to Empire but whom Providence hath in secret reserved to be the future Prince have ascended the Throne And the highest Commands which men conceive the due reward of all Vertues and the portion of the best-descended are yet sometimes given to the vilest persons and the Majesty of Empire profaned by most abject exercisers of that power as Slaves Thieves Fencers and Shepherds or such like dregs of the people This happens not but through the just Indignation of Heaven against an unquiet and sinful people when not contented to bear the moderate Rule of lawful Princes they are condemned to serve such reproachfull Lords The Romans bewailed the malignity of their Fortune when they were forced in preserving their Dignity and defending their Associates to send forth just Armies against such theatrical Princes as if they had been honourable and lawful Kings and as it were ashamed of their Victory they thought the majesty of a Triumph would be polluted if it were granted to the subduers of such imaginary Commanders The ignominy therefore of the Tyrant must needs aggravate the bondage of those that are compelled to serve him And by how much they are removed from the just hopes of the supreme power they are so much the more immoderate in their pride and ambition when they arrive unto it their Souls being like half-famished stomachs insatiable with Dominion In the exercise whereof they are like Comets which being but Exhalations of the earth when they are raised to the height and kindled to the brightness of a Star do portend ruine to the greatest persons and the best families So such contemptible men elevated to power do rage most against the better and most vertuous parts of a Society and seek to hide the baseness of their own by spilling all the nobler blood And as subterranean fires which first feed upon the roots and then consume the entrails of great mountains do from thence spread ashes and ruine upon the adjacent Valleys and neighbouring plains so do such men fired with ambition labour to undermine the Optimacy which are the supereminent parts of every Community and then diffuse vassalage and misery upon the Populacy And such did Agathocles prove to be to the miserable Syracusans Agathocles's Birth and Childhood though poor and obscure were yet more polluted by his vitious Youth and his following conversation For he was more infamous by the course of his life then for the meanness of his birth because not the beginnings but the progress of our lives are the subjects of our choice and it is that which renders us capable of shame or glory And as Vertue is not intailed upon Patrician families so by no Decree of Fate or law of Nature is it proscribed from Plebeian breasts but such as can boast no glory of their Ancestors may yet be admired for their own Heroick actions And many of those great actions which the world hath wondred at have been performed by persons who were obscure in their Originall and had no advantage for Fame from their birth Vertue wheresoever it is placed draws the reverence and affection of men who behold Gallant persons as they do fair and great Trees in which are commended the straightness height and bigness of the Trunk and the large extent and beauty of the Branches but seldome is it inquired of the measure and depth of their Roots Rome never repented the prodigality of her Honours in six Consulships to Marius a Plebeian while she received no less glory and safety from his conduct then from any of her Patrician Consuls and while he was contented to receive not force the people's favour which is usually most prone and indulgent to new appearers in the State But when his Ambition made him impatient of rest and he would ravish not court his City's love and snatch those Honours which she had designed to others he appeared in his seventh Consulship no less dangerous to his own Citizens in peace then he was to their Enemies in war So that not his Birth but his Vices disgraced his former dignities and exposed him to the publick hatred But Agathocles his Youth was more disgraceful then his Trade and continued the ignominy of his Infancy with the dishonour of his riper years for being of a comely frame and lovely visage he did allure and prostitute himself as a common Bardacio to every man's Lust who was able to pay the reward of his infamy And that he might not be unacquainted with any iniquity he afterwards transferred his Lust from men to women that as before he injured the Wives by diverting the affections of their Husbands so he would abuse the Husbands with the Dishonour of their Wives And in these practices he spent his first years living so contemptibly that he was without any esteem or regard as one that had no Fortune to be sollicitous to preserve nor any Credit or Modesty to be tender of But by these baser Arts he at length got into favour with Damas one of the wealthiest Syracusans by becoming his Pathick and into the affections of his Wife by being her Gallant This man's favour brought the Potter into the Militia of the City and in the discharge thereof he was so incouraged and assisted by him that he was put into a condition of thriving and a way to raise his Fortune For Damas being made Commander in chief of the Syracusan army which they emploied against the Agrigentines when one of the Colonels were dead he preferred Agathocles to that Command who had before shewed himself not unequal to such an emploiment being of a vigour and courage fit for great actions He also had made himself considerable among the Vulgar who alwaies look upon things extraordinary by accustoming himself in all his military exercises to use such heavy and strong arms as none else could easily manage But being now made Colonel he had more advantage to get a popular name and esteem among the Great and eminent though not among the Good And his preferment rendred more conspicuous all those his other advantages which he had either by Nature or Art He was of a comely presence and a large stature which to the Vulgar are marks of Rule an high and immoderate spirit He had a mixture of good and bad Arts. He was as well industrious as he was luxurious not less popular then arrogant base and infamous in his pleasures when he gave himself to them but sollicitous and bold when he conceived it expedient he was hazardous in his attempts a despiser of dangers impudent and passionate in his harangues and so usually prevailed upon the Multitude who are more easily perswaded and moved by what appears then by what truly is and he seemed to have all things requisite for Fame but an honest Soul To all these at length was added that other advantage of Wealth and Riches which are the keys to Greatness and make the accesses to Honour more easie and open For Damas dying and leaving his
to him or fear anger and hate towards the Senate He invokes their faith and compassion of him and complains of his hard Fate that it was never safe for him to love the People and that none was ever an enemy to the Common-wealth but they would be likewise the contrivers of his destruction For do you not hear saith he how my execution and your punishment is already decreed and how the Senate hath sent these their most subtle Agents to draw me back to the place of slaughter and to contrive the scene of your massacre They envy us the honour of dying upon our enemies swords in defence of our Country's Liberty and we must brutishly fall as sacrifices to their insolent Lusts and our blood be spilt to testifie that such Monsters ruled us In vain do we arm and expose our selves to death to keep off a forein yoke when such ungrateful wretches devote us to ruine at home Are we not patient enough in our slavery when we offer our selves to all the dangers of warre that they may be secure in their effeminate pleasures and wantonly lavish that wealth which is the price of our blood but must we also be basely sent out of the world that they alone may enjoy it When will these men know the just bounds of commanding or we fully apprehend the misery of our ignominious thraldome Then pausing as if he had been interrupted with tears which he shed the Vulgar rout hindered any further progress in his speech with loud clamour each one according to the sense of his Interest or Passion exclaiming against the Vices of the Senators some charged them with Cruelty others railed at their Covetousness and another sort did condemn their Pride and Perfidiousness and therefore they jointly cried out That he should not wait till such inhumane vipers did return to a love of their own City but speedily revenge his own and their injuries that he had already offended enough against his trust in dealing so gently with such as deserved as little of mercy as they shewed of justice Agathocles suffers not their present rage to cool knowing that wicked attempts are to be done with a sudden fury though good counsels gather strength by delay and seeing they understood the causes of hatred he would likewise quicken them with the hopes of Spoil Go saith he and be your own Avengers make the Tyrants feel what they decreed you should suffer Let the wealth of Senators that know no modesty in their commands be the rewards of such generous Souls that can endure no Slavery Leave them no friends or confidents which may bewail or revenge their death nor children to inherit their Crimes with their Wealth