ships under his command, fled onely with six or seven, having put out the light at the Admiral's stern, and cast his rings into the Sea, trembling, and looking back, yet fear­ing nothing lesse then that he should perish. See the remainder of this Chapter at the begin­ning of the Tenth, as D.C. would have it placed.

CHAP. IX.

THe Parthians, upon the defeat of Crassus, had reassum'd greater courage, and glad­ly receiv'd the intelligence of civil commotions among the Romans: so that upon the first op­portunity, they stuck not to break out, being withal animated thereto by Labienus, who, sent thither by Cassius and Brutus, (how implacable is mischief!) had importun'd our enemies to their assistance, and they, under the conduct of Pacorus their young Prince, dis­mantle all the garrisons of Marcus Antonius. Saxa, Lieutenant to Antonius, to avoid fal­ling into their power, was oblig'd to his own sword. At length Syria falling off from us, the mischief had spread still further, the ene­mies, under pretence of assisting Brutus, con­quering for themselves, if Ventidius, ano­ther Lieutenant of Antonius, had not, with incredible prosperity, defeated the Forces of Labienus, and Pacorus himself, and all the [Page 204] Parthian Cavalry, all along the Champian be­tween the Rivers Orontus and Euphrates. There fell twenty thousand men. Nor was the work effected without the prudence of Ventidius, who pretending fear, suffer'd the enemies to come up so close to his Camp, that being within reach of our darts, they could make no advantage of their arrows. The King was slain fighting valiantly; and his head being carried about to the Citties which had revolted, Syria became ours again with­out any war. So by the death of Pacorus we were even for the overthrow given to Crassus.

CHAP. X.

THough in Cassius and Brutus Caesar had smother'd the factions, and in Pompey taken off the very name of them, yet had he not proceeded so far as to settle a firm peace, in as much as the shelf, the knot, and obstacle of publick security, Antonius was still alive. Nor did he want vices to bring him to his ruine; nay having out of ambition and luxury made tryal of all things, he delivered in the first place his enemies, then his fellow-Citi­zens, and at length the age he liv'd in, from the terrour he gave them, [by procuring his own death.] The Parthians and Romans ha­ving made tryal of each other, and Crassus on the one side, and Pacorus on the other being testimonies of their valour, there was a league made between them with equal reverence and absolute friendship, and that by Antonius [Page 206] himself. But the excessive vanity of the man, while out of a lust to enlarge his titles, he was desirous to have the Araxes and the Euphrates written under his Images, made him leave Syria of a sudden, and, without any cause, or advice, or so much as any imaginary pretence of war, (as if it had been the part of a great Captain to steal upon his enemies) make an unexpected incursion among the Parthians. That Na­tion, besides the confidence they repose in their peculiar Arms, [is subtle] and pretends fear, and flight, crosse the Fields. Antonius, as if already victorious, immediately pursues them, when of a sudden, an unexpected, yet no great party of the enemies, fell upon our men wearied with marching, and in the eve­ning, as it had been a shower, and shooting their arrows of all sides, two Legions were in a manner cover'd therewith. Yet was not this any thing in comparison of the overthrow which was to have been the next day, if, through the clemency of the Gods, one who had surviv'd the defeat of Crassus, riding about the Camp in a Parthian habit, after he had gain'd credit with the Commanders, acquain­ted them with what was to happen; to wit, that the King himself withal his Forces was coming upon them, that they should retreat, and get into the Mountains; and that so [Page 207] doing they should not haply be to seek an ene­my. And so it happen'd that a smaller force of the enemies pursu'd them, then was design'd to do it. Yet they came on, and the remain­der of our Forces had been destroyed, had it not been, that, when the Parthian arrows fell like hail upon, the Soldiers luckily fell on their knees, and lifting their Bucklers over their heads seem'd as if they were slain. Then the Parthians gave over shooting with the bows. Whereupon the Romans rising up, the thing was thought so miraculous, that one of the Barbarians said, Go and do well, oh ye Romans; justly does Fame speak you the Conque­rours of Nations, who are able to endure the darts of the Parthians. We suffer'd afterwards as much through want of water, as we had done by the enemies. First the Region it self was oppressed with drought; then to some of us the water of the River Salmacis prov'd more destructive; and lastly, being drunk exces­sively, by such as were unhealthy, even sweet waters prov'd hurtful to us. Afterwards, the sultrinesse of Armenia, and the snows of Cap­padocia, and the sudden change of air from one to the other, were a kind of pestilence: So, hardly a third part of sixteen Legions being left, Antonius, that gallant General, [Page 208] after his mony was cut to pieces with chizzels [by the mutining Soldiery] and he himself had in the interval begg'd death at the hands of his Gladiator, fled at length into Syria, where, out of an incredible stupidity, he be­came more insolent than before, as if he who had made his escape, had gain'd the vi­ctory.

