left order by his wil that neither of them should be buried in his Sepulcher Moreouer her sonne Agrippa Posthumius whom he had adopted and ordeyned for his successour in the Empire did he for his vile and cruell nature disinherite and banish vnto Surrentum But afterward when he saw that for all this he would not become more tractable but euery day more madder then other hee transported him into an Island where he was kept with a guard of souldiours and prouided by a decrée of the Senate that hée should be kept there during his life and at all mention made of him or the two Iuliae he would sigh déepely and breake out into a Gréeke verse O would to God I had neuer wedde wife And without children had ended my life And vsed neuer otherwise to call them then his thrée botches and eating cankers Of diseases he had store the dropsie swelling sides the impetige thoroughout all his bodie his left hippe thigh and legge so ill that hée oftentimes halted and was lame thereof and also hée sometimes felt the forfinger of his right hand so weake that being benummed and contracted with cold hee could scarce bring it for to write yea with the helpe of a ring of horne He fell into many great and daungerous sicknesses throughout all partes of his life but his greatest fitt was immediately after hee had conquered the fierce Cantabri at what time sayth Plinie the greatest part of death was receiued into his body his liuer was quite marde with distillations so that hée being brought into despaire of recouerie entered of necessitie into a contrarie and doubtfull kinde of cure because hot fomentations had done no good he was constrayned to be cured by cold thoroughe the aduise of Musa his Physician Some other sicknesses had he that did take him euery yeare and would returne alwayes at a certaine time For mostly he was sicke about that time of the yeare that hée was borne and at the beginning of the Spring his sides would be swolne in Southerne tempestes hee was troubled with the Rheume wherewithall his body being sore shaken and weakened hée could not well endure either cold or heate In the winter hee was defended with foure coates and a thicke gowne and all the forepart of his shirt that couered the bulke of his body was wollen he woare also breches netherstockes thinges very rarely vsed in those dayes But in the sūmer he would lie with his chamber doore open yea oftentimes in open galeries where spoutes of cold water should continually runne a man stoode by him stil fanning his face But the Sunne was he not able to abide no not in the winter nor euer walked abroad yea at home but in a great broad hall Moreouer hee neuer trauelled but in a licter and mostlie in the nighte but so softly and with so smal iournyes that hée would bee two dayes in riding to Tibur or Prenest twelue miles from the citie Besides all those daungerous diseases was his life often assaulted with a great number of perillous conspiracies first of younge Lepidus then of Varro Murena Fannius and Cepio and anon after of Marcus Egnatius and then of Plautius Rufus Lucius Paulus and besids all these of Lucius Audasius a verlet that had béen cōdemned for forging of false writings one impotent both by nature and yeares and of Epicadus a mungrell hauing a Parthian to one of his parentes and last of all of Telephus a bondslaue and nomēclator vnto a woman to tell her the names of men for he was not frée from the daunger of men of the most vilest condition This rascall roge had practised to murther him and the Senate because the foole had surely thought and beleft that the Empire was allotted to him by the louing Ladies of destinie Moreouer once was there taken néere vnto his chamber hauing deceiued the watch and porters a drudge of the Illyrian armie being armed with a woodknife And besides these conspiracies rehearsed by Suetonius wée read in other of one made by Cornelius Cinna and his complicies Vnto these infortunities Plinie addeth the great suspicion that hée had of Fabius and the disclosing of his secreates and his last care the cogitations and counselles of his wife and her sonne Tiberius who are thought to haue poysoned him with figges fearing lest that if he liued longer hee would haue disherited Tyberius or els haue ioyned yong Agrippa with him finally he died leauing to be heire of his large Empire not his owne sonne but his enimies Tyberius sonne to Domitius The xxxij Chapter Of Traiane TRAIANE that conquered the fierce Daces with their valiaunt king Decebalus that had foiled many Romane Capitaines and also subdued the Armenians and Parthians a great part of Arabia and went so farre Eastward with victorious ensignes as neuer did Romane either before or since and wrote vnto the Senate that he had conquered such nations as they neuer heard off before nor could name yet deserued not the name of an happie man For streight after his returne out of Armenia and Parthia into Syria was he in great daunger of death at Antioche by an earthquake the which ouerthrewe and quite destroyed the whole citie and infinite were the number of them that were slaine with the fall of the houses scarce one or two men escaped vnslaine or vnhurt And so great was the Emperours armie and so great the resort of Embassadours and other out from all nations vnto him that there was scarse any nation or citie that escaped scotfrée from this detriment and massacre that in very déede all the whole world and the nations that were vnder the Romane Empire receiued thereby a mightie calamitie The Emperour himselfe was merueylously saued being taken out at a windowe by one of a straunge stature and farre passing mans measure And afterward also when he following Alexanders the great his steppes aduaunced still further and further his cōquering Eagles sailing the redd sea the Armenians and Parthians whome he had before subdued reuolted sleaing the garrisons that he had placed amonge them and also in battell Maximus whome hee had sent with a power to reduce them vnto their duetie yea and in the end the Parthians forced him to let them haue a king of their owne nation the whiche did make frustrate all his toile taken in the East Also the Iewes that dwelt about Cyrene reuolted and taking armes slue of Romanes and Greekes with more then barbarous crueltie two hundreth and twentie thousand and doing the like also in Cyprus and Aegypt murthered two hundreth and fourtie thousand Hereunto will I adde his great peril at the siege of the citie of the Agarenes where the enimies directed all their shott against him killing euery man that stoode nere vnto him Then followed fearefull prodigies terrible thunder lightenings whirlewinds monstrous haile and that whiche of all other is most miraculous as ofte as euer the Romanes assaulted or encountred the enimie they were