Then immediately not to give space to the bad to repent nor to the good if there were any there to consider and in abhorrency of the fact to unite against him he commands the Trumpets to sound a charge as if he were sacking an Enemies Town The caitiff Army having this full licence to satisfie their revenge covetousness and lust soon fell to the execution and left nothing undone that a conquered City feels from an enraged Enemy They guarded all the posts of the City and shut up the Gates that none might escape their fury then they slew all the most daring and popular Citizens who hearing the tumult came forth unarmed into the streets to inquire the cause Then the houses streamed with the blood of the owners the Innocent fell with the Guilty and every one was slain that had something to satisfie the expectation of his murderer He that had no enemy met with death at the hand of his friend and a good name was a mark for ruine The Altars of the Gods were coloured with the blood of those that fled to them for refuge as Victimes to an incensed Deity The aged men and ancient matrons were led about in scorn by their miseries to make up the merrier part of this Tragedy And that nothing of unhappiness might be unfelt by the miserable Syracusans Rapes were mingled with Slaughters he that was the Assassinate of the Husband would be the Ravisher of the Wife and he that reeked with the blood of the Father would quench his flames of lust with the dishonour of the Daughter Their rage and lust was so high against the people that at last it grew hot among themselves and he was accounted an enemy that had got the more precious booty When any Virgin or Youth whom beauty made conspicuous fell into the hands of this barbarous rabble they were commonly torn in pieces by the violence of those who contended for their first abuse and then became the quarrel and armed the Ravishers to their mutual ruine Others while they hasted away with the gold and silver of the murdered owner were themselves a prey to a stronger arm Thus death and ruine reigned in Syracuse and the first day there were no less then four thousand of the most eminent Citizens that by honest arts had won the affections of the people murdered Some were apprehended and slain at the gates through which they thought to flie Others met death from which they fled in climbing over the town wall by too much fear and hast breaking their necks and limbs About six thousand escaped and some of them got safe to Agrigentum and other neighbouring Cities where the relation of their miseries did move a great deal of pity but the inhumane Souldiers would yet make them sensible of their fury in their remaining parts with more contumely ravishing their Wives and Daughters because they themselves had escaped with their lives This Cruelty lasted for two daies Agathocles's thirst of blood being not sooner to be quenched or because his authority was not yet so great as to forbid those crimes which he might with ease command or he was willing to indulge the lufts of his Army beyond all hopes of pardon that so they might not expect safety but in the conduct and preservation of him who had authorized their wickedness But when this base rabble of men did seem to be satiated with villany as having no more subjects to practice on to conclude the Tragedy he sends for all those Citizens whom he had secured and who had been reserved to feed his own eyes with their blood Of these such as he had most injured and whose vertues he might most fear were slain before him others less considerable he banished Onely one Dinocrates a bold and faithless person so like him in vices that the similitude had been the ground of a former acquaintance though now he was a stranger to his design he freely sets at liberty which was not the effect of Clemency or Friendship Vertues that Tyrants are not capable of but to provide a refuge for himself in the future For even the most barbarous and bloodiest villains in diffidence of a change of affairs will provide some private favour against the publick hatred This was Agathocles's first scene of Dominion
not have its parallel in another And it would give some credit to the Pythagorean Transmigration for comparing the Arts and Success of Both in rising from an abject condition to most absolute Soveraignty and how in Both Tyranny was acted to the height of Injustice one of that School would fancy that the Soul of Agathocles after several peregrinations through the forms of Tigers Wolves Foxes Harpies and Vultures with some diversions in humane shapes as of Mahumet Borgia and such other enemies of Mankind it had at last vexed the world under the name of OL. CR. It would be too great a distrust of the Reader 's Judgement to anticipate his thoughts in drawing a Parallel the disagreements being but few and those more properly to be referred to the distant Times and Scenes wherein they acted to which Both did accommodate their designs then to any difference in their temper of Spirit or variety of Lusts Impiety Perfidiousness and Inhumanity being the equal delights and exercises of either So that though they coasted different Countries yet they sailed by the same Compass and aimed at the same Port of Power and Greatness In nothing more doth the Ancient seem to exceed the Modern Tyrant then in his Cruelty yet even this is not imputable to a more tender sense of Humanity in one then the other For he that dares sometimes be wicked for his advantage will be alwaies so if his Interest require but to a fear of losing the emoluments of that more powerful and prosperous cheat the pretension to Sanctity which being to be shadowed with a seeming Meekness would have been too plainly discoloured by too frequent effusions of blood But if when we would censure the Crime we consider not onely the quantity but the worth of the Blood the Sicilian will not appear more odious then the other Since the Blood of a Pious Just and Lawful KING spilt with so much dishonour to Religion and contumely to Justice laies a more heavy guilt in the eyes both of God and Good men then rivers of Plebeian gore Besides that horrid Parricide inevitably exciting several attempts for Justice the slaughters of those brave Souls that endeavour'd it did accumulate the guilt contracted by their Soveraigns Blood So that the cutting those Royal veins opened such Sluces in all the British Empire that the Earth was not more constantly wet with the showres of Heaven then it was yearly polluted with the blood of some Loyal person and lover of the People's Rights and Liberties Blood of this tincture he was observed to drink with a gust though he was nauseous of that of his own Party whom when their divided Interests made them contrive his Ruine or provok'd his spleen he used as the Romans did their offending Vestals whose blood because they were consecrated to the service of their Gods they never spilt but inclosed them under ground with some small provisions that so they might perish without pity and unobserved So those that had been once consecrated to the Good Old Cause it was unnecessary to take away their Lives which were hateful because they had administred to his Grandeur but degrading them from his trust and permitting to them some remnants of the spoils of Iniquity he exposed them to perish in want and obscurity In these other Crimes whereby Usurpers make their way to Dominion the Wickedness of this Last was more transcendent and such as made our Bondage more ignominious and our Miseries more lasting For not to mention those frequent Perjuries those horrid Blasphemies of referring all the most damnable Projects to the Impulses of the Spirit and Returns of prayer Religion never received a more fatal Wound then by this Modern Impostor For when the Majesty and Reverence of that stood like a strong rampire of Just Authority and like a mighty stream ran cross to his design he undermined it by introducing notions agreeable to his Interest made it contemptible by the basest of the People whom he made Priests caressed every Heresie raised and increased new Schisms and so cut it into several chanels and small Rivulets to make it fordable for his ascent to Dominion and by proclaiming a Spiritual Liberty reduced it into so many Atomes that nothing but what was fortuitous could unite them in a solid body to oppose him Not content with these injuries to Religion he proceeded to extirpate those eternal rules of Right and Wrong which even Nature had impressed upon the Minds of Men. For by his Instruments new Schemes of Justice were composed new rules of Obedience and Government were framed according to the Institutes of Tyranny The sacred Religion of an Oath the foundation of Society even in the most barbarous Nations was among us published no longer obliging then till an inconvenience ensued Thus as Caligula took off the heads of those Images of the Gods that were most worshipped and set his own upon them that he might receive the adorations of the people so did this Usurper pervert those Oracles of Life the Laws of God and Nature that we might receive onely the Dictates of his Lust and Interest and be guided by the deceitful Impulses of his deluding Spirit How far he prevailed by these Arts in vitiating the sense of Religion and Justice in men appeared too evident in the servile Flattery of those Addresses which were