the ravishment of Virginia CHAP. XX. Of the strange Natures of Waters Earth and Fire IN divers learned Histories we read especially in Pliny of the wonders of waters and of the secret and unknown nature of fire wherin for the rare sight thereof are noted things to be marvelled at There is a water in the countrey of Campania where if any mankind will enter therein it is written that he shall incontinent be bereft of his senses And if any woman kind happen to go into that water she shall always afterward be barren In the same countrey of Campania there is a lake called Avernus where all flying fowls of the air that fly over that lake fall presently therein and die A well there is in Caria called Salmacis whose water if any man drink thereof he becommeth chaft and never desireth the company of a woman The River Maeander doth bréed such a kind of stone that being put close to a mans heart it doth straight make him mad There are two rivers in Boetia the one named Melas whose water causeth straight any beast that drinketh thereof if it be white to alter colour to black the other Cephisus which doth change the black beast to a white beast by drinking of the water Again there is in India a standing water where nothing may swim beast bird man or any living creature but they all sink this water is called Silia In Affrica on the contrary part there is the water named Apustidamus where nothing be it never so heavy or unapt to swim but will swim upon the water Lead or any heavy mettal doth swim in that lake as it is in the well of Phinitia in Sicilia Infinite waters should I recite if I in this would be tedious in repeating their names whose strange natures whose secret and hidden operation whose force and vertue were such as healed divers diseases As in the Isle of Avaria there was a water that healed the collick and the stone By Rome there was also a water called Albula that healed gréen wounds In Cilicia the river called Cydnus was a present remedy to any swelling of the legs Not far from Neapolis there was a well whose water healed any sicknesse of the eys The lake Amphion taketh all scurfs and sores from the body of any man What should I declare the natures of the four famous Rivers that issue out of Paradise the one is named Euphrates which the Babylonians and Mesopotamians have just occasion to commend the second is called Ganges which the Indians have great cause to praise the third called Nilus which the countrey of Egypt can best speak of and the fourth is called Tigris which the Assyrians have most commodity by Here might I be long occupied if I should orderly but touch the natures of all waters So the alteration of the seas and the wonders thereof appear as ebbing and flowing as saltnesse and swéetnesse and all things incident by nature to the seas which were it not that men see it dayly and observe the same hourly and mark things therein continually more wonders would appear by the seas then almost reason might be alledged for God as the Prophet saith is wonderfull in all his works So the five golden Rivers which learned and ancient writers affirm that the sands thereof are all glistering gems of gold as Tagus in Spain Permus in Lydia Pactolus in Asia Idaspes in India and Arimaspus in Scythia These are no lesse famous through their golden sands which their rowling waves bring to land in these aforesaid countreys then Parnessus in Boetia where the Muses long were honoured or Simois in Phrygia where Venus was conceived by Anchises To coequat the number of these five last and pleasant Rivers there are five as horrible to Nature as Styx in Arcadia whose property is to kill any that will touch it and therefore feigned of the Poets to be consecrated to Pluto for thfre is nothing so hard but this water wil consume so cold is the water thereof Again the River Phlegeton is contrary to this for the one is not so cold but the other is as hot and therefore called Phlegeton which is in English Fiery or smoakie for the Poets feign likewise that it burneth out in flames of fire Lethes and Acheron two Rivers the one in Affrica the other in Epire the one called the river of forgetfulnesse the other the river of sadnesse The fifth called Cocytus a place where mourning never ceaseth These five rivers for their horror and terror that procéeded from them for the strange and wonderfull effects thereof are called infernal lakes consecrated and attributed to King Pluto which Virgil at large describeth Divers wells for the strangenesse of the waters and for the pleasantnesse thereof were sacrificed to the Gods as Cissusa a well where the Nurses of Bacchus used to wash him was therefore consecrated to Bacchus so Melas to Pallas Aganippe to the Muses and so forth not molesting the Reader further with natures of Water I mean now briefly to touch the strange nature of the Earth Pliny affirmeth that there was never man sick in Locris nor in Croton neither any Earthquake ever heard in Licia By Rome in the field called Gabiensis a certain plat of ground almost two hundred Acres would tremble and quake as men rode upon it There are two hils of strange natures by the River called Indus the nature of the one is to draw any Iron to it insomuch as Pliny saith that if nails be in any shoes the ground of that place draweth the sole off There is a piece of ground in the City Characena in the countrey of Taurica where if any come wounded he shall be straight healed And if any enter under divers places as in a place called Hirpinis where the temple of Mephis is builded or in Asia by Iheropolis they shall incontinently die Again there are places by the vertue of ground in that place that men may prophesie Divers times we read that one piece of ground devoured another as the hill Ciborus and the city hard by called Curites were choaked up of the earth Phegium a great mountain in Aethiopia and Sipilis a high hill in Magnesia with the cities named Tantalis and Galarus There is a great Rock by the City Harpasa in Asia which may be moved easily with one finger and yet if a man put all his strength thereunto it will not stir I néed not speak of mount Aetna in Sicilia of Lypara in Acolia of Chymera in Lycia of Vesuvius and Aenocauma five fiery mountains which day and night burn so terribly that the flame thereof never resteth If any man will see more of these marvellous and wonderfull effects of Elements let him read the second book of Plini where he shall have abundance of the like examples There he shall see that in some places it never rained as in Paphos upon the temple of Venus in Nea a town in Phrygia upon the temple of Minerva and in
Athens Lentulus the defendour of Italy exiled from Rome Dion of Siracusa hunted out of his country by Dionisius even that renowned Hannibal that long protector of Carthage was compelled after long service for his country to range about like a pilgrim every where to séek some safe-guard for his life Too many examples might be brought from Gréek and Latine histories for the proof hereof The chiefest bulwark of a Common-wealth saith Demosthenes is assured faith without flattery and good will tried in the Commons and plainnesse without deceit boldnesse and trust in the Nobility Flattery is the onely snare that wise men are deceived withall and this the pharisées knew well who when they would take our Saviour Christ tardy in his talk they began to flatter him with fair words saying Master we know that thou art just and true and that thou camest from God Even so Herod willing to please the Iews in killing James the brother of John and in imprisoning Peter he so pleased the people with flattery that they cried out this is the voice of God and not the voice of men so sweet was flattery amongst the Iews The flattering friends of Ammon knowing the wickednesse of his mind and his perverse dealing toward Mardocheus did not perswade Ammon from his tyranny but flattered him with fair words and made him prepare a high gallows for Mardocheus where Ammon and his children were hanged But the young man that came to flatter king David saying Saul and his children are dead was by David for his flattery commanded to die CHAP. XLIIII Of the Pilgrimages of Princes and Misery of Mortality THere is neither beast on the earth nor fowl in the ayr nor fish in the sea that séeks his own decay but man onely as by experience we sée all things to have a care of their own lives The Lion