and how the Romans reduced Syria to the form of a Province XVII The State of the Affairs of Syria from Alexander the Great till Seleucus Nicanor came to be King XVIII His Life and Actions XIX The History of the Marriage of Antiochus with Stratonice and the death of Seleucus XX. Continuation of the Descendants of Seleucus to Antiochus the Great and a short recapitulation of his Successors ANtiochus King of Syria Babylon and of many other Countries was the Son of Seleucus Grand-child of Antiochus and the sixteenth Successor from that Seleucus who after the Death of Alexander reigned in that part of Asia confining on the Euphrates This Prince made the first proof of his Arms against the Medes the Parthians and other people revolted from his Predecessors where he signaliz'd himself by so many Heroick Actions that he gained the sirname of Great Afterwards the success of his first Enterprizes and that glorious Title raising his courage he despoiled Ptolemy Philopator King of Egypt yet but an Infant of the lower Syria and part of Cilicia and after that setting no bound to his designs he transported the War towards the Hellespont into Etolia and Ionia where he claimed a right by virtue of his being King of Asia because formerly those Countries had been under the Dominion of the Kings of Asia From thence passing into Europe he became Master of Thrace constraining those who offered to resist to pay him obedience He likewise fortified the Chersonesus and rebuilt Lysimachia which Lysimachus King of Thrace after Alexander had built as a Cittadel to keep the people in subjection and which after his death the Thracians had demolished Antiochus undertook to repeople it making those Inhabitants which went out of it return redeeming those that were in slavery and drawing thither many new ones giving them Sheep and Oxen and Iron to Till the Ground He was very desirous with all possible expedition to put this City in a condition and to make it the seat of that War he had resolved on because he believed that in all Thrace there was no place more proper to be made a Magazine of Corn and other Provisions A great number of people had already surrendred unto him aud received the Garrisons for fear of his Arms when those of Smyrna Lampsacus and many others who would not submit to his Yoke sent their Deputies to Flaminius the Roman General who a little before had in a great Battel defeated Philip of Macedon in Thessaly for in those times and before the Affairs of Greece and Macedon were exremely embroiled as we have related in the Greek Histories There were many deputations on one part and the other between Antiochus and Flaminius but without any effect for the Romans and Antiochus had for a long time been distrustful of one another The Romans were of opinion that this King grown now so powerful would not after so many happy successes consent to Peace and Repose and that Prince saw that the Romans only could oppose his designs there being small likelyhood they would ever suffer him to establish a Dominion in Europe Yet hitherto there was no occasion given of a breach when the Ambassadors of Ptolemy Philopater came to Rome to complain that Antiochus had dispoiled him of Syria and Cilicia The Senate and people of Rome were very glad that this occasion presented and presently sent their Ambassadors to Antiochus under pretence of reconciling the two Kings but indeed to observe the designs of Antiochus and oppose them as much as they could possible Cneus chief of this Embassie required of the King That he would not hinder Ptolemy who was a friend of the people of Rome from enjoying what had been left by his Fathers and that he should leave in liberty those Cities which formerly belonged to Philip of Macedon saying it was not reasonable that he should take to himself what the people of Rome had conquered To this he added That they were astonished he should come from Medea to the Sea-costs of Asia with so great a Fleet and so powerful an Army and already begin to trouble Europe by building of Cities and making himself Master of Thrace and that there was great appearance all these were but preparations to another War The King made answer That his Predecessors had formerly possessed Thrace but being busied elsewhere it had been usurped from them and that now that he had leisure he would recover the Possession and had rebuilt Lysimachia for the Residence of his Son Seleucus For the rest he would leave the Cities of Asia in liberty provided they would own the Obligation from him and not from the people of Rome But for what respects Ptolemy said he I am his Kinsman and shall suddenly be his Father-in-law and then shall take care to act in such a manner as he shall give you thanks for the good office you have done him but let me in my turn be astonished too not being able to comprehend by what right the people of Rome meddle with the Affairs of Asia since I meddle not with those of Italy Thus they parted without doing any thing save threatning one another Some time after a report was spread that Ptolemy Philopater was dead which made Antiochus to take his way towards Egypt with design to seize that Kingdom which the death of that King might make an easie Conquest Being at Ephesus Hannibal driven from Carthage by the calumnies of his Enemies who had accused him to the Romans as factious and likely to trouble the Peace now between them came to salute him and offer him his service and as he had the Reputation of a great Captain the King received him with muchâ— kindness and kept him near his person Being gone as far as Lycia he understood that Ptolemy was yet living whereupon he quitted the design of Egypt out of hopes that he might easily seize Cyprus and to that intent he embarqued for that Island but was surprized with so furious a Tempest near the River Sara that he lost a great number of his Ships and many of his Friends Mariners and Soldiers and the rest of his Fleet being carried by the Storm to Seleucia in Syria he there caused his Ships to be repaired which were much out of order and celebrated the Nuptials of his Children Antiochus and Laodice whom he had before made enter into contract of Marriage At length having absolutely resolved on a War with the Romans he endeavoured to ally himself to the Kings his Neighbours by Marriage He sent Cleopatra sirnamed Syra to Ptolemy in Egypt and gave her in Dower the lower Syria which he had formerly usurped from him hoping thus to appease that young man that he might attempt nothing on that side during the War He sent likewise Antiochida to Ariarathes King of Cappadocia and the last to Eumenes King of Pergamus But that King knowing the design he had of making War upon the Romans and that it was only for that end
to Mithridates of Pergamus who had served him well in Aegypt but at this day all those people are free and there are yearly Praetors sent into the Kingdoms of Pontus and Bithynia Caesar confirmed all those who had received favours from Pompey in the Estates and Governments he had given them though he complained they had taken part with their Benefactor to his Prejudice save only the priest-hood of Commanes which he took from Archelaus to give to Nicomedes But some time after not only these Estates but also all that C. Caesar and M. Anthony had given to others were reunited to the Roman Empire after that Augustus became Master of Aegypt for the Romans let slip no opportunity to enlarge their Empire Wherefore having extended it by the Mithridatick War from the Euxine Sea to the sandy Desarts of Aegypt and from the Pillars of Hercules which are in Spain to the Euphrates It was not without reason they called this Victory great or gave to Pompey who made all these Conquests the Title of Greaâ— they possessed likewise all Africa as far as Cyrene it self which was given them by the Testament of Appion the last King of that Countrey who was a Bastard of the Race of the Lagides so that to have the whole Circuit of the Mediterranian Sea they wanted only Aegypt which was their last Conquest The end of the fourth Book of the Romans War with Mithridates APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA HIS HISTORY OF THE Roman Wars IN ILLYRIA PART I. BOOK V. The Argument of this Book I. DEscription of Illyria and those who first inhabited it II. Apollo 's Chastisement of the Illyrians Sacriledge III. The Romans War with Agron King of Illyria IV. Their Wars against Demetrius and against Genthius V. Against the Ardians Palarians Iapodes Segestians and Dalmatians VI. The affairs of C. Caesar with the Dalmatians and other Nations of Illyria VII Beginning of Augustus Conquests in Illyria VIII His War against the Iapodes and the Siege of Metulia IX His Wars against the Segestians and Paeonians X. His Expedition against the Dalmatians and the siege of Promona XI The Conclusion of this History THE Illyrians according to the opinion of the Greeks are the People that inhabit above Macedon and Thrace from the Charnians and the Thesprotes as far as the Ister and this is the Length of Illyria its breadth extends from Macedon and the Mountains of Thrace as far as the Paeonians and the Ionian Sea and the end of the Alps. It contains five days Journey in breadth and its length is thrice as much as the Greeks report the Romans after measuring it found it six thousand Furlongs long and twelve hundred broad and assure us that it took its name from Illyrius Polyphemus and that Polyphemus the Cyclops had three Sons by Galatea Celtus Illyrius and Gallus who going out of Sicily gave their Names to the Celtes Illyrians and Galatians of which Nation they made themselves Kings and indeed this opinion seems to me the most probable of all They say likewise that Illyrius had sons Achilles Autarius Dardanus Medus Taulantius and Perhebius and Daughters Partha Daorta Dazera and others from whom are descended the Taulantians Perhebians Achilleians Autarians Dazeretians and Darsians That Autarius had two Sons Pannonius or rather Paeonius and Scordiscus from which Paeonius came Triballius who all three gave their names to three Nations as we learn in Ancient Records Illyria therefore as we find to this day by several Publick Testimonies in that great Countrey was formerly possessed by the Scordisks and Triballians who continually made War till such time as those that remained of the Triballians went away to the Getes above the Ister And this Nation which to the time of Philip and Alexander had a great reputation is at this day so utterly decayed that there scarce remains to us the memory of its name The Scordicks are likewise much weakned for being subdued by the Romans they retreated within the Isles of the River Ister However sometime after a party returned and inhabited a Corner of Paeonia Wherefore the Scordisks are to this day reckoned among the Paeonians The Autarians who likewise possessed a good tract on the Sea Coast were likewise driven out by the Ardians After that the Liburnians who were esteemed excellent Seamen came and setled themselves in a part of Illyria from whence they scoured all the Ionian Sea plundring all the Ships they met with and because they had Ships very swift and extreamly light the Romans call Vessels that excel in swiftness Liburnicks 'T is said that Apollo's anger was the cause of the utter destruction of the Autarians and that they going with those Celtes that are called Cimbrians to besiege the City of Delphos were forthwith defeated and took their flight in disorder some of them not staying till the battel began by reason of the Rain Tempest and Thunder which terrified them Those who returned found their whole Country covered with infinite multitudes of Frogs who stinking poisoned the Rivers with their putrefaction and that at last the Earth casting forth Malignant Vapors bred a cruel Plague in Illyria This Malady siesed chiefly on the Autarians who leaving their Country carried the Contagion along with them so that no person durst receive them after three and twenty days travel they stopt in a marshy and unhabited Country and built Cities on the Confines of the Basternes As for the Celtes Apollo sent into their Country such Earthquakes as swallowed up whole Cities at once and that this Calamity ceased not till they as well as the others had quitted their habitations and come into Illyria where finding the Associates of their crime extreamly weakned by the Plague which had swept away the greatest part of them they easily overcame them but the Contagion siesing likewise upon them by their touching of infected Cloths they departed thence and for change of air went as far as the Pyrenaeans Afterwards taking their way towards the East the Romans who were fearful lest the Celtes with whom they had several times been engaged should once more pass the Alps and fall into Italy sent against them their Consuls who were defeated with their whole Army This defeat of the Consuls and the dreadful name of the Celtes struck a terror throughout all Italy till such time as having chosen Marius General who had lately gained a great Victory against the Lybians Numidians and Marusians they overcame the Cimbrians and afterwards had the better of them in several Engagements as we have set down in the recital of the Roman Wars against the Gauls So that weakned by such vast effusion of blood and grown hopeless of settling themselves in any other place they again recovered their Ancient Seat after having done much mischief and suffered innumerable losses And here ended Apollo's punishment of the impiety of the Illyrians and Celtes Yet this deterred them not from afterwards committing other Sacriledges for at another
THE HISTORY OF APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA IN Two Parts THE First Consisting of the Punick Syrian Parthian Mithridatick Illyrian Spanish Hannibalick Wars THE SECOND Containing Five BOOKS OF THE Civil Wars OF ROME Made English by I. D. LONDON Printed for John Amery at the Peacock against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1679. TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE EARL OF OSSORY c. May it please your Lordship COuld I as truly boast I had performed your Commands in making Appian English as I can that I attempted it by your Command I should with much more confidence than now I dare present it to your Lordship for the least flattering imagination that I were able to make this excellent Historian speak as well and prove as pleasing to yoâ—r Lordship in ours as he does in any other foreign Language would be apt to create in me a confidence pardonable only in those who are successful in their obedience and whose Performances are equal to their Wishes But since the knowledge of my own weakness forbids me to entertain any such thoughts I come with all humility to lay at your Lordships feet not the effects of my well doing but of my good will and though I am sufficiently sensible of my want of power to give height to my desires yet I rest satisfied in this that Experience hath taught me your Lordship can never want goodness to accept of my intentions And whilst you have so much of that Heaven about you I can fear little damage from any Earthly Defects of mine And whilst your Lordship is pleased to own Appian and undertake his protection in this Humble Dress of mine what doubt can I harbour of his finding a happy Reception in the World You who have been so great an Example of the main subject he treats of Military Prowess You who have so seasonably pressed your self forward both in Naval and Landâ— Service for the Glory of your King and Country that no Example of Roman Bravery could ever reach to You whom if Appian himself were still alive he would be proud of the opportunity of exceeding all he has done in one of his greatest Excellencies by giving a Character of so illustrious a Worthy For I dare leave it to any impartial Reader of this Age to judge whether any of his Descriptions of those Hero's whose Actions he writes comes not short in many points of what justly might be said of your Lordship or if any there be sure I am none but the two great Scipios can pretend to claim any Parallel You like them have uninteressed fought for your Country and in this have exceeded them that when your Glory was already at that height made you the envy of ill men you still thrust your self into those hazards makes you the Admiration of all that have either Goodness or Honour which together with your other excellent Qualities deservedly entitles you to that Attribute once given to the Emperour Titus of being The Delight of all Humane Kind But why should I strive to tell the World what they already know and what none will dispute with me 'T is an Honour too great for me that your Lordship has by laying this Command upon me given me an occasion to publish the hearty desire I have to acknowledge all your Lordships Favours and to assume a liberty few men living but would be proud to share in of declaring my self My Lord Your Lordships Most Humble most Faithful And most Obedient Servant I. D. TO THE READER THough this History be so excellent in it self both as to its Method and Original Style that it needs no Preface to recommend it yet such is the invincible power of Custom that a loose Sheet must be cast away to usher it among the people and I cannot be so stubborn to disoblige them in so trivial a matter and though I know it is no purpose to say any thing of my self since all I can say will not stop the least censure yet for others satisfaction I will speak something of my Author and this Book as 't is his He was though Native of Alexandria a Roman Citizen and for his exquisite parts and Learning so much respected in his time that he was successively Advocate to two Emperours of Rome an Employment which gave him the opportunity of having at his command the prime Records of the Empire which it is possible first put him upon composing this History for by several hints in these Books of his we find the use he made thereof and especially of the private Memoirs of Augustus Caesar written with his own hand which he tells us he had seen and whereby possibly he â—as enabled so exactly to discourse of those intricate causes of disgust between young Caesar and Anthony which he does in his Civil Wars and which possibly he had been much more large upon in his History of Egypt had not that among others unfortunately been lost For he began his History from the Infancy of the Roman-State his first Book treating of their Affairs under their Kings and so continued it not by hudling all their Actions together according to an exact series of time but by composing a particular Book of every great and renowned War in any Province or Country without intermingling it with the Affairs of any other Country farther than the necessity of the Story required till at length he concluded with the Battel of Actium and Conquest of Egypt which was the last Province reduced under the Roman Power and with which the whole Empire became entirely settled in peace under the Government of Caesar Augustus And certainly all the mighty Actions of so great and glorious a people as those of Rome compiled by so excellent an Author must needs have been a Woâ—k worthy of the World but whether it were the pleasure of Fate to make us sensible that all things sublunary are subject to decay or as the French Translator will have it a just punishment from Heaven for the Roman Pride Avaâ—ice and Cruelty that no eâ—tire â—istory of all their prodigious Undertakings should be transmitted to Posterity this fell under fate of most Roman Histories and of thirty two Books written by Appian nineteen have been eaten up by devouring time and thirteen only preserved to our days viz. the Punick Syrian Parthian Mithridatick Illyrian Gallick and that too but a fragment Spanish and Hanniballick War with five Books of the Civil Wars all which are here made English True it is that in the Latine Copy with the Annot. Var. there are several fragmenrs of other Wars managed by the Roman People but so utterly imperfect that the translating of them would have given little or no satisfaction to the Reader I have but one thing more to add that is notwithstanding our misfortunes in being deprived of so great a part of this noble History we may take occasion to admire the excellent method and contrivance of Appian his composure being such that though so many of his Books
having accused him for ill management in the Government of Babylon Wherefore he was called Demetrius Soter a name given him by the Babylonians After this seeing himself setled in the Kingdom he sent to Rome a Crown of Gold worth ten thousand Crowns as an acknowledgement of his having been civily treated in quality of a Hostage and moreover delivered to them Leptines who had slain Octavius The Senate accepted the Crown but as if the crime had concerned all the Syrians they would not content themselves with the punishment of Leptines After this Demetrius drove Ariarathes out of the Kingdom of Cappadocia and received a thousand Talents for setling in it Holophernes said to be his Brother though it were the Romans intention that both Brothers should be Kings alike but sometime after they were both expelled and Ariobarzanes likewise by the Forces of Mithridates King of Pontus upon which cause with some others began the War with Mithridates Never was there a greater nor in which there were so many strange revolutions or so many Nations concerned besides that it lasted forty years during which time the Palace of the Kings of Syria oft-times changed its Master though they were still of the same Race There happened likewise during that time many broils and mutations in divers Kingdoms The Parthians who for a long time had been revolted from the Family of the Seleucides added to their Estates Mesapotamia which they cut off from the Kingdom of Syria Tigranes Son of Tigranes having subdued the neighbouring Nations which had every one their King and causing himself to be called King of Kings made War upon the Seleucides who would not submit And Antiochus sirnamed the Pious being not able to resist him he became Master of all the Provinces of Syria on this side Euphrates as far as Egypt and of Cilicia besides which was likewise under the Dominion of the Seleucides Magabates commanded in the name of the King his Master in all their Estates newly conquered with a powerful Army for fourteen years together but after that Mithridates overcome by Lucullus sought refuge in the Court of Tigranes Magabates went with his Army to the assistance of his King and in the mean time Antiochus Son of the Pious retook Possession of his Kingdom with applause of all Syria Lucullus who waged the first War with Tigranes and drove him out of his new Conquests disturbed not the King of Syria in the Possession of the Kingdom of his Fathers but Pompey Successor to Lucullus after having defeated Mithridates suffred Tigranes to remain King of Armenia but for Antiochus though he had never disobliged the Romans yet he despoiled him of his Kingdom and indeed it was easie for a great Army to oppose a King unarmed not but that he had another pretence for 't was alledged that it was not just that Syria whose Kings of the Seleucian Race were expelled by the Arms of Tigranes should rather return to them again than to the Romans who were Conquerers of the same Tigranes himself Thus were Cilicia Syria as well the higher as lower Phaenicia and Palestine added to the Roman Empire without fighting and with them all the Countries between Euphrates and Egypt There remained only the Jews to be subdued by force and Pompey performed it sent their King Aristobulus Prisoner to Rome and rased the Walls of Ierusalem a very great and a holy City in that Country Ptolemy the first King of Egypt had before done the same Vespasian likewise took and pillaged it and the last time it was taken was by Adrian in our days wherefore the Jews pay more Tribute by the Pole than for the Goods which they posses and for the Syrians and Cilicians they pay the hundredth part Pompey having conquered all the Nations that had been formerly under the Seleucides gave to some particular Kings as also to the Gallogreeks of Asia and for the others he confirmed in their Tetrarchies the Ancient Kings that had faithfully served the Romans in the War against Mithridates Some years after all these Estates were reunited to the Roman Empire every one in his time but the principal part under the Empire of Augustus Caesar. Now Pompey being departed from Syria left his Government to his Quaestor Scaurus to whom the Senate sent Marcus Philippius for Successor and after him Marcellinus Lentulus both these Praetors who during the two years that each had the government of this Province were obliged several times to come to blows with the neighbouring Arabs who made incursions into the Province wherefore afterwards there were Proconsuls sent into Syria who had the same power with the Consuls in matters of War Gabinius was the first that came with an Army when Mithridates King of Parthia driven from his Kingdom by Orodes his Brother was re-established by the assistance of the Arabs At the same time Ptolemy the Eleventh King of Egypt being expelled likewise by his Subjects by force of Money prevailed with Gabinius to resettlâ— him in Alexandria and suspend the War with Parthia He did it and by force constrained the Alexandrians to return to the obedience of their King But Gabinius was by the Senate condemned to banishment for having without express Orders passed into Egypt and having undertaken a War which was thought to be unfortunate being forbid by the Sybills Verses To Gabinius succeeded as I think Crassus who going to make War with the Parthians was defeated by the loss of his whole Army After him L. Bibulus had this Government during whose time the Parthians made an irruption into this Province and in the time of Saxa who was his Successor extended their Arms as far as Ionia the Romans being then diverted by the Civil Wars But we shall more amply treat of all these Matters in the Book of the Wars against the Parthians this being only designed for the Wars in Syria What therefore I have said is only to make known in what manner Syria came under the Roman Dominion and how it was reduced under the form of a Province Nor will it be much from the purpose to insert something of what passed from the time of the Macedonians till it was brought under the Roman Rule Alexander having overcome the Persians was King of Syria and not only of Syria but also of all the Countries whither he carried his Arms. After the death of Alexander who left two Sons the one yet a little Infant and the other in the belly of his Mother The Macedonians pressed forward by the love they bore to the Blood of Philip chose for their King Aridaeus the Brother of Alexander who yet was not esteemed over wise changing the name of Aridaeus into that of Philip but that only for the that Alexanders Children were in their minority for they gave Guards to the Mother whilst she was great with Child Mean while the Captains of the Macedonians and principally Perdiccas under the authority of this Philip divided the conquered Nations into
Satrapies or Governments and the Brother and Children of Alexander being sometime after dead the Satrapes or Governours became Kings Laomedon was the first that was placed in the Government of Syria by the favour of Perdiccas and of Antipater who after Perdiccas had the Government of the Kingdom As soon as he had taken possession Ptolemy who was Governour of Egypt came into Syria with a Fleet and offered this Governour a great sum of Money to put it into his hands that it might serve as a Rampier to Egypt and that from thence he might invade Cyprus But not able to obtain any thing that way he took Laomedon himself Prisoner who afterwards corrupting his Guards fled to Alcetas in Caria Thus Ptolemy siesed upon Syria where having staid for some time he left Garrisons and returned into Egypt As for Antigonus he was Governour of Phrygia Lycia and Pamphilia and besides when Antipater went into Europe he left him superintendent General of all Asia So that Eumenes Governour of Cappadocia being declared Enemy of the Macedonians he went and besieged him and understanding that he had made a private escape from the place pursued him and slew him in the way to Media whither he had designed to flee for refuge from whence returning to Babylon he was magnificently received by Seleucus then Governour there But Seleucus having condemned to death one of his Captains without acquainting him with it he demanded of him an account of the Publick Moneys which so much perplexed Seleucus that not able to resist Antigonus he retired to Ptolemy into Egypt Antigonus hereupon deposed Blitor Lieutenant Governour of Mesopotamia from his charge because he had assisted Seleucus in his retreat Soon after he reduced under his obedience the Province of Babylon Mesapotamia and all the Nations from Media to the Hellespont insomuch that the other Governours not enduring he should siese on so many Countries to their prejudice entred into a League against him Seleucus was the principal Author of it and Ptolemy Lysimachus Governour of Thrace and Cassander who commanded in Macedon after the death of his Father signed to it They forthwith sent Deputies to Antigonus to demand the restoration of those Lands he had siesed on and to produce the publick Moneys to be divided amongst them He made a mock of the Deputation whereupon the Confederates declared War against him This nothing daunted him but on the contrary he beat out those Garrisons Ptolemy had placed in Syria and made himself Master of Phaenicia and lower Syria till then under the obedience of Egypt Thence he went to the Cicilian Ports leaving Demetrius his Son only two and twenty years of age in Gaza with an Army to oppose the designs of Ptolemy but Ptolemy defeated him in a great Battel and forced him to flee to his Father Seleucus was presently sent by the Confederates to Babylon to reposses himself of his Government Ptolemy having to this effect given him a thousand Foot and three hundred Horse this was a Body utterly uncapable of forcing so great a City but the inclinations the Babylonians had for him made him be received and his Forces soon increased prodigiously Antigonus incensed against Ptolemy overcame him in a Sea Fight which was fought near the Island of Cyprus where his Son Demetrius commanding the Army were so puft up with this Victory that they proclaimed both Father and Son Kings It is true there was no person left of the Blood Royal Aridaeus the Son of Philip being dead as were likewise Olympia's and the Children of Alexander Ptolemy's Army hereupon gave him likewise the Title of King lest his loss should make him seem to yield to the Victor Thus different success occasioned the like event The others presently followed the Example and of Governours made themselves Kings Thus Seleucus became King of Babylon and Media killing afterwards with his own hand in combat Nicator whom Antigonus had placed in the Government of that Province he had afterwards many Wars as well against the Macedonians as the Barbarians and among the others two against the Macedonians The last of which was against Lysimachus King of Thrace and the first against Antiochus then fourscore years old when the Battel was fought near Ipsa a City of Phrygia where that brave old Man discharging the part of a General and Soldier together lost his life After his death the Confederate Kings divided amongst them his Estates of which Seleucus had for his share all those Lands that lie between Euphrates and the Sea and from the Sea as far as Phrygia in the main Land which vastly augmented his Dominion And he moreover losing no opportunity of making himself greater being equally powerful in Eloquence and Arms conquered Mesopotamia Armenia and Cappadocia sirnamed Seleucidia and besides those became Master of the Persians Parthians Bactrians Arabs Tapyrians Sogdiens Arachoses Hyrcanians and other Nations fronting upon the River Indus which had been subdued by Alexander So that except that King no Prince ever possessed so great a Country in Asia for all the Lands from the confines of Phrygia to the River Indus were under his obedience He went likewise to make War with Androcotes King of the Indians that inhabit beyond the River and returned not till an Alliance was contracted between them which was followed by Peace True it is that whilst Antigonus lived he possessed but some part of this for the greatest share came to him after his death They say that being in Alexander's Army in his expedition into Asia and yet but a private Soldier he consulted the Oracle of Didymea concerning his return to which he was answered Take leave of Europe and possess Asia That in Macedon there of a sudden appeared on his Fathers Hearth a great flame which no body was seen to kindle and that his Mother was advertised in a Dream to give the first Ring she should find to Seleucus to wear for that he should Reign in that place where by chance he let it fall and that she found one of Iron with an Anchor engraven thereon which was lost about Euphrates 'T is said likewise that as he walked about Babylon he stumbled upon a stone which having caused to be taken up there was found an Anchor underneath which troubled much the Southsayers who would have had this Prodigy to be a presage of delay But Ptolemy the Son of Lagus who accompanied him said it was rather a sign of stedfastness wherefore when Seleucus attained to the Royalty he bore an Anchor engraven in his Ring Some likewise have assured us that whilst Alexander was yet living and in his presence there happened another presage of the future greatness of Seleucus for after he was returned from the Indies being embarqued upon the Euphrates to go visit the Marshes of Babylon with intent to make Channels to water the Champion of Syria his Diadem was by the wind carried of his Head and set upon a heap of Reeds near the the Sepulcher of an
him being recovered he found all his Forces in a condition to march being composed of sixty Regiments of six hundred Men each besides multitudes of all sorts of People with quantity of Ships and strong places which his Captains had sieised upon during his distemper He therefore passed over a part of his Army to Phanagoria another Merchant City situate on the other side of the Strait to the end he might on both sides be Master of the passage Pompey was still in Syria but a certain Inhabitant of Phanagoria called Castor whom Tryphon the Kings Eunuch had formerly put to the Torture killed the Eunuch as he entred and began to cry out Liberty The people presently rose upon it and though the Fortress was guarded by Artaphernes and other Children of Mithridates yet they brought Wood round about it and set it on fire which so affrighted Artaphernes Darius Xerxes Oxathres and Eupator the Kings Sons that they yielded themselves They were all very beautiful but they were all but Children except only Artaphernes who might be forty years old there staid in the Fortress only one of their Sisters called Cleopatra who would not go out and whose generosity so much pleased the King that he sent Brigantines which brought her off All the Castles thereabouts which Mithridates had lately surprized followed the Example of Phanagoria Chersoneses Theodozia Nymphaea and other fortified Cities above in the Pontick Sea did the like insomuch that the King seeing so many revolts and not placing any confidence in the Fidelity of an Army most of whom went to the War by Constraint besides the great Exactions he had made to bring this Army on foot and his own unfortunate condition in which Estate a Prince can have no reliance on the Faith of his Subjects he sent some Eunuchs into Scythia with his daughters to give them in Marriage to the Kings of that Country entreating them to come to his succour with all the Force they had He had appointed these Eunuchs a guard of five hundred Soldiers for the Conduct of these Princesses but scarce had they lost sight of Mithridates but they slew the Eunuchs who by virtue of the power they had over the Kings Spirit had always tyrannized over them and carried the Ladies to Pompey The King though he had lost so many Children so many strong places nay indeed his whole Kingdom nor had now any hopes of aid from the Scythians abated not at all the fierceness of his courage nor entertained any thoughts that were mean or suitable to his present Calamity He formed a design to march into Gaul and stir up that people to Arms with whom he had to that purpose before hand made a league and entred into alliance thinking with them to cross the Alps and fall upon Italy where he had hopes many people would joyn with him out of the hate they bore the Romans for he had heard tell how Hannibal making Wars within Spain had laid the same design and succeeded and after so daring an attempt made himself formidable to his Enemies besides he had intelligence that almost all their allies in Italy were revolted against them out of a general hate and had a long time bore Arms against them and likewise favored to their prejudice the Gladiator Spartacus a vile fellow Upon these hopes he was ready to take his march towards Gaul if the Army terrifyed with such prodigious boldness had not made abortive these magnificent Designs The Soldiers seeing he had a mind to lead them so far off to encounter people they could not defend themselves from in their own Countrey thought that Mithridates despairing of his own Affairs thought it more honourable to die generously like a King then to lie idle and do nothing However they said nothing but received his orders without any murmuring for this King was a man of no mean Soul nor despisable in the very midst of Calamity Things being in this Estate Pharnaces the most beloved of all his Sons and whom he had often designed his Successor in the Kingdom laid a design against his life whether it were that he thought this expedition might prove prejudicial to his Affairs and blast the hopes he yet had the Romans would grant him pardon which he was sure they would absolutely refuse if his Father went to ravage Italy or whether it were for other reasons or else out of an impatient desire to reign His Complices being taken and put to torture Monophanes perswaded Mithridates that being ready to march it was not convenient to put to death a Son he had so tenderly loved that such disorders would happen during the War and would end with the War insomuch that he suffered himself to yield and pardoned his Son But Pharnaces being affrighted with some private intelligence given him and knowing that the Army had an aversion for this Expedition went by night and conferred with the Principal of the Roman Fugitives whose Tents were not far from the Kings aggravating to them the danger they ran into which was not unknown to them if they went into Italy and making them great Promises if they would stay with him he prevailed with them to forsake Mithridates At the same time he sent some of his people to the neighbouring Tents to make the same Proposition to the Officers who likewise gave him their word Morning being come the Runawayes began to shout all together to which those who were encamped next them answered in the same tone after them all the Army even to the very Fleet did the like It 's possible they were not all of the Conspiracy but those who were not engaged followed the others out of a natural facility men have to despise the miserable and to affect Novelty And some too not knowing the number of the Conspirators believed the whole Army concerned and believing themselves alone unable to resist such a Multitude shouted with the rest more for fear then good will Mithridates wakened by these cries sent some to them to know what they desired to whom they returned answer they demanded his Son for their King a young man for an old one overswayed by his Eunuchs and a Murderer of many of his Children Captains and Friends Having heard this return He came out to speak to them and in the mean time a Troop of his Guards going to joyn with the Runa wayes they told them they would not receive them unless to gain belief amongst them they would do some notable action and at the same time showed them the King They then killed his Horse seeing him dispose himself to flight and then as if they had done what was desired of them called Pharnaces King and some one having taken out of a Temple a certain Band of Parchment tyed it about his head instead of a Diadem the Old man seeing all this from a high Gallery whither he had escaped sent several Messengers one after another to his Son to desire security for his retreat but
it came to the Vote Gracchus had those of the two first Tribes Whereupon the rich men cryed out that it was not allowed by Law to continue the same dignity in the same Person and Rubrius Tribune of the people whom Lot made President of the Assembly making a demur upon it Mummius the Successor of Octavius obliged him to resign his place and suffer him to gather the Votes but the rest of the Tribunes maintained that Lots ought again to be drawn for the Preheminence and that Rubrius Resignation could not be made but in equal favour of all the Tribunes In this Contest Gracchus seeing his Party the weakest adjourned the Assembly till the morrow and finding his Affairs grow desperate before he was dismissed of his Charge he spent the rest of that day in the place in mourning having his Son with him whom he recommended to all he met as foreseeing himself likely to perish by the violence of his Enemies The Rabble moved to compassion for the man and withal judging that there must be no more talk of Equality between them and the other Citizens but they must resolve to suffer the Tyrannick Rule of the Rich if they forsook their Protector in the danger he was in for their sakes they carryed him to his house in the evening and wished him to be couragious next morning Hereupon he took heart and assembling before it was day those of his Faction gives them a word in case there should be occasion to fight and so seizes on the Capitol and place of Assembly The rich men by the joyning of some Tribunes with them having hindred Votes to be taken about his Continuation he gave to his Party the Signal agreed upon between them whereupon they rose with great clamour and straightway fell to blows some gathering about his Person as his Guards and others tucking up their Robes snatching the Rods out of the Lictors hands and untying them drave all the rich Men out of the Assembly with many blows and wounds in so much that the Tribunes affrighted fled and the Priests shut up the Temple The terror of those who ran flying up and down filled all the City with disorder and uncertain rumors Some said Gracchus had taken the Tribuneship from his Colleagues which seemed the more credible because none of them appeared in publick And others that without expecting the people's Votes he had created himself Tribune Mean while the Senate assembled in the Temple of Faith And surely it is to me a wonder that neither now nor afterwards it entred into the thoughts of any of the Fathers to propose the saving way of a Dictator so often tryed in the like Commotions After a short Consultation they ascended the Capitol led by Cornelius Scipio Nasica High Priest who having cryed aloud that all who loved the safety of the Commonwealth should follow him cast one of the Skirts of his Robe over his shoulder and over his head whether for a sign to assemble the multitude or to give them Signal of Battel or to testifie his respect to the Gods in concealing from them the design he had in his heart Being come to the Capitol and Gracchus people having made way for that great Man at the head of the Senate those that followed him snatcht the Clubs out of their Enemies hands and getting pieces of Forms which they broke or any thing that might serve for offence they fell upon the others with so much fury that they drove the greatest part of them down the Precipices and slew Gracchus himself near the Temple Gates before the Statues of their Kings with a great number of his followers whose bodies were in the night cast into Tyber Thus ended Gracchus Son to a Father that had been twice Consul and to Cornelia Daughter to Scipio the Affrican He was slain being Tribune and in the Capitol serving his Country but with too much violence And this Riot the most infamous we have upon Record was committed in the sacred place where Magistrates are chosen His death wrought two different effects in men's minds some rejoyced and others mourned for many lamented not less their own condition than his calling the present State not the Republick but the Insolence of the victorious Party whilst others believing they had nothing more to fear found themselves at the top of their wishes All this happened in the time of that War when Aristonicus fought with the people of Rome for the Empire of Asia After Gracchus death Appius being likewise deceased Fulvius Flaccus and Papirius Carbo together with the young Gracchus undertook to cause the Law about Lands to be put in Execution And when the ancient Possessors stood off what they could to hinder the Arpentage or Division of Lands they caused Proclamation to be made that whosoever would might summon them before them which gave Rise to numberless difficult Law-Suits for all contiguous Lands that either had been sold or divided fell into dispute to know how they were sold or divided no Writing of Sale appearing and many having lost the Possession of what was let out to them by Division and besides whatever did appear done by contract was very doubtful And moreover in making a general Survey in order to a new Division some who had sowed or otherwise improved their Farms were transplanted to a corner that at present lay Fallow and others from Arable to a Wast Clay or Marshy Ground For from the first there had been no very exact Division made of the Lands gained from the Enemy And because it was enacted that Lands so set out should be tilled by the Possessors some that were more diligent had advanced upon their Neighbours and so confounded the Bounds Besides time having changed the face of places it was no easie matter to discover the Incroachments of the rich Men though they were very great In a word by the often change of Dwellings all things were in confusion and disorder The Italians tired with their Law-Suits and feeling themselves oppressed with the Execution of Judgments that they might be no longer subject to these Injustices besought Cornelius Scipio the African to undertake their Protection They had served him so well in many occasions of War that he could not refuse them his Assistance He therefore went to the Senate where at first dash he struck not directly at the Law for fear to offend the people but having touched somewhat upon the difficulty of the Affair he moved that the cognizance of such Causes as should happen might be taken from the Tribunes as Men suspected and others be sent in their stead His Opinion being found very just the Senate confirmed it by Decree and gave the Commission to Tuditanus then Consul But he having undertaken a business which he found very difficult taking for a pretence the War of Illyria went into that Province and no man longer acknowledging the Triumvirs for Judges all matters were at a stand This lost Scipio in the hearts of
Brundusium that Cinna was dead and the Common-wealth in trouble they returned to find Sylla without proceeding farther Upon this report brought to him he left Pyraeum with five Italian Legions six thousand Horse and the Auxiliary Forces of Macedon and Peloponnesus which amounted to about sixty thousand Men from Pyraeum he came to Patras from whence he passed over to Brundusium on a Fleet of six hundred Ships He was received into the Port without any contradiction and in acknowledgment of that seasonable kindness he granted to the City an exemption from all kind of Imposts for the future which they enjoy to this day That done he set forward with all his Forces and by the way met with Metellus Pius who some years before had commanded the Body of an Army in the War with the Allies but not being willing to return to the City for fear of Cinna and Marius was retired into Liguria expecting some change Now therefore he came to offer Sylla what Forces he had having still the Title of Proconsul for when once that Honour is attained it lasts till he enjoys it returns to his Country Some time after Cn. Pompey who afterwards gained the Title of Great Son of that Pompey who was killed with a Thunderbolt came to him likewise In former appearance he was no Friend to Sylla but now he made him lay aside all suspicion of him by bringing with him a Legion out of the Country of Picene where he was well beloved in memory of his Father's name he raised two other Voluntier Legions soon after and among all those that took Sylla's Party none did him more important Service and though yet very young Sylla had so high a value for him that whoever arrived he was the only person for whom he rose up from his Seat that he sent him into Africa to put an end to the Remains of the War quell Carbo's Party and reestablish Hyempsal in his Kingdom who had been driven out by the Numidians and that for the Actions he there did he granted him the Honour of Triumph though he had not yet arrived to the age prescribed by the Laws and was then but a plain Knight In so much that after so fair beginnings being advanced in age as well as reputation he was sent against Sertorius in Spain and afterwards to the Kingdom of Pontus against Mithridates Cethegus likewise came to meet Sylla though he had been the greatest Enemy he had and was therefore banished with Cinna and Marius but now he presented himself before Sylla in the condition of a Suppliant offering him to serve him in all he should be pleased to employ him Thus beholding himself fortified with a great number of Soldiers and store of illustrious Friends whom he made his Lieutenants he placed himself at the Head of his Army with Metellus both being Proconsuls for Sylla going to the War against Mithridates in Quality of Proconsul had not yet quitted that Dignity though Cinna had declared him Enemy to the State He mortally hated those that had offended him but he kept his hatred close for which reason those which remained in the City knowing his temper were sorely terrified They had not forgot what passed the first time he entred in Arms they knew he was incensed at the Sentences given against him they saw his House pulled down his Goods confiscate his Friends killed and his Family in flight who very hardly escaped and therefore thought they must resolve to overcome or utterly to perish so that in this common fear they threw themselves into the Consuls Party and began to fetch from all parts of Italy Soldiers Provisions and Money with all the diligence necessary in extreme danger The Consuls C. Norbanus and L. Scipio and with them Carbo Consul the year precediâ—g who hated Sylla as much as the others but feared him more out of a remorse for the injuries he had done him after having levyed Soldiers throughout all Italy took the Field with each his Body of an Army They had at first but two hundred and fifty Men in each Cohort but soon after they found many more for all people had a far greater inclination for the Consuls than for Sylla because Sylla seemed to come against the City like an Enemy whilst the Consuls fought for their Country but this was only in appearance for in truth they laboured only for themselves Besides the vulgar sensible they were sharers in the fault were carried on to defend it by the same fear and no person was ignorant that Sylla had not simply the thought of chastising reforming or striking terrour but that he meditated upon Sackings Burnings Massacres and in a word the general ruine of the City And surely they were not deceived all places they soon found sacked and filled with slaughter by the continual Fights in which there perished sometimes ten thousand sometimes twenty thousand in one only Engagement and at once in and about the City fifty thousand where yet the Conquerour forgot no cruelty he could exercise on the Remainder as well in general as particular till in the end he reduced the Roman Empire under his Dominion and disposed of it at pleasure They received from on High presages of these miseries by a great number of Prodigies Ghosts presented themselves to an infinite many people throughout all Italy as well alone as in company they set themselves to examine ancient Oracles where they still found matter of greater fear and distraction a Mule engendred a Woman was delivered of a Serpent a great Earthquake overthrew some Temples in the City And though the Senate and People of Rome keep constant watch against such Accidents the Capitol built by the Kings above four hundred years before was set on fire none could tell how And indeed these were all Signs which threatened Italy with Murders and Desolations and the Roman People with Servitude and that Change which was to happen in the Common-wealth The beginning of this War accounting from the time that Sylla landed at Brundusium happened in the hundred seventy fourth Olympiad The Actions of it were much greater than the time of its continuance long for each party running with fury to the ruine of the other the losses they sustained were so much the greater and more quick yet it lasted three years till such time as Sylla made himself Master of the State and even after Sylla's death it yet continued a long time in Spain There was through all Italy many Fights and Skirmishes Sieges and other Exploits of War in great number and very remarkable as well in Pitch'd Battels as in Rencounters We will only relate those Actions are most considerable and best worthy memory and that the most succinctly we can The first Battel fought was about Canusa between the Consul Norbanus and the Proconsuls wherein the Consul lost six thousand men and those of the other Party only seventy but they had many wounded and Norbanus retreated to Capua After which the
