of Agathias particular notice is to be taken not only of what he saies of the following Oriental Monarchies towards the end of the Second but chiefly of what he adds in the Fourth concerning the succession of the Kings of Persia since Artaxares who restored the Empire to them from whose hands the Parthians had taken it and placed it in their own For besides his care and industry to handle this matter well the authority of one Sergius an Interpreter is of great weight who had from the Annalists and Library-keepers of the Persian Kings all that this Historian delivers unto us Wherefore doubtless he had reason to correct the writings of Procopius by the Records wherewith this Interpreter had furnished him and to prefer them before all other relations because they that describe the History of their oâ—n Country are rather to be believed than strangers especially if their discourse be grounded on such Authentick Pieces as were those of the Publick Archives which were communicated unto Sergius Thus we have finished all we purposed on the first part of our Enterprise and shall procceed to the Second which is to consider the writings of the most considerable of the Latin Historians which remain of the Ancients THE SECOND PART BEING REFLECTIONS upon the Writings OF THE LATIN HISTORIANS REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF CRISPUS SALUSTIUS THE same reason which induced me to give Herodotus the first place amongst the Greek Historians obliges me to allow the same rank amongst the Latin to Crispus Salustius although there have been some much more Ancient than he For it is known that Ennius had writ Eighteen Annals in Heroick Verse long before him and that Nevius in the same Age described the first Punick War in another sort of Verse called Saturnian Fabius Pictor was the first of the Romans as Vossius observes that compiled a History in Latin Prose Posthumius Albinus Cassius Hemina and C. Fannius whom Salust celebrates for true Historians writ after him And Cato with his Origines Historicae Sempronius Vaelerius Antias and Quadrigarius so often quoted by Aulus Gellius may be all said to have preceded Salust in this sort of writing But since there remains to us nothing of their works but the grief for the loss of them the Histories of Fabius Cato and Sempronius delivered unto us by Annius of Viterbum being all counterfeit by an imposture which we have already complained of more than once is it not just to begin this our Second Enterprise with Salust from whom we have Entire pieces of History and other Fragments which all learned men respect I know that Julius Caesar is as Ancient as he and that some even affirm that Salust though Elder died Seven years after the murder of this Emperor It cannot be a fault to give precedence in this place now he is dead to One that he could never indure while he lived The name of Commentaries rather than History which his works bear invites me to it And the language of Salust that is raxed with the Air of Antiquity and affectation of the old words of Cato may be another Motive in which also the judgment of Martial which all the world alledges in his favour very plainly concurs Hic erit ut perhibent doctorum corda virorum Crispus Romanâ primus in Historiâ Besides the reproach made him by Asinius Pollio for having too much affected that old way of writing which Cato used in his Origines the quite contrary vice is imputed to him Viz. of making too many new words Audacious Translations as Suetonius calls them and Phrases purely Greek Whereof Quintilian gives this Example Vulgus amat fieri Moreover he is accused of having been too concise in his expressions thereby rendering his Stile obscure and difficult as shortness ordinarily confines upon obscurity Wherefore the same Quintilian instructs young men to read Livy more than Salust and charges them to avoid carefully that broken and contracted way of writing of which Salust made a perfection and which is truly very agreeable in him but we ought not to propose it to our selves for imitation because it may render us insensibly less intelligible which is very contrary to true Eloquence We learn also from divers passages of Aulus Gellius that many persons in his time found fault with the Education of Salust though it appears sufficiently that he himself was not displeased with it for he calls him in one place Subtilissimum brevitatis Artificem and in another Proprietatum in verbis retinentissimum Seneca likewise whose â—tile fitted to his Philosophical profession is wonderful short and interrupted does not forbear to rail at the affectation of one Aruntius who in his History of the Punick Wars took great pains to express it in the very terms of Salust He censures his too frequent repetition of the word hyemare and of Famas in the plural signifying Fame and some other expressions which were read in Aruntius But nevertheless he writes that in the time of Salust obscure brevity and cut periods which left men to guess at the sense passed for an Ornament of language Salustio vigente amputatae