when he féeleth himself sick he never ceaseth till he féedeth upon an Ape whereby he may recover his former health The Goats of Créet féeding on high upon the mountains when any of them is shot through with an arrow as the people of that Countrey are most excellent archers they seek out an herb called Dictamum and assoon as they eat any part of it the arrow falleth down and the wound waxeth whole incontinently There are certain kinds of Frogs in Egypt about the floud of Nilus that have this perceiverance that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is which is great a murtherer and spoiler of Frogs they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed which groweth about the banks of Nile and as this fish doth gape thinking to feed upon the Frog the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the Frog and so they save their lives If the Goats of Creet if the Frogs of Egypt have this understanding to avoid their enemies how much more ought man to be circumspect of his life who hath millions of enemies neither seen nor known We read in the first book of Aelian that the rude swine if at any time by chance they eat of that herb called Hiosciamus which so contracteth draweth their veins together that they can hardly stir they will strive for remedy to go under the water where they feed upon young Crabs to recover health In the same book you may read of a sea Snail which from the water doth come to land to breed and after she hath egged she diggeth the earth and hideth her egs and returneth to the sea again and there continueth fourty days and after fourty days she commeth to the self same place where she hid her egs and perceiving that they are ready to come out of the shell she openeth the shell and taketh her young ones with her into the sea And thus have they a care not onely of their own states and lives but also of others and by some shew of sence they help that which is most dangerous and hurtfull The little Mice have this kind of fore-knowledge that when any house waxeth old and ruinous they forsake their old dwelling and creeping holes and flee and seek refuge in some other place The little Ants have such fore-sight that when penury and want of relief draweth near they wax painfull and laborious to gather victuals as may serve them during the time of famine If these small creeping worms and simple beasts provide for themselves what shall we say of man the King and ruler over all beasts who hath not onely a body to provide for but also a soul to save More happy are these worms and beasts in their kind then a number of Princes are for that they by nature onely are taught to avoid their foes we neither by nature neither by God the cause of all goodnesse can love our friends Therefore very well it is said of the wise man that either not to be born or else being born straight to die is the happiest state that can chance to man For living in this vale of misery we see the Pilgrimage and travel of life to be such that better far it were to be a poor quiet man then a proud ambitious Prince And since death is the last line of life as well appointed for Princes as for poor men who in reading of the lives of Emperors Kings and Princes and the Nobles of the world seeth not their unhappy states which come into the world naked and depart from the same naked yet like proud Pilgrims are busie one to destroy another not content with countreys and Kingdomes they go from place to place like Pilgrims to be more acquainted with misery and to seek death Alexander the great conquerourâ— taking his voyage from his Kingdome of Macedonia unto India in a desire to destroy all the world he was in the City of Babylon prevented by Antipater and Iola with poyson and there he died Philopomenes a great Emperor sometime in Gréece being taken prisoner in the wars of Messena was so cruelly handled that he besought Dinocrates who then was Prince of that countrey and conquerour over him one drâ—ught of poyson to end his life Thus he that could not be content to be Emperor and ruler of Gréece was moved to seek death in a strange Countrey amongst his foes Ladislaus King of Apulia endeavouring to subdue the Florentines and séeking to be King over the Florentines lost the Kingdome of Apulia and by them was at length poysoned and so bereft both of Kingdome and life With this unhappy kind of death many Princes have been prevented and no lesse threatned are these Princes by their own houshold friends then by forraign foes No lesse do their children their wives brethren and kinsmen study to destroy them Thus Claudius Caesar an Emperor of Rome was poysoned by his own wife Agrippina Antiochus King of Syria was poysoned by his Quéen Laodice so that he was in love with Berenices King Ptolomy's sisterr Constantine the Emperor the son of Heraclius being
with death some killing themselves others burning and some drowning themselves and thus by death their lives were known Hippo a woman of Gréece saith Valerius and travelling to Rhodes on the seas and perceiving the Marriners to be gréedy and ready to spoil her honesty and to defile her temperate and chast mind to avoid their purpose and filthy lust leapt from board into the surging seas whose terrour she contemned lesse fearing to die then willing to live as a woman stained and corrupted what way findeth not modesty of life to requite shame Timociea a woman of Thebes being violated by a certain Prince of Thracia against her will requited the Prince and eased her mind after this sorâ— â—â—ith Sabellicus she went in an evening to this Thracian Prince and told him privily if he would follow Timoclea she would bring him where such store of substance and such wealth was hidden as would make him the richest Prince in all Asia to whom he gréedily consented and went willingly and gladly thinking to obtain it and being brought unto a deep Well she said in this Well there is infinit treasure but when he stoopt to look unto the bottme of the Wel she threw him in headlong and a mighty huge stone she rouled after him Aâ—talaâ—tâ— was the mirrour of all Ladies a second Diana who refused the company of men living in the wildernesse abstaining from worldly pleasure and ended her life in pure virginity in the desarts of Arcadia But because I may better begin and sooner end with alledging kingdoms and countries for a proof of temperance it were impertinent in so large a scope in so ample a matter to deal with particular histories Therefore to begin with the women of Teutonica temperance was there so much estéemed so well thought off that the women hearing their husbands to be slain and taken captives by a valiant Roman namede Marius then Captain for Kome they came kneeling before him and besought him curteously and humbly since their husbands were slain being women willing to lead a chaste life they might go and serve the Vestal Virgins in Rome to avoid the greedinesse of Marius souldiers and there to end the rest of their lives in the service of Vesta but being denyed of Marius clean contrary unto a Roman heart and to a noble Gentleman the next night following the women of Teunica hanged themselvs lest they might be a prey to the Roman souldiers to be defiled by unchastnesse The like did the fifty virgins of Sparta going a pilgrimage to Messena and being courted by the gentlemen of Messena for their virginities and now ready to be made women that night they all prevented it with death choosing rather to lose life honestly then to live shamefully knowing what a reproach and infamy it would be unto Sparta and to all the Countrey of Lacedemonia if they esteemed life more then honesty so they killed themselvs to honour their countrey and to defame Messena Hence proceeded terrible and long wars betwixt the Lacedemonians and Messenians to the confusion and utter destruction of the Countrey of Messena and these wars continued ten long years wherein the Messenians shamefull intent was requited with a sharp revenge We read of a passing good history of Alexander King Amintas son brother to King Philip of Macedonia who when he perceived the Ambassadours of Persia to waxe wanton with his sisters and desirous to do villany unto the King his father he promised the Ambassadours that they should accomplish their lust and pleasure with fairer Virgins then these were which the Persian Ambassadors should enjoy they being glad of the promise expected the