Of a wittie decree of the Lacedemonians touching Alexanders Godhead How Philippe of Macedonie dolted Menecrates and gaue one in charge daily to put him in minde that he was a man Of the free speech of a botcher vnto Caligula a worthie saying of Antigonus MOst truely is it writtē in Ecclesiasticus that pride is the beginning of all sinne and in Augustine the last sinne that the soule doth maister and ouer come This only of all other that I may vse Claudians wordes is the ingrate cōpanion of vertues this onely vice doth spring and is bredde of vertues ye and of the killing and destroying of all other this often is ingendered Howe many hunt and séeke for glorie by obstinate refusing thereof haue not many béen more proud of the making of them selues poore then they were before of their great riches is the number of them trowe you smal that be proude of their lowlinesse do not some by conquering of all other sinnes be conquered by this and perishe be slaine by the enimie whom they ouerthrewe and trode vpon this fault onely or certes most ought the perfect men to feare and take héede of wisely warneth Augustine Did not the diuel who for the subtiltie of his nature sharpe iudgement long experience in deceiuing best knowing what would soonest deceiue kéepe this temptation as a trusty Trystram for the last when he tempted Christ our Lord and God And what other traine I pray you made the subtile serpent when he tempted our first Parent Eue but this bearing the woman in hand that shee and her husbande shoulde be made like God Then if that our first parentes in that most frée state of theirs when as no sensualitie moued them nor any contagion of their corrupte and mortal bodies whervnto the soule is surely tied annoyed and infected them coueted the type of the glorie of the Godhead who will not beléeue but that the like proude and madde attempt might haue béene giuen by some wicked men whom the diuel the flesh and the world did vehemently driue forward but nothing stay and holde back what smal smatterer in humane letters hath not read of Psapho a Lybian who being ouermuche adorned of bountifull nature coulde not kéepe himselfe within his owneskinne as Martial wittily warneth the greatnesse or rather naughtinesse of his hautie hart swelled so bigge but by as wittie as wicked deuise gotte him selfe to be taken and worshipped for a God for he catching byrdes whiche were apt to learne mans spéeche diligently but secretely taught them to speake distinctly and plainely the great God Psapho And when he saw that these pratling byrdes had perfectly learned their lessō wold euer be harping on it he let them flie abrode into the wooddes But they as he subtily coniectured flue all abouts still singing this song The great God Psapho which the inhabitauntes thereaboutes hearing being altogether ignorant of that craftie fetche honoured Psapho for a God thinking that they could not without great note of impietie obstinacie denie him to be a God whome the vnreasonable byrdes did to their instruction by supernaturall diuine speach as they thought acknowledge and professe to be a great God. Moreouer I read it recorded in Athenaeus a graue Author and also in Aelianus and other that one Menecrates born at Syracuse in Sicyle a famous Physician called himselfe Iupiter the great Almighitie proudly and foolishly boasting that he was vnto men the cause of life by reason of his great skil in Physicke And his vsage was to force them whom he tooke in hand to heale of the falling sicknes to promise and sweare vnto him that when they were perfectly cured they would be his bondmen and follow him Of them Nicostratus being adorned like Hercules was called Hercules Nicogoras who was the tyranne of his countrie wearing a souldiours mantell and winges and bearing a Caducaeus in his hand such a rodde as the Poetes do faine Mercurie to beare hée named Mercurie Astycreon was Apollo and an other of his patiēts apparelled like vnto Aesculapius waited on this madde Menecrates who being Iupiter himselfe the father of Gods and men went about with his bands of Gods in his robe of purple a crowne of gold on his head and a Scepter in his hand This madd mate sending a letter vnto Philip king of Macenie wrote vnto him thus Thou art King of Macedonie but I of the art of healing thou whensoeuer thou listest canst kill men but I can saue men that be sicke ye and if they will obey me kéepe them in healthe lustie vntil they be old thou goest garded with Macedons but I with al the men in the world or that shal be hereafter for I Iupiter doe giue them life Philip answearing his letter vsed this superscription or after their maner this salutation Philip wisheth vnto Menecrates health and his right wits The very like wrote also Menecrates vnto Archidamus king of Lacaedemonia that he had vsed vnto Philip and vnto whome so euer he wrote he neuer absteined from the name of Iupiter On a time when Philip had inuited him with all his crue of Gods to a feast he placed them at a bed which was built and set on a great height and very magnificently decked and placed beside it a table whereon stoode an altar and the first fruites of all fruites of the earth and when meate was brought and serued vnto the other guests the children sacrificed with perfumes vnto Menecrates and his Gods waiters but gaue them neuer a morsell of meate for Gods néede no earthly foode to nourishe their heauenly bodies At the last Iupiter being laughed almost out of his coate with those whiche followed him ranne away out from the feast being dolted more like a dog then worshipped as a God by that wise king who after the great ouerthrowe that he gaue the Athenians and their confederates at Cheronea where he quite euerted the libertie of all Greece perceiuing him selfe to grow into pryde and insolencie by that happie successe prepared a preseruatiue to kéepe him from swelling so great that he should breake the bandes of reason and humanitie Wherefore he gaue vnto one of his seruaunts this office and charge that euery morning he should come into his chamber and call out vnto him aloud Philip remember thou art a man and this was euer after so constantly kept by him that he would not once go abroad him selfe or suffer any man to be admitted vnto his speach but on that day that the boy had before thrice thundred out vnto him Philippe anthropos ei Philip thou art a man In the very same place also telleth Athenaeus of one Themison darling and minion vnto king Antiochus who was proclamed at publike assemblies by the cryer Hercules and also all the inhabitants for feare of the king sacrificed vnto him by the name of Themison Hercules who was also present if any of the noble men sacrificed and lay vppon