and Cassius Tribunes go to Caesar who receives them as Friends X. Caesar passing the Rubicon strikes a general terrour into Rome XI Pompey leaves Rome goes to Capua the Consuls and most of the Senate follow him He carries over his Forces to Dyrrhachium which he makes his Seat of War XII Caesar comes to Rome thence goes to Spain to make War with Petreius and Afranius XIII Curio goes to Africa is defeated and slain XIV Caesar appeases a Mutiny of his Army at Placenâ—ia and prepares to pass into Epire. XV. Pompey having made his Preparations makes a Speech to his Army and sends Garrisons into Thessaly XVI Caesar after encouraging those Forces he finds at Brundusium goes over Sea in Winter and takes some places XVII Caesar endeavouring to seize Dyrrhachium is prevented by Pompey XVIII Caesar endeavouring to come over Sea himself to fetch the Remainder of his Forces out of Italy being driven â—ack by Storm sends Posthumus in his stead XIX Anthony being landed with the rest of Caesar's Forces in Dalmatia some light Skirmishes happen XX. Pompey gains a great Victory over Caesar. XXI Caesar retreats with his Army into Thessaly and encamps about Pharsalia XXII Pompey hopes to overcome him by Famine without fighting XXIII At length he yields to give him Battel XXIV Number of the Forces on both sides XXV Pompey and Caesar encourage their Armies XXVI They draw into Battel and give Orders XXVII The Battel of Pharsalia XXVIII Pompey escapes into Egypt where he is murdered XXIX Caesar follows revenges his death and thence goes against Pharnaces in Asia XXX He returns to the City where after appeasing his mutinous Soldiers he resolves on his Expedition into Africa XXXI He defeats Scipio and the rest of Pompey's Party XXXII The death of Cato at Utica and the end of the African War XXXIII Caesar returns to the City triumphs and rewards his Soldiers XXXIV He goes into Spain and puts an end to the whole War XXXV He returns to the City where he takes on him the Sovereign Authority XXXVI Lays a Design of War against the Parthians and is thereupon slain in the Senate XXXVII Brutus and Cassius retire to the Capitol XXXVIII They treat an Accommodation with Lepidus and Anthony XXXIX Question put in the Senate if they ought to be justified which Anthony with much Artifice opposes XL. He comes to the place of Orations where the People applaud him he speaks against Brutus and Cassius in open Senate XLI Piso about to produce Caesar's Will Brutus and Cassius endeavour to justifie their Action XLII They descend from the Capitol but are forced to leave the City Caesar's Funeral Honours celebrated XLIII His Elegy and Comparison between him and Alexander THe Dominion of Sylla and all those things which passed afterwards in Spain under the Conduct of Sertorius and Perpenna were followed by divers Commotions till the Civil War of Caesar and Pompey which ended by the death of Pompey after which Caesar himself was slain in the Senate as may be seen in this Second Book of the Civil Wars Now when Pompey had cleared all the Seas of Pyrates than whom a greater Number was never seen in the Memory of Man brought to his end Mithridates King of Pontus and reduced his Kingdom and those other Countries he had conquered into what Form he pleased Caeser was yet but a very young Man he was Eloquent Capable of great things Hardy Presumptuous Ambitious beyond his Power and being yet but Aedile and Praetor was run prodigiously in debt to gain the favour of the People which is usually given to the most prodigal Catiline now likewise appeared at Rome being of one of the best Families of the City but of no sound Wisdom and besides of an ill Reputation being suspected to have committed a Parricide on his own Son that he might espouse Aurelia Oristilla whom he was in Love with and who would not contract Marriage with him as long as he had Children He was with all this a great Friend of Sylla's and very affectionate to his Party Being fallen into Poverty by his ambitious Profuseness and yet considerable among many powerful Persons as well Men as Women he set himself to demand the Consulate as a Step to raise him to the Tyranny But he fell from his hopes most Men having conceived an ill Opinion of him because they perceived him affect an Authority not fit to be suffered in a Free City Being then refused the Consulate which was given to Cicero a Man well spoken of and very eloquent he began to mock at the Suffrages of the People who had chosen this Consul whom out of Raillery he called New Man for they had got a custom to give that name to those who rendred themselves Illustrious not by the Glory of their Ancestors but their own proper Vertue and because that he was not born in the City they said that he was an Inmate like those that lie in hired Lodgings After that time he medled no more with the Government of the Commonwealth judging that it exposes Men to Trouble and Envy and sets them not a Round higher towards mounting to the Tyranny Notwithstanding he drew great Summs of Money from many of those Women who weary of their Husbands hoped to get rid of them if any Change happened in the State and with some Senators a quantity of Roman Knights Plebeians Slaves nay very Strangers formed a Conspiracy to seize on the Commonwealth But his greatest Confidents in this Affair were Cornelius Lentulus and Cethegus at that present Proetors of the City He sent likewise throughout all Italy people to solicite those who being enriched in Sylla's time had ill spent what they had ill got and would be very well content to reach at such another Fortune He sent C. Manlius to Fesulae and others to the Marches of Ancona and into Pouilla secretly to levy Soldiers The first advice of all these secret Preparations was given to Cicero by Fulvia a Woman of Quality with whom Q. Curius one of the Conspirators expelled the Senate for his scandalous life was deeply in Love He boasted to his Mistress that in a short time she should see him a great Lord. Already the noise of the Attempts of those who had been sent throughout all Italy increased when the Consul set Guards in the City and sent certain Persons of Quality to the suspected Places But Catiline though no one durst yet arrest him because the business was not absolutely discovered was fearful lest Delay should increase the Suspition and hoping that the greatest diligence would be most advantageous to him sent Money before to Fesulae gave Order to the Conspirators to kill Cicero and be night to set fire on divers Quarters of the City and he causing Rods and Axes to be bore before him as a Pro-Consul and raising Soldiers all the way he passed goes to find out Caius Manlius with design to fall upon the City as soon as it should be set on fire
the Opportunity And because he was obliged by the Duty of his Office to make his Funeral Oration as he was a Consul being Consul himself and is Friend and Kins-man for there was an Alliance between them with his usual Artifices he spoke in this manner The Oration of Anthony IT is not just Gentlemen that I alone should undertake the Funeral-Praises of this Great Man it were fitter his Country did declare them Therefore I will only with the Voice of the Republick and not my own make Recital of those Honours which whilst he was living the Senate and People of Rome conferred upon him for his Virtue Having said these words he began with a sad and sorrowful Countenance the Recital of Caesar's Glorious Titles pronouncing every thing distinctly and stopping more particularly at those whereby they had made him more than Man by the Qualities of Sacred and Inviolable Father of his Country Benefactor Prince and many others which till that time had never been given to any Person At every word turning himself towards the Body and animating his Speech by his Gesture and when he pronounced any one of those Titles adding some intermingled Terms of Grief and Indignation as when he recited the Decree of the Senate calling him Father of his Country See there said he the Testimony of your Acknowledgments And in pronouncing these words Holy Sacred Inviolable and the Refuge of the Miserable he added Never any that fled to him for Refuge perished but he himself is murdered though made Holy and Sacred by our Decrees without having exacted those Qualities from us or even desired them and surely we are in a shameful Slavery if we give those Titles to unworthy Persons that never ask them from us But Oh faithful Citizens you purge your selves well from this Reproach by the Honours you now pay his Memory After this reciting the Act of the Oath by which they were all obliged to guard the Person of Caesar and to employ all their Forces so that if any attempted his Person whoever exposed not his Life for his Defence should be execrable he raised his Voice and extending his Hands towards the Capitol Oh Jupiter Protector of my Country said he behold me here ready to revenge as I have sworn and since it is a thing resolved by the Iudgment of all good Men I beseech thee with all other Gods to be favourable to me A Tumult hereupon arising among the Senators who believed these words to be manifestly addressed to them Anthony to appease them changed his Discourse and said But Gentlemen this Accident must rather be attributed to some God than to Men and we ought rather to provide against the present Necessities than speak of things past since we are threatned with extreme Misery for the future and are upon the Point of falling again into our Antient Seditions and the seeing all the Nobility of the City perish Let us them conduct this Sacred Person among the Gods solemnly in mournful Elegies singing his Praises After having said these words he tucked up his Robe as if he had been possessed with some Spirit and girding it about him that he might have his Hands more at liberty he went and placed himself near the Bed where the Corps lay upon an Eminent Place and opening the Curtain and looking in he began to sing his Praises as of a Celestial Divinity And the better to make him be believed to be of that Race he lifted his hands to Heaven reciting even to the loss of breath his Wars his Combats his Victories the Nations he had subdued the Spoils he had brought away speaking of every thing as a Miracle and crying out many times Thou alone art he who hast returned Victorious from so many Fights Thou alone art he who hast revenged the Country of the Injuries done her for three hundred Years together and constrained People till then indomitable who alone took and burnt the City to ask Pardon on their Knees Having said these things and many more as of a Divine Person he lored his Voice and in a mournful Tone with Tears in his Eyes lamented the unworthy Death of his Friend begging he might redeem his Life with his own and at length abandoning himself to Grief he was so far transported as to discover the Body of Caesar and to shew at the top of a Pike his Robe pierced with the stabs he had received and all stained with his Blood And now the People joyned their Lamentations with his and Compassion was soon converted into Choler for when the Consul ceasing to speak they began the mournful Airs after the manner of the Countrey singing his great Actions and after that his deplorable death and as if Caesar himself had called by name those on whom he had heaped his Favours after having been his Enemies they heard these words which seemed addressed to the Conspirators Must I then Life unto my Murderers give The People hereupon entred into fury considering that all the Conspirators except Decimus Brutus had been of Pompey's Party and that Caesar instead of revenging himself upon them had given them Dignities Governments of Provinces and Armies to command and that after that they had conspired against him and with them Decimus Brutus whom he had loved so well to make him his Heir The multitude being in this sort moved and already prepared for Violence some one raised up from the Bed the Image of Caesar made in Wax for the Body could not be seen being layed within the Bed but the Image turning upon a Machine was visible to all the World and every Man might observe three and twenty Wounds as well on the Body as the Face At this sad Spectacle the People giving themselves over to tears encompassed the place where Caesar had been slain and set it on fire seeking every where for the Murderers who were retired Anger and Grief so far transporting the Multitude that some meeting Cinna Tribune of the People whom for name sake they took for Cinna the Pretor who had declaimed against Caesar he in vain told them that they were mistaken for they tore him in so many pieces that the least part of him could not be found to give Sepulture to After this they carried Fire to burn the Houses of the Conspirators but the Resistance of the Domesticks and the Prayers of the Neighbours prevented them yet not without threats that they would return again in Arms. On the Morrow the Conspirators privately departed the City and the People returned to the bed where Caesar lay carrying it to the Capitol to bury it in the Temple before the Gods as already consecrated but the Priests opposing it they brought it back to the place and upon the same Ground where formerly stood the Palace of the Kings gathering together all the Wood they could and with the Seats of the place and of all the neighbouring places raising a magnificent Pile they thereon placed the Body and some one having cast
time after Consul and in the end Proconsul of Syria and then when Caesar after having defeated Anthony at Actium wrote news of it to Rome Cicero as Consul read it in full Assembly and fixed a Copy before the Tribunal for Orations where formerly his Father's Head had been exposed Appiâ—s after having deposited what Goods he had in the hands of his Slaves embarqued himself to go with them into Sicily A Tempest arising the Slaves who were desirous to enrich themselves with his Money perswaded him there was more security in the Boat and prevailed with him to go into her But fortune would that against all probability he was saved and the Slaves all perished Publius Questor to Brutus who had been solicited by Anthony's People to betray his General and was proscribed by the Triumvirate for not consenting returned at last to Rome and was beloved by Caesar to that degree that when Publius shewed him Pictures of Brutus in his House he yet esteemed him the more These are the most memorable accidents happened to some Proscripts who escaped the danger Whilst these things passed at Rome all the rest of the Empire concern'd either for one or the other party was filled with Wars especially in Africa between Sextus and Cornificius in Syria between Cassius and Dolobella and in Sicily against Pompey in which Actions many Cities were forced as Laodicea Tharsus Rhodes Patara and Xant not to speak of others less considerable the particulars whereof we will relate in the briefest method possible The Romans divide Africa into two Provinces of which they call that the old which they conquered from the Carthaginians and that whereof Caesar had newly despoiled King Iuba they call the new that is Numidia Sextius sent into this last in quality of Caesar's Lieutenant gave Commands to Cornificius to surrender to him the old because by the division made among the Triumvirate all Africa belonged to Caesar Cornificius made answer that he knew nothing of any such Division and could not without orders of the Senate quit the Government of a Province they had given him in charge whereupon they declared War Cornificius had an Army both better disciplin'd and stronger in Men than Sextius who having only light armed Foot made incursions into Cornificius's Government and dayly drew some to his Party till such time as Ventidius Lieutenant to Cornificius coming against him with more Forces than he had besieged him and Lelius the other Lieutenant of the same Cornificius entred into Sextius his Province and besieged Cirta Mean time both Parties sent to demand alliance of King Arabion and those they call Sittiens for the reason we are going to relate Sittius accused of crimes at Rome not daring stand a trial fled and gathering together some Forces as well in Italy as Spain went over into Africa There happened then to be War between the African Kings wherein Sittius taking sometimes one part and sometimes another and still carrying Victory to that side he joyned with soon gained a fair reputation and by exercising his Army made it capable of great Attempts He served likewise C. Caesar when he came to make War upon those who took part with Pompey and slew Saburra Lieutenant to King Iuba in acknowledgment of which services Caesar gave him the confiscation of Manasses's Estate yet not all of it but the better part Manasses was Father of this Arabion and for having assisted King Iuba Caesar divided his Country between Sittius and Bocchus King of the Moors Sittius distributed his part to his Soldiers and Arabion went over into Spain to Pompey's Sons After Caesar's death he returned into Africa from whence he continually sent fresh Troops of Africans to Sextus the Son of Pompey who being returned from Spain well experienced he drove out Bocchus and got rid of Sittius by treason and though he had an inclination for Pompey's Children because of the good Offices he had received yet would he no longer oblige himself to that Party which he saw forsaken by fortune but chose rather to declare for Sextius by whose means he hoped to gain Caesar's favour and the Sittians in consideration of his Father's kindness to them did the same Sextius encouraged by such a reinforcement went and charged Ventidius routs his People cuts the most part in pieces and takes a great many Prisoners News whereof being brought to Lelius he raises the Siege of Cirta and returns to joyn with Cornificius Sextius puffed up with this success marches against Cornificius who lay near Utica with much greater Forces and encamps close by him There Lelius being commanded out with his Horse to make discovery of the Posture of the Enemy Sextius gives Order to Arabion to go charge him in Front with his Horse and he with his Light-armed Foot gains the Flank whilst he thought to have to deal only with Horse He charges him so home that Lelius before he received farther disgrace fearing to be surrounded and his Retreat cut off goes and seizes upon an Eminence in the midst of the Campain where Arabion in his Rear having slain many of his Horse-men invests him Cornificius seeing that fallies out of the Camp with his best Troops Sextius falls in his Rear He faces about and during the Fight wherein he is hard put it Arabion sends privately to his Camp people used to clamber up Rocks who make themselves Masters of it Roscius who had the Guard of it makes one of his people kill him Cornificius tired out with fighting not knowing his Camp was taken hastes towards the Eminence to make good his Retreat to Lelius but Arabion getting between him and his mark he was cut in pieces Lelius who beheld all this from the place where he was kills himself The Army seeing their Commanders dead made every Man the best way he could The Proscripts that were with Cornificius fled some to Sicily others where best they might Sextius gave to Arabion and the Sittians great quantity of Spoils and pardoning the Cities received them under the Obedience of Caesar. Thus ended the War in Lybia between Sextius and Cornificius which was thus short as it seems by reason of the heat of the Commanders We will now speak of what was done by Brutus and Cassius after having made some short Repetition of what has been said before for the better understanding the whole Caesar being slain the Conspirators seized the Capitol from whence they descended after the Senate had proclaimed the Indempnity Afterward the people moved for Caesar's death took Firebrands from his Funeral-pile and clapped them to the Houses of the Conspirators which defending themselves from above repulsed the multitude and soon after every one of them retired into the Governments which Caesar had given them Cassius and Brutus exercised still the Office of Pretors in the City and had been designed Pro-Pretors by Caesar Cassius of Syria and Brutus of Macedon But because the time appointed for their going to their Provinces was not yet come
the Carthaginians with the siege of their Camp by that King who makes them pass under the Yoke XXXIII The Romans laying hold on the occasion it is decreed in the Senate to make War upon Carthage and that that City be rased XXXIV The Consuls advance into Sicily whither the Carthaginians bring them three hundred of their children for Hostages XXXV From Sicily they pass to Utica where the Carthaginians yield up their Arms. XXXVI The Consuls declare to the Deputies the Senates resolution touching the demolishing of Carthage XXXVII Hanno's Oration to the Consuls to move them to compassion XXXVIII Censorinus Answer XXXIX The Carthaginians hearing the News in desperation prepare for War XL. Description of the City of Carthage XLI The beginning of the siege XLII Anoble Act of Scipio's yet but Tribune XLIII Death of Masanissa whose Goods are divided among his Children by Scipio the Executor of his Will XLIV Scipio draws Phameas to the Roman Party they go both to Rome and are magnificently received XLV Calphurnius Piso and L. Mancinus come to command the Army who spend the Summer without doing any thing XLVI The Carthaginians take heart and contemn the Romans XLVII Scipio chosen Consul he comes to Utica where he finds Mancinus and the Army in great danger from which he dis-engages them XLVIII He re-establishes Discipline in the Army XLIX He takes the place of Megara L. He seizes on the Neck of the Peninsula where he fortifies himself and by that means brings a Famine into the City LI. He blocks up the Port of Carthage with a dam and the Carthaginians open another passage on the other side at which they issue out with a great number of ships LII A Sea-fight with almost equal loss LIII Scipio siezes on the great Plat-form or Bulwark before the Walls LIV. He takes and pillages the Camp before Nephere and makes himself Master of all the plain-Plain-country of Lybia LV. He takes the City and those in the Citadel submit save only the Run-aways with Asdrubals Wife LVI He sends the News to Rome and after having given all necessary Orders in Africa returns to Rome which be enters in triumph THe Phenicians built Carthage in Africa fifty years before the sack of Troy It was Founded by Xorus and Carchedon or as the Romans and indeed the Carthaginians themselves will have it by a Tyrian Lady called Dido who her Husband being privily murdered by Pygmaleon Tyrant of Tyre which was revealed to her in a Dream conveyed aboard all the Treasure she could and shipping her self with some Tyrians that fled from the Tyranny came to Lybia to that place where now Carthage stands and upon the people of that Countries refusal to receive them they demanded for their Habitation only so much Land as they could compass with an Oxe-hide This proposition seemed ridiculous to the Africans and they thought it a shame to refuse Strangers a thing of so small consequence besides they could not imagine how any Habitation could be built in so small a patch of ground and therefore that they might have the pleasure to discover the Phenicians subtilty they granted their request Whereupon the Tyrians taking an Oxe-hide cut it round about and made so fine a Thong that they therewith encompassed the place where they afterwards built the Citadel of Carthage which from thence was called Byrsa Soon after by little and little extending their limits and becoming stronger then their Neighbours as they were much more cunning they caused Ships to be built to traffick on the Sea after the manner of the Phenicians by which means they built a City adjoyning to their Citadel Their power thus encreasing they became Masters of Lybia and the circumadjacent Sea and at last making War upon Sicily Sardinia and all the Islands of that Sea and even in Spain in self they sent thither Colonies till at length from so small a beginning they formed an Estate comparable in Power to that of the Greeks and in Riches to that of the Persians But about seven hundred years after the Foundation of Carthage the Romans won Sicily from the Carthaginians and after that Sardinia and at length in the second Punick War Spain it self After which these Nations being in continual War the Carthaginians under the command of Hannibal wasted Italy for sixteen years together till such time as the Romans commanded by Cornelius Scipio the Elder deprived them of their power taking from them their Ships and Elephants and forcing them to pay Tribute whereupon a second Peace was concluded between these two People This lasted fifty years after which began the third and last Punick War in which the young Scipio being General of the Romans Carthage was utterly ruined and strict prohibition made of Rebuilding it However the Romans founded another Town in a place near adjacent which they made choice of for the greater conveniency of keeping the Africans in subjection Now because in our History of Sicily we have already set down all the memorable acts of the Carthaginians there and in that of Spain what passed in that Country as likewise in that of Hannibal all the actions of that Captain in Italy we have resolved in this Book to write only what was done in Lybia â—fter the beginning of that War which succeeded that of Sicily When therefore the War of Sicily was ended the Romans armed three hundred and fifty Ships with which they made a descent into Lybia where after having reduced some Cities under their obedienâ—e they leâ—t Attilius Regulus to command the Army This General gained the Romans two hundred Cities more which surrendred to him being weary of the Government of Carthage and pressing forward his Conquests he spoiled their Territories even to their very Gates After all these losses which the Carthaginians believed happenâ—ed to them only for want of good Generals they demanded one from the Lacedemonians who sent to them Xantippus Attilius was now encamped near the Fens of Lybia from whence upon Intelligence of this Captain 's arrival he advanced towards the Enemy but having taken his march along the Edge of the Marshes and in the greatest heats of Summer his Souldiers were grievously incommoded by the weight of their Arms by thirst heat labour and the darts thrown on them from the Mountains yet though they marched in this condition all the day coming towards the Evening to a River which now only separated the two Armies he forthwith made his Men pass over believing it would strike a terrour into Xantippus his Army The Lacedemonian on the other side judging it would be no hard matter to overcome people harassed in that manner besides that he had the night to favour him presently drew up his Army in order and advanced to charge Attilius In which he was not deceived for of thirty thousand Men that composed the Roman Army a few only saved themselves in the City of Aspides all the rest were slain or taken Prisoners and the General himself
all this well enough was not wanting to assail them next morning harrassed as they were with marching thirst and want of sleep It grieved Hannibal to the heart to see himself forced to fight thus unseasonably yet he saw plainly that if he staid there he should be intollerably straitned for want of water and if he drew off his retreat would increase the enemies courage who would certainly fall on in his rear for these reasons therefore he resolved to fight and presently drew into Battalia fifty thousand men and fourscore Elephants Those mighty creatures he disposed in Equal distances in the Front of the battel to strike fear into the Romans Then he composed his vanguard of Gauls and Ligurians and among them intermixed his bowmen and slingers who were Moors and people of the Isles Baleares In his main body he placed the Carthaginians and Africans and in his rear those Italians that had followed his fortune in whom he had great confidence because they dreaded to be overcome His Cavalry made his two Wings As for Scipio he had three and twenty thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse as well Italians as Romans beâ—ides Masanissa had a stout body of Numidian horse and another Prince of that Country called Dachamas had six hundred auxiliary horse He divided his Army into three battalia's Vanguard Main-body and Rear-guard as Hannibal had done his save only he kept his battalia's at a more open Order that the horse upon occasion might have passage between In the front of every battalia he placed men with stakes the most part Armed with Iron at the ends and about two Cubits long that they might better repulse the Elephants by striking them at hand with these sort of Truncheons giving Order to the foot to avoid the shock of those great beasts by opening to the right and left when they made at them and to pursue them incessantly when they were past with darts and arrows or hamstring them with their Swords if they could get so near them Having thus ordered his foot he disposed the Numidian Cavalry on his two wings because the Numidian horses are accustomed to the smell and sight of Elephants wherefore fearful lest the Italian horses should be frightned he placed them in the Rear-guard that they might charge between the bodies and support the infantry whilst they fought against the Elephants and to every horseman he gave a light Armed Souldier and great quantity of darts wherewith to chase away those Monsters if they came upon them His Cavalry being thus disposed â—e gave the Command of the right wing to Lelius of the left to Octavius and himself took Charge of the main battel Hannibal did the same and as if these two great Captains had acted by the same Spirit they each kept near their persons a strong body of horse ready to move on all sides to the relief of those stood in need Hannibal's party consisted of four thousand horse Scipio's only of two thousand besides those three hundred Italians to whom he had given Arms in Sicily Both Armies thus drawn up for battel each General went through the Ranks to incourage his people Scipio publickly invoked the Gods who having been witnesses of their Treaties had been affronted by the Carthaginians as often as they had violated them exhorting his Souldiers not so much to consider the Number of their enemies as their own proper Vertue which had already made them Victorious over the same enemies in the same province remonstrating to them that though their having always overcome should not clear all their doubts of the success of this battel Yet the Africans having been always beaten would make them despair Thus did Scipio hearten up his men encouraging them not to think of the smalness of their Number Hannibal on the other side desired his to remember those brave acts they had done and the noble victories they had gained not only against the Numidians but throughout all Italy setting forth at the same time the inconsiderable number of their enemies and exhorting them so to act that the greater number might not be beaten by the less nor the natural inhabitants of the Country shamefully forced to yield to strangers In short both Generals set forth with the most pressing arguments they could invent the consequences of that battel Hannibal told his men that they now disputed whether Carthage and with it all Africa should command or be for ever hereafter inslaved And Scipio let the Roman Souldiers know that if they suffered themselves to be vanquished they had no place of retreat but if they gained the victory the advantages reaped by it would be increase of the Roman Empire the end of their labors the so much desired leave of returning into their Country and with all immortal glory These Orations ended the Carthaginian Trumpets sounded a charge and the Roman soon did the like The battel was begun by the Elephants which came furiously on being sharply pricked forward by those mounted on them Those which assailed the wings were stopt by the Numidian horse with showers of Darts and being wounded turned against their own party so that their governors no longer able to rule them were forced to draw them out of the battel both wings had alike advantage but those which charged on the main body put the Romans hard to it who were not accustomed to this manner of fight and could not easily by reason of the weight of their arms move either to shun or assail them till such time as Scipio caused the Rear guard of Italian horse and the Souldiers lightly armed to advance to the relief of his foot And because the horse were fearful of those beasts he commanded his horsemen to alight and with their darts charge the Elephants who had caused a great disorder and to oblige them by his own Example himself alighted first and wounded an Elephant that came towards him which so heartned the Romans that discharging their darts on all sides they so wounded those creatures that they forced them to retreat like the others These beasts thus driven out of the battel they had nothing now to encounter but men and horses The right wing Commanded by Lelius had put to flight the Numidians that opposed them after that Masanissa had wounded their Prince Macinta but Hannibal coming speedily to their assistance renewed the fight In the left wing where Octavius had to do with Gauls and Ligurians they fought with equal fortune Scipio sent thither the Tribune Therinus with some chosen troops but Hannibal having reinforced his left wing speeds away to the relief of the Gauls and Ligurians taking with him all his Carthaginians and Africans which Scipio perceiving was forced to do the like and made his main battel advance And now these two mighty Captains fighting in person the Souldiers encouraged by the sight of them did acts incredible All feared to yield all fought with a wonderful alacrity exhorting exciting and encouraging one another At
That within two months you cause Mago to return out of â—iguria That you withdraw all Garrisons out of such Cities as are beyond the Punick Ditch and send them back their Hostages That besides all this you pay us yearly for fifty years two hundred and fifty Euboick Talents That for the future you entertain no Soldiers into your pay either out of Gaul or Liguria That you make not any war upon Masanissa or any of our Allies nor permit any Carthaginian to bear Arms against them then shall your City and Territory remain free to you within the Punick Ditch limited by the same bounds you possessed when I entred Africa provided you put a just value on the friendship of the people of Rome and if occasion requires assist them with your Forces by Sea and Land If the Senate of Rome approve these propositions the Roman Army shall depart out of Lybia within fifty days after the ratification to perfect which if you will send Deputies to Rome I will in the mean time grant you Truce and you shall deliver me in Hostage one hundred and fifty of such of your Children as I shall chuse and pay me a thousand Talents for the Armies entertainment besides such Provisions as you shall furnish As for the Hostages I will return them so soon as the Peace is ratified The Deputies carried back this answer to Carthage where after many deliberations the principal Men of the City advised the accepting of these Conditions left whilst they made a difficulty of quitting part of what they possessed they should run in danger of loosing all But the multitude who ordinarily consider more what is taken from them than what is left them opposing it thinking it mighty strange that the Elders of Carthage should in a publick famine chuse rather to send Provisions to the Roman Soldiers than to their own Citizens and in effect they went to seek out every particular Senator threatning them all to plunder and fire their Houses At last it was agreed on to send for Hannibal into the Council who having gathered together six thousand Foot and five hundred Horse was retired into the City of Marthame He comes and though the most moderate men were fearful lest that warlike Men should absolutely pervert the people yet by a grave Discourse he made he perswaded to Peace but the Populacy incensed and insolent railed no less at him than they had done at others and continued their threatnings till such time as all the Nobility despairing of the affairs of the City left it one part returning to Masanissa and the other to the Roman Army Now the remainder of the people having intelligence that Hannibal had stored up great quantities of Corn in a certain place That is unjust and looks like a malicious emulation and it seems in effect Scipio himself doubted of it when opening his thoughts to us he adds That he would grant peace to the Carthaginians even though we should refuse it And indeed there is reason to believe that being upon the place he should see clearer and have a more exact knowledge of affairs than we possibly can In short if we slight his advice we affront that great Captain who out of his passionate love to his Country always counselled the carrying of the War into Africa and when he could not obtain an Army from us raised one at his own expence and has succeeded more happily than we could hope So that it strangely amazes me to see you now so obstinate and with such violence to press forward this War to extremity which in the beginning you undertook with so much coldness and negligence If any of the opposers of Peace grant all this and shall only found their advice upon a fear left the Carthaginians should now again as they have done formerly violate the Treaty in question I answer that there is more reason to believe that having had experience of the miseries their infidelity has involved them in and being perswaded as they are that all these misfortunes have fallen upon them only for having violated the Religion of their Oaths they will for the future keep sacred that Faith they shall swear to And to me it appears an evident contradiction to say that the Carthaginians are contemptible because they have no more power and at the same time to fear that they are in a capacity of revolting Besides it is much easier for us to hinder the growth of power than totally to ruine them for if we press them to extremities we shall have to deal with people whom despair will make capable of any thing but if you grant them Peace the fear of falling into the like danger will preserve them within the bounds of Duty but besides all this they will have persecutors enough though we concern not our selves for not any of their Neighbours but remembring the Pride and Tyranny of their Empire will maintain against them an irreconcileable War after all this we have Masanissa who has been our most faithful friend in all adventures still upon the place who will continually cast an eye on their actions and be always ready to oppose whatever they dare attempt But if any one not considering all these reasons has regard only to the glorious success of Scipio's Arms and promises himself the like in the continuance of this War let him remember the inconstancy of Fortune and that no man living can assure himself to have it at all times favourable But granting we take the City of Carthage what shall we do with it shall we utterly ruine and raze it because they took some of our Corn and Shipping which they are ready to pay for with interest Certainly we shall not lest we incurr the indignation of Gods and Men. Shall we give it to Masanissa No for though he be our friend we must not raise him above measure Much better may we make use of those contracts he shall have with the Carthaginians to the advantage of the Commonwealth Perhaps we might draw some Treasure thence but the Armies that must be maintained will waste it for who can doubt but there must be great Forces kept up for the guard of a Country encompassed with so many barbarous Nations We may likewise send thither a Colony of Italians but upon terms to hold eternal War with the people of Numidia or if those we send shall in process of time make themselves Masters of all these Nations it may happen that having conquered so great a Country without comparison more excellent than ours their power may render them not only suspected but even terrible to our selves And this in my opinion was Scipio's judgement when he advised us to grant the Carthaginians the effect of their demands Let us not therefore Gentlemen refuse them as well because we now behold them our humble supplyants as because our General desires it To this Cornelius Lentulus kinsman to Cneus now Consul who hoped to suceed Scipio in this War
the City of Horoscopa with the taking of which he had a mighty desire to begin the rupture To it 's relief went the Carthaginians with twenty five thousand Foot and four thousand Horse of the City under the command of Asdrubal then General of their forces to whom joyned Assasis and Suba two of Masanissa's Major Generals who deserting the two young Princes went over to the Carthaginian party with six thousand horse Asdrubal with this additional force goes and encamps near the King and had often and successful skirmishes But Masanissa acting with the cunning of a Great Captain retired by little and little as if he had given ground till such time as he had drawn him into a great barren plain encompassed on all sides with Mountains and deficient in all necessaries to subsist on Here facing the enemy he encamped in the midst of the Plain while Asdrubal siesed on the Eminencies whereby he thought he had the greater advantage On the morrow the battel was designed when young Scipio who afterwards took Carthage and who at present was only Lieutenant to Lucullus who made War in Celtiberia came to seek out Masanissa to demand some Elephants The King who was desirous that day to take some repose that he might go the fresher to the battel sent some horse to meet him and gave orders to some of his sons to receive him Day being come he drew up his Army in battel being now fourscore and eight years old yet a strong and vigorous Souldier who according to the custom of the Country mounted on horse back without saddle or other covering equally acting in the duty of General and Soldier for the Numidians are lustiest of all the people of Africa and live longer then any others which is perhaps occasioned because the Winter is not so sharp in this Country nor the heats so violent as in India and Ethiopia and for the same reasons are their Cattel stronger and greater The men lie all abroad and harden themselves by continual labor they drink little Wine feed very sparingly and with much sobriety Masanissa having drawn up his Army in Order Asdrubal did the like for to him there were joyned many people of the Country Scipio being on the top of a Hill as on a Theatre saw all this Battel and was after heard to say that though he had been in an infinite number of fights there was never any in which he took so much delight for he had never seen any other wherein either his person was in security or that there were a hundred and ten thousand Combatants Or to express it more gloriously he said that before him were never found but two Spectators in a like occasion which were in the time of the Trojan Wars Iupiter on the top of Mount Ida and Neptune on Samothracia They fought from Morning till Night with great slaughter of men on both sides however the advantage seem'd Masanissa's Whom Scipio came to meet as he returned to his Camp congratulating the happy success of his Arms and for his part he received Scipio as the Son of his Friend with all possible demonstrations of kindness The Carthaginians having notice of his coming requested him to make peace between Masanissa and them which he having yielded to brought them to a Conference the Articles of the Treaty were that the Carthaginians should release to the King all the Country that lies about the Empories and should promise him two hundred Talents ready money and eight hundred more payable at a certain term But when Masanissa besides all this demanded the Fugitives they would not hear him speak of it so they parted without doing any thing and Scipio returned into Spain with the Elephants Masanissa seeing his Enemies Camp seated on an Eminence or round Hill besieged them in such a manner that no Provisions could be brought to them nor was the bringing all there was none to be had and he himself procured them with much difficulty and what he had was fetch'd from afar off and in very small quantities Asdrubal at first thought that with the Forces he had he could disingage himself when he pleased and open himself a passage through the midst of his Enemies But because his Stores were better furnish'd than theirs he hoped Masanissa might be reduced to a necessity of demanding Peace and besides he was the less concerned because he had heard that Deputies were coming from Rome to end their differences This was true but these Deputies had Orders to determine the Affairs if Masanissa was overcharged but to highten his courage if they foundâ— him the stronger which Orders they punctually executed Mean while the Famine entred Asdrubal's Camp in such manner that the Soldiers weaken'd with Hunger were not able to repulse the Enemy first they kill'd the Beasts of carriage after that their Horses for service and at last were reduced to such extreme necessity that they boiled the very Reins of the Bridles for a sustenance There supprised them likewise an infinite number of Diseases increased by their bad Food by the idleness of the Soldiers and the season of the year for there was a great number of men inclosed within a small compass of ground during the greatest heats of Summer which were excessive in Africa And because through the want of Wood even to dress their Food they had been forced to burn their very Bucklers Now not having the means to carry their dead Bodies out of the Camp because of the strict Guard Masanissa kept and destitute of Fuel to burn them the Plague daily increased with the stink of the dead Carcases in the midst of which they were forced to abide Hunger had already consumed the greatest part when the rest hopeless of safety were forced to deliver up the Fugitives to Masanissa to oblige themselves to pay him yearly five thousand Talents of Silver for fifty years and to cause those they had banished to return notwithstanding their Oath to the contrary It was likewise agreed that the Soldiers which remained should march out only with one Coat and pass under the Yoke Which being executed Gulussa remembring how a little before he had been affronted sent the Numidian Horse after the Carthaginians who not able to make resistance disarmed as they were and not having strength enough to fly of fifty eight thousand men very few recovered Carthage of which number was Asdrubal with some of the Nobility This is what passed in the War between Masanissa and the Carthagians which was soon after followed by the third and last Punick War The people of Carthage weakned by the losses they had sustained in this War stood yet in fear of Masanissa who was nigh with a great Army and besides doubted not but the Romans who had testified their disaffection to them upon all occasions would lay hold of this under pretence that the Carthaginians had made War upon Masanissa the Friend and Ally of the Roman people And indeed their conjecture was not