time and their comming being then in their beds ready for them Alexander to chastise such villany and to open the same unto others caused certain young men to array themselvs like women and such a night to go unto the Persians as though they should seem to be women and to bring either of them a knife privily and being in bed they were commanded by Alexander to kill the Ambassadours and their company Magapyâ—us when he heard that his Ambassadours were slain in Macedonia waxed mad a long time and was ready to rayse wars untill he had understanding of the cause and order of their deaths And for Alexanders temperance therein he married Amintas daughter the sister of Alexander This is the sacrifice that the priests of Isis did use to abstaine from flesh and wine this is the temperance that Numa Pompilius shewed most often in Rome from women and wine to abstaine This abstinence used Sarah the daughter of Raguel this used Judith to have Holofernes head off and this used Queen Esther to king Ahasuerus Worthy examples we read of Kings sometime that being most thirsty refused to drink as Alexander the great before he fell amongst the Persians to drunkennesse was so temperate that having a cup of water brought unto him in his extream thirst he would not drink the same in sight of his souldiers least the sight thereof should augment the thirst of his souldiers being most thirsty already Cato Junior leading a great host of souldiers over the hot sands of Lybia having no drink nor water nigh them waxed so thirsty that when one of his souldiers brought him in his head-peece a draught of water by chance he would not drink himself and leave his souldiers thirsty but threw the water upon the ground because he might partake of their thirst with abstinence which was much ease to his souldiers to see his temperance one way and his humanity another way and they felt their thirst much therby asswaged King David being besieged by the Philistins was desirous to drink of the water called Bethlem same stout souldiers of his named Eleazarus Jesebes and Semera ventured their lives for the Kings sake through the enemies but when the water came David drank it not as one that could abstain from that he liked best but because it was brought with great peril he offered that water as a sacrifice unto God for the three souldiers that ventured their lives for it A great vertue to abstain from that which a man liketh best and great temperance there is in abstaining Romulus being bid to supper to a Citizen of Rome drank no wine all supper time but two or three drops after supper time unto whom the Host of the house spake merrily Romulus said he if all men would drink no more then you wine would be nothing esteemed to whom Romulus answered soberly and said wine would be more precious and dear if every man would drink as I did for I drink as much as I would and if all should do so wine would be scant Noting his temperance in a little and the gluttony of the most part in drinking Hannibal Scipio Mithridates Fabritius Sempronius and Papirius had no lesse praise for their temperance in abstaining from offered pleasure then fame for their victories and triumphs CHAP. XVII Of Taciturnity and silence in Princes and
are the rudest people in the world so that the Athenians call them as Plutarch reporteth bold baiards and blocks for their grosse understanding The Bactrians are most puissant and warlike souldiers detesting much the excesse of the Persians but are of such grosse sense notwithstanding that they give and bestow their old men and also sick men unto dogs to be devoured which dogs for the purpose they nourish and bring up in their country The Agrigentines a people given unto such buildings and banquetting that Plato the Philoso said the Agrigentines builded as though they should live for ever and banquetted as though they should die dayly The manners of the Assyrians were to bring their sick friends abroad unto the high ways to séek to ask and to know remedies for their sicknesse of all kind of men that passe by and if by chance without remedy the sick should die they should bear him home and bury him solemnly anointing over the corps with honey and wax This people did wear for their weapons daggers and targets and clubs they did worship Adad for their God and Adargatin for their Goddesse The people of Creet were most expert sea men and well practised in wars abstaining not onely from flesh but also from sodden meat their thief infamy was in venery masculin otherwise for their manners of living much like unto the noble Lacedemonians which for their modesty in feeding and contempt of wealth for their wisedome and study in warfares passed all nations for a token thereof they printed in their Targets the Gréek letter L. named Lambda they brought up their youth as Lycurgus that ancient law-setter taught them in all kind of study pain and labour with hunger thirst cold and heat whereby they might be able to suffer any chance happened or injury offered then were they again brought up in wrastling leaping running swimming riding and such other qualities as might profit their country in time of service for their nature was either to win and conquer or else to die and yeeld Learning and science they little esteemed insomuch that Athens and Sparta could never agree for that the one was addicted to serve Minerva or rather the muses the other given unto Mars Lycurgus made a law in Sparta that no man might accompany with his own wife but with shamefastnesse of that filthy act The candles might not be lighted in that house where the man was when that he would go unto his wife When the King would go unto wars before he should go unto the field to incounter with the enemies he offered two solemn sacrifices the one unto Minerva otherwise named Bellona to kindle flames of stoutnesse in his souldiers manfully to fight the other to the Muses to moderate their doings in victory as might be commendable and praise worthy therein they passed all men in patience for as before they brought up their children in such hardinesse that their parents would have them whipt scourged and wounded into the flesh to harden them in their young years They suffered theft to be unpunished for that the exercise thereof doth represent a kind of boldnesse in wars The nature of the Lydians was to delight in superstiticus divinations in invention of plaies and in theft As for the art of dicing and playing divers kinds of games upon tables the Lydians first invented the same They also were much enflamed by luxurious life and filthy venery which they neither spared day nor night Pliny writeth of a certain Nation called Esteni which abstained from all kind of pleasure insomuch that they never accompany with women never eat flesh nor drink wine and thus by custome of fasting they became naturally chast For custome and use saith Aristotle is another nature In that countrey no man possesseth any thing of his own all things are indifferent betwéen them and they live as companions one with another for in these their vertues they excel all men in vehement and most ardent love towards God Thus vertue most diligent with great care and study was weighed their Neighbours wonderfully beloved and made of so that by this their precept of life they have great fame and commendations They have few Cities and as few Towns and for that they take the earth as a common Mother they have all one respect unto all kind of men The Getes have no division of lands no limits of ground nor any partitions of their goods they drink bloud mingled with milk they eat no flesh and they rejoyce much when their friends die even as the people called Trauses in Thracia do when any is born into the world they mourn and lament with wéeping eys that the little child then born should know the misery and state of this wretched world and when any of their friends are dead they rejoice and be glad with melody and all kind of mirth for that he hath past this toiling life The Thracians people of great antiquity were famous warriours bragging much that Mars the God of war was born in their country much addicted unto drunkennesse selling their children in the market and their maids and daughters are common to lie with every man they judge and count it most commendation to live onely by spoil theft and wars they brag if any have a wound and think it a fame unto the person And of