had the principall charge vnder him who put him in a golden cage and cast him on a chariot meaning to carry him to Bactria then seeing that Alexander approached caused him to bee killed with darts and Iauelins and left him dead in the midst of the way Such was the end of a king so mighty in people in possessions and reuenews who called him selfe Lord of all the world from the East vnto the West hauing raigned onely sixe yeres in all delicacies exceeding the common magnificence of Princes Which luxurious maner of liuing was cause of his vtter ouerthrow as humane things being variable haue their fatall inclination so ordained by the diuine prouidence to fall then when they are mounted highest and that the Lords thinke themselues to be most assured sleeping therefore in carelesnes and ouerweening conceits For he suffered himselfe to slide so farre into deliciousnes and superfluous riches that he slept alwaies in a chamber betweene two great chambers most richly furnished in such sort that the Kings bed being sumptuously spred in his chamber and couered with a vine of gold in manner of a grate or lettis enriched with precious stones gathered togither in manner of hanging clusters of grapes the beds head was placed towards the wal of one of the great chambers in which ther was fiue thousand talents of gold and this great roome was called the kings beds head whereunto right opposite was the wall of the other great chamber against his beds foote in the which there was alwaies three thousand talents of siluer and was called the kings beds foote which summes are esteemed after our maner to be worth thirty millions of Crownes Going to war he caried with him in his host for his pastime and delight cccxxxix women as Concubines singers dauncers and such as were skilfull in all kinde of Musicke xlvj workmen to set flowers in order and to make garlands nosegaies chapelets and other sweete smelling things cclxxvij cookes xxix potters making euery day vessels of earth to serue the kitchin xiij bakers of tarts and such other licorous and delicate bakemeates Cellerers cupbearers bruers and minglers of wines makers of spiced cupps and of all artificiall lycours and drinkes xvij of th one sort and lxx of the other Perfumers and makers of sweete smelling sauours and odours both wet and dry xl If then the king of Persia vsed so much delicacy being in warr and nourished himself with so many delights in the field what did he wheÌ„ he remained in peace at Persepoli or in Babylon a city abounding in all superfluities and in all vices that proceed of great plenty Yet notwithstanding in the flower of his fortune he being dronken with prosperity and aboundance of goods was spoyled of his riches which had bin heaped togither by many kings his predecessours losing his life and his kingdome which was clymed to the top of the worldy power and felicity where ariseth the spring of pride arrogancy ouerweening and extreme insolency And there is the slippery path whereon standeth the enuy of fortune and where soueraigne felicity falleth headlong into great calamity By this so magnificent victory ouer him ALEXANDER brought vnder his obedience almost al the countries of the East and transported the Monarchy out of Asia into Europe So the Macedonians tooke away the Empire of the East from the Persians and the Parthians from the Macedonians by the conduct of Arsaces a Captaine of an vncertaine birth but of a most approued vertue and no lesse memorable amongst them then Cyrus among the Persians and Alexander among the Macedonians by whose name they called the succeeding Kings because of the reuerence which they bare vnto him They became so mighty that for a time they ruled ouer all Asia possessing not onely the vnmeasurable plaines but also the abrupt dounfals of the mountaines and placing the bounds of their Empire where either the heate or the cold staied them with snowes or immoderate and burning heates They possessed eighteene kingdomes deuiding in this maner their prouinces as hauing respect to the two Seas that is the red Sea towards the South and the Caspian toward the North where of eleuen which were called the superiour or higher began at the confines of Armenia and at the bankes of the Caspian Sea extending euen to the Scythians Thother seauen were termed the inferiour or lower They seemed to diuide the world with the Romaines th one ruling in the East and thother the West Their dominion from ARSACES to ARTABANVS endured cccc yeres which was brought backe againe into Persia by ARTAXERXES and after cccxviij yeres was taken againe from the Persians by the Arabians or Sarazens Amongest whom the CALIPHES residing at Bagdet raigned in the East ccccxviij yeres after them the first TVRKS from the yere of Christ M.L.I. vntill M.cc.xj when the Tartarians came out of their countrey who in a little time seised on the greatest part of the north the East the south of whoÌ„ came the inuincible TAMBERLAN who made the whol habitable earth afraid And since they being retired the Persians who are reputed the ciuâ—lest people of the East being ingenious valiant and there are amongst them excelleÌ„t Philosophers Physitions Astrologers very good Artisans in all misteries occupations Their king is called SOPHI which is as much to say as wise and the Interpreter of God because that ISMAEL the first that was so named vnder the colour of expositions new ceremonies brought in by him into the religion of Mahomet got no longe time since a great Empire in the East hauing driuen away the race of Vsun-Cassanus king of Persia to whom he was allied by his mothers side and made many Princes and Lords of the East his vassals or tributaries The chiefe prouinces vnder his obedience were Armenia the great Persia Media Assyria with iiij capital or head Cities Tauris in Armenia Samach in Persia Scyras in Media Bagdet which was somtimes Babylon in Assyria There are gentlemen amongst them after the maner of Italy France Spaine which vse barded horses in the wars vnto which they go welarmed bearing great lances and good cymeters being also very good archers The Sophi is opposite on the one side to the Ottoman to the Zagathain on thother Thus haue the kingdoms of Asia of the East varied But before we go out of this quarter we must speak of the MAGES which were far different from other natioÌ„s in their religion wisdom They had no temples Images nor altars neither was it permitted by their law to make any esteeming them fools which had them accounting it impiety to inclose the Gods within wals which ought to haue al open free whose temple and house was the whol world For this cause they perswaded Xerxes warring in Greece to burne al the Temples which he should find there And when they would sacrifice they went vp into high mountaines where it was not lawful for him that
should be immortal euen as the CHRISTIANS and SARAZENS beleeue OF THE NOBILITIE AMONGST the Egiptians Persians Assyrians Indians Scythians Thracians and other auncient and moderne Nations THey indeed were reputed noble in Egipt Persia Scythia Iberia Assyria India Thrace and other auncient Nations which made profession of Armes and medled not with mechanicall arts to whom according to the qualitie of the Countrie were appointed lands rents and reuenewes out of the publike for their honest intertainment and to the end they might not be constrained by want to exercise any other questuarie gainfull and base maner of liuing It was not lawful in EGIPT for men of warre called Culasyres and Hermotiuies to vse any other art but militarie which they taught and deliuered from hand to hand and from the father to the sonne LICVRGVS forbad the LACEDEMONIANS all Mechanical arts and occupations yea euen merchandize and traficks accounting such vocations to belong to bondmen or strangers or to men of base condition and putting Armes onely in the hands of his Citizens whom he would haue altogether free and truely militarie HER ODOTVS writeth that the PERSIANS honoured valiant men of warre more then all other Nations and that they made no account of marchandise Moreouer that not onely the Persians but also the Egiptians Thracians Scythians Lydians and almost all the barbarous Nations esteemed artisans the basest of all men yea euen their children and their whole race That the GREEKS also and aboue all the Lacedemonians and Corinthians made little reckoning of the artificers And Plato in the second and eight booke of his Common wealth and in the beginning of his Timaeus willeth the Nobles and men of warre to abstaine from tilling the ground and from Mechanicall artes and other questuarie occupations At this day the ARABIANS do vtterly detest all Mechanicall sciences And the Nobilitie or Gentlemen of FRANCE are forbidden by the auncient ordinances of the Countrie to exercise merchandize or any other questuarie art on paine of beeing depriued of their nobilitie and to pay taxe as those of the common sort The like do the NOBLES and Gentlemen of Spayne Lumbardie Naples England Germanie Hungarie and Poland holding it a thing not onely vnworthy of Nobilitie but also to be an act derogating from the priuiledge thereof to exercise in steede of Armes a mechanicall art or to vse trade of marchandize if it be not of things of their owne growing of which the traficke is permitted them The Nobles of Persia vse it in like maner possessing fees and vnderfees with vassals relieuing of them also landes castels townes and Countries which they hold either by succession of their parents or by giftes and benefites of the SOPHI their Prince for the which they are bound to serue him in his warres furnishing a number of men according to the value of their reuenewes And in INDIA the Naires are held in such reputation as the Gentlemen in these parts being constrayned ordinarily to beare swords targets bowes lances and such other armes vsed amongst them otherwise they should lose the name and priuiledge of nobilitie In TVRKIE there is no distinction of Nobilitie drawen from the auncestours but he onely amongst the Turkes is reputed noble who in matter of warre hath giuen many proofes of his valiancie When the OTTOMAN conquereth any Countrie he extinguisheth the great ones and the nobilitie and sendeth thither his Sangiacques Subassis and Spachis giuing them the fruites of the fees and appointing rents on the reuenew of his lands which are called Timarly Euery SPACHI is bound to haue so many horses and men as he hath fiue or six Aspers a day to spend both of his pay and of his Tymar or yearely rent They cannot make ouer the fees which they hold to their children without the expresse permission of the great SIGNOR And none enioyeth the nobilitie of any father whose sonne he is vntill by industrie he represent the person of his father and not in word None there possesseth any villages castles or townes after the maner of the Persians or of vs or inhabiteth strong houses or dareth to build aboue one storie or higher then a douecote In ENGLAND at this day the Nobilitie do not dwell in castels or houses of strength closed with motes and diches neither haue they any iurisdiction ouer men which is in the kings hand be it high base or meane The dignities themselues as Dukedomes Marquisats and Earledomes are but titles which are giuen at the kings pleasure whereas they which haue them possesse nothing oftentimes in those places whereof they beare the name but haue their lands lying elswhere The Gentlemen in FRANCE possesse in high base and meane iustice villages boroughes townes castels fortresses Baronies Earledoms Marquisats Dukedoms Principalities and Peereships patrimoniall with vassals holding and vnderholding of them bound by faith and homage which iurisdiction notwithstanding dependeth on that of the king and aunswereth at the last appeale to his soueraigne Courts or Parliaments In the ROMAIN EMPIRE the lands were first giuen in reward of seruice to the men of warre for terme of their liues as they are at this day in Turkie after they were made and became patrimoniall and hereditarie to their children And because they were giuen them to liue on in recompence of their seruices they were termed benefits and they which were recompenced in such sort were said to be beneficed or benefited Then by this example the Church comming to be rich by the almesdeeds and foundations of Princes and great Lords they called the Archbishopricks Bishopricks Abbeies Priories and Cures by the name of benefices because the Ecclesiastical persons possessed them after the same maner as the auncient men of warre did their fees and benefices The Emperour ALEXANDER SEVERVS was the first that permitted the heires of those men of warre to inioy theis fees prouided that they followed Armes and not otherwise ordayning most expresly that such heritages should neuer fall but into the hands of such as made profession of armes And a while after him CONSTANTINE the great at the beginning of his Empire gaue to his principall Captaines and to those by whose meanes he thought most to preuaile against his aduersaries a perpetuitie in the lands which were assigned them Whereby one may know that the estate of the Turke resembleth in many things the Romain Empire and the auncient kingdom of Persia in which the whole gouernment was in the disposition of one onely Lord seruing himselfe with meane fellowes which may without danger easily be aduanced to great charges and honours and without tumult or enuie abased withdrawen or put to death But the FRENCH king is placed in the midst of an auncient Nobilitie and companie of Princes Earles Barons and other gentlemen hauing subiects peculier to themselues and holding their preheminence in the kingdom of which they can hardly be depriued without sedition The estates also of lands which were but for life were made perpetuall vnder the last kinges
honestie In somuch that Plato and Aristotle haue not better plaied the Philosophers in their schooles then he did in publike assemblies and iudgements But as this age was admirable in power and wisdom and in all arts so was it also full of wickednes extraordinarie changes As if it had bin of necessitie that the same age must bring forth horrible monsters notable wonders for it is commonly seen that where mens wits are most excellent there are found together men notably vicious vertuous the authours of great good things of euil as if vertue and vice which are things so contrary repugnant had their extremities neer one an other In such sort that where th one is the other estsoons accompanieth it they leaue not one the other for euen as noble generous natures being duly instructed becom perfectly good are causes of great good things In like maner those that are euill brought vp become exceeding euill and do great mischiefes by reason that the exorbitant wickednesse and extreme vices proceede not of weake and simple natures but of the noble and generous being depraued by institution As appeared in this season replenished with all good artes and excellent wits by the extraordinarie mutations which happened therin Wherof the Orator AESCHINES complayning cried out that they led not then the life of men but that they seemed to be born to that end that their posterity might tel of thē strange and vnlooked-for maruailes And DEMOSTHENES answering him acknowledged the fortune of his time to be verie aduerse and hard and that there was neither Greeke nor Barbarian but had suffered much for not onely euery one in particuler but publickly the kings Cities and Nations receiued great calamities First of all what troubles raised king Philip thorough out all Greece corrupting by giftes the Magistrates and Gouernours of Townes and nourishing amongst the Greekes diuisions and parcialities In such sort that he himselfe confessed that he had much more inlarged his kingdom by gold and siluer then by armes And albeit the Athenians hauing alwaies in suspition his greatnes were exhorted continually by DEMOSTHENES to take vpon them the protection of the common libertie and to punish with death those Citizens whom they should find to go about to betray the common wealth Notwithstanding this great Orator could not with all his diligence refraine the euill inclination of some particulars which sought but how to sell their Countrie Such abundance of Traitours there were found in that season Afterwards as Philip being become proud by many prosperities for the greatnes of his power placed himselfe amongst the twelue Gods he was killed by Pausanias a Macedonian gentleman to whom he had denied iustice at the mariage of his daughter Cleopatra which he solemnized with great triumphe beholding the plaies which were made and euen in the midst of his guard betweene the two Alexanders the one being his sonne and thother his sonne in law whom he had made king of Epirus The fault of which murther was for the most part imputed to the Queene Olympias who being diuorced from him stirred vp the youngman boyling before with anger to do it But there was also some suspition which touched Alexander doubting least he would leaue the kingdom to an other Who likewise after he had turned all topsie turuie in Europe and in Asia because of his insolencie was poisoned by his most familiar friends Olympias wife of the one and mother to the other was massacred by Cassandra for the great arrogancie which was in her and cruelties which she had committed Seneca calleth Alexander a furious young man hauing in steed of vertue a fortunate temeritie and that from his youth he was a theese and a distroier of people being the ruine both of his enemies and friends who placed his soueraign felicitie in astonishing and making himselfe feared of all men Furour saith he stirred vp the wicked man to vndoe other men and made him to march thorough vnknowen places Account you him wise that began with the ruines of Greece in the which he had bin bred and brought vp taking from euery one that which was his good He constrained Lacedemon to serue and Athens to be silent Not content with the ruine of so many Cities which Philip either bought or ouercame he ouerthrew others also and beareth armes thorough out the world without satisfying his crueltie after the maner of sauage beastes which bite being not pressed with honger He hath alreadie gathered many Kingdomes into one alreadie the Greekes and Persians do feare one king and notwithstanding passing beyond the Ocean he is sorie and loath to bound his victories by the footsteps of Hercules and of Bacchus but will force nature and can not stay as heauie things which do not cease to roule vntill they meete with some stop or hinderance He saith that Philip and Alexander and other such like renowmed thorough the ruine of people haue bin no lesse plagues vnto men then the deluge by which the earth was drowned or then the burning which consumed by heat and drougth a great part of lyuing creatures Lucan thinketh that he gaue a pernicious example to the world shewing the meanes how to reduce so many Countries vnder one Lord calling him the fat all euil of the world and a lightning which strook all Nations whose insatiable ambition could not be staied but by death Therefore the Scythians spake thus vnto him What neede hast thou of riches which constraine thee alwaies to desire Thou art the first which of abundance hast made indigence to the end that by possessing more thou mightst more earnestly desire that which thou hast not Who would euer haue thought that the Greekes should haue ruled Asia and that so meane a king as that of Macedon could haue ouerthrowen the Monarchie of Persia of inestimable largenesse and power both by land and sea In like maner the Lordship of DIONISE in Sicile was ouerthrowen by DION with little meanes against the opinion and expectation of all the world which was the greatest and mightiest that was then in Europe for who could haue beleeued that he which arriued in Sicile onely with two ships of burden should haue ouercome a Lord that had in his disposition fower hundred vessels with oares a hundred thousand foote and ten thousand horsemen with prouision and munition of armes corne and money as much as was needfull for intertainment of so great power and who aboue all the forenamed things had vnder his obedience one of the greatest and most mightie Cities which was then in all Greece which had-so many ports so many arsenals or store-houses so many impregnable castles and who besides all this was allied with many great and mightie confederates But that which gaue DION the victorie in this interprise was principally his magnanimitie and greatnesse of courage with the loue and good will which was borne him of those whom hee came to set free And that which holpe him