sententiae verba ante expectatum cadentia obscura brevitas fuere pro cultu But do we not see that Macrobius many Ages after under the Authority of one of Eusebius his Entertainments makes Salust reign in the concise way of writing that is he rendered himself so considerable in it that no body thereupon could dispute the first rank with him Because the word brevity is equivocal and many persons speak of Tacitus and Salust as of Authors equally brief it may be convenient to declare of what great consequence it is not to confound their Stile as agreeing when they are very different It cannot be denied that Tacitus followed Salust in a close way of writing which both used wherein they may be said somewhat to resemble one another And in this all those agree that have considered the Stile of the Ancients and even Tacitus himself acknowledges how much he esteemed that of Salust when he called him Rerum Romanarum florentissimum Auctorem which made him imitate him But it cannot be affirmed that this Laconick expression which is common to them both makes them equal in the rest and can make them pass for as correct Historians one as the other for to speak properly a succinct way of writing does not so much contribute to make an exact brief Historian as when the matter whereof he writes is such that nothing can be taken from it without a prejudice to his Subject and the spoyling of his work Tacitus is admitted to be an Author correct and brief in his Phrase by the impossibility there is to cut of the least word of his composition without necessarily diminishing his thoughts and doing a notable injury to his narration But it is not so with Salust who though he straightens his Stile puts many things into
of having first thought upon the animation of History that was before a body languishing which appears in his exact Orations composed in all the three sorts of Oratory the demonstrative the deliberative and the Judicial Herodotus had attempted the same thing but he was content to use some oblique speeches and those almost ever imperfect never proceeding so far as Thucydides who in this way of writing left nothing to be objected against by the severest Orators And it is said that Demosthenes was so well pleased with his History that he took the pains to transcribe it Eight times By the consent of all he has the glory of not mingling Fables with his true Narrations If he is constrained to say a word of Tereus King of Thrace and Progne in his Second Book or if in describing Sicily in the beginning of the Sixth he finds himself obliged to speak of the Cyclops and Laestrigones as Ancient Inhabitants of a part thereof it is so lightly that the Dogs of Egypt touch not so hastily the water of Nilus whose Crocodiles they fear as he passes nimbly over a fabulous circumstance to avoid the least entrance of a lye into his writings And yet he has not been so happy to be without the reproach of not having alwaies spoken truth for Josephus affirms that he was taxed of having falsified his History in many places but at the same time he accuses all the Grecians of imposture and if one observes the commendation he gives him afterwards of having been the most exact and cautious of all his Country-men in compiling a History it will appear rather to proceed from the capricious humour of his Sect than the demerit of an Historiographer for as he was a Jew who made it his business to discredit all Pagan History he thought he ought to say something to the prejudice of Thucydides when he had spared none of the rest I shall add here that Thucydides did not onely lay down in his History all sorts of Orations as we before observed but took the liberty to insert Dialogues as that betwixt the Athenian Generals and the Inhabitants of the Isle of Melos which comprehends a great part of the fifth Book to the end But those that have an aversion to digressions have no reason to hare them in this Authour who touches them with great Art as amongst others the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogiton in the sixth Book which may justifie many other excursions or like Sallies that are often censured with two little reason and notwithstanding all his defects the most judicious of the learned yeild him the prize of Eloquence and not one of the Ancients deny him the glory of having seconded Pindar in the Grandeur and Majesty of expression REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF XENOPHON XENOPHON does not owe the fame he has had so many Ages to History alone for Philosophy and Arms have contributed to it and I believe that for these three Qualifications he may be as well termed Trismegistus as Hermes the Aegyptian since he is universally acknowledged to be a very great Captain Philosopher and Historiographer He has common with Caesar the first and last Qualities and they are not deceived who find a third resemblance in their stile Purity Eloquence and sweetness being equally natural to them both They have each an agreeable manner of expression without art or affectation though no art