made to his contemptible Successour In which the Composers by a prodigious Sacriledge having rifled all the Sacred Records and thence took those attributes of Glory with which as Jewels God had adorned his choicest Servants and had given them as Odours to embalm their Memories to Posterity applied them to his successful Wickedness So that they seemed to have forgotten what Vertue and Righteousness were when they crowned Impiety with the rewards of Goodness And how pregnant the Principles he had acted by were of Destruction by the just Judgement of Heaven was experienced on his Infamous Issue they being ruined by the same practices by which himself had destroied the lawful Government the Children of his Example destroying those of his Blood the ministers of the Father's Villanies being the Executioners of the Son's Empire Nor was the mischievousness of his Arts confined within his own Family but like an infectious Contagion spread it self over the whole Nation His Example exciting every bold hand and violent spirit to invade the Government and his Principles serving to colour the prosperous Invader's Perfidiousness to his supplanted and complaining Predecessours That Power would they to day despoil and vilifie with whom it was on their Hearts the day before to Live and Die What they bewailed yesterday as their Backsliding to day they would practise as their Saint-like Obedience to the Call of God So that by reason of these different Actings sometime as Men and another as Saints like creatures of various elements there was no faith among themselves nor constancy in their Wickedness but varying their Crimes and together with their Guilt increasing our
of his Vertue or to shew that though he was not willing they should serve others yet he desired they might be his Slaves he endeavours to surprize their City But being discovered and encountred he was beaten back with great loss of his company With shame and the rest of his beaten forces he flies to Tarentum where he with his company were received into pay as mercenary Souldiers for the defence of the City But his immoderate thirst of Greatness and his unquiet spirit which grew more eager by repulses would not let him rest So pertinacious is that hope which great desires do conceive that even there he practised to arrive at Principality and instead of a Servant to become Master of the place But his designs being divulged he was cashiered and with his Faction and party driven out of the City Thus everywhere unfortunate abroad he is presented by Fortune with an opportunity of returning home and revenge on his adversaries For the Syracusans were about that time in hostility with the City Rhegium and had sent an Army to besiege it under the Conduct of Sosistratus Agathocles that was then maintaining himself and his small party by Robberies hearing of it gathers together all the Exiles that were in those parts of Italy and other Vagabonds and Thieves and with such forces attempts to raise the siege before Rhegium and so happily accomplishes it that he broke the Army of Sosistratus with so great a rout that he became contemptible to the Syracusans The contempt of a Magistrate doth alwaies usher in his ruine For the people encouraged by his overthrow and exasperated by the insolency of the Oligarchy who had incurred the publick hatred and animated by some secret practices of Agathocles took up arms and forced Sosistratus and his party which were about six hundred all Instruments or Members of the Oligarchy to quit the Government and City also and then retrived their former Democracy but with the addition of a Senate of six hundred which should consist of the wealthiest and gravest of the people who were to debate things of the weightiest concernment This change opened a safe return to Agathocles and greater hopes to seize upon the power of the Commonwealth Sosistratus and his party being removed who were the greatest obstructions to his designs And because he wanted strength to force the people he applies himself to cheat them by the arts and waies of a Demagogue by which Dionysius before him had attained the Principality of that unquiet City For there being in every Society two several parties the Nobless and the Populacy they are carried with different and opposite humours The Grandees still seek after a power to oppress and command the lower and inferiour part of the Community and the People strive for that liberty that they may neither be commanded nor oppressed And by means of these distant and opposite humours most part of the Tyrannies did arise He therefore who intends to use the people for his ascent to power must be frequent in his harangues flatter the multitude bitterly inveigh against the insolencies of the Optimacy extol the name and benefits of Liberty and make large promises of peace and plenty in the counsels he doth propose and this is to be a Demagogue For such an one speedily becomes the leader of the ignorant multitude who are easily deceived by specious promises and the accusations of such whom they hate and conceive him to be very just that favours their desires which have more of honesty then those of their adversaries and they do usually give a power into his hands to suppress the contrary Faction which he afterwards uses to take away their Liberty This way which seemed most safe and easie did Agathocles upon his return proceed in Therefore when the news came that the Banditi Sosistratus and his party assisted by the Carthaginians did intend to make warre upon the Syracusans he was frequent and importunate in his Orations to the people that they would not return again under the yoke of the Oligarchy but undertake the warre to maintain their Liberty Which being managed with the usual arts did prevail upon the Multitude and they decreed the warre which continued a long time and was varied with several Overthrows and Victories In this warre Agathocles sometimes as a private person and sometimes as a Commander did behave himself gallantly and shewed himself to be a person of good Conduct close design apprehensive of all advantages and speedy in the execution having alwaies in doubtful cases some cunning Stratagem either to baffle the enemy or to secure his own party Amongst which this is related for one The Syracusans having laid siege to Gela Agathocles one night with a thousand commanded men gets into the town by surprize Sosistratus that then was Governour of the place being alarmed by the surprize speedily collecting the stoutest and best-disciplin'd men of the Garrison sets upon those that had entred and killing about three hundred of them put the rest to flight Who being to make their retreat through very narrow lanes were in great hazard of being all cut off having neither room to fight nor leisure to flie Agathocles beyond all hope frees them from this danger for though he himself had received seven wounds and was weakned with the loss of much blood yet not fearfully yielding to his present adversity he gives command to the Trumpetters that they should go to the opposite part of the town-wall and there sound a Charge which being speedily performed the Geloans that then pressed hard upon Agathocles hearing the Charge given in another place and through the darkness of the night not being able to discover the truth of the matter conceived the City to be assaulted in another part by another body of the Enemy This made them slacken their eagerness in assailing Agathocles and to divide themselves to succour the other parts which they imagined were assaulted and by this means suffered him and his party safely to return to their Camp where he was received with much honour for having preserved the lives of so many of his own party from an evident ruine Had Agathocles abounded with these honest arts he had trodden the right way to Glory and would he have been contented with what the Laws and his Country would give he might have received that as a reward of his Vertue which he laboured to make a spoil of his Violence and by the common consent have been thought worthy to reign if he had not sought it too greedily So Gelo before him and Hiero after him received the Empire of Syracuse as a reward of their generous actions not as the aim of their designs And Timoleon though he strove to be a private person yet was forced to be a Prince Heroick Vertues being as the Patent of Heaven for Dominion and men willingly submit to them that receive not take the Power and think their Freedome preserved not infringed by a just Prince there