an extraordinary size of which one was driven forward by six thousand Foot encouraged by the Orders and Presence of their Captains and the other by the Gally-slaves whose labour was over-seen by those who had the command of the Gallies This begat subject of Emulation so that the Commanders as well as the others striving who should out-do each other a great part of the Wall was soon overthrown and the City might plainly be seen into The Carthaginians on their side did not sleep but apply'd themselves to repair by night what breaches the Rams had made by day but because the night was not sufficient for so great a labour fearful lest the Romans should easily beat down again what they had repaired whilst it was yet moist and unsettled they resolved upon a Sally and some with Swords and others with Torches in their Hands so vigorously assaulted the Engines that though they burnt them not quite yet they rendred them useless and retreated into the City in order Day appearing the Romans entertained a conceit of entring Carthage by the breach which the Inhabitants could not quite repair and they saw within a spacious place very proper to fight in The Carthaginians expected them having placed in the Front all their Armed men others with Stones and Clubs in the Rear and all about in the neighbouring Houses those who were any way capable of defending them The Romans enraged that disarmed men thus despised them entred in throngs into Carthage but Scipio to whom the taking of this City gave afterwards the sirname of Africanus being yet but Tribune took special care not to enter contenting himself with drawing up his Regiment by Companies in Battel near the Walls of the City from whence as much as in him lay he hindred others from passing in and sustained those whom the Carthaginians beat back by favouring their retreat and this was it gave him his first reputation and made him gain the Character in all Letters that were wrote to Rome of being wiser than the Consuls At length Censorinus his Army becoming sorely afflicted with sickness by reason of being posted among dead and stinking waters and that the height of the Buildings hindred them from breathing the Sea Air he resolved to put to Sea but the Carthaginians having observed that the wind blew directly to the Roman Fleet filled with Tow and dried Vine-twigs a quantity of small Barques within their Port that the Enemy might know nothing of it and having plaistred them over with Pitch and Brimstone brought them out in sight of the Romans and there hoisting sail set fire to them so that the wind and the violence of the flames drove them into the midst of the Fleet which were almost all burn'd After this Censorinus being gone to Rome to be present at the Assembly then to meet for Election of Magistrates his departure gave such boldness to the Carthaginians as to make an attempt upon Manlius his Camp To this end they sallyed by night some armed and others who had no Arms carrying Bridges and stormed the Ditch in that place next the Town and were already pulling out the Palisades when the Alarm being run through the whole Camp by reason of the obscurity of the night Scipio with his Horse marched out of the farther Gate and going the round of the Camp without the Line terrified the Carthaginians and made them retreat again into their City all the World gave Scipio the glory of having saved the Army in this nocturnal terrour by his Conduct and Manlius determined to keep better Guards and to fortifie himself to which effect he caused a Wall to be built in the place where there was but a Palisade and built a Fort on the Sea to receive those Ships that brought him Provisions That done he took the Field with ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse besides Hewers of Wood and Forragers to gather in Harvest throughout all the level Country Those who were employed in this Service were commanded by Tribunes who relieved one another according to their turns which gave occasion to Phameas who commanded the African Horse to signalize himself this young man diligent and handy and who had with him small but swift Horses which lived on Herbs when they had nothing else and could endure hunger and thirst if there were occasion concealed himself among the Woods or in the Valleys and when he perceived the Enemy stood not upon their Guard sallyed from his Covert and came thundring upon them like an Eagle and after having charged the Romans retreated into a place of security But when Scipio commanded he never appeared for Scipio continually kept his Foot in order and his Horse in a fighting posture and when any Corn was to be cut he never suffered the Reapers to go to work till he had first gone the round of the Field they were to cut down both with Horse and Foot in their Arms himself guarding the out-skirts with some Squadrons and if any of the labourers stragled from the others or went out of the Circle he punished them severely wherefore Phameas never durst attempt him and Scipio still continuing his vigilance his glory increased from day to day insomuch that the other Tribunes who envyed him raised a report that there was an old Alliance between Scipio and the Family of Phameas It happened also that some Africans retiring themselves to some Towers or Castles of which there are great number in that Country the other Tribunes after having granted them Pass-ports forbore not to lay Ambushes for them in the way and rob them But Scipio on the contrary convey'd them to the very House insomuch that hereupon none afterwards would enter into a Treaty but in his presence so much the good opinion of his Virtue and Honesty was increased not only in the thoughts of the Romans but of the Enemies themselves Manlius being returned to the Camp after having gathered in Harvest the Carthaginians by night assaulted the Fort on the Sea with great violence and besides to strike terrour into the Romans the whole Multitude coming out of the City made a horrible noise The Consul ignorant of the cause of this Tumult kept within his Trenches but Scipio having caused two Squadrons of Horse to mount each with his Torch in his hand posted in forbidding his people to engage because of the night and only giving them order to run to and fro so that they might make the Enemy believe they were a greater force than they were and likewise strike an apprehension into them that they were advancing to charge them this succeeded for the Carthaginians afraid of being charged on both sides retreated into their City and this was a farther addition to the brave exploits already performed by Scipio it being now in every Mouth he alone was worthy to have Paulus for his Father and to be enrolled in the Family of the Scipio's into which he had been adopted Some time after Manlius going to
was finished he caused four thousand Men to get upon it with Orders to ply the enemy continually with Darts and Arrows which extreamly afflicted them for the two walls being of an equal height there was scarce a Dart thrown in vain thus ended the Summer In the beginning of the Winter Scipio determined to clear the Country of those Forces the Carthaginians had yet abroad and to possess himself of all those places from whence they might convey provisions He therefore sent his Captains some one way and some another and himself embarking went towards Nephera along the Marish after having given Order to C. Lelius to march by Land to the intent that he might force Diogenes one of Asdrubals party from an advantagious post As soon as he arrived he encamped within two hundred and fifty paces of Diogenes and having left Gulussa in the Camp to prosecute the War with him returned to Carthage He continued often to go and return from one place to the other to see how things passed till such time as two towers of the Fort in which Diogenes was posted being thrown down Scipiâ— sends behind the Fort a thousand chosen Soldiers while himself assaulted the forepart with three thousand others choice men likewise who marched upon the ruines not in confusion but in a body the Soldiers having orders to fight so close lockt together that they could not be repulsed those in the first rank being susteined by the others that followed At the noise made by the Assailants the Africans ran to defend themselves but whilst they were all imployed there the thousand Soldiers behind according to the Order given them forced the Camp and having pulled out or cut the Palisadoes violently rushed in with a wonderful boldness whilst none were aware of it or so much as doubted of such an Assault The enemies perceiving them betook themselves to flight for they believed them a far greater Number then what they saw and Gulussa who pursued them with his Numidians and Elephants made a strange and bloody slaughter for there perished threescore and ten thousand men accounting the Country people ten thousand were taken Prisoners and not above four thousand in all saved themselves Afterwards Scipio took the City of Nephera with great labor the siege lasting two and twenty days in a cold season and incommodious place This victory contributed much to the taking of Carthage for the Army at Nephera furnished the besieged with provisions and that Fort hardned the Africans in their obstinacy but after it was taken all the other garrisons in the Country voluntarily surrendred to Scipio's Captains Thus all the Country about Carthage being under the Roman obedience and it being impossible to have any thing by Sea by reason of the War and Winter Victuals grew very scarce in the City As soon as Spring came on Scipio assaulted the Citadel called Byrsa and and the gate called Coton at the same time which caused Asdrubal to set on fire that part of the gate which was square but whilst he expected Scipio should make a new attempt on that side and stood firm with the inhabitants Lelius mounted privately by the other side of the gate which was of a round figure and making himself Master of it the shouts of those that were already got up so dismayd the enemies that the other Soldiers now contemning the besieged and having filled all the places difficult to pass with Beams Engines and Planks they leapt in on all sides in spite of all the resistance of the guards oppressed with hunger and lost to all courage Scipio thus possest of the wall that encompassed the gate called Coton got thence into the great place of the City which was nigh unto it where night coming on and not suffering him to go farther he kept there in Arms with those Soldiers he had with him and as soon as day broke caused four thousand fresh men to come thither who being got into Apollo's Temple plundered his Statue which was all of Gold and all the inside of the Temple which was covered with Plates of Gold of a thousand Talents weight They cut in pieces the Plates with their Swords do what their Captains could to hinder them till such time as having got what they could they pursued their enterprize Mean while Scipio's chief design was against the place called Byrsa for that was the strongest of all the City and a world of people were retreated thither The way from the great place thither was up hill through three Streets on each side of which there was a continuance of very high houses whose upper stories jetting somewhat over into the Street whole showers of Darts flew from thence upon the Romans who were constrained before they passed farther to force the first houses and there post themselves that from thence they might drive out those that fought in the neighboring houses and after they had driven them out they laid Beams and Planks from one side of the Street to the other on which as on Bridges they passed cross the Streets thus they maintained War in the Chambers whilst as fast as they met they fought more cruelly below in the Streets All places were filled with crys and groans people dying a thousand different sorts of Deaths some at Swords-point some thrown headlong down from the tops of the houses upon the pavement others falling upon Javelins Pikes and Swords presented against them however none durst yet set fire because of those who maintained the fight in the losts but when Scipio had gained the foot of the Fortress all the three Streets were immediately on a flame and the Soldiers had charge to hinder the ruines of the houses caused by the fire from falling into the Street that the whole Army might have the more convenient passage And now were new spectacles of calamity to be seen the fire devouring and overturning the houses and the Roman Soldiers all about so far from hindring it that they endeavored to involve the rest in the same ruine The miserable Carthaginians in despair falling confusedly with the Stones and Bricks on the Pavement dead bodies nay people yet living and especially old Men Women and Children who had hid themselves in the most secret places of the houses some laden with wounds others half burnt and all crying out in a deplorable manner others tumbling headlong from the upper stories of the houses among the Mass of Stones and Wood were in their falls torn in pieces Nor was this the end of their miseries for the Pioneers who to make way for the Soldiers removed the Rubbish out of the middle of the Streets tossed with their Hooks and Forks the bodies as well of the dead as living into the vaults turning them with their Iron Instruments as if they had been pieces of Wood or Stones so that there might be seen holes full of heaps of men of which some having been headlong thrown in yet breathed a long time and lay with their legs above
that he sought his Alliance excused himself and when his Brother Attalus and Phileter wondred that he despised the Alliance of so great a King his Neigbour who offered it of himself he laid before them the importance of this War in which possibly in the beginning they might fight with equal Forces but that in the end the Romans would prove victorious by reason of that courage and generosity which rendred them undefatigable In which case said he I shall remain free and secure in my Kingdom but if Antiochus overcome 't is possible so powerful a Neighboâ—r may deprive me of my Estates or if he lâ—t me keep them 't will be only on conditions of submission to his Empire These were the Reasons why he would not accept the Match Now Antiochus being returned to the Hellespont and passed over into Chersonesus took many places in Thrace either by force or surrender set at liberty all the Greeks that were under the Dominion of the Thracians and was extremely liberal to those of Bizantium because their City being seated at the mouth of the Sea was very commodious for War he likewise by his bounty and the terror of his Arms drew the Galatians to his party judging those great Bodies were very proper to oppose the Romans in a Battel After this he came to Ephesus whence he Deputed Lysias Eginetes and Menippus to Rome in effect to pry into the intentions of the Senate but in appearance to tell the Fathers That always hitherto he had been affectionate to the Romaâ— Name and likewise that he had been desired to have been received into their Alliance if they had thought him worthy However he could not but wonder that they should order him to quit the Cities of Ionia to release to some of them the Tribute they ought him not to meddle with the Affairs of Asia and to abandon the Possession of Thrace which he held of his Ancestors for that such kind of commands were usually given to the Conquered and not to Friends The Senate knowing well that these Ambassadors were only come to sound them answered in few words If Antiochus leave the Asiatique Greeks at liberty and touches nothing in Europe he may be if he pleases friend of the people of Rome This was all they said without giving any farther reason to the Ambassadors Antiochus thereupon designing as soon as he could to seize upon Greece that from thence he might begin the War against the Romans thought good to communicate his intentions to Hannibal who told him That Greece having for a long time been afflicted with War he thought there would be no great difficulty in seizing upon it But that it was hard for a Prince to make War in his own Country because of the scarcity of Provisions that might happen but much more easie to maintain it in his Enemies Country That Antiochus would never attain his desires upon the Romans in Greece considering the conveniencies they had of supplying themselves with Provisions and the faculty of raising Men He therefore counselled him to siâ—se on some part of Italy and make that the seat of the War whereby the Roman Affairs would as well at home as abroad be weakned I know said he Italy perfectly well and if you will give me but ten thoâ—sand men dare promise my self to land and post my self in some place convenient for your designs from thence I will write to my Friends in Carthage to engage them to stir up the people to revolt who already of themselves weary of the present Government preserve no great fidelity for the Romans and who out of hopes of a better Fortune will attempt any thing as soon as they hear of my return to Italy The King with pleasure listned to this advice and considering as true it was that the Engagement of the Carthaginians in this War was of no small importance gave him charge to write forthwith to his Friends However he writ not for he could not do it with safety the Romans having their Spies every where and the War not being yet declared Besides there were many envious persons in Carthage and that Republick was troubled with those Divisions which not long after were the cause of its ruine Howbeit he sent to his Friends a certain Tyrian Merchant called Ariston who came to Carthage under pretence of Trade and by him he desired them that as soon as they heard he was entred Italy they should move the people to revenge the outrages they had received he acquitted himself very well of his Commission for Hannibal's Enemies knowing of the coming of this Ariston began to make a great noise as if he had the management of some contrivance to the prejudice of the Publick so that search was made for the Tyrian and he that he might not only engage the Friends of Hannibal fixed up by Night in the Place a certain Writing by which that Captain exhorted all the Senate to joyn with Antiochus for the defence of the Country and that done gets him to Sea Morning being come and the Writing read the Friends of Hannibal found themselves by this invention discharged of any suspicion could be had of them because it was believed the whole Senate had part in this advertisement However the people knew not what to resolve on they affected not the Roman Rule but they had neither the power nor the boldness to attempt any thing Mean while the Romans to cry quits with Antiochus sent him likewise Embassadors to sound him and spy into his Forces of the number of which was Scipio the African They came to Ephesus where understanding that he was gone into Pisidia they staid for him and during his absence had several conferences with Hannibal They expostulated with him that whilst Carthage was in Peace and Antiochus upon the point of being declared Enemy of the people of Rome he had left his Country though since the League neither he nor any other Carthaginian had any cause of complaint This was a policy in the Ambassadors who believed by these familiarities with Hannibal they might bring him under suspicion with the King of which as great a Polititian as he was he was not at all aware But the King being advertised of it grew jealous of him and confided not in him as he had done before but besides his jealousie Antiochus grew envious of this great Commander fearing left if his Affairs had success all the Glory would be attributed to Hannibal One day as 't is said these two excellent men holding a conference before a numerous Auditory fell upon a discourse of great Captains and Scipio having asked Hannibal who of them all he esteemed to be the greatest He replied Alexander of Macedon To which Scipio agreed because he yielded to Alexander And thereupon asking again to whom he gave the second place he named Pyrrhus King of Epire because in his Judgement Boldness and Courage were the principal Virtues of a General of an Army and of
your Son Seleucus to enter his Country with an Army on the Thracian side that seeing himself embroiled in a Domestick War the Enemy may draw no assistance from him This was Hannibal's opinion which certainly was not ill nor indeed was there any better proposed in the Assembly But the envy born to this great Man joyned with a fear the King and Councellors had leâ—â— he should appear more understanding in the mystery of War than they or that if things succeeded all the Glory would be attributed to him hindred its being followed save only that Polexenidas was dispatch'd into Asia to cause the Army advance The Senate receiving advice of this irruption in Greece and of the defeat of the Romans in Delos declared Antiochus Enemy to the Roman people And thus after the distrust so long time had on one part and the other they came to an open War But because the King was Possessor of vast Territories in the Continent and of almost all the Sea-coasts that he was entred into Europe where he had begot a fear of him as well because of his mighty preparations as of the Glory of those brave Actions had gained him the title of Great the Romans believed that this War would be of a long continuance and besides they were distrustful of Philip of Macedon whom they had lately vanquished and doubtful lest the Carthaginians should violate the League because of Hannibal who was with Antiochus they had moreover in suspicion some Provinces newly conquered and fearful lest they should make some insurrection when they saw Antiochus in Arms wherefore they sent Forces to bridle them with Garrisons and with Propretors who had each of them carried before them six Axes and to whom they gave one half of the Authority attributed to the Consuls as they bore half their Ensigns And because in this great danger they were likewise doubtful lest Italy should not prove altogether faithful or stand stedfast with them against Antiochus they sent a powerful Army unto Tarentum to hinder the Enemies entrance whilst their Fleet coasted round the Country so much did Antiochus at first terrifie them After they thought they had sufficiently secured Affairs within they set themselves to levy Soldiers of whom they raised twenty thousand in the City and twice as many in the Cities of their Allies with design in the Spring to pass into Ionia Thus they spent the Winter in making their preparations In the mean time Antiochus took his march towards Thessaly and being come to the place called Cynocephalos or Dogshead he Magnificently buried the bodies of those that had been slain which had hitherto lain without Sepulchre gaining by this means the good will of the Macedonians and loading Philip with the hatred of his people incensed that he had not taken the care to bury the bodies of those had been slain in his service Philip was yet uncertain what party he should take but hearing this news he streightway preferred the Romans and sending for Bebius that commanded the Army that lay hard by took between his hands the Oath of Alliance against Antiochus Bebius praysed him and henceforward trusted in him so far that sending Appius Claudius with two thousand Men into Thessaly he made not any difficulty of causing him to march through the midst of Macedonia Claudius being come to Tempe nigh Antiochus his Camp that besieged Larissa kindled great fires that he might make the Enemy believe he was come with a powerful Army The King did believe it and perswading himself it was Bebius and Philip him Fear made him raise the Siege of Larnissa and making the season his pretence which began to grow cold he went to take up his Winter-quarters at Chalcis Here he fell in love with a beautiful Virgin though he were above fifty years old and Married her with Great Pomp and Magnificence without considering he had upon his hands a War wherein all his Glory lay at stake He spent the whole Winter in pleasure and divertisement and suffered his Army to do the like but having in the first of the Spring made an inroad into Acarnania he too well perceived that Soldiers accustomed to Idleness were difficultly retrived and began to repent of his Marriage and the delights to which he had abandoned himself Not but that he did somewhat in this Country Some places submitted to him and others he took by force but having intelligence that the Romans passed the Ionian Sea he returned to Chalcis Their Army was composed of two thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot they had likewise some Elephants It was commanded by Manius Acilius Glabrio who being passed from Brundusium into Apolonia took his march towards Thessaly raising in his way the sieges from before such Cities as the Enemy had invested and driving out the Garrisons from those who had received them he reduced likewise that Philip of Megalopolis who had the forementioned pretensions on the Kingdom of Macedon and took Prisoners about three thousand of Antiochus Souldiers Mean while Philip of Macedon made an Irruption into Athamania and drove thence Amynander who fled and sheltred himself in Ambracia Antiochus having intelligence hereof and seeing so sudden a change of affairs began to be afraid of the diligence of his enemies and perceived at last that Hannibals advice was the best Wherefore he dispatched many Messengers one after another to Polexenidas to cause him to advance and in the mean while with all expedition possible he drew together all the force he could make which amounted to ten thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse with some Auxiliary Troops of his Allies and with these went to siese upon the pass of Thermopylae that he might stop the Enemies passage whilst he expected his Army out of Asia Now the strait of Thermopylae is a long and narrow passage bounded on one side with a troublesome and inaccessible Sea and on the other with a deep and broad Marish It hath on both sides two mighty steep Rocks of which one is called Tichiontes and the other Callidromos where are found hot Springs whence the place had the Name of Thermopylae Here Antiochus caused to be raised two walls and erected Engins upon them committing the guard of the tops of the mountains to the Etolians lest the Enemy should surprize him by the same windings Xerxes had found out to assault the Lacedemonians and Leonidas because they had left them unguarded Having therefore placed a thousand Men on each top he went and encamped with the rest of the Army near Heraclea Manius having intelligence of the Enemies Posture caused publication of the battel to be made for the morrow and at the same time sent away two of his Tribunes M. Cato and L. Valerius to whom he gave as many chosen Men as they desired with Orders in the night to make a turn about the mountains and if it were possible to drive the Aetolians from their Posts Valerius having assaulted those which had the Guard
to rout the Legions gave them chase Mean while the Macedonian Phalanx which stood lock'd up together upon four Fronts in the midst of the Cavalry finding themselves opened on all sides by the flight of the Wings opened to receive in the midst of them some Companies of light armed Men who fought at the head of them and presently closed again And now Domitius easily encompassed the Macedonians thus clustred together with his Horse and light armed Foot and shrewdly annoyed them for they could neither come to the charge nor enlarge themselves and their experience stood them in no stead at this close order but rather exposed them to the Darts of their Enemies All they could do was to present their Pike heads to the Romans provoking them to come to the push otherwise threatning they would come to them but being on foot and heavily armed they durst not go to assault Horsemen for fear of breaking the Order of their Phalanx which they could very hardly recover The Romans pressed not too close upon these old Soldiers thus lock'd together and exasperated by despair but wheeling about them they charged them at distance with Arrows and Darts of which not any fell without execution because they being so hudled together could not shun them seeing themselves harassed in this manner and not knowing what course to take they gave ground but still retreating and not breaking their Order insomuch that the Romans durst not yet draw near but were satisfied to charge them at distance till such time as the Elephants which they had placed between the Battalia's began to break their Ranks and refusing any more to obey their Rulers caused the whole multitude to betake themselves to flight in disorder Domitius having routed the Phalanx attempted to force Antiochus his Camp whilst he continued driving the Legions that were opposed to him unto their very Camp they not being supported by any Horse nor any Darters nor Slings for Domitius had placed none in this Wing believing it sufficiently defended by the River But the King being repulsed by the Tribune that had the charge of the Guard of the Camp who sallied out with some fresh Forces and caused those that fled to return to the charge turned head puffed up with an opinion of the Victory because he knew not what had passed elsewhere Attalus Brother to Eumenes advanced to encounter him with a Body of Horse of which the King made so light off that he charged through and through without receiving any great damage But when he came to have knowledge of the defeat by the slaughter of his people with whom all the Field of Battel was covered seeing the vast heaps of Bodies Men Horses and Elephants confusedly mixed together and that even his Camp was in the Enemies power he likewise betook himself to flight and all upon the spur made for Sardis whither he reached about midnight From Sardis he presently took the way towards Celenes which men call Apamia whither he had understood his Son was escaped On the morrow he departed from Celenes towards Syria leaving his Captains to rally the ruines of his Army and in the mean time sent Ambassadors into the Field of Battel to demand peace of the Consul who was then burying the Bodies of his dead spoiling those of the Enemy and gathering together the Prisoners Among the Dead there were found about four and twenty Roman Knights and about three hundred Footmen who had been slain by Antiochus and of Eumenes Soldiers only fifteen Horsemen As for the Enemy they lost fifty thousand men comprizing the Prisoners for the number of the dead was so great it could scarcely be counted All the Elephants fell upon the place save only fifteen which were taken alive After this Victory so great that many could scarce believe it for they could not imagine that a handful of men fighting in an Enemies Country could possibly defeat such a prodigious Army of the Kings and especiall of the Macedonian Phalanx composed all of old Soldiers now stronger in men than ever and believed invincible after this Victory I say Antiochus his Friends blamed his rashness for having undertaken this War against the Romans and said that from the beginning he had made it appear that he was no great Captain having so inconsiderately abandoned Lysimachia and the Chersonesus and besides that withdrawn the Garrisons from the Hellespont by means of which he might have hindred the Scipio's from passing into Asia And at last they condemned his imprudence for imprisoning as it were the choice Forces of his Army thereby rendring them useless and placing his hopes in a heap and multitude of new leavied Soldiers rather then in men accustomed by long exercise to the toils of War and whose bodies and courages were both invincible Whilst all the world talked in this manner of Antiochus the Romans grown more resolute then before now began to think nothing impossible founding their thoughts as well upon their native valor as upon the assistance of the Gods and not being able sufficiently to admire their own good fortune when they considered how being so infinitely unequal in number and in a strange Country they had in one only battel and in one day subdued so many Nations made prize of so great Riches overcome so many Mercenary Troops quell'd the glory of the Macedonians and in short ruined Antiochus King of so many Kingdoms and reduced him that had gained the Surname of Great to a by-word and a Proverb of Antiochus the Great has been Whilst the Romans entertained themselves with these pleasant thoughts Publius brother to the Consul finding himself in a condition to undertake a journey came to the Camp where the Kings Deputies had Audience They now only desired to know what Antiochus must do that he might be received into the friendship of the Senate and People of Rome to which Publius answered That this War was not begun but through the fault and covetousness of Antiochus who possessing a great Empire of which the Romans were not at all jealous not therewith content had despoiled Ptolemy his kinsman and friend to the people of Rome of the lower Syria had invaded Europe without any right subdued Thrace fortified the Chersonesus and built Lysimachia In conclusion having brought an Army into Greece had endeavored to reduce under servitude the Greeks whom the Roman People had lately set at liberty and continued his enterprizes till such time as he was defeated at Thermopylae That though he had been forced to save himself by flight he had abated nothing of his Ambition but had renewed the War by Sea where he had been beaten in several Engagements and had never made any Overture of Peace till the Roman Army was come over into Asia That even then he had proudly refused their conditions and setting on Foot a mightier Army to make yet greater attempts was fallen into an Extremity of Disgrace But said he though with reason we may impose on him a
Changes happened to him when any Woman entred his Chamber and having taken notice that when others came about him his Body continued without any alteration but at all times when the Queen came to visit him his spirit seemed strangely moved and shame and remorse of Conscience seem'd written in his Face though he said never a word but that as soon as she was gone his Body resumed a more lively colour and with a fresh heat returned to its former Estate Upon which he told Seleucus that his Sons distemper was incurable whereat the King surprised let his Grief break out with a Shriek and the Physician added 'T is for Love Sir that he dies and the Love of a Woman he can never enjoy Seleucus was astonished that there should be a Woman in the World that would not let her self be perswaded by a King of Asia when he proposed to her the Marriage of his Son and thereto added Prayers Gifts and Money nay a great Kingdom to which the Prince was Heir and which he would be ready to part with presently in recompence of his cure if any one demanded it and thereupon pressing the Physician to tell him who this Woman was He replyed 'T is my wife Sir To which the King returned And how good man you that are our Friend and tyed to our House by so many reciprocal Testimonies of kindness and besides all that a wise and honest man will not you save the life of this young Prince the Son of a King your Friend fallen unhappily in Love and who out of Modesty has concealed his Grief even unto Death Can you make so little account not only of Antiochus but of Seleucus himself He feigning to be moved with these Arguments turned them thus upon the Father And if he were said he in love with the Queen would you quit her to him Hereupon Seleucus began to swear by all the Gods Protectors of his Crown that he would give her him freeely and with all his heart that he might leave to Posterity a Noble Example of Paternal Goodness towards a Modest Son who in his Affliction had not made the least Complaint and was absolutely unworthy of this Misfortune In conclusion after much Discourse of this Nature he declared he was extremely troubled that he himself could not be the Physician of his Unfortunate Son without being beholding to Erasistratus Who seeing now the King was in earnest discovered to him the whole matter and how he came to know it notwithstanding all his Sons resistance Seleucus seemed overjoyed at what he heard and now there remained only the difficulty of perswading his Son and the Queen which he did and after having gained their Consent to his Proposition he assembled his Army who perhaps had already some inkling of the Matter and beginning to make an enumeration of the great Actions he had done by which he had extended the Bound of his Empire farther than any of the Successors of Alexander he then remonstrated to them how being grown old it was hard for him to govern so vast a Kingdom Wherefore said he I will divide this mighty Mass and that I may provide for your security for the future I am resolved to discharge my self at present of one half of this burthen on him that I esteem most dear I believe that you will obey me in all things it being but just you should do so You I say that since the death of Alexander fighting under my Auspices are mounted to so high a degree of Power Now that which I esteem most dear and most worthy of this Empire is this young Prince the Elect of my Children and this Princess who being in a flourishing age will soon give you Children to be the stay and support of this great Empire I marry them therefore together in your presence and I give them all those Kingdoms I possess in the main Land As for the thing it self do not you consider in it so much the Custom of the Persians and other Nations as the general Law common to all men which requires that Subjects should believe whatever their King Decrees is just As soon as he had uttered these words the Army began to make their Acclamations proclaiming him the greatest King since Alexander and the best of all Fathers Thus Seleucus married his Wife with his Son and sent them to take possession of their Kingdom And surely this Action gained him more Reputation than all the Victories he had won for he conquered himself He had seventy two Governments under his Dominton so vast it was of which he gave the greatest part to his Son receiving to himself only the Country lying between Euphrates and the Sea After this having War with Lysimachus which was the last he had he gave him Battel on the confines of Phrygia near the Hellespont where Lysimachus was slain And as he had passed the Strait to siese upon Lysimachia he was himself slain by Ptolemy sirnamed Serranus who was one of his Train He was the Son of Ptolemy Soter and of Euridice the Daughter of Antipater and fear having driven him from Egypt because his Father had resolved to give the Kindom to his younger Brother Seleucus took pitty on him received him as the Son of his Friend entertained him at his Table and carried him still along with him in recompence of which he became his Murderer Such was Seleucus his end who dyed in the seventy third year of his Age and fortieth of his Reign for my part I believe we may likewise refer to his death the answer of the Oracle Take leave of Europe and possess Asia for Lysimachia is in Europe and this was the first time he had repassed into Europe After having followed Alexander to the Conquest of Asia 'T is said demanding a Magician where he should dye he received this Answer Keep far from Argos to prolong the date Of Life for else thou hastnest on thy Fate After which he made an exact search of all places called Argos and took special care not to go near the Argos of Peloponnesus of Amphilochia of Orestiade from whence some Macedonians are called Argeades or so much as to a City of that name which Diomedes during his banishment had caused to be built beyond the Ionian Sea but that as he was going from the Hellespont to Lysimachia he saw an Alter built upon an Eminence and having demanded the name of the place they told him it was called Argos and that whilst he was informing himself of the cause of that name whether the Argonauts passing that way had not given it whether the Inhabitants of the Country had not called it so because of the Argians that went to the Wars of Troy or at last whether it might bear that name in memory of the Country of the Atrides Ptolemy thrust him with his Sword through the Body Phileterus Gonour of Pergamus redeemed his Body from Serranus with a great sum of Money and when he had burnt it
certain Village of Cappadocia many others came in to him and whilst the Macedonians were engaged in other Affairs made himself Master of Cappadocia and all the Nations neighbouring on Pontus At length having mightily extended his Dominion he left to his Children a great scope of Country over which they Reigned one after another till this Mithridates who had War with the Romans But both the Kingdoms of Pontus and Cappadocia having been joyntly possessed by the Successors of the first Mithridates it is of importance to know how they came divided and who were Kings of Pontus and who of Cappadocia The first under whom the change began was Mithridates Euergetes who only stiled himself King of Pontus hating the Cappadocians and treating them like a conquered Country He had made an Alliance with the people of Rome and did effectually send them Auxiliary Shipping against the Carthaginians There succeeded him his Son of the same name with two sirnames Eupator and Dionysius whom the Romans commanded to quit Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes who had put himself under the protection of the people of Rome and seemed to have more right to that Kingdom than the other It 's possible too that being jealous of the greatness of Mithridates Monarchy they were glad of this pretence to divide it However it were the King obey'd But Socrates sirnamed Chrestus Brother of Nicomedes the Son of the first Nicomedes and Grandchild to Prusias the same that had been confirmed in his Kingdom of Bithynia by the Decree of the Senate having some controversie with his Brother was assisted by Mithridates who sent him with an Army into Bithynia where he seised on the Kingdom and at the same time Mithraas and Bagoas having driven Ariobarzanes out of the Kingdom of Cappadocia wherein the Romans had established him placed Ariarathes in his stead So that the Romans found themselves obliged to restore Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes each to his Kingdom To this purpose they sent their Commissaries of whom Manius Aquilius was the Chief and gave Orders to L. Cassius who commanded in that part of Asia with a little Army to assist them and likewise gave the same commands to Eupator himself but he who had still a pretence to Cappadocia and remembred that not long since the Romans had despoiled him of Phrygia as we have said in our History of the Affairs of Greece would not concern himself However Cassius and Manius with those Forces Cassius had and what they could raise in Phrygia re-established Nicomedes in Bithynia and Ariobarzanes in Cappadocia and afterwards counselled them both to make incursions into Mithridates his Country and to pick with him any occasion of War assuring them that the Romans assistance should not be wanting yet neither of them durst attempt so powerful an Enemy but when the Commissaries again pressed them to it Nicomedes who owed a great sum of Money to the Commissaries and the Captains by the agreement made for his re-establishment and had likewise formerly taken up great sums at interest from the Romans setled in Asia who now called them in invaded as it were whether he would or no the Territories of Mithridates pillaging all as far as the Gates of the City of Amestris without any opposition For though the King of Pontus had very good Forces ready yet he still gave ground that he might make his tale the better But Nicomedes being returned with a booty of inestimable value Mithridates sent Pelopidas to the Roman Captains and Commissaries and though he knew they wished for the War and had been the cause of this invasion he took no notice of it expecting greater and more worthy causes of the War that was preparing He gave him in charge only to speak of that Friendship and Alliance he and his Father had with the People of Rome But said Pelopidas instead of Protecting him you have taken from him Phrygia and Cappadocia of which this last was the inheritance of his predecessors and left to him by succession from his Father and the other the recompense of his Victory over Aristonicus a recompense he received from your General or rather which he bought with his mony and now you suffer Nicomedes to stop up his passage from Pontus and spoil all his Country as far as the Gates of Amestris Not but that the King was as you know sufficiently powerful and too well prepared to resist him but he would have you eye witnesses of what has passed And now you have seen it Mithridates your Friend and Allie begs you in quality of his Friends and Allies for those are the Terms of the Treaty to succour those Nicomedes thus wrongs or at least impeach his farther violence To this the Deputies from Nicomedes made Answer That it was not at this instant only that Mithridates had laid Ambushes for him that he had made Socrates his Brother to enter in Hostile manner into his Kingdom who but for him had been quiet and yielded to the right of Primogeniture in his Elder Brother 'T is most true Gentlemen said the Chief of this deputation Mithridates alone stirr'd up that young Man to make War against him whom the Senate and People of Rome had made King of Bithynia To whom do you think this injury was meant more than to you and though by your Edict the Kings of Asia are forbid to meddle with Europe he with the same injustice has seised several places in the Chersonesus all these Actions are but Signals of the violence he intends to you You may if you please wait for the effects for what mean his great preparations as if the War were already Declared Why so many Auxiliary Troops of Thracians Scythians and so many other Neighboring Nations He allies himself with the King of Armenia sends Agents into Egypt and Syria to solicite the Alliance of those Kings has already three hundred Ships of War fitted and is still building more having fetcht from Phoenicia and Egypt Mariners and Pilots such mighty preparations are never made against Nicomede but against you He is exceeding angry too that having bought Phrygia of one of your Generals that suffered himself to be over-reacht you have commanded him to restore it as goods unjustly got And as much vexed he is that you have given Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes and fearing lest your power should encrease from day to day the complaints he makes to you serve him only for a pretence to Arm and assault you as soon as he shall find an occasion but it will be your wisdom not to stay till he openly declares himself your Enemy Consider more his actions than his words and for pretences of feigned friendship do not forsake your true friends nor suffer those ordinances you have made concerning our Kingdoms to be scorned and made invalid by one that is a common Enemy to us both After the Deputy had thus spoken Pelopidas again desired the Romans to be judges of the complaints made by Nicomedes And for what remains said he you
Prisoners of great Booty and vast quantity of Spoils caused to be heaped together all that was useless in one place and having made due preparation according to the Custom of the Romans offered them in Sacrifice to those Divinities that preside ore War he himself first kindling the fire Soon after having refreshed his Forces with a little rest he marched with his Light Armed Foot towards Euripus hoping he might there meet with Archelaus But he had made no stay there but because the Romans had no Fleet at Sea went about overrunning the Islands and plundring the Sea-coasts He was likewise so bold as to land upon Zant and to besiege the City but some Romans that came against him having set upon him in an Ambush by Night he hastily reembarked his Men got out to Sea and returned to Chalcis doing things all along rather becoming a Pyrate then a Man of War Mithridates hearing of this great defeat was amazed as indeed he had reason however he began to make new Levies of Soldiers in all the Countries under his obedience and growing jealous that after his being thus beaten there would be some People that either at present or as soon as they had opportunity would make attempt upon his Person before he would renew the War he assembled all that he had the least suspicion of such were the Tetrarchs of Galatia and all those who attended on his Person as Friends but yet owned him not as Subjects All these he put to death with their Wives and Children some by surprize others at a feast by night only three escaped and fled for he thought that if Sylla came nearer none of them would continue faithful to him After this he siesed upon their goods placed Garrisons in their Cities and sent Eumachus Satrap or Governor into Galatia whom the Tetrarchs that had escaped assisted with some Forces of their Vassals raised in the Country drove thence with his Garrisons so that of all the Goods of that Nation Mithridates enjoyed only the Mony Having likewise born a secret hate to the Inhabitants of Chios since one of their Gallies unawares ran aboard the Admiral at the Fight of Rhodes he first confiscated all their Estates who were gone into Sylla's Army then he sent Commissioners to inform themselves of all those who were of the Roman Faction and at last Zenobius landing there as it were in his passage for Greece siesed by night on the Walls and most advantagious places of the City and after having placed Guards at the Gates he caused Proclamation to be made that all the Guests and Inmates should take their repose and that all the Inhabitants should assemble themselves to know the Kings Pleasure That done he told them that the King was Jealous of their City because some of their Inhabitants took part with the Romans and that there was no way to remove that suspicion but by surrendring up their Arms and delivering such Children as should be chosen out of their best Families for Hostages They seeâ—ng their City in his hands yielded both to one and the other whom â—enobius sent immediately to Erythrea telling them that as to what was farther to be done the King would write And indeed his Letter came containing matters to this purpose Mithridates Letter to the Inhabitants of Chios YOU Favor the Romans many of your Citi zens being at this present in their Army and your selves enjoy Lands they have given you in Fee without paying any Tribute to us Your Galley likewise ran on Board mine in the Fight at Rhodes which fault I had only imputed to those had the Government of it could my Clemency have made you wise but you have privately sent the Chief Men of your City to Sylla and have not discovered to me any of those who without the consent of the whole City were guilty of this crime which you ought to have done had you not all been complices I might according to the advice of my Friends punish you with death as Enemies to my self and my Estates However I have chosen rather in reparation of these crimes to condemn you in a Fine of two thousand Talents After having heard this Letter read they desired Zenobius's permission to send Deputies to the King which being refused them disarmed as they were and tyed up by those Hostages they had given and besides seeing a great Army of Barbarians ready to cut them in pieces they began to weep and were forced to sell the Ornaments of their Temples and their Wives Jewels to raise the two thousand Talents When they had paid it in Zenobius under pretence that it wanted weight caused them to Assemble in the Theater and there encompassing them with Soldiers and lining the Streets leading to the Sea-side with Guards all with drawn Swords he caused them to be led out of the Theater one after another and put them on Shipboard the Men on one side and the Women and Children on the other whilst the Barbarians as they past affronted them with a thousand indignities thus he took them all out of their Country and sent them to Mithridates in the Euxine Sea Those of Chios being treated in this manner Zenobius came before Ephesus with all his Forces but the Ephesians made him leave his Arms at the Port and would not let him enter the City but with a very small train He submitted to it and went and lodged at Philopoemens Father of Monima Mithridates Mistress to whom the King had given the Government of that place and soon after proclaimed an Assembly off the City but the Ephesians who expected nothing but mischief from him put off the business till next morning Mean while they assembled in the night and mutually encouraging each other clapt Zenobius in Prison where they put him to death At the same time they planted good Guards on their Walls armed the people made Provision of Victuals and became Masters of their Ciâ—ty Those of Trulles Hypapa and Mesopolis and others whom the Calamity of the Inhabitants of Chios had terrifyed hearing the news follow the Example of the Ephesians So that Mithridates was forced to send an Army against these Rebels severely punishing those who returned not to their obedience till they were forced And to hinder others from revolting he declared all the Grecian Cities free and all Debtors released from their Creditors and gave the Inmates freedom of Burgesses in all places where they inhabited and set the Slaves at liberty Hoping as it happened that the Debtors Inmates and Slaves engaged by these benefits would employ all their force to maintain the Royal Power Mean while Miniâ— and Philotirous Natives of Smyrna and Clysthenes and Asclepiodorus of Lesbos all well known to the King Asclepiodorus himself having sometime commanded his Mercenary Troops conspired against him but the conspiracy being discovered by Asclepiodorus who to give a manifest Proof of it ordered matters so that the King hid behind a bed heard it from Minio's one mouth the