the contrary if they have no mark in the forehead no wound in the body they will judge those idle men and cowards the common people worship Mars and Diana for their Gods their king onely doth worship Mercury by whom the King useth to swear Psilli are people of so great folly that when the Southern wind bloweth so long and strong that their lands perish their waters dry then they arm themselves with common counsel to fight against the wind even like to the people of Câ—lta who use to draw their swords shake their spears at the waves of the seas to revenge the injuries and wrongs done by the seas to them The Bithinians were men of like folly for they would ascend and climb up to the top of high mountains either to thank Jupiter for his furtherance towards them or else to curse Jupiter for his cruelnesse towards them So the Pigmies being sore troubled and molested with Cranes did ride on Rams and Goats backs with their bows and arrows a whole band together in the spring time towards the sea-banks to break their eggs to destroy their nests and to fight with the Cranes every third moneth they take this journey in hand else would the Cranes destroy them for that they are little dwarfs of a cubit long their houses are made of dirt and feathers most like unto birds nests but that they say they are somewhat larger and bigger I know not to what purpose I do recite these countries sith the more I write the more I have to write What should I recite the people that eat the flesh of Lions and Panthers called Agriophagi or recite those
divers places else which is the nature of the ground About Babylon a field burneth day and night In Aethiopia certain fields about mount Hesperius shine all night like stars As for Earthquakes and wonders that thereby happened I will not speak but those strange grounds that never alter from such effects before mentioned beside the mettals the stones the herbs the trées and all other things are miraculous and strange as Pliny in divers places doth witnesse And as for fire it is too great a wonder that the whole world is not burned thereby sith the Sun the Stars the Elementary fire excell all miracles if God had not prevented in kéeping the same from damage and hurt to man yea appointed that the heat of the Sun should not kindle straws stubbles trées and such like where the heat thereof as we daily sée burneth stones lead and harder substances sith especially that fire is in all places and is able to kindle all things insomuch that the water Thrasimenos burneth out in flames which is unnatural and strange that fire kindles in water and likewise in Egnatia a City of Salentine there is a stone which if any wood touch it wilâ— kindle fire In the Well called Nympheus there is a stone likewise whence come flames of fire the stone it self burneth in the water A greater wonder it is that the fire should be kindled by water and extinguished by wind Fire flashed about the head of Servius Tullius being then a boy in sleep which did prognosticate that he should be King of the Romans Fire shined about the head of L. Marcius in Spain when he encouraged his souldiers to revenge manfully the deaths of those noble and famous Romans named Sipians The marvellous effects of fire are most wonderful and most strange CHAP. XXI Of the World and of the soul of Man with divers and sundry opinions of the Philosophers about the fame AMongst divers Philosophers and learned men grew a great controversie of the beginning of the world some of the best affirming that it had no beginning nor can have end as Aristotle and Plato applying incorruption and perpetual revolution to the same Some with Epicurus thought the world should be consumed Of this opinion was Empedocles and Herachius Some on the other side did judge with Pythagoras that so much of the world should be destroyed as was of his own nature Thales said there was but one world agréeing with Empedocles Democritus affirmeth infinite worlds and Metrodorus the Philosopher conceived worlds to be innumerable Thus hold they several opinions concerning the making the beginning the ending and the numbers of the world What child is there of this age but smileth at their folly reasoning largely one against another in applying the cause and the effect of things to their own inventions And as they have judged diversly of the world concerning the frame and nature thereof so were they as far off from the true understanding of the Creation of man Some grosly thought that mankind had no beginning Some judged that it had a beginning by the superiour bodies And for the antiquity of mankind some judge Egypt to be the first people some Scythia some Thrace some this countrey and some that countrey with such phantastical inventions as may well appear to the most ignorant an error And alas how simple are they in finding out the substance of the soul what it should be where it should be and by what it should be Some say that there is no soul but a natural moving as Crates the Theban Some judge the soul to be nothing else but fire or heat betwéen the undivisible parts others thought it an air received into the mouth tempered in the heart boiled in the lights and dispersed through the body Of this opinion was Anaxagoras and also Anaximenes Hippias judged the soul of man to be water Thales and Heliodorus affirmed it to be earth Empedocles is of opinion that it is hot bloud about the heart so that they vary in sundry opinions attributing the cause thereof either to the fire or else to water either to the earth or to the air and some unto the complexion of the four elements others of the earth and fire others of water and fire some again reason that the substance of the soul is of fire and of the air And thus of approved Philosophers they show themselves simple innocents How ignorant were they in defining the soul of man So far disagréeing one with another that Zenocrates thinketh again the soul to be but a number that moves it self which all the Egyptians consented to Aristotle himself the Prince of all Philosophers and his master Plato shewed in this their shifting reason which both agree that the soul is a substance which moveth it self Some so rude and so far from perfection in this point that they thought the heart to be the soul some the brain How ridiculous and foolish séemeth their assertion to this age concerning the soul and as childishly they dispute and reason again about the placing of the same where and in what place of the body the soul resteth For Democritus judgeth his seat to be in the head Parmenides in the breast Herophilus in the ventricles of the brain Strato doth think that the soul was in the space between the eye brow yea some were so foolish to judge it to be in the ear as Xerxes King of Persia did Epicurus in all the breast Diogenes supposed it to be in a hollow vein of the heart Empedocles in the bloud Plato Aristotle and others that were the best and truest Philosophers judged the soul to be indifferent in all parts of the body some of the wisest supposed that every peece and pâ—rceâ— of the body had his proper soul In this therefore they were much deceived in séeking a proper seat for the soul Even as before they erred shamefully and liâ—d manifestly about the essence and substance of the soul so now were they most simply beguiled in placing the soul as you have heard And now after I have opened their several opinions concerning what the soul is and where the soul is you shall here likewise hear whither the soul shall go after death according to the Philosophers which as diversly vary and disagrée in this as you before heard the diversity of opinions concerning the substance and the place And first to begin with Democritus who judgeth the soul to be mortal and that it shall perish with the body to this agrée Epicurus and Pliny Pythagoras judged that the soul is immortal and when the body dieth it sâ—éeth to his kind Aristotle is of opinion that some parts of the soul which have corporal seats must dye with the body but that the understanding of the soul which is no instrument of the body is perpetual Tho people called Drinda were of this judgement that souls should not descend to hell but should pass to another world as the Philosophers called Essei which suppose