the remains of that Army he beats his Conquerours Two emulous Cities Carthage and Syracuse both at one time Conquerours and conquered streightned and besieged by their mutual forces The loss of the Carthaginians in this Battel was very great but uncertain for some say it was but one thousand others relate three and others six thousand Agathocles bought this great Victory with but little blood for he lost at most but two hundred and others say but two The Carthaginians amazed at this unexpected overthrow by so weak an Enemy referred their misfortune to the anger of their neglected Gods They conceived Hercules the Patron of their City to be offended with them because they had long disused to send the Tenths of all their Revenues to that God at Tyre from whence they were extracted which they had most religiously observed at the first Plantation of their Colony But when their State was increased by a continued Prosperity and their Riches grown to a vast height their Covetousness also inlarging with their Wealth they envied their Gods so great a summe as their Tenths did then amount unto and therefore sent little or nothing either thinking their Gods would be pleased with the parsimony of their Idolaters and not delighted in an un-emploied Treasure or else that by their present Felicity they were now able to stand by themselves without the care of their Gods Such is the common weakness of humane minds as to think the present fortune puts them out of a dependance on Heaven and so great their Ingratitude that proud with their happiness they conceive themselves the authours of their own fortunes and neglect the testimonies of acknowledging from whose bounty they derived their Blessings And being thus insolent towards their Gods they grow injurious to men and so open all the Avenues to destruction This Salust observes of his Romans who in their first beginnings were Magnificent in their Devotions Parsimonious in their Families and Faithful to their Friends but when their Greatness feared no rival and their fortune had left no Enemy first the love of Riches then Ambition of Command taught them to neglect their Gods and be perfidious to men destroied their Religion corrupted their Converse debauched their Discipline and at last overthrew their Commonwealth For Religion being the Reverence of a Deity which is supposed able to reward and punish according to the merits of the Worshippers is productive of good Orders These cement the minds of men and lay the obligations of a solid faith which fits them for great actions by a mutual confidence which seldome fails of good success But where Religion is contemned there the people are not far from ruine or some heavy scourge for that being the foundation of Society when it is once shaken by contempt the whole fabrick cannot be stable nor lasting But Religious rites that are worn out by Prosperity when security makes men more desirous of pleasures then careful of Religion are recovered by Adversity And Fear though it does not as the Atheists say make Gods yet it revives their worship For these Carthaginians awakened with the clamours of their Misfortunes sent a great summe of mony with other most precious offerings to Hercules and Golden Shrines for all their other Gods at Tyre thinking to buy off their fury and corrupt their Justice And neglecting no part of their barbarous Superstition they endeavoured to reconcile their Saturn also whom they conceived peevish likewise For whereas of old they were used to sacrifice to him their most beautifull and hopeful Children nobly or honestly born they had of late put him off with common and supposititious births Therefore by a cursed Superstition which extinguished humanity such is the fury of a devillish Worship that when it is most exact it increases their Crimes they chose two hundred Children of their most eminent Nobless for a publick Sacrifice Besides many others that lay under some misfortune or were affraid of some great accusations offered their blood for their Cities safety which were no less then three hundred All these were consumed in a Sacrifice For being bound and laid upon the arms of their Idol which was a great Image of brass with his hands stretch'd downwards to the earth the unhappy wretches rowled off and fell into a furnace of fire that was underneath This cruel Superstition the Carthaginians had brought from Tyre from whence the Jews also derived their worship of Moloch Though they were thus busie in their Religious yet were they not negligent in their Secular provisions for they sent to Amilcar in Sicily that he should speedily send them what forces he could spare and withal they sent to him by the same Messengers the brazen beaks of Agathocles's Ships which their Admiral had brought to Carthage with instructions how he should use them Amilcar having received the news commands the Messengers to suppress the misfortunes of their City and to divulge in his own Army that Agathocles with his whole party were utterly lost And some of the same men he sends into Syracuse to move them to a surrender of the Town which could not now hope for any succours for Agathocles was totally overthrown and his Ships taken and burnt at Carthage for an evidence of which they shewed the brazen beaks which had his mark upon them and were generally known to be his The people through the present miseries of the Siege were the more capable of any though false terrours and such as desired a change of the State were most greedy after news These thronging about the Punick Messengers and place of the Treaty had got some inkling of the news it was soon divulged for in a publick expectation all were impatient of any great secret and easily believed And the Commanders in the Town labouring to suppress did increase the fame of it for all discourses being forbidden were the more multiplied and those who if it had been lawful would have related no more then the truth because it was not safe did by their ill-suppressed fears and secret whisperings make more heavy things to be conjectured The Governours of the Garrison suspecting some Sedition and Mutinies might be formed by these sad tidings as soon as ever they had dismissed which was speedily the Carthaginian Envoies forced out of the Town all the unprofitable mouths and all whom they suspected as friends or kindred of the Banditi which were about eight thousand This filled the whole City with tears and confusion and every house had something to bewail either the supposed deaths of Agathocles and their friends that were with him or else the misery of those that were now to be driven from their City and houshold-gods and exposed to the cruelty of a besieging Enemy These sad considerations forced many bitter execrations upon ambitious Tyrants and their hateful ministers But Amilcar that was a Generous Enemy and had a greater sense of humanity then was in the breasts of Agathocles's agents did safely permit those expulsed
the enemy got in by Sea some Vessels laden with Corn that did for a time supply their great wants In the mean while the Army of the League to keep up their growing fame marches up and down and delivers several Towns both from the Syracusan and Carthaginian yoke Thus while Carthage and the Tyrant contended for the Empire of Sicily and wasted each other with repeated fights there arises a third party to take the spoils of both But the miseries of the Island were still increased by the pretenders to her Preservation and could not fear or suffer much more troubles in Slavery then what now she must endure for the vain hopes of that Liberty which the next strong Pretender would ravish from her While these impetuous designs for Empire and Liberty wasted and almost drowned Sicily in blood and tears the Tyrant's success in Africk made him gay and jolly and when he had received the head of Amilcar who living was his greatest terrour he made use of it to terrifie his own Citizens for riding so near their Camp as that he might be heard and seen he shews them the remains of their slain General and makes up the story of his death with all the dreadful passages that might augment their fears The Africans with tears paid their respects to his unfortunate faith and valour and bowed down to worship that head which was their Enemies scorn bewailing in the loss of him the unhappiness of Carthage But the other mischiefs of War which followed did dry up the tears too soon for this their Noble Captain This strange success both in Sicily and Africk made the Syracusan Potter more proud so as to perswade himself that he stood above the reach of Danger But the great Ruler of humane affairs deals sometimes with Tyrants as he hath done with the Lions of Mesopotamia whose Fierceness would make that Country desolate and the waies unpassable had not Nature provided a little sort of Flies that about the heat of day flying into the eyes of those beasts either force them into Marishes and Fenny places there to preserve their sight from those enemies whom smalness makes invincible or else exasperating their revenge to kill them while they are wounding make them tear out their own eyes with their claws and so starve for want of sight and food So Providence restrains the fury and curbs the Pride of such Monsters as Tyrants are by some abject means and inconsiderable circumstances forming their Ruine from unsuspected beginnings Drunkenness and Feasts sometimes revenge the oppressed world overthrow that power which is unresistible by Arms. Thus Agathocles was almost ruined when his Enemies were most weak by an unexpected Mutiny of his own Army occasioned by a slight accident which gave beginning to it And many times small beginnings have great effects men being more willing to follow a motion then to lead it The Tyrant jolly in his Success and the obsequiousness of Fortune invites all his Officers to a Supper where one of them named Lyciscus being drunk began to rail at him and upbraided him with his notorious Crimes uttering such speeches that were not safe in a Tyrant's ears Whose Maximes are to hate even the liberty of speech and to suspect those who speak either boldly or gravely for underminers of Tyranny