or affectation can come near it The Surname of Apes Attica and Athenian Muse with which all the Ancients have dignified Xenophon is not only a witness of the beauty of his language and of that hony-like sweetness which the Graces seem to have poured on it with their own hands to speak like Quintilian but it is a particular mark of his Attick Dialect wherein he excelled so much that Diogenos Laertius writing his life gives no other reason for the bad intelligence that was between him and Plato than the jealousie they conceived one against the other upon that account Yet Marcellinus who attributes to Thucydides in his Elogy the height of Eloquence gives the lowest rank to Xenophon placing Herodotus between both and Dionysius Halicarnasseus when he observes that Xenophon has often imitated Herodotus adds that the former was alwaies much inferiour to the latter But notwithstanding this it is very considerable that Xenophon was the first Philosopher who applied himself to the compiling of a History which in what relates to the Graecian affairs treats of the Transactions of eight and forty years and begins where Thucydides ended shewing Aleibiades his return to his Country whom Thucydides in his last Book left meditating upon that retreat Nor is it a small glory to Xenophon but a proof of extraordinary Honesty to have freely exposed to the publick the writings of Thucydides which he might have supprest or delivered as his own if he would have been a Plagiary and have ascribed to himself the works of another which many others have done and do daily practise Besides the continuation of the History begun by Thucydides Xenophon has left us that of the enterprise of young Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes and the memorable retreat of ten thousand Graecians from the extremities of Persia to their own Country in which he had almost the whole honour as well for his councel and discipline as the excellency of his conduct What he writ of the institution of the Elder Cyrus is not an historical Treatise but purely Moral where he drew the figure of a great Prince without confining himself to the truth except of two or three events viz. the taking of Babylon and the captivity of Craesus All the rest is feigned and has nothing in it commendable but the agreeableness of the Fable as Hermogenes has well observed on the subject of Panthea's death who slew her self with three Eunuchs upon the body of her Husband Abradatus in the seventh Book of that institution These compositions of Xenophon of which we have spoken are such that as they may serve for a rule to the first Ministers of State in all the extent of Politicks according to the excellent judgment which Dion Chrysostomus makes of them so likewise they are capable to form great Captains and give the world Generals and we have two notable examples of this among the Romans for they acknowledg that their Scipio surnamed Africanus had almost alwaies Xenophons works in his hands and that nothing made Lucullus capable to oppose such a formidable enemy as King Mithridatos but the reading the writings of Xenophon Whereof Lueullus made so good use by Sea he who before had a very small insight into the affairs of War that he knew enough afterwards to gain those famous Victories which few of the learned are ignorant of and whereby the most considerable Provinces of Asia became tributary to the Romans Xenophon has writ upon divers Subjects and it seems that in many of them there has been Emulation between him and Plato
for they both composed a defence of Socrates and many other moral and politick Treatises according to the observation of Diogenes in Plato's life without any mentioning one another with reciprocal praise whatsoever occasion presented it self among so many Dialogues by them exposed in the name of Socrates with his Disciples Some will have it that Xenophon represented in very lively colours the defects of one Menon a Thessalian in the end of the Second Book of Cyrus his expedition for no other reason than that he was a friend to Plato But as for that other Book de Aequivocis printed an Age ago under the name of Xenophon it is to be held one of the impostures of Annius Viterbius In like manner some would have a certain suppositious History of the Siege of Troy to pass for current under the name of one Dictys Cretensis a Companion of Idomeneus and of one Dares a Phrygian and that it was translated out of Greek into Latin by Cornelius Nepos when the Stile bewraies that he never thought upon the work for it has nothing of that inimitable purity and eloquence which appears in his lives of the Greek Captains and in that of Atticus writ by the same Author such impostures are offensive and cannot be too much derested by the Lovers of truth And yet some there are so led away by their affection for Fables that they feed themselves with such trifles and so build upon those idle foundations as thereby to encourage others to impose the like chears upon Mankind We have lately seen the Itinerary of Alexander Geraldin Bishop of