danger For ALEXANDER in the Countrie of the Oxydraces hauing gotten vpon the wall of the enemies before all the Macedonians seeing himselfe alone and abandoned of all because the ladders were broken of a great audaciousnes leaped downe into the Towne amongst his enemies where being grieuously hurt in the stomack and the neck euen as he began to fall was succoured by his people who for feare of losing him had broken the gates CESAR also being in Spain against the yong Pompey and seeing his men afraied in such sort that they durst not fight ran alone into the midst of his enemies and hauing receiued in his shield aboue two hundred shot sustained the brunt till such time as his men for shame and feare of him came to succour and reskue him And after this maner their first euill prognostication put them in danger of death But the second made them both to die outright For Apollodorus fearing the force of Alexander and of Hephestion Pythagoras who was a great diuiner after Apollodorus had made sacrifice hauing beheld the entrailes of the beast that was sacrificed bad him that he should not stand in feare of them for both of them should die within a little time And after that Hephestion was dead Apollodorus fearing least some should practize the death of Alexander reuealed vnto him the prognostication whereof he made but a sport and demaunded of Pythagoras what was signified by that which he had seen who aunswered him that it betokened death whereat laughing as afore he praised Apollodorus as his friend for that he gaue him warning and the diuinour for the confidence and assurance which he had in his art The like almost hapned vnto CESAR as he went vnto the senate where he was slaine for when it was told him that his infortunate sacrifice signified death he aunswered that the like befel him when he was in Spaine the diuinour then replying that he was then also in great danger and that now the signes were more mortall then they were then to shew that he had some confidence in the diuinour he set him to sacrifice againe till such time as he saw that he taried ouerlong in doing thereof and then all angry he went into the Senate where he was slaine The like hapned also to ALEXANDER comming back with his armie out of the Indies into Babylon for as he drew neere the Citie the Chaldees warned him that he should forbeare for that time to enter into the Citie to whom he aunswered reciting a verse to this effect Who is the good deuinour that thinketh well Afterward being admonished by the Chaldees that if whatsoeuer be fell he would needs go into the Citie with his armie he should not turne his face toward the West but should go round about the Towne turning on the East side he was content to please them therin But finding a marish in his way that hindered his passage being angry and mocking at them he turned towards the West and went into the Towne out of which being afterwards gon forth and come in a boat on the riuer Euphrates and after on that of Pallacora into which Euphrates falleth to certaine great lakes which are at the mouth of these two riuers in such sort that they make the land of Assyria almost all nauigable purposing to inclose the mouth of those said riuers with a wall he iested as is said at the prognostication of the Chaldees because he was come out of the citie and had nauigated safe and sound But neuerthelesse being entred into it againe he ended his daies there shortly after So hapned it vnto CESAR who meeting in the morning the verie same day that he was slaine with the diuinour which had foretold him that he should not escape the day of the Ides of March said to him laughing that the Ides were come and yet notwithstanding he was slaine the same day By this meanes both of them made no account of the prognostications and yet towards the prognosticatours they shewed not any anger and died both according to their prognostications Moreouer they were both verie studious of vertues and of the sciences both in the Greeke Latine and strange languages ALEXANDER took paines to vnderstand the learning of the Brachmanes who are reputed the most learned amongst the Indians as the Mages are among the Persians CESAR also going thorough the kingdom of Egipt with Cleopatra laboured to vnderstand to know the sciences of the Egiptians whereby he afterwards ordered many things wisely at Rome For the course of the yeare which was il ordained by reason of the odde monethes and daies called Intercalares because they tooke it according to the course of the Moone he altered it by the course of the Sunne as did the Egiptians It hapned also vnto CESAR that none of those which conspired his death escaped but were slaine all by his successours as ALEXANDER had also done to them that had slaine his father A COMPARISON OF IVLIVS CESAR and Augustus with Romulus and Numâ— AS ROMVLVS had many troubles in the founding of Rome and was entangled with many warres being constrained to fight with those that opposed themselues to the foundation of his Towne And then NVMA succeeding had leasure to assure the increase thereof So IVLIVS CESAR hauing obtained by many trauailes and dangers the Monarchie that he so much desired and so earnestly affected he left it to OCTAVIAN his nephew and heire troubled with partialities who had meanes to confirme it in fiftie and six yeares which he raigned and to establish the Countrie in great concord causing the Temple of Ianus to be shut after the battaile at Actium as it had â—in in the time of Numa that all occasions of warre might be extinguished and quenched A COMPARISON OF ROMVLVS with Cyrus Theseus Arsaces and Semiramis who founded Cities and kingdomes or Monarchies AS CYRVS presently after his birth was exposed vnto beasts to be deuoured and left in the midst of a forest where a bitch gaue him suck and was after saued by a shepheard so was ROMVLVS also cast forth and sucked a sheewolfe and was fed by a woodpecker till such time as the shepheard Faustulus had found him and caried him home in safetie And in like maner SEMIRAMIS was left in a desert place full of rockes where shee was fed by the birdes for a season and afterwards found by the shepheards which nourished and brought her vp THESEVS and ROMVLVS were begotten by stealth and not in lawfull mariage and it was bruted of them both that they were borne of the seed of the Gods founding the two noblest Cities of the world th one Rome the other Athens SEMIRAMIS also who founded Babylon was begotten out of lawfull mariage And as ROMVLVS whiles he spake vnto the people vanished away sodainly and it was giuen out that he was taken vp into heauen and that from thenceforth in steed of a good king he would be a gracious god vnto the Romains So
SEMIRAMIS hauing giuen commaundment to all the gouernours of the prouinces of the kingdom of Assyria that they should be obedient to her sonne as to their king she vanished sodainly and it was beleeued that she was translated among the Gods The people of Rome buylded a Temple vnto IVLIVS CESAR neer vnto the place where his body was burned after his death and worshipped him as a God thinking that the Comet which arose then was his soule translated into heauen And if it were lawfull to mingle trueth with fables and diuinitie with humanitie MOSES which receiued so much grace and fauour of GOD as to speak vnto him and to be chosen to bring the children of Israel out of the miserable bondage of Pharaoh and to giue them the Law and forme of liuing he was soone after his birth exposed in a basket of bulrushes neere to the riuer Nilus and after miraculously saued by the kings daughter who brought him vp and adopted him as her sonne And when he died and was buried his sepulture was neuer afterwards knowen of any God by the mouth of his Prophet Esay calleth CYRVS who founded the kingdom of Persia his king two hundred yeares before he was borne promising to hold his right hand and to helpe him to take the strong Cities to subdue mightie Nations and to humble the kings of the earth And chose him amongst all the Princes of the Gentiles to reedifie the Temple of Ierusalem and to restore the people of Israel to their Countrie wherhence they had bin driuen out a long time ARSACES hauing conquered and established the kingdom of the Parthians was no lesse celebrated of them then Ninus and Semiramis of the Assyrians Cyrus of the Persians Alexander of the Macedonians Romulus Iulius Cesar and Augustus of the Romaines In remembrance and honour of whom the succeeding kings which raigned in that state were called of his name Arsacides as the Romain Emperours are called Cesars and Augustes in the honour and memorie of Iulius Cesar and Augustus A COMPARISON OF THE ROMAIN warfare with the Parthian Carthaginian and Assyrian THE militarie exercise of the Carthaginians was principally in matter of the sea By reason whereof they made little reckoning of footmen but gaue some order for horsemen because they were serued by strangers and mercenaries The Parthians vsed not any footmen neither fought in any order but by skirmishes confusedly and vncertainly On the contrarie the principall force of the Romaines consisted in their footmen and they fought close in rank and order neuer forsaking that place wherein they were appointed resolute to ouercome or to die The great champaignes and large countries which the Parthians inhabited far from the seas and where there are but few riuers being far distant one from an other were verie fit for their horsemen to run swiftly from one side to thother Where on the contrarie the Romaines being laden with armes could not keeping their order make hast without damage in such places where they found neither vittailes nor waters Who by militarie discipline and exercise surmounted the multitude of the Gaules the greatnes of the Germains the strength of the Spaniards the riches and cauteles of the Africans the wisdome and subtelties of the Grecians albeit they were lesse in all things then these Nations sauing in the art and exercise of warre And hauing gotten the seignorie of a great part of the world when their Empire was mounted vp to the highest of the wheele in the time of Augustus it began then to turne and to go downwards when the Citizens of Rome were left out of the hostes which the Emperours gathered and that they relied on the force of the mercenaries and of such as they had before ouercome And howbeit the great vertues which were in Augustus and his good wit preserued and vpheld the Maiestie of the Empire as long as he liued yet his successours learned of him to intertaine others in pay besides the Romaines as Gothes Lombards Germains Frenchmen Spaniards and others whereof came the ruyne of Rome for asmuch as the Emperours following kept an host of strangers called the Pretorian neere the walls of the Citie of Rome which maner albeit at the first it seemed for their aduantage yet in the end it was their ouerthrow For this number of souldiers disposed of the Imperiall dignitie at their pleasure beeing armed in the place against naked and vnarmed people Also the other armies which were in Gaule Germanie Pannonie Suria Africke and elswhere would be of aucthoritie whiles th one of them named one to be Emperour and an other named another in somuch that there were sometimes two or three pretēding at one time who thinking ech to consume the other consumed the Empire which had cost so much in the obtaining But considering that almost all the Emperours were of strange Nations as also the souldiers which had created them that made them to care lesse for the conseruing of it then if they had bin borne of the Citie Then aswel those which were elected Emperours as they which had chosen them marched against the Citie with the same mind as they would against their enemies doing in these changes many spoiles and murthers aswell on the Emperours themselues as on the Senatours and other great persons Whereas if the institution which the Romains had in the time whiles their vertue liued had bin still maintained which was to make their warres with their owne people and not to hire strangers nor to admit their neighbours or allies into their campe in greater number then they were themselues their Empire had not bin diuided neither transported out of their hands neither their Citie many times destroied and abandoned as it hath bin For by maintaining their former maner of fighting they should haue auoided all these inconueniences and haue comen alwaies happely to a good end of all their enterprises as they did as long as they were serued of their owne Citizens Moreouer the Romains failed greatly in the intertaining of their ordinarie armies and prolonging of general militarie charges which fault was a great furtherance to the ouerthrow of the common wealth and destruction of the Empire But the kings of Assyria changed euery yeare their armies and their Lieutenants generall prouiding wisely by such changing that the souldiers and Captaines could not so readily vnite themselues one with the other to conspire against them For the people that are continually exercised in armes and hardned vnto labour are more couragious and the Captaines which commaund alwaies ouer the same armies make them partial to themselues and draw them oftentimes from the obedience of their common wealth or the seruice of their Prince as it hath bin discoursed more at large before speaking of the Assyrians Besides they yet made an other fault no lesse then the former changing the simplicitie of the Romains into the proud ceremonie of the barbarous kings For whereas the first Emperours accomodated themselues to the Romaine libertie not