a bed of state clothed in a Lions case He bare also a Scythian bowe and a clubbe so that it is no maruell if that in many yeares after Commodus woulde be called Hercules and sonne vnto Iupiter and not of good Marcus Commodus séeing that he being the Emperour of Rome did more resemble Hercules both in large Empire and strength of bodie as he that woulde strike thorough with a dart an Eliphant or the horne of an Orix and also in killing and destroying of Lions and monsters For sayes Dion he alone with his owne hand slue vppon the Amphitheatre in one day fiue Hippotami or water horses two Eliphants one Rhinocerotes and a Camelion Pardis whervnto Capitolinus addeth one hūdred beares and one hundred Lions at so many shootes He would come to the Amphitheatre in a robe of purple and golde and a mantel of the same after the Gréeke cut for Hercules was a Gréeke with a crowne of golde glystering with precious stones of India These kyndes of ornaments were straunge vnto the Romaines at those dayes also the Caduceus and a Lions case and a club were borne before him whether soeuer he went but on the Theatre whether he were present or absent they were placed on a seate of golde In the habite of Mercurie did he oftentimes enter the theatre and casting off all his other apparel would go vnto the murthering of wilde beasts striped into his coate barefooted He refusing sayes Capitolinus the habite of the Romaine Princes would come abroade into the citie wrapt in a Lions case and a club in his hand and many times not without contempt and derision would he offer him selfe to be séene in womens apparell that he might in all naughtie and vndecent pointes imitate him whome he would be taken to be He was publikely sacrificed vnto and a great nūber of statuies were in his honour set vp in the habite of Hercules and a decrée was made that the time wherein he reigned shoulde be called the golden worlde and that it should be so recorded and inrolled in all monuments He was called the golden Hercules He caused the heade of Colossus to be cut off and an other of his owne visage to be set vppon it putting a club in his hand and a Lion of brasse at his féete that it might be like vnto Hercules Neither was he contented in those ridiculous toyes to follow Hercules but that he most cruelly against all humanitie gathered together into one place all such as in that mightie citie and whiche Galene called an abridgement of the whole worlde were lame in féete or legges and doubling and folding vp their legges vnto their knées as though they had had the nether partes of serpents for so the Poets do faine of the Giants and giuing them sponges whiche they shoulde throwe at him in steade of stones he snatched them and strake the braines out of their heades with a clubbe rather as a butcher doth calues then Hercules did the Giants But let vs passe Commodus whome Dion thinketh to be but a simple witted man Could the diligent trayning wise instructions of that famous Philosopher Aristotle restraine his scholer Alexander the great within the limits of humaine nature but that he being publikely pampered by fortune like an horse ouer frankly fed brake all bandes of reason not thinking it honour ynough for him to be the chiefest man and monarche of the earth but would surmount humaine nature and be a God who would thinke that the most skilfull man in the nature of things which euer nature brought foorth could not teach his scholer to knowe his owne nature He tooke foule scorne to be called the sonne of Philip the most renouned king of the world but would néedes be sonne vnto Iupiter Hammonius to the great griefe of his mother who vsed often to complaine that her sonne would neuer cease to make her enuied and hated of Iuno as her husband Iupiter his harlot Athenaeus writeth by the authoritie of Ephippus that he vsed to weare sacred robes at supper sometime of purple rounded and horned like vnto Iupiter Hammonius other times like vnto Pallas whiche he carried in his chariot an other while like Mercurie his Petasus on his heade and his Caduceus in his hand and oftentimes in a Lions case with a clubbe like vnto Hercules He woulde be sacrificed vnto with myrrhe and other costly odours He was mynded sayes Strabo if he had not béene preuented by death to haue inuaded Arabia by making a ditche of .xxx. furlongs broade deriued out of Euphrates bicause as he pretended they only of al nations had sent no ambassadours vnto him but the very cause indéede was for that he had heard that the Arabians only worshipped only two Gods that is Iupiter Bacchus who giue the principall things which do appertaine to mans life then he thought that if he should subdue them and afterward suffer them to inioy their auncient liberties that then they would make him their thirde god Which report of Strabo to be true his ridiculous writing vnto all the cities of Greece to be ordeined a God by publike decrée doth probably proue foolishly looking to obteine immortalitie of them which were mortall them selues and that by the statutes of men which was not imparted by nature But when as concerning this matter some decréed one thinge some an other the Lacedemonians made this decrée séeing that Alexander wil néedes be a GOD let him be a God in fewe wordes as their manner was wittily reprouing and couertly scoffing at his doltishe pride Howe muche greater woulde he haue béene if that he had not so hastily coueted to be so great and would not rather haue giuen eare and haue beene ruled by a pelting Poet of Argos Hagis and Clio a seruile Sicylian and the drudges and slaues of those countries whome he had subdued who to féede his humour were not ashamed openly to say that he was a God farre surmounting Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux whome the vaine Greekes accompted their greate Gods and béeing set on by him did moue the Lordes of Macedonie and Greece to acknowledge him for a God whome they saide Clio perfectly already by his actes to be one Then his wise faithfull and louing schoolefelowe Calisthenes and his Nobles and kinsmenne and namely Antigonus who coulde haue tolde him as hee did afterwarde his owne sonne when he vsed himselfe towards his subiects somewhat proudly and violently that the state of a King was nothing else but a glorious bondage and slauerie The contempt hatred vnhappie ende and infamie which this ambition of godly honour bred in Alexander could not happily make other take warning of attempting the like For Caius Caligula the Romane Emperour one borne saies Seneca to shew what supreame naughtinesse is able to do being placed in the supreame place did farre surmounte and go beyond all president of Alexander For he that I may vse Dions wordes woulde be accounted