St. Dominick who pretends to have found over all Aethiopia on this and the other side of the Line Roman Inscriptions and Antiquities of such value that all others which the rest of the Earth affords would be despicable if the worst of his were true But it is observable that none before or after him ever saw them nor is there any Schollar so unexperienced in this sort of reading that cannot easily discover the falsehood of his observations so unlikely they are Is it not a great impertinence to raise pillars to testifie the Conquest and absolute dominion of the Romans in places where apparently none of them ever set foot and in direct opposition to all we have from their own Histories The same judgment is to be made of those Hetruscian or Tuscan Antiquities which we have of a fresher date from one Inghiramius whose impudence is unpardonable for deceiving the world at such a rate And perhaps it were not unfit to have punishments established to signalise the infamy of those that dare expose to the publick spiritual Aliments so corrupted and Mortal as those are for no poison operates with more violence and bad effects upon the body then errors and impostures upon our minds when we are infected with them An Author of the last Age accuses Xenophon of having loved Agesilaus so passionately that not only in his Book which he writ of his praise but likewise in his History he makes rash judgments in his favour and extols his Victories much more than the Laws of History will permit But this Capricio of an Italian will be approved of by very few because it arraigns the judgment of all Antiquity which never spoke so much to the disadvantage of Xenophon And Tully who mentions his praise of that Prince does not accuse him of any indecency in it As for his Stile one may see what Hermogenes writes of it who commends it especially for its sweetness and simplicity which he makes one of the principal Ornaments of Language and in this respect he by much prefers Xenophon to Plato He was by Birth an Athenian and the Son of one Grillus and lived about four hundred years before the Nativity of Christ. REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF POLYBIUS AS Xenophon was the first Philosopher that applied himself to write Histories so Polybius has the advantage to have given us the most considerable one extant and made it appear more clearly than any other Historiographer that History is as it were the Metropolitan of Philosophy to use the tearms of the Historian of whom we shall write in the Chapter following But what is said of Polybius might be more reasonably admitted if the whole body of his works were now extant of which only the least part remains since of fourty Books which he composed there are but the five first entire with the Epitomy of the following twelve which is continued to the beginning of the Eighteenth Many are of opinion that this Epitomy was writ by the great assertour of Roman Liberty Marcus Brutus because it is known that he delighted in nothing so much as in reading History being a man so difficult to please that Cicero's works did not affect him and therefore he imployed his leasure in Epitomising the History of Polybius finding therein besides that instruction wherewith it abounded the consolation he needed in the last and most unfortunate daies of his life The Subject of this History were all the most considerable actions in the world from the beginning of the second Punick War to the end of that which terminated the differences of the Romans with the Macedonian Kings by the utter ruine of their Monarchy This includes the space of Three and Fifty years the events of which Polybius shewed in the last Eight and Thirty Books for the Two first are not so much of the body of his History as they serve for a preparative in a summary narration of the taking of Rome by the Gaules under the conduct of Brannus and of that which followed until the first year of the second War against the Carthaginians But though the affairs of the Roman Empire were much more exactly described by him than the rest of those that writ of that Subject because his chief aim was to omit nothing that might give a perfect information of them yet he neglected not also to represent the concerns of all the other powers of the Universe unsolding the interests of the Kings of Syria Egypt Macedon Pontus Cappadocia and Persia with those of all the different Dynasties which were then in Greece And therefore he gave the name of Catholick or Universal to his History as informing us of the destinies of all the Nations of the Earth there being scarce any at that time which had not some difference with or dependance on the Romans He received at his Birth great gifts from Nature which favoured his enterprise and that chance of fortune which made him come to Rome was no small advantage to him since he is indebted to it not only for the best part of his learning but the important friendship he contracted with Scipio and Lelius which contributed much to the celebration of his History to posterity But the pains he took in the acquisition of all that could put him in a capacity of writing it well and labouring for eternity seems worthy to be considered