OF THE INTERCHANGEABLE COVRSE OR VARIETY OF THINGS IN THE WHOLE WORLD AND THE CONCVRRENCE OF ARMES AND Learning thorough the first and famousest Nations from the beginning of Ciuility and Memory of man to this Present MOREOVER WHETHER IT BE true or no that there can be nothing sayd which hath not bin said heretofore And that we ought by our owne Inuentions to augment the doctrine of the Auncients not contenting our selues with Translations Expositions Corrections and Abridgments of their writings Written in French by Loysle Roy called Regiusâ— and Translated into English by R. A. Inest rebus omnibus quidam velut orbis vt quemadmodum Temporum vices ita Morum vertantur nec omnia apud priores meliora sed nostra etiam aetas multa Laudis Artium laudanda Posteris tulit Tacitus AT LONDON Printed by Charles Yetsweirt Esq. at his house in Fleetestreete neere the Middle Temple gate 1594. CVM PRIVILEGIO Regiae Maiestatis TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY SINGVLAR GOOD LORD Sir Iohn Puckering Knight Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England HAuing heretofore for the great liking which I saw generally conceiued of this worke perused allowed and at my better leisure translated it into English for the benefit of such as were not sufficiently acquainted with the French I was bold ere the Translation were fully finished to acquaint your L. with the Argument who concurring with the rest in good liking and Iudgment my intent to publish it vnder your L s. Patronage was thereby fully confirmed SO that the Picture which it pleased your L. to like of heretofore being in his first lineaments but rudely shadowed is now presented with all his principal colours perfected and accomplished I haue bin carefull to perfect it by the Paterne and to limme it according to life yet when I haue all don it is but a Counterfait which wanteth much of the perfection of the Principal THE substance is none of mine I challenge nought but the shadowe wherein if the substance be truely represented I hope it may be allowed of though it be not curiously beautified I CONFES it were better to put forth his owne Inuentions for him that hath means to do it and that which this Author affirmeth namely that Translations are more painful then praise-worthy is by me also acknowledged For diligence assisted with iudgement is herein chiefely requisite and not any excellent knowledge thereunto required which appeareth more in inuenting of it selfe then in translating out of others Which though it be done neuer so faithfully and elegantly yet cometh alwaies short of the good grace of the Original as this Author acknowledgeth notwithstanding Theodore Gaza an excellent Translator affirme the contrary BVT mine owne wit and Inuention being vnable to write or inuent any thing worth the reading yet my wil being a welwisher to all good Inuentions I thought it more commendable to commend and communicate to others that which other men haue excellently inuented being not able myselfe to attaine to so much excellency then in publishing any fabulous fancy of mine owne or matter of meane account as many do now adaies to shew some arrogancy ioyned with my insufficiency THIS worke is a Comparison of this later age with all antiquity in Armes in Learning and all other Excellency There was neuer any mighty Empire or Monarchie Kingdom or Common-wealth but is here represented no famous Founder or Gouernor of State no learned Law-maker or worthy Warriour but is here mencioned and ech of them to the other in all conueniences and contrarieties compared which being don by a man of great learning and iudgment to men of much businesse and employment as to your L. especially who haue no time to fetch euery thing from the Fountaine search all Antiquitie and read the Histories of all nations must needs be much auaileable and the pleasure thereof to all sorts of men accordingly answerable MY duety to your L. to whom this hath bin long intended hath at length commanded an Intermission of mine ordinary studies and exercises for the reuiewing and publishing hereof vnder whose fauourable protection it is now communicated vnto all who continually partaking of your L. equity goodnes and benignitie are bound with me to pray for the continuance of your honour health and happines euerlastingly From the Middle-Temple the 6. of October 1594. Your L s. in seruice humbly deuoted Robert Ashley THE SVMMARIE OF THIS WORKE BECAVSE the Discourse following is long and somewhat difficult to comprehend by reason of the diuersitie of matters contained therein I haue gathered and set downe first The Summarie of the whole worke Then of euery Booke in order to giue more light vnto the Readers for the vnderstanding therof In the whole worke therfore are represented the successiue or rather alternatiue changes of the whole world aswell in the higher or superiour as lower and inferiour part thereof and how by the concurrence of Armes and Letters thorough the most renowmed Nations of the world all liberall Sciences and Mechanical Arts haue flourished together fallen and bin restored diuers times in proces of Age With a comparison of such Nations as haue excelled both in power and knowledge of the great Empires and renowmed Monarkes vnder whom these notable mutations of mankind haue hapned and conferring of this our present with the famousest former Ages to know wherein it is either inferiour superiour or equall to any of them THE FIRST BOOKE THE Enterchangeable course or Variety obserued in the motions of Heauen and the Heauenly Spheares whereon are depending the Changes which happen in this inferiour World are declared in the first Booke The Vicissitude which the fower Elements haue one with an other and euery one by himselfe How all things in the World are tempered and conserued by others that are contrarie and dislike The Intercourse of Shadowes Daies and Seasons of the yeare and the Diuersitie of habitations of the Earth and other thinges according to the difference of places The Variety and Vicissitude of Men of Nations Cities Common weales Kingdomes and Empires THE II. BOOKE THE Variety of Tongues vsed thorough out the world both Learned and Vulgar The Beginning of them Continuance Perfection Corruption Chaunge and Losse of the old Introduction of new Translation out of one into an other Imposition of Names to things Inuention and profit of Letters Diuersitie of Characters and Writings Instruments and Matters to write with Of Printing Orthographic and Pronunciation THE III. BOOKE THE Vicissitude and Inuention of Arts And how Men from their first simplicitie and rudenesse haue attained to the Commoditie Magnificence and Excellencie of this time THE IIII. BOOKE THe Intercourse of Armes and of Letters concurring in the coniunction of Power and Wisdome amongst the most renowmed Nations of the world And who haue bin the first and Auncientest of all that haue excelled in both The Power Knowledge and other Excellencie of the Egiptians Assyrians and Persians A Comparison of the great Monarchies
the Egiptian Assyrian Median Persian and Parthian in their situations beginnings largenes reuenewes riches mightines of such famous Monarchs as founded them and vnder whom they perished Of the Egiptian Priests or Prophets of the Chaldees Mages Brachmanes Druydes and others of Religion and Learning amongst the Auncients Nobilitie amongst the Egiptians Persians Assyriansi Indians Scythians Thracians and other auncient and modern Nations The exquisite Artisans and workmanship of the Auncients THE V. BOOKE OF the Learning Poesie Eloquence Power and other Excellencie of the Greekes A Comparison of them with the Egiptians Assyrians Persians Indians The Empire of Greece A Comparison of Alexander the great with Cyrus Agesilaus Themistocles Pericles Achilles Vlysses Diomedes Bacchus Hercules and others A Comparison of the Grecian Philosophers with the Chaldees of Babylon and the Priestes of Egipt The Nobilitie of auncient Greece The Artisans and workes of the Grecians THE VI. BOOKE OF the Power Warfare Learning Eloquence Poesie and other Excellencie of the Romaines The fall of their Power Learning and Eloquence THE VII BOOKE A Comparison of the Romains with the Egiptians Assyrians Persians Greeks and Parthians in Power Warfare Learning Language Eloquence Poesie and in the workmanships of other Arts of the Romain Empire with the Assyrian Median Persian Macedonian and Parthian The birth of Rome and continuance thereof and conferred with the 4. Ages of mans life A comparison of Rome with Babylon and Constantinople of the Romain common wealth with the Lacedemonian and Carthaginian of the power of Alexander the great with that which the Romains had in his time and if when he had conquered Asia he had turned his forces against Europe what might haue hapned by the iudgement of Liuie Of Pompey the great with Alexander Hercules Bacchus according to Plinie Of Iulius Caesar with Alexander according to Appianus Alexandrinus of Iulius Caesar and Augustus with Romulus and Numa of Romulus with Cyrus Theseus Arsaces and Semiramis who founded Cities or Kingdomes or Monarchies A Comparison of the Romain warfare with the Parthian Carthaginian Assyrian Of the Romain Learning and other excellencie with the Grecian Egiptian and Chaldean Of the Latin Authours with the Greek namely of Cicero with Demosthenes The Ciuil Law of the Romains A Comparison of the Latin tongue with the Greek THE VIII BOOKE OF the Religion Power knowledge and other excellency of the Arabians or Sarasens and other Mahometists A Comparison of Mahomet with Licurgus Minos Numa Zoroaster Charondas Zaleucus Trismegistus and other heathen Lawmakers or Founders of Cities and Empires The Power of the Arabians or Sarasens compared to the Romain Macedonian Persian Parthian Assyrian Egiptian A Comparison of the Arabian learning with the Greek Egiptian Chaldean Persian Romain or Latin Of the Arabian tongue with the Greek Latin and Hebrew THE IX BOOKE COntaineth the sequence of the Power and Religion of the Mahometists as of the first Turks Corasmians Tartarians of the Souldan of the Ottoman of the Sophi where there is mention made of the estates of the great Cham of Cathay of the king of Narsingue of the Moscouite and of Presbiter Iohn because they began or grew vp at that time notwithstanding they haue other Religions THE X. BOOKE HOw that in this age haue bin restored the tongues and knowledges after they had surceased about almost twelue hundred yeres hauing newly receaued great light and increase where are considered the meruailes of this present age thorough Europe Asia Africke The new-found lands in the East West North and South beginning at the great inuincible Tamberlan whose power valiancy and felicity is briefly represented During whose raign began the restitution of Learning of Arts By what persons means it hath bin continued in diuers nations The Princes that most haue fauoured it Moreouer how that many goodly things vnknowen to antiquity haue bin newly found out especially Printing The direction to sayle by the needle of steele rubbed on the Lode-stone carying alwaies the point answerable to the place where we imagine the pole Artique by means whereof the whole Sea hath bin sayled ouer and the whole world knowne thorough out Then the skill of Ordinance and Artillery which hath made all other auncient military instruments to cease which by this one are all surpassed in impetuosity swiftnes and violence Also how amongst the meruailes of this age haue risen new and strange Diseases vnknowen heretofore and diuers Sects haue sprong vp in all countries which haue much altered the common quiet and weakned the mutual charitie of men THE XI BOOKE THis Age is compared vnto the former ages most famous in deedes of Armes conduct of States excellencie of Learning perfection of Workmanship noueltie of Inuentions Nauigations neuer attempted heretofore discouering of New lands vnknowen to Antiquitie to know wherin we are inferiour or equall to the Auncients and wherin we ought to be preferred First of all is conferred our modern Warfare with the auncient Greek and Romain Tamberlan is compared with Ninus Sesostris Cyrus Darius Alexander Arsaces Hannibal Iulius Caesar Constantine Attila and Charles the great Then followeth the Comparison of our modern Kingdomes Empires Monarchies and Common weales with the Auncient Of Militarie Nations Armies Battailes by sea and by land Sieges Assaults of Fortresses Of Nauigations and discoueries of Countries Peregrinations and Voiages by land Of the Wealth of the present time with that of the time past Of the Maners of this Age with the former Finally of the Learning of this age with the Auncient in Philosophie Eloquence Law Policie Physick Poesie Astrologie Cosmographie and the other Mathematicks Then commeth the Conclusion of the work by the which there is a vicissitude resolued on in all matters And how it is to be feared that Power Wisdom Learning Sciences Bookes Industrie Workmanships and the Knowledge of the world being now come to so great Excellencie should fall againe as they haue done in times past THE XII BOOKE COnsidering then that the variable disposition of humane things is to be readie to fall when they are at the highest and that vertue vice are come to their top and perfection doubting least among so many Partialities and Heresies wherof the world is full and the Warres which threaten vs on euery side that Learning might come to be dispised and be as loosely left off and neglected as heretofore it hath bin diligently followed and regarded To the end to preuent such a mischiefe and to aduize the studious to remedie it as much as they may I haue added an Inquisition on the common speach of men by which they haue alwaies maintained and do yet maintaine That nothing can be now said which hath not bin said heretofore Wherein I endeuour to show that there remaineth yet much to be said and that the trueth hath not bin thoroughly discouered neither all knowledge forestalled by our forerunners Admonishing the Learned to adde that by their owne Inuentions which is wanting in
extremitie conioyned and knit togither Moreouer it is certaine that Nature hath not created any thing vnto which she hath not giuen a contrarie to withhold it and keepe it backe where hence proceede the Antipathies or contrarie affections in all things aswell animate as inanimate lyuing as without life In beasts as betweene the Cocke and the Foxe in fishes betweene the Mullet and the fish called Lupus which some take it to be the Pike in birdes betwixt the Crow and the Kite Amongst trees the Chestnut and Oliue amongst stones the Adamant and the Diamant What then shall we say of men which are so passionate and inconstant Truely that al in all ages and all kinds of life publike priuate solitarie contemplatiue actiue are inclined to contentions and partialities euen so farre as euery one to be at variance in him selfe hauing in his bodie and soule a perpetuall combate betweene reason and concupiscence And in this maner is the strife amongst children which yet haue no knowledge and amongst the Sauages which haue nothing proper or peculier There are Sectes in the schooles of Law Physicke Diuinitie Philosophie and in the conuents and monasteries amongst the Reclus and Recluses No maruaile is it therefore if there be seditions in Cities and Countries which make people of diuers estates euen to run hedlong as was sometimes in Rome that of the common people and the Nobility Yf there be warres betweene Lordship and Lordship kingdom and kingdom which respectiuely keeps them both in feare So were aunciently in Greece the Lacedemonians to the Athenians so to the Romaines the Carthaginians and afterward the Parthians So are at this day opposed the Scots to the English the English to the French the French to the Italians The Almaines to the Suitzers the Africans to the Spaniards the Turkes to the Christians the Persians to the Turkes the Zagathaines to the Persians being deuided amongst themselues by colours redd and greene and of that are called Caselbas and Cuselbas the Moscouites to the Polonians the Tartarians to them both In the Indies Cochim to Calecut in high Africk the Moores to the Abissins thorough out the countrey of the Arabians the inhabitants of the Mountaines to those that dwel in the Plaines The Black-moores amongst themselues And in Brasil the Sauluages euen to the eating of one another when they are taken in warre And it might seeme that these diuisions were in some sort necessarie thoroughout the world and such contrarieties as God hath giuen to euery estate almost to euery person profitable to keepe them in feare and humility for men will soone waxe proud and are easily puft vp with prosperity and riches and especially when they misconceaue from whence such grace proceedeth God is wont to send them aduersities for their chastisment Wheresore it is ordinarily seene that euery mighty estate hauing no forrain enemy findeth some within it selfe and when it is come to such greatnesse that it cannot be brought vnder or kept downe by any strange or foraine force then is it afflicted with partialities and oftentimes distroied or translated into some other nation with alteration both of Iustice and politike gouernment Moreouer when the Countries are to full of inhabitants and that the malice and subtilty of man is come to the highest then are they purged and empted by famines and pestilence to the end that the people which are in it being reduced to a lesse number and chastised may liue better But if herewith they amend not but waxe worse and worse then either are they exterminated by fire and water or by Earthquakes ouerwhelmed God vsing alwaies such rigours against those which perseuer in their wickednes as he is alwaies readie to receiue to mercie such as are truely penitent which turne to him and pray to him with their harts OF THE VARIETY AND INTER course of Shadowes Daies and seasons of the yeare and diuersitie of habitations on the Earth HItherto hath bin declared how the world is not onely conserned by the intercourse of the Heauens and Elements but also tempered by contraries Now to the end we may the better consider the difference which is found in respect of the diuersitie of places and aspectes of heauen aswell in plants trees fruits mettals sauours colours and tastes as in beasts fishes birds and euen in men themselues and all their affaires we will briefly touch as far foorth as shall belong to our present purpose the fiue Zones of the habitable earth the seauen Climats fower limits East West North and South the two sides or hemisphers longitude and latitude the three parts thereof Europe Asia and Africke vnto which is also added America the varietie of shadowes daies and seasons with the diuers maners of inhabiting because that all these considerations serue to the knowledge of the world and the chaunges which in times past haue happened therein and do euery day come to passe The Auncients diuided the Heauen consequently the earth into fiue Zones thinking that those two that are vttermost about the two Poles North and South did make those two parts of the earth which are subiect to them vnhabitable by their extreme continual cold Also that that part of the heauen which beholdeth the middle of the earth vnder the Equinoctiall made it likewise vnhabitable by reason that the Sunne hauing there his continuall course burneth with his beames beating on it so neere and perpendicularly all the countrie lying vnder that Zone That the two others which are betweene the burning Zone and the Poles were temperate as also those parts of the earth which are answerable vnto them But that one could not passe verie well from the one to the other because of the burning Zone being in the midst But by the latter voyages and nauigations the whole earth is found to be inhabited yea euen vnder the Poles themselues beeing both in the midst and in the vtmost parts frequented with men and with singuler commodities the heat of the middle-most accounted burning hoat being lesse vnder the Equinoctiall then the Tropicke not a whit hindering the passage from one of the temperate vnto the other For although that vnder the Equinoctiall the sunne-beames are perpendicular twice in a yeare yet do they but little harme by reason that they stay not long there the Zodiake being streight and not oblique or crooked in that place Then the nightes being there continually equall in length vnto the daies doe mitigate with their colde the heat of the dayes But vnder and neere vnto the Tropickes the Zodiacke beeing crooked the Sunne stayeth longer there and discendeth not so swiftlle vnder the Horizon makinge the dayes longer and the sunne hotter yet sufferable notwithstanding as wee see by innumerable people dwelling vnder the Equinoctial and betweene the Tropickes In the vttermost part of the North dwell the Liuonians Noruegians Lithuanians Swedens Moscouites Lapians and Brarmians last of all hauing in their depth of winter the aire full of foggs and great clouds