Caligula was made out of the way to the incredible ioy of all mankinde whom he hated so deadly that he had béen often heard to bewayle his ill happe that in al his reigne there had chaunced no notable pestilence famine rauin of water earthquake nor any great bloudy battell wherby many men might perish wished that all the people of Rome had but one head that he might haue stroken it off at one blowe it had béene ill with mankinde if that this Phaeton of the world as his vncle Tiberius did vse to call him had béen immortall who in thrée yeares and sixe monethes for so long he reigned had néere hand vtterly destroyed it Moreouer I reade in Suetonius that Domitian the Emperour drawing a forme of letters whiche his agents should vse began thus Our Lord and God doeth commaunde it so to be done Whereby it was decréed afterward that he shoulde not be called otherwise by any man either in writing or spéeche It is is also left to memorie that about the yeare of our Lord 620. Cosdras the mightie King of the Persians after that he had won al Syria with Hierusalem al the South part of Asia with Egypt and all Africa would néedes be adored for a God and diuine honours with sacrifices done vnto him through out all his large dominions But perhappes some man will say what maruel was it for great monarches among the heathen to thinke themselues to be Gods if that you do consider their absurditie fonde vsage in constituting of Gods the originall and causes whereof I doe thinke good to touche The thirde Chapter Whereof the false Goddes had their first ground and the causes that moued diuerse countries to worshippe many men after death for Gods and also some while they liued as Demetrius Iulius Caesar Pycta Lysander Simon Magus Apollonius and of the extreeme maddnesse of the Egyptians in chusing of their Gods of the impudent flatterie of the ambassadours of Palermo vnto Martine the fourth and of the people to Herodes Agrippa and the present punishment of God for the accepting thereof Of the wonderfull reuerence that the Persians gaue vnto their Kinges and of the rare loue that the Galles Arabians Aethiopians bare vnto their Princes two woorthie sayinges of Antigonus and Canute AFter that the vngratious child Chara was abdicated and put away by his father without any instructions giuen him touching the worshippinge of the true God the outcast and his progenie marueilously increased as our common prouerbe is an ill wéede growes fast and they deduced many colonies into diuers partes of the worlde and the ignoraunce of the prouing of the true God whiche was in the first parent daily growing greater and greater in his posteritie You séeing as Cicero saies in his booke of the nature of the Gods it is naturally ingraffed in man to acknowledge a God and that no people or nation is so rude and barbarous that doth not professe a God they being vtterly ignoraunt of the true God thought those thinges which they sawe to excell other and by whom they receiued moste commodities to be Gods whereof arose the worshipping of the Sunne the Moone Starres and suche other things and also the making of the Gods when they were dead who in their liues had inuented or done any notable thinges to the vse and profite of mankinde And hereby it came to passe that some for the great celebrity of their names were as it were generally receiued of all nations as Hercules Bacchus Castor and Pollux and other were worshipped but in particular countries of whom onely they had well deserued as Isis in Egypt Iuba in Mauritania Cabyrus in Macedonia Vracius among the Carthaginians Fanus in Latium Romulus or after his deification Quirinus at Rome and with a great number such other shal he méete that diligently readeth the auncient monuments of the Paganes and those christian authors which haue refused their superstitions We read also in the booke of wisedome that the vnhappie man being bereft by vnripe death of his sonne whome hee loued tenderly to mitigate and assuage his sorrowe first inuented to haue his sonnes image adored and it to be taken for a present GOD in earth and the sonne him selfe for a GOD in heauen The like affection wee reade in Lactantius Cicero hadde towardes his Daughter and Virgils Aeneas vnto his Father with this consolation recouering their Spirites daunted and broken with griefe Wonderfull also was the honour and obseruancie that some nations bare vnto their kings so that he whiche readeth what Atheneus doeth write of the Arabians that the familiars of the Kinges did vse to maime them selues voluntarily of that member which it shoulde happen the king to léese and that when the King died either naturall or violent death they thought it but a sport to die all with him the like whereof is affirmed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus of the Aethiopians and also of the Soliduni in a countrie of Gallia who were sixe hundreth men whom the King did chuse to be about him as his guard and liued and died with the king neither was it euer knowen that any one man of them did euer refuse or séeme vnwilling to die the Prince being deceased He I say that reads this wil not be hard of beléefe to credite Lactantius that the Maures did vse to consecrate all their kinges for Gods after they were dead The Aethiopians sayeth Strabo libr. 17. thinke that there is an immortall God and a mortall god The immortall is he that is the cause of all thinges the mortal is with them vncertaine and lacketh a name but mostly they do take them by whom they haue receiued benefites and their Kinges for Gods. Moreouer they doe thinke their kinges to be conseruers and kéepers of all men but priuate men when they be dead for they do account all dead men for Gods onely of them to whome they haue done good In like manner also the Romanes vsed to deifie their Emperours after their deathe as they also did their first king Romulus The Persian kings we reade in Curtius and other were adored like vnto Gods which honour saies Arrianus was giuen done vnto Cyrus first of all mortall men and the first of the Romane Emperours that was adored or knéeled vnto was Dioclesian after his glorious voiage and victorie against the Persians Yea in our time Xoas the king of the Persians is worshipped of his subiectes for god The water wherewithall he hathe washed his féete do they powre out of the basen and kéepe religiously as holy being an hoalsome medicine for al diseases he is called the Lord that holdes vppe heauen and earth The Gentiles also to incourage the young Gentlemen to folowe vertue and valiauncie vsed muche to Canonize and consecrate for Gods after death the renouned Capteines and greate conquerours by these meanes Hercules Bacchus and other did clime into heauen Of this