Agathocles suppressed his Anger reserving it to grow more beavy in a fit season of Revenge at the present he seemed to reverence the man whom he had often proved very valiant and therefore imputing his Passion to his distemper replies onely by jeasts and contempt the soonest way to blot out reproaches But his Son Archagathus who thought his Father's fortune needed no Patience and because the drunken speeches had so much of truth that they left too sharp a remembrance with much fury returns the like language mixed with Threatnings This heat outlasted the Feast and every one departs towards his Tent. But Archagathus following and pressing upon Lyciscus he did at last upbraid him also of Incest with his Fathers Wife Alcia Upon which Archagathus's blood boiling as high in choler to have his Crimes divulged as it did before in Lust and as he was prompt to doe any baseness so he was equally insolent and unwilling to hear of it he snatches a javelin from one of the Guard and runs Lyciscus quite through the body who falling down dead was by his Friends conveyed to his Tent. Whither as soon as it was morning were gathered all his acquaintance and many of the Officers of the Army who had a respect for him not onely for his Valour but also for the bluntness of his discourse which did seem to have in it a shew of a free Soul These resenting the injury done to their Friend and measuring their own danger by what he had suffered fill the whole Camp with Sedition which was more inflamed by all the great Officers who feared the Tyrants wrath for some slight offences So that at last every one armed themselves to punish the incestuous Murderer and to appease the angry ghost of their Friend with his enemy's blood threatning that if Agathocles would not deliver him up to Justice they would satisfie their fury with his head Then did their anger invent new causes of quarrel and clamoured out for their arrears and to shew their intentions for a real satisfaction they chose them new Leaders seized upon all the Forts and Gates of Tunis and set a guard upon the Tyrant and his Son Thus as it is the nature of the Multitude either basely to serve or proudly to domineer they had in a moment cast off all that fear and reverence of the Tyrant which so many terrours and so long a Conduct had habituated them unto Agathocles all this while in the conscience of many Wickednesses which every mouth now spoke of did not dare to appear to restrain those that were most fierce or reconcile the doubtful or animate any of his Confidents but fearful and sluggish watched when this humour would spend it self But the Carthaginians that had intelligence of the Mutiny laboured to advantage themselves by it before the love of Obedience or the knowledge of the necessity thereof should return and therefore sent some secret instruments to practice them to a Revolt promising to pay all their arrears and ample rewards to the Agitators in it so that many of the Officers undertook the emploiment Agathocles startled at these practices thought his life and fortunes were now at the utmost verge and fearing if he were delivered up to his Enemies he must with ignominy and torture end his daies he conceived it better to commit himself to the fury of his own Army and since his Life was gone he would onely provide for the decency of his Death and withal try whether his old arts of dissembling would still prove lucky Onely the doubt was how he should proceed whether he should go and oppose to their Fury the Majesty of a Commander which might
force a reverence when they saw a Person of so great experience and that had for a long time been the chief fountain of severity and reward or whether he should go by such a way of fear and trembling as would conceal all his arts of dissembling and speaking and so be more powerful to mitigate the incensed Rabble For it is the custome of the Vulgar to be changed by sudden and unusual appearances and be as prone to pity as they were immoderate in anger This last way was thought most expedient and therefore laying aside all his Robes and ensigns of Power squallid and deformed with fear with a countenance composed to tears yet full of Pride and Anger he comes into the midst of the Souldiers who were presently moved with the miserable habit of him whom before they enyied He speaks to this purpose Had the Gods exacted my life as a Sacrifice for my Armies safety or destin'd me to fall in executing revenge on the Enemies of Syracuse their Decrees had been but the answer of my Praiers who have already devoted my life to yours and my Country's service But to be sold by those whom I have preserved in Liberty and made Lords of Africk that my death should be their ignominy whom I have led and taught the waies of glory gives me just canse to complain of their severity It is not that I fear death for I need no other witnesses then your selves how often I have provoked it for your emolument Nor am I frighted to become the mockery of that Enemy on whose Ruines I have already raised such pillars of Glory as cannot be wasted by the malignity of Time or undermined by the dishonour of my Grave But your eternal infamy that have sold your Captain and the Slavery of our Commonwealth which will lose a most industrious and faithful instrument of her preservation are the greatest terrours my destruction brings Besides the dismal effects that it will have even upon Vertue it self and be destructive to the society of following generations for my blood spilt in this mutiny will confirm the licentious insolence against Magistracy and discourage the pious zeal of Children for their Fathers honour It is true indeed the too much Piety of my Son hath raised this Tumult by more duty then consideration For dangerous events do follow even honest actions if Prudence do not moderate the course of Justice But his greatest crime was that he anticipated your fury and prevented your revenge of your own injuries For though the Majesty of a Prince and the honour of a Magistrate were but empty names and vain shadows yet it is your concernment that He which is your Commander should not be esteemed the worst of men as that drunken Railer would have rendred me because that Society is near a dismal dissolution whose Chief or Prince may be safely defamed But it is in vain to complain since the Gods have decreed the end of this glorious Enterprize by my death For who will dare to lead you to fire the Gates of Carthage and to find your arrears in ransacking her Riches when you have applauded the dishonour and conspired the betraying of your most faithful Servant Or what need the Carthaginians fear your arms when by these base arts for by better they cannot they can ruine your best Officers and make you bind their yokes upon your own necks I desire to live no longer to see your Infamy nor will I experience the Cruelty or Clemency of any other but free and satisfied with my own integrity and glory will anticipate all danger Onely I desire you that the short time your cruel and faithless Enemy will suffer you to survive me you will remember Me among the brave Examples and put me in the number of those that by an honourable end have escaped the publick Miseries Having ended his Speech he drew out his Sword and put it to his breast as if he had intended to have killed himself which was acted with so much life for he was an excellent Mimick that the rude Multitude unacquainted with the arts of Tyrants and their too much fear of death thought it was real Therefore with loud acclamations and striking their spears upon their shields which was the way whereby the Greek Souldiers did use to express their desires they cried out that he should forbear the ruine of himself and them that they did acquit him of all accusations and with a shout begged and gave pardon at once desiring him to re-assume his Royal habiliments which while he puts on he weeps and thanks the changeable Multitude that so soon was differing from it self and that before being nothing but Fury did now become all Patience For every Multitude is moveable especially that of Souldiers so that the remedies of Sedition are as easie as the beginnings of it The Tyrants Speech having recovered so much pity as served him for Authority and seeing the return of Obedience and that the Souldiers were now fit to receive commands he presently turns the remainder of their fury upon the Enemy who were expecting the issue of their practices and the Revolt of the whole Army of which they had received some already Whom when they saw marching out they conceived to be such as had forsaken the Tyrant and were coming over to them for the speed of Agathocles had prevented any news of the change in the City and when he was come near them he tells his Souldiers that now they should expiate their seditious fury and blot out their treason with the blood of the authours and turn their crime to their honour Then sounding a charge he chaces the Africans to their own tents who being deceived with this surprize made no resistance but left many of their fellows dead upon the place as testimonies of the Sicilians Repentance Though Agathocles had thus dexterously escaped this great danger and revenged himself on the Africans without any other loss then of two hundred Authours of the Sedition that had revolted to the Enemy yet was his hatred still alive of the whole Army that had put him to such affrightments and could he have been safe he would have contrived their universal ruine So implacable are the Spirits of Tyrants Yet notwithstanding he intends to divide them whom the contemplation of their number often incites to Sedition and makes them scorn to ask that pay which they see they can force Therefore leaving the rest of the Army with his Son to secure Tunis and the acquisitions thereabout he takes with him eight thousand Foot and four hundred Horse and follows the Carthaginian Forces who were gone into Numidia to suppress some Insurrections among their revolting Subjects Where though by their speed they had reduced many to Obedience and by moderating their commands recovered the Affections of others yet did they not dare to give battel to the Greeks but incamped themselves on an Hill defensible by nature and incompassed about with Rivers of a