ignorant of till age they nourished them selues with flesh and with milke their land which was plaine and vnited being fit for such maner of liuing and being holpen by sundry great riuers which running ouerthwart and watering the ground made it fat and fertill Vnto which Scythians the Tartarians haue succeeded liuing at this day as is said in the same manner Out of this quarter and this kind of people neuer came but two Philosophers Anacharsis and Zamolsis both of them brought vp elswhere how be it that in Greece there haue bin innumerable ON THE other part towards the south were the Numidians liuing in the open aire without houses alwaies in labour and trauaile not drinking any wine and faring simply and poorely seeking onely to satisfie nature and not to serue pleasure Who by reason here of were very strong whole lusty and able men and long liued The Arabians or Alarbians liue nowe in such manner sithence the comming of Mahomet leading with them their houses villages and townes which they carry on Chariots or on the backe of Camels following the commoditie of pasturage from Arabie and the riuer Euphrates euen to the Atlanticke sea being very hurtfull to the bordering plaines of Suria Egipt and all the neerer Africke especially about the time of gathering corne and fruits for they goe downe then by troupes close and thicke Then hauing taken what they can they retire with such swiftnesse that they seeme rather to flie then to run and it is not possible to ouertake them or to follow them thorough places destitute of waters It is a vagabond people and innumerable yet diurded by Nations and Lordes called Schez euil agreeing togither and hauing no firme habitation They dwel commonly vnder tents and pauilions made of course bad wool They liue with flesh and milke especially of Camels putting thereunto a little rice hony dates raisins drie figgs oliues and Venison when they can catch it going often with doggs and haukes to hunt red deare fallow deare Ostriches and all other sort of wild game They are commonly mishapen maigre and leane of small stature of tawny and duskish colour blacke eyed with a weake and feminine voice wearing no other garments but shirts sauing some chief of thē They ride the most part without sadles spurs or shoes on their horses Their armes are great India canes of x. or xij cubits long with a little yron at the end and a little taffeta in manner of a banderoll Notwithstanding liuing in this pouertie and miserie they glory that they are first nations and chiefe of the world in that they were neuer mingled with others and haue still preserued and kept entier the nobility of their blood Ioannes Leo an Affrican historiographer writeth that they haue many goodly obseruations of Astrology which by tradition they deliuer from hand to hand to their successours and increase them daily BVT those nations which are in the meane habitatio of the world are well disposed and instructed both in armes and learning hauing by nature both courage and vnderstanding togither They liue in good policy inhabiting houses hamlets parishes villages townes cities common weales kingdomes and Empires they haue vniuersities and publicke schooles in which all sciences are taught they haue variety of trads and occupations seruing not only for necessity but also for pleasure ornament and magnificence of buildings victuals habits and armes they haue iudgement reuenew warfare and religion wel appointed and maintained AMONGST these of the meane they which dwell neerest the South being naturally melancolick do giue themselues willingly to solytarines and contemplation being sharpe witted and ingenious as the Egiptians Lybians Hebrewes Arabians Phaenicians Assyrians Persians and Indians Wherfore they haue inuented many goodly sciences vnfolded the secrets of nature found out the Mathematickes obserued the celestial motions first knowen religion Amongst them haue bin found learned Philosophers diuine Prophets and famous Lawmakers THEY which drawe towards the North as the Almains thorough the abundance of humour and blood which doth hinder speculation do apply themselues more to sensible things and to Mechanical arts that is to say to the finding of mettals and conduct of mines to melt and forge workes in yron steele copper brasse in which they are admirable hauing inuented the vse of Ordinance Artillery and Printing THOSE which dwel in the very midst are not so naturally fit for the speculatiue sciences as the Southern nations nor so apt for the mechanicall workes as the Northern people are but are best seene in handling publicke affaires and from them are come many good institutions Lawes maners the art of gouernment or Imperial military discipline and politicke ordering of a common wealth the regiment of a Shipp or Pilots art Logike and Rhetoricke And as the Meridional nations haue not bin much exercised in armes nor the Septentrional in learning th one excelling in vnderstanding thother in force they of the meane being both ingenious and courageous embracing both letters and armes together and ioyning force with wisedome haue established flourishing and durable Empires which the other could not do for although the Gothes Hunnes and Vandales more hardie then wise haue by armes inuaded Europe Asia and Africke neuertheles for want of Counsell they established not any power of continuance Contrarywise the Romains being both valiant and prudent haue surmounted all nations by the glory of their decdes establishing the greatest Empire and of longest continuance that euer was And yet haue not been depriued of the excellency of disciplines or of mechanicall workes Amongst whom haue florished famous Captaines good Lawmakers learned Lawiers iust Iudges seuere Censors graue Senatours ingenious and pleasant Poets eloquent Oratours true and elegant Historiographers wary Marchants and exquisite Artificers CONCERNING the East and West all doe agree that the Oriental or Easterly situation in the same aspect of heauen and seated in the like place is better then the Westerly or Occidentall and that all thinges growe fairer and greater in th one then thother Notwithstanding we see the Westerne people to excell in force of body and the others in vigour and sharpnes of vnderstanding In so much that the West seemeth to haue some affinitie with the North and the East with the South The Gaules or Frenchmen haue often sent great armies into Italy Greece and Asia The Italians neuer ouercame France till they brought their Empire to his full heigth and force and that vnder Iulius Caesar who founde them deuided into factions The Italians ouercame the Grecians without great difficulty The Grecians who by their armes had penetrated into the farther Asia came not farre into Italy but vnder King Pyrrhus who was shamfully beaten back Xerxes came downe into Greece with an innumerable armie yet neuerthelesse was ouercome by a fewe Grecians and driuen backe againe with a reprochful and ignominious losse INREGARD of the parts of the habitable earth many excellent men of war haue ben renowmed in Europe few in Africk
and sciences THE VICISSITVDE of Townes SOme Towns and Cities begin others end others increase others diminish cōming of little to be great of great little some are ouerthrowen by warres others by sedition others by long peace turned into loosenes or by pompe and prodigalitie pernitious to great riches or by casuall chaunces of fire inundation of waters or Earthquakes or els by old age which consumeth all things Niniue so great so faire and sumptuous was distroyed by Arbaces and the Medians Carthage by Scipio and the Romaines By tract of time the greatest part of Babylon hath bin turned vnto tillage and at this day is nothing or els hath chaunged his name Athens is reduced into a little village Troy into Champaigne Ierusalem so famous throughout the scripture hath bin often distroied and reedified Thebes was sometime the fairest Citie not onely of Egypt but of the whole world the magnificence of which was diminished by the increase of Memphis And that of Memphis by the edification and augmentation of Alexandria holden for the chiefe or second Citie in the world Rome began when Babylon ended and Constantinople is growen vp by the spoile of Rome the Empire being transported thither with his chiefe forces and riches Lions first scituated on a hill was burned then reedified below Elice and Buria drowned In auncient time there were in Candie 100. Townes which are now reduced vnto three On the contrarie in Germany there were no Townes there are at this day the fairest the strongest and best gouerned that are any where The Arabians and Tartarians march by great troupes representing great walking cities In other places are seen veriefaire Cities which were not in former time As Cair Alep Tauris Mosko Prague Cracouia Nugradia Antwerp London Lishbon Paris Roan Mexico in Temistiten Venice Cambalu Quinzay Meace in Gyapan Malach and Ormus THE VICISSITVDE OF COMMON Weales Kingdomes and Empires THe first and chiefest forme of Ciuil gouernment is a Monarchie erected naturally which by good establishment begetteth a Kingdom or Roialtie but when a Roialtie falleth into those vices which are neerest i◠as into Tyrannie of their abolition ariseth Aristocratie which is commonlie chaunged into Oligarchie And when the Communaltie reuengeth the iniustice of the Gouernors there followeth a Democratie by the outrages and iniquities whereof is againe erected the Ochlocratie Such is the naturall reuolution of gouernments according vnto which the estate of the common wealth is chaunged and translated and againe returneth to the same Yf the vertue of commaunders were alwaies alike the affaires of men would go better and more certainlie without being transported to and fro and incessantly altered for aucthoritie is easilie maintayned by the same meanes by which it is gotten but where for diligence idlenes for continencie and equitie couetousnes and pride do take place there the fortune chaungeth with the maner of their lyuing Wherefore the Kingdoms and Empires are translated continually from the lesse apt and able to those that more chaunging from familie to familie and from nation to nation As by the variable course of the Moone is gouerned the great Sea mouing or appeasing his waues aduauncing or withdrawing the flowing and the ebbing of the tydes so are by the vnstabilitie of fortune and mens want of wisdom publike states increased diminished exalted abased changed destroied conuerted and put ouer from some vnto others those that are best gouerned hauing their power more assured and durable then the rest and yet none being perpetuall for asmuch as they are corrupted in length of yeares whatsoeuer good orders there are at the beginning if heed be not carefully taken in reforming them often and reducing them as much as is possible to their first integritie We see that a Lordship well founded doth prosper a time by the goodnes of the gouernment and goeth from good to better drawing in a right line towards the midst or the highest of his true politique course afterwards declineth from high to low or from the midst to the extremitie True it is that where th one endeth thother beginneth and is aduaunced by the ruyne of the former or many smal are reduced into one great and that great one diuided into lesser THE VICISSITVDE AND variety of Tongues LIkewise the Tongues words writings and Characters are continually changed hauing no better hap then other humaine things which do change ordinarily with their words namely maners of liuing both publike and priuate customes meates lawes habits and garments edifices buildings armes engines and instruments They haue a beginning continuance perfection corruption and alteration Some are altogether lost others do spring out of the former beeing corrupted and mingled others after they haue bin long time disanulled are restored They are maintayned with their proprietie sweetnes and elegancie with the sciences which are written in them thorough the power and greatnes of Empire and by religions with which meanes they are largely spread abroad in diuers Countries and endure long as also they are lost by the contrarie THE VICISSITVDE of Artes. BY the same order and interchangeable course the Arts and Sciences being small at beginning do augment by little and little and come vp to their perfection whether after they are once come they fall eftsoones and finally perish thorough the slouth of men or by the calamitie of warres long continued or by the tyrannie of barbarous people Then when they haue bin a while let downe they arise againe and successiuelie recouer their former strength Which hath giuen occasion to some excellent Philosophers and Astrologers to thinke that the same Sciences haue sundrie times bin inuented before time out of minde and lost againe as they may be againe also in time to come seeing that power and wisedom leaue not long each other but ordinarily keepe good companie together As I haue obserued within these three thousand yeares to haue falne out fiue or sixe times at certain seasons finding the excellency of armes and learning to haue bin first in Egipt Assyria Persia and Asia the lesser consequently in Greece Italie and Sarasmenia and finallie in this age in which we see almost all auncient liberal and Mechanical arts to be restored with the tongues after that they had bin lost almost twelue hundred yeares and other new inuented in their places Wherein shal be employed all the discourse ensuing depending on the former which we will begin with the Tongues with which are preserued and lost all humaine arts and affaires The end of the first Booke OF THE VICISSITVDE AND varietie of Tongues The second Booke GOD creating Man gaue him for a great and excellent gift the vse of Reason and Speech and by these two prerogatiues hath separated him from other Creatures But reason would little helpe him and would lesse appeare in him if he could not by speech expresse that which before hee had conceiued in his mind for the beastes seeme to yeeld vnto him rather in speech then vnderstanding doing finely and
giuing to some force without lightnesse to others lightnesse without force he armed some and for those which were without armes he inuented other succour Those which he had inclosed in a little body he lifted them vp into the aire with feathers or commaunded them to craule on the earth He fortifyed such as were growen into a great Masse with their Masse it selfe And likewise he proceeded with the rest giuing to euery one his vertues After he had so furnished them to th end they should not distroy one another he gaue them meanes to defend them th one from the other and to remaine abroad without couert Clothing some of them with thicke heare little houses or shells and skales of diuers sorts with feathers or hard skinnes against the vntemperatenes of Winter Sommer and of the same things made them beds and natural couches ioining to their feet clawes nailes and callosites to their heads hornes teeth and tronks then distributed to them food making some to eate grasse on the earth others to feed on fruits roots of trees others more greedy to deuoure one another Prouided that they which liued on pray should be in some sort barren and the others that were subiect to be deuoured more fruitful to th end that the kind should continue For the diuine prouidence hath bin wise therin making al fearful beasts and such as are good to â—eed on very fruitful lest by being often eaten there should faile of the kind euen as hurtfull and harmeful beasts are of small increase Therefore the hare is very fruitfull and alone of al kind of venison surchargeth the burden in his belly because that men beasts and birds do prosecute him to death Likewise the Cony is sound so ful of rabets that some of them are yet without heare others somewhat riper and others going out of the belly But the Lyonesse which is the strongest and hardiest of all beastes neuer bringeth but one and but once in her life But Epimetheus being not very wise he gaue all to the brute beastes reseruing nothing for man whom he left alone without force without power without propertie starke naked without armour without clothing vnhosed and vnshood without conuenient food and wanting all things In such sort that he could not resist other creatures being then more excellent then himselfe For the staggs ran swifter the beares and Lions were stronger the Peacock was fairer the fox was craftier the Emmet more diligent and the snayle better lodged then he Euery beast found a medicine fit for his malady and hurt whereof man was ignorant Of this came such a confusion that men perished by little and little thorough diuers sorts of crueltâ—e In such sort that their kind had soone bin consumed without the aduise of prudent Prometheus who seeing so great a fault to redresse it stole from Vulcan and Minerua the artificial wisedom togither with the fire being not possible to obtaine it or to vse it without fire and so did distribute it to mankinde by meanes whereof men began for their common commoditie to assemble togither for feare of the be astes and to th end to resist them helping one another and seeking here and there after safe places for their habitation they learned to make houses and garments to auoid the sharpnes of cold and the force of heate