CHAP. XI.

LUst and Luxury put an end to Antonius's fury, though ambition could not. For after the expedition against the Parthians, de­testing war and giving himself over to sloath, he fell in love with Cleopatra, and as if he had manag'd things excellently well, he enjoy'd himself in the embraces of a Princesse. This Aegyptian woman, desires of the besotted Ge­neral for the reward of her lust, no lesse then the Roman Empire. And Antonius promised it her, as if the Romans were more easily over­come than the Parthians. He therefore began to plot Soveraignty, not covertly, but, having forgot his Country, Name, Habit, and Digni­ty, he absolutely degenerated into that mon­ster, (a tyrant) not onely in his thoughts, but [Page 210] also in his inclinations and attire. He walk'd with a golden staff in his hand, had a Cimitar by his side, was clad in a purple garment, beset with large Pearls; nay he wanted not a Diadem, that he might enjoy a Queen as a King. Upon the first intelligence of these new commotions, Caesar crossed the Sea at Brun­dusium, to prevent the approaching war; and having encamped in Epirus, he surrounded the Island Leucades, and the Mount Leucates, and the points of the Ambracian Bay with a powerful Fleet. We had above four hun­dred Ships, the enemies about two hundred, but their Bulk made up their number. For they had from six to nine Banks of Oars, be­sides being raised up high with turrets and decks, like Castles and fortify'd Cities, they made the Sea groan, and put the winds out of breath to carry them; and that exces­sive Bulk prov'd the occasion of their destru­ction. Caesar's Ships had from three to six banks of Oars, and none beyond: so that they were in readinesse to take all advantages, whether to charge, recharge, or turn about; and diverse of them at the same assaulting those heavy and unweildy slugges, with their beaks, as also with darts, and fire cast into them, they dispersed them as they pleased [Page 211] themselves. Nor did the greatnesse of the enemies Forces appear in any thing so much as after the victory. For that prodigious Fleet having been wrack'd in the engage­ment, was scatter'd all over the Sea, became the spoil of the Arabians, the Sabaeans, and a thousand other Nations of Asia, and the Waves continually stirr'd by the Winds, cast up Purple and Gold upon the shores. The Queen, beginning the flight, made to Sea with her Ship all gilt at the stern, and pur­ple sails, and soon after Antonius follow'd; but Caesar was not far behind him. So that neither their design'd escape into the Ocean, nor the two points of Aegypt, Paretonium and Pelusium, which they had fortify'd with Gar­risons, stood them in any stead, in as much as they were in a manner within his reach. Antonius kill'd himself first. The Queen fal­ling at Caesar's feet, endeavour'd to dazzle his sight; but in vain, for her beauty pre­vayled not upon that Prince's chastity. Her suit was not for her life, which was proffer'd her, but to obtain part of the Kingdom. Which when she was out of all hope to ob­tain, and perceiv'd she was reserv'd for a triumph, taking advantage of the negligence of her guard, she fled into the Mausoleum [Page 212] (so they call the Sepulchres of their Kings.) And there having put on her most sumptuous garments, as she was wont, and seated her self close to her Antonius, in a Throne fill'd with rich perfumes, she apply'd Serpents to her veins, and died as it were in a slum­ber.

CHAP. XII.