troupes from all partes of the towne assaulted the house wherin the imbassaders lay requested to haue him deliuered vnto them that he might be executed vtterly neglecting the greatnesse of the Romane name and the memorie of the friendshippe lately made and doubtlesse they would haue put him to death if that the king and the officers had not rather conueyed then deliuered him out of the present perill Diodorus also doth affirme that these baggage Goddes are kept and nourished about the Temples by men of good reputation who féede them with fine manchet Alica a kinde of furmament deintie dishes made with milke Moreouer they do set euery day before them géese bothe boyled and also rosted and for those that eate rawe flesh they cause byrdes to be caught finally they kéepe them with great care and charges Furthermore they doe washe them with warme water and very good and odoriferous ointments They also make for them sumptuous beddes costly garnished they mourne for their death as muche as they were their children and burie them more sumptuously then their abilitie can cleare After the death of Alexander the great when that Ptolomeus Lagi held Egypt an Oxe being dead at Memphis for age he that tooke vpon him the charge to kéepe him bestowed vpon his buriall a great masse of money the whiche had béene giuen for the charges of the funeralles and also fiftie talentes that is 9375. lent by Ptolomey Also in our age which was in the time of Ptolomeus Dionysius the laste king certaine that had the keeping of suche beastly Goddes bestowed vpon their funeralles no lesse then 100. talentes that is 18750. pound In what house soeuer saies Herodotus cattes do dye by nature al they that do dwell in them do shaue their ey-browes onely but if that a dogge die all their whole bodies and heades are shauen Dead cattes are caried by the people howling and beating their brestes vnto the temples to be salted and from thence into the citie Buleastis to be buried but they lay dogs in sacred cophines in those temples where they happen to die but dead shrewe mise and hawkes they do carrie vnto the citie of Butis all these baggages doe they by the reporte of Diodorus wrapp in fine shéetes and embaulme with the precious liquor of Cedrus and odoriferous ointments but dead beares and wolues do they burie where they finde them Moreouer Iuuenal in his xv Satyre doth charge them with farther follie in that they make léekes and onyons their Goddes wherefore he frumping them sayes O holie nations that haue Goddes growing in their gardens I haue béene the longer in declaring the madnesse of the Egyptians to make men vnderstande from whence the Israelites had their wonderfull pronenesse vnto idolatrie and worshipping of false Goddes But as I sayd before it is not so greatly to be maruelled at if that heathen men who accounted those to be Gods whō they knewe to be most renouned for vertue and valiancie did when that when fortune fauned on them forget them selues and inuaded wrongfully the godhead yet who wold beléeue that so absurd a thought coulde come into their myndes to whome God had reuealed his trueth and the knowledge of him selfe if we did not reade the like of Herodes Agrippa in the moste true recordes of the Actes of the Apostles Whiche historie is in these wordes related more at large by Iosephus in the .xix. booke of his antiquities When Herodes Agrippa did set foorth at the citie of Caesaria magnificent spectacles vnto the people in the honour of Caesar vpon a day vowed for the life and safetie of the Emperour to the which came also the worshipfull and honourable of the whole Prouince the second day of the shewes the king putting on a glittering robe wrought with wonderfull workmanship of cleane siluer about Sunne rising came foorth vnto the theatre Nowe when that the Sunne at the first rising did shine vpon the siluer garment the glistering of the mettall did cast foorth with the reuerberated beames suche a double and diuine brightnesse that the tenour of the sight did dazell the eyes of them that behelde it striking in them a veneration with honour Incontinently was there hearde the flatterie of the common people pratling out wordes which sounded to honour but brought destruction He was saluted from all partes of the Theatre by the name of a God and supplyantly prayed vnto to be mercifull and good vnto them the people saying vntill this time we haue euer feared thée as a man but from hencefoorth we doe nowe confesse thée to surmount and be aboue mans nature But the king did not suppresse nor blame their lewde exclamations neither abhorred the vngodlinesse of vnlawfull flatterie vntill suche time as a little while after he looking vp sawe an Owle sitting vppon a rope that went crosse the Theatre ouer his head and immediately withall he felt him to be the minister of his destruction whome he had knowne before to be his purueyour of good thinges and so was he soudenly tormented with incredible peines about his heart belly and small guts and looking backe vpon his friendes sayde behold ye I that God of yours am presently tumbled downe from life the power of God presently prouing those wordes to be false whiche you euen very nowe bestowed and hurled on me And I whome but very nowe you called immortall am out of hande at this instant carried headlong to death but I must abide and receiue the sentence whiche God hath pronoūced on me for I haue liued not in miserie but in so great felicitie that al men cal me a blessed mā When he had spoken those words he being more grieuously vexed with the violence of the peine was incontinently borne into the palace But shortly after when it was bruted abroad that he was vpon the point of death a great multitude of al ages sects came vnto the palace who lying on the ground grouely clothed in hairecloth after their countrie guise made incessant supplications vnto God for the kings recouerie all the kinges palace ringing with their dolful cries and lamentations whē as in the mean time the king lying in a chamber aboue and looking downe and beholding them lying flatte on their faces with lamentable wéeping could not abstein from teares him selfe but being fiue dayes thus tormented incessantly with griping peines of his bellie at the lengthe brake in sunder the tedious thread of lothsome life Thus by this long narration of those whose prosperitie made them to forget their maker yea and them selues too that saying of Augustines is verified that as all fruites all graines all woodes haue their worme and euery one a diuers worme the one from the other so the worme of riches power and prosperitie is pryde which doth corrupt and quite consume them as all other wormes do the substaunces wherein they are bred neuer dying vntill that they haue chaunged the names turning woods to rottennesse yron to lust and