though his language is very numerous and adjusted according to Art yet it appears to be so little laboured that the Reader does in no wise perceive the care that has been taken in it because it is so clear and intelligible that every one presupposes as much facility in the composition as there is in the reading He seems to have imitated Thucydides whom he follows especially in his Narratives and Orations But he has the advantage over him not to be reproached with obscurity In all else Thucydides is the pattern by which he Copies with all sort of Circumspection This is the judgment Photius gives of him who is much more creditable in this point than Sigonius that to say something of his own long since thought on accuses Dio of being too Asiatick and so prolix in his Orations that he is troublesome to his Readers The world must be left to their liberty of thinking according to the Law of the Romans Populo libera sunto suffragia Yet I conceive for what relates to language the surest way is to leave that to those to whom it is natural and who have sucked it with their milk rather than to strangers who are much more subject to be mistaken Besides Dio's History and his little Treatises before mentioned it seems that Suidas ascribes to him some other compositions as the life of the Philosopher Arrianus the action of Trajan and certain Itineraries Raphael Volaterranus makes him besides Author of Three Books intituled de Principe and some small Treatises of Morality We must also observe that there have been many Dio's of great repute and one amongst the rest who lived an Age before Dio Cassius in the same Emperor Trajans time This is he who for his Eloquence had the Surname of Chrysostomus who was of Prussia and by consequence of Bithynia as well as the other and for whom Trajan had so particular a Love that he often honoured him with a place by him in his Châ—riot These Two Dions are distinguished by their professions as well as their Surnames The first according to the times they lived in was an Oratour and Phisopher the Second an Historian and Statesman such as we have represented him in this Section REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF HERODIAN THE History of Herodian as most of those we have already mentioned receives its commendation from the merit of its Author He declares at the beginning of his first Book that he will only write of the affairs of his own time which he himself hath seen or understood from creditable persons for which he was very competent because of the publick imployments that he exercised for he might justly boast to have passed through the principal charges of the State About the end of his Second Book he acquaints us before he begins to write of the life of Septimius Severus which contains all the Third Book that his History in general shall comprehend the space of Seventy years and treat of the Government of all the Emperors which succeeded one another during that time that is from the Reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Philosopher to that of the younger Gordianus Grandchild of the former which some with Julius Capitolinus reckon to be the Third of that name His Eighth Book which is the last of his Work ends with the unworthy slaughter of the Two old men Balbinus and Pupienus whom he calls Maximus committed on them by the Praetorian Souldiers to advance the forementioned Gordianus Junior to the Throne Photius writes of his Stile that he has writ in an Air so much the more cleer and agreeable in that he has not too much affected the Attick terms but so tempered his Phrase that his discourse is heightned above the lower form of Oration and as there is nothing superfluous in his writings so it cannot be said that he has omitted things necessary or useful to be known and he adds to compleat his Elogium of him that considering all the virtues of an Historian there are few Authors to whom Herodian ought to subscribe We have observed in the preceding Sections that he hath as well as Dion Cassius informed us of the Pagan Ceremonies used at the Consecration of their Emperors It is in the beginning of his Fourth Book where he so well represents to us all the Funeral honours rendered to the Ashes of Severus which his Children had transported from England in an Alablaster Chest that it is hard to see any where any thing more exact and more instructive He tells us how they were put into an Urne with the general adoration of the Senate and the People and carried by the Consuls to the Temple where the Sacred Monuments of their Emperors were preserved and then proceeding to describe the Funeral Pomp he informs us that his Effigies in Wax all cloathed in Robes of Gold was placed at the Gate of his Palace on an Ivâ—ry Bed elevated from the Ground and magnificently adorned Where Seven daies together the Senators clothed in black and the Roman Ladies all in White without any