HEre ended the civil wars, what follow'd were against forreign Nations, who, du­ [...]ing the Empire's conflict with his own mise­ [...]ies, began to stir in divers parts of the world. For Peace was a new thing, and the necks of those proud and insolent Nations being not accustom'd to the curb of bondage, they slipp'd out of the yoke not long before imposed upon them. That part of the world which is towards the North, the Inhabitants whereof are the Noricians, the Illyrians, Panno­nians, [Page 214] Dalmatians, Mysians, Thracians, and Da­cians, Sarmatians and Germans, was the most violent. The Noricians were encourag'd by the Alps and snows, thinking the war could not get over them. But Augustus quieted all those parts, to wit, the Brenni, the Senones, and the Vindelici by his Step-Son Claudius Drusus. How strangely barbarous these Na­tions were, may be easily seen by their women, who having spent their weapons, flung their groveling infants at our Soldiers races. The Illyrians also live under the Alps, and guard the lower Valleys and certain passages thereof, where they are secured by impetuous torrents. Caesar himself engag'd against these, and or­dered a Bridge to be made [to get over into their Province.] Being here put to a stand by waters and the enemy, he snatch'd the Buckler out of the hand of a Soldier who seem'd loath to get up on the Bridge, and march'd in the front of the Forces, when Oum lubricus multitudine pons succidisset. the un­trusty Bridge shrinking down by rea­son of its being o'repressed with mul­titude, he was hurt in the hands and leggs, yet so as that deriving Majesty from the danger, and the blood he had lost rendring him the more amiable, he had the pursuit of the retreating enemy. The Pannonians are compassed by two Forrests and three Rivers, [Page 215] Dravus, Savus and Ister. These having wasted their neighbouring Countries, retreated with­in the banks of their Rivers. He sent Vibius to reduce them; and they were destroy'd up­on the two Rivers: the Arms of the conquered were not burnt, according to the custom, but were taken and thrown into the Rivers, to assure the rest, who stood out, of our victo­ry. The Dalmatians live for the most part in woods, and so ly most conveniently for Robberies. Marcius, having fir'd the City Delminium, had already given these a great blow. Afterwards Asinius Pollio had punish'd them with the losse of their Flocks, Arms, and Fields. But Augustus recommends the sub­duing of them to Vibius, who forc'd those Sa­vages to dig the Earth and fetch pure gold out of its veins, which that most covetous Nation is sufficiently inclined to do it self, as if they seem'd to keep it for their own use. 'Tis a horrid thing to relate how savage and inhu­mane the Mysians are, nay how they exceed the barbarism of other Barbarians. One of their Commanders coming up to our Army, desir'd silence, and said, Who are you? Answer was made, Romans, Masters of Nations. Where­to they reply, It shall be so, if you overcome us. Marcus Crassus took it for a good omen. Whereupon the Mysians offering up a Horse [Page 216] before the Army, made a vow, That they would sacrifice to their Gods the entrails of such Captains as they kill'd of ours, and after­wards eat them. I am apt to believe the Gods heard them: They could hardly endure the sound of the Trumpets. The Barbarians were not a little startled at an action of the Centu­rion Domitius, a person guilty of an extrava­gance barbarous enough, yet prevalent upon people like himself, for having fasten'd a fire­brand to his Helmet, the agitation of his body caused such a flame, as if his head had been on fire. Before these, the most mighty people of the Thracians had revolted. These Barba­rians had learnt the custom of carrying mili­tary Ensignes, understood discipline, and the use of the Roman Arms. But being subdu'd by Piso, they show'd their madnesse even in their captivity, when, attempting to bite off their chains, they punish'd their own brutali­ty. The Dacians live in the Mountains. Un­der the command of their King Cotiso, when the Dannow is frozen over, they are wont to make incursions, and destroy the bordering Countries. Caesar Augustus thought it the best course, that a Nation so hard to come at should be removed. To that end, he sent Lentulus, who forc'd them beyond the further side of the River, and left Garision on this side. If Dacia [Page 217] were not then conquer'd, it was at least re­mov'd to a great distance from us. The Sar­matians ride up and down spacious Cham­pians; Caesar thought it enough, by the same Lentulus, to keep these from crossing the Dan­now, as having nothing but snows, and here and there some woods. The barbarism is so great among them, that they know not what peace is. I wish Caesar had not thought it so glorious a design to conquer Germany. It was lost with more shame than it was subdu'd with honour; but in regard he knew that his Father Caesar had twice caused Bridges to be made over the Rhine, for the prosecution of that war, he was desirous, for his honour, to reduce it into a Province: and it had been done, if the Barbarians could as well have born with our vices, as submitted to our commands. Drusus being sent into this Province first sub­du'd the Ʋs [...]petes, then over-ran the Tenctheri, and the Catti. For of the richest spoils of the Marcomanni, he made up a kind of mount af­ [...]er the manner of a Trophey. Afterwards [...]e in like manner set upon those most valiant Nations, the Cherusci, the Suevi, and the Sicam­ [...]tians, who having burnt twenty of our Cen­ [...]urions, undertook the war as it were upon [...]hat engagement, and that with so great a [...]onfidence of the victory, that by agreement [Page 218] they divided the prey before-hand. The Che­rusci were to have the Horses, the Suevians the Gold and Silver, and the Sycambrians, the prisoners. But all happen'd quite contrary. For Drusus, being Conquerour, made a prey of their Horses, their Cattel, their Gold-chains and themselves, and sold them. Besides for the security of the Provinces he appointed gar­risons and guards at all places. All along the River Meuse, the Elbe, the Visurgis, and on the banks of the Rhine, he caused to be erected a­bove fifty Forts. At Bonna and Gelduba he caused Bridges to be built, and secur'd them with Ships. He made his way through the Hercynian Forest, till that time unpassable and inaccessible. In fine, there was so great a peace in Germany, that the men seem'd changed, the soil different from what it was, and the air milder and calmer than it was wont to be. At length that young Prince of incomparable va­lour dying there, the Senate gave him a sur­name from the Province, (an honour it had never done any other) not out of flattery, but in acknowledgement of his merit. But it is more difficult to keep a Province than to make one: they are subdu'd by Arms, they are kept by Justice. That joy was accordingly but short: the Germans, while Drusus was Gene­ral, were rather overcome than absolutely [Page 219] brought under subjection, and had rather com­ply'd with our manners, than submitted to our Arms. After his death they began to hate Varus as well upon the account of his dissolu­tions and pride, as his c [...]uelty. Nay he ap­appointed them an assembly, and would have administred Justice to them in the midst of his Camp, as if either the Lictors rods, or the voice of the Cryer could give a check to the violence of the Barbarians. But they who were long before Moe­rerent. troubled to find their swords grown rusty, and their Horses foggy for want of exercise, thinking our habits and Laws more insupportable than our Arms, break forth into open hostility, under the con­duct of Arm [...]nius. When in the mean time Varus was so confident upon the peace, as not to be moved even by a previous discovery of the conspiracy by Segestes, one of their Princes. Whereupon they fell upon him unprovided and fearing no such thing, nay (ô strange se­curity!) while he was citing them to appear at his Tribunal, they set upon him of all sides, [...]urprise his Camp, and three Legions are de­stroy'd. Varus seeing all lost, took the same [...]ate and resolution, as Paulus had done after [...]he fight at Cannae. Never was there any thing more bloody than the slaughter they made [...]hrough the Woods and Marches, nothing [Page 220] more intolerable than the insulting of the Bar­barians, especially upon the Advocats, putting out the eies of some, and cutting off the hands of others. One of them had his mouth sow'd up, after they had before cut out his tongue, which one of the Barbarians holding in his hands, said, O viper, give over hissing at length. Nay they digg'd up the Consul's body, which the Soldiers had out of piety put under ground. The Barbarians have yet in their possession the Ensignes and Eagles of two Le­gions; the third was sav'd by the Ensign-bearer, who, to prevent its coming into the enemies hands, took it off, and hid it within the folds of his belt, and so escaped by skulking in that bloody march. The effect of this over­throw was, that the Empire, which had not stop'd at the Ocean, met with a check on the banks of the Rhine. Thus went things north­ward. In the Southern parts, there were ra­ther tumults than wars. The Musulanians, and the Getulians, bordering upon the Syrtes, were reduc'd by Cossus, whence he had the sur­name Getulicus. Nay the Victory spread far­ther; Caesar order'd the Marmarides and the Garamantes to be subdu'd by Furnius. He also might have return'd with the surname Mar­maricus; but his modesty set not so high a value on his Victory. In the East there was [Page 221] more to do with the Armenians; thither Caesar sent one of his Nephews. They were both short-liv'd, but one dy'd ere he had gain'd any honour. For Lucius dy'd of a disease at Massilia; Cajus, in Lycia, of a wound, while he was employ'd about the reduction of Ar­menia then ready to revolt to the Parthians. Pompey having vanquish'd King Tigranes had brought the Armenians to this point of bon­dage, as to receive Governours from us. That right of ours being interrupted was by this Caius reasserted, after a bloody though short en­gagement. For Domnes, whom the King had made Governor of Artaxata, pretending he would betray his Master, runs him with his Sword into the Temples while he was earnest­ly perusing a scroll, which he himself had pre­sented to him, containing the accounts of the Treasures. But the Barbarian pursu'd on all sides by the incensed Army was destroy'd by a sword and a fire, into which, being wounded, he cast himself, and so made some satisfaction to Caesar not yet dead of his wound. In the West, all Spain was quiet, save onely that part of it which is adjacent to the rocks of the Py­renean Mountains, and lies upon the hither Ocean. Here were two most valiant Nations, the Cantabrians and the Asturians, who ac­ [...]nowledg'd not jurisdiction of the Empire. [Page 222] The Cantabrians were the first, the more inso­lent, and more obstinate in the revolt; nay not content to maintain their