drosse power to pouertie the vnsearchable wisedome of God so ordeyning that those thinges whiche it might séeme no forreighe forre could be able to hurt shoulde them selues ingender in them selues a thing to destroy them selues and be vtterly consumed by an inward yl Yet Canute the mightie Monarche of this realme Denmarke and Norwey did so medicine his prosperitie with true godlinesse religiousnesse and humilitie that there could no worme of pryde be bred in it For he hauing once gotten a leasure time from the troublesome affaires of his realmes and subiectes walked for to refreshe his spirites dulled with the vnquiet tediousnesse of Princes toyle along the sea side vpon the sandes not farre from Southhampton where he was called by one of his souldiers that serued vnto the eare the king of kings and of all kings far the most mightie who largely reigned ouer men ouer the sea ouer the earth Then the king speaking neuer a worde erected his mynde to contemplate the power of God and that he might with a manifest argument and demonstration reproue the vaine and false flatterie of his souldiour he did put off his cloke and wrapping it round together like a bowle and setting downe vpon it hard by the water that then flowed spake thus Waue I commaund thée that thou touch not my féete He had not so soone spoken these wordes those whiche attended on him woondering to what ende hee did these thinges when beholde the waue in surging all to wette him Then he going backe saide Syrs call ye me a king who am not able to cohibite and staye this litle waue certes no mortall man is woorthie of so highe a name there is one onely king the Father of our Lorde Iesus Christe with whome he doth reigne at whose becke al thinges are gouerned and ruled him let vs worshippe him let vs call king him of kinges him of all peoples and nations to be the Lord him of heauen of the earthe of the sea to be the ruler let vs not onely confesse but also professe and besides him none After this going to Winchester he did set with his owne handes the crowne whiche he ware on his head vpon the Image of Christe crucified whiche stoode in the Churche and neuer ware crowne afterwarde The fourth Chapter Of the manifolde miseries of man. NOw after I haue rehearsed vnto you a ragged roll of them whose vnmeasurable pride woulde not suffer them to be contented with the nexte place vnto God but would néedes sit with him and many of them hauing by their sauage and brutishe vsage and acts iustly lost the name of men did wickedly wrongfully inuade the Godhead I thinke it will not be either amisse or vnpleasaunt to discourse whither that they or any others suche foundlings of fortune euer had any suche perfect felicitie as might quite take from them all annoyance and defect and make them wholy forgette that they were mortal men and whyther that any man may in this life be truely accompted happie But I wil plainely proue that mans nature of it selfe is so farre from that blisse in this world that no liuing creature is in any wise so wretched and fraught with miseries as is he and wil also make manifest vnto you by the particular examining of their liues dooinges chaunces and endes that no man whiche either would bee or was accounted a God called the great or any other man which was notorious and renouned for this worldly felicitie euer had fortune so addicted vnto him that he liued long without some greate mischaunce which might put him in remembraunce that he was a man and subiect vnto manifolde miseries and gracious calamities And first to speake in general of man who knoweth not that where as all other liuing thinges be borne with some couering defence and clothing as shell ryndes hydes prickles bristles hayre fethers quilles scales fléeses or wull ye and trées are defenced against both colde and heate with a barke and some with two onely man hathe nature throwen away on the bare ground all naked for to wraule and crie and onely of al creatures to wéepe yea and to beginne his immeasurable labours with lamentations but to laughe before he be fourtie daies olde is a monster prognosticating and foretelling how seldome he shal haue cause of mirth howe rife sorowes wil be all his life long After his doleful beginning of life incōtinently is he bound like a notorious malefacter both hand foote ye euery limme of him which happeneth vnto no other liuing thing and he that shal reigne ouer al other creatures lies crying in his cradle as in a prison fast tyed and begins his life with punishment which he suffereth for no other fault but because he is borne O the madnesse of them that of their beginninges do thinke them selues borne to pride and to be Goddes The first hope of strength function and gyft of time makes him to craule on all foure How long is it er he doth goe howe long before he speaketh howe long before his mouthe he firme for meate howe long doth his moulde pante a signe and token of a singular weakenesse among the thinges that liue all other liuing thinges do féele and knowe their owne nature some vse swiftnesse of foote some wight winge other their strength other swimme onely man knoweth nothing without teaching He speaketh not he goeth not he eateth not and to be short he doth nothing of natures owne accorde and instruct but wéepe crye Whereby that saying of Menander in Plutarche his consolation vnto Apollonius is proued true that no liuing thing doth sooner and more often rise and fall then doeth man and good cause why for that he being of all other moste weake doth administer greatest and weightiest matters To how many diseases is he subiect how many medicines are inuēted daily against them which yet are ouercome by new diseases which do daily arise and what disease almoste hath any thing the draweth breathe wherunto man is not obnoctious howe many maladies hath he w whō no other liuing thing is troubled the panting of the hart bloud flowing out from the head by the nose onely he wéepeth only he goggleth with his eyes only he stāmereth with his toung he only is borne w the stone only in his scarrs wil no haire grow again he néeseth oftener then any other thing that beares life a token of greate distemperature of the braine Nowe if we runne through all partes of his life we shall finde and see no time voide of paine loose of gréefes and frée from tormentes of diseases In the ages of men saies diuine Hippocrates happen suche diseases in infants and children newly borne hotte vlceres of the mouthe vomitinges coughes watchinges swellinges inflamations of the nauill moistnesse of the eares but when they come to bréede téeth itching of the gummes agues conuulsions laskes and woorse when they put foorthe the dogge téeth when they are waxen elder inflamations