from whence he at first set forth But his flight emboldened and increased his Enemies and in his retreat through the narrow Lanes many more of his men were much wounded from the Houses and when he came to the place he intended they closely besieged him Bomilcar seeing his design broke parlies with his besiegers and with as much Baseness as he had begun with Villany he puts an end to his ambitious hopes yielding himself up upon Articles of Impunity All the rest that had been his Instruments were pardoned their Ministery to his Wickedness being imputed to their Weakness and it was not safe now to draw much blood within their walls when such rivers were spilt without Onely the Tyrant himself must by his death seal the security of the Commonwealth and satisfie the publick hatred For hatred that is raised by danger out-lasts the fear nor doth the conquered cease to be hated till he cease to be Therefore notwithstanding the Publick faith for his impunity he was most cruelly tortured and afterwards crucified He shewed himself consentaneous in life and death for from the Cross as from a Throne his Imperious and Proud spirit declamed against the Ingratitude and Cruelty of the Carthaginians Objecting to them how they murdered Hanno whom they had falsely accused with the affectation of Tyranny banished Gisgo whose Innocency their Wickedness could not endure basely passed private sentences of death against his Uncle Amilcar who wisely endeavoured to make Agathocles rather their Friend then their Enemy and in this fury because he could not revenge the Crimes he objected he breathed out his restless soul Thus Conspiracies if they do not ruine yet defame the Magistrate and when they thrive not against them are supposed to come from them as inventions to cover their Avarice in seizing upon the Estates of others or to hide their inhumane thirst of blood This was the end of Bomilcar who following the same designs with Agathocles had yet a different issue for the Cross rewarded his Wickedness when Power and Greatness was the price of the others Not to refer this difference either to the Justice of Heaven by conceiving one to be more wicked then the other and that he which thrived was less impious then he that perished in the undertakings for this would injure that immaculate Justice and Purity of Heaven nor to ascribe it to the pity of Providence who would not afflict the miserable Carthaginians that laboured under the fury of a most bloody forein Enemy with those greater mischiefs that follow a change of Government and of necessity flow from a Domestick Tyranny But we may in reason assign this cause that the different events did arise from those divers Occasions which either took for his Enterprize The Syracusan found a corrupted State to work upon for in none but such do Tyrants arise but the African did not For whereas a State is corrupted either through a long Prosperity or variety of Factions in it both which make the People decline from their ancient Constitutions Carthage at this time was delivered from both these springs of Corruption because being pressed with a tedious and cruel War they were all united against the Common Enemy and being to fight for their preservation they could not attend the satisfaction of those Lusts which are most petulant against the established Laws Which Bomilcar 's impotent ambition not considering nailed him to the Cross in stead of fixing him on a Throne About this time all the Family of Alexander the Great was quite extinguished His Brother Aridaeus with his Wife Eurydice were killed by his Mother Olympias She afterwards besieged and by Famine forced to deliver up her self to Cassander was by him murdered Roxane his Wife with her Son the younger Alexander fell by the same hand and so also Hercules his Son by Barsine His Sister Cleopatra was also put to death by the practices of Antigonus So that there remained no Heir unto that great Troubler of the world And he that had shed so much blood for an empty Name had nothing but that Name left His Commanders who as long as any of these did survive were contented with the portions onely of that Empire did after their death assume the Name and Majesty of Kings Which Agathocles hearing the Potter also who thought himself equal to them in Exploits and Conquests and not inferiour in Dominion would also be styled King and wear a Crown as the Ensign of Majesty which he had never before used but as a Priest But Royalty which is the reward of Heroick Vertues may be the Usurpation yet can never be the Propriety of a Tyrant the Ensigns may be worn by a vitious bloody Villain but the Majesty never adorns but a Lawful Just Prince For Crowns do not create but elicite that Reverence which the Vertues of the wearer first formed in the minds of men without which umpress Diadems do but provoke the indignation of the beholders and upbraid not honour the baseness of the Usurper The assumption of the Royal Title made no alteration in the nature of Agathocles but in his next enterprize he exceeded his former Inhumanity For intending to reduce Utica that had revolted from him he suddenly lies down before it and surprizes three hundred of the Citizens that had emploied themselves in the neighbouring Country By these men he offers oblivion and pardon if they would return to their Obedience The Citizens that were sensible of his actions in Africk that his Faith was to be measured by his Lust that no greater misery could happen to them then what they should run into if they did expect his Mercy that they should perish if they were conquered and they must do so if they surrendred that there was no choice to be made but this whether they should lose their blood with scorn and contumely or spend it in a gallant defence and revenge did therefore refuse all Peace with him When he saw they would not be deluded by false hopes he endeavours to reduce them by their affections and would sack the Town by a force upon Nature For making Engines of wood on them he hangs the surprized Citizens under the shelter of whom he sets his own Souldiers and so brings them close to the Wall so that whatsoever arms the besieged did direct to kill their Enemies must first wound their dearest Friends The Uticenses were at first stupified by this inhumane art and in pity durst not shoot those arrows in their own defence which would spill the blood of those they desired to save But the Enemy pressing hard upon them they preferred Liberty to such a dangerous compassion and desiring the Gods to impute the Cruelty to their barbarous Enemy they for a long time stoutly defended themselves But their adverse Fates suffered them not long to survive their miserable Friends For the Town was taken by storm which the Tyrant soon fills with the blood and carcasses of the defendants some he killed in
their faithless Leader the perfidious Agathocles The Guard that was upon the Tyrant no less amazed then the rest hearing him named and imagining that the multitude did call upon them to bring their Prisoner forth did immediately lead him into the midst of the Army loaden with chains This sudden spectacle did strangely affect the minds of the multitude Some were moved with Pity and Reverence of him who had so long commanded them For great emploiments leave a lustre even upon that person that hath lost them and Majesty doth accompany those in their distresses whom Fortune hath before proposed to admiration And sometimes if they be vertuous persons they like the Sun appear greatest at their setting and the refraction of a moist cloud of tears doth serve to enlarge their Greatness Marius's glory in his former commands could not be stifled in the Dungeon at Minturnae but once more overcame the Cimbrian Slave that was appointed to be his Executioner Mithridates's imprisonment had not so disarmed him but that the authority of his looks and the memory of his former Empire did affright the Gaul that was sent to murder him till by his own hands he confirmed the trembling Slave to execute the wicked commands of his perfidious Son Though Agathocles had no Vertues that deserved Pity yet his fortunes did excite a Reverence Others moved with the fear of the Enemy and hope of his Conduct joined with the rest and together cried out that they should take off his Chains and set him free This unexpected mercy and deliverance together with the miserable sight of the Army's fears and confusions would have wrought a commiseration