to reserue fruits for their necessitie to prepare armes for their defence and to finde out other commodities for their life Which finally necessity it selfe being inuentour of all things maketh knowen particularly to the vnderstanding of men vnto whom were giuen for helpes their hands speach and reason Reason to inuent speach to coÌ„municate the hands to accomplish that which they should either inuent themselues by reason or learne of others by speach for no other creature doth speak in deed for as much as speach proceedeth of reason nor hath hands though peraduenture somewhat like vnto handes Wherefore man hath first found out by reason the most necessary thinges as food clothing and armes and afterward such as serue for pleasure ornament and magnificence he hath imposed names on euery thing inuented letters of diuers sorts and sundry kinds of writing made all arts both mechanical and liberall proceeding so farr as to measure the earth and the sea to reduce by instruments the mighty masse of heauen scarse to be comprehended by vnderstanding and to propose it before our eyes Moreouer the same Plato affirmeth that before men liued in company and spake togither or that they had begun to inuent and exercise arts for as much as they alone of al other creatures did participate of the diuine nature being indewed with an immortall soule that they by reason of this diuine affinitie did thinke first that there were Gods and so honoured them and prayed to them from thence had religion her beginning publicke gouernment iudgement negotiation and traficke by Sea and by land lawes were established magistrates created innumerable trades inuented houses villages and townes builded consequently cities castles and fortresses and then kingdoms and Empires erected Wherehence hath succeeded the greatnes and excellency of mankind such as we see it at this day From thence I say began religion which is more natural to men then all their other arts and inuentions no nation in the world hauing bin found so rude so cruel barbarous but that it had some appearance of religion For howbeit that the greater part is ignorant what God how they ought to worship him yet al notwithstanding do agree that we ought to honour pray and feare one God the authour of all things which is confirmed not only in the first and most auncient nations as the Ethiopians Indians Armenians Chaldees Hebrewes Assyrians Egyptians Greekes Romains and Gaules but also in the Goths Vandales Sarazens Tartarians Turkes Persians Cathayans or Chinoys And not onely in our hemisphere but also amongst the Antipodes and Sauages of the new found lands of whom heretofore we neuer had any knowledge They which haue nauigated thither haue found many people liuing yet as the first men without letters without Lawes without Kings without common wealthes without arts but yet not without religion who beleeue that the soules of the dead go into other places according to such workes as they haue done in this life To intertaine it haue bin appointed cerimonies praiers ordained temples edifyed oratories chapels hospitals almeshouses cloisters and couents Sacrificers or priests haue bin instituted and much respected in all Countries And if it pleased God that hee woulde be worshipped thoroughout all the world in one selfe same maner men shoulde be deliuered of great hatred and cruel discorde happening amongst them thorough the diuersitie of Religions AT THE beginning men were very simple and rude in all thinges little differing from beastes They did eate in the fieldes and mountaines the rawe fleshe of beastes or herbes with their rootes stalkes and leaues which the earth brought foorth of his owne accorde and in
others And whereas the whole publicke reuenew was diuided into three partes they tooke the first portion to thend to employ it in administration of sacrifices and on their necessities They were called neere vnto Kings to giue counsaile in matters of consequence both they and their children being exempted from subsidies and holding the secoÌ„d place to the king in honor dignity Thother portion of the reuenew appertayned to the Kings who employed it on the warres and on maintaining their estate and traine and in recompensing such as deserued whence it came to passe that the people was not any way oppressed with tributes and new subsidies The third part was receiued by the nobles and other men of armes wherein they were all exercised to the end that by such intertainement they should be the readier to vndertake all military hazards and that lyuing better thereby and more at ease they should be the more enclined to beget offspring of their bodies whence it came to passe that the Countrey being peopled by theis meanes had no need of forraine Souldiers They neuer learned any base or mechanical science but gaue themselues wholy to armes which exercise was taught from hand to hand by the father to the sonne Concerning their arts and handycrafts the Egyptians workes were very wel wrought and euen come to their perfection for the Artisans of Egypt employed themselues onely about workes which were permitted by the Law or which they had learned of their fathers And it behoued euery one to showe to the gouernour from yere to yere whereof he liued Otherwise for default of so doing or not shewing his manner of liuing to be iust and reasonable he was led presently to death And whereas that Countrey was more stored with people then any other of the world and furnished with such excellent Artisans their kings haue built such great Cities as Thebes and Memphis and erected and made meruailous pyramides temples labyrinths â—epultures colosses obeliskes and other like workes the greatest amongst men which enuious age thorough so long tract of time amongst so many changes of Lordships could not yet consume Furthermore the countrey of Egypt hath alwaies seemed to be the most excellent of all others as well for that it is meruailously strong and wel bounded as for the pleasing beauty of the whole Countrey For on the West side it hath the great deserts for defence and a part of the wylde Lybia which is not only difficult to passe ouer but very daungerous also for want of waters and barennes of all other thinges Towards the South it is enuironed with the scluses of Nilus and with the mountaines adioyning And to come downe from the higher Ethiopia for the space of three hundred leagues the riuer is not easily nauigable nor the way by land easy to be vndertaken if it be not by a king or with great prouision of victuals On the East side it is fortified with the sameriuer and with a deepe and hollow marish ground more then twelue leagues in length being betwixt Syria and Egypt On the North it is enclosed with a Sea which hath no hauens and where it is very difficult to finde landing Being by this meanes very safe and strong it was first grouerned by the natiue Kings of the Countrey after by the Ethiopians Persians Macedonians Romains Greekes Caliphes Soudans and at this day by the Turkes Amongst all the Kings borne in the countrey or aliens which euer raigned there SESOSTRIS was the most mighty most magnificent hauing excelled in valiancy and felicity not onely the Assyrians and Persians but also the Macedonians and Romaines His father being aduertised by reuelation of his greatnes to come to the end to make him worthier to rule the Monarchy of the whole worlde he assembled togither all the children that were borne on the same day with his sonne caused them al to be instructed in the same discipline with him thinking that being so brought vp togither they would loue one another the more be the better help to one another in the wars First of al then going against the Arabians with an army of these being hardned with pain accustomed to sobriety he brought vnder his obedieÌ„ce al that nation which was free at liberty before then the greatest part of Lybia being yet very yong lifted vp in courage by the succes of this expedition he applyed al his fantasy to make himselfe Lord of al the world gathering togither an army of sixe hundred thousand foot foure and twenty thousand horse eighteen thousand chariots for war foure hundred ships on the red sea finding out first the vse of galleis ouer all whom he appointed Capitains the most part of those which had bin brought vp with him as is fayde accustomed vnto warre and from their youth giuen to vertuous exercises With this great force hee conquered on the one side Ethiopia and all the Isles of that Countrey and all the Sea-coast towardes the Indies on the other side Asia the great ouercomming not onely those nations which were afterward ouercome by Alexander but also many other whom Alexander neuer came vnto For he passed the riuer Ganges marching here and there thorough out all the Countrey of the Indians vnto the great Ocean and trauersed all the Scythians countrey vnto the riuer Tanais which deâ—ideth Asia from Europe Then going therehence into Thrace he was constrained by the difficulty of the places and thorough want of victuals to make an end of his enterprise setting vp diuers pillars in the conquered Countries some with the likenesse of a man others with the secret parts of women signifying thereby the valiancy or cowardize of the vanquished people Returning into Egypt with all the prisoners whose number was infinite and the spoiles of the conquered Countries he decked the Temples of Egypt with the most precious things which he had brought and hauing recompensed his souldiers which had well followed and serued him from that time forward the whole Countrey was much enriched Being at quiet he did also many great and excellent things seruing for the ornament and safety of Egypt as to raise mounts on which the townes were placed which before were low seated to th end that the men and beastes might remaine in safety during the increase of the riuer make great diches and chanels in the Countrey going from Memphis to the Sea to cary victuals more easily and readily fortifie those places where the enimies might enter on the land of Egypt making their entrance more difficulte by multitude of diches build a great wall toward Syria and Arabia from Peluse to the City of the Sunne fourescore and fourteene leagues in length But hee exceeded all other magnificence in this that when the nations which hee had ouercome and those to whome hee had giuen kingdomes as also the Capitaines which hee had ordained for the guard of his prouinces were come into Egypt at the time appointed to offer their gifts
tributes which they ought him if it hapned that he went to the temple or passed thorough the towne he made fower of them to be tyed and fastened to his chariot in steed of horses declaring thereby that none of the other kings or famous Capitaines was to be compared to him in vertue seeing he had ouercome them all His glory and renowne was so great that long time after he was dead when the Persians held the kingdome of Egypt and Darius the father of Xerxes would haue placed his owne statue aboue that of Sesostris in the City of Memphis the high Priest of Vulcan gainsayd him publickly saying that yet his acts were not like to those of Sesostris who had subdued as many nations as he and amongst others had ouercome the Scythians whom Darius could not any waies endamage and therefore it was not reason that his offering should go before that of a King whom hee had not gone beyond in great exploits Which words Darius taking in good part and reioycing at his so liberall speach said that he would indeuour not to be inferiour to Sesostris in any thing if he liued as long as he had done praying the priest to compare their yeres with their deeds and that it should be a testimony vnto him of his vertue After Sesostris in my opinion Ptolomeus Philadelphus deserueth greatest praise by the fauour and aduancement which he gaue to all arts founding that most famous schoole in Alexandria the head City of his kingdome to communicate to all students the sciences which before were only managed by Priests and handled in the Egyptian tongue which he caused to be translated into Greeke where he assembled from all parts learned men to teach them proposing them honourable rewards there built he that magnificent Museum which he endewed with good reuenues for the intertainment of Scholers and erected in it that most famous Library furnished with seuen hundred thousand volumes which foundation was after augmented by the Romain Emperour and continued euen till the Mahometans vsurped that kingdom whence they banished both the Greeke tongue and the auncient Egyptian with their sciences though they had bin there continued almost three thousand yeres especially the knowledge of celestiall motions and of naturall thinges amongest the variable accidents of so many monarchies as of the Ethiopian the Egyptian Assyrian Median Persian Macedonian Parthian and Romain OF THE POWER OF THE Assyrians and learning of the Chaldees IN ASSYRIA raigned in olde time many Kinges borne in the same Countrey whose names and deedes are both abolished by long course of yeres But he amongst them which first got learned men to writ his deeds was NINVS who being by his nature enclined to warre and greedy of glory subdued the first nations by force and inuested himselfe with the monarchy stretching out his dominions farr and wyde thorough out Asia with an incredible army of seuenteen huÌ„dred thousand foot 2. hundred thousand horse ten thousand sixe hundred chariots armed with hookes by meanes whereof he subdued in seuenteene yeeres all the nations bordering on the bankes of the East sea and their neighbours as the Egyptians Phenicians those of the inner Syria Cilicia Pamphilia Lycia Caria Mysia Lydia Troada Phrygia which lyeth on the Sea Hellespont the Countrey of Propontida and Bithinia Capadocia and the other nations which border on the great Sea not leauing any vnconquered from Nilus to Tanais He added besides to his estate the Cadusians Tapyres Hyrcanians Dranges Deruices Carmanians Coronians Rombians Vocamians Parthians Persians Susians Caspians Bactrians and many others which it were too long particularly to recite Then his army retorning into Syria he chose a commodioâ—s place to builde a City which as hee had surmounted all other Kinges in glory of his great deedes hee purposed to make so great that there was neuer afore the like thereof in greatnesse neyther coulde there euer since bee founde suche another And assembling from all partes great number of workemen with the prouisions necessary for such a worke he built his Citie on the riuer Euphrates making it not altogether square nor equally compassed on all sides of alike length but longer on two sides then on the other two and each side of the long wall was twenty miles in length and a side of the lesser wall not much lesse then twelue miles so that it had in all three score and two miles in circuit And without doubt Ninus was no whit deceiued of his intent for there hath no Citie sithence bin found of so great compasse neither of such sumptuousnes beautie and magnificence Then to make it populous and well inhabited hee compelled the Assyrians especially those of the richer sort to make their abode there and of other neighbour nations receiued such as would come thither ordayning that the Citie in memorie of him should be called NINIVIE After whose death SEMIRAMIS his wife held the kingdome of Assyria showing her selfe as magnificent in riches conquests and triumphes as euer any man had bin It is said that being a little girle she was cast into a desert full of rockes where there was a great number of birdes which by gods will nourished and preserued her bearing vp the child with their winges and feeding her with milke and after with cheese which they stole from the shepcotes adioyning which being discouered by the shepheardes who found their cheeses to be gnawen and perceyuing the child to be of excellent beautie they offered her to their gouernour who hauing no children brought her vp carefully as if she had bin his owne afterwards being growen by reason of her beautie and good behauiour she came to the knowledge of king Ninus hauing holpen him by her dexteritie to take the Citie of the Bactrians so that he fell in loue with her and maried her Yet was not her death lesse admirable then her strange nourishment for after she had made great Conquests buylded sumptuous edifices assailed the Indians with an armie of three Millions of foote fiue hundred thousand horsemen and a hundred thousand chariots as hath bin said and at her returne giuen order for gouernment of her kingdom she vanished away and was transported sodainlie as hath bin beleeued amongst the Gods Some faine that she was turned into a Pigeon and that she flew away with a great number of birdes which came into her chamber Desiring to match or to goe beyond her husband in glorie and magnificence shee vndertooke also to buyld the Citie of BABYLON assembling artisans from all partes as Cutters Caruers Masons and workmaisters for this effect and making prouision of stuffes necessarie for so great a buylding which to make vp and finish shee caused from all Nations to come to the number of three Millions of men and built her Citie on both sides of the riuer Euphrates which passed thorough the midst of it ouer which shee made a bridge halfe a mile in length and of thirtie foote in bredth and two palaces at the two