did daily take away life frō so many good men But Suetonius writes that he made the horseman to fight in his sight and would not let him go before he had vanquished no nor then neither but after great intercession but the other madde man who made no great haste to perfourme that whiche he had rashely sworne he caused to be whipped and clothed in a sacrificeng robe and then deliuered him vnto Boyes who still requesting of him as they went the perfourmaunce of his vowe shoulde driue him alonge throughout all the Stréetes vntil that at the length they brake his necke off from a rampire Moreouer this Godlesse man that contemned all GODS and as I haue before alledged out of Dion woulde thunder againste thunder doeth Suetonius affirme would oftentimes be so afraide of a small thunder and lightening that he would winke and blindefolde him selfe but if it were great créepe out of his bedde and hide him vnder it And also he was so feared in Sicyl with the smoke and noise of the hil Aetna that soudenly in the night he fledde out of the citie of Messana And also hearing that Germanie had rebelled he prepared to runne away from Rome and rigged shippes in a readinesse to carrie him thence resting in this one only comfort that he shoulde haue left vnto him the Prouinces beyond the Sea if that the Germanes did take the toppes of the Alpes as in olde time the Cymbri had done or else the citie as had the Seuones He liued onely twentie nine yeares whereof he reigned but thrée yeares and tenne monethes and eight dayes and those in howe great feare and hofulnesse his continual putting of men to death for treason against him and his curious searching for Oracles and prophesies do declare all the which yet could not saue him frō being slaine with his wife and his daughter whose braines were dashed out against the wall His bodie for feare lest that some villanie should be done vnto it was priuily conueied away and being but halfe burnt was couered ouer with a fewe turues so that he that woulde be honoured for a God whilest he liued coulde not be buried like a man when he was dead The xxvi Chapter Of Domitian NEyther were Domitians actes any thing greater as one that had no delight in armes and in whose reigne the Daces reuolted and oppressed Appius Sabinus their Lieftenaunt with his whole armie and anon after also Cornelius Fussus captein of his guard an office in those dayes of all other the greatest and sent thether with a power to reduce them vnto their duetie Then Domitian went against them him selfe or more truly made as though he had gone for as Dion affirmes he neuer during all his reigne gouerned armie or administred warres as he that was a man impatient of all bodily labour for in the citie he woulde neuer goe on foote and in the field sildome ride on horse but alwayes be carried in a lieter and was also of a faint and fearefull heart but he staying by the way out of danger sent his capteines against them who fought with no greater felicitie then had their predecessours and shamefully lost a great parte of their armie and yet this shamelesse God sent lying letters vnto Rome that he had conquered and subdued them wherevppon there were so many and so honourable decrées made for him that almost in all places of the world that were vnder his dominion statuies of gold and siluer were set vp But he might in déede haue truely triumphed of flies of whome he doubtlesse flue innumerable For at the beginning of his reigne he vsed to haue euerie daye a secrete houre to catch flies and to thrust them through with a long péece of yron made for the nonce so that it was as merrily as wittily answered of Vibius Craspus when one desiering to speake with Domitian asked him who was within with the Emperour he answered not so much as a flie for then he had béen as busie as if the whole Senate had bene with him He also deserued a iust triumph ouer wilde beasts of whom he would kil vpon the Theatre an hundreth in a day with his bowe bestowing his arrowes so artificially that they séemed to be hornes growing out of their heads For he was so good an archer that he would oftentimes cause a boy to stand a great distance off hold vp his hand abroad and he would shoote betwéene euery finger and neuer hurt them But séeing that not great conquestes but only riches left vnto him did make him to conceiue so highly of him selfe my thinkes he might well haue ben put in minde of his mortalitie by calling to memorie his youth passed in greate pouertie and infamie as he that had not one péece of plate and did shamefully prostitute his body so that there were at Rome that did often shewe after he came to the Empire his hande and seale for a nights lodging What shall I rehearse his great daunger in the warres against Vitellius Competitor in the Empire with his father when he his vncle Sabinus being ouercome in fight fled into the Capitol but his enimies breaking into the temple setting it on fire he lodged al that night priuily in great feare with the sextene and in the morning being disguised in the apparell of a priest of Isis he passed the riuer among the priests of that vaine superstition vnto the mother of one of his schoole fellowes who hid him selfe so closely that they whiche following his foote diligently searched for him could by no meanes finde him What torments may we thinke tore him when he vnderstoode the adulterie of his deare wife Domitia by whom he had a sonne and had proclamed her Augusta or Empresse with Paris a common player whome she loued as openly as she did feruently Whervpon he did put her away but within short time after being impatient of the diuorce tooke her againe séeking to colour his ignominie in so doing with a feigned tale that the people had desired him to do it I do omit what griefe his bald head brought him who would draw vnto his own reproch if that the like were obiected vnto any other man eyther in earnest or sport and also his often infirmities through whome he became deformously spindle shanked But in what continuall feare he led his life his often murthering of many vnder colour of treason against him whereby he became hatesome to all men makes manifest but much more the ouercasting of the wals of his gallerie wherin he vsed to walke with a shining kynd of marble wherin as in a glasse he might sée who was behind him Yet this strange kinde of hofulnesse could not kéepe him frō being murthered by a conspiracie of his nearest friends liberts and wife although that he had long time before suspected feared the yeare the day yea the houre and the kind of his death when he had reigned fiftéen yeres a long and a rare time for