in any breast that had had the least sense of humanity to have provided for the common safety or obliged to the same fate But Perfidiousness acknowledges no Merits and every Tyrant doth abjure Gratitude and Justice Therefore Agathocles was no sooner out of his Chains but while the Army was yet in confusion and none at leisure to observe him he makes hast to the shore And because he had before indangered his own preservation by endeavouring to save one of his Sons he now hates that natural Affection and leaves them both to endure the punishments of his Villany and with some few of his servants gets into a Ship and undiscovered sails away The Souldiers hearing of his escape seize upon both his Sons with their blood to satisfie for their Father's Crimes Archagathus thought to stop the execution by asking Arcesilaus that was the Tyrant's friend whom grief and indignation had now made the forwardest to revenge What Agathocles would doe to his Children that should murder his Sons The Syracusan answered it was enough for him that his Children did live some time after Agathocles's were slain And therefore to reap this comfort he speedily sheaths his sword in Archagathus's body Heraclidas was killed by those that had been the Souldiers of Ophellas The Greeks observed in this execution the exact Justice of Heaven that in the same moneth and on the same day that Agathocles had contrary to all faith and rites of Hospitality murdered Ophellas and seized upon his Army did he lose his own Army and had both his Sons slain Providence like a just Law-giver exacting double punishment for so great a Crime for he that had wickedly killed one Friend had two Sons justly destroied Thus having satisfied their Revenge they provide for their Safety and therefore chusing new Officers by them they treat with the Carthaginians and conclude a Peace upon these Articles That the Sicilians should deliver up all those places which had been taken in Africk That for the surrender they should receive three hundred talents That such of them as would serve the State of Carthage should be taken into pay That those who desired to return to Sicily should be transported thither and have houses and places to live in assigned to them at Soluns which was a City of their Dominion in the Island This Composition was faithfully observed to those that did submit unto it but such as were left in Garrisons and would not surrender vainly hoping the deceitful Tyrant would shortly relieve them were soon reduced by force The Captains whereof they crucified but yoked the common Souldiers like beasts to plough that ground and repair by their labours that Country which they had wasted by their arms This was the issue of the African War which had continued four years all which time Carthage with undaunted courage and various success maintained her Liberty and laboured to preserve her Empire against a subtle industrious and bloody Tyrant And Agathocles had the trial of the vicissitudes of all humane affairs having a long time been the terrour of Africk He had broken many Armies ruined great Cities depopulated large Countries moistned the parching Sands with blood humbled the Pride of Carthage and scarce left them any thing but their own walls yet was twice a Prisoner to his own Souldiers and in danger of death from his own Army and at last blotted out all the honour of his Atchievements by a most cursed Perfidiousness and too great a desire of Life deserting a brave Army betraying his own Sons ignominiously flying with one Ship and few attendants trembling in the memory of his Chains and the terrours of his Enemies as if he had been designed to be the example not onely of the Crimes but also of the Punishments of a Tyrant Stripped of all his forces with shame and fury Agathocles lands in Sicily where like a dying Viper his last bites were most fierce Ruine and destruction of others being the last pleasures of a falling Tyrant And as if the air and soil of Africk that is fertile of Monsters had made him more Monster then he was before that miserable Island felt a sharper fit of Cruelty when he was thus half destroied then when he was in his more flourishing fortune He seemed now not so greedy of the Rewards of Wickedness as delighted with Wickedness it self not being more angry that he had lost his own then that he had not got another's substance or that every one had not lost as well as he The first that felt his Inhumanity was the City of Aegesta towards which he leads out those Forces he had and demands a contribution so heavy as would wholly have impoverished the City though it was great and populous and had ten thousand families in it This Injustice did so exasperate the Aegestans that they often met among themselves to complain of such usage That though they were in Confederacy with him and so should be willing to relieve the necessities of their Associate yet were they not his Slaves that he should conceive all their goods to be his own They acknowledged that a League with a more potent party was but a kind of Subjection yet were they not so absolutely to obey as if they had been conquered by him The Tyrant was not ignorant of these complaints which their Grief made
too frequent and the hopes of Moderation from a Confederate made too bold For it is safer to resist then to complain of the Injustice of a Tyrant and it is more dangerous in such counsels to be understood then to attempt Therefore while their thoughts and anger languish'd in complaints onely he thought it was too great a liberty to be grieved at his commands so he pretends that they were forming a Conspiracy against him and declares that he will be avenged in the Ruine of them and their City And because he knew them to be innocent according to the practices of Tyrants he used them more cruelly that others might conjecture there was some great Crime by the bitterness of the Punishment Those that were the poorest of the people he leads out to the river Scamander and upon the very banks as if he had had a frolick to colour the streams with blood he cuts all their throats The poverty of these men made their passage out of life less irksome But those that were supposed to be rich he kills with most exquisite Tortures to make them confess what and where their Mony was and to make the terrour greater he had his several Engines of Torment Some he breaks upon the wheel others he bound upon battering Rams then forcing them off he dash'd them in pieces others he makes to die by degrees and forces death through every member First he cuts off their Legs and as their Confessions were slow or quick or answerable to his ravenous expectation so he proceeds to the rest pulling off their Hands putting out their Eyes and every degree to death was the more sharp that they might feel themselves dying and denied them the comfort of a speedy death Besides that he might outgoe all examples of Cruelty that ever the world saw before in imitation of Phalaris's Bull he made a brazen Bed proportionable to the body of a man wherein the Wretch that was to be tortured being closed with a grate and having fire under it was exceedingly tormented and by this Engine the Tyrant could feed his eyes by beholding the tortures and it was a great part of the misery of the Sufferer to be seen and see such an horrid Villain triumph in their pains and urge their Torments It is some modesty in a Tyrant if he look not upon that wickedness which he commands As for the Matrons and rich Widows he broke their Feet with burning Pincers pulled off their Breasts and upon the Loins of Women with child laid bricks to force them to cast their birth Besides those that did die at the will of the Tyrant who would rather perish by another's wickedness then by their own there were many others that scorned the ministery of such cursed hands to set at liberty their free Souls Of which some burnt themselves Wives and Children together with their Wealth that it might not be the prey of the Tyrant Others embracing the Altars of their Gods invoking their Justice and Revenge as the last comfort of dying men did there let out their own blood And others went and hanged themselves that they might escape greater miseries So that by these severall waies there was an end put to that flourishing City The whole face of the Town was ghastly even to the spoilers but it was impossible for any thing to check their Covetousness who in the sad Ruines sought for the Wealth of the destroied owners and to increase the gain of his Crimes he sold the Children and Youth of either sex to the Italians for Slaves The City being thus depopulated he appoints it as a refuge for such desperate and needy persons as should desert his Enemies and come under his subjection And lastly he changes the name of the place from Aegesta to Dicaeopolis i. e. the City of Justice This he did either to profane the sacred name of Justice and shew his Contempt of those eternal Laws of Right and Wrong by attributing so glorious a title to so horrid a Crime which is the last pleasure and delight of those that are prodigiously wicked So Polybius relates of one Ditaearchus an Aetolian who being made by Philip of Macedonia General in an Expedition to break the League that was between the Islands called Cyclades and the Cities of Hellespont a design so apparently abominable that the Undertaker could