all the lewd women in brave garlands decked with all kind of flowers in gorgeous apparel and this was done in the moneth of May. The Goddess Câ—â—â—â— began then to be famous for she had her feasts and sacrifices named Cerealia by the Priests appointed she was thus honoured The Priests in white garments and with lanthorns and fire-brands in the night time would come to the Temple they abstained from wine and avoided venery for a certain time they appeinted every fifth year a great fasting Minerva likewise began to have such honour in Rome that she had thrée several kinds of sacrifices one of a Bull the second of a Crane the third of a Weather The Romans did celebrate in the beginning of the spring such feasts and sacrifices to Berecynthia called the Mother of the Gods that every man did offer of the chiefest things that he did possess to pleasure this Goddess There were divers other kinds of sacrifices and vain superstitious ceremonies observed then in Rome whose beginnings procéeded from the invention of Devils which of long time were honoured as Gods for then men sought no help but of their Gods which were rather Devils As Polidorus in his fourth Book affirmeth of a certain rich man in Rome who had thrée of his sons sore sick of the plague this man was named Valesius who every night at home in his house besought his houshould Gods called Penates to save his children and to plague him for the fault of his sons Thus every night praying to his Gods for the health of his children a voice was heard that if he would go with his thrée sons to Tarentum and wash his sons with the water which was consecrated to Pluto and Proserpina they should recover their health Valesius thought the way was far yet for health to his children he took his journey and being ready shipt in Martius field hard by the river Tyber he was desired of the master of the ship to go to the next village called Tarentum for a little fire for the fire was out in the ship and the mariners busie about other things When Valesius heard the name of Tarentum he knew straight that it was that place that his Gods appointed him to go to for the city of Tarentum was in the furthest part of all Italy in the country of Calabria he willingly went and brought both fire with him for the Master of the Ship and water for the children which being given to his sons they recovered health Wherefore in memory of this he recompensed his Gods with this sacrifice he in the night appointed solemn playes to honour Pluto and Proserpina to each severall nights every year for so many sons as he had that recovered health erecting up altars and offering sacrifices in honour and solemnity of Pluto These were the Oracles and divine answers which the Divels were wont to give in Idols to deceive men withal these I say were they that allured the people to idolatry Cicero saith that the chiefest Priests of Rome the Bishops for that the sacrifices and feasts the ceremonies and rites belonging to new made Gods grew to such a number that they appointed thrée men called Triumviri to be rulers of the sacrifices and appointed other thrée that should kéep the sacred Oracles of Sybilla The Oracles of Sybilla were written in books to which they resorted oftentimes for counsel and admonition fiftéen men were appointed to know what was to be done in any peril or necessity as at the wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey such prodigious sights were séen such unnatural working of the heavens such terrible sights on the earth such portentuous miracles then seen in Rome that the Senators came to Sybilla to know the effects and ends of these monstrous shows and to be instructed of the state of the City Vnto whom she gave six letters in writing three of R. and three of F. to be exponded of their wisemen whereof the meaning was found the thrée of R. were these Regâ—um Roma Ruet and the thrée of F. were Flamma Ferro Fame that is as much to say that the monarchy of Rome should perish with fire sword and hunger Dionisius in his fourth book saith that an aged woman brought nine books to Tarquinius Superbus being the seventh and last King of the Romans which she would have sold for three hundred Crowns to the King letting Tarquinius understand that those books were full of Oracles and divine answers but he making a jest of her books did burn three of them before her face demanding of her again what he should pay for the other six she answered Thrée hundred Crowns then he burned thrée more and asked what he should pay for the thrée books that were left She answered as before Thrée hundred Crowns The King marvelling much at the constancy of the woman bought the three books for three hundred Crowns and after that time that woman was never seen in Rome wherefore it is thought of the Romans that she was Sibilla Therefore these three books were preserved in Rome as aforesaid under the custody of three men appointed for the purpose and she so honoured and worshipped that sacrifice upon sacrifice was offered to Sibilla in Rome Thus the Oracles of Sibilla in Rome the Oracles of Apollo in Delphos the Oracle of Jupiter in Ammon were the instructors to the Gentiles and teachers of the Greeks Moreover they had such solemnities of feasts and celebration of banquets either called pontifical feasts for that it was ordained by Priests or else triumphant banquets after victories made of the Emperors and given to the people or else funeral feasts where honour and solemnitie was had for the dead As for games and plays to sacrifice and to honour their Gods they had Lupercalia Floralia Bacchanalia Cerealia with divers and sundry others to pleasure their Gods and to mitigate their fury and wrath For in the days of Tarquinius the proud for that divers women of Rome being great with children got sufeits in eating of Bulls flesh they appointed certain sacrifices to the Gods infernals called Tauâ—â—lia to appease their anger therein again for them that were sick Valerius Publicola who was the first Tribune in Rome appointed banquets and feasts in the temple of the Gods to asswage likewise their fury as Jupiter Juno and Minerva who were with banquets reconciled to restore health to the sick The homages and services the sacrifices and solemnities the banquets and feests the mirth and melody the pastime and sport the great games and plays that alwayes Greeks and Gentiles have used towards their Gods were almost infinite The honour and reverence that Jupiter had in Creet the worship and fame that Apollo had in Delphos the sacrifices and ceremonies that Mars had in Thracia are in books written and by authority recorded and I fear they be in the hearts of men too deeply printed Pallas had her seat in Athens Juno was enshrined in Samos Diana in Ephesus
decay The Athenians have such care of the dead that being dressed with all kind of swéet odours they put them in such sumptuous tombs and gorgeous graves that the sepulchres are made over with fine glasse The Scythians when their Kings and noble men die they must have to bear them company to the grave one of their concubines and one of their chief servants and one of their friends that loved them best alive they I say must accompany and follow them to the grave being dead The Romans had this custome that if any man of countenance and credit should die his sons and daughters his nigh kinsmen and best beloved friends as Cicero doth write of Metellus did put him in the fire made for that purpose unlesse he were one of the Emperours whose funeral pomp was much more sumptuous for then his body was to be carried to the market or common Hall of Rome on the second day he was to be carried by certain young noble men to Martius field where a great pile of wood was raised much like a Tower and there after much solemnity and ceremonies done he that succéeded him as an Emperour did first put fire to that work and then all men were busie to sée the body burned and when they had burned him to ashes they would let an Eagle flie from the top of some high Tower which as they supposed should carry his soul unto heaven The Assyrians did use to anoint the dead bodies with honey and wax and with study and care did preserve them from putrifaction Such strange order of burial was in India that the women of that country thought there could be no greater fame nor worthier renown then to bee burned and buried together with their husbands The Thracians are much to be commended herein who at the birth of any of their friends children use to wéep and bewail the misery and