of the race of Charlemaigne and shortly vpon the comming of Hugh Capet Then such Lords as held the great fees of the kings they subdiuided them to other persons of whom they expected seruice and both th one and thother gaue their lands to the peasants with dueties of rents and with condition to receiue iustice of them Wherehence are come the termes of fees and vnderfees of vassals and vndervassals for a difference from them which relieue directly and without any meane of the king Consequently of Ban arriereban and of liege or bond men who without exception do promise all duetie of fidelitie to their Lords and of those which are not bond or liege which do onely promise a duetie by reason of superiour estate or fee of which theirs which is inferiour dependeth And although at the beginning it was not lawfull for any Roturier or common person to possesse any fee simple but to meddle onely with his traficke tillage or husbandrie and to pay his Lords dueties notwithstanding by succession of time the fees contrarie to their first and auncient institution fell without any difference or distinction into the hands of men of armes and such as were estranged from the exercise of armes of noble and vnnoble of gentlemen and vngentle as merchants practicioners and other rich commoners that had meanes to buy them Moreouer whereas many fees with their dueties were giuen by Kings Princes Lords and Gentlemen to Bishoprickes Abbeies monasteries couents priories chanonries commaunderies hospitals spittels and to other Ecclesiasticall persons which are people of Mortmaine and altogether estraunged from armes the Ban arriereban hath bin much weakned thereby and at length is so low brought and so dispised that euen they which are bound therevnto thinke themselues dishonoured if they appeare there and so send thither their seruants or other mercenarie folkes the most part so euill appointed and in such poore equippage that it is a mockerie to see them whereas in times past the chiefest of Fraunce accounted it a great honour to be there themselues in person So farre haue these sees and vnder fees straied or so ill bin imployed which were erected and ordained for the safetie of the Countrie to the end that such as held them should in all occurrents of businesse be readily furnished with armes men and horses in such number and order as is requisite either to resist the approches of the enemie or to set vpon him if need were By reason whereof the forces of the kingdom are lessned and the Lawes militarie by little and little brought to naught in such sort that the Kings haue bin constrained to ordainè those companies of waged men of armes called ordinances and for their intertainment to impose on the people taxe and tallage Moreouer it is seuen or eight hundred yeres since the Nobilitie hath taken vp the vse of Armes and scutchions with figures of beastes and other things blazoned with diuers colours with termes fitting therunto to th end to discerne and make difference betweene them of their Nobilitie and the antiquities thereof their alliancies and kinreds Which maner was not in vse before CHARLEMAIGNE and hath not gon out of EVROPE being yet vnknowen throughout AFRICKE and ASIA where their Religion forbiddeth them to make the pourtraitures of beastes The Armes in the which ther are Lyons Leopards Tygers Eagles Kytes Faulcons and other rauenous beastes are accounted more noble then those which haue but trees flowers starres barres files or which are onely distinguished with colour or taken from the names of families because they seeme not to haue bin gotten by militarie prowesse or any other vertue To make them correct and expound them are appointed the Herauldes and kings of Armes curiously discoursing of the figures and colours which are in them euen to the mingling and accomodating according to the measure of their vnderstanding and knowledge both Physicke Astrologie and Diuinitie THE ARTISANS AND EXQVI site workes of the Auncients IN EGIPT INDIA and elswhere the gouernment being diuided into many orders or estates it was not lawfull for any to take a wife of other estate but his owne nor to change his vocation because it seemed not reasonable vnto them that a man of armes should labour the earth or that a learned man should become an Artisan Then the Artisans there wrought their workes seuerally euery one by himselfe and not indifferently mingling one occupation amongst the other The like did the husbandmen fishermen and huntsmen and it was not lawfull for one to exercise many trades As then they applied not themselues but vnto such workes as were permitted by the law and which they had learned of their fathers continuing the same all their life they became excellent therein Especially the EGIPTIANS whose workes were meruailously well wrought and euen come to their perfection The great and magnificent buildings made at that time both in ASSIRIA EGIPT and elswhere do euidently show the abilitie of their architects masons statuaries imagers grauers painters caruers carpenters and smithes The same distinction of the multitude by diuers orders and kindes of exercise is vsed at this day at CAIR FEZ MARROCCO and in many other great Cities of Asia and Africk Others account the maner of PARIS more commodious where the Artificers dwel intermingled one amongst the other At this day the Artisans of CATHAY and of CAIR and of PERSIA are found verie exquisite making works so neere approching vnto those of nature that they seeme to be naturall The end of the fowerth Booke OF THE LEARNING POESY Eloquence Power and other excellencie of the Grecians The fifth Booke AT the same time that the Persians swaied by their armes in Asia and that Cyrus founded the Persian Monarchie good letters and Learning were raised vp in Greece and the Countries there about aswell in the Isles as in the maine land and by the learned and renowmed Pythagoras began Philosophie First of all men considering the admirable ornament of the whole world the continuall and peâ—durable motion of the Heauen the varietie and distinction of the starres the intercourse of daies and nights of monethes and yeares continually succeeding the vital power of fire diffused thorough out the whole world the variable aire sustayning with spiration and respiration all liuing creatures the sea beating the bankes with his reciprocal waues receiuing and casting out the other waters without ouerflowing or diminishing the earth which is heaped together on each side thereof for a bound vnto it The vicissitude and order of things both simple and compounded contayned in the circuit of the world being innumerable in multitude and meruailous in beautie They indeuored to search out their properties conueniences and contrarieties as to know whereof they were made and engendred how long they indured what became of them when and how they perished what in them was mortall and corruptible what diuine and perpetual They obserued the course of the starres and the power which they haue heer
for the most part to other nations And although Philip by his trauailes and labours magnified them greatly notwithstanding his authoritie neuer went out of the countrie of Greece Touching the Empire of Alexander it is most certain that it was glorious and excellent both for the greatnes thereof as also for the celeritie of his conquests But after it was once come to an infinite degree and impossible to imitate it diuided it selfe soone into many parts Euen as a flash of lightning which giueth sodainly a great light and runneth hither and thither and then is extinguished But if the great God saith Plutarch which sent the soule of Alexander here below had not sodainly called it vnto him againe peraduenture there had bin but one only law which had gouerned all men and all this world had bin ruled vnder one selfesame Iustice euen as by one light But as soone as he was deceased his Armie and power wandering and hurting it selfe was like vnto a man who hauing lost his sight feeleth euery where with his hand without knowing whether he goeth so the greatnes of his power he being dead went astray and wandered hither and thither reeling and stumbling at euery thing because there was not any to whom it obeyed Or rather as the bodie when the soule is once out of it the parts do not sustaine one another neither find themselues vnited one to the other but they leaue each other and disioine themselues one from the other and withdraw themselues So the Armie of Alexander after it had lost him did nothing but tremble and shake in a continuall feuer vnder Perdiccas Meleager Seleucus Antigonus Eumenes Lysimachus Ptolemeus Lacomedon Antipater Philotas and Leonatus his successours which were euen as spirits yet warme and poulses beating sometimes here sometimes there by spaces and fits vntill that finally comming to waste and perish in it selfe it crauled all with wormes which were the chiefe Captaines being become kings by vsurpation of his Lordships not like to him in valure and generositie Amongst whom and their offspring arose great ciuill warres a long time continued whereof followed the desolation of their kingdomes so that by little and little they fell into the hands of the Parthians or of the Romains or had particular Lordes A COMPARISON OF ALEXANDER the great vnto Cyrus Agesilaus Themistocles Pericles Agamemnon Achilles Vlisses Diomedes Bacchus Hercules and others IF we consider in Alexander his deuotion towards the Gods affiance in his friends his suffisance with a little his continencie beneficence contempt of death magnanimitie humanitie gratious intertainment easie accesse frank disposition of nature not counterfaited nor fained his constancie in counsailes readines in executions his will to be the chief of men in glorie and resolution to do whatsoeuer his will commaunded we shall find that God who composed him of many vertues gaue him the courage of Cyrus the temperance of Agesilaus the sharp vnderstanding of Themistocles the experience of Philip the hardines of Brasidas and the sufficiencie of Pericles in matters of state and gouernment And in respect of the more auncients that he was more continent then Agamemnon who preferred a captiue prisoner before the loue of his lawfull wife and he would neuer once touch a captiue vntill he had first maried her more magnanimious then Achilles who for a little ransom sold the body of Hector being dead wheras he bestowed a great summe of money in burying that or Darius and the other to appeale his choler as being mercenarie tooke presents of his friends for his hire and this man being victorious enriched his enemies He was more religious then Diomedes who was readie to fight with the Gods them selues and he accounted that all his victories and happie successes came vnto him by fauour of the Gods He was more charitable to his parents then Vlisses whose mother died for sorrow whereas the mother of his enemie for loue and good will which shee bore vnto him died with him for griefe of his death Solon ordained at Athens an abolishment of all debts Alexander paied his souldiers debts to their creditors Pericles hauing taxed the Greekes of the money which came of this taxe beautified the Citie of Athens with faire Temples especially the castle on the contrarie Alexander hauing taken the treasure of the Barbarians sent into Greece the summe of six Millions of gold to build temples for the Gods in steed of those which they had ouerthrowen Brasidas got great reputation of valiancie amongst the Grecians because he trauersed and passed thorough the enemies host from th one end to the other being incamped before the Towne of Methona along the sea shore whereas the meruailous leape which Alexander made in the Citie of the Oxydraques to those which heare it told is incredible and to those which saw it most terrible when he threw himselfe from the height of the walles into the midst of his enemies who receiued him with darts and arrowes pikes and swords Whereunto might one compare this deede but vnto the flash of lightning which breaketh forceably out of the cloude and being caried by the wind striketh on the earth euen as an apparition shining out of flaming armour Insomuch that those which saw him at the instant were so frighted therewith that they retired back but when they saw that it was one man alone assailing a great many then they returned to make head against him That which led Alexander against all Nations was nothing but a desire of glorie and of rule hauing proposed vnto himselfe by iealousie and emulation to surpasse the deedes of Bacchus and of Hercules by making his armes to be seen yet farther then they had made theirs Moreouer it was a great happines vnto him and such as neuer hapned to any other Monarke to haue in his time the most excellent men in all knowledge and the best worke men that euer were towards whom he was verie liberal as also to them it was a great aduantage to haue such a beholder who knew most ingeniously to iudge of that which they had done and to recompence it most liberally For euen as the humanitie the honour and liberalitie of the Prince is that which prouoketh and setteth forward the aduancement of arts and of good inuentions so on the contrarie all that languisheth and is extinguished by the enuie and nigardnes of those that rule Then as Alexander after his Conquests had in treasure a hundred thousand Talents and thirtie thousand of yearely reuenew which iâ— eighteene Millions of Crownes by the yeare he vsed these great treasures magnificently with meruailous and well ordered liberalitie hauing respect to the merits of men and bestowing his benefits in those places where he thought the memorie of them could not be lost He gaue charge vnto Aristotle to reduce into writing the natures of all liuing creatures and for this effect caused to be deliuered to him eight hundred Talents comming to CCCClxxx thousand Crownes of our money commaunding many
into the state of his house the traine of his Court into the Senate or counsaile the course of Iustice managing of his reuenewes administration of prouinces entertainment of forces both by sea and by land that Empire long maintained it selfe and prospered meruailously therewith Being then in his greatest glorie and power hee held first of all in the Brittaine Ocean manye partes and on the other side from the pillars of Hercules all the Islandes and Portes peoples and Nations which are in this Sea as farre as it is nauigable on the one side and the other Of which Nations the first on the right hande are Mauritanians bordering on the Sea likewise the Countrey of Lybia euen as farre as Carthage After them hygher and farther of the Numidians and the Countrey of Numidia and beyond them all the rest of Lybia which stretcheth out vnto the Syrtes togither with the City of Cyrene Then are the Marmarides the Ammonides and those which hold the marish of Marienna consequently the great citie of Alexandria togither with all the whole countrey of Egypt euen to the easterly Ethiopia and going downe along the riuer of Nile by Pelusium vnto the sea And after retourning along the banke thereof the countrey of Suria Palestina and yet higher a part of Arabia and the Phenicians and farther into the land the Cilisyrians bordering on the riuer Euphrates Farther on the sea the Palmyrians amongest sandie deserts which are on the said riuer of Euphrates And yet farther the Cilicians neighbours to the Surians and the Cappadocians with a part of Armenia the lesser Moreouer all the nations dwelling neer the sea Euxinus all along the coast In regard of mediterranean or vpland countreys towards Armenia the great the Romains ruled not ouer them neither imposed any tribute on them but gaue and confirmed their kings vnto them Therehence comming from Cappadocia euen to the Ionian sea is the great Chersonesus in the which are on the right hand the prouinces and nations of Pontus and Propontida of Hellespont and the Egean sea On the left hand the sea of Pamphylia and of Egypt And beyond those the Pamphilians Lycians Phenicians and Carians euen to Ionia Moreouer the Galathians Bythinians Phrygians and Mysians being aboue the Pontick sea and farther into the maine land the Pysidians and Lydians al which nations were subiect to the Romains And passing yet farther by Hellespont they ruled ouer the Mysians dwelling in Europe and the Thracians on the sea Euxinus Neer vnto the countrey of Ionia there is the gulfe of the Egean sea and that of the Ionian then the sea of Cilicia and the Tyrrhen sea reaching euen to the pillers of Hercules within which reach which is from Ionia vnto the Ocean sea there are many nations and prouinces which were subiect to the Romains that is to say the whole countrey of Greece Thessaly Macedony and all the other quarters belonging to the prouince of Thrace the Illyrians Peonians and the territory of Italy which is for the most part enuironed with the Ionian Tyrrhene seas and stretcheth it selfe by land vnto the coūtrey of the Gaules hauing on the one side the mediterranean or midland sea on another the northern Ocean and on thother the riuer of Rhene and yet farder is all the countrey of Spaine all along the Atlantick sea euen to the pillars of Hercules In regarde of those which are farther into land they passed not into that part of Africk which hath on the one side the west Ethiopia on thother the desert countrey of Lybia which is not inhabited for the exceeding heate and hath nothing but monsters and wild beasts vnto the East Ethiopia These were the limits of the Romain Empire on the side of Ethiopia and of Africk On the side of Asia the riuer Euphrates the mountaine Caucasus the beginning of Armenia the great and the Cholches dwelling neer the sea Euxinus the rest of the Euxine sea On the side of Europe the riuers of Rheine and of Danubius wherof the one that is the Rhene entreth into the Ocean the other into the Euxin sea And notwithstanding the Romains also ruled ouer some nations dwelling aboue the Rhene and ouer the Gethes which dwelled beyond Danubius and were called Dacians Touching the Isles all those which are within the mediterranean sea which are called Cyclades Sporades Hyades Echinades Tyrthenides or others whatsoeuer they are about Lybia Ionia Egypt or elswhere on the sea which the Greeks call the great Islands as Cypres Candie Rhods Lesbos Euboe Sicilia Sardignia Corsica Maiorca Minorca and all other great or little were subiect to the Empire of Rome And on the coast of the northren sea they held vnder their obedience the greatest and the best part of the Isle of Britayne So many nations prouinces did they subdue vnto their obedience by order of discipline good counsail strength courage vertue pacience and perseuerance of the Italians when they taught to fight with the best military discipline in the world which they vsed in rising incamping marching fighting wel armed ordered resolute to ouercome or to die Especially the footmen in which they had more confidēce then in their horsemen foūding their principal strength on then Then for the maintenāce of their Empire safety they had 200000. men ordinarily intertained xl thousand horse CCC Elephants apt for war two thousand Chariots furnished and ouer and besids iij. hundred thousand harnesse of prouision which is for their force on land Touching that on the sea they had about two thousand ships a thousand and fiue hundred galleis of fiue and sixe oares with furniture accordingly eight hundred great Vessels for pompe and to cary their Emperours guilded and richly wrought both at the forecastle and sterne an inestimable quantity of gold and siluer in treasure hauing almost an infinite reuenew consisting in yerely rents in customes and subsidies and in tributes which we call taxes and tallages which they leuied on so many Countries lands and Seigniories Of which reuenew it is not possible to make any certaine estimate or account no more then of other Empires and kingdomes absolute wherof the reuenewes increase or diminish according to the disposition of their affaires and will of the Soueraigne Lords imposing and taking away subsidie at their pleasures Such was the excellēcy of the Romains in arms Touching that of Learning CICERO without controuersie deserueth to be the first named amongst them who giuing himselfe to ymitation of the Grecians hath represented in his writings the vehemency of Demosthenes the abundance of Plato and good grace of Isocrates hee not onely got by studye that which was excellent in eche of them but of him selfe also hath produced many vertues or rather all by the most happy felicitye of his immortall vnderstanding borne by some guift of the diuine prouidence to the end that Eloquence in him might showe all her forces For who coulde teache more dilygently or moue more earnestly who was euer