obedience But the King having a suspicion that what they had done was by his Sons solicitation sent for him fettered him in chains of Gold and soon after made him away though he had served him well in Asia against Fimbria As for those of Bosphorus Mithridates set forth a Fleet and raised so powerful an Army that such great preparations gave occasion to believe they were not made against the Bosphorans but against the Romans For the King had not yet so absolutely quitted the possession of Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes but that it was with the reserve of some places He had moreover entertained a suspicion that Archelaus when he was in Greece had granted to Sylla conditions beyond what was reasonable which that Captain perceiving was afraid and fled to Murena for protection He animated him so far against Mithridates that he presently took the field to be beforehand with him and entring his Country by the way of Cappadocia forraged as far as the Gates of Comanes the greatest City of the Kingdom Celebrated for a famous and rich Temple where having defeated some Horse of the Kings the Deputies on his behalf came to him remonstrating that by this Action he broke the Articles of Peace to which he answered that he saw no Articles and indeed Sylla had drawn no writings but only contenting himself with the Execution of the conditions was departed out of the Province Murena giving only this short Answer pursued his Enterprise and after having pillaged even the Consecrated Monies returned to take his Winter quarters in Cappadocia The King sent Ambassadors to the Senate and to Sylla to make his complaint of Murena who in the mean time forbore not crossing the River Halis though very broad and at that time extreamly swoln by reason of the Rains and sacking four hundred Villages of Mithridates Kingdom without receiving any opposition from the King who expected the return of his Ambassadors So that the Roman General returned into Phrygia and Galatia with a great booty where Callidius sent from Rome because of Mithridates complaints came to meet him He showed him no Ordinance of the Senate but only told him before a great company there present that the Senate forbad him to do any injury to a King with whom they had contracted a Peace and after having said those words in publick he entertained him a good while in private Murena forbore nothing of his former Violence but on the contrary presently caused his Army to March towards the Frontiers of Mithridates Kingdom who seeing now it must of force come to an open War commanded Gordius to possess himself of the Neighboring Villages That General forthwith made provisions of beasts for burthen and munitions and gathering together all the Country and as many Soldiers as he could went and encamped on the River directly opposite to Murena but neither one nor the other put themselves in a posture to fight till such time as the King being come with a more powerful Army there hapned a great Engagement For the King having passed the River notwithstanding all the Resistance of the Enemy forced Murena to give ground and to secure himself on an eminence naturally fortified from whence taking the byways of the Mountains he recovered Phrygia after having lost many of his people either in the flight or in the Battel The Fame of this great Victory gained so suddenly and as it were in passing being soon spread abroad in all places drew Multitudes of people to Mithridates And he to return his thanks to Iupiter Militaris after having driven out all the Garrisons Murena had left in Cappadocia sacrificed to him according to the custom of the Country The place where this Sacrifice is made is on a high mountain on the top of which they raise a mighty pile for the Victims to which the Kings bring the first Wood then they raise another smaller Pile on the top of that whereon they pour Milk Hony Oyl and Wine and all sorts of Odoriferous Drugs At the foot of the Pile is a Feast made for the Assistants like to those the Kings of Persia were accustomed to make at Pasargada and after all they set fire to the Pile the flame of which rises so high that it is ordinarily seen a thousand Furlongs and the fire so heats the Air thereabout that the place is not to be approached for some days after Thus Sacrificed Mithridates But Sylla judging that it was a blemish to his Honor to have the War still continued against a King with whom he himself had concluded a peace prevailed to have Gabinius sent to Murena to order him positively to give over this War and to reconcile Mithridates with Ariobarzanes They met therefore together in a place where Mithridates delivered to Ariobarzanes in Hostage one of his Sons of four years old to the end that part of Cappadocia where he had placed Garrisons might remain to him with some augmentation and that being agreed he made a feast for all the company where he proposed a reward for those who excelled either in Drinking Eating Jesting or Singing and in short all sorts of Divertisements from which only Gabinius excused himself Thus ended the second War between Mithridates and the Romans after having lasted three years Sometime after the King finding himself at peace subdued the Bosphorans And made King of that Nation one of his Sons called Machares After that he invaded the Acheans which are on the Frontiers of the Colches and who as some say are the remainder of those who returning from the Wars of Troy were brought by chance to that Coast. But having lost one half of his Army partly by Ambushes partly in set battel or by the Extremity of the Cold he returned into his Kingdom from whence he sent Ambassadors to Rome to ratifie by writing the Articles of the Peace Ariobarzanes for his part whether of his own motion or set on by some other sent likewise to complain against him that he had not restored to him Cappadocia for Mithridates still withheld a good part Whereupon Sylla ordained that Mithridates should absolutely quit Cappadocia which he did and then again sent Ambassadors to Rome to demand a Ratification of the Treaties But because Sylla being dead no person would move it in the Senate he underhand engaged his Son in Law Tigranes to make an irruption into Cappadocia as done of himself which yet was not so closely carried but the Romans had knowledge of it The Armenian however entred violently into Cappadocia and carried away into Armenia three hundred thousand men whom he imployed with other Country People in Tilling the Land He had not yet taken the title of Armenia but now he assumed it and caused Tigranocerta to be called by his own Name that is to say the City of Tigranes these things passed in Asia But Sertorius having siesed upon Spain not only made an insurrection in that Province but among all the Neighboring People against the Romans
pursued the rest as far as that Town to which having laid Siege Mithridates sent Shipping thither and brought away both Soldiers and Inhabitants by Sea After this he left in one part of his Ships ten thousand chosen men commanded by that Varius whom Sertorius had sent to him Alexander the Paphlagonian and Dionysius the Eunuch and himself went towards Nicomedia with the rest which where the greatest Number but the greatest part of the one and other perished by storm Thus the Cisicenians so powerfully assailed saved themselves by their own Valour and by the assistance of Lucullus who starved the Enemies Army Wherefore to this day they exhibit solemn Plays in memory of him which they call Lucullians Now the Consul after having so well succeeded by Land by means of the Famine distributed those Ships he had caused to come from Asia to his Lieutenants of whom one called Triarius made a descent at Apamia forced the City and made a horrible Slaughter of the Inhabitants who had taken Sanctuary in the Temples The other called Barba made himself Master of Nicea and Prutiade seated on a Mountain both deserted by Mithridates Garrisons and then keeping the Sea went and took thirteen of the Enemies Ships out of the very port of the Achaeans And having met near Lemnos with Varius Alexander and Dionysius in a desert Isle where is to be seen the Altar of Philoctetes tyed about with a brazen Serpent a Bow and a Corslet tyed about with Bands which are the Monuments of his misfortune He made directly towards them without knowing who they were but seeing they stood firm he sent off only two Ships to draw the Enemies to a Battel who would not quit the road but were content to defend themselves from the Land he therefore sent other Ships about who putting ashore some foot on the other side of the Island he by that means forced them again to betake themselves to their Ships but they not daring to venter out to Sea for fear of Lucullus but coasting along were beaten both by Sea and Land with a great slaughter and a strange discomfiture The three Commanders were taken hid in a Cave Dionysius having drunk poison he had with him dyed instantly Varius was slain by Lucullus his order who thought it improper to lead a Roman Senator in Triumph but Alexander was reserved for that Pomp. This done Lucullus gave advice to the Senate by letter which he sent with Laurels according to the custome of the Victorious and took his march towards Bithynia As for Mithriddates as he sailed towards Pontus he was twice battered by Tempest whereby he lost ten thousand men and sixty Ships the rest being dispersed as the Wind carried them and he the Admiral being split contrary to the advice of his Friends embarked in a Pyrates Vessel which brought him to Sinope from thence he went to Amisa and there dispatched away into Armenia to his Son in law Tigranes and into Bosphorus to Machares his Son to leavy speedily Auxiliary Forces and deputed Diocles to the Neighbouring Scythians with presents and a great Sum of Money But he went both with Presents and Money and surrendred himself to Lucullus who in the mean time pursuing his Victory still advanced with his Army subduing and plundring all as he went so that being entred into a rich Country and which for a long time had known no War he found every thing so extraordinary cheap that a Slave was sold for four Drachms an Ox for a Drachm and Goats Sheep and Cloths at a proportionable rate At length he besieged Amisa and Eupatoria which Mithridates caused to be built near Amisa calling it by his own Name and designing it for the residence of the Kings He assaulted it with Towers Terrasses and Mines so vast that they oftimes fought underground besides the besieged having met with their Works and opened them from the City side did with Hives of Bees drive against the Labourers Bears and other Wild Beasts But yet he found more difficulty at the siege of Amisa for the Inhabitants defended themselves gallantly making frequent Sallies and provoking the Besiegers to fight man to man Besides Mithridates supplied them with as much Provision Arms and Soldiers as he pleased which he sent from Cabires where he spent the Winter in gathering together another Army which he soon found to amount to forty thousand foot and four thousand Horse About the beginning of the Spring Lucullus took the Field and took up towards the Mountains to march against the King who to hinder the Consuls passage had placed there very good Troops with orders to give him notice by fires of whatever passed They were commanded by Phoenix a man of reputation and of the Blood Royal who soon gave the Signal of Lucullus coming according to appointment but went and deliveerd up himself and his Forces to him so that having securely passed the Mountains he descended to Cabires where being defeated in a Battel of the Horse he again recovered the Mountain Pompey Colonel of his Cavalry was wounded and brought before the King who asking him what he would do for him if he gave him his life Much said he provided you become a Friend to Lucullus but as long as you are his Enemy I have nothing to say Upon this answer the Barbarians would have killed him but the King prevented them saying he would never injure Valour forsaken by Fortune After this he several times drew up his Army in Battel in the Plain and seeing that Lucullus would not descend he observed on all sides how he might gain the Mountain Mean while a certain Scythian called Olcaba who had sometime before fled out of the Kings Army to Lucullus and had saved a great part of his Forces in the last Battel of the Horse and therefore eat at the Generals Table and was of his Counsel and had knowledge of his secrets came to his Tent as he reposed in the heat of the day and would needs enter having no Arms about him but a little Dagger which he usually wore But when the Guards stopped him he grew angry telling them that there was a necessity to wake Lucullus but they told him again that nothing was more necessary for Lucullus as life Whereupon he mounted on horseback and went and surrendred himself to Mithridates whether it were that he believed himself suspected or that he was angry at the injury he imagined he had received he presently discovered to the King another Scythian called Sobadacus who being arrested was accused of a design of going over to Lucullus who stayed still on the Mountain for he would not descend into the plain because the Enemies were stronger in Horse so that seeing no other way to go to Mithridates he found in a Cave a Huntsman who knew all the ways under whose Conduct he came by unknown passages just over the head of Mithridates from whence he descended and without entring the plain where the Enemies Horse lay
knew their design drew off the flower of his Horse with Orders to go as far as they could to meet the Armenian and to charge him before he could put his people in order Mean while he did all he could to draw Mithridates to a battel he attempted the making a Ditch round about the Hill but he could not oblige him to descend till Famine beginning to afflict both Armies they all retreated without doing any thing Tigranes into the heart of Armenia and Mithridates into what was left him of the Kingdom of Pontus with four thousand Men of his own and as many of Tigranes Lucullus followed them in the Rear but being himself oppressed with want of Provision he returned back again and Mithridates having made a swifter March than could be imagined surprised Fabius whom the Consul had left to command there and forced him to betake himself to flight after having five hundred of his Men slain yet he returned to the charge strengthed with the assistance of all the Slaves that followed the Army to whom he gave their liberty and held out the fight all that day till such time as Mithridates wounded with the blow of a Stone on the Knee and with an Arrow below the Eye was suddenly carried out of the Battel This occasioned the passing away of some days without fighting whether the Enemies were in pain for the Kings health or whether their wounds required rest However it were the King was soon cured being drest with medicaments composed of the Poyson of Serpents by the Agbares Scythians by Nation who for this purpose always followed the Court. To Fabius succeeded Triarius who brought a new Army of Lucullus his Forces with which he presently marched against Mithridates but as they were ready to engage both sides were forced to part there arising such a furious Tempest as had never being seen in the memory of man it threw down the Tents of both Camps carryed the Beasts of Burthen out of the way and likewise took up some Soldiers and threw them among the Precipices Upon the Rumour of Lucullus his coming Triarius desirous to do some memorable action whilst he commanded went about break of day to make an assault upon Mithridates Out-guards They sought a long time with equal Fortune but at last the King making an onset with the Wing in which he was began to overcome broke the Romans and drove their infantry into a miry Valley where the Soldiers not able to stand upright suffered themselves to be killed without any resistance After which pursuing his advantage he fell into the Rear of the Cavalry to whom he gave chase with much eagerness when a Roman Centurion Galloping by his side as if he had been one of his Train gave him a great wound with his Sword in the thigh for he was doubtful if he should have struck him in the Reins he should not have pierced his Armour The Roman was presently cut in pieces by the Guards and Mithridates carried into the Rear of his Army However they ceased not pursuing the Victory which had been much greater had not those who were about the King caused the retreat to be sounded This surprised those who followed the Chase and troubled them strangely for they were fearful left some misfortune were happened elsewere till such time as the thing being known they came and gathered in Throngs about the wounded King in the midst of the Plain where Timotheus his Chirurgion having stopt the blood showed them him standing as Alexander was in the Indies shown to the Macedonians who were in fear for his safety Mithridates himself would needs be drest upon the Arlop of a Ship to the end every one might see him where being somewhat recovered he reproved those who had caused the Retreat to be sounded and the same day caused his Army to march towards the Roman Camp which they for fear had already deserted there were found among the dead four and twenty Tribunes and one hundred and fifty Centurions nor ever did the Romans in one only defeat loose so many Officers After this Victory the King retired into Armenia called the less carrying along with him all Provisions that he could transport and corrupting what he left left if Lucullus came into that Country he should make use of them At the same time a certain Roman Senator called Attilius who for fear left process should be made against him had escaped to Mithridates and had by him been received with all possible demonstrations of friendship was convict of a plot against his person Yet he would not out of respect to his former Dignity let him be put to the Torture but was content to let him suffer an ordinary death but his accomplices were cruelly tormented save only those of his freed man to whom he had communicated his design whom the King let go because they had only obeyed their Master As for Lucullus he soon was come up to Mithridates and was now upon the point to engage with him when the Proconsul of Asia sent to proclaim through all the Province that the Senate blamed Lucullus for having spun out the War so long and therefore dismissed the Army injoyning the Soldiers not to stay any longer upon pain of confiscation of their Goods The news of this Ordinance being come to the Camp most began to file off there remaining only with Lucullus some poor Wretches who having nothing to loose feared no confiscations Thus Lucullus no more then those before him could not make an end of this War for the Allies being revolted in Italy and the City afflicted with Famine by reason that the Pyrates were Masters of the Sea it was not thought proper to embroyl themselves in so great a War till they were delivered from the present Inconveniences Mithridates having advice hereof entred into Cappadocia and began to reestablish himself in his own Kingdom which the Romans dissembled till such time as the Sea was cleared of Pyrates but after the Pyrates were defeated by Pompey and that he was come into Asia they renewed the War against Mithridates giving that great Captain Commission to be their General Wherefore what this great man acted on the Sea before he bore Arms against Mithridates making a part of that expedition and not relating to another History I am of the mind to make a Summary recital of it in the place Mithridates at the beginning of his first War against the Romans having made himself Master of Asia because Sylla was then imployed in Greece about Affairs of importance believing that his Dominion there would be of no long durance spoiled all that Country and continued all those Cruelties we have related He likewise at the same time sent forth Pyrates who at first coasting up and down with a few small Barques only got some booty but the War growing hot they encreased in Number and fitted out great Ships and afterwards finding a sweetness in the vastness of their gain whether the King
were overcome or whether he had made Peace or whether the were in flight they continued their Robberies for they said that having lost their Goods and abandoned their Countries by reason of the War necessity had driven them from the Land to seek their Fortune for the future by Sea They elected among themselves Arch-pyrates who commanded a certain Number as if it had been a lawful War They assaulted weak Cities and sometimes very strong ones too whose Walls they either scaled or threw down They pillaged them after they had taken them carrying to their places of retreat all the rich men they took to make them pay their ransome and giving their Crimes honourable names they shook off the name of Pyrates and called themselves Soldiers adventurers They had likewise Artificers whom they kept in Fetters and continually stored up Wood Iron Brass and other Materials For their vast booty had so heightned their courages that preferring that kind of life before any other they imagined themselves Soveraigns and Kings comparing their Power to that of Armies and esteeming themselves invincible when ever they pleased to unite together they built Ships and forged Arms especially in Cilicia called the Rough which was the common retreat of all these Corsairs or as we may saw the principal Seat of War Not but that they had in other places Castles and Forts in desart Islands and cunning Harbours but they usually retired to that Coast of Cilicia the Rough which was inaccessible and bounded with Rocks reaching almost out of sight and therefore all the World commonly called them Cilicians This mischief which was begun in Cilicia infected likewise the Syrians Ciprians Pamphilians Pontick Nations and almost all the Oriental people who tyred with the length of the Mithridatick War and choosing rather to do ill then suffer it changed their dwellings on Land for the Sea so that in a short time they amounted to many thousands and not only become Masters of the Sea that wets the Oriental Coasts but spread themselves throughout all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules for they defeated some Roman Pretors in Sea Fights and among others the Pretor of Sicily No Ship durst appear about that Island the very Husband-man had abandoned the Fields because of the continual descents they made which very much annoyed he Romans for besides that they beheld their Provinces pillaged want of Corn brought a Famine into the Citie Besides it was not easie to defeat such great Forces that spread themselves over all parts both of the Sea and Land Who were alwaies ready either to fly or fight whilst none knew their Country or place of retreat nor indeed had they any residence or propriety but what fell in their hands Wherefore these extraordinary kind of Enemies who gave themselves a dispensation against all the Laws of War of whom nothing clear or certain could be made out were very formidable and few would have accepted a Commission for this War For Murena having undertaken these Pyrates did nothing memorable no more did after him Servilius Isauricus They were grown so bold as to Land upon the Coasts of Brundusium and Hetruria from whence they carried away some Women of Quality whom they found in the Country And defeated two Bodies of an Army whose Eagles they carried away The Romans no longer able to suffer these Losses and Affronts by Decree of the Senate gave to Pompey the greatest man of that time Command of their Armies for three Years with Authority over all the Seas as far as the Pillars of Hercules and within all the Maritime Provinces for four hundred Furlongs from the Sea and to Command all Kings Governours and Cities to furnish him with necessaries They permitted him likewise to make new Leavies both of men and Monies and in the mean time gave him an Army composed of standing Legions all the Ships they had and six thousand Attick Talents in ready Money So difficult a thing they believed it to overcome so many Naval Armies to pursue them in so vast an extent of Seas and to seek them out in so many holes having to do with Enemies they could not get within reach of except they pleased and who were ready to fall on when they were least thought of Nor indeed did ever any Roman General go to War with so large a Commission as Pompey's Soon after they furnished him with sixscore thousand foot four thousand Horse and two hundred and seventy Ships comprizing the Brigantines and for his Lieutenants they gave him five and twenty Senators among whom he divided the Seas giving them Horse and Foot and Shipping with the Ensigns of Pretor Every Lieutenant had absolute power in the Quarter he Commanded and he like a King of Kings went from one part to another to disperse his Orders and to see that every one kept in his Post without quitting it or pursuing the Enemy far from it if he could not gain the Victory upon the place to the end that there being alwaies people in a readiness in all places to take up what others had not fully done the Pyrates might find no security in flying from place to place After having disposed things in this manner he gave the Commission of Spain and the Streit to Tib. Nero and Manlius Torquatus joyntly of the Celtrick and Ligustique Sea to Marius Pomponius of Affrica with Sardinia Corsica and the Circumadiacent Islands to Lentulus Marcellinus and P. Attilius of the Coast of Italy from Sicily to Acarnania to L. Gellius and Cn. Lentulus of the Ionian Sea to Plotius Varus and Terentius Varro of Peloponesus Attica Euboea Thessaly Macedon and Boeotia to L. Cinna of all the Aegaean Sea and the Hellespont to L. Cullius Of Bithynia Thrace the Propontick and the mouth of Pontus to L. Piso of Lycia Pamphilia Cyprus and Phoenicia to Metellus Nepos These were the Quarters he assigned every Lieutenant where they were to fight and to give them their Chase so that saving themselves from one they might fall into the hands of another forbidding them to pursue beyond their Bounds for fear lest those long Chases might be a means to delay the War for his own part he flew if one may so say from one part to another to see what passed and having in forty days gone the Circuit of the Western part of the Sea he returned to Rome from whence he went to Brundusium where again taking Shipping and running over all those vast Oriental Seas he brought every where a dread of his Name by the swiftness of his motion the greatness of his Force and Power and the opinion had of a Captain of such high reputation So that the Pyrates who as it was thought would have assaulted him or at least would have found ways to have made his Victory difficult presently raised their Siege before those Towns they had blocked up and out of the fear they had of him retired into their Forts and sheltring
of Mithridates was defeated by those who going to assist their Companions without any Orders occasioned the Rout. It was an easiy Victory to Pompey for he had nothing to do but to kill or to take Prisoners those unhappy disarmed wretches engaged among the Rocks there were about ten thousand slain the Camp was taken and all Mithridates Baggage and Munitions who escaping himself behind his Camp accompanied only with his Guards found by chance some Mercenary Horse and about three thousand Foot with whom with all speed he got to the Fort of Synorega where he had abundance of Mony And having given both a largess and a whole years Pay to the Companions of his flight he carried with him about six thousand talents taking his way towards the springs of Euphrates that from thence he might get to Colchis he made such hast that in four day march he passed the Euphrates where he stayed three days to refresh his Men and Arm those other Troops he had gathered together he thence entred into the Country of Cotenea which is a Province of Armenia where he defeated the Coteneans and Iberians who would have stopt his passage and from thence gained the River Aspara Some say that the Asiatick Iberians are descended from the European that is to say the Spaniards others on the contrary say the Spaniatds came from these Asiatiques others again that there is nothing common between the one and the other but the name there not being the least conformity either in their Language or Manners Now Mithridates having taken up his Winter quarters at Dioscuriade which is a City said to be founded by the Argonautes and Castors in the voyage they made began no more to have mean thoughts nor that savored of the fugitive he laid a design to march along the banks of the Euxine Sea and by the Scythians neighboring on that Sea and the Palus Moeotis that so he might this way arrive at Bosphorus and after having driven thence his ingrateful Son Machares he might thence renew the War against the Romans and from Europe transport his Arms into Asia which are only divided by a strait which some believe to have taken its name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because Io transformed to a Cow passed there flying from the jealous Iuno Though these designs were extraordinary and scarce credible Mithridates attempted to put them in Execution he marched through all the Scythian Nations whether Enemies or unknown partly by force and partly by sufferance He was still both respected and feared fugitive and miserable though he were The Heniochians willingly gave him passage but the Acheans endeavoring to oppose his march he forced it It is said that these people being cast by Tempest on the Coasts of the Euxine Sea as they returned from Troy were ill treated by the Barbarians because they were Greeks and that having demanded some Ships from the Cities of their Country and being refused them they conceived such an indignation or rather such a rage that all the Greeks they could catch they made Sacrifice off at first without any distinction sometime after chusing out the fairest and at last drawing them by lot But let thus much suffice concerning the Scythian Achaeans Now Mithridates being entred into the Country bordering upon the Palus Maeotis which is divided among many petty Kings there was not one but out of respect to the great reputation of his actions and of his Kingdom received him favorably and gave him passage through their Lands they likewise made him presents and he ordered things so that having drawn them into alliance with him and given some of his Daughters in Marriage to the most powerful of them there entred into his thoughts a wonderful Expedition He formed a design to March through Thrace and so through Macedon and thence by the way of Pannonia to pass the Alpes and enter into Italy Machares his Son understanding that in so short a time he had traversed all those Salvage Nations and those which are called the Straits of Scythia where never Man before him had passed sent Ambassadors to make his excuse that out of fear he had made an accommodation with the Romans but knowing him implacable he fled towards the Pontique Chersonesus after having burnt all the Ships he had to hinder his Father from pursuing him but his Father sending a Fleet after him he slew himself As for Pompey he pursued Mithridates as far as Colchis but never imagining that he would take the way we have spoken of or that a fugitive Prince would attempt any thing Great he went through all that Province well-pleased to see the Country whither the Argonautes and Castor and Pollux had made their Voyage and particularly the Rock where they say Prometheus was chained on Mount Caucasus There are in this Mountain several springs that cast forth Grains of Gold but so small that they are scarce perceivable Wherefore those of the Country put into the streams skins covered with wooll by which means they get the golden sands which gather in the fleece And possibly that famous golden fleece of Aaete is nothing else As Pompey passed through the Country to see these rarities all the neighboring Nations came to wait on him and be his Conductors Only Oreses and Artocus Kings of the Albanians and Iberians laid an Ambush for him with seventy thousand men near the River Cyrus which discharges it self into the Caspian Sea by nine Navigable Channels and into which a Multitude of other Rivers loose themselves among which the Araxes is the greatest of all The Roman General having intelligence hereof caused a Bridge to be laid over the River crossed it and drove the Barbarians into the Wood from whence they being accustomed to fight sallying out as from a fortress and when they were least thought of renewing the charge Pompey having placed People round about the wood set fire to it and as they came forth gave them chase till such time as coming to give him presents and hostages they served likewise as matter for his Triumph He found among the Hostages and Prisoners many Women who had received no less wounds then the Men. They deemed them to be Amazons whether the Nation of the Amazons who are not far off had sent assistance to those Kings or whether the Barbarians by a general name call all Warlike Women Amazons Pompey returning after this Victory marched his Army into Armenia against Tigranes as the Allie of Mithridates taking the way of Artaxata the ordinary Residence of those Kings But Tigranes was not for War He had had three Sons by Mithridates Daughter two of which he had slain with his own hand one for turning his back in the fight and the other as he was hunting because he happening to fall his Son had not vouchsafed to help him up but on the contrary had taken off his Diadem as he lay upon the ground and put it on his own head As for his third Son
multitude of other Persons with Governments and likewise with great Sums of Money He built also Cities Nicopolis in Armenia the less as a Monument of his Victory Eupatoria in the Kingdom of Pontus which Mithridates Eupator had called by his name when he founded it and afterwards had rased it for opening its Gates to the Romans which Pompey afterwards rebuilding from the ground called Magnopolis He reedifyed likewise Mazaca a Citie of Cappadocia which had been demolished during the War and repaired divers others which were ruined or decaying in divers places of Pontus Palestine the lower Syria and Cilicia in which last is scituated that City formerly called Soly and at present Pompeiopolis which he peopled for the most part with Pyrates He found in the City of Talauris where Mithridates Magazines were two thousand Vessels of Onichit is bound about with Gold quantity of Flagons Cups Tables and Seats all perfectly beautiful There were likewise such vast numbers of Bridles and Saddles enriched with Gold and precious Stons that the Questor was thirty daies in receiving and counting them One part of these precious moveables came to Mithridates by succession from Darius the Son of Histaspes having passed from hand to hand to the several Successors of the Kings of Persia unto him Cleopatra had taken another part out of the Treasures of the Ptolemies and given them in keeping to the Inhabitants of the Isle of Coos from whence Mithridates had brought them and the rest that King had bought and stored together himself being very curious of rich moveables Towards the end of Winter Pompey distributed rewards to his Victorious Soldiers fifteen hundred Attick Drams to every Soldier And to the Tribunes and Centurions proportionably so that it is said the whole Sum of this distribution amounted to sixteen thousand Talents After this he went from Ephesus to Italy by Sea and dismissing his Army at Brundusium returned to Rome And by this popular action astonished the Romans as if they had seen a Miracle The whole City went forth to meet him the youngest a great way and others according to their Age and after all came the Senate themselves admiring the prodigious greatness of the actions he had done For never before him had any person defeated so powerful an Enemy nor added so many Provinces to the Roman Empire or extended their Dominion to the Euphrates And in like manner he entred in Triumph in in a more Magnificent manner then ever any had done before in the five and thirtieth year of his age The Pomp lasted two days for it required a great deal of time for the passing by of so many different People Ponticks Armenians Cappadocians Cilicians the several Nations of all Syria Albanians Heniochians Acheans Scythians and Iberians He brought likewise into the Ports seven hundred Ships compleatly fitted and sent into the City Chariots laden with Gold and Rarities of inestimable price among which was the Table of Darius the Son of Histaspes the Chair and Scepter of Eupator with his Figure of Massie Gold eight foot high and yet was only the Breast and Head and seven hundred thousand five hundred and ten Talents of Silver Money There were likewise a great number of Waggons laden with Arms and some with Ship Beaks After followed a multitude of Captives and Pyrates chained and habited every one according to the fashion of his Country before the Triumphal Chariot marched the Satrapes Captains and Sons of Kings some Captives others Hostages to the number of four hundred twenty four Among whom was Tigranes the Son of Tigranes five Sons of Mithridates Artaphernes Cyrus Oxathres Darius and Xerxes and two Daughters Orsabaris and Eupatra and among the rest Olthalces and Aristobulus King of Colchis and the Jews the Tyrants of Cilicia and the Queens of Scythia Three Iberian Generals two of the Albanians with Menander of Laodicea who commanded Mithridates Horse Those absent were carried in Picture Tigranes and Mithridates fighting giving ground and flying Mithridates besieged his secret flight by night his death and with him his two Daughters companions of his misfortune there were shown likewise the Pictures of his Children of both Sexes that dyed before him and the Figures of the Gods adored by the Barbarians adorned after the manner of their Country and neer to them a fair Table with this Inscription Ships of War taken eight hundred Cities built in Cappadocia eight in Cilicia and Caelosyria twenty in Palestine Seleucia Kings overcome Tigranes of Armenia Artoces of Iberia Oreses of Abania Darius of the Medes Areta of the Nabathaeans and Antiochus Commagenes Then appeared Pompey on a Chariot all glittering with precious Stones clad as some say in the Coat of Alexander of Macedon but if that may be believed 't is likely it was found among Cleopatra's Movables which the Inhabitants of the Isle of Coos delivered to Mithridates At last after the Chariot marched the Officers of the Army who had served him in this expedition some on Horseback others on foot who all together conducted their General to the Capitol When he was arrived there he put not to death any of the Captives as all who triumphed before him had done but sent them back into their own Countries at the publique charge except only the Kings and Kings Children of whom he not long after put to death Aristobulus and after him Tigranes As for Pharnaces he in the mean time kept the Inhabitants of Phanagoria blockt up till such time as Famine made them resolve to give him Battel however the King granted their pardon and without injuring any of them was content to take Hostages Sometime after he took Sinope and desirous to make himself Master of Amisa he made War upon Calvisius who then Commanded the Roman Forces in the Country in the time that Caesar and Pompey were engaged against each other and at last the Romans being elsewhere busied he was driven out of Asia by Asander upon a particular Quarrel He had likewise to do with Iulius Caesar as he returned from Aegypt after the Rout of Pompey which happened about that Mount where his Father had beaten Triarius and being beaten escaped to Sinope with a thousand Horse whither Caesar wanting leasure to follow him sent Domitius to whom he yielded the City who after he was come out with his Cavalry according to the Articles of Peace agreed between them caused all the Horses to be killed which did not well please the Horsmen with whom Shipping himself he retired by Sea to the Kingdom of Pontus As soon as he came there he assembled a great number of Sâ—ythians and Sarmatians and made himself Master of Theodotia and Panticapea but Asander renewing the War with him his Horsemen being dismounted and not used to fight on foot were beaten and Pharnaces showing himself the only man of Valour was slain after having received many wounds the fiftieth year of his Age and fifteenth of his Reign in Bosphorus C. Caesar gave his Kingdom
and five hundred Horse At his first coming the Enemy in vain laid ambushes for him for proceeding circumspectly and cautiously he brought the Army in safety and pitch'd Camp before Ocylis which City being a General fortunate in War he presently subdued and taking Hostages and thirty Talents of Silver pardoned them The Nergobriges hearing of this clemency asked what they should do to obtain Peace likewise with him he demanded a hundred Horse to go to the War with him Those they promised but in the mean time some of them falling in the skirts of the Roman Army plundered some of the Baggage soon after the Horse they had covenanted to send coming and being demanded concerning the Baggage they made answer that some ignorant of the agreement made had done it but Marcellus commanded them to be dismounted and their Horses sold and afterwards dividing among his Soldiers the prey he had gathered wasting their Fields he besieged the City The Nergobriges when they saw that the Engines brought close to the Trench had shaken their Walls sent a Herald who instead of a Caduceus was cloathed in a Wolves skin to ask pardon for their faults the General refused it unless with them all the Arvani Belli and Titthi would ask it likewise which when they signified to them they forthwith sent all of them Deputies to Marcellus to entreat him that content with a moderate punishment he would again receive them into the Conditions of Gracchus League This Petition some people a little before by them provoked to War opposed wherefore Marcellus commanded the Legates of both parties to dispute it before the Senate but by private Letters he advised the Fathers to decide all Controversies for he was very desirous in the time of his Government to put an end to this War supposing he should thereby get Renown and Honour Now Ambassadors sent from confederate and associate Cities were wont to be admitted into the City and treated as Guests but these as coming from Enemies were according to Custom commanded to lodge in the Suburbs the Senate taking it ill that they though Nobilior who was in Spain before Marcellus had given his opinion for them had not permitted it to the Romans so they disallowed the Peace and gave the Legates no other answer then that Marcellus should declare to them the Senates pleasure Then decreeing an Army for Spain they chose the Soldiers by Lot which formerly they used to enrol by Centuries but because many had complained to the Consuls that they had hard measure while others were employed and taken up for easier service they thought it best to chuse the Army by Lot Licinius Lucullus Consul was made General and Cornelins Scipio his Lieutenant Whilst he is going to this War Marcellus advises the Celtiberians of the approaching War and restores the Hostages to those redemanded them After which privately sending for the Chief of the Ambassadors sent to Rome in the name of the Celtiberians and keeping him a long time with him he gave occasion to a suspicion which he afterwards much more increased that he was indeavouring to perswade the Celtiberians to leave all things to his Arbitrement he endeavouring by all means possible to put an end to the War before Lucullus coming For presently after this Conference five thousand Arvacci got into the City of Nertobriga And Marcellus leading his Army against Numantia and their Camps lying within five furlongs of the City when he drove the Numantines into their Walls Litennus their Prince stopping their course cryed out he desired conference with Marcellus This Marcellus heard with joyful ears and receiving the Hostages and Money he demanded sent them all home in peace By this means before Lucullus came the War with the Belli Arvacci and Titthi was brought to an end But Lucullus as covetous of Glory as of adding to his private Fortune which was but very slender presently with his Army enters the Confines of the Vaccaei a Nation of the Celtiberians bordering upon the Arvacci though he neither had command from the Senate nor had they made any War upon the Romans or any other way offended him and crossing the River called Tagus comes to the City Cauca and sets down before it The Citizens inquiring wherefore he came and what occasion there was for War he answered He came to the assistance of the Carpitani whom they had wronged whereupon they retreated into their City from whence not long after making a sally upon Lucullus men gone to provide Wood and Corn they slew many and drove the rest to their Tents And whenever they came to an Engagement the Caucaei who were almost all Light Armed Men were at the first for a while superiours but when their Darts were spent then they turned their backs unskilful and unaccustomed to a standing Fight so that once flying to their City by reason of the croud at their Gates near three thousand of them perished The next day all the gravest of the Citizens came out to Lucullus with Crowns and Olive Branches to know of him upon what Conditions they might buy his friendship they were answered by Hostages an hundred Talents in Silver and their Horsemen going to the Wars with the Romans which being presently agreed to Lucullus desired he might place a Garrison in the City which the Caucaei likewise yielded to he brings in two thousand of his chosen men whom he commanded as soon as they were got in to possess themselves of the Wall This done he lets in all his Army and at the Signal given by sound of Trumpet commands them to fall on and kill all the Caucaei without any distinction who invoking the Gods presiding over Oaths and Covenants and bitterly cursing the Roman perfidiousness were cruelly murdered of twenty thousand very few escaped by breaking open the Gates Lucullus having sack'd the City cast thereby a great infamy on the Roman Name The rest of the Barbarians flying out of the plain Country fled among the Precipices and places inaccessible others carried all they could into fortified Towns and what they were forced to leave they burnt that nothing might be left for Lucullus to plunder He therefore having wandred long enough in that Desert Country came to the Town of Intercatia where were drawn together twenty thousand Foot and two thousand Horse whom when Lucullus with imprudence enough would have perswaded to enter into a treaty of Peace they reproached him with the slaughter of the Caucaei asking whether it were not with the same Right Hand and the same Faith he had already pawned to the Caucaei With which revilings as it is ordinary for those whose consciences accuse them of guilt being extreamly galled he laid waste their Country And then besieging the City and intrenching himself he often drew out his Army in Battel to try if by any means he could draw the Enemy to a Battel but as they by all means avoided a set Fight so by continual skirmishes of Light Armed Foot they