calamity that man is born to and at the death of any of their friends they rejoice with such mirth and gladnesse that they past these worldly miseries that at the burial of them even when the corps doth go out of the house they altogether say with one voice Farewel friend go before and we will follow after So the corps goeth before and all his friends follow after him with trumpets musick and great mirth for joy that he is gone out of the vale of misery Plato that divine Greek and noble Philosopher made the like laws in Athens that when any of the chief officers should die he appointed that no mourning weeds should be worn there but all in white apparel and that fifteen young maids and fifteen young boys should stand round about the corps in white garments while the Priests commended his life to the people in an open oration then he was brought very orderly to the grave all the young children singing their country hymns and the ancient men following after them and the grave was covered with fair broad stones where the name of the dead with his vertuous commendations and great praise was set upon the stone The like grave the Italians use at this day and divers other countries And as these and others had the like ceremonies to the praise and commendations of the dead so others little esteemed and regarded such things insomuch that the Persians were never buried till Fowls of the ayr and dogs did eat some part thereof The Messagetes thought it most infamous that any of their friends should die by sicknesse but if the Parents waxed old the children and the next kinsmen they had did eat them up supposing that their flesh was more méet for them to eat then by worms or any other beasts to be devoured The people called Tibareni had a custome that those whom they loved best in their youth those would they hang in their age even so the Albans being inhabitants about mount Cancasus thought it unlawfull for any to care for the dead but straight buried them as Nabatheans bury their Kings and rulers in dung-hils The burial of the Parthians was nothing else but to commend them to the birds of the air The Nasomones when they bury their friends they set them in the grave sitting But of all most cruelly deal the Caspians and the Hircanians which kill their parents their wives their brethren their kinsmen and friends and put them in the high way half quick half dead for to be devoured of birds and beasts The fashion and custome with the Issidones a rude people in some part of Scithia as Plini in his fourth book affirmeth is to call their neighbours and friends together were the dead lie and there merrily singing and banquetting they eat the flesh of the dead and make the scull of the dead a drinking cup and cover it with gold to drink withall Again the people called Hyperborei think no better grace for their friends vvhen they be old then to bring them to some high bank of vvater or great rock and thence after much feasting eating and drinking in the middest of their mirth their own friends do throw them down into the water headlong To seek into histories many such burials might be found amongst so many rude and barbarous nations Notwithstanding in divers regions the funerals of the dead are so esteemed that the greatest infamy the severest punishment for any offendour vvas not to be buried this the Athenians used tovvards those that vvere traitors to their country and the Egyptians if any lived amisse he should be carried dead to the vvildernesse to be devoured of vvild beasts The Persians likewise brought the bodies of men condemned to be eaten of dogs The Lybians thought them most worthy of solemn buriall that died either in wars or were killed by wild beasts The Macedonians had great care in burying the dead souldiers in the field Amongst the Gentiles there were certain days appointed for mourning at the death of their friends Licurgus law amongst the Lacedemonians was that they should mourn but eleven days Numa Pompilus decreed that children after their parents death the wives their husbands c. should mourn ten moneths though by the Senatours it was enacted in the wars at Canna that the Romans should mourn but thirty days Amongst the Egyptians they had a custome to mourn after their kings died thréescore and twelve days but generally the most custome was to bewail the dead nine days In some places mourning was forbidden at their burial as at Athens by the law of Solon in Locretia in Thracia in Coos in Lybia and in divers other places The diversity of mourning was such that amongst the Gréeks they shaved their heads and beards and threw them into the grave with the dead Amongst the Lacedemonians when the Kings of Sparta died certain horsemen were appointed to travell over all the whole Kingdome certifying the death of the King and the women in every city did beat their brasen pots and made a great and heavy noise for the soone the Egyptians
him he answered not one word but bad him Good night when he come to his own door which when the enemy saw and that he would not be moved to anger to take any advantage on him he went to the next tree and hanged himself Thus did Socrates who being blamed by his friends for his silence in that he was injuriously handled by his foe answered That his enemies could not endamage him sith he was not that man whom his words did import to be and being stricken spurned by the same man Socrates was counselled to call the same to the Law before the Iudges to the which he answered Which of you if an Asse strike him will call that Asse before any Iudges sith he is no better that useth me this for by this am I known to be Socrates and he to be an Ass The greatest revenge to a fool is to let every man know his folly and the greatest hurt to a wise man is to revenge folly for it was al the revenge of Socrates wheÌ„ any man spake il of him to say thus The man never was taught to speak well So courteous was Fabius Maximus that when he had heard that one of his chief souldiers was about to betray him to his enemies he called the party before him not making him privie that he knew of it and demanding of him what he wanted he commanded him to ask any thing he would have and made him chief Captain of his Army By this means he became most true to Fabius being before most false This was far from such revenge as Alexander the Great used who after he had subdued divers Kingdoms and Countreys he went to the Temple of Ammon to know by the Oracle of Jupiter whether yet any were alive that flew his father King Philip whereby he might shew more tyranny and practise greater murther This was far from M. Brutus rage who was not content to conspire against Caesar and to kill him in the Senate-house but also when power failed when souldiers decayed and he was almost vanquished he made his prayers to Jupiter and to the host of Heaven to plague Caesar and his posterity This I say was far from Livius Salinator who being warned of Fabius Maximus not to revenge malice upon Hasdâ—ubal before he knew the state of the matter the power of the field and the end of the victory where it should happen yet being more rash to revenge then wise in forbearing he said that either out of hand he would kill or be killed And in this place I will recite three or four Histories fit for this purpose Phobius wife fell in love with Antheus a noble Gentleman of Halicarnassus being left in pledge with Phobius chief ruler then of Milesia and used al means possible to allure Antheus to requite her love But he partly for fear and partly for love of Phobius her husband in no wise would consent to any filthy desire Cleoboea Phobius wife took the same in so evil part that she began mortally to hate him inventing what way best she might revenge his discourtesie in refusing her love She feigned on a time that she had quite forgotten her old love towards him and thanked Antheus very much for the love and great zeal that he did bear to her husband Phobius in not consenting to her folly then when she was in love with him Thus talking with him Cleoboea brought her old Lover Antheus over a Well where for that purpose onely she threw a tame Partridge desiring him to aid her to have her Partridge out of the Well the young Gentleman misdoubting her in nothing as one willing to pleasure his friend and old lover went down into the Well to have the Partridge out but she revenged her old love and requited