often ruthfull roades and wastinges to disturbe the quiet state of hofull Solomon but the rebellion of his owne seruaunt Hieroboam whome he had aduaunced from base birth to beare the honourable office of Lorde Stewarde of his housholde more brake the dismaide king who had not béene vsed vnto such furious fittes oâ—â—aging Fortune This Hieroboam béeing tolde by Ahias the Prophet that he should haue tenne of the Tribes after the decease of Solomon thought it too long to staye vntill hée was dead but solicited the souldiours and people to reuolt and depriue Solomon of his royall dignitie but attempting it vntimely he was forced to séeke safetie by flying into Aegypt but yet would not Solomons feare conceiued of him cease vntill that friendly death had ridde him out of worldly troubles with whome his heauie heart was nowe wholly oppressed The xli Chapter ¶ Of Herodes king of Iudea NOne of all the successours of Solomon did come so neare vnto his greatenesse as did Herodes who yet for Martiall glorie strength of bodie and valiant heart did more resemble his father Dauid He béeing descended of the royal bloud was the first straunger that reigned ouer the Iewes hauing the kingdome giuen vnto him by the Romanes when that the Parthians had expelled Hyrcanus carrying him awaye with them in yrones beeinge defourmed of his eares and placed there his enimie Antigonus whome Herodes thorough the aide of the Romaines foylinge in manie fightes tooke prisoner in Ierusalem and sent vnto the Romaines to be murdered he also augmented the bounds of the kingdom through the liberalitie of Augustus with Sadara Hippon Samaria Gaza Anthedon Ioppe Pyrgos Stratonis and afterwarde with the countries of Thracos Bathanea and Auranitis and his immesurable riches do his beautifull buyldings blase First he buylte the great and faire cities of Sebaste and Caesaria at whiche Caesaria he ouercomming nature with charges made the goodliest hauen of the Easte wher before no man coulde sayle all along that shore for the fléeting quicke sandes and although that all the whole place did withstande his purpose yet he did so striue with the difficulties thereof that the strength of the worke did not giue place vnto the violence of the Sea and the beautie of the buyldinge was so greate as though no harde thinge had hindered the garnishing thereof For all that greate space that he had appoynted for the safe roade of the shippes he piled or paued twentie fadome deepe with stones euerie one of whome beeing fifty foote long and ten broad and manie of them greater then inlarged he a wall into thrée hundreth foote of the whiche one hundreth was caste vp before to repell the surges of the Sea the rest lay vnder the wal that inclosed rounde the hauen mounting with manie verie goodly and beautifull towers there were also manie vaults or arches through whome suche thinges as were in the hauen might be caried foorth and before the vaultes a sumptuous galerie or walking place At the mouth of the hauen were set vp thrée Colossi stayed vp on both sides with pillers on the left hand of whom as a man came into the hauen stoode a tower but on the right two high stones the which did passe the tower in greatnes And vnto the hauen he adioyned great houses of white stone and ouer right against the hauen a temple vnto Caesar a singular péece of woorke both for beautie and greatnes and therin was there a Colossus of Caesar no lesse than Iupiters at Olympia by the whiche paterne it was made Hée also built therein a market place or a towne house a Theatre and an Amphitheatre and what charge it was to builde a Theatre may appeare by Plinie the younger in his epistle vnto Traiane where hee writeth that the Theatre at Nicen had consumed Centies sestertium that is thréescore and eightéene thousand one hundreth twentie fiue pounds yet was not finished but vnperfecte And doubtlesse an Amphitheatre spent double the charges as that which was as who would say two theatres ioyned in one Besides these cities he built also Agrippium and Antipatris the sumptuous castels the which might compare with townes of Cyprus Phaselis and Herodion Hee also newe built the temple of Hierusalem making it as faire as euer was Solomons and adioyned vnto it double as much ground as it had before being inclosed with a wall where he built stately walking places which the Romanes called Porticus whereunto he adioyned a goodly castell Hee also built for him selfe a sumptuous palace wherein were two chappels dedicated vnto Caesar the whiche might for beautie and greatnesse compare with any temple of the world Finally in all fit places of his kingdome did hee erecte goodly Churches and other sumptuous monumentes in the honour of Augustus Neither was he contented to beautifie his owne realme with goodly buildings but also in forreigne cities hée shewed his magnificence building at Tripolis Damascus Ptolomais publique baines a kinde of building in that riotous age of all other most costlye both for the garnishing and also for the stately walkes gardenes places of exercises and other such like thinges vsually adioyned vnto them Byblus hee walled about at Berithus and Tyrus he built burses towne houses and temples and at Sidon and Damascus Theaters and at Laodicea a conduite the which had béene no great princely worke if that they had béen no more chargeable in those countries then they be in ours but they being there brought vppon mightie arches of stones galantly garnished were of inestimable charges in somuch that Claudius Caesar bestowed vpon a conduite at Rome Quingenties quinquagies quinquies of oure monie foure hundreth and thirtie thrée thousand fiue hundred l. and fiftéene shillinges the whiche as it is a great summe of monie to be bestowed vppon a conduite so doth it drawe nothing néere vnto the summe of vij millions and eighte hundreth thousand pounds set downe by William Thomas But to returne vnto Herode hee also built baines and cesternes for water at Ascalon with other edifices worthie to be wondered at for their workemanshippe and also their greatnesse Moreouer of his magnificent liberalitie in kingly giftes the Rhodians the Lycians the Samians the Ionians the Athenians the Lacedemonians the Nicopolitanes the Pergamenians were partakers And besides these goodes of Fortune had God also bountifully blessed him with tenne sonnes and fiue daughters and with long life to reigne 37. yeares and to sée his sonnes sonnes and daughters married he liuing vntill hée was seuentie yeares old But yet this man vppon whom fortune had thus prodigally throwen her gifts was often sore shaken with many aduerse tempestes For while he was a priuate man but in déede ruled all the kingdome of Iurie vnder Hyrcanus was he in daunger of death being accused by an honourable Embassage of an hundreth Iewes before Antonius the Triumuir for oppressing of the realme and subiectes and also the which touched Antonius more that he had béene his