Decree to declare open War against Viriatus fortified with which Decree he received upon surrender the City of Arsa Viriatus looking on and pursued Viriatus himself flying and wasting all as he went to Carpetane bringing with him greater Forces than Viriatus who by reason of the paucity of his men not thinking fit to engage sending away the greatest part of his Forces by an obscure Valley drew up the rest upon a certain Hill making a show as if he were willing to fight the Enemy but when he thought those sent before were out of danger he flew after with so much scorn of the Enemy and so much celerity that those who followed him knew not which way to take Cepio turning his Arms against the Vetones and Callaici wasted their Country but now following Viriatus Example many other Bands of Rovers by their incursions wasted Lusitania Against whom Sex Iunius Brutus being sent he considering the distance of places being all that ground between the four Navigable Rivers of Tagus Lethe Dorius and Boetis gave them a hard chase they running hither and thither after the manner of Thieves and now following and then flying dispairing to catch them and yet thinking the not taking of them would be dishonourable though on the other side the taking of them would be no great Triumph he led his Army into the Thieves own Country thinking with the same trouble to take revenge of them for he thought they would all come home to defend their own and withal enrich his Soldiers by the spoil Led on with these thoughts and imaginations he seised upon all stood in his way The Barbarians coming out to oppose him and the Women assisting and bearing Arms with such courage and eagerness that even in the midst of slaughter their voices were not to be heard Some indeed there were who taking what they could fled up to the Mountains to whom because they asked pardon Brutus gave whatever remained of theirs Thence crossing the River Dorius carrying Fire and Sword through all parts far and near and receiving Hostages of all that yielded at length he came to the River of Oblivion and first of any Roman crossed it Thence going to Nimis another River he made War upon the Bracari because they had stopped and taken the Provisions bringing to the Roman Camp 'T was the Custom likewise of these people to bring their Women armed into the Field who would rather die than turn their backs or utter any unworthy cry nay these very Women when led away Captives would some kill themselves and others cut their Childrens Throats thinking Death much better than Slavery yet some Towns yielded to Brutus who not long after revolting he again reduced to obedience among others Talabriga often accepting Conditions often rebelled Thither Brutus coming the Townsmen imploring mercy and referring themselves to discretion he first commanded them to deliver all Roman Fugitives Captives and Arms then that with their Wives and Children they should leave the City which when readily they submitted to inclosing them with his Army he began to let them understand how often they had revolted and how often renewed the War possessing them with an extreme fear and opinion how grievously he was offended with them and ending all in reproaches of their Treachery but yet taking away their Horses Provisions and publick Money beyond their own hopes he restored them their Town to dwell in After doing all these things Brutus returned to Rome These attempts of other Bands of Thieves happening in the same time and after the Example of Viriatus I thought convenient to place with that War But now Viriatus sent Audax Ditalco and Minurus the most faithful of his Friends to Cepio to make Peace These Cepio engaged by great Gifts and large hopes to make him a promise to kill Viriatus which at length they in this manner performed Viriatus was a man given little to sleep as well because of the sundry cares distracted him as because of his continual employs wherefore likewise he often slept in Armour that he might be ready upon all services and to that end by night the entrance to him was always open to his Friends being by this means free to be called at all seasons Audax and the Consorts of his villany observing his first lying down as if they had some earnest business went into his Tent and wounding him in his Throat for that part only of his Body was naked slew him as he lay then without any noise no one thinking they had given him his deadly wound they went out and fled to Cepio and demanded their reward He only granted them the enjoyment of what then they had and referred them to the Senate for rewards The Day coming on Viriatus Clients and indeed the whole Army thinking him still at rest wondered what should make him sleep more than ordinary till some going in let them understand he lay slain in his Arms. Then presently a general lamentation and mourning was heard throughout the whole Camp all afflicting themselves for his death and beginning to be doubtful of their own safety for so they reputed themselves having lost a General who had been conversant in and had freed them from so many dangers But that which most of all tormented them was that they could not find the Authors of this Villany Therefore covering the Body with most magnificent Habits they burnt it upon a very high Pile then Horse and Foot marching in Troops and Companies round about in Arms after a barbarous manner celebrated Viriatus Memory nor departed they from the Pile till the fire of it self went out The Funeral Rites performed they set forth rewards for Gladiators So great a desire of him did Viriatus leave behind him a man as among the Barbarians most worthy of Command behind none in encountring dangers and the most exact man living in dividing the Prey for he never took nor offered his friends more than their share and himself distributed it to the Valiant whereof this was the consequence which is very rare and I know not whether ever it happened to any other General that though he had an Army composed of many divers Nations yet in eight years which he waged War no Mutiny every happened amongst them but he had always his Soldiers in a ready obedience and forward in the encountring of danger Having created Tantalus General in the room of Viriatus they undertook the Expedition against Saguntum This City Hannibal having subversed restored and from his Countries name called Carthagena The Spaniards repulsed thence as they crossed over the River Baetis Cepio following pressed so hard upon them that Tantalus distrusting his Affairs delivered up himself and his Army upon Condition they should be treated no worse than Subjects So being disarmed that they might no more live like Thieves they had sufficient Lands set out to them And thus ended the Viriatick War Now let us return to the War with the Vaccâ—ei or Numantines
of Triumph he falsly accused the Vaccaei that in this War they had supplyed the Numantines with Provisions Whereupon he spoiled their Country and laid Siege to Palantia their chief City which had not in the least title violated their Covenants Calling to him and joyning with him in this work Brutus his Son-in-Law who as we have before mentioned was sent into the other part of Spain To them Cinna and Caecilius coming Legates from Rome declared that the Senate was doubtful whether after so many losses it was convenient for Aemilius to engage in a new War and to that end they produced a Decree of the Senate whereby Aemilius was forewarned not to make War with the Vaccaei But he having already begun the War thinking the Senate were ignorant of many things as first that he had joyned Forces with Brutus then that the Vaccaei had assisted the Numantines with Men Money and Provision besides his retreat now might make a strange alteration in Affairs there being danger lest thereupon the Enemy contemning the Romans as fearful all Spain should rebel So Cinna returned without doing any thing only wrote thus much to Rome After these things Aemilius took care in a well-fortified place to cause Machines to be built and to lay in stores of Corn. Flaccus who was for that year Commissary General of Provisions as he brought Victuals to the Camp fell into a manifest Ambush from whence he freed himself by this cunning he spread a rumour among the Soldiers that Aemilius had taken Palantia at the news of which his party beginning to shout and rejoyce the Barbarians hearing them and believing it to be so indeed of their own accord drew off by this policy Flaccus saved his Provision from the Enemy But the Siege of Palantia being still prolonged and food failing Famine began sorely to afflict the Romans for not only all the Cattel but many men died Indeed the Generals Aemilius and Brutus long bore out against these misfortunes bravely and constantly but at length compelled to yield to them about the last watch of the night they gave Orders to Discamp and the Military Tribunes and Primipiles running up and down urged every one to get ready to march by the first Light so that doing all things in a hurry they forsook their sick and wounded men hanging upon them and beseeching them not to betray them In such confusion they marched away that it could only be said they did not flee the Palantines several times falling on them and keeping close up to them from morning till it was night and doing them much detriment As soon as it was dark the Romans spent by hunger and travel dispersed themselves by Companies about the Fields and the Palantines some Deity turning them back went home The Romans for this ill management depriving Aemilius of his Consulate and Command fined him besides in a sum of Money The cause likewise between Mancinus and the Numantine Legates was heard in Senate these alledging their League with Mancinus he transferring the fault upon Pompey the former General who had delivered over to him a vicious and unwarlike Army which was therefore often overcome and that he himself had likewise made Peace with the Numantines he likewise added that it was no wonder if this War had no good success which they had against all Justice decreed Though the Fathers were equally angry with them both yet Pompey against whom there had been a former sentence given came off But Mancinus for being Author of so base a Peace without their Orders they condemned to be delivered up to the Numantines after the Example of those Fathers who once gave up naked to the Samnites twenty Generals who without their Command had concluded a League Mancinus being brought to Spain was by Furius in like manner yielded up naked to the Numantines but they refused to accept him Against them Calphurnius Piso was next chosen General who brought not his Army against Numantia but entring the confines of the Palantines returned thence with an inconsiderable booty and the rest of the time of his Government spent in Winters Quarters in Capertania The People of Rome offended at this Numantine War which in all Mens judgement was yet like to be more tedious and difficult decreed the other Consulate to Cornelius Scipio newly come from Carthage for they believed him the only Man by whom the Numantines could be subdued But being under the Consulary Age appointed by the Law made in the Carthaginian War by the Tribunes of the People they now repealed that Law and the next year again confirmed it Thus Scipio being again declared Consul hastned to Numantia with no Army the City Forces being wasted by so many Wars and there being strength enough in Spain Yet by the Senates permission he carried some Voluntiers from other Cities and Kings who out of particular Friendship went with him to whom he added about five hundred Clients and Friends out of the City whom listing in one Band he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Band of Friends all these amounting to about four thousand he committed to the leading of Buteo his Nephew he himself slenderly accompanied went before to the Army in Spain whom he was informed were debauched with all manner of Idleness Discord and Luxury Wherefore knowing well enough he could never overcome his Enemies unless he first throughly purged and suppressed the Vices of his Army as soon as he came to the Camp he thought nothing more fitting then to expel thence all Hucksters Whores and Southsaying Priests to which last the Soldiers dismayed with so many unfortunate Engagements were but too much addicted forbidding for the future the bringing any thing not absolutely necessary into the Camp and strictly prohibiting all Sacrifices for Divination sending away all Waggons of useless Baggage and all Cattle but such as they could by no means be without Nor was any one to have more Utensils for dressing meat then a Spit a Brass Pot and one Cup. Meats likewise were prescribed Boild and Roasted Beds forbidden and for Example himself first lay in a Hamock he forbid the Riding upon Mules upon a March for what hopes was there of their service in War who could not walk on Foot he likewise reproved those had servants to anoint and bath them jestingly telling them Mules which had no hands wanted others to scrub and scratch them by these means he reclaimed them all to temperance He accustomed them likewise to a Fear and Reverence of his Person making the access to him difficult in any unjust Petitions having always these sayings in his mouth That those Generals who were strict and severe observers of Laws were serviceable to their friends but those who were easie and greedy of gain only profitable to their enemies That the Armies of these might indeed be more merry but ignorant of order and obedience but those more grave and withal more dutiful and ready upon all occasion of service Nor would he
had there left Then the two Roman Generals joyning together whilst Hannibal staid in Lucania begirt Capua with a Trench and a Wall and drawing other Lines without pitch'd their Camp between both raising Bulwarks both towards the City and towards the Country to oppose the assaults of the Enemy so that the face of their Camp was like a great Town inclosing a little City and the space between their Lines and the Town being about two Furlongs like a Theater where daily Combats were to be seen the stoutest men on both sides continually challenging and provoking one another among which that of Claudius Atellus was very memorable he was challenged by one Taureas a Campanian whom having overcome the vanquished fled towards the City Claudius pursuing him to the very Walls not being able to turn his Horse the Gate standing to receive his Enemy he was carried in and running through the whole Town got out at the other Gate and came safe to his own party a strange success of undesigned boldness Hannibal without doing the business which he was sent for into Lucania returned to Capua to undertake the defence of that City which he knew for so many and so great things commodious for the Romans wherefore he assaulted their Works but when he could by no manner of means prevail to send in any supply of Men or Provisions into the Town for the Siege was so close that he could neither send in nor get any intelligence out of the City he with all his Army marched directly towards Rome moved thereunto because he heard that Famine was in the City and out of hopes either to draw the Romans from the Siege of Capua or act something greater than the relief of that place Wherefore continuing his March with a great confluence of Warlike People wherefore some perswaded themselves that for want of strength they would not so much as stop his passage others thought they should not so much as fight for it he came and encamped by the River Anien within thirty Furlongs of the City Never was Rome struck with such Fear and Tumult They wanted all manner of Forces those they had being in Campania and unexpectedly a mighty Army was coming towards them led by a General whose Valor and Fortune made him unconquerable yet with such Forces as they had who were able to bear Arms they set Guards at the Gates The Old Men leaped up on the Walls and the Women and Children brought Darts and Stones great multitudes flocked to them out of the Country the whole City rung with Howlings Lamentations Prayers and mutual Exhortations some going out of the City broke down the Bride that was over the Anien The Romans had built a very little Town among the Aequi and called it Alba after the name of their Metropolis or mother City but in Process of time whether by lengthning or corrupting the word or to distinguish them from the Albans they were called Albenies two thousand of these coming to participate in the danger of Rome were presently armed and placed at the guard of the Gates So much faith and kindness at that time one only Colony among so many showed towards the Romans imitating the Example of the Plateans who with a small Number joyned with the Athenians at the fight at Marathon that by united force they might repulse the present danger The Roman General Annius stay'd at Capua not doubting to reduce that City the other Claudius Flaccus by another way with incredible expedition came and pitcht his Camp opposite to Hannibal on the other side of the Anien Who when Hannibal saw the bridge broken down and found Claudius encamped on the other side he resolved to march round by the springs of the River and Claudius likewise thereupon removed his Camp Here Hannibal made use of his wonted stratagems he left some Horse who when the Armies were retired Fording the River wasted the Roman Territory and when they had terrified the City according to orders returned to Hannibal When he had got round the springs 't is reported that he came by night with three spies to the City not far distant and privately taking a view of the site of it observed the great fear and solitude within the walls yet after all this he returned to Capua whether some God or any other accident at that time averted him whether he dreaded the Valor and Fortune of the City or whether as he used often to say to his Friends exhorting him to the Conquest of it that he would not ruine it least when that was done the Carthaginians should take from him the Command and reduce him to the quality of a private Man for as for the Claudian Army it was no way to be compared with Hannibal's Yet Claudius at Hannibal's return followed him at the heels thinking he did enough if he hindred him from Forraging and took care that by Ambushes he did not damnifie him Yet Hannibal in a dark and moonless night having discovered the place whither Claudius Army tended built indeed no wall but throwing up a trench and leaving some intervals for Gates and lastly raising a Rampire which might serve instead of a Wall opposite to it there continued himself and sending his Horse to a certain eminence fortified by Nature charged them there to stand quiet and not move from the place till the Romans should possess themselves of that place he hoped they would believe to be void Then he gave Command to his Indians that getting upon their Elephants they should by any means between the intervals or over the Rampire get into Claudius Camp At a little distance from these he commanded some Trumpets and Cornets to follow with Orders as they entred to make the greatest noise they could possible that their Numbers might seem the greater sending along with them some that could speak the Latine Tongue who were to call out aloud to the Soldiers by Claudius Orders to desert their Tents and escape to the next hill This stratagem of Hannibal's succeeded at first to his mind and according as he had designed it for Elephants trod down the Rampire and the Trumpets followed them whose noise filling the ears of the Roman Soldiers starting out of their beds in a dark night and so unexpectedly struck a mighty terror into them Besides hearing in the Latine Tongue Command given about possessing the other Hill they already addressed themselves to flight But Claudius to whom all Hannibal's devices as full of deceit and treachery were suspected immediately out of his own prudence or by instinct from some God or else being by some Captive informed of the whole project dispatched away the Military Tribunes into the way leading to the hill to stop such as rushed out and tell them that those Orders were Proclaimed not by their Generals Command but by Hannibal's and therewithal himself drawing first strong guards to the Rampire to repulse the Enemy if perhaps any assault should be made ran through the tents
got to Hannibal who not a little tormented for this loss of his brother and so great an Army through too much hast and ignorance of the ways slighting all the rest that in full fourteen years he had with vast labours been getting in Italy retreated among the Brutians who were the only people that continued in association with him and there quietly expected new recruits from Carthage And the Carthaginians did send him an hundred Ships laden with Corn and supplies of Men and Mony which being conveyed by three hundred Triremes the Praetor of Sardinia set upon with his Gallies and sinking sixty the rest got back to Carthage From hence the penury of all things in Hannibals Camp much increased but especially the despair of getting any help from Carthage And to all these misfortunes this was annexed that Mago who was sent into Gaul and Liguria to hire Soldiers sent no aid but lay idle expecting the Event of things Wherefore Hannibal plainly foreseeing that he could not long continue in those parts began to contemn the Brutians themselves as men that would ere long be strangers to him and to oppress them with heavier taxes several towns fortified by nature as if they practised a revolt he forced to remove into the plain and many persons whose Estates he had a desire to siese upon he condemned upon false accusations In the mean time there entred into the Consulate Licinius Crassus and P. Scipio famous for his Conquests in Spain Crassus went into Apulia against Hannibal Scipio advised the people that Hannibal and the Carthaginians could not possibly be driven out of Italy till an Army were transported into Africa and they terrified with Domestick danger And assiduously insisting upon it and daily urging them all to it he at length got Africa decreed for his province Then without any delay trasporting his Army into Sicily when he had spent a little time in Rendevouzing and Exâ—rcising his Soldiers he was first carried to Locrisa a City of Italy where Hannibal had placed a Punick Garrison whom having overpowred leaving Pleminius as his Lieutenant in that City he passed over into Africa but Pleminius forbore not to treat the Locrians with all manner of villanous and contumelious usage and cruelty insomuch that he rob'd the very Temple of Proserpine Wherefore the Romans for these horrible dealings with their Friends and Kindred put him to death in Prison and confiscating his goods delivered them to the Locrians to be laid up in the Treasures of the Goddess and of the Mony taken away by Sacriledge they recovered as much as they could and what remained it pleased them to supply out of the publick Exchequer At the same time Crassus drew away from Hannibal's party Consentia a great City of the Brutians and many other Towns but when at Rome the dismal prodigies had filled the minds of men with superstition the Decemvirs commanded to bring the Sibyls Books relating that few days before in Pessinuntium a City of Phrygia where the Mother of the Gods is Worshipped something was fallen from heaven which should be brought to Rome and not long after the news of its falling came and the image of the Goddess was brought to Rome and on the same day that it happened to come thither was celebrated the Feast of the Mother of the Gods There is a report that the Ship which brought it struck upon a Shoal in the River Tiber and that when by no means possible it could be removed the Southsayers foretold that it would follow if drawn by a woman that was pure and chast from any strange bed Claudia Quintia suspected but not guilty of Adultery but her too loose and free way of living had got her that ill report first earnestly calling upon the Goddess to witness her innocency of that crime and then tying her Girdle to the Ship was followed by the Goddess So Claudia from an evil fame which she before lay under got a most glorious name But before this exploit of Claudia's the Romans admonished by the Sibyls books that by the best man of all the City they should send for the image out of Phrygia presently sent thither a man judged to be the best of those times Scipio Surnamed Nasica Son of Cn. Scipio who died General in Spain and Cousin Germain to that Scipio who abating the Carthaginian pride first bore the Surname of African Thus was the Goddess brought to Rome by the best of Men and Women But when the Brutians had intelligence that the Carthaginians in Africa had in several Battels been defeated by Scipio they seemed to be at strife who first should desert Hannibal and some of them slew the Punick Garrisons and others thrust them out of their Cities Those who could do neither privately sent Deputies to Rome to declare their good Will though they wanted Power Hannibal came with his Army to Petelia which City was given by him to the Brutians after having expelled the former inhabitants When therefore he expostulated with them that they had sent Deputies to Rome and they earnestly denied it he seemed to believe them but that he might prevent any occasion of suspicion he gave up their Great Men separately into the keeping of his Numidians and disarming the Citizens gave their Arms to the Slaves and to them committed the Charge of the City Nor did he deal less severely with other Cities to which he went in progress for the Thurini's goods he exhibited to his Soldiers Rapine and besides three thousand Citizens whom he knew great lovers of the Carthaginians and five hundred Country people he carried away and leaving the City under the guard of the Prefidionary Soldiers brought them all to Crotona which because of it's convenient Situation he chose both for his Granary and Seat of War But when by his Citizens who to hasten him sent for him Asdrubal their Admiral he was sent for to come home and bringrelief to his Country then in danger by Scipio's many victories he grievously complained of the Carthaginians who had always been ingrateful and perfidious to their Generals as he had sufficiently and for a long time experienced and because he had given the first beginning to this War in Spain he began to be apprehensive of himself Yet he resolved since 't was fit he obeyed to go and forthwith caused a great Number of Ships to be built Italy furnishing him abundantly with all Materials But before his departure he exposed all the Associate and subjected Cities whom now he looked upon as Enemies to the Spoil and Plunder of his Army that thereby enriching them he might by their kindness be secure from his Citizens Calumnies Yet ashamed himself against Faith and Equity to wrong in this manner the Associates he sent Asdrubal the Admiral under a feigned pretence of visiting the Garrisons to do it who going into every City and Commanding the Citizens and their Slaves to pack up what they could carry and march elsewhere he gave all that remained
same reason into Africa where by reason of the fertility of the Soyl a Colony was appointed to be established and Inhabitants expresly sent thither that the City being disburthened the Senate might in some measure be delivered from popular Seditions The Tribunes set out the place of their Habitation among the Ruins of Carthage without consideration that Scipio when he demolished it had decreed it to remain eternally desert with Imprecations against all those who should attempt to rebuild it They likewise made account to bring over six thousand Inhabitants more than were appointed by Ordinance of the Senate to gain so much the more the people's good grace From thence they returned to Rome with design to gather together from all parts of Italy those six thousand persons destined for Carthage But those who stayed in Africa to lay the first Foundations to that Colony having writ to the City that the Wolves had tore away the Mark set by the Tribunes the Augurs declared it Sacrilege to send Inhabitants thither and the Senate published an Assembly to consult of the Abrogation of the Law in what related to that Colony Whereupon Gracchus and Fulvius having likewise lost this hope ran like mad men through the Streets crying out that the Prodigy of the Wolves was a lye of the Senate's The most resolute of the people took their parts and armed they came to the Capitol where the Tribes were in Convocation to give their Votes touching the Colony After the people were assembled and Fulvius had begun to speak Gracchus who to that end had ordered his people to follow attempted to go up to the Temple of Iupiter but being hindred by those who knew he had some ill design he returned no more into the Assembly but retreated into the Porch waiting an opportunity to engage the adverse Party Mean while a certain man of the people called Attilius who sacrificed under the same Porch seeing him moved went to accost him and whether knowing any thing or having some suspition or else only by way of entertainment besought him to have compassion of his Country Whereupon seeming troubled as if he had been discovered and looking awry upon the man one of his followers without receiving any Command or staying for a Signal but judging by his Master's Countenance that it was time to strike and that by beginning first he would be the more obliged to him drew his Sword and run Attilius into the Belly Whereupon a great cry being raised when the dead body was seen upon the Pavement all the people were affrighted and every man fled from the Temple as fast as he could Gracchus went into the Assembly to give an account of this Action but when none would hear his Justification but all looked upon him as impious and irreligious Flaccus and he troubled to have lost the opportunity of executing their design went to their several Homes whither others of the same Faction retired to them The rest of the people as it happens in a publick Tumult being about midnight got together in Arms in the place Opimius one of the Consuls who was left in the City at break of day places Guards in the Capital gives order to call together the Senate and himself seizes on the Temple of Castor ano Pollux which stood in the heart of the City that he might be in readiness whatever should happen Things disposed in this order the Senate sent to summon Gracchus and Flaccus to come and give an account of their Actions but they having betaken themselves to Arms hastned to seize on the Mount Aventine hoping if they made themselves Masters of that place the Senate would not refuse some conditions of Peace They endeavoured likewise to raise the Slaves under promise of Liberty but in vain So they fortifyed themselves in Diana's Temple with those people they had from whence they sent Quintus the Son of Flaccus to the Senate to treat of an Accommodation Answer was given they should lay down their Arms and come themselves and then they should be heard but that upon any other terms they should send no more But Quintus again returning contrary to this Declaration made him by the Senate Opimius no more considering him as a Deputy commands him to be Arrested and at the same instant gave Order to march against Gracchus who fled over the wooden Bridge to the other side of Tiber into a certain Thicket followed only by one Slave to whom because he would not fall alive into his Enemies hands he presented his throat Flaccus escaped into a Shop of one of his Friends where his Pursuers lost him but because they knew not which House he was run into they threatned to burn the whole Street Whereupon he who had received him not having the heart to deliver him up himself gave notice to another who discovered him So he was taken and slain upon the place The two heads were brought to Opimius who paâ—ed for them their weight in Gold Their Houses were pillaged by the people and their Fellow-Confederates strangled in the Prison by the Consul's Order As for Quintus the Son of Flaccus they gave him leave to chuse his death After which the usual Ceremonies for purging the City polluted by these Massacres were performed and by Decree of the Senate the Temple of Concord was built in the place The second Sedition of the Gracchi ending in this manner soon after a Law was made by which it was permitted to any to sell their Lands contrary to the defence made by the elder Gracchus so that the Poor were soon thrust out by the Rich of all that they possessed in the Country either by Power or Money till such time as Spurius Borius absolutely abolished the Law of Lands leaving the Country in possession of the ancient Masters on condition of paying a Tribute to the People and the Money arising thereby to be divided by head which was a great comfort to the Poor and a Remedy against unpeopling the Country Thus Gracchus Laws very advantagious to the Commonwealth if they could have been executed being once shaken another Tribune of the People took off the Tribute so that there remained nothing to the poor People Hence proceeded it that the Country became depopulated Soldiers grew scarce the Revenue of the Roman People diminished Military Establishments were reduced the Laws lost their Authority ano Men ceased to do Justice And this was fifteen years after the Publication of the Law concerning Lands About the same time the Consul Scipio caused the Theatre begun by L. Cassius to be demolished though almost brought to perfection whether he thought it might breed new matter of Sedition or whether he thought it not for the Commonwealths good to accustom the People to the Grecians Voluptuousness And the Censor Q. Cecilius Metellus did all he could to expel Glaucia and Apuleius Saturninus who had been Tribune out of the Senate for their debauched life but his Colleague opposing it he could not
succeed in the Attempt For this reason Apuleius to revenge this Affront of Metellus once more demanded the Tribuneship and took the opportunity when Glaucia then Praetor presided in the Assembly Notwithstanding Nonius of Noble Race having with bloody Reproaches declaimed against Apuleius and Glaucia was designed Tribune But they fearing lest he having obtained that Dignity should handle them roughly broke up the Assembly and presently slipped after him a Troop of Murtherers who reached him as he was escaping into a certain House and slew him And because this Murther struck all the World both with horrour and compassion those of Glaucia's Faction being got very early in the morning about him in the place of the Assembly before the people were come gave the Tribuneship to Apuleius So no more Inquest was made after Nonius death none daring to accuse the Tribune of such a Riot Metellus was likewise sent into Banishment by a Cabal of his Enemies upheld by Marius now the sixth time Consul who bare him a private Grudge And this was the Trap they layd for him Apuleius made a Law touching the Division of Lands in the Province of the Gauls out of which Marius had lately driven the Cimbrians so that now it was under dependence of the Romans and not of the Gauls By this Law it was enacted that if the People passed it the Senate should approve it in ten days and by Oath oblige themselves to stand to it and whosoever would not swear to be expelled the Senate with twenty Talents Fine Thus an opportunity of Revenge presented of it self for there was not any likelihood that many of the Senators but especially Metellus Noble minded as he was would endure to be forced to swear Apuleius appointed a day of Assembly and mean time sent Messengers from himself to give notice to the Tribes in the Country in whom he had great confidence because the greater part of them had born Arms under Marius This Law which seemed made in favour of the Allies was not very pleasing to the Roman People So that no Order was kept in this Assembly and whosoever stood up against it was thrown headlong down by Apuleius Hereupon the People of the City began to cry out that they heard thunder as often as which happens it is Sacrilege to enact any thing But when Apuleius Party gave not yet over their Violences the Citizens trussing up their Gowns and seizing on the Arms of all they met dispersed the Country-men who notwithstanding being recalled by Apuleius Rallyed and returning to the Charge with Clubs likewise in their hands made such a bustle that at length the Law past That done Marius assembled the Senate to consult about the Oath demanded from the Senators and because he knew Metellus constant and steady in his Resolutions he spoke his opinion first and assured them he would never willingly swear Metellus did the like and the rest of the Senate praising both one and the other the Consul dismissed the Assembly but on the fifth day the time prescribed by the Law to swear on Marius having about ten of the Clock assembled the Senate in great haste told them he was afraid of the People eager for the Execution of the Law but that he had found a device to secure them That they ought to swear to that Law so far as it was legitimate with which the Country People whom they had most cause to apprehend being satisfied would be gone and then it would be very easie to make it appear to be no Law being published by force and whilst it thundred contrary to the Customs of their Ancestors And having thus said without staying to ask any one's opinion or so much as giving time to think of it whilst all kept silence through fear and surprize he rises up and goes to the Temple of Saturn where the Treasurers of the Exchequer were to swear them and first of all himself and Friends oblige themselves by Oath to the Observation of the Law All the rest of the Senators every one in fear for himself swore likewise save only Metellus who remained stedfast and fearless in his Resolution So Apuleius next morning caused in Usher to lay hold of him to make him go out of the Palace and when the other Tribunes of the People commanded the Usher to let him go he ran to the Country Men and told them they could have no Lands nor would the Law be of force unless Metellus were driven out of the City In so much that it was decreed in the Assembly of the people that he should be banished and that the Consuls should forbid him Fire and Water and they allowed one day to the Senate to consider of the matter The Citizens enraged at this Action assembled with Arms under their Gowns to conduct him through the City But he thanking them for their good will with all the Civilities imaginable told them he would never suffer his Country to run any hazard for his sake Then Apuleius published the Ordinance for his Banishment which Marius soon confirmed by Decree And thus this man esteemed by all the World went into Exile After this Apuleius was again nominated Tribune of the people for the third year and they chose for his Colleague one who most said was a Fugitive Slave and who boasted himself to be Son to the elder Gracchus for whom all the rabble gave their votes with much eagerness out of the respect they had to the said Gracchus After this was held an Assembly for the election of Consuls where Anthony by general consent of all the world was nominated to this Dignity 'T was not yet known who of Glaucia or Memmius that strove for it should be his Colleague but because Memmius was of much the better House Glaucia and Apuleius fearful he should carry it caused him to be set upon in the very assembly of the People by certain Murtherers who in the face of the whole world slew him with Clubs so that by reason of this disorder the Assembly broke up after having beheld the violation of all that respect due to the authority of the Laws to Justice to Men and to God On the morrow the people incensed with the horrour of the Action gathered together to punish it in the person of Apuleius but he assisted by great numbers of the Country people whom he had caused to come of purpose and taking along with him Glaucia and C. Sanfeius Quaestor went to seise the Capitol The Senate declares them Enemies and Marius with regret arms against them but so few people and so slowly that the people tired with his delays cut the Pipes which carried water to the Temple till Sanfeius no longer able to endure thirst gave advice to fire the Capitol but Glaucia and Apuleius out of the confidence they had in Marius yielded first and Sanfeius after them but when the people cryed out with one voice to put them presently to death the Consul shut them up in
the rest of his Forces by great journies arrived about noon at the Colline Gate and went and encamped near the Temple of Venus The Enemies were likewise encamped on the Skirts of the City so that though the Sun were declining the two Armies came to a Pitched Battel Sylla's Right Wing had the better of it but his Left Wing being over-born fled towards the Gates where the old men that were upon the Walls seeing that the Conquerors and Conquered ran pell-mell together let fall the Portcullis which by it's fall crushed in pieces many Soldiers and likewise some Senators Then the greater Party forced through fear and necessity turned head upon the Enemies and having continued the Fight all night cut in pieces a great number among whom were found Telâ—sinus and Albanus Their Camp was taken and Lamponius Lucanius Marcius Carinas and all those Officers of Carbo's side that escaped took their flight several ways The number of the dead on both sides was adjudged to amount to fifty thousand and that of the Prisoners more than eight thousand of which the greatest part being Samnites Sylla caused them all to be slain by his Bowmen On the morrow Marcius and Carinas being taken in their flight Sylla pardoned them not though his Fellow Citizens but causing their Heads to be cut off sent them to Lucretius to be carried about the Walls of Praeneste When the Besieged saw them and understood that all Carbo's Forces were lost that Norbanus was fled from Italy and in a word that the City it self was in Sylla's power they yielded up the place Marius run into a Mine to hide but there soon after slew himself His Head was carried to Sylla who set it up before the Tribunal for Orations with some Railleries about the Consuls Age who ought to have exercised himself at the Oar before he took the Helm Lucretius become Master of Praeneste found there many Senators some of which he caused to be slain others he put in Prison till Sylla coming upon the place put them likewise to death For the Soldiers he caused them to march into the Field unarmed and after having picked out some that had served him he divided the others into three Bands the Romans were set in one place the Samnites in another and the Praenestines in a third Then he caused the Romans to be told by Cryers that they had deserved death but however he pardoned them the rest were all slain only the Women and Children were saved and the City which was one of the richest of those times was plundered Praeneste being treated in this manner yet the City of Norba held out stoutly till such time as Emilius Lepidus getting in one night by Treason the Inhabitants mad with rage and despight found a way to die some by their own Swords others mutually killed each other others died by strangling and some after having shut fast the Doors of their houses set fire to them which inflamed by a suddain Wind at once devoured them and all that should have been the Soldiers Prey The taking of Norba put an end to this War which had been the occasion of so many miseries to both sides and by Fire and Sword to all Italy And now the better to secure the Victorious Party Sylla's Lieutenants went through all the Towns and placed Garrisons in such as were suspected and Pompey had Commission to go and pursue the Remainder of the War in Africa against Carbo and in Sicily against those still held his Party Sylla now become Master of Rome called an Assembly of the People where having spoken haughtily of his Actions and said a great many things to strike terror into the People he concluded his Discourse with saying he would make the people's condition better than it was so they would obey him but he would pardon none of his Enemies on the contrary there should be no Punishment nor Calamity which he would not make them undergo And since Scipio had broke his Word with him would likewise do all he could to destroy those had favoured the contrary Party without sparing Pretors Quaestors or Tribunes The Assembly was scarce broke up but he proscribed forty Senators and sixteen hundred Knights for it is said that he was the first Inventor of the Proscription of Heads and the first that proposed Rewards to Murderers and Discoverers of those Unfortunate Wretches that hid themselves and decreed Penalties against those who discovered them not Some time after he added likewise other Senators to the number of the Proscribed some of which were slain before they heard any thing of it in whatsoever place they were found in the Streets in their Houses in the Temples They hanged several whom they came and threw dead at Sylla's feet they dragged along others set their feet upon their Throats whilst at all these horrible Spectacles no one durst say a word Some they drove from the City despoiled others of their Goods And those sent into the Country to search for them that fled ran up and down every where searched in every hole and murdered as many as they could find The Allies who had obeyed the Orders of Carbo Norbanus or Marius or their Lieutenants fared no better all places were filled with Massacres Plundring and Banishment Throughout all Italy they set themselves to inform of these things as of greate crimes to be severely punished who had born Arms commanded Troops furnished Money or done any Service against Sylla though it were but giving Counsel to his Enemies so that Men accused their Hosts their Friends their Creditors and their Debtors Some were made criminal for only having given some relief to those of the contrary Faction and some for but travelling upon the Road with them But above all the rich Men were in greatest danger After the Accusations against particular Persons were over Sylla undertook to punish whole Bodies of People which he did in divers manners he demolished the Forts and rased the Walls of some layed great Fines upon others tormented others with cruel Exactions transplanted others to another Country that he might give their Lands to his Soldiers who had served him in the War to the end that they being planted in the most commodious places of Italy might reduce all people under his Obedience which fixed the Soldiery to his Interest for the whole Course of their life For they knew they could not maintain themselves in those Inheritances unless all that Sylla had done stood good and therefore were always ready to maintain his Authority even after his death Whilst these things passed in Italy Carbo who had escaped out of Africa into Sicily with many Persons of Quality was taken flying from thence to Corcyra by people sent after him by Pompey with Orders to kill all the rest without permitting them to see him but for Carbo though he had been three times Consul he suffered him to lie bound at his feet where after he had said a thousand cruel things he caused him
with all the Forces he could get together As for Lentulus after having given to the Conspirators every one his Quarter Cethegus and he agreed that as soon as they should have advice that Catiline was arrived at Fesulae they should go with Daggers under their Robes very early in the morning to Cicero's House where by reason of their Offices they might without difficulty get entrance and drawing him into a private place under pretence of some secret Conference stab him That at the same time Lucius Sextus should assemble the People and accuse Cicero that being fearful by Nature and suspitious without cause he unseasonably and to ill purpose troubled the City and that the night following with a Band of Conspirators they should set fire in twelve places pillage the City and kill all the honest people they met with Whilst Lentulus Cethegus Statilius and Cassius who were the Heads of the Conspiracy formed these Designs and waited only for Opportunity to execute them the Deputies of the Allobroges being come to Rome to complain of their Magistrates were drawn into this Conspiracy out of hopes they would cause the Gauls to rise against the Republick Lentidus being about to send them to Catiline accompanied with Vulturtius of Crotona who carried Letters without Superscription The Allobroges irresolute what they had to do discoursed the matter with Fabius Sanga Protector of their City for it is the custom of the Provincials that each Nation hath his Protector at Rome Cicero having received this advice from Sanga gave Order to arrest the Deputies as they were upon their Return and with them Vulturtius who being brought into full Senate confessed all that they had negotiated with Lentulus and attested that they had often heard him say that the Destinies had promised the Dominion of the City to three Cornelius's of which Cinna and Sylla had been the two first and he should be the third Hereupon the Senate degraded Lentulus of his Dignity of Senator and Cicero went to cause the Conspirators to be arrested whom having placed under sure Guards in the Praetors Houses he returned to the Senate to deliberate Mean while the knowledge of this Affair not being yet publick a great Tumult was raised about the Palace and all the Accomplices of the Conspirators took the Alarm in so much that the Slaves and Freed Men of Lentulus and Cethegus having raised a great number of Artisans used their endeavours to break open the Back Doors of the Praetors to take thence their Masters by force Which being told Cicero he came hastily out of the Senate and having placed Courts of Guard every where returns and presses the Senate to give their Judgments The first whose Advice was demanded was Sillanus designed Consul for it is the Custom to being to demand Opinions by those nominated to that Dignity because as I imagine the Execution of the Senate's Decrees regarding them they ought to utter their mind with more Circumspection and Prudence His Advice was the Conspirators should be punished with death in which many others followed him Nero speaking in his trun was of opinion they should for some time be kept Prisoners till Catiline was defeated and they more fully informed of the matter which was also the Opinion of C. Caesar who was in some kind suspected as if a Partner in their designs or at least to have had knowledge of them of which however the Consul spoke not a word not daring to cope with a Man so beloved of the People He added to Nero's advice that they should be distributed in the Cities of Italy such as Cicero should chuse and after the War was finished be called to Judgment for it was not reasonable to condemn Persons of that Quality without granting them a formal Tryal This seemed just and many returned to this Opinion till Cato openly declaring his suspition of Caesar and the Consul fearing that the night following a multitude of Conspirators which were now in the Palace and in fear for themselves should attempt some desperate Action brought back the greatest part of the Senators to the Opinion that the Conspirators being taken in a Flagrant Offence ought to suffer without being allowed the Formality of a Process In so much that before the Senate rose Cicero himself caused the Accused to be brought from the particular Houses where they were guarded to the Prison where without the knowledge of the People he caused the Sentence of death to be executed in his presence then going to the place attested to all the World they were no longer among the Living Hereupon the rest of the Conspirators dispersed every one contenting himself that he had escaped and the City was that day delivered from great Inquietude Catiline had already assembled twenty thousand men about the fourth part of which were armed with which he took his March towards Gaul where he hoped to compleat his Preparations But Anthony the other Consul overtaking him near the Alps defeated him without much pains for as he had laid this Design with little Prudence so he as imprudently managed it and was forced to fight before he was prepared Notwithstanding most true it is that neither Catiline nor any of those Persons of Quality with him would fly but were all slain fighting in the midst of their Enemies The death of Catiline was the end of this Conspiracy from which Cicero's Prudence secured the Commonwealth So that being before known only for his Eloquence he in this Occasion made himself famous for his Actions and no Person doubted but he had saved his Country from the Ruin wherewith it was threatned Wherefore publick thanks were given him and after many Acclamations Cato saluting him called him The Father of his Country Which is indeed an Appellation so glorious that Cicero having been the first to whom it was given for his Merit it is the Custom to this day to honour only such Emperors with it as are worthy For as soon as any come to the Monarchy they joyn not this Title with their other Sirnames nor is it granted but by a publick Decree and as a Testimony of accomplished Vertue As for Caesar being ready to go for Spain the Government of which he had obtained he was arrested by his Creditors whom he could not pay having dreined himself by Ambitious Expences and he was heard at that time to say that he wanted two Millions and five hundred Thousand Deniers to be worth nothing He agreed with them as well as he could and being entred into his Government he amused not himself to go from City to City to hear talk of Affairs or to administer Justice such things had no Correspondency with the Greatness of his Designs But he began to raise Soldiers and to make War with the rest of the People of Spain whom after having plundred their Territories he made Tributary to the Romans In so much that having sent a great Summ of Money to the Treasury the Senate granted