his service after this sort she threw a great stone after him and there killed him and straight for sorrow caling to mind the old amity and hidden love betwéen them she hanged her self This revenge that noble and famous Lacedemonian used who had his own wife in such admiration and was so impatient in love that he was as much hated of her as she of him was honoured and estéemed For she loves King Acrotatus son so dear that her husband Cleonimus understanding the same went to Epire to King Pyrrhus perswading him earnestly to go unto Peloponesus and to move wars against King Acrotatus whereby he might revenge the injury done by his wife in killing him whom she loved best thinking it a greater revenge to kill him whom she loved better then her self then to revenge it upon her own person Valerius Torquatus for that he might not have Tuscus daughter in marriage moved wars immediately and revenged the same with bloud For what cause did Progne King Pandions daughter of Athens kill her own son Iâ—is and gave him to be eaten unto his father and her husband King Pereus of Thrace for nothing but to revenge her sister Phylomela whom her husband deflowred Why did Nero that cruell Emperour kill Seneca his master and teacher in all his youth for nothing but to revenge old stripes which he received at his master being a boy For what purpose did Cateline Silla Damasippus Marius and others make quarrels to plague Rome to punish all Italy to destroy the country for nothing but for that they could not abide the one to be above the other Darius after that he had taken the City of Babilon he revenged his old malice after this sort as Herodotus in his third book affirms he caused thrée thousand of the best within the City to be hanged Attilla King of Panonia slue eleven thousand virgins at the siege of Colonia So several were revenges amongst men so cruel yea so foolish that Xerxes and Cyrus two great Kings of Persia when the water of Hellespont troubled Xerxes and molested his souldiers he forthwith commanded that the sea of Hellespont should have thrée hundred stripes and willed thrée hundred pair of Fetters to be thrown into Helespont to bind the sea Even so did Cyrus because the river Gindes did drown one of his best geldings he made his souldiers to divide the river into a hundred and fourscore small parts to revenge the rage of the river toward him thinking that by breaking of the great rage of so great a stream he well and worthily requited the injuries of Ginges These are cruell revenges too many are of these insomuch that women revenge their malice after this sort So Tomyris Quéen of Scithia to revenge her son Margapites death slue King Cyrus and two hundred thousands of his souldiers too great a slaughter for one mans death and not yet satisfied till she bathed Cyrus head in a great vessel of bloud This Bâ—ronice Pollia and divers cruell women have performed Princes ought to use advisement in revenging and wisedome in sufferance For as Frederick the Emperour was wont to say Princes that revenge hastily and especially wrongfully are like fair marks for
good Archers to shoot at High towers and lofty buildings are sooner fired with lightnings then low houses and small cottages Tiberius Caesar Emperour of Rome being in the Senate house to punish those evills and to revenge those harms that were by same of the City threatned to his estate God forbid said he that Tibâ—rius should have so much idle time to hear EVIL spoken much lesse to revenge EVIL done Antâ—gonus King of Macedonia besieging a Castle in Gréece wherein a number of hold Gréeks used for their pastime and sport to scoff at this King knowing the scituation of the Castle to be in such a place that it might not be subdued they therefore laughed him to scorn as well for his enterprise therein as also for his slender person and crooked nose which King Antigonus perceiving said He would revenge all their doings by sufferance and hoped therby to molest the enemies double Divers heathen Princes were acquainted with this revenge as Lysander Agesilaus and others for to God onely belongeth vengeance I will not speak here of such revenging of Princes of Countreys of friends that all men know But of rare revenge which Philosophy taught unto Socrates toward Xantippe who being at supper having a strange guest named Enthidemus his wife Xantippe began to take her husband up with taunting and opprobrious words which because he would not answer and be moved by her chiding she overthrew the Table with all the Meat and the Cups Which when Enthidemus saw he was amazed at the raging of Xantippe and beheld Socrates in the face to see how he thought of the matter But Socrates understanding that his guest did marvel at his wife said Have not you sometime at home a Hen that will after long clocking with a sudden flight throw down your cups with her wing wherewith Enthidemus was fully satisfied with the wise answer of Socrates in not revenging so great a fault Phocion a learned man of Athens was wont to say That he had rather suffer injury wrongfully then to revenge injury sometime rightfully This man Phocion by whom Athens long flourished at what time he was put to death most wrongfully of the Athenians even a little before he should die being demanded whether he would command any thing to his son standing hard by to sée his fathers end did speak to his son after this sort My son said he this I charge and require thée and moreover beséech thée that thou wilt never revenge the wrongfull death of thy father Phocion on the Athenians Solon that noble and learned Athenian was wont to revenge his wrongs with these words If the Fisherman do suffer the salt water of the Sea to sprinkle upon his face and upon his cloaths and to wet him when he taketh fish how much more ought Solon to forbear to speak to win men to be friends unto him Surely these thrée Philosophers deserve more praise and commendation I mean Socrates Phocion and Solon for the revenging of the evil with goodnesse and vertue then ever Alexander or Julius Caesar or Theseus which revenged evil with evil Wherefore Chilon the Lacedemonian being one of the Officers called Ephoti in the City of Sparta his brother demanding why he might not be likewise one of the five Ephoti as well as his brother said unto his brother Because I can suffer wrong and thou canst not Therefore Princes ought not to do wrong nor yet revenge wrong with wrong but with patience sufferance and goodnesse and by doing good for evill For thus they shall make foes to become friends evill men to become good by preventing evill with lenity and gentlenesse It behoveth not a wise man to revenge injuries neither doth it become a Prince to requite evill with the like but to overcome rather evill with good Therefore was it truly spoken of the wiseman Sapit qui sustinet he that can suffer he is wise CHAP. XXXVI Of Theft and Sacriledge AFter that greedy desire unto wealth had possest a place in mans heart and after that the world was altered from a wealth in common unto a private wealth every man went about with study and industry to augment his own with the spoile of others For this cause Princes began one to suppresse an other to spoil and destroy either others Dominions moving first noble men to imitate them in stealing and taking away perforce others wealth and though it be not an apt Epithete for Princes to be called theeves and spoilers yet truly by Princes it began by Nobles imitated and by all the world at length practised that some became Pyrats upon the seas some sacriledgers of temples and some grand théeves of countries and kingdomes For after the deluge of Noah there was neither theft nor sacriledge known almost 300. years till Ninus the third King of the Assyrians who first began to play the théef in Asia Dionisius King of Sicilia and tyrant of all the werld the greatest robber that reigned upon earth being not satisfied with spoil and theft on lands and seas became also a sacriledger in the Temples of the Gods which he so practised that after he robbed the Temple of Jupiter in Olimpia he passed forth to Locris to spoil the Temple of Proserpina and from thence unto Epidaurus to steal the golden beard of Aesculapius The tyrant King could not satisfie himself till worthily he had merited the name of a théef a Pyrate and a sacriledger Xerxes spared not amongst other wilfull robberies to send four thousand