himselfe with the shape of a man was borne of the Virgin and came forth of her wombe both visible Man and God inuisible promised by the Law and the Prophets the master of trueth and cleanser of Idolatrie correctour of malice and renewer of our depraued nature to th end to restore such as beleeued in him to their auncient puritie and innocencie corrupted by the forfaiture of the first man He gaue sight to the blind speach to the dumbe straight going to the lame healed incurable diseases cast out euill spirits fedd with fiue loaues and two fishes fiue thousand persons turned water into wine went safely on the waters as on the land commaunded the sea the winds and the tempests raised the dead to life and liued himselfe againe after he had bin wrongfully crucified and killed by the Iewes By which miracles he shewed himselfe to be the sonne of God establishing his Church and christian Religion in steed of the Mosaical and Pagan Which hath alreadie endured more then fifteene hundred yeares and shall neuer haue end hath passed alreadie to the Antipodes and hath bin manifested to the East and West Indians yea euen amongst the sauages lately discouered towards the South which before were vnknowen to all antiquitie and among the farthest people of the North by meanes of the Sueuians and Moscouites In somuch that at this day we may affirme that his word hath bin heard in all parts of the habitable earth as he had ordained vnto his Disciples enduing them with the grace of the holy Spirite and power to do miracles as he had done before and with the gift of tongues with perseuerance pacience and constancie against all torments and persecutions A thing indeed admirable and the like whereof neuer hapned to any King Law-maker or Philosopher Grecian or Barbarian who contented themselues to set downe and cause to be receiued in their countrie and language the institutions and Lawes which they esteemed good and profitable But Iesus Christ not as a mortall man seruing himselfe with poore fishermen for his Disciples whom he would haue from that time forward to bee fishers of men hath manifested his Gospell by them thorough out the whole world and before all people inioyning them to shew from him the true way of saluation and of beleeuing in GOD the Creatour of all thinges Such was the progresse and aduauncement which they made in their ministerie that in a little time they induced the Nations by their preaching to leaue their auncient idolatries and to receiue Christ as GOD they established schooles and auditories of the Christian doctrine and then were Temples buylt to the Apostles and Martyrs in the most famous Cities of the world at Rome Alexandria and Antioche thorough out Egipt and Lybia Europe and Asia Beginning then when the Romain power was come to his soueraign greatnes and glorie vnder Augustus the peaceable ruler of innumerable Nations when the kingdom of Egipt was extinguished which had endured almost time out of mind and the nation of the Iewes brought vnder bondage and subdued and the Lordships of the Syrians Cappadocians Macedonians Bythinians Grecians Illyrians Africans Spaniards and Gaules were vnder the Romaine Seigniorie which we must think did so fall out by the diuine prouidence of God to the end to make the same worke the more easie which otherwise must needes haue bin verie difficult if all these Nations had remained in diuision and discord But by meanes of the vnion of them vnder one great Monarchie they accomplished with lesse feare and danger their proposed enterprise God preparing them their way and brideling the harts of the superstitious by the terrour of that most mightie Empire Cornelius Tacitus writeth that such had bin the perswasion of men that it was contained in the auncient learning of the Priests that about this time the East should preuaile and that such as came out of Iewrie should raigne which was verified in the spirituall raigne of Iesus Christ whose Ghospell doctrine and religion hath bin preached thorough out the world God then seeing malice infinitely increased and the worshipping of false Gods dispersed thorough all the whole world in such sort that his name was alreadie almost out of the memorie of men and that the Iewes themselues to whom onely his diuine mysteries had bin reuealed and promises made of his holy alliance giuen ouer to vaine superstitions hauing left the true Religion whereunto they refused to returne being reprehended and admonished by the Prophets at this time ordained for the redemption he sent his sonne the Prince of the Angells vnto men to thend to diuert them from wicked and vaine worships and to induce them to know and to reuerence the true God bringing back their soules from folie vnto wisdom from iniquitie to iustice and from impietie to a right beleefe Such and so notable at this time was the mutation both in gouernment and in Religion BVT as the Romains were climed to the top of humane power and wisdome by labour industrie so were they straightwaies corrupted by riches and ouermuch libertie degenerating from the former integritie prowesse learning and eloquence Whereof I can not render any better reason then by their owne authours men of good credit and aucthoritie To thend saith Seneca that ye may vnderstand how much the witts of men do euery day decay and by I know not what iniquitie of nature and procliuitie vnto vice eloquence is gon backe All whatsoeuer the Romain eloquence hath to oppose vnto proud Greece it florished in the time of Cicero All the good wits which brought any light vnto our studies were borne then Sithence that time it hath alwaies impaired either by the loosenes of the time which is most pernitious vnto good wits or that the reward which was proposed for so goodly a thing being lost all the trauaile and paines hath bin bestowed on dishonest exercises or els by some destinie whose enuious law is perpetuall ouer all things so that being come to the highest they returne to the lowest faster then they went vp The good wits of slouthfull youth doe languish and do not applie themselues to any honest exercise Slouth and negligence and dexteritie in things that are pernitious which is worse then either sleepe or negligence haue possessed their mindes The delight of singing and dauncing holdeth the effeminate and of dressing their haire and fitting their speach vnto womanish daliances and exceeding of women in corporal delicacies and tricking themselues with vncleane cleanlynes which is the brauerie of our youth Who is there among the yong folkes ingenious or studious enough or rather man enough Being softned and effeminated they remaine of necessitie as when they were first borne corrupting the chastitie of others and negligent of their owne The Gods will not suffer so much euill as that eloquence should come to such people which I would neuer so much admire if she did not make choise of the minds on which she bestowed her selfe Cornelius
Tacitus writing of famous Oratours saith Tell me the cause why we are so farre from the former eloquence since it is but six score yeares from the death of Cicero to this present And a little after who knoweth not that eloquence and the other arts are fallen from their auncient glorie not for want of men but by the slouthfulnes of youth and negligence of parents and ignorance of teachers and forgetfulnes of the auncient customes Which euils being first begun in the Citie haue bin eft soones dispersed thorough Italie and all the prouinces The eloquent men of this time commit foule and shamefull faults in euery woord of their ordinarie speach shutting vp eloquence into little sence and smal sentences as if she were banished from her kingdome Whereas in times past being richly deckt with all arts she filled the breasts now being clipt and curtailed she remaineth without ornament without honour and as if she were without ingenuitie and is learned but as some base discipline This we account to be the chiefe and principall cause why we are so far gon backe from eloquence And the same author againe in the xvij of his Annales saith Before the affaires of the people of Rome were written with like eloquence libertie but sithence the battaile of Actium that the benefit of peace required all things to be reduced vnder the power of one then ceased these great witts and the trueth was vtterly lost first by ignorance of the state of the common wealth which was strange vnto them then by flatterie or hatred of those that ruled Plinie in his second booke I meruaile saith he that the world disagreeing and being diuided into kingdoms that is to say into parts so many persons haue imploied themselues to search out things which are so difficult to find In such sort that at this day euery one in his countrie knoweth some thinges more truely by the bookes of such as were neuer there then by aduertisement of the originaries And now that we inioy so happie a peace and haue an Emperour that taketh so great pleasure in the sciences and in new inuentions men are so far off from inuenting any new thing that they scarce learne the inuentions of the auncients The rewards were not then bestowed in greater abundance by the greatnes of fortune and yet more men imployed themselues in searching out of these things not expecting any other reward then to help their posterie But mens maners are waxen old and not the rewards And the sea being open on all sides and safe landing in all coasts many do nauigate but it is to gaine and not to learne whiles the mind being blinded and altogether giuen ouer to auarice doth not consider that it may more surely and safely be done by learning The same Authour saith in his thirteenth booke As the world is communicated by the maiestie of the Romaine Empire who would not think the life of man accomodated by the intercourse of things and by the societie of a happie peace And yet notwithstanding there are found but few which know that which the auncients haue left So much the greater was their studie and their industrie more fertile About a thousand yeares past shortly on the beginning of Letters Hesiodus gaue precepts vnto husbandmen who hath bin followed of many which hath increased husbandrie amongst vs for as much as it is good to consider not onely that which hath bin sithence inuented but also that which the auncients inuented before the memorie whereof is lost by our sluggishnes whereof we can alleage no other causes then those that are publick of the whole world Surelie other customes are come in sithence and mens witts are busied about other exercises They are onely giuen to questuarie and gainfull arts Before the Empires of nations were shut vp in themselues and therefore were they constrained by the necessitie of fortune to exercise the gifts of the mind Innumerable Kings were honoured by the Arts and preuailed by them thinking by them to obtaine aide and immortalitie wherefore both the rewards and works abounded The inlargment of the world and plentie of things hath bin hurtfull to posteritie Sithence the Senatour began to be chosen by his reuenew the Iudge to be made by the reuenew and that nothing hath so much commended the Magistrate and Captain as his reuenew Since that corrupting bribes were authorized the purchase of offices became very gainful that the only pleasure was in possessing much the prises of life are vanished and the arts called liberall of the great benefit of libertie haue fallen out to the contrarie and men haue begun to profit onely by seruitude and slauerie some worshipping of it in one sort and some in an other yet all notwithstanding aspiring to the same hope of profiting The chiefest haue rather respected the vices of another then their owne vertues Wherfore pleasure hath begun to liue and life is perished And the same in his xxv booke I can not sufficiently admire the diligence of the auncients who haue left nothing vnsearched and vnexperimented not retayning to themselues that which they knew to be profitable to posteritie on the contrarie we indeuour to hide and to suppresse their labours to depriue those good things of life which are gotten by others So certainly do they hide it which know any thing being enuious of others And â—eaching it vnto none do think thereby to authorize their knowledge So far are these maners from inuenting any new thing wherwith to be helpful to life the chiefest and soueraine labour of good wits being come vnto this to reserue to themselues the deeds of others and to let them perish Which is not to say that there haue not bin sithence any learned and eloquent men but that they are much differing from the former in proprietie puritie facilitie and elegancie of speach not comparable to them in vnderstanding iudgement and knowledge As in Italie Seneca called by the Emperour Claudius sand without lyme and a besome vnbound The two Plinies the Vnkle accounted the most learned of his time and the Nephew a famous Oratour who were men of great credit and authoritie Tacitus and Suetonius Historiographers Lucan Persius Sylius Italicus who was Consul the last yeare of Nero Statius Iuuenal and Martial Poets Cornelius Celsus exercised in all sciences Quinctilian a Rhetorician Aulus Gellius Iulius Hyginus an Astrologer Polemon and Scaurus Grammarians Aburnius Valens Tuscianus Vindius Verus Vlpius Marcellus Arrianus Tertullianus Saluius Iulianus L. Volusius Mecianus Papinianus and his auditours Vulpianus Tarnucius Palernus Macer Terentius Clementius Menander Arcadius Rufinus Papyrius Fronto Anthius Maximus Hermogenianus Africanus Florentinus Triphonius Iustus Callistratus Venuleius Celsus Alphenus Sabinus AElius Gordianus Triphonius Proculus Modestinus Pomponius and Africanus all excellent Lawiers In GREECE ASIA and ALEXANDRIA of EGIPT Plutarch and his nephew Sextus Musonius Apollonius Tyanaeus of CHALCEDONIA Lucian Galen the Physician Epictetus the Stoick Fauorinus Arrianus Herodianus and