Head run upon a War against the Parthians as a thing easie and which would yield no less Glory than Profit But when he left the City to go towards it there happened a great many ill Presages The Tribunes of the People forbad him to go to make War against the Parthians from whom the People of Rome never received any Cause of Complaint And because he did not forbear at their defence they cursed him with publick Execrations in contempt of which having passed farther he perished in the Enemy's Country with all his Army together with a Son he had of the same name for of a hundred thousand Men he lead thither scarce ten thousand escaped into Syria But we have spoke of this Defeat in what we have already writ of the Affairs of Parthia The People about this time being oppressed with Famine gave to Pompey the Superintendence of Provisions and as he had done before in the Pyratick War so now he named twenty Senators for his Lieutenants in this Employ By sending of whom into the several Provinces he in a short time filled the City with great abundance of all things necessary to the Life of Man which much augmented his Glory and Power At the same time Iulia Pompey's Wife dyed great with Child and by her death left all the City in Alarm for fear left the Alliance between Caesar and Pompey being exterminate they should not e'er long take up Arms against each other for now for a long time there had been nothing but Disorder and Confusion in the Commonwealth No Dignities were attained to but by Factions or by Gifts or by Criminal Service and sometimes by blows of Stones and strokes of Swords No man was ashamed to buy Votes for the People sold them in open Assembly In short there was one who to obtain an Office in the Commonwealth spent eight hundred Talents Besides the yearly Consuls now made had no hopes to make War or to command Armies being excluded by the Management and Workings of the three sworn Friends III men enriched themselves with publick Moneys or by taking Bribes from those they designed for their Successor wherefore no honest Man would put in for an Office in so much that in this Disorder the Commonwealth was eight Months without Officers Pompey set his hand to all this that they might be obliged to chuse a Dictator and it was openly talked already in the Companies that there was no other Remedy for the Present Distempers than by giving the Sovereign Authority to some Person of Probity and Power This Discourse could mean no other than Pompey who commanded great Armies and seemed affectionate to the Publick Good respectful to the Senate modest prudent and desirable by all Men for his Courtesie whether true or feigned Pompey appeared by his words not to be at all rejoyced with the Opinion the Citizens had of him nay he seemed to be troubled at it but yet he did all that was possible secretly to advance the Execution of his Designs He fomented the Disorders of the Commonwealth by leaving it without Magistrates And though Milo who was now Tribune had served him in the reducing of Clodius yet he hindred him from demanding the Consulate still temporizing till Milo vexed to see himself so deceived left the City and retired to Lavinia the place of his Birth That City is reported to be the first built by Aeneas in Italy nineteen Miles from Rome As he was going Clodius on Horse-back was by chance returning out of the Country to the City they met about Bovilles and passed by without saluting each other but a Servant of Milo's whether he had received Command to do it or that of his own accord he would rid his Master of an Enemy fell upon Clodius and with his Sword cut him into the Head that he fell His Groom carried him into the next Inn whither Milo with all his Followers hasting to him in the uncertainty he was in whether he were yet dead or that there was some life left in him thrust him into the Belly protesting that what had before passed was without his order or consent but he willingly finished a Crime for which he knew he must answer The People astonished with the report of this Accident spent all that night in the place in Arms and when it was day the Body was brought before the Tribunal for Orations Soon after it was taken up by some Tribunes his Friends assisted by the Multitude Who whether it were to honour this Man of the Senatorian Order or to shame the Senate who by their negligence seemed to favour such Actions carried him into the Palace where some of the most violent of them breaking down the Benches made a Pile and setting fire to it burnt not only the Body but likewise the Palace and some Private Houses adjoyning As for Milo he still had so much boldness that the fear he stood in of being punished for such an Assassinate was much less than his indignation to see so much Honour payed to the Memory of Clodius Therefore taking in his Train great numbers of Country People together with his own Houshold And having gained the People by Largesses and corrupted M. Cecilius Tribune with Money he came to the City full of Confidence As soon as he appeared Cecilius arrested him in the midst of the Street and led him as it were by force into the place where those who had received his Presents were assembled under pretence of making him answer for his Action The Tribune seemed to be so enraged against him that he would not grant him any time to prepare himself for his Defence But indeed he pressed the business out of hopes that Milo being acquitted by this Judgment might not be obliged to answer before other Judges Milo having at first declared that this Death was not premeditated for had he any such design he would never have taken his Wife and whole Family along with him to execute it spent the rest of his time in Invectives against Clodius who he would have pass for a debauched Cast-away and the Head of those Debauchees who in burning his Body had burnt the Palace Before he had finished his Speech the other Tribunes of the People and the Citizens who had not been corrupted by his Presents came running into the place from whence Cecilius and Milo withdrew disguised like Slaves yet they failed not to make a great Slaughter making no distinction between Milo's Friends and others but charged indifferently on the Citizens and those that were none especially on those were best clad or had about them any rich Ornaments which they had a mind to for there being no Form of a Commonwealth in the first Tumult that happened every Man gave himself over to Rage and Passion And because in this Occasion numbers of Slaves had taken Arms against People that had none they set themselves to rob and run into Houses to see what they could catch under pretence
they designed Consuls for the approaching year Emilius Paulus and Clodius Marcellus Nephew to that Marcellus we were speaking of And the Dignity of the Tribune of the People was given to Curio a man in favour with the multitude and withal very eloquent These were three declared Enemies to Caesar of whom Clodius would never be drawn to his Party what ever money he offered him Paulus by means of fifteen hundred Talents was wrought upon so as not to be against him and Curio who was almost ruined with his debts gave himself wholly up to him for somewhat a greater sum Paulus with his money built a most magnificent Palace which is still to be seen called by his own name and is one of the most beautiful Works of the City Curio that he might not appear to pass all of a sudden to the contrary Party proposed a Law for the reparation of the High-ways of which he demanded a Commission for five years he had no thoughts of gaining it but only sought an occasion of Rupture with those of Pompey's Party who he knew would not fail to oppose it in which he was not deceived Clodius then spoke of sending Successors to Caesar because the time of his Commission was past whereupon Paulus kept silence Curio who seemed concerned for neither Party applauded Cladius's motions but he added that Pompey ought likewise to quit his Provinces and dismiss his Armies and thus the Common-wealth delivered from all fear would be in perfect liberty And when several alledged that not to be just Pompey's time not being expired Curio began to cry out aloud and proclaim to all that they ought not to send Successors to Caesar if Pompey did not likewise quit his Governments and that they being one jealous of another the City would never be in peace but by taking the command from both He said all these things because he knew Pompey would keep his Provinces and his Armies and perceived well that the people had an aversion for him because of the Law he had made against Largesses and Bribes wherefore the people who thought this opinion generous highly praised Curio who only for the defence of the publick liberty did not stick to oppose himself to the hatred of both of them so that sometimes they brought him to his House with universal applauses strewing Flowers in his way as he passed who like a couragious Wrestler durst engage in a Combat so hard and adventurous for nothing was accounted more daring than to oppose Pompey yet at this time he was not in the City being sick and gone to take the Country Air from whence he wrote to the Senate his Letter began with praising Caesar for his noble Actions then he proceeded to amplifie what he had done himself and that the third Consulate being offered him together with the Provinces and Armies he had not accepted of all these things only to settle a better order in the Common-wealth But said he what I have accepted almost against my will I will willingly resign to those that would resume them without expecting till the time limited by the Command be past This Letter was writ with much artifice to perswade all the world of Pompey's integrity and make Caesar at the same time odious who even after the time of his power expired would not lay down Arms. Being returned to the City he talked after the same manner nay promising at present to depose himself and saying that Caesar his Friend and Ally would not think it hard to do the like and that it was easie to believe that after long and laborious Wars against the most warlike people of the world and having so far extended the Dominion of his Country he would be content to pass the rest of his life in Honours in Sacrifices and in Repose of which he stood in need He said not all this but with design to hasten the sending Successors to Caesar whilst he contented himself to promise But Curio discovering his cunning told him it was not enough to make promises if they were not presently executed that Caesar ought not to disarm unless he disarmed also and that it was neither advantageous for him to foment private enmities By this authority nor for the Common-wealth that so great power should be in one man's hands whereas being divided between two one would curb the pride of the other if he attempted any thing against the Senate and People of Rome He pursued his Discourse declaming against Pompey saying that he aimed at Sowereign Power and if the fear of Caesar could not keep him within bounds of Duty he would never be kept in and therefore it was his advice that if they would not obey the authority of the Senate they should declare them both Enemies and raise Forces to make War upon them Curio deceived all the world by uttering this his judgment and quite cancelled the opinion that ever he had been corrupted by Caesar's Gift but Pompey grew angry and after having severely threatened him retired in discontent to a House he had in the Suburbs that the Senate began to enter into distrust both of the one and the other However they esteemed Pompey more affectionate to the publick good for they had not yet forgot the odious Consulate of Caesar. There were likewise some who seriously believed that the City could not be secure if Pompey first dismissed his Forces because his Rival puffed up with the success of his Arms was abroad extremely powerful Curia thwarted that opinion by saying that on the contrary they had need of Caesar to reduce the other But seeing they could not follow his advice he dismissed the Senate without any thing resolved on for the Tribunes of the People have power to do it which gave cause to Pompey to repent his having re-established the authority of the Tribunes which Sylla had almost utterly qualified Yet it was agreed in the Senate befor they parted that Pompey and Caesar should each send a Legin into Syria to defend that Province which might be invaded after the loss sustained in Parthia That being resolved on Pompey pursuing his old cunning sent to redemand of Caesar a Legion he had lent him when Triturins and Cotta his Lieutenants were defeated whereupon Caesar gave every Soldier two hundred and fifty Drachms and sent them to the City with another of his own but because danger appeared towards Syria they passed their Winter Quarters at Capua Those that led them sowed a great many ill reports of Caesar and assured Pompey that Caesar's Army tired with long labour and willing to see their Country would without any difficulty submit themselves to him so soon as he should pass the Alpes which they either said to deceive Pompey or out of ignorance for Caesar had none but good and faithful Soldiers whether it were that being accustomed to War they loved it or that led by interest they were fixed to him by those profits which ordinarily attend Victories together
with the liberality of their General Indeed he gave profusely to them to prepare them to the execution of his Designs of which they were not ignorant nor therefore became they less affectionate to him but Pompey giving credit to the reports brought him neither made any Levies of Men nor any other preparations capable to sustain so great a War To proceed when they next in Senate debated this Affair and that the Fathers spoke their opinion one after the other the Consul by a wile having demanded them apart if they were of the opinion to take away Pompey's Command many were of a contrary mind and after asking if they thought it convenient to send a Successor to Caesar they all agreed to it But Curio then asking anew if they would not that both should dismiss their Forces there was but two and twenty contradicted it and three hundred and seventy all affectionate to the publick good followed Curio's judgment whereupon the Consul dismissing the Assembly cryed out Well then take Caesar for your Master Soon after a false rumour coming that Caesar had passed the Alpes and was marching directly to the City all the World was allarm'd and the Consuls proposed to the Senate to send for the Legions were at Capua to employ against him as an Enemy of the State Whereupon Curio saying that the news was false the Consul grew angry and said Since in consulting of Affairs with all the Senate I am hindred from providing for the safety of the Common-welth I will provide alone according to the power which I have After which going out of the City with his Colleague and presenting a Sword to Pompey We order you said he my Colleague and I to march against Caesar and fight for your Country and to that purpose we give you that Army is at Capua or in any other place of Italy with power to raise Forces at your discretion He declared he would obey them because it was their command but adding withal these words If no better Expedient can be found Which he did craftily to perswade them of the sincerity of his intentions Though Curio had no farther power in the Administration of the Common-wealth a Tribune not being permitted to go out of the circuit of the Walls yet he deplored in all Assemblies of the People the present state of Affairs and was so bold as to demand is full Senate that all People should be forbid enrolling themselves in the Forces levyed by Pompey but seeing he laboured in vain and lost all hopes of being able to serve his Friend the time of his Tribuneship being almost past and likewise growing fearful for himself he departed on a sudden to go and find out Caesar who being lately returned from England had crossed that Gaul which is bounded by the Rhine and passed the Alpes with five thousand Foot and three hundred Horse He met him on the way to Revenna which is the Frontier of Italy and the last Town of his Government where he received Curio with all possible testimonies of good will and after having thanked him for the services he had done him desired his counsel in what he had to do Curio advised him to send as speedily as he could for his Forces and lead them to the City but Caesar chose rather first to try some way of Accommodation wherefore he writ to his Friends that they should endeavour to obtain of the Senate that he might only keep two Legions with the Government of the hither Gaul and Illyria till such time as he was named Consul and that he would deliver up to whoever they should send for Successor all the rest of the Province and all the remainder of his Forces Pompey was content with the proposition but because the Consuls opposed it Caesar writ to the Senate a Letter which Curio having rode three thousand and three hundred Furlongs in three days gave to the new Consuls as they entred the Palace the first day of the year In the beginning he spoke in advantageous terms of the great things that he had done then he protested that he was ready to quit his command so Pompey would do this same but if Pompey kept it he would keep it too and should suddenly be in the City to revenge the outrages done as well to him as to his Country When they heard these last words they all cryed out that he declared War by this Letter and immediately nominated for his Successor L. Domitius who departed soon after with four thousand Men new levied and because Anthony and Cassius Tribunes of the People were of Curio's mind the Senate grew so much the hotter against him and giving Pompey's Army the name of the Army of the Common-wealth declared that of Caesar Enemy to their Country And at last Marcellus and Lentulus Consuls ordered those Tribunes to go out of the Senate for fear lest without having regard to their Dignity though sacred they should be evilly treated Then Anthony leaping from his Seat in Choler invoked with great cries the faith of men and God and lamented that an authority which had hitherto been held sacred was no longer in security and that they shamefully drove from the Senate those who proposed saving advice as if they had been guilty of Murder or some other crime Afte having said these words he departed in a fury foretelling as if he had been a Divine the Wars Proscriptions Banishments and Confiscations wherewith the City was threatened and making horrible imprecations against those who were the cause of all their miseries Curio and Cassius withdrew likewise with him for Pompey's Soldiers were already come to environ the Palace and they departed all three together in the Habit of Slaves upon hired Horses and so got to Caesar. He shewed them in the condition they were to his Soldiers to enrage them the more telling them that after all their great services they were declared Enemies to their Country and that those great men had been shamefully driven out of the Senate because they had only said a word in their defence The War being thus declared on both sides the Senate who believed that the Army out of Gaul could not come in a long time to Caesar and that with so few Forces as he had he would not take the Field gave order to Pompey to send for out of Thessaly thirteen thousand Men that were of the old Soldiers and to enrol men in pay of the most warlike Nations circumadâ—acent with power to take money out of the Treasury to defray the expence of the War and in case the publick money should fail there were several private men would advance it till such time as it could be levyed upon the Cities of Italy which they laboured to do with much haste and rigour For Caesar's part he had sent people to bring his Army but being accustomed to succeed more by diligence striking a terrour and hardiness than any mighty preparations he resolved to begin this
Temple built a publick Hall for the Roman People not to use Traffick in but for the pleading of Causes and to render justice and learn how to render it in like manner as there are many in Persia and by the Goddess side he caused to be set up the Statue of Cleopatra which is to be seen to this day And lastly having taken the number of the people he found them one half less than they were at the beginning of the War so much had the Differences which had happened between these two Men weakened the Common-wealth For himself being made the fourth time Consul he undertook the Expedition of Spain against the young Pompey which was a Remain of the Civil War he had not reason to slight for all those people of Quality that had escaped out of Africa got thither and the Wracks of the Pharsalian and African Defeats were here assembled besides the assistance of the most warlike Nations of Spain and Celtiberia and a great number of Slaves that followed Pompey's Army who having been four years exercised to the War offered to serve him if he would try the fortune of a Battel This was the cause of Pompey's overthrow for that without delay he would go meet Caesar though the old Captains whom the Battels of Pharsalia and Africa had made wiser counselled him to prolong the War being the only means to ruine his Enemy who could not subsist in a Country where he had no conveniencies for Caesar was come in seven and twenty days counting from the day he left the City and with store of Baggage had performed a wonderful Journey Besides his Army never shewed less resolution out of the thoughts possessed them that they were to deal with a multitude of War-like Enemies and whom despair would make attempt any thing which was the reason Caesar made no haste to engage till Pompey provoking him to Battel reproached him with faintheartedness which not able to endure he drew up his Army in Battel before Cordona and that day he likewise gave Venus for his Word as Piety was that of Pompey's When the Armies were going to close Caesar seeing his Men go on but coldly and seem to be afraid invoked all the Gods beseeching them with hands lifted up to Heaven not to let the lustre of so many glorious Actions be darkened in one day and running through the Ranks encouraged his Soldiers taking off his Head-piece that he might be the better known But do what he could he could not raise their Spirits till snatching a Buckler out of a Soldiers hand he said to the Tribunes were about him This shall be the last day of my life and of your engagement to the War And at the same time made furiously towards the Enemy he had scarce advanced ten foot but he had above two hundred Darts thrown at him some of which he avoided by bending his Body and others received on his Buckler when the Tribunes run with emulation to get about him and the whole Army thereupon charging with all their fury they fought all day with divers advantage and at length towards the Evening the Victory fell to Caesar and 't is reported that hereupon he was heard say these words That he had often fought for Victory but that now he had fought for life After the Defeat Pompey's Men flying into Cordona Caesar to prevent their escape thither lest they should rally and renew the Fight caused the place to be invested by the Army where his Soldiers being so tired they could not work in the Circumvallation heaped up together the Bodies and Armour of the slain which they kept piled up with their javelins stuck into the ground and lay all night under that kind of Rampire Next Morning the City was taken Of Pompey's Captains Scapula getting up on a Pile of Wood burnt himself the Heads of Varus Labienus and other persons of Quality were brought to Caesar. As for Pompey he fled from the Battel with a hundred and fifty Horse bending his course towards Cartea where his Fleet lay he entred the Port in a Litter and in the habit of a private Man But seeing the Seamen had likewise lost all hopes he threw himself into a little Boat in which as he was going out to Sea his Foot tangling in the Cordage one of his people going to cut the Rope by mischance cut his Heel so that to cure his wound he was forced to go ashore at a small Village where hearing that Caesar's Horsemen were coming he took his flight through a Country covered with Thorns and Briars which added to his wound so that being tired and sitting down at last under a Tree he was found by those gave him chase and slain generously defending himself his Head was carried to Caesar who caused it to be buried Thus was this War ended by one only Fight contrary to the opinion of all the world Those who escaped from this Defeat went to Pompey's younger Brother sirnamed Sextus but he only made War like a Rover hiding himself and flying from place to place As for Caesar having now put an end to all the Civil Wars he returned to Rome more powerful and glorious than ever any had been before him wherefore all imaginable Honours were done him to gain his favour All the Tribes all the Nations and all the Kingdoms allyed and Friends to the Roman People made Sacrifices Shews and Offerings in every Temple and in every publick place his Statues were every where to be seen set up in divers fashions some adorned with Oaken Crowns as having saved his Country like those wherewith the Citizens formerly honoured those who saved their lives likewise by publick Decree they gave him the Titles of Father of his Country perpetual Dictator Consul for ten years and of Holy and Sacred and it was enacted that he should administer Justice seated on a Throne of Ivory or of Gold that he should wear the Triumphal Robe at Sacrifices that on those days whereon he had gained his principal Victories publick Feasts and Prayers should be made and that every five years the Priests and Vestals should offer up Vows for his safety that those who entred into office should swear not to oppose any of his Orders and in Honour of his Birth-day they changed the name of the Month which they called Quintilis and named it Iuly It was decreed likewise by an Act of the Senate that Temples should be built to him as to a God and among others one in common to him and Clemency where their Statues stood hand in hand Thus by publick Vows they requested his Clemency whose Dominion they stood in aw of some likewise there were who would have called him King but he forbid it with threats signifying his aversion for a name which could not but be unhappy after the execrations fulminated by the Ancients against that Dignity he likewise dismissed from about his person the Pretorian Cohorts of which he had made use during the War
is said he acknowledged to his Friends that Cassius had reason but yet he would favour Brutus so much he loved and honoured him for all men believed he was his Son because he visited Servilia Cato's Sister at the time she grew with Child of Brutus wherefore 't is likewise said that in the Battel of Pharsalia he gave express order to his Captains to have a great a care as possibly they could of Brutus's life However whether he were ingrateful or knew nothing of it or did not believe it or that he thought his Mother's incontinence a dishonouâ— whether love of liberty made him prefer his Country before his own Father or being of the ancient race of the Bruti who had expelled the Kings and now pricked forward by the reproaches of the people who on the Statues of the old Brutus and on this Praetor's Tribunal had secretly written such words as these Brutus thou sufferest thy self to be corrupted with gifts Brutus thou art dead would to God thou wert now alive either thy Successors degenerate or thou hast not begot them He I say young as he was chafed by these and such like things engaged himself in this Enterprize as an Act worthy his Predecessors The Discourses concerning the Royalty were not then quite extinct when just as they were going to the Senate Cassius took Brutus by the hand and said What shall we do if Caesar 's Flatterers propose to make him King To which Brutus answered that He would not be at the Senate Whereupon the other again demanded What if they summon â—s as Pretors what shall we do then my Friend I will said he defend my Country even till death Whereupon Cassius embracing him said And what Persons of Quality will you take for Companions in so brave an Attempt Do you think there are none but Tavern-People and Artificers that put Writings on your Tribunal Know that they are the Prime Men of the City who expect from other Pretors only Plays and Shews but require their Liberty from you as the Work of your Predecessors Thus they discovered to each other what they had long had in their thoughts and began to try their own Friends and some of Caesar's according as they knew them capable of good things They engaged in their Design the two Brothers Cecilius and Bucolianus Rubrius Rex Q. Ligarius M. Spurius Servilius Galba Sextius Naso Pontius Aquila And of Caesar's Friends they drew to their Conspiracy Decimus of whom I have already spoken Caius Casca Trebonius Attilius Cimber Minutius and Basillus When they thought they had Companions enough for it was not convenient to communicate this Design to all the World they gave their Words one to another without either Oath or Sacrifice and yet no one changed his mind or ever discovered the Plot. There was nothing now wanting but choice of time and place The time urged for within four days Caesar was to depart and take Guards For the place they thought the Palace most convenient for they concluded that all the Senators though they were not made privy to it yet seeing the Action would joyfully joyn with them which as it is said happened at the death of Romulus after having changed the Regal Power into Tyranny Wherefore this Attempt would have the same Success with that especially being not privily executed but in the Palace and for the Good of the Commonwealth That they needed not to fear any thing from Caesar's Army being all composed of Roman People in conclusion that the Authors of this great Action doing it publickly could expect nothing but Reward Having all decreed the Palace for the place of Execution there were divers Opinions concerning the manner of doing it some being of Opinion they should likewise make away Anthony Caesar's Colleague the most powerful of his Friends and well beloved of the Soldiery But Brutus opposed that saying That it was only by killing Caesar who was as a King that they ought to seek for the Glory of destroying Tyrants and that if they killed his Friends too Men would impute the Action to private Enmity and the Faction of Pompey This Advice prevailing they only expected the assembling of the Senate Now the day before Caesar being invited to sup with Lepidus carried along with him Decimus Brutus Albinus and during Supper the Question being proposed what Death was best for Man some desiring one kind and some another he alone preferred the suddainest and most unexpected Thus divining for himself they fell to discourse of the Morrows Affairs In the Morning finding himself somewhat out of Order with the Night's Debauch and his Wife Calphurnia having been frightned with dismal Dreams she advised him not to go abroad and in many Sacrifices he made there were none but affrightful Tokens He therefore gave order to Anthony to dismiss the Senate But Decimus Brutus perswading him that it was more convenient he went himself to avoid the Opinion might be conceived he did it out of Pride or Scorn he went to dismiss them himself coming to the Palace in his Litter There were at present Plays in Pompey's Theatre and almost all the Senators were at the Windows of the Neighbouring Houses as is the Custom in the time of Spectacles The same Morning the Pretors Brutus and Cassius gave Audience to those made Suit for it with great tranquillity in a Gallery before the Theatre But when they had heard what happened to Caesar in the Sacrifices and that therefore they deferred the Senate they were much troubled One of those that stood there having taken Casca by the hand told him You kept it close from me that am your Friend but Brutus has told me all Whereupon Casca pricked in Conscience began to tremble but the other continuing with a smile Where then will you raise the Money to come to the Edility Casca gave him an Account Brutus and Cassius themselves being talking together one of the Senators called Popilius Laena drawing them aside said I pray God what you have in your hearts may succeed happily but it is fit you make haste At which they were so surprized that they gave him no Answer At the same time that Caesar went to the Palace in his Litter one of his Domesticks who had understood something of the Conspiracy came to find Calphurnia but without saying any thing else to her but that he must speak with Caesar about Affairs of importance he stayed expecting his Return from the Senate because he did not know all the Particulars His Host of Gnidus called Artemidorus running to the Palace to give him notice of it came just at the moment of his being killed another as he sacrificed before the Gate of the Senate-House gave him a Note of all the Conspiracy but he going in without reading it it was after his death found in his hands As he came out of his Litter Laena the same who before had spoken to Cassius came to him and entertained him a long time in private
contradictory that the same People should love Liberty and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—mselves be corrupted with Gifts the last of which was much easier to be hoped for in a Commonwealth long since depraved for the Multitude of the City was mixed with all sorts of Strangers the Freed Men lived equal to the other Citizens the Slave was habited like his Master and except the Habit of the Senators one Fashion was used indifferently among all the rest Moreover because of the Corn distributed to the Poor in the City only all Loyterers Beggars and People unskilful in their Professions throughout all Italy flocked the Rome Besides there were great numbers of disbanded Soldiers who returned not as formerly every one to his Country but expecting to be sent to possess the Houses and Lands of others quartered together by Bands in Temples and Galleries under only one Colours and one Captain who was to be their Conductor to their Colony These People after having sold all that they had to be the lighter to march were ready to do any thing for Money So that the Conspirators had no great difficulty to gather together a multitude in the place But though they were payed for it they durst not praise the Action out of the respect they bore to the Glory of Caesar and the fear they stood in of the Contrary Party but as if they had in view the Publick Good they cryed out for Peace and demanded it of the Magistrates and by this means they laboured for the security of the Conspirators Peace not being to be had without an Act of Oblivion Thereupon Cinna allyed to Caesar and then Pretor joyns with them And advancing into the midst of them contrary to the expectation of all the World threw off his Praetor's Robe despising it as being given him by a Tyrant After which he began to declaim against Caesar calling him Tyrant and those who had slain him Tyrannicides highly praising their Action as parallel to what their Predecessors had done and at the same time commanding they should bring from the Capitol those brave People who had so well served the Commonwealth to the end to give them those Rewards they had merited But whatever Command Cinna gave this Troop seeing the People who had not been corrupted were not there would not let them be brought but contented themselves to continue their Cries in demanding Peace But when Dolobella a Young Man of great Reputation whom Caesar ready to depart had designed Consul for the rest of the Year being come with his Purple and the Badges of the Consulate and had spoke after Cinna violently and with indignation against the Author of his Dignity pleading hard for the Pardon of a Crime of which he said he would himself have been Partaker of and proposing as some say to consecrate that Day as the Day of the Foundation of their City Then this Assembly of Mercenary People took Courage seeing a Pretor and a Consul seemed to Authorize them and they sent to tell the Conspirators they should come down from the Temple They were glad to hear what Dolobella had done believing they had now at need found a Consul young vigorous and of a good Family to oppose against Anthony Yet only Cassius and Brutus came down the Hand of the last all bloody with a Wound he had received from the former when they stabbed Caesar. Being come to the Assembly neither one nor the other said any thing mean or low they praised each other for what they had done as if it had been an Action of Honour by consent of all the World They declared that upon it depended the Prosperity of the City which was this day made happy gave a glorious Testimony of the Prudence of Decimus Brutus who had very opportunely called to them the Gladiators exhorted the People to imitate their Predecessors who drove out their Kings that had not made themselves Kings by force as Caesar had but were lawfully elected and advised them to send for Pompey the Son of the great Pompey Defender of the Commonwealth against whom Caesar's Party yet made War in Spain and that they should order the Return of Caesetius and Marullus Tribunes of the People whom Caesar had interdicted their Offices and sent into Banishment where they still remained Having spoken to this purpose they again went up to the Capitol for they durst not confide in this Multitude But their Servants and Relations being already permitted to go and come to and from the Temple they chose some whom they deputed to Lepidus and Anthony to entreat them to make Peace to maintain Liberty and secure their Country from the Miseries attend on Discord To obtain this the Deputies praised not the Action for they durst not speaking to Caesar's Friends but they said that in their judgments it ought to be born with that those had done it were worthy of Pardon having undertaken it not out of any hate they bore him but love to their Country That the Condition of the City was deplorable if being almost depopulated by the Seditions wherewith it had a long time been afflicted they would not spare those few good Citizens left That it was extremely unjust to run the Commonwealth in hazard of utter Ruin for particular Enmities and that instead of laying hold of this Occasion to gratifie their Hatred they ought to sacrifice to the good of the Estate all the Offences they might possibly have received Anthony and Lepidus wanted not Will to revenge Caesar's death but they were fearful of the Kindred and Friends of the Conspirators and the Affection the Senate bore them and above all of Decimus Brutus who with an Army held the Neighbouring Gaul of which Caesar had given him the Government Wherefore they thought it more expedient to wait for a more favourable Opportunity and in the mean time try all ways they could to draw Decimus Army already well wearied to their Party So Anthony answered them in these Terms The Oration of Anthony IT is no particular Hate makes us act but only the blackness af the Action Besides having promised to Caesar upon Oath we would guard him or revenge all Attempts should be made against his Person Religion requires that those who are sullied with the Crime of his Death should be driven from among us and that we should rather live few and innocent than draw upon our selves a Curse by leaving this Attempt unpunished Notwithstanding since you desire it let us assemble in the Palace and what shall be resolved by a common Deliberation for the good of the City let it be executed Having made them this Answer they thanked them and returned with great hopes all things would succeed to their satisfaction for they promised themselves the Senate would heartily espouse their Interest But Anthony commanded to Magistrates to keep Watch by Night in the City and to take by turns their Seat in the Tribunal as in Broad Day having to that purpose given Orders to kindle Fires in
Gauls and Britains whilst with the extremest of infamy you treat him from whom they hold them What will the people of Rome what will all the people of Italy do will you not draw upon your won heads the hatred and indignation of men and gods if you condemn to that punishment him who has extended the bounds of your Empire from the Ocean to Nations before unknown Will not all the world say we are unjust Iudges if we decree rewards for those who in the Palace in a hallowed place in full Senate being Senators themselves murdered a Consul a sacred person and defame him who for his Virtue his very Enemies have in veneration wherefore let me counsel you not to think of these things which are neither just nor possible and as my opinion I declare it that we ought to ratifie all that Caesar has done and ordained and not approve the action of those who slew him for that is neither just nor reasonable and cannot be done with cancelling all he had done notwithstanding if you think good let their lives be saved out of pure grace for the sake of their Kindred and Friends upon condition they acknowledge the obligation After these words of Antonies there was great contest in the Senate and in the end it was agreed by the consent of all the Senatours that there should be no prosecution of Caesar's death and that all that he had done should be approved for the good of the Publick which words were added by the Conspirators Friends for their greater security Anthony himself not contradicting it as if he approved it rather for the common Quiet than out of Justice Hereupon those possessed of Charges began to demand mention should be made of them as well as of the publick interest and they confirmed in their Dignities to which Anthony likewise consented letting the Fathers know he did it for fear and to this Decree was added another concerning the Colonies The Senate being risen some gathered about L. Piso in whose hands Caesar had deposited his last Will and Testament to desire him not to produce it nor to make any publick Funerals lest that should occasion new Tumults which when they could not obtain they threatened to summon him to Judgment because he thereby frustrated the Publick of a great estate which ought to be brought to the Treasury and something they said concerning Tyranny whereupon Piso called out as loud as he could beseeching the Consuls to reassemble the Senate who were not yet separated and then he told them The Oration of Piso. THose who boast they have slain a Tyrant treat us like Tyrants themselves and we have many instead of one They forbid us the burying of a High Priest they threaten those entrusted with his Will they say his Goods ought to be confiscated as if he had been a Tyrant they would have what he has done ratified as far as it respects them but where it concerns himself they would disannul it and 't is not Brutus and Cassius who do this but those who stirred them up to commit this murder Do you consult concerning his Funerals and for his Will I will take care and never abuse the trust reposed in me unless some one kill me too These words raised a Tumult and Indignation especially in the minds of those who hoped to have some advantage to themselves by the Will It was therefore agreed the Will should be published and publick Funerals solemnized and so the Senate parted Brutus and Cassius understanding what had passed sent to invite the people to come up to the Capitol where a great multitude being assembled Brutus spoke in these terms The Oration of Brutus IF we speak to you now here who spoke to you yesterday in the place 't is not that we have taken refuge as in a Temple for we are not Criminals nor as in a Fortress we deliver our selves into your hands but what unlooked for happened to Cinna against all reason has forced us to retire and because our Enemies calumniously accuse us of having violated our Faith and troubled the Peace I shall be well pleased to plead our cause before you you I say with whom we hope for the future to confer about all the affairs of the Common-wealth After that Caesar upon his return from Gaul entred armed into his Country and Pompey who loved the Common-wealth had been treated as you all know and after a great multitude of good Citizens retired into Africa and Spain were perished the tyranny being established he would and not without reason for his own security have us swear to forget what was passed and if he would have constrained us to promise upon oath not only to blot out of our remembrance the injuries we had received but likewise to live under him in perpetual servitude what would not then those have done who sought our destruction But I believe for my part there is not true Roman who would not chuse rather to die an hundred times than oblige himself by oath to servitude If then Caesar attempted nothing against our liberty we are perjured but if he has left to us neither the disposition of Offices in the City nor of Governments of Provinces nor Command of Armies nor Colonies nor any other Honours but that Caesar alone disposed all these things without so much as speaking a word to the Senate or asking the consent of the people where is that liberty of which we had not so much as the hopes left for could we think he would be weary of our servitude or would imitate Sylla who after being revenged of his Enemies restored to you the administration of the Common-wealth he who undertaking so long an Expedition anticipated for five years the assembly for election of Magistrates What shall I say of the Tribunes of the people Caesctius and Marullus did he not shamefully drive away those Magistrates holy and inviolable The Laws and Oath of our Fathers permit not the Tribunes of the people to be brought to judgment so long as they are in Office but Caesar has judged them has banished them who then he or we have violated the reverence due to persons holy and sacred unless possibly Caesar was hallowed and inviolable he whom by violence after the oppression of his Country and the death of so many great Men we honoured with that Title and the power of the Tribunes be not hallowed and inviolable after that our Fathers when the Common-wealth was free voluntarily swore them so and pronounced execrations against their posterity if they violated it Whither was the wealth and riches of the Empire brought to whom did the Receivers give their Accounts who broke up the Treasury against our will who laid hands on a Fond never any before durst touch and who threatened a Tribune with death that opposed it But say they upon what Oaths can we be assured the peace now to be made shall not be violated I will answer them that if no person
Caesar in Spain in the Fight between him and young Pompey where seeing his Men went on trembling he advanced betwixt the two Armies received two hundred Darts on his Buckler till such time as Fear having given place to Shame all the Army ran in and secured him from the Danger Thus the first Entrails without the Chief threatned only Danger of Death but the Second were a certain Presage of Death it self Pythagoras the Divine after having sacrificed said to Appollodorus who feared Alexander and Ephestion that he need fear nothing for they both should shortly die Ephestion dying some time after Appollodorus doubting lest there might be some Conspiracy formed against the King gave him notice of the Prediction He only laughed at it and informing himself of Pythagoras what those Presages meant he told him it was a Sign of Death whereupon he again laughed praising Appollodorus's love and the Divine's freedom As for Caesar the last time he went to the Senate as we have said a little before the same Presage presenting he said smiling he had seen the like in Spain to which the Augur answering that he was then in danger but now the Sign was mortal he yielded in some measure to that Advice and offered another Sacrifice but tired with the length of the Ceremonies entred the Palace and perished There happened to Alexander the same thing for when he returned from the Indies to Babylon with his Army being come nigh the City the Chaldeans counselled him to defer his Entry to whom having given this Verse for Answer Who promises most Good 's the best Divine they besought him at least that he would not let his Army enter with their Faces to the West but would fetch a Compass that in entring they might see the Rising Sun and the City It is said he would have obeyed them in this but in marching about he met with a Marshy Ground which made him slight the second as well as the first Advice so that he entred the City with his Face to the West Some time after embarking upon the Euphrates and going down to the River Pallacota which receives the Euphrates and carries its Waters into Marshes and Pools which might happen to drown all Assyria he resolved to make a Dam and it is said that going down the River he laughed at the Chaldeans because he had gone into Babylon and come out of it again in a Boat without any harm But Death attended him at his Return from this Voyage Caesar's Raillery with the Augur who told him the Ides of March were fatal to him was much alike he answered him jearing the Ides were come and yet he was killed the same day So that herein there was great agreement between them both in the Presages they received from the Divines without being offended their Raillery and the Event of the Prediction They were likewise great Lovers of the Sciences as well of their own Country as Strangers Alexander conferred with the Brachmen who are esteemed the most subtil and sagacious of the Indians as the Magi are of the Persians Caesar did the like with the Egyptians when he re-established Cleopatra in her Kingdom which occasioned him when the Peace was made to reform many things amongst the Romans and that after the Example of the Egyptians he regulated the Year by the Course of the Sun which before was governed by the Moon and so till then were unequal by reason of the Intercalary Days It happened to him likewise that not one of those who conspired his Death escaped but were all punished as they deserved by his Son and as the Murderers of Philip were by Alexander but in what manner we shall relate in the following Books The End of the Second Book of the Civil Wars of Rome APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA HIS HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars OF ROME PART II. BOOK III. The Argument of this Book I. ANthony causes Amatius who gave himself out to be the Son of Marius to be sâ—ain which begets him the ill will of the People whereupon the Senate appoint him Guards II. Brutus and Cassius settle their Affairs and leave the City Dolobella and Anthony get the Governments of Syria and Macedonia to their prejudice III. Octavius adopted by Caesar comes to Rome and goes to visit Anthony IV. His Speech and Anthony's Answer V. Caesar finding Anthony not well disposed to him labours to gain the hearts of the People Dolobella goes into Syria and puts to death Trebonius VI. Caesar and Anthony reconciled by the mediation of the Soldiery VII Anthony having in prejudice of the reconciliation disobliged Caesar the Officers of his Guards declare their resentment of it VIII Anthony's Answer to them and the second reconciliation between him and Caesar. IX A third Breach between Caesar and Anthony four Macedonian Legions come to Brundusium for Anthony and Caesar raises Forces X. Anthony's four Legions mutiny against him and after being appeased two of them come over to Caesar. XI Preparations on one side and the other XII Anthony being tacitly declared Enemy Cicero gives reasons for it XIII Piso makes an Oration in favour of Anthony XIV Anthony declared Enemy and an Army decreed to Brutus and Cassius which discontents Caesar yet he lends a part of his Forces to the Consuls to help them to raise the Sâ—ege of Modena where Anthony had inclosed Decimus Brutus XV. After several Engagements before Modena Anthony raises his Siege and marches over the Alpes XVI Caesar will not see Decimus and Pansa at the point of death discovers to Caesar the Senates intention to ruine him XVII Cassius and Brutus grow powerful in Syria and Macedon XVIII Caesar does all he can to oblige Anthony to a reconciliation and in the mean time the Senate nominates Commissioners to call Anthony to account XIX Anthony joyns with Lepidus which terrifies the Senate XX. Caesar by his Soldiers demands the Consulate which being refused he marches towards Rome at which the Senate are so affrighted that they grant it him XXI The Senate repenting of their grant and preparing for defence Caesâ—r comes to Rome where he is well received and obtains the Consulate XXII Caesar being Consul condemns the Conspirators reconciles himself with Anthony and Decimus Brutus is slain in Gaul and his Head brought to Anthony CAesar the most worthy to reign of all men that ever had lived among the Romans being in this manner slain by his Enemies the People celebrated his Funerals But because all those who any way contributed to his dearh were punished we shall in this and the Book next following treat of the manner how the principal Heads of this Conspiracy perished and after that conclude the History of these Civil Wars Anthony having lost the good will of the Senate by ministring occasion to the people to violate the indemnity at Caesar's Funeral Pomp and being the cause of their running to set on fire the Houses of the Conspirators regained their good esteem by an action which had