of his souldiers to Delphos to rob the Temple of Apollo Spartacus a great Prince and a maintainer of theeves gathered a whole army of fugitive persons vagabonds theeves and robbers and marched toward Rome with a resolution either to conquer Rome or to be conquered by Rome but there was he and all his rogues vanquished by Pu. Crassus The City of Rome was often in perill by théeves and robbers as by Silla Catelin and Marius famous spoilers of Italy And as Cercion did rob and spoil the country of Athens so Tiâ—â—gias in Arcadia was renowned for theft I might in this place speak of the robbery of the Emperour Nero of the spoil and wast of that beastly Emperour Heliogabalus and of the sacriledge and theft of Caligula These three Emperours did steal spoil and tooke from Rome more then ever they gave to Rome Marcellinus writeth that there was sometimes a King of the Parthians named Arsaces which in the beginning of his reign was then named the master of theeves a teacher and a school-master unto all robbers and spoilers but after that he had subdued Seleucus Alexanders successour he became famous and renowned in martiall feats and civill policy Herodotus likewise doth report of one Amazis a King of Egypt when at any time money wanted he was wont to spoil wast and take away all that ever he might either by stealth or force Thus the names of Princes were first corrupted that the Poets judged well and worthily Mercury to be
son to Theseus being falsly accused by his mother in law Quéen Phedra and flying to avoid the fury and rage of his father at the request of the Queen was torn in pieces by wild horses But let us passe further and we shall read that as some were devoured by horses so others were by Serpents stung to death as Laocoon that worthy Troyan was by two Serpents destroyed yea that famous and warlike woman Cleopatra Quéen of Egypt after her lover and friend Marcus Antonius was overcome by Augustus Caesar the Emperour did chuse rather to be overcome with Serpents then subdued by Caesar With this death was Opheltes the son of Licurgus King of Menea vanquished Again some have perished by wild Bores and raging Lions as Anceus King of Samos and Paphages King of Ambracia the one by a Bore the other by a Lion Some have béen devoured by dogs as Linus the son of Apollo Pliny in his seventh book metions a Quéen in Bithinia named Cosinges K. Nâ—comedes wife whom her own dogs flew tare in pieces Euripides that learned Gréek coming in the night time from Archelaus King of Macedonia with whom he had been at supper was incountered by his enemy Promerus who set his dogs on him and did tear him to pieces Even so were Herachtus and Diogenes both Philosophers by dogs likewise killed I may not forget so great a prince as Basilius the Emperour of Macedon who in hunting amongst his Lords and Nobles yea amongst thousands of his Commons he onely meeting a Hart in the chase was hurt by him in the leg whereof he died As for Seleucus King of Syria son to Antiochus surnamed the Great and Bâ—la King of Panonia they were both thrown by their horses and died If these mischance happen unto princes in the midst of their state what is their glory but misery since nothing expelleth fate nor can avoid death Some have been so weary of life some so fearfull of death that they have thrown themselves into the water to be drowned others for all their diligent fear and watching for death have most shamefully notwithstanding been by death prevented Frederick the Emperour marching towards Ierusalem after that he had taken several Cities and Townes in Armenia in passing through a little river was drowned Decius that noble King being enforced to take his flight from the Goths with whom he then was in wars was drowned in the Marish ground Marcus Marcellus after that he had béen a Consul in Rome thrée times before the third wars betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians was likewise by shipwrack cast away How many noble Princes have béen drowned as Pharaoh King of Egypt in the red sea of whom we read in the sacred scriptures How many have the seas despoyled of life and with their own names christened the names of seas and waters in which they were drowned As by the death of Aegeus King of Athens the sea Aegeum was so called by the death of Tyrrhenus King of Lydia the sea was called The Tyrrhen Sea And so King Tyberinus altered the river called Aelbula by his death to be the river of Tyber Again the sea Hellespont was so called by a woman named Helle drowned in it So by Iâ—arus and Myrtilus the sea of Icarus and the sea Myrton were so called Divers Princes have also perished by famine and have been compelled to eat their own flesh as Erisicthon and Neocles a Tyrant of Scicioma It is written in Curtius that Sysigambis King Darius mother died of hunger Ulysles the Gréek lest any off-spring of Hector should rise in Phrygia to revenge the fall of Troy and his countrey did cast Astianax the son of Hector over the walls alive Lycurgus King of Thrace was by his own subjects thrown headlong into the sea for that he first mingled water with wine How many famous and noble Princes have been stoned to death as valiant Pyrrhus King of the Epyrotes being in wars with Antigonus was slain by an old woman with a a tile-stone at Argos Pyrander at what time the Athenians warred against Eumolpus for that he feared famine hiding the wheat from his souldiers was therefore by them stoned to death Even so was Cinna the Roman in the wars betwixt the Gauls and the Romans for the like offence stoned to death Stout Cebrior King Priaâ—'s son was slain by a stone hurled at him by Patroclus at the siege of Troy so died Cygnus the son of Achilles at the same time O unstedfast fortune that stones should end the many lives of famous princes O imprudent princes that know not how nigh ye are always to death How many hath God punished with sudden death for their offences as Mithridates King of Pontus and Nicanor the son of Parmenio of Macedonia died suddenly Sertorius was slain suddenly at a banquet by Upenna The Emperour Heliâ—gabalus was killed upon his stool at his easement and thrown into Tyber That renowned and famous Conquerour Julius Caesar was in the middest of the City of Rome where he was Emperor yea in the Senate-house murthered and mangled by Brutus and Cassius Divers Consuls in Rome died this death as Fabius Maxâ—mus Gurges the Senator And Manlius Torquatus even at his supper died presently Some with Thunder-bolts did God likewise punish thus Capaneus was slain at the wars of Thebes Tullus Hostilius King of Rome was with a Thunderbolt for his insolency and pride slain Zoroastres King of the Bactrians the first inventer of Magick was likewise by that kind of death encountred Pride in princes was the onely cause of their falls insomuch that the poets feign that the great and monstrous Giant Eâ—câ—ladus for his proud enterprise against Jupiter was thrown by a Thunderbolt into the bottome of Aetna a fiery and flaming mountain The uncertain state of princes is séen and tried by their death Who liveth so short a time as a prince who dieth so strange a death as a prince Who liveth in care who dieth living but a prince Was not Sergius Galba and Commodus the son of Marcus sirnamed Anbilius two Emperors of Rome the one by Otho strangled in the Market place of Rome the other imprisoned by Martia his own concubine Minos King of Creet travelling after Dedalus into Sicily was by his great friend King Cocalus slain by deceit So was Alebas chief governour of Larissa murthered by his own souldiers The desire that men bear unto honour and dignity is commonly accompanied with death as Spurius Cassius and Spurius Melius for their greedinesse of the Empire of Rome were both worthily beheaded God hath shewed just vengeance upon Princes for their iniquity with plagues and pestilences which spoiled the Emperor Constantine and the Empresse Zoae his wife And by this were Marcus Antonius Alphonsus and Domitius justly and worthily punished God hath wonderfully punished the pride of Princes even with shamefull and horrible deaths insomuch that Lice and vermine have consumed their bodies alive As Maximilian the Emperour Arnulphus
that eat lice in Scithia called Budmi or them that eat Serpents called Ophiophagi or those that féed on mens bodies called Anthropophagi yea or those that eat their own parents as the Caspians did