other Ornaments came to pay their respects taking their places the Women on the right and the men on the left side of the Bed all appearing with very mournful countenances He observes also that the Physitians came duly to visit this representation of the Emperor making formal approaches to the Bed as if he were alive and declaring that his sickness grew daily worse and worse so true it is that this world is a continual Comedy After this time was passed over the most considerable of the Youth and the Knights carried the same Bed on their shoulders first to the great Market places where the Magistrates of Rome used to Surrender their charges and there a Chorus of young men on one side and Virgins on the other Sung Hymns to the praise of the dead Emperor from thence they proceeded to the Campus Martius which was out of the Town where the Bed and Effigies were placed in a large square Tabernacle of Wood resembling and elevated to the height of one of those Towers upon which Lights are placed on the Sea Coasts to direct Mariners to avoid the dangers of Rocky shores whereof he makes such exact descriptions both as to the exterior and interior Ornament and the several stories of it that any one may easily thereby comprehend the manner of the structure In the next place he writes that the Roman Knights made their Horses run round about the Tabernacle in certain orderly motions which were at that time called Motus Pyrrhichii and in orbicular revolutions And at the same time there were a certain number of Chariots filled with persons which represented the most qualified men of the Empire which also went in a kind of Procession round the great Machine till the next successor of the Emperor first took a Torch in his hand and with it kindled some combustible matter made for that purpose at the bottom of it and then
several others the Princes whom they affected to oblige at the expence of truth It is certain that Procopius never speaks but to the advantage of Belisarius he illustrates all his actions and rather chuses to suppress a part of the successes which he recites than to write any thing which might any waies blemish the reputation of his Hero I shall produce one single instance and such a one that I think is not to be marched in any other Historian the place is in his Second Book of the War of the Vandals where after the Oration of Belisarius to his Souldiers and Two others of his Adversary Stozas Procopius writes that the Troops of the former revolting forced their Chiefs to retire into a Temple where they were all killed He was obliged in reason to signifie thereupon what became of Belisarius who one would think was massacred with the rest But because it was an unhappy event without telling how he came off Procopius adds only that Justinian upon this ill news dispatched away his Nephew Germanus who came and took possession of the command of the Armies in Affrick and not saying the least word of Belisarius he makes his narration so lame that the Reader knows not where he is The Latin Text is a little deffective here having not all which is read in the Greek yet this fault we speak of appears also in that version This puts me in mind of another place in the Second Book also of the War of the Goths where upon a meer Letter of Belisarius to Theodebert King of France he quits the pursuit of his victories in Italy and returns hastily into his Country He acknowledged his fault saies he and his temerity as soon as he had read the Letter of Belisarius returning with all speed to France as if this powerful Monarch came thither like a raw Schollar without having well considered what he did and the Rhetorick of Belisarius had obliged him and all his Councel to absent themselves for want of a reply Certainly there is a great defect of judgment in this passage and Aretin had reason to supply something of his own in this place saying that hunger and want of victuals made the Victorious French return into their Countries He might have added sickness according to the relation of Gregory of Tours who speaks of this retreat I find moreover that our Historian makes Theodebert Author of an action which does not agree with what he had said a little before of him namely that the French were the men of the world who violated their Faith the most when the letter of Belisarius which upbraids that Prince with nothing else but not observing Treaties had nevertheless such power over him An Author of more judgment would not have said so nor have rashly offended a whole Nation with the like Animosity wherewith the Romans declaim against the Greek and Punick Faith at the same time when they themselves were the most unfaithful that ever had been to all Nations of the World I must before I leave that place where Procopius spoke so ill of the French do the Nation reason by remarking with how much malice and absurdity he makes them in the same place become Masters of the Camp of the Goths and of that of the Grecians Romanized as it were by a surprize although they exceeded the number of a Hundred Thousand