How comes he then who had only designed it to be an Enemy to his Country whilst he that had really done it and does in a manner still hold us besieged is none Or why did not he come if he had designed it unless being at the Head of thirty thousand well disciplined Men he were afraid of three thousand disordered an disarmed which were then with Caesar and who were only come to reconcile them together and left him as soon as they knew he would employ them in a War Or if he durst not come with thirty thousand Men how happened he to come afterwards accompanied only with a thousand With whom when he went from Rome to Tivoli how many of us did attend him How many swore Fidelity to him without being required And what Applause did Cicero himself give him In short had he designed any thing against his Country why left he with us those Hostages yet at this Palace Gate his Mother his Wife and his Son who are at present weeping for fear not of the Accusations brought against him but of the power of his Enemies Thus much I thought convenient to make you understand the Innocence of Anthony and the Inconstancy of Cicero and have now nothing more to say but to exhort all good Men not to offend the People nor do Injustice to Anthony for fear of such trouble as may ensue to the City the Commonwealth being yet so weakly established that it is ready to relapse into its first disorders if not timely relieved However it is my opinion that we secure to our selves Forces for the Defence of the City before any Attempt be made upon us from abroad Then you may take order for such things as are necessary and decree what you judge convenient when it shall be in your power to put those Decrees in Execution But how is this to be done You need only leave to Anthony the Province given him by the People and after having recalled Decimus with his three Legions hither send him to Maccdon and keep his Army And if those two Legions revolted from Anthony have submitted to us as Cicero affirms let us withdraw them from Caesar and order their Return to the City Thus having five Legions at our dispose we may issue what Orders we think requisite without courting the grace or favour of any Man This I speak to those who listen to me without envy or hatred As for those who suffer themselves to be transported by their Passions and particular Animosities I exhort them not to give too rash Iudgment against Great Men and Commanders of great Armies lest we force them to make War upon us Let them remember Marcus Coriolanus or rather what so lately happened to us in the Person of Caesar who likewise commanded an Army He offered us reasonable Conditions yet we by rashly declaring him Enemy forced him indeed to become his Country's Foe Let them likewise consider the interest of the People who having been so lately enraged against Caesar's Murderers may well think themselves despised when we give those their Provinces and praising Decimus who would not submit to their Decree declare Anthony Enemy because he from them required the Government of Gaul In short I exhort all honest minded Men to reduce others to reason and do beseech the Consuls and Tribunes to appear more affectionate in providing against those Evils wherewith the Commonwealth is threatned Thus spake Piso for Anthony and doubtless his reproaching of Cicero and the terror he imprinted in Men's minds were the cause he was not declared Enemy However he could not prevail with them to leave him the Government of Gaul for the Kindred and Friends of the Conspirators prevented it They feared left Anthony being at Peace might reconcile himself with Caesar to revenge the death of his Father and therefore did all they could to foment their Division It was therefore decreed to offer him Macedon instead of Gaul and as for the other Orders of the Senate the Fathers either over-reached or designing it gave Commission to Cicero to put them in writing and send them to him He drew them up after his own fancy in these Terms That Anthony should forthwith raise his Siege before Modena foregoing Gaul to Decimus at a limited day repass the Rubicon which divides Gaul from Italy and submit himself to the Authority of the Senate Cicero sent these Commands in this spiteful manner to Anthony contrary to the Senate's intention Yet did he it not out of any particular hate but seemed dictated by Fortune which had determined to change the Face of the Republick and to ruin Cicero And this happened at the same time that the Remains of Trebonius Body were brought to the City and that the Senate understanding how infamously he had been treated forthwith declared Dolobella Enemy to his Country The Commissioners sent to Anthony ashamed to have brought him so insolent a Command delivered it into his hands without saying a word At sight of it he fell into a rage and uttered many violent expressions against the Senate but especially aginst Cicero That it amazed him that Caesar who had done such mighty Services for the Roman Empire should be esteemed a Tyrant and a King and that Men should not have the same opinion of Cicero who having been made Prisoner of War by Caesar and by him released without any dammage or affront preferred now his Murderers before his Friends He who hated Decimus whilst he was Caesar's Friend now he is become his Murderer favours the same Decimus who had received the Government of Gaul from the same Caesar and declares him Enemy who held it of the People The Oration of Anthony THe Senate having given me some Legions said he Cicero decrees Rewards to the Revolters and corrupts those stand firm in their duty whereby he wrongs not me so much as he does Military Discipline He granted the Amnesty to Murderer to which I consented for the sake of two Men I respected and declares Anthony and Dolobella Enemies for holding what has been granted them for no other reason is there And if I would quite Gaul I should no longer be either Enemy to my Country or Affector of Tyranny But I protest to overthrow that Indempnity with which they will not rest content Anthony having vented many such passionate things wrote in Answer to the Senate that he submitted to their Authority for the Affection he bore his Country But as for Cicero who had himself composed the Order sent him he answered him in these Terms The People having by their Decree given me the Government of Gaul have likewise given me leave if Decimus would not yield it up to force him to it and in his Person to punish all the rest of the Murderers and by his death purge the Senate of a Crime of which they are partakers because Cicero abets it Upon report made to the Senate of what Anthony had said and writ they at that very instant not
only declared him Enemy but his Army likewise if they immediately left him not And to Marcus Brutus they gave Macedonia and Illyria with the Forces yet remaining in those Provinces till such time as the Commonwealth were setled He had already a particular Army besides some Forces he had received from Apuleius He had likewise some Shipping as well Galleys as Vessels of Burthen about sixteen thousand Talents of Silver and a great quantity of Arms found at Demetriade where Caesar had long before layed up his Stores of which the Senate had by Decree given him the Disposition with power to employ what he judged necessary for the good of his Country They likewise conferred on Cassius the Government of Syria with Commission to make War upon Dolobella and Command to all the Provinces depending on the Roman Empire from the Ionian Sea to the East to obey the Orders of Brutus and Cassius Thus in a short time without much labour their Party grew prodigiously powerful This News coming to Caesar's ear strangely perplexed him He thought the Amnesty granted by the Fathers had some colour of humanity and compassion to their Relations and Peers in Dignity that those lesser Governments given them were only for their security And he observed that only to maintain Decimus in Gaul they accused Anthony of aspiring to the Tyranny and by the same invention engaged himself to take the contrary Party But when he saw they had declared Dolobella Enemy for destroying one of those who had slain his Father that they had given Brutus and Cassius absolute power in many great Provinces and several Armies with vast Summs of Money and power to raise more among all they commanded beyond the Ionian Sea he no longer doubted but it was their design to ruin Caesar's Party and re-â—stablish that of Pompey He likewise now plainly perceived that by their Cunning they had made the Young Man of him that they had given him a Statue with the Right of Precedency and Quality of a Pro-Pretor but that indeed they had stripped him of his Army for where the Consuls command together the Pretor is nothing In short that having only given Rewards to the Legions that deserted Anthony it was a scorn of the rest of his Army and in the conclusion the War must needs turn to his dishonour the Senate only serving their own ends upon him till they were rid of Anthony Upon these thoughts which he discovered to none he sacrificed as it is usual to do upon the Entrance into any Charge and that done spoke thus to his Army I believe Fellow Soldiers that it is from you I hold that Office which I this day receive and as the Effects of your former Offer for the Senate had not given it me but that you desired it Wherefore know that to you I owe the whole Obligation and will testifie it abundantly if the Gods favour my designs These obliging words he spoke to gain the Hearts of the Soldiery As for the Consuls Pansa went to raise Forces in some Corners of Italy and Hirtius came to Caesar to make Division of their Forces He had received private Orders from the Senate to demand for his Portion those two Legions that had deserted Anthony knowing them to be the most considerable part of the Army which Caesar yielding to after the Division made they went to take up their Winter Quarters together Towards the end of Winter Decimus being sorely oppressed with Famine Hirtius and Caesar marched suddainly to Modena to raise the Siege but finding Anthony too well intrenched they durst not attempt forcing the Lines till Pansa were come up to them There happened mean while some Horse-Skirmishes in which Anthony though much stronger in Cavalry got not much advantage by reason of the many Brooks that crossed the Country Affairs being in this posture at Modena Cicero because of the Consul's absence strove to gain the people of the City by frequent Assemblies making provision of Arms which the Artificers furnished gratis and raising Monies in the levying which he made Anthony's Friends pay excessive Contributions yet they payed them without grumbling for fear of exposing themselves to Calumny till such time as Pub. Ventidius who had been an Officer under Caesar and was now Anthony's Friend no longer able to endure the persecution went to Caesar's Colonies where he was known and raised two Legions for Anthony with which he marched towards the City designing to seise upon Cicero He put all into such a fright that many sent away their Wives and Children as if they had been in utter despair and Cicero himself retired which Ventidius having notice of advanced towards Modena to joyn with Anthony but his way being cut off by Hirtius and Caesar he turned into the Country of Picenum where he raised another Legion waiting to see which way Affairs would go Now Pansa drawing nigh to Modena Hirtius and Caesar sent Carsuleius to meet him with Caesar's Regiment of Guards and the Legions of Mars to secure his passage through the Straits Anthony had forbore to seise on them lest thereby he might put a stop to his great design which was to come to a Battel wherefore not expecting any great effects from his Horse in a Marshy Plain full of Ditches as soon as he had notice of Carsuleiu's March he placed two of his best Legions in ambush in the Marishes on each side of a narrow Causway over which the Enemies were to pass Carsuleius having crossed the Straits by night and in the Morning early the Legion of Mars with five Cohorts being entred upon the Causway on which there was not a Man stirring looking upon the Marishes on both sides of them they perceived the Bushes to wag which gave them some suspicion and soon after the brightness of the Shields and Helmets dazling their eyes they forthwith beheld Anthony's Regiment of Guards coming to charge them The Legionary Soldiers perceiving themselves surrounded so that they could not make their retreat obliged the new Soldiers to stand Spectators of the Fight without engaging lest their want of experience should breed disorder in the Bustle and to Anthony's Guards they opposed Caesar's for themselves they divided into two Bodies one commanded by Pansa the other by Carsuleius and thus parted went each into his side of the Marish so that in the two Marishes were fought two Battels so near that nothing but the Causway hindred the one from seeing what the other did besides the third which was fought by the Guards on the Causway it self Anthony's Soldiers burnt with a desire of revenging themselves on the Legions as Traytors and Runaways and the Martials were no less eager to have satisfaction for the injury they had done them in suffering their Companions to be put to death at Brundusium and knowing well that in them consisted the principal force of both Armies they hoped by this one Fight to put an end to the War The one Party were incited by the shame
Legions four whereof composed of experienced Soldiers were yet sick after the Famine they had undergone in Modena and six were newly levyed neither trained nor inured to hardship wherefore thinking it imprudence to bring them to action he resolved to retreat to Brutus in Macedon and took his March not by the Cisalpine Gaul but by Ravenna or Aquileia and yet at last because Caesar was to come into those Quarters he attempted a longer and more incommodious March by going over the Rhine to cross a Country inhabited by Barbarians The difficulty of this unknown way at first sight so affrighted his new Forces that they left him and submitted to Caesar and not long after the four old Legions went over to Anthony with all the rest of his Forces except only the French Horse designed for his Life Guard Reduced to this small number he gave license to all that had yet a mind to depart making them some present of Money and with three hundred Horse only came to the Banks of the Rhine but by reason of the difficulty of passing the River they by little and little forsook him except only ten with whom habited after the fashion of the Gauls and speaking their language he began again to travel and without fetching so great a compass took the Road to Aquileia where he thought he might pass unknown because of his slender Train In the way being taken by Thieves and bound he asked them how they called the Lord of that Country and when he understood it was Camillus for whom he had done some services he intreated them to carry him before him When Camillus saw him he received him with much civility before the People sharply reproving those that brought him bound that through ignorance they had affronted so great a Man but in private he gave advice to Anthony who had so much compassion of his fortune that he would not see him However he sent to Camillus for his Head which after having viewed he gave to some of his People to be buried Thus ended Decimus who had been General of the Horse to Caesar Governour of the Transalpine Gaul under him designed by him for Consul the year following and with it provided of the Government of the Cisalpine Gaul He was the second that perished for murdering Caesar. And about the same time Minutius Basilius who was likewise of the Conspiracy was slain by his Slaves for making some of them Eunuchs by way of punishment The End of the Third Book of the Civil Wars of Rome APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA HIS HISTORY OF THE Civil Wars OF ROME PART II. BOOK IV. The Argument of this Book I. THe Author's Design in this Book The Accommodation of Caesar Anthony and Lepidus II. Dismal Presages of future Miseriâ—â— Pedius begins the Proscriptions and Caesar Anthony and Lepidus are named Triumvirs III. A Copy of the Edict of Proscription IV. The general Cruelties committed in the Execution of it V. Many Particularities of such as suffered VI. The Triumph of Lepidus Proscription of the Women and Hortensia's Oration for her Sex VII Particulars of several escaped the Proscription VIII Defeat of Cornificius Lelius and Ventidius in Lybia by Sextus Caesar's Lieutenants IX Cassius besieges and takes Dolobella in Laodicea and does many other things in Syria X. Cassius about to besiege Rhodes Archelaus endeavours to disswade him XI Cassius answers him and besieges and takes Rhodes XII Brutus besieges the Xantiens and takes the City XIII After which Patara yields to him and Murcus who sides with him is besieged by Anthony near Brundusium XIV Sex Pompey coming into Sicily fights at Sea against Salvidienus with equal Advantage XV. Murcus and Domitius AEnobarbus sieze on the Passage of the Ionian Sea and Ciditius and Norbanus Lieutenants to Caesar and Anthony march by Land against Cassius and Brutus XVI Brutus and Cassius having drawn together their Army Cassius makes an Oration to them XVII Brutus and Cassius go and encamp near Philippi XVIII Anthony and Caesar encamp hard by them they engage Brutus gets the better but Cassius is worsted XIX The Death of Cassius Murcus and Aenobarbus defeat Domitius Calvinus XX. Brutus Speech to his Army to oblige them to temporize and Anthony's to encourage his to the Battel XXI Brutus's Army force him to fight XXII The Battel Brutus defeated XXIII The Death of Brutus Praises of Brutus and Cassius and End of this Book HAving in the former Book declared how two of Caesar's Murderers perished in their Governments to wit Trebonius in Asia and Decimus in Gaul in this we shall set forth how Brutus and Cassius the principal Authors of the Conspiracy were punished Men that were Masters of all the Provinces from Syria to Macedon who commanded mighty Armies both by Sea and Land having more than twenty Legions great number of Shipping and abundance of Money And this was done at a time when Proscriptiptions were dreadful at Rome and that as many proscribed Persons as could be found were miserably put to death So that the like had never been seen or known among all the Tumults and Wars of the Grecians nor yet among those of the Romans if you except the time of Sylla who was the first proscribed his Enemies for Marius only slew such as fell into his Hands whereas Sylla not only permitted any that would to slay those he had proscribed but proposed Rewards to the Murderers and decreed Punishments against any durst give succour to a proscribed Person But of all those things we have discoursed in writing what passed in the time of Marius and Sylla let us proceed to our order of History Caesar being reconciled to Anthony it was determined to have a Conference together The place designed for it was near Modena in a little flat Island of the River Labinia whither they came with each five Legions which taking their Stands on each side the River the two Generals accompanied only by three hundred Men each advanced to the Bridges that went over the Streams Lepidus who was before gone into the Island to see that there were no Ambuscade having made them the Signal by shewing his Coat-Armor they left all their Train at the Bridges and advancing on to the highest part of the Island they three sat down Caesar in the middle because of his Quality of Consul After two whole Days Conference they came to this Result That Caesar should for the rest of the Year quit the Consulate to Ventidius That to put a stop to the Civil Wars there should be created a new Office which Anthony Lepidus and Caesar should exercise joyntly for five Years with the same Power as the Consuls for they would not make use of the name of Dictator perhaps because of the Law Anthony had so lately made to abolish the Dictatorship That as soon as they had taken Possession of this new Dignity they should design for five Years the Annual Officers of the City That the Provinces should be parted among them Anthony
while secure till such time as his own Son having some doubt he was gone thither shewed the way to the Executioners of the Proscription In reward whereof the Triumvirs gave him his Father's Estate and the Office of Aedile but he enjoyed not either long for returning drunk from a Debauch upon some reviling words given to the Soldiers who had killed his Father they killed him too For Thoranius who was not Pretor but had been he was Father to a wretchless Youth who yet had a great deal of power over Anthony He therefore entreated the Centurions to delay his death but so long till his Son had begged him of the Triumvir To which they laughing answered He has already begged you but it is in another manner Which the Old Man hearing prayed them but to give him so much time as to see his Daughter and having seen her forbad her from pretending any thing to his Estate leâ—t her Brother should beg her likewise of Anthony The end of this wicked Son was no better than the others for after having consumed his Patrimony in all sorts of Debauchery he was accused of Theft and condemned to Banishment As for Cicero who had ruled in the Assemblies of the People after Caesar's death he was proscribed with his Son his Brother and all their Servants Clients and Friends He was embarked on a small Boat to make his Escape by Sea but not able to endure the tossing of the Waves he returned to a Meadow that belonged to him near Capua which upon occasion of writing this History I would needs see As he reposed himself and that those that sought him were not far off for of all the Proscripts Anthony caused him to be sought with most diligence a Flock of Crows flying over the place where he slept waked him with their Cries and began with their Beaks to pull the Covering from off him till his Slaves thinking it an Advertisement of the Gods returned him into his Litter and took their way towards the Sea through the thickest of the Forest. Presently after several Soldiers coming to that place one after another and demanding of those they met if they had not seen Cicero they all out of the compassion they had for him answered that he was embarked and was already a good way off at Sea But a Shoo-maker called Cerdo a Creature to Clodius formerly a mortal Enemy to Cicero having shewed the Centurion Laena followed but by a few Soldiers the way he had taken he presently pursued him Cicero was accompanied with more people disposed to defend him than Laena had with him to assault him Wherefore having overtaken him he made use of policy and began to cry out as if he had called to other Centurions behind him Come on Gentlemen come on Whereupon the people of the Proscript imagining that they were about to be over-pressed by numbers grew fearful and deserted him Then Laena though Cicero had formerly pleaded for him in a Cause wherein he overcame drew his Head out of the Litter and cut it or rather hewed it off at three blows so unhardy he was He likewise cut off the Hand wherewith he had writ the Orations accusing Anthony of Tyranny which after the example of Demosthenes he called the Philippicks And at the same instant dispatching away Expresses both by Sea and Land to carry this pleasing News to Anthony he himself followed them to Rome where finding Anthony in the place seated in the Tribunal he shewed him at a distance the Head and Hand of Cicero And he ravished with joy put a Crown upon the Centurion's Head and gave him for a Reward two hundred and fifty thousand Attick Drams as having freed him of the greatest of all his Enemies and from whom he had received the highest injuries His Head and Hand stood a long time for a Spectacle before the Tribunal where he used to make his Orations And more flocked now thither to see him than did before to hear him It is said likewise that Anthony at a Collation caused the Head to be set upon the Table that he might contemplate it more at leisure and satiate himself as we may so say with the view of it Thus was Cicero slain to this day in great Esteem for his Eloquence And who when he acted in the Quality of Consul had done signal Services to his Country yet after his death he was thus unworthily treated by his Enemies His Son was already escaped to Brutus in Greece but his Brother and Nephew were unhappily taken by the Soldiers The Father begged he might die before his Son and the Son requested he might die before his Father and they having promised to satisfie them both took them apart and slew them at the same instant But Egnatius and his Son embracing each other died together and their Heads being both struck off at one blow the two Bodies kept still their hold of each other Balbus designing to escape with his Son by Sea sent him before thinking that by not going together they would not so easily be known and himself soon after set forward to follow him at a distance but some one either out of malice or mistake having told him that his Son was taken he returned of his own accord to offer himself to the Excutioners and his Son perished by Ship-wrack So much did fortune contribute to the Calamities of these times Aruntius had a Son that could not resolve to fly without him yet at length he prevailed so far as to perswade him that being young he ought to survive him The Mother having been his Guide as far as the City Gates returned speedily to give Burial to her Husband whom they had slain And some days after hearing her Son was starved to death at Sea she slew her self Hitherto we have proposed Examples of good and evil Children As for Brothers Those two called Ligarii proscribed together lay hid in an Oven till such time as being betrayed by their Slaves one was slain at the same time and the other who slipped from the Executioners knowing his Brother was dead cast himself from the Bridge into the River Some Fisher-men that thought he fell in by mischance and not designedly came in to save him from which he defended himself some time by plunging himself to the bottom of the Water till such time as they pulling him out do what he could he told them You do not save me but lose your selves with a Proscript Yet say what he could they were resolved to save his Life But the Soldiers who had the Guard of the Bridge understanding he was a Proscript came in and cut off his Head Of two other Brothers one having cast himself headlong into the River his Slave after having sought the Body five days at length found it and in the condition he was being hardly to be known cut off his Head and carried it to the Tribune to have the Reward The other being hid in a Privy was betrayed
by another Slave and because the Soldiers vouchsafed not to go down they slew him with Javelins drew him out and in the condition he was cut off his Head without washing it Another seeing his Brother stopped ran in and without knowing that he likewise was proscribed cryed out Kill me first Whereupon the Centurion who knew the order of the Roll made answer You ask but reason for your Name does indeed stand in the Roll before his And therewith slew one after the other These are Examples of Brothers As for Wives Ligarius his Wife had hid him and went from time to time to see him attended only by one Maid who betraying him she followed those who carried away her Husband's Head crying out It is I that hid him the Concealers are condemned to the same Punishment And because no one would either kill or accuse her she went and discovered her self to the Magistrates who not judging her guilty for loving her Husband she starved her self to death I have spoke of her in this place because having in vain endeavoured to save her Husbands Life she would not survive him for as for those whose Conjugal Affection had better success we will reserve them to another place when we are to speak of those escaped Here therefore we shall now only relate Examples of such as made wretched Attempts upon the Lives of their Husbands among whom Septimius Wife shall have the first place It was a long time before that one of Anthony's Friends had abused her Husband's Bed But she desiring rather to be his Wife than his Mistress he prevailed so far by the Credit he had with Anthony that Septimius was found among the number of the Proscripts He was advertized of it by her own self And knowing nothing of the â—â—â—â—onour of his House disposed himself to Flight But she like a kind Wife shut the Doors and kept him very diligently till the Executioners came to rid her of him and the same day of her Husband's death espoused the other Salassius had escaped but out of a belief the danger diminished was so imprudent as to return by Night into the City In the mean time his House was sold and there remained in it of all his People none but the Porter who was comprized in the Sale So that he alone knowing him made him come into his Lodge promised to keep him close and to feed him the best he could He was no sooner entred but he sent for his Wife who was lodged elsewhere who professed a great passion to see her Husband but excusing her self upon the fear of the Night and the suspicion she had of the fidelity of her Servants she said she would not come till the Morrow As soon as it was Day she went to seek for Executioners and the Porter went to find her to desire her to come which was the occasion that Salassius missing the Porter began to fear some treachery and got up to the top of the House to expect the event whence beholding not the Porter but Soldiers coming under his Wife's Conduct he precipitated himself from top to bottom In like manner Fulvius having sought for refuge in the House of a certain Woman who having been his Slave and Concubine he made free and married for so many good turns she betrayed him jealous that he had espoused another woman But I have said enough of wicked Women Statius the Samnite who had performed many great Services for his Country in the War with the Allies After which by his worthy Actions Riches and Birth he was arrived to the Dignity of Roman Senator being proscribed at the age of fourscore Years only for his Riches caused his House to be ransacked by the People and his Slaves who carried away what they could the rest he himself threw into the Street and barring his Doors set fire to his House wherein he was burnt with a good part of the City Capito having half opened the Door of his House so that but one at a time could enter slew with his own hands many of the Soldiers till at last over-powred by numbers he was himself slain Vitulinus assembled about the Country of Regium great Forces composed of proscribed Persons and others who came to take Sanctuary under him together with the Inhabitants of those eighteen Cities destined for the Soldiers Reward after the Victory which made them desperate And with these took the Field where he cut in pieces all the Centurions he could meet with that were searching for Proscripts But the Triumvirs having sent greater Forces against them he without losing heart crossed over into Sicily where Pompey then commanded the Refuge of all such Proscripts as could escape out of Italy After which generously returning to renew this sort of War being defeated in several Engagements he embarked his Son with other Proscripts to send them before him to Messina but his own Boat scarce reaching the middle of the Straits till he was surrounded by Enemies he there honourably dyed Naso having been betrayed by a Freed-man by whom he had been abused snatched the Sword out of one of the Soldiers hand and after having slain the Traitor offered them his own Throat A certain faithful Slave had left his Master hid in a Sepulchre while he went to the Sea to hire a Boat His Return happened to be just at the instant that the Soldiers were murdering his Master to whom â—â—â—ing him ready to die he cryed out Stay a little my dear Master and at the same minute falling upon a Centurion slew him first and then himself saying Now Master you have some cause of Comfort Lucius having two Freed-men upon whose fidelity he relyed gave them his Money to carry to the Sea where he designed to embark but they running away with what they were intrusted with he returns and condemning himself to death delivers himself up to the Murderers Labienus who in the Proscription of Sylla had taken and destroyed many had been a Coward if he had not bravely born what he had made others suffer Wherefore coming out before the Gates of his House he sat him down in a Chair expecting some who would come and cut off his Head Cestius who lay concealed in a Country-house with faithful Slaves seeing armed Centurions daily pass by carrying of Heads could not longer endure to live in that continual fear but having commanded his Slaves to raise a Pile of Wood and set fire to it that they might tell those that passed they burnt the Body of Cestius threw himself into it in good earnest Apomius was in a place of Security But not able to accustom himself to such course Provisions as were brought him went out to seek his death Another publickly waiting for the Executioners because they came not soon enough strangled himself before all the People Lucius Father in Law of Asinius now Consul having escaped by Sea not able to endure the tossing of the Waves threw himself over-board Sisinius being
hundred Millions They thereupon in the Assembly acquainted the People with their Wants and proscribed fourteen hundred of the richest Women of the City to whom they commanded to come and declare what Riches they had to be employed in the Necessities of the State as the Triumvirs thought convenient and strictly forbidding all Concealments whatsoever or valuing things below their true Value under pain of Punishment with promise of a Reward to any that should inform of such an Omission whether Free Man or Slave The Women as soon as they had notice of it having resolved to become Suitors to the Kindred of the Triumvirs to solicite them in their behalf were favourably received by Caesar's Sister and Anthony's Mother but Fulvia his Wife shut the Gate against them They were so concerned at the Affront that they came in a Body to the Place and the People and Guards making way for them they advanced to the Tribunal of the Triumvirs where Hortensia before prepared to that purpose spoke to them in this manner in the name of all the rest The Oration of Hortensia BEing obliged to make to you our Remonstrances as we are Women we had recourse to your Women which surely was no more than what was decent But having received from Fulvia an affront which even Decency and Good Manners forbid her to put upon us we are forced to come hither to speak for our selves You have deprived us of our Fathers our Children our Husbands and our Brothers accused of the Crime of having offended you if after that you spoil us of our Goods you will reduce us to Extremities unbecoming our Birth our Quality and our Sex If you perhaps say we have offended you as well as the Men proscribe us in the same manner But if none of you have been declared Enemy by the Women if we have neither demolished your Houses nor defeated your Armies nor given your Dignities to others nor hindred you from being preferred to Honours and Magistracies why are we equally punished Why do you exact Contributions from us who pretend nothing to Dignities nor Honours nor Command of Armies nor Government of the State nor all those things for which you dispute among your selves with so much Heat and Obstinacy But it is because you have War you inflict this on us Was the World ever without War And were Women ever made contribute to it whom Nature dispenses with by the general Consent of all Nations upon Earth I know well that in the time of our Ancestors our Mothers derogating from the Privileges of their Sex contributed to the Expence of the War bâ—t it was but once and in a time when the Roman Empire and the City it self were in hazard of becoming a Prey to the Carthaginians This too they did voluntarily and sold not for it either their Lands or their Houses or their Ioyntures without which free Women cannot subsist They were content to contribute those Movables which only served for Ornament not to be employed for any certain Use nor after Rewards promised to those that accused them nor by constraint but as much as they pleased Should the Gauls or Parthians invade Italy and we be demanded to defend our Country we shall not be less generous than our Mothers but think not that we will contribute our Estates for Civil Wars and to maintain one against another In the War of Pompey nothing was demanded neither did Marius nor Cinna exact any thing from us no nor Sylla himself though he had oppressed that Common-wealth which you pretend to be the reestablishers of The Triumvirs were nettled at these words of Hortensia's and thinking it strange that where Men were silent Women should dare to speak and be so bold as to demand of the Magistrates an account of their Actions and refuse to contribute Money to a War to which Men payed their persons commanded the Ushers to make them withdraw from the Tribunal but the multitude beginning to cry out the Ushers stopped and the Triumvirs adjourned the business till the morrow As soon as it was day of fourteen hundred Proscripts they retrenched a thousand and only taxed four hundred and for the Men it was decreed that whoever had more than one hundred thousand Drams effective whether he was Citizen or Sojourner Freed Man or Priest of what Nation soever he was without excepting person should give in a Declaration of it of which the fifteenth penny should be taken at interest and one years Revenue towards the charge of the War under pain of punishment to the Transgressors and promise of reward to the Informers Whilst these Ordinances were published at Rome the Soldiers contemning their Officers committed greater disorders in the Country for the power and security of the Triumvirs depending upon them they demanded either the Houses Lands or confiscated Goods of the Proscripts others would have rich persons to adopt them others of their own Motion slew Men uncondemned or plundered the Houses of private men insomuch that the Triumvirs deputed one of the Consuls to chastise them but he durst not touch the Soldiers for fear of incensing them against himself only took occasion to hang a few Slaves who in Soldiers habit committed the same Violences After having related the miseries of the Proscripts I think it expedient to speak of those who escaped beyond their own hopes or came afterwards to Dignity in the City such Examples not being unprofitable to the Reader who from thence may learn not to lose courage in the worst of misfortunes A great part of these who could get out of Italy made their retreat to Brutus and Cassius and some to Cornificius who likewise stood for the People in Africa but the greatest part escaped into Sicily which is nigh unto Italy where Pompey took care to receive them and did in this unhappy occasion great services to these miserable People for in the first place he caused it to be published that whoever would make their retreat to him should be welcome and that he would give to those who saved a Proscript whether he were Freeman or Slave double the reward which the Triumvirs promised to the Murderers Then he appointed great numbers of Barques and other Vessels to go out and meet such as might be escaped to Sea and his Gallys continually cruised along the Coasts making Signals to all that passed and receiving all such as would embarque on them whom at their landing he in person received furnished them with Cloaths and Necessaries and to such as were worthy gave Command in his Army by Sea or Land and declared he would never come to an Accommodation with the Triumvirs unless those who had fled for refuge to him were comprised in it Thus he beneficially served his Country and besides the Glory derived from his Father made himself illustrious by his own Virtue Others that fled or hid themselves in Country Houses or in Sepulchres or in the City it self lived miserably and in perpetual fear till
at such a Lodging went and hired a wretched Chamber next to one hired by a Soldier where not able to endure to live in continual fear he passed from infinite terrour to prodigious boldness and causing himself to be shaved went and kept a School in Rome it self till such time as peace was made Volusius being proscribed whilst he was Aedile had a Friend Priest to the Goddess Isis who lent him a Linnen Robe that covered him to the very Heels so that passing through the Country in the habit of a Priest to that Goddess and every where performing the usual Ceremonies he escaped to Pompey Sittius a Native of Cales as he was very rich so he had been at great expence in the service of his Countrymen in acknowledging of which they took Arms in his defence threatened his Slaves with death if any ill happened to him and permitted not the Soldiers to approach their Walls till such time as the mischief diminishing they sent to the Triumvirs and obtained from them that he might stay in his own Country banished from any part of Italy So Sittius became the only person of all mankind that ever was in exile in his own Country Varro a Philosopher Historian Soldier and General of great Reputation was also proscribed possibly for being so as an Enemy to Monarchy All his Friends were at strife who should have the Honour to secure him Calenus carried it and kept him in a Country House of his where Anthony often divertised himself as he passed by yet none either of Varro's or Calenus's Slaves discovered him Virginius a fair spoken Man perswaded his Domesticks that if they slew him for a small gain which yet they were not sure of they would be afflicted with eternal remorse of conscience whereas on the contrary by saving his life they might expect immortal Glory and hope for rewards greater and more certain wherefore as if they had been one of his companions they followed him in his flight wherein being known by the Soldiers he talked to them in the same manner he told them that there was no hate between them for which they should kill him and that doing it only for Money they might get more and more honestly if they would go with him to the Sea side whither his Wife was to bring all he had They believed him and went along and indeed his Wife had been there according to agreement betwixt them but Virginius staying too long she believed that coming there before her he was embarqued and therefore embarqued to follow him yet leaving a Slave on the Shore to give Virginius notice if he were yet behind The Slave seeing Virginius coming ran to meet him and shewed him the Vessel wherein his Wife was not yet out of sight and withal talked to him of his Wife his Money and the reason why she left him The Soldiers were so absolutely perswaded that when Virginius entreated them either to stay till he could make his Wife return or to embarque with him to go after her and receive their Money they entred with him into the Vessel and themselves setting hand to the Oars brought him into Sicily where after having received what he had promised them they continued in his service till the time of the Peace Rebulus being in a Vessel that was to carry him for Sicily the Pilot began to demand Money of him threatning to discover him if he gave it him not to whom Rebulus made a like answer as Themistocles had done in his flight that he would have saved a Proscript for Money insomuch that the Pilot affrighted with the answer brought him speedily to Pompey Murcus was likewise proscribed because he had Command in Brutus's Army and being taken after Brutus was defeated he feigned himself a Slave Barbula bought him and because he saw him active gave him the Government of all his other Slaves and withal made him his Cash-keeper Murcus behaved himself in this Employment with more prudence than nature ordinarily gives to Slaves his Master hereupon had some suspicion of him and exhorting him to courage promised to secure him though he were one of the Proscripts which he constantly denyed telling him out of his own invention his Name his Family and his former Masters Barbula thereupon carried him to Rome thinking if he were one of the Proscripts he would be loath to go however he followed him but some time after as Barbula was before one of the Consul's Gates one of his Friends knowing Murcus in his Train in the Habit of a Slave gave him notice of it and he by the intercession of Agrippa desired his pardon of Caesar who caused him to be crazed out of the Roll of the Proscripts esteemed him afterwards as his Friend and employed him not long after in the Battel of Actium against Anthony Barbula served under Anthony and fortune had ordered each of them his turn for Barbula after Anthony's Defeat was taken prisoner feigning himself a Slave Murcus bought him as if he had not known him and gave advice of it to Caesar from whom he obtained power to return him like for like and this conformity of fortune between them continued ever for they were afterwards Colleagues in one of the highest Dignities of the City Some time after Lepidus reduced by Caesar to the condition of a private Man from a Sovereign that he was constrained by a like necessity to submit to Balbinus who escaping the Proscription returned with Pompey and was now Consul and thus it happened Maecenas had accused Lepidus the Son of a Conspiracy against Caesar together with the Mother as an Accomplice for Lepidus himself he deâ—pised as weak The Son being sent to Caesar then at Actium Maecenas caused it to be ordered that if the Mother would be dispensed with from the toil of the Journey she should give in such security as the Consul should approve but none being found would be bound for her Lepidus having often in vain presented himself before Balbinus's Gate and sometimes too before the Tribunal from whence the Officers had forced him to retire had scarce the liberty at last to say these words The accusers themselves are testimonies of my innocency by saying I am no Abettor with my Wife and Son 'T was not I proscribed you and at this day I am my self under the power of Proscribers wherefore let me beg you to consider the instability of humane things and to accept my security for my Wife or send me prisoner along with her Lepidus having thus spoke Balbinus moved at this great change discharged his Wife from the security demanded Cicero the Son of the Orator being sent into Greece by his Father who foresaw the miseries that afterwards happened retired first to Brutus and afterwards to Pompey and had both under one and the other very honourable Employments in the War At last Caesar to make it appear he had not consented to his Father's death made his Son first Pontifex or High Priest some