give no honest account of it to shew how his soul delighted in the greatest Crimes and to defie both the Gods and men before he took shipping he built two Altars one to Impiety and another to Injustice and sacrificed to them as to his Deities But the Historian observes that in those cruel tortures wherewith he ended his daies he met with the provoked justice both of God and Man And so also did Agathocles for from a brand pluck'd out of the fire of this City was he and his whole Family consumed Or herein the Syracusan intended no more then to practise the usual arts of Tyrants who to divert the Hatred of the present and the Infamy among future ages are wont to put the specious names of Religion and Justice upon their most detestable actions So Tacitus observes of Tiberius that he would put upon the new Crimes which his Jealousie or Covetousness objected to others those names which the Laws had appropriated to great Offences and so gild his Cruelty and Rapine with the titles of Justice And as we have seen our modern Tyrants style their attempts to ruine Piety the Propagation of Religion Such Cheats indeed do for a time quiet the Vulgar spirits who more stick upon names then things yet when discovered do so much the more increase their Hatred as they upbraided and abused their Ignorance And the nobler and more discerning minds think their miseries under Tyrants the greater by the injuries that are done to Vertue and Goodness The next Tragedy was acted at Syracuse for while Agathocles was busie in these Butcheries he receives the news of the death of his Sons He grieved not so much for them who he suspected were too near his rivals of Empire but feared lest the kindred and friends of the Souldiers whom he had betraied in Africk would be excited by their Example to attempt that upon the old Wolf which they had executed upon the Cubs Therefore by a private messenger he commands his Brother Antander speedily to murder the Friends of all those that had followed him into Africk Antander who was of a base temper and who accounted Cruelty for Valour did exactly perform the command and endeavoured to outvy his Brother in blood For he gathered together for the slaughter not onely those of their Kindred who were of an age fit to take revenge but even their aged Parents that were so near the grave as that they had long lost their Senses and the sucking Children that were not capable to know the difference betwixt Slavery and Freedome the Women also that could not be feared to overthrow the Tyranny yet if
they had any relation to those whom they desired to grieve were all driven to the Sea-shore Where that promiscuous multitude that forced Pity from every eye but those of their Butchers while they did expect the stroke of death did wash that place with their tears first that afterwards was to be polluted with their blood and by their cries and supplications drowned both the noise of the City and the Waves Thus tortured with the expectation of Death and the horrid spectacle of their murdered Friends who preceded in the execution they had at last all their Throats cut and their bodies were thrown into the Sea which for a great space was coloured with blood and the marks of the Cruelty were carried to far-distant Coasts And which was most inhumane none dared to bewail the miserable nor bury those carcasses which the waves refused to hide but cast back on the shore lest they should be thought of kin to the murdered and be forced to the same destiny so that the Commerce of humane Nature was broke and Cruelty grew the higher from Commiseration Upon such actions as these does the security of Usurpers depend so that those that have had any sense of Vertue or Humanity do rather chuse to perish in an obscure Privacy then aim at Power that must be obtained and preserved by so much Impiety and so great Misery to mankind Syracuse and Aegesta being thus made sensible of the Tyrant's return who like a dismal Plague brought death and destruction wheresoever he went he goes to all the other Cities that were either under his Dominion or in Confederacy with him and by extorting Mony from them taking off the suspected and re-inforcing his Garisons he labours to keep them from a Revolt which either his Wickedness or his contemptible Overthrow might excite them unto But yet he could not prevent the effect of misfortunes which shakes the faith and cancels the obligations that are between wicked persons For Pasiphilus either by the inconstancy of his nature or fearing his Master's ruine and willing therefore to provide for his own safety did revolt to Dinocrates and as a pledge of his faith delivered up to him all those strong holds and forces which he commanded for the Tyrant This did so strangely affect in jealous Agathocles and present to his fancy such terrible consequences that mad with fear lest Pasiphilus might have more Complices he thought of quitting the Tyranny and therefore presently sends to treat with Dinocrates and propounds to him these conditions of Peace That he would part with his Kingdome and restore liberty to the Syracusans That Dinocrates should return to his own City That there should be granted to Agathocles for his security the two Garrisons of Thermae and Cephaloedium with the territories thereunto belonging These Articles being divulged afforded matter of discourse to the Speculativi Some applauded the Moderation of the man and attributed this prudence of temporizing with his fortune to his long experience in various successes which uses to render the great Actors in the world more wary and suspicious of future Events and the more prosperous they have been the less will they permit to Chance That although he might hope for a change of his present low condition yet he was also to fear a greater fall On the other side some required his Constancy and wondered at his change from himself that whereas in former Perils he seemed alwaies of a present courage and tenacious of hope yet now he should be so transported with fear that he did not dare to hazard one encounter for that which he had by such difficult Crimes got and hitherto preserved And which was most strange that he should despise his own advantages being still Master of Syracuse and many other strong holds stored with no small Treasure furnished with a force that was not contemptible in Number but yet more considerable in Experience and the arts of War They therefore concluded that he was never endued with true Valour and that his former resolutions were either but the insolencies of a present fortune or the eager hopes of a future which were but spurious signs not genuine effects of a brave Generosity And as good men prevail by Vertue so many base persons do sometimes by their Vices Another sort judged that all these Overtures of Peace were but to conceal more secret practices in his Enemies Army that Dinocrates had hitherto either basely or falsely by various delaies betraied the seasons of war to his adversaries and that this Treaty was but to continue him in that negligence That the Tyrant knew well enough how dangerous it was for a private person to have once born the name of a King and that such when they part with their power do abjure their safety for if not the publick Hatred yet private Revenge forbids Security The memory of Dionysius was yet fresh who when he had lost Syracuse and was besieged in his own Works and did so despond that he offered to redeem his life with a voluntary Exile out of Sicily was yet encouraged to a pertinacy by his friend Eloris who told him that Tyranny was a specious Epitaph and by his Father in law Megacles who dictated this Apophthegm that a Tyrant should rather be drawn by the heels out of his Government then voluntarily to recede from it Which so confirmed that Tyrant who was in greater distress then the present that he retained his power and weathered out the Storm that threatned his shipwreck That sure this wily Monster was as far from intending what he did offer as ever his unfaithful Soul used to keep a distance from his Tongue The event gave some credit to this last conjecture for it happened that the Treaty came to no effect For whether Agathocles did seriously intend it or no yet Dinocrates's Ambition made it frustrate Peace cannot please those whose desires are immoderate or corrupt and the desire of Greatness where it is extinguishes all other Affections Dinocrates was no less desirous to be a Monarch then Agathocles had been and was as little pleased that the Democracy should be restored at Syracuse where none that were Great could ever be safe His present command of twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse together with the disposal of all the Cities that were of the League of which he was called the General but in truth was little less then the Lord was not to be parted with for the privacy of Peace which equally obscures the brave and base and makes no difference betwixt noble and ignoble Spirits Syracuse was indeed his native City but she would be no better then his Enemy that would reduce him to the equality of a Private person make him obnoxious to the harangues of unquiet Demagogues and the censures of the giddy Rabble Upon these considerations he was as untoward to admit of Peace as he had been negligent in prosecuting the War and therefore found out many difficulties in the