vntill the thirteenth which raigneth at this present hauing one after an other from the father to the sonne gathered together two Empires aboue twentie kingdoms and a great number of Cities in Asia and Europe gotten aswell on the Mahometists as on the Christians without euer losing any thing that they had taken They hold all that was in old time called Arabia Egipt Suria Mesopotamia Chaldea part of Persia and of Media Assyria Adiabena part of the greater Armenia and all the lesser and a part of Cholches which they call Mengrelles All Asia the lesser containing Cilicia Cappadocia Pamphylia Galatia Caria and Phrygia And in Europe a part of the Sarmatians or Getes the Dacians Mysians Thracians Macedonians Greeks Albaneses Dalmatians Pannonians Hongarians Iaziges and Metanastes In Africk Argier Tripoli and Tunez This vnmeasurable power so renowmed and terrible at this day vnto all the world is growen vp from so small a beginning as hath bin said to such heigth and reputation in the space of two hundred and sixtie yeares by their wise conduct in peace and in warre by sobrietie patience obedience concord diligence order valiancie abundance of men horses and armes and by meanes of the good militarie and politick discipline which they carefully obserue which hath made them to prosper with the hinderance of their neighbours being loose and corrupted or infected with seditions Peraduenture they are not entirely such as they haue bin as all impaire with time and being inriched with their victories gotten on the Persians are become more pompous in their apparell and harnes then they were before as prosperitie and riches depraueth people But as they change their maner of liuing so their fortune also will change and whereas they now beat others they wil also be beaten as they haue begun to be not many yeares sithence at the battaile which they lost at Lepanto against the Venetians which is the greatest aduersitie that euer they receiued sithence they passed into Europe Likewise VSVN-CASSANVS was a souldier vnder Tamberlain who restored this new kingdome of Persia. He being aduertized that there was in his countrie a Lord called Harduel of the race of the Prophet and the bruit that ran among the Persians of his holines and learning especially in the law whereof he was a Doctour and in Astrologie wherein he meruailously excelled he gaue him his daughter to wife of which mariage came the SOPHI ISMAEL Harduel then being more assured and hartned by this royal alliance tooke vpon him with the aide of Techel Cusilbas to bring in new expositions and ceremonies into the Alcoran following Haly who was preferred by them before Mahomet Whereat IACOB the sonne and successour of Vsun-Cassanus being angry banished him and his sonne because he feared that by the fauour of his adherents vnder colour of reforming the Religion he aspired to the estate When the SOPHI who at the time of his banishment with his father was but a child was waxen great hereturned by force into Persia setting vp the Sect which was begun by his father and was afterward left off for feare And vnder this pretence he drew much people to his part and conquered in few yeares the Seignorie not only of Persia but also of Media Armenia and Assyria finding at his returne Aleuant and Morat-Champ the sonnes of Iacob and his cozins at warre together whereof th one he slew in battaile and constrained thother to flie into Arabia wherefore he remained peaceable possessour of of the state But because his vncle Iacob was deceased before he might be reuenged of him he burned his bodie Of which inhumaine deed being reprehended by his Mother he put her to death or killed her himselfe And notwithstanding was called SOPHI which is asmuch to say as holie hauing gotten not by any merite of his owne but by the goodnes of his father this name which hath remained to his heires being reputed heires by the Turkes This SOPHI by the sodain successe of his conquests put all the East in feare spreding his renowme ouer all the habitable earth To whom the Tartarian Zagathain opposed himselfe warring continually against him and Selim Ottoman who assailed him with a mightie armie a good waies within his owne kingdome tooke and spoiled Tauris his chiefe Citie and wan the memorable battaile of Chalderan where were slaine many both of the one side and thother and the two chiefes were hurt the Turkes remayning victorious only by reason of their artillerie which at that time was vnknowen to the Persians After Selim defeated in an other battaile the Souldan who would haue holpen the Sophi which were the two greatest victories that hapned within these fiue hundred yeares Sultan Soliman following the footsteps of his father returned thither and got on the Sophi Damasco in Assyria and the imperiall Citie of Bagdet being the auncient seat of the Caliphat of Chaldea ouerthrowen by the Tartarians as also that of Caire hath bin distroied by the Souldan For they which beare the name now in both Cities haue but the titles putting the SVLTANS in possession without medling at all with the state who doing thus receiue because of their pretended right three thousand Seraphes to the end to retaine after that maner some forme of the former religion The soueraintie whereof is not gouerned any more by them but by Muphtis as hath bin said who are as Patriarches and Superintendents in diuine matters and Iudges in cases of conscience whom the SVLTANS hold nere about their persons or in the principall Townes of their estates So by the ruine of the Latin kingdome in Hierusalem and of the Egyptian Caliphat the estate of the SOVLDAN began in Egypt and Suria instituted by Syrracon and Saladine which was hereditarie vntil Menescala who ordained the MAMMELVCS amōgst whom it hath long time bin electiue Neuer was there seen nor heard a more strange or detestable kind of gouernment then that of the MAMMELVCS being al Christians reheaged and of seruile condition which tyrannically commaunded ouer the Egyptians and Surians being free vsing miserable indignities and cruelties towardes them In so much that such power deserued rather to be called seruitude then Lordship The MAMMELVCS then were taken when they were little boyes from the countrey of the Circasses neere to the Temerinde or black sea then brought and sold as slaues into Egypt Where some selected of them were nourished and hardened vnto paine and trauaile by continuall exercise of armes And such as were found to bee the best were enrolled in the order of the Mammelucs and to them succeeded from hand to hand not the sonnes of the Mammelucs deceased but others nourished and chosen after the same maner to whom pertained the honours and profits of the state which they deuided among them not committing the gouernments of prouinces and conductes of armies but to those that were experienced whose vertue was knowen and who had passed all the military degrees and by them and from amōg them was the SOVLDAN chosen
They held in most straight subiection all the people of Egypt and of Suria forbidding them to haue any weapons or to ryde on horsebacke They were not aboue sixteene thousand but they intertained many seruants vnder them and being men of great force and hardynesse they had not only tamed many bordering nations and beaten the Arabians but also made many warres against the Turkes enuying their prosperitie of whome they remained often victorious and were seldome or neuer vanquished by them But when as they were deuided and bandded in partalities Selim the Turke defeated them in two battailes killing in the first the SOVLDAN SAMPSON who was gone into Suria with an armie to helpe the Sophi then prosecuting his victory he went into Egypt against him that was chosen SOVLDAN in steed of him that was dead whom hee tooke and made him ignominiously to bee caryed on a poore Camell with his face backwardes all alonge the great streete of Cair and to bee hanged at the gate of that Citie doubling his power by the Conquest of such a state much reuerenced by those of the religion of Mahomet and redoubted because of the valyance of the MAMMELVCS whoe were massacred in suche sorte that there name is almost extinguished There remayne yet other great kingdomes of this time as of NARSINGVE in the Indies and of PRESBITER IOHN in Africke called Lacâ—gue Negus of the ABYSINS being baptized and circumcised Christians and of the MOSCOVITE in the north a Christian also but after the Greeke maner The king of Narsingue which is of the auncient religion of the Bramines yeldeth to no king of the world in riches power and magnificence intertaining forty thousand horsemen of ordinary and foure hundred elephants fitt for war with infinite dromedaries Touching PRESBITER IOHN he commaundeth ouer innumerable nations different in colours and hath vnder him forty kings tributary His landes and seigniories extende toward the West more then twenty daies iourney and he hath gold shut vp in a caue enough to buy the moitie of the world and the quantity is euery day increased and multiplied without taking any thing from it In the spacious kingdome of Ethiopia being so large neuer did the kings sonnes or brothers moue any sedition for the state nor defiled their hands in one anothers bloud but the line of the bloud royall is alwaies conserued by rare hap and neuer yet communicated to any other kingdome whatsoeuer Christian Hebrew Sarazen or Pagan They say it was once reuealed to one of their kings in a dreame that if he desired to haue his kingdome long maintained in peace and vnity he must locke vp all his children which were a great number on a mountaine and that he must keep onely him that he would haue to succeed in his kingdome and this custome remained eternally to his posterity as a thing ordained of the heauens Otherwise that one part of Ethiopia which is so large would come to reuolt against the heire and put him in danger of his life and of his state The king being awaked was meruailously astonished with this nouelty not knowing where he might finde this mountaine Wherefore he had another vision reuealing vnto him that he shoulde marke thorough out al his countrey where he should see goates on the top of rockes so high that they seemed readie to fâ—ll and this should bee the place where he should shut in his children Which the king hauing put in execution the mountaine was found to be of a meruailous height and greatnesse wherein the children of Presbiter Iohn were locked vp and carefully kept for there is no lesse paine to them that come out therehence or which drawe therehence any of those that are shut vp then death hee onely remaining free that ought to raigne by his birth-right or which seemeth the most capable to succeed in that dignity Those which are shut vp doo neuer come forth except it so fall out that Presbiter Iohn depart without heires of his body to inherite the crowne For then they take out him that is next it whome they know to be the worthiest Also the great KNES or king of Moscouie is a great landed man in the North whose dominion is about three monethes iourney in compasse of ground and he possesseth innumerable people nations prouinces duchies principalities and seigniories which the Emperours of Moscouia haue gotten one after another by armes or by other meanes offered them from time to time as Wolodimeria Nouingorod Plescouia Smolenk Tuner Iugaria Permia Viakia Belgaria the lower Nouogorodia Ceruigenia Rozar Volokde Rezomia Rostomi Cazan Ostrakan and others which it woulde be tedious to recite because of the rudenes of their names They say that of all his Lordships there are seuen principall wherehence he can bring forth for a need seuen hundred thousand men of warr all on horsebacke namely out of Plescouia a hundred thousand Nouingorode a hundred thousand Tuner a hundred thousand which are the greatest seigniories that he hath out of Smolenk a duchie vsurped on the king of Poland an other hundred thousand and a hundred thousand out of the Duchy of Moscoâ—ia where is situated the great city of Mosko the seate of the prince The bounds of his empire goe a great way into Asia as far as the Caspian sea neer the lands of the Sophi And hauing won a battaile against the King of Sueuia he is entred into the countrey of Liuonia where Germany beginneth on this side and hath there conquered Riga and Riuallia two great cities pertaining to the maister Duke and Knights of the Teutonian or Dutch order He exceedeth in seuerity and rigour of commanding all the Monarches of the worlde hauing gotten such authority ouer his subiects as well ecclesiasticall as secular that he may dispose at his pleasure of their liues and goods no man daring to gainsay him in any thing They confesse publickly that the will of their prince is the will of God and that all whatsoeuer he doth is done by the diuine prouidence Therfore they name him the Porter of Paradice the Chamberlaine of God and Executor of his will By this meanes is he become so mightie within a little time that all his neighbours which are the Tartarians Sueuians Polonians Liuonians yea and the Turkes themselues doe redoubt him It would be an infinite labour to propose here all the kingdomes and Empires that haue bin or are in reputation But it shall suffice to haue touched such as are best knowen namely those that haue ioyned wisedome with power whereunto this present discourse tendeth The end of the Ninth Booke OF THE POWER LEARNING and other Excellence of this age The Tenth Booke AS the Tartarians Turkes Mammelucs and Sophians haue gotten into the East by their valiancy the glorie of Armes So haue we in these partes towards the West recouered within these two hundred yeares the excellency of Learning and set vp the studies of the scienences after they had long time remained in a manner extinguished
wherin the later haue not agreed with the former namely in those which are not yet sought out and will neuer be found if we content our selues with that which is alreadie inuented without adding any thing therunto By occasion whereof I will aunswere them henceforward which obiect that there are too many bookes Certainly if all that hath bin written by the auncient Philosophers Historiographers Oratours Poets Physitians Diuines and Lawiers had come to our hands all had bin full of bookes and we should haue had no other moueables in our house but bookes we should be constrained to go sit and lie vpon bookes And yet there remaine so many and are made from day to day that the age of man could not suffice to read not onely the writings in many disciplines but in one particuler and seldome are the Inuentories found perfect The great number serueth rather for charge then for instruction and it is much better to read some few that be good then to wander thorough many which are euill Lucian blameth an ignorant person which boasted that he had many bookes and Martial mocketh an other who thought thereby to be accounted learned Seauen hundred Volumes were found in the Librarie of Alexandria which were all burned together by a mischance of fire The learned caried their books thither from all parts as to the Theater of learning and they read them in the Museum which was there at the plaies ordained for the honour of Apollo and of the Muses the vanquishers receiuing great gifts in the sight and knowledge of all the world In somuch that none were reckoned learned which had not won some prize there Liuie calleth that great Librarie a worthy work of kingly care and magnificence But Seneca saith that it was neither care nor magnificēce but a studious pompe or superfluity yet not studious because the K s. Ptolomeyes had not erected it to serue for study but for a shew and spectacle As we see many priuate men also which haue gathered many togither wel printed boūd gilded to serue onely for ornaments which they neuer looke in themselues nor suffer others for feare of fouling them Also king ATTALVS assembled at Pergamus in emulation of the Ptolomeyes two hundred thousand volumes which were giuen by Antonius to Cleopatra so vanished There were in the Library of the GORDIANS xl thousand and a great number of exquisite ones in that of LVCVLLVS and AVGVSTVS There are some at this present very wel furnished both amongst the Christians and the Mahometists But going by the professions I haue read that DIDYMVS a Grammarian composed foure thousand books APPIAN sixe thousand who was so arrogant as to say that he made them immortall to whom hee dedicated his workes CICERO said that if his age were doubled yet would it not suffice to read all the Lyrick Poets Seneca thinketh as much of those that haue written of Logick There is no people nation citie common-wealth seigniorie coūtrey kingdom or empire but hath his Cronicles and Histories In Greece one only war of Marathon found three hundred Historiographers Plutarch in his liues alleageth more then two hundred of them SALVST and LIVIE are come to vs vnperfect and faulty as are also many others of lesse reckoning both Greekes and Romaines It is not possible to recken the books that are made of Phisicke which hath many times bin changed and diuided into diuers sects ARISTOTLE the Philosopher composed iiij hundred volumes and VARRO the most learned amongst the Romains as many The Emperour IVSTINIAN by the excessiue multitude of books which were of the ciuil Law was constrained to cause the Pandects to be made on which contrary to his edict haue bin heaped innumerable cōmentaries S. Iohn the euangelist saith that the world is not able to receiue all the books which should bee written of IESVS CHRIST as appeared in the time following wherein were infinite written in many languages concerning the Christian religion and the exposition of the old and new Testament ORIGEN alone hath written sixe thousand bookes The Gothes Vandales Alanes Hunnes Lombards Sarazens Turkes and Tartarians brought an inestimable losse to the libraries and corruption to the languages Bookes are different also according to the disposition of the times and inclination of the countries wherein they are made euen as wines are diuers according to the territorie qualitie of the aire and disposition of the yere the nature of the vine industry of the keeper Euery age hath his peculiar kind of speech Euery nation and age his phrase the Greekes and Latins writing after one sort the Hebrewes Chaldees and Arabians after an other All are not of continuance and as many are lightly and easily made so they are estsoones and incontinently lost Some are left off for the obscurity and to affected subtilty and barbarousnes which is in them Others despised or neglected as vnprofitable or consumed by length of time or destroied by warres changes of tonges and of religions or by being euil written and copied out or corrupted depraued In others there is nothing but tedious repetitions by changing the order and the words Plinie a man of great reading saith that in conferring and comparing of authours he hath found the old written out word for word by those that were next after them concealing their names and choosing rather to be taken in their theft then to acknowledge the debt Those which are respected here as holy are burned elswhere as abhomination The affected to some certaine sect religion or profession are red onely by people of the same sect religion and profession The poemes orations epistles chronicles histories comedies and tragedies are not loked on but by such as vnderstand the tongue wherin they are written out of it they commonly lose their grace There are not any which please and satisfy al people or which are receiued in al places except they be aduisedly made with great iudgment profound learning by a singular grace of God and a rare goodnes of nature resisting against enuious old age warranting themselues from the silence of obliuion Such as seeme to be those of Plato Aristotle Hippocrates Ptolomey who not content with the images of things and shadows of opiniōs haue sought the truth directly haue therfore escaped the iniury of time of fire of water of wars among so many nations contrary sects translated into diuers languages yet keeping stil the same grace as when they were newly made For as time abolisheth the opinions that are not wel groūded so it also cōfirmeth the infallible iudgemēts of a wise vnderstanding nature augmēting alwaies the reputatiō of those writers which haue best obserued vnderstood it The iudgment of time discouereth in the end the secret faults of al things who being the father of truth and a iudge void of passion hath alwaies accustomed to giue a iust sentēce of the life or death of writings But seeing that the arts