these words the Old Man let not go his Hand but wet it with his tears which Cassius could not see without blushing and yet at last he made this Answer Cassius's Answer to Archelaus IF you disswaded not the Rhodians from affronting me you have affronted me your self and if you told them your thoughts because they did not believe you I will revenge you Now it is manifest they have affronted me first in refusing that Assistance I demanded in which they have despised me Me that have been bred and educated in their City Secondly In preferring Dolobella before me who was neither fed nor bred there And what is yet more odious whilst Brutus and I and all the rest of the Senators that fly from Tyranny labour as you see to restore our Country to Liberty and that Dolobella and others whose Party you favour oppress it You Gentlemen of Rhodes that are such mighty Lovers of Liberty you make a pretence that you will not concern your selves in our Civil Wars though this be no Civil War since we pretend not to the Sovereignty It is a declared War against Tyrants and the Republick demands your Assistance you decline it by desiring to be left in Liberty under colour that you have Alliance with the Romans and yet have no compassion for so many Romans unjustly condemned to death and proscribed with Confiscation of their Goods feigning that you expect the Orders of the Senate now so oppressed that it is in no power of defending it self Yet it is a long time since you received those Orders by Decree commanding all the Oriental Provinces to obey Brutus and I. As for you Archelaus you set a great value upon the Services the Rhodians have done us in the increase of our Empire and of which you have received ample Recompence But you say nothing to what you owe to our Assistance now that we fight for Liberty and the Safety of our Country though the Dorians had we never had any Commerce together ought to gain the Romans Friendship defend from Oppression the Roman Commonwealth If without considering any of these Reasons you stand upon the terms of Alliance made between us by Julius Caesar the Founder of the Tyranny it expresly says that the People of Rome and the People of Rhodes shall assist one the other in necessity Assist therefore the Romans in the Extremity wherein they now are Cassius summons you to it according to the terms of the Treaty He is a Roman and Commander over the Romans authorized by Decree which commands all the People of the East to receive his Orders Brutus requires the Execution of the same Decree and Pompey too appointed by the Senate to the Superintendence of Sea Affairs Add to these the Prayers of all the Senators who are escaped part to Brutus and me and part to Pompey though by the Treaty the Rhodians are to help any single Roman that calls to them for Aid But if you take not us either for Pretors or so much as for Romans but treat us like Strangers or Fugitives or as the Tyrants call us for condemned Men you have indeed no Alliance with us but with the People of Rome But we Strangers that are not comprehended in this Treaty will make War upon you till you pay us an absolute Submission After this Answer Cassius dismissed Archelaus with much Civility And after his Return Alexander and Mnaseus the Commanders of the Rhodians went to Myndus with their three and thirty Ships to out-brave Cassius and it may be too they had some hopes of Victory the remembrance how they dealt with Mithridates near this place begetting thoughts in them that they might now likewise come off with success The first day they were satisfied with shewing their skill at the Oar and so returned to Gnidus The next day they came again resolved to fall upon Cassius Fleet The Romans wondring at their boldness weighed and went to meet them and now they fought bravely on both sides The Rhodians by nimble rowing hither and thither with their lighter Vessels charged the Romans sometimes in the Bow and sometimes on the Broad-side but when the Romans â—ould grapple with them they fought with them hand to hand as if upon firm Ground At last Cassius having a greater number of Ships than the Enemy surrounded them in that manner that they could no more turn about in that nimble manner as before but if charging the Romans a Head they went presently off again they must needs come to dammage being closely blocked up And the Rhodian Prows not being able to pierce the strong built Roman Ships whereas the Roman gave shrewd shocks whenever they joyned Board and Board to the lighter Rhodians So that at last they had three Ships taken with all their Gang and two sunk the rest escaped to Rhodes but in an ill condition and the Romans retreated to Myndus where they refitted several of their Ships that had come to dammage Such was the Success of the Sea-fight between the Romans and Rhodians near Myndus where Cassius was not in person but beheld it from the top of a Hill After he had refitted his Ships he came to Loryma a Fort standing upon the Continent but by the Sea side and belonging to the Rhodians From hence he transported his Land Army commanded by Fanius and Lentulus upon Ships of Burthen into the Island and himself with fourscore Galleys went and anchored near the City besieged now by Sea and Land where he for some time remained without doing any thing in hopes the Enemy would submit But they charged him as fiercely as at first and again with the loss of two Ships found themselves invested on all sides The Walls were immediately lined round with Soldiers to defend themselves from Fanius who at the same time stormed the City by Land and from Cassius who approached with his Fleet and all things necessry for an Attack For foreseeing he should stand in need of them he had brought along Towers of Wood ready framed which were soon set together and mounted Thus Rhodes after the ill success of two Fights was beleagured by Sea and Land unprepared to sustain a Storm as is usual in unexpected Surprizes so that in all likelihood the Enemy would in a short time become Master of it either by Force or Famine The most prudent of the Inhabitants had no doubt of it and were already capitulating with Fanius and Lentulus when they were all astonished to see Cassius with the choicest of his Forces in the midst of the City without perceiving any Violence or that he had made use of any Scaling Ladders Many thought and not without reason that some of his Friends in the City had opened him the Wickets to save it from Plunder or before it should be forced yield for want of Provisions Rhodes being thus taken Cassius seated himself in a Tribunal upon which was fixed a Spear as if he had taken the City by Force and having drawn up
raised Perches Forks and other pieces of Timber against the Walls to serve instead of Ladders others fastned Iron Hooks upon Ropes cast them over the Battlements and when they catched hold climbed up by help of the Rope The Oenandes Neighbours and Enemies to the Xanthians and therefore now serving under Brutus began to scramble up the Rocks and Precipices where the Romans with much pain followed them and though many tumbled back yet some gained the Wall and opened a little Gate before which was a Palisade of very sharp Stakes over which some of the bravest assisted by those already within passed So that now being a considerable number they attempted to break open a great Gate which was not on the inside lined with Bars of Iron to which effect those without laboured likewise The Xanthians were at the same time fighting with those shut up in the Temple of Sarpedon who made a great noise which made those who both within and without were endeavouring to break open the Gate to make one great push for all which effecting their business they about Sun-set entred pell mell into the Town shouting out as loud as they could that those in the Temple might hear them The City being taken the Inhabitants retreated to their Houses where they slew all those they loved best who of themselves came to offer themselves up to death Brutus hearing the cries and groans which this fury caused throughout the City thought the Soldiers had been plundering and by Proclamation forbad it Bnt when he understood the true cause he had compassion of People so fond of their Liberty and sent to offer them Composition but they with Darts and Arrows drove back those that came to speak with them and after having slain all their Domesticks and layd their Bodies upon Piles they set them on fire and then slaying themselves they burnt with the rest Brutus preserved from the flame all the Temples he could and took Prisoners only a few Slaves and about one hundred and fiftyâ— Virgins and Women who had no Men to kill them And this was the third time the Xanthians were destroyed for defence of their Liberty for being being besieged by Harpalus the Median Lieutenant to Cyrus they chose rather to die than yield and their City served them for a common Tomb which Harpalus put not himself to the trouble to hinder And under Alexander the Son of Philip they fell under the like misfortune refusing to submit to that Conqueror of so many Nations From Panthus Brutus went down to Patara which seemed to be the Port of the Xanthians invested the City summoned the Inhabitants to surrender under the penalty of being treated like their Neighbours And the better to perswade them brought before them Prisoners of Xanthus who making a Recital of their Misery exhorted them to be wiser The Patarans making no Answer Brutus gave them the rest of that day to consider of it and retreated The next morning he returned before the place when the Inhabitants cryed out from the Walls that they were ready to follow his Orders and opened to him the Gates Being entred he neither put to death nor banished Person but caused be brought to him all the Publick Mony of the City and commanded likewise every particular person to bring in what he had under the same Penalties and the same Rewards as Cassius after the taking of Rhodes had decreed to the Concealers and Informers which was exercised so punctually that there was not a Concealer save one who was accused by his Slave After this Traytor had shewed to the Centurion that was sent the place where the Mony was hid as they carried away all the Family before Brutus the Master said not a word but his Mother followed crying out to save his life that it was she that had hid it Upon which the Slave without being asked saying that the Mother lyed for that it was her Son himself had hid it Brutus praising the Son's silence and the Mother's affection to her Son sent them away with their Mony without any Punishment but for the Slave that would have destroyed both Master and Mistress he caused him to be hanged At the same time Lentulus sent to Andriac which is a Port of the Myrians broke the Chain which crossed over the Port went up to Mira which was surrendred to him by the Inhabitants and after having taken their Mony as was done at Patara returned to Brutus whither came the Lycian Deputies promising him to serve him and assist him to the utmost of their power He imposed on them a certain Tribute sent back to Xanthus all the Free People gave order to the Lycian People to meet him at Abydos whither having sent his own Ships he marched himself by Land there to wait for Cassius who was to come from Ionia that they might together pass over to Sestos Mean while Murcus who had posted himself about Peloponnesus with design to engage Queen Cleopatra's Fleet if she passed that way understanding that she had been driven by Storms upon the Coasts of Lybia and that some of her Wracks were brought as far as Lacedemon she her self being surprized by Sickness being forced to make her Retreat into Egypt he that he might not lose time and do nothing with so great a number of Ships crossed over to Brundusium where he seized upon the Island that makes a part of the Harbor from whence he hindred the Remainder of the Enemy's from being transported over into Macedon or Provisions to be carried to those were there But Anthony besieged him with those few long Ships he had raising to this purpose Towers upon Rafts of Timber whilst he made his Companies one after another go aboard the Ships of Burthen and taking the opportunity of the Wind off Shore for fear of being surprized in their passage by Murcus Fleet put out to Sea Yet he found that this Seige would prove very painful wherefore he called Caesar to his Assistance who was now fighting with Pompey on the Sicilian Sea for Sicily it self But it is necessary that I say something of this Pompey the youngest of the Children of the great Pompey After that his Brother was killed in Spain Caesar despised him as a young Man unexperienced and incapable of attempting any great matter and indeed he was retreated towards the Ocean at the Head of a few Highway-Men with whom he rambled the Country not known to be Pompey But at last a greater number of Vagabonds joyning with him seeing himself Commander of pretty considerable Forces and declaring himself for Pompey's Son all the Soldiers who had served under his Father or under his Brother and had neither Employ nor certain Residence came to him as to their General Arabion likewise came from Africa after having been expelled his Father's Estates as we have heretofore said The name of Pompey soon spread it self through all Spain the greatest of the Roman Provinces And he shewed himself sometimes in one place
thousand Horse These were the Forces Brutus and Cassius had at the Black Gulf and with which they fought the Battel the remainder of their Forces being employed upon other Affairs The Army being here purged with the usual Ceremonies they payed what they had promised to those who had not yet received it for they had taken a course not to want Money because indeed they stood in need of it to gain by force of gifts the hearts of the Soldiers and especially of the Veterans who had born Arms under C. Caesar for fear left at the fight or name of his Son they should change their minds Besides they thought it convenient the Army should be spoke too and at the same time caused to be erected a great Tribunal whereon the Generals with the Senators only being mounted and all the Army as well their own Forces as the Auxiliaries drawn round about them they took great delight to view one another The Commanders began to take heart and to hope well in the great number of their Soldiers and the Soldiers began to grow in love with their Commanders for there is nothing unites hearts so much as common hopes Now because there was a great noise made by so vast a multitude silence was commanded by sound of the Trumpet and then Cassius who was the elder of the two advancing somewhat out of his place spoke in this manner The Oration of Cassius THat danger which is common to us Fellow Soldiers obliges us to be faithful one to another besides that you are farther engaged by receiving the Donative we had promised you which ought to beget a belief in you that we will keep our words with you for the future and you ought to hope for a happy success of this War from your own valour from our Conduct and from the Generosity of these great Men of the Senate whom you see here sitting We have as you well know great store of Munitions Provisions Arms Money Ships and many Provinces and Kingdoms which declare for us Wherefore we need not make use of words to exhort to resolution and concord those whom common defence and interest obliges As for the Calumnies which our two Enemies cast upon us you know them and 't is that knowledge binds you so firmly to our Party yet I shall be well content to give you this day an account of our Actions that you may the more clearly understand never was any War more honest and just than this we are now going upon By serving with you under Caesar in many Wars in some of which we likewise commanded we contributed to his Greatness and therefore were always his Friends that no Man may think we attempted his life out of any particular grudge Peace being made as he was Criminal he ought to have been accused not by us who were his Friends and whom he had raised to Honours in the City but by the Laws and by the Common-wealth but because neither the Laws nor the Determinations of the Senate nor the Decrees of the People were now any more of any account but he had thrown down all those things instituted by our Forefathers when they expelled Kings and swore never again to suffer the Regal Power we being their Successors have prevented the violation of their Oath we have diverted from our selves and cast off from our own Heads those imprecations they pronounced by not suffering one Man though so much our Friend and Benefactor to be longer Master of the Treasures and Forces of the Republick or have the dispose of all Dignities and Governments to the shame of the Senate and Roman People or in short change the Laws according to his fancy usurping over the People and Senate and absolute power and Sovereign Authority possibly in those times you did not make sufficient reflections on these things but regarded only in him the quality of Generalissimo But now you may better understand what I say by what particularly concerns you you are of the People during War you obey your General and in Peace have the right of giving your vote The Senate first deliberates all matters that you may not be deceived but it is you who in your Assemblies either by Tribes or Centuries create Consuls Tribunes of the People Pretors who give Sovereign Sentences and decree to us either Rewards or Punishments according as we have well or ill behaved our selves in our Charges Thus for giving to every Man according to his desert our Empire owes to you its felicity and when you distribute honours to those deserve them they have likewise to you a particular obligation 'T was by this very power you made Scipio Consul to whom in testimony of his valour you gave the sirname of African by this you created annual Tribunes of the People who had power to oppose the Senate when it was necessary for your advantage But what need I relate things your selves so well know Since Caesar made himself Master of the Common-wealth you have not by your Votes nominated any Magistrate neither Pretor nor Consul nor Tribune of the People you have given no person a testimonial of his Virtue nor have had the power to grant him any reward In short no person is obliged to you neither for his Government nor for Judgment given in his behalf and what is yet more worthy of compassion you have not been able to secure from outrage the Tribunes of the People who are your particular Magistrates and whom by your Decree you have declared sacred and inviolable But those inviolable persons you have beheld infamously degraded from a sacred Dignity devested of a sacred Habit without any legal trial by the command of a single person and that for maintaining your rights and declaring their indignation against those who would have given him the Title of King The Senate suffered it with regret for your sakes only for the Office of Tribune belongs to the People and not to the Senate But not having the power to accuse or bring to judgment this Man because of the great Armies whereof he made himself Master to the prejudice of the Roman People to whom they belonged we applyed the only remedy left for the chasing away the Tyranny by conspiring all together against his person for it was requisite this Affair should be assented to by all honest Men though it were executed but by a few And immediately after the Action the Senate declared it done by common deliberation when they forthwith proposed us rewards as for having slain a Tyrant But Anthony opposing it under pretence of appeasing the tumult and we our selves not desiring any greater reward than the service of our Country they were not ordered because they would not defame Caesar being content to have thrown down the Tyranny However they decreed a general Indemnity with prohibitions to all persons of prosecuting in form of Justice for the action done and a small time after because Anthony incensed the multitude against us by
our Enemies we are equal in number of Legions though we have left Men in many places where we judged it necessary we have far the greater number of Horse Ships and Auxiliary Forces sent us from Kings and Nations extending as far as the Medes and Parthians Our Enemies can only assault us before whereas we can likewise fall upon them behind for we have Pompey in Sicily and Murcus in the Ionian Sea besides Aenobarbus has his Fleet well flesh'd with Seamen with two Legions and good store of Archers who do sorely annoy them whereas behind us all is peaceable both on Sea and Shore As for Money which some call Nerves of War they have none at all not being able to pay what they promised their Army that brought in by Proscriptions not answering their expectations for no honest Man would buy those Lands the purchase of which would render him odious to all the world and they can have none elsewhere Italy being drained dry by Seditions Exactions and Proscriptions whereas we have taken such effectual care that we have it in such abundance that we are able to give you another Donative and the Provinces we have left behind us will sufficiently supply us As for Provision which occasions all the difficulty for the subsistance of great Armies they can be supplyed only from Macedon a Mountainous Country or Thessaly a Province of small extent and that by Land with incredible labour and if they pretend to have it brought from Africa Lucania or Povilia Pompey Murcus or Aenobarbus will cut off their passage For our parts we have already plenty and more will dayly be brought by Sea from all the Islands and all the Provinces between Thrace and the Euphrates easily without the opposition of any person we having no Enemy behind us These are Fellow Soldiers the works of humane fore-sight we expect the rest from you and the Gods For our parts besides what you have already received we will pay you what we have promised and as we have already rewarded your fidelity with a Donative so by God's assistance after having gained the Victory we will recompence you with something worthy your services And in the mean time the more to encourage you and because I see the whole Assembly disposed to do well as soon as I descend from this Tribunal we will give every Soldier fifteen hundred Italian Drams to every Centurion five times as much and to every Tribune proportionable After having thus spake and gained the hearts of the Army by Actions by Words and by Gifts he dismissed the Assembly which yet would not break up till after many Acclamations to Brutus and Cassius with promises of good service immediately they distâ—ibuted in ready Money what they had promised gratifying with somewhat more such as had signalized themselves upon any other occasions and as they received their Money they sent them forward on their march towards Dorisca whither in few days the General followed them At the same time two living Eagles came and pearched upon the Siver Eagles of the Standard-bearers and pecking at them as some say and covering them with their Wings there stayed The Generals caused Food to be given them till the day before the Battel when they fled away After two days March on the Banks of the Black Gulf the Army came to Aena and from thence to Dorisca and other Maritime Cities as far as Mount Serria which advances it self into the Sea from thence the Army turned into the Land and Tullius Cimber was commanded with the Fleet one Legion and some Archers to proceed on the way along the Coast. Now this Coast was formerly uninhabited though the Land were excellent good because the Thracians made no advantage of the conveniency of the Sea nor so much as came near the Shore for fear of Ships that passed by Afterward the Chalcidians and other Greeks using the Sea inhabited tilled it and settled a Trade besides that many Thracians were well satisfied to change the Mountains for such a Residence till such time as Philip the Son of Amyntas chasing away the Chalcidians and others there remained no other marks of its ever being inhabited save the pavements of some Temples Tullius then coasting along this desert Shore according to his Orders when he came near the Straits of Salapeas he began to set out the Lines of a Camp and to chuse out certain Caves in the Shore might serve to harbor his Ships that Norbanus thinking it needless to guard both Passes might quit them And indeed part of what he had projected happened for as soon as Norbanus saw the Ships fearful left he alone should not be able to defend the passage of Salapeas he sent presently to Ceditius to quit that of Torpides and come to his assistance which he did and thus Brutus and Cassius finding the strait of Torpides deserted passed it But the deceit being discovered Norbanus and Ceditius so well defended that of Salapeas that Brutus's People not being able to force it were disheartened growing fearful lest at last they should be foâ—ced to go that great way about which at first they had declined and withal return back all the ground they had gone besides that Summer was far spent Whilst they were in this trouble Rascupolis to them that he would find out a way be which in three days they should cros all the Mountains of Salapeas which never any before had passed by reason of the cragginess of the Rocks want of Water and the thickness of the Woods but if they would resolve to carry Water with them and cut a way through the Wood large enough for them to pass they should march under covert without being seen by any Man nay not so much as by the very Birds and on the fourth day should arrive at the River Arpessa which falls into the Heber from whence in one day they might reach Philippi and so inclose their Enemies that it would be impossible for them to escape Though no advice could be proposed in the execution whereof there could be more difficulty yet this was followed the Soldiers being chiefly encouraged to it by the hopes they had in so short a time to behold so great a number of Enemies in their power Lucius Bibulus having then together with Rascupolis taken upon him the charge of preparing the way they caused one half of the Army to move who though it were with much labour and difficulty marched on briskly and cheerfully especially after those who were sent before to discover brought word that from the tops of the Hill they might see the River but the fourth day the Soldiers spent with travel and tormented with thirst because the water brought with them failed began to make reflection upon what had been told them that it was but three days march ere they should find water and to suspect some treason not but they believed those who assured them they had seen the River but they imagined they were led
transported to these his Murderers so firmly that they afterwards were more stedfast in observing their faith to them against his Son than to Anthony himself who had commanded them under Caesar for none of them deserted Brutus or Cassius even in their utmost misfortune whereas all of them revolted from Anthony at Brundusium in the very beginning of the War he had with Octavius They made their pretence of taking Arms both now and in Pompey's time not private advantage but the name of the Common-wealth specious indeed but usually of little effect and when they thought themselves no longer serviceable to their Country they equally despised their lives As for their particular conduct Cassius like the Gladiators which mind only their Enemies had fixed his thoughts upon War and thought of nothing else But Brutus who in all times and occasions was a Philosopher was pleased to look into and understand many things yet when all is said that possibly can be to assure them great Men the assault they made upon Caeser's person was the only cause none of their designs prospered and certainly it was no ordinary crime nor of little consequence for they had unhappily murdered their Friend their Benefactor one who by right of War might have disposed of their lives and yet had saved them their General in the Senate in a sacred place cloath'd in his holy Robes the most powerful of all the Romans and which is most of all the Man of all the world most serviceable to the Empire and his Country And Heaven accordingly sent tokens of its anger and presages of their ruine for when Cassius offered Sacrifices to purge his Army one of the Lictors put a Crown reversed upon his Head a Golden Image of Victory which he then offered fell down of it self many Flocks of Birds of Prey came and set about his Camp without making any noise and almost dayly they saw Swarms of Bees They saw likewise that Brutus celebrating at Samos in the midst of their Jollity and Feasting wherein he was not used to be out of temper with a sudden passion uttered these Verses But 't was Latona's Son and angry Fate Advanc'd my death And that when he was designing to pass out of Asia into Europe with his Army as he watched by night and his Candle almost spent there appeared to him a Ghost with a strange kind of countenance at which not moved he asked what it was God or Man to which the Ghost answered Brutus I am thy evil Genius thou shalt see me again at Philippi And in truth 't is said it appeared to him the day before the last Battel and that when he drew his Army out of the Camp an Ethiopian met him whom presently the enraged Soldiers cut in pieces This was likewise a token of their misfortune that Cassius after a Fight wherein the loss had been almost equal fell so easily into despair and that Brutus forced to violate the prudent resolution he had taken to temporize yet engaged with starved People whilst he had abundance of Provisions and the conveniency of the Sea Though these two Men had often been in many perillous occasions yet they were never wounded but they murdered themselves as they had murdered Caesar and so received punishment for the crime they had committed Anthony finding Brutus's Body covered it with a Purple â—obe and after having burned it sent the Ashes to Servilia his Mother his Army which yet consisted of fourteen thousand Men as soon as they knew of his death sent Deputies to Caesar and Anthony who having pardoned them divided them betwixt them Soon after those that were in the Forts yielded likewise but on condition that the Plunder both of the Forts and the Camp should be the Prize of Caesar's and Anthony's Soldiers As for the persons of Note and Quality who had sided with Brutus some fell in the Fight others like their Generals slew themselves and others forced their deaths from their Enemies hand of which number were L. Cassius Nephew to the General and the Son of the famous Cato of the same name who several times threw himself into the midst of his Enemies and at last took off his Head-piece either that he might be the easier known or the easier killed or both Labeo known for his wisdom and for being Father to that Labeo to this day holding a prime degree among the famous Doctors of Law caused a hole to be dug in his Tent to the proportion of his Body and after having given his Orders to his Servants and writ to his Wife and Children Letters which he gave to his Slaves to carry took by the Right Hand one of the faithfulest of them and having made him walk round about him according to the Roman custom when they enfranchise a Slave commanded him to take a Sword and presented him his Throat and so made his Tent his Grave The Thracian Rascus brought back many People from the Mountains and for all the service he had done Anthony and Caesar asked only the pardon of his Brother Rascupolis and obtained it which was enough to signifie that at the beginning of the War these Thracians had no private difference but seeing two great Armies coming into their Country to make War not knowing which would have the better one took one part and the other the other that happen what would he on the conquering side might make his Brother's composition As for Portia Brutus's Wife and young Cato's Sister when she heard they were both in this manner lost in spite of all her Servants care to prevent her death she swallowed burning Coals and died Many persons of Quality being escaped to Thassa some of them embarqued to retire elsewhere others with the remainder of the Army chose Messala Corvinus and Lucius Bibulus for their Chiefs to whom they promised to do what they pleased and the rest treating with Anthony's Men as soon as they came to Thassa delivered into their Hands all the Money Provisions and store of other warlike Preparations Thus by a hazardous boldness Caesar and Anthony in two Fights won the greatest Victory that ever till now was gained for never did two such Roman Armies fight together Nor were their Forces raised in haste out of the Citizens but all chosen Men not Apprentices but old Soldiers experienced both in Foreign and Civil Wars all speaking the same Language all exercised in the same Military Discipline equal in experience and valour which made it not easie for them to vanquish each other besides never in any War did so many Citizens once Friends and Comrades fight with so much heat and courage which is sufficiently proved in that considering both Battels the Vanquisher lost not less than the Vanquished However Caesar's and Anthony's Men found the prediction of their Generals true for in one day and one Battel â—hey were not only delivered from the danger of Famine and the fear they were in of perishing but this glorious Victory gave them likewise
or Murcus's Naval Power but that bad weather and other losses with her own sickness had made her return into Egypt where she received news of the Victory Here Anthony wounded in the very soul by the charms of this Queen became as foolishly in love as if he had been a young Man though he were now above forty years of age True it is he is reported to have always had a natural inclination for this passion and that formerly when she was but a child he conceived a love for her having seen her at Alexandria when he served under Gabinius as General of the Horse Anthony therefore all upon a sudden neglecting the care of his Affairs Cleopatra disposed of all things at her pleasure without considering either reason or justice insomuch that Arsinoe her Sister having taken Sanctuary at Miletum in the Temple of Diana Leucophryna Anthony sent some thither who slew her and commanded the Tyrians to deliver up to Cleopatra Serapion Governour of Cyprus who was fled into the Sanctuary at Tyre because he had taken part with Cassius and gave the same order to the Aradians touching another who had fled for refuge into their City because the Brother of Cleopatra overcome by Caesar in a Naval Engagement on the Nile being seen no more this unhappy Man had told the Aradians that he was Ptolemy and at last ordered the Ephesians to bring before him Megabyzes the High Priest of Diana because he had received Arsinoe as a Queen but the Ephesians having besought Cleopatra in his behalf pardoned him Thus in a short time might a strange change be perceived in Anthony's spirit caused by that passion which was the beginning and end of all those miseries afterwards befel him for after Cleopatra's return to Egypt he sent his Horse to Palmyra a City near the Euphrates to sack it his pretence for doing it being very slight for he could accuse the Inhabitants of nothing but that being situated between the Dominion of the Romans and that of the Parthians they strove to accommodate themselves the best they could with one and t'other and indeed it was a City of Trade through which were transported from Persia to Rome all the commodities of India and Arabia but his main design was to enrich his Cavalry The Palmyrians foreseeing it had caused all they had of value to be carried to the other side of the River on the Banks of which they planted good Archers to defend the approach for there are the best Archers of the world so the Cavalry finding not a person in the City returned without drawing their Swords or making any purchase The Parthian War which happened soon after seems from hence to have taken its brith many of the Tyrants of Syria being retired with them for Syriâ— till the time of Antiochus the Pious and his Son of the same name had been governed by Kings of the race of Seleucus Nicator as we have already said writing the Affairs of Syria but this Province being reduced by Pompey's Arms he placed therein Scaurus for Governonr to whom the Senate sent others for Successors among whom was Gabinius who went to make War against the People of Alexandria to Gabinius succeeded Crassus who was slain by the Parthians and after him Bibulus At length after the death of C. Caesar during these troubles which were almost universal there rose up in every City Tyrants supported by the Parthians for after Crassus's misfortune they had spread themselves into Syria and had intelligence with the Tyrants which Anthony now forced to retire to them whom after he had expelled charged the People with Imposts and made this impertinent attempt upon the Palmyrians he took â—o farther care how to appease the troubles wherein he beheld the Province and put his Army in Garrison and went to find out Cleopatra in Egypt where being magnificently received he spent the Winter without any mark of Command both habited and living like a private Man whether because he was in a Country dependant on another and in the Royal City or that he might the more pleasantly pass away the time whilst Winter lasted for he banished all manner of care and dispensed with the Officers put off his usual habit to wear a square Robe after the Greek Fashion with white Attick Hose such as are worn by the Priest's of Athens and of Alexandria which they call Phaecasion and only visited the Temples Schools and Philosophy Assemblies holding conversation with none but the Greeks in service of Cleopatra for whose sake alone he had undertook this Journey Mean while Caesar going to Rome was very much distempered in Body especially at Brundusium where the danger was so great that a report was raised of his being dead but at length by degrees the Distemper diminishing he entred the City where shewing Anthony's orders to those who had charge of his Affairs they presently signified to Calenus that he should deliver to him the two Legions and wrote to Sextus in Africa to surrender up the Province which was performed After which Caesar finding that Lepidus was not guilty of what he had been charged with quitted to him Africa instead of those Provinces that had been taken from him and exposed to sale what were left of the Goods of the Proscribed But when it came to the point of sending Soldiers to Colonies and giving them Lands many difficulties presented themselves The Soldiers pretended they ought to give them the best Cities of all Italy according to the promise made them before the War And the Cities demanded that all Italy should contribute to this charge or that others should draw lots with them and that for the Lands the Generals should pay the purchase but there was no Money in the Treasure There were dayly to be seen coming to Rome young and old Women and Children who assembling in the great place or in the Temples with tears in their eyes cryed out That being Italians without having committed any fault they were driven from their Lands and their Houses as if it had been a conquered Country The Romans had compassion on them and their deplorable condition drew tears from a multitude of People especially when they considered that this War had not been undertaken for the publick good but to satisfie the ambition of the Chiefs who had no other aim than the seising of the Empire Besides they were sensible that they gave not the Soldiers the recompense promised after the Victory nor sent them into Colonies with any other intent but that the Common-wealth should never more get Head again the Usurpers of the Government having so many People obliged by their good turns ready to take up Arms at their first command Caesar made excuse to the Cities from the necessity constraining these things telling them withal he was much afraid the Soldiers would not be so content neither And indeed they were not content for they oppressed their Neighbours and took not only more than the Lands set out to
what should be resolved upon common deliberation Thus Manius by this arrogant answer would have had Caesar no more to have the arbitrement of any thing but that the agreement made between him and Anthony by which each had an absolute power in things whereof he took charge and what one did the other was to approve should be utterly void Wherefore Caesar seeing they were absolutely determined for War began to prepare likewise Two Legions that were in the City of Ancona having advice hereof they having formerly belonged to Caesar and since to Anthony and having still respect for both sent Deputies to Rome to entreat them to consent to an Accommodation whereupon Caesar answering that he had no design against Anthony but that Lucius would make War upon him the Deputies and Officers of Anthony's Forces joyned together deputed some to Lucius to perswade him to admit of a determination of the Differences between Caesar and him by the way of Justice letting him know that if he would not submit they would take the matter into their own hands After having obtained of Lucius what they desired the City of Gaâ—es was made choice of for the meeting being the half way betwixt Rome and Praeneste where Benches were set up for the Judges and two Tribunals from whence to plead Causes Caesar who came first had sent some Horse on the way which Lucius was to come to discover if there were no Ambush these met with some of Anthony's Horse which Lucius had likewise sent to scout before and flew some of them Lucius retreated thereupon for fear as he said of Ambushes and never afterwards notwithstanding all the prayers of Anthony's Officers and all their assurances to be his safe conduct would return so that those who laboured for Peace not succeeding it came to an open War and they began already to tear one another in pieces by bloody Declarations Lucius's Forces were composed of four Legions he had raised when he entred into the Consulate besides the eleven Legions of Anthony's commanded by Calenus and all those were in Italy and Caesar had four Legions at Capua and his Pretorian Cohorts with six Legions Salvidienus brought him from Spain For Money Anthony's Provinces where there was no War furnished Lucius and Caesar drew from all his except Sardinia at present engaged in War and borrowed from all the Temples with promise to pay the interest till he restored it to the Temple of the Capitol in Rome at Antium at Lavinia at the Forest and at Tibur in all which Temples there are to this day store of consecrated Treasure Nor were all things quiet out of Italy for Pompey's Force and Reputation was much increased by the Procripts the old Inhabitants of the Colonies and even by this breach with Lucius for all those who either feared their own safety or were despoiled of their goods or had any dislike to the present state of Affairs flocked in to him besides a great number of Youth who sought their Fortune by War and thought it indifferent to engage under one or another General since they were all Romans came in to him as judging his cause the more just Besides he was grown rich with Prizes taken at Sea and had store of Shipping with all things necessary Murcus likewise had brought him two Legions with fourscore Ships and there was coming to him another Army from Cephalonia which makes some think that if he had now invaded Italy he might easily have become Master of it oppressed as it was with Famine and rent in pieces with Intestine Divisions but Pompey by an inexcusable imprudence chose rather to defend himself than assail others which proved in the end his own loss As for what happened in Africa Sextus Lieutenant to Anthony according to Lucius Command had delivered up his Army to Fagio Caesar's Lieutenant afterwards having received Orders again to withdraw it upon Fagio's refusal to return it he declared War against him and having raised considerable Forces of disbanded Soldiers and Africans with such assistance as he had from the Kings of that Country goes to charge the Enemy cuts in pieces the two Wings of his Army and makes himself Master of his Camp so that Fagio despairing and thinking he was betrayed slew himself Thus Sextus repossessed himself of both the Provinces of Africa and Bocchus King of the Moors by Lucius perswasion went to make War against Carinas who commanded in Spain for Caesar. On the other side Aenobarbus with seventy Ships two Legions a great number of Archers and Slingers some light armed Infantry and Gladiators cruising on the Ionian Sea wasted all those Coasts that acknowledged the Triumvirate and coming nigh to Brundusium took part of Caesar's Galley's burnt others and having forced the Inhabitants to shut themselves up within their Wall spoiled their Country Caesar sent thither one Legion and commanded Salvidienus to hasten out of Spain whilst both persons laboured to raise men in Italy where there happened some fights some skirmishes and many surprises The people had a far greater inclination for Lucius's then for the adverse party because they made War against the new Colonies and not only the Cities whose Lands they had divided to the Soldiers declared for him but likewise all Italy who feared the like oppression so those that Caesar had sent to borrow the consecrated Mony being driven out of the Cities and some of them slain the Inhabitants became Masters of their Walls and declared for Lucius But if these took his part the new Possessors of Lands sided with Caesar as if both one and the other had only regarded their proper interests Affairs standing thus Caesar assembled in the Palace the Senate and Roman Knights and thus spoke to them The Oration of Caesar. I Know I am contemn'd by Lucius party as weak and infirm and I know that contempt will increase upon this my conventing you but I am yet assured I have a strong and powerful Army as well that which Lucius wrongs by detaining from them their due rewards as the other which fights under my Command nor is there any thing wanting to me but good will for I cannot easily resolve on a Civil War unless constrained or desire to engage those Citizens remaining to destroy each other but especially I delight not in a War like this which is not to be in Thrace or Macedon but in the very heart of Italy and which must occasion infinite miseries though no man were to be slain wherefore I have hitherto temporized and do now protest that I neither complain of Anthony nor have given him cause to complain of me 'T is your interest and you ought to let Lucius and his Counsellors know they are in the wrong and let me intreat you to reconcile us together If they will not believe you but continue obstinate they shall soon find my delay was an effect of my prudence and not of my fear and you may bear witness for me to Anthony that I
would make War or to conduct him Honourably if he had any intention to come to him as a Friend Now Pompey's Deputies spoke to Anthony in this manner The Oration of Pompey's Deputies to Anthony THough if Pompey had designed to continue the War he might have gone into Spain a Province where he is beloved for his Fathers sake of which he had good Testimony in his Youth and who still offered him their Assistance Yet because he had rather live in Peace with you or if there be necessity to make War fight under your Colours he has sent us hither to offer you his Friendship and Alliance 'T is not a desire of a days standing you know that when he was Master of Sicily and made Inroads into Italy when he sent your Mother to you he made you the same offers And certainly had you accepted them neither had Pompey been driven out of Sicily For you had not assisted Caesar with your Fleet nor you had not come off with such disadvantage against the Parthians because Caesar sent you not those Forces he promised you Nay you might have reduced Italy to your Obedience However though you refused them in a time when they might have been useful to you he begs you yet to have a care lest Caesar who has so often deceived you do not do it at last beyond repair Remember but how contrary to a solemn League he made War upon Pompey who was likewise his Aly though he had not the same pretence How he has deprived Lepidus of his part of the Empire without in the least making you partaker of his Victories You are now the only obstacle stands in his way to that Monarchy to which he has so long aspired and already if Pompey had not stood between you had been engaged one against the other 'T is more your concerâ— than any mans to look into these things yet Pompey out of his love to you would not refrain his advice Besides knowing you good and generoâ—â— he â—as more esteem for your friendship than for all could be promised him by a man he knows for a cheat and a deceiver He thinks it not strange you lent your Ships to Caesar because he knows you were urged to it by the want you stood in need of Forces for the Parthian War but he would willingly have you remember how much the not sending that Army did you prejudice In a word Pompey yields himself up to you with that Fleet he has left and a faithful Army never deserted him in distress If you have peace it will be no small Glory for you to have protected the Son of the great Pompey and if you engage in that War which in all likelyhood you dispose your self to the Forces he delivers up to you will not be useless The Deputies having done speaking Anthony let them understand the Orders he had given to Titius and for a full answer told them that if Pompey made these Offers sincerely he would come along with Titius In the mean time Pompey's Envoys to the Parthians were taken by Anthony's Captains and brought to Alexandria where having confessed all Anthony sent for the Deputies had spoke to him on Pompey's behalf and shewed them whom he had arrested They were extremely surprised yet they besought him to pardon a young Man reduced to the last extremities and who out of a fear of being refused had been forced to seek a Retreat among Nations always Enemies to the Roman Name for had he been well assured of Anthony's mind there had been no need to have had recourse to others or to use other arts and solicitations Anthony believed them being by nature free from Malice and of a clear and magnanimous temper In the mean time Furnius Anthony's Lieutenant in Asia made at first no opposition against Pompey who was come over thither in a peaceable manner whether he were not strong enough to hinder him or that he knew not Anthony's mind but when he saw he exercised his Soldiers he levyed what Force he could himself in that Province and sent to Aenobarbus who was not far off with an Army and to Amyntas to come to his assistance They being presently drawn together Pompey began to complain they treated him like an Enemy whilst he was waiting what answer Anthony gave his Deputies yet all this while he was plotting to make AEnobarbus his Prisoner whom one of his Familiars called Curius was to deliver up to him hoping he might stand him in good stead if an Exchange of Prisoners should happen but the Treason being discovered and Curius convicted he was executed by sentence of the Council of War and Pompey put to death Theodorus one of his Freed Men who alone he made privy to this Plot suspecting he had discovered it This design not succeeding he lost all hopes of deceiving Furnius but he took by treason Lampsacus where C. Caesar had planted a Colony of Italians whom by force of Money he got to engage in his Party so that seeing himself two hundred Horse and three Legions strong he went and assaulted Cyzica by Sea and Land but was both ways repulsed by some of Anthony's Forces who had the Guard of the Gladiators kept there for the Peoples Divertisement He therefore returned to the Port of the Achaeans to make Provision of Corn whither Furnius following without offering to fight him encamped always as near him as he could with store of Horse and thus hindred him from soraging the Country or besieging Towns Pompey who had not Horse enough to take the Fields went and assaulted his Camp in Front with one part of his Forces against whom Furnius coming to the Charge the others whohad taken a great compass not to be discovered fell in behind forced the Camp and put them all to the Rout. All Furnius's Men fled through the Plains of Scamandria and not being able to run very fast because the ground was moistned with the Rain there was made a great Slaughter Those who saved themselves escaped into places of security being too weak to stand Pompey till such time as new Recruits were come from Mysia Propontis and other places Mean while the Country People ruined with Taxes took Arms and joyned with Pompey now grown famous by the Victory gained at the Port of the Achaeans But still wanting Horse he often came by the worst in going to gather in Corn and Forrage Wherefore upon intelligence that a Body of Italian Horse were coming to Anthony which Octavia who wintered at Athens sent him he dispatched away some of his Agents with Money to corrupt them but the Governour of Macedon taking these Suborners distributed their Money to the Horsemen yet Pompey took Nicea and Nicomedia where he got store of Wine besides many other happy successes he had beyond his own hopes but Furnius always encamping at some distance from him About the beginning of Spring there came to him from Sicily seventy Ships the Remainder of the Fleet Anthony had