own liberty, they attempted to rule over their neighbours, and harrassed the Vaccaeans, the Curgonians, and the Autrigonians with their frequent incur­sions. Against these therefore, as such as were reported to be the most daring, Caesar did not put the expedition upon another, but went in person. Being come to Segisama, he encam­ped; afterwards dividing his Army, he com­passed the whole Country of Cantabria, and subdu'd that savage Nation, like wild beasts taken in a toyl. Nor had they any quiet at Sea, where our Navy charg'd the enemies in the reare. The first engagement with the Cantabrians was, under the Walls of Vellica. Thence they fled to the most steepy Mountain Vindius, where they thought the Ocean would ascend sooner than the Roman Armies. Third­ly, the City Arracillum made great resistance; but at last was taken, by the Siege of the Edu­lian Mountain compassed with a trench of fif­teen miles, by which means the Romans fal­ling on of all sides, and the Barbarians being reduc'd to the utmost extremities, they antici­pated their own deaths, some by fire, some by the sword, in the midst of their banquets, and some by poison, which is there commonly ex­tracted [Page 223] out of the Yew-trees, and so the grea­ter part of them prevented that captivity, which they saw coming upon them. Caesar wintring at Tarracon, a Sea-Town, receiv'd an account of these things done by Antistius, Fur­nius, and Agrippa, his Lieutenants. Being come to the Army he forc'd some out of the Mountains, engaged others by Hostages, and according to martial Law exposed some to sale as slaves. The Senate thought the expe­dition worthy a Lawrel, worthy a triumphal Charriot. But Caesar was already so great, as to slight Triumphs. The Asturians having about the same time got a vast Army together were come down out of their Mountains; Nec temere sumptus, ut Barbari, impe­tus. nor was their attempt inconside­rate, as is ordinary with Barbarians; but having encamped at the River A­stura, they divided their Forces into three bodies, and design'd to set upon the three Camps of the Romans at the same time. It had been a hazardous and a bloody bout, ( Et uticnam mutua clade certamen. I wish the losse on both sides had been but equal) we having to do with people so valiant, and coming upon us so unexpectedly, and with so much deliberation, if they had not been be­tray'd by the Brigaecini, by whom Carisius be­ing forewarned came with the Army and fru­strated [Page 224] their designs. Yet was not that done without much bloodshed. The remainders of that most valiant defeated Army escaped to the City Lancia, where there was so sharp an encounter, that the Soldiry desiring [...]hat the City, being taken, might be fir'd, the Gene­ral with much ado prevayl'd with them, That it should be a monument of the Roman victo­ry rather as it stood, than burnt. Here Augustus put a period to his warlike exploits, and this was the last rebellion of Spain. From that time there was constant fidelity and a conti­nual peace, which proceeded partly from the inclinations of the Inhabitants then more bent thereto, and partly from Caesar's prudence, who fearing the confidence they deriv'd from their Mountainous habitations, into which they retreated, commanded them thence for­ward to inhabit in the plains, where his Camp was. Ingentis ecce cousilii [...]llud. Ob­serva [...]i caepit na­tuae, &c. Behold, that indeed was an act of great policy. Men began to make observations into the nature of the Country, which was full of Gold­mines, and well stor'd with borax and vermilion, and other colours. He there­fore commanded the ground to be cultivated. So the Asturians began to understand the wealth they had lying under ground, while they digg'd it out for others. All Nations to [Page 225] the West and South being quieted, as also to the North (onely within the Rhine and the Dannow) and in like manner to the East, be­tween Ti­gris. Tigris and Euphrates, those others also which were not subject to the Empire, were yet sensible of its greatnesse, and look'd on the Roman people as Conquerors of the world. For even the Scy [...]hians and Sarma­tians sent their Ambassadors to us, desiring our friendship. The Seres also, and the In­dians, who live under the very Sun, came with gems and precious stones, and bringing also Elephants among their presents, complain'd of nothing so much as the greatnesse of their journey, which they compleated in four years; and yet the very colour of the men argu'd their coming from under another Sun. The Parthians also, as if it repented them of the Victory, of their own accord, return'd the Ensignes at the overthrow given to Crassus. So was all mankind reduc'd to a firm and un­interrupted peace, either by conquest or com­pact. And Caesar Augustus, in the seven hun­dredth year from the first building of the City, presum'd to shut the Temple of double-fac'd Janus, which had been shut but twice before him, under King Numa, and after the first re­duction of Carthage. Thence forward, giving his thoughts to peace, he reform'd an age bent [Page 226] to all enormities, and inclining to dissolution, by many prudent and severe edicts. For these so many transcendent Actions, he was de­nominated Perpetual Dictator and Father of the Country. It was debated in the Senate, whe­ther he should be called Romulus because he had establish'd the Empire. But the name of AUGUSTUS was thought more sacred and more venerable, that, even while he lives on Earth, he might, in name and title, be ranked among the Gods.