as if their Army descended from Heaven upon the heart of Italy like Grashoppers which a boysterous Tempest of wind transports sometimes from one Region to another But since we reprove him of having been too partial let us stop here the course of the zeal which we have for our Ancestours that it may not be judged excessive To conclude I think that Procopius deserves to be read attentively especially in consideration of the things which he alone treats of with an exact knowledge And that besides a great discretion is to be used in reading of him to discern the good things from the bad and the defects whereof we have produced Examples from what he has writ more judiciously He was of Caesarea in Palaestine from whence he came to Constantinople in the time of the Emperour Anastasius whose esteem he obtained as well as that of Justin the First and Justinian Suidas after he had given him the Surname of Ilustrious calls him Rhetorician and Sophister as truly he seems to have been to much for an Historian He is diffused but with a Copiousness more Asiatick than Athenian which has often in it more superfluity than true Ornament Photius only inserted in his Library as was before mentioned an abstract of the Two Books of the War against the Persians although he made some mention of the rest He distinguishes him elsewhere from another Procopius Surnamed Gazeus who lived in the same time of Justinian and who also was a Rhetorician by Profession If I durst follow the judgment of one of the men of this Age who has the greatest insight into the Greek Tongue I should willingly be of his mind that the Book of Anecdota is a supposed work and falsely ascribed to the Historian Procopius For that which is really his is writ in a Stile much different from that of this Satyr and has much more of the Air of Ancient Greece But because even they who have writ against the Anecdota seem to agree that they are his to whom they are imputed I was obliged to make the precedent Reflections and to treat Procopius upon this Foundation more to his disadvantage than I had othewise done It is true that at the same time I end this Section an Epistle of Balthasar Boniface to the Clarissimo Molini which I read even now hinders me from repenting of what I did It is printed at the end of his judgment upon those who wrot the Roman History And because they did not mention the Anecdota in the Chapter of Procopius he takes occasion to declare his opinion to that Noble Venetian in the said Letter He appears to be no less concerned than I at such an insolent invective And wonders as I did that Rivius and they who undertook to answer it never thought of considering it as a supposed piece although he himself comes to no determination therein being only content to declare how much he suspects it REFLECTIONS UPON THE HISTORY OF AGATHIAS I HAVE as much reason to doubt of the Religion of Agathias as I had of that of Procopius For when he speaks in the beginning of his History of the French of his time he praises them amongst other things for being all Christians and because they entertained as he adds very good thoughts of God But when he gives a reason in his Third Book why the fortress of Onogoris Situate in Colchis was called in his time the Fort of S t Stephen he reports that this Protomartyr was stoned to death in that Place using the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say or as it
produced so many excellent persons and few are ignorant how all the following ages have honoured his endeavours whereof we shall give some more Testimonies before we finish this Section But in the mean time is it not strange that any should be so barbarous as Alciat and Ferret and contradictory to all the Ancient Romans to maintain that so considerable an Author could not so much as speak his mother-tongue One must certainly have a brazen face and a very empty head to advance such propositions For my part should I see a Thousand things that displeased me I should rather accuse my own weak understanding or the faults of the Copies or some other defect which ought not to be imputed to him than give the lye to all Antiquity by falling into such an imaginary imputation There is a third sort of Tacitus his accusers who tax him of speaking untruths Vopiscus is of that number But because he only arraigns him to excuse himself in this general proposition that the best Historians of the world cannot avoid the mixture of lies in their truest narrations Tacitus his reputation seems not to be much concerned therein We have shown elsewhere that several persons took delight to maintain this thesis And I remember Dion Chrysostome endeavouring to prove in one of his Orations that one never knows the truth of things is not content to say that the taking of Troy by the Graecians is a meer Fable and that the Persians delivered a very different account of the wars of Xerxes and Darius against Greece than the Graecians themselves but he adds as a note of the small certainty there is in History that amongst the most famous of the Greek Historians some held that the Naval victory of Salamin preceded that of Plataea and others asserted the contrary It is sufficient then to answer that there are untruths which our humanity bears with when they are related by report and without lying But when Tertullian reproaches Tacitus with imposture and Budaeus calls him one of the most vile and impious Authors we have it is evident that they mean something more than that sort of misreport which ignorance may excuse and which one may retort upon errors Authorised by common belief For they are offended at what he impiously spoke of Christians in derision of our holy religion whom he assaults even in the foundations of the Old Testament deriding the Miracles of Moses and reproaching the Jews with adoring the Effigies of a Wild Asse I confess that one cannot too much condemn what he writ on that subject as he was a Pagan But nevertheless we must be forced to acknowledg that if he must be totally renounced for what he writ against the true God and our Altars we shall be obliged to burn with his Books almost all those of the Gentils very few of them having abstained from the like calumnies I say the same thing against the judgment which Casaubon in his Preface passed upon Polybius where he pretends that Princes cannot read a more dangerous book than Tacitus because of the bad examples which are seen in it For it is an ill custome that Casaubon has followed never to write upon an Author without blaming all others to give that the greater Authority and we know that he has praised Tacitus elsewhere as much as any one can do It is true his History has represented unto us the actions of the most wicked Princes that ever were and that by misfortune those Books which contained the best Emperors Raigns as of Vespasian Titus Nerva and Trajan are lost Yet it is the way to censure all the Histories we have in the world even without excepting the Holy Writ to make that of Tacitus responsible for the bad examples it contains there being none found that have not some very dangerous in them and where there is no need of distinguishing with judgment the good and the bad of every Narration But perhaps heretofore as even in Tertullians time the Pagans invectives against us might be apprehended because the world was not then purged of their errors as it is at present by the Grace of God I cannot imagine that any person can be found at this day that would let himself be seduced by the Calumnies of the Ethnicks or by all that the infidelity they lived in could make them write against our Evangelical truths The general esteem the works of Tacitus have gained might suffice alone against the Authorities we have examined though we wanted reasons to refute them If it were needful to weaken them by other contrary authorities I can produce Two besides the Universal consent of learned men which are so weighty that they will alwaies turn the Scale on their side The first is that of the Emperor Tacitus who though invested in the supreme dignity of the world did not forbear near two hundred years after the death of our Historian to glory in that name common to them esteeming it as an honour to have had such an Ancestour and to be acknowledged one of his Posterity He caused his Statue to be placed in all Libraries and all his books to be writ over Ten times every year that they might pass from hand to hand and from Age to age as they have done unto ours The Second Authority shall be that of the Great Duke Cosmo di Medicis whose memory will never want veneration as long as the Science of Polity or good government as his Country-men term it shall be cultivated That Prince chose Tacitus amongst all the Historians as one from whom his mind could receive the most instruction and solid satisfaction Add to the Testimony of Princes and Emperors that the translation of this Author into all Tongues gives a certain proof of the valew of him in all Nations Besides his Commentaries History he wrote a Treatise of divers people who inhabited Germany in his time and of their different manners with another Book of the Life of his Father in Law Agricola Some moreover ascribe to him the book Entituled the causes of the corruption of Latin Eloquence which others attribute to Quintilian and which possibly belongs to neither of them according to the probable conjecture of Lipsius As for the collection of the book of the pleasant sayings of Tacitus which Fulgentius Planciades mentions it is a meer counterfeit which never deceived any one but that Grammarian The true compositions of Tacitus are discernable enough either by their form or matter taking as Scaliger does the words of the History for the matter and the things it unfolds for the form He scatters here and there throughout the whole Oblique and Direct Orations as the condition of time place and persons require But as concise as he is in his Stile he flies out into Digressions in many places witness that of the God Sarapis amongst the rest in the Fourth Book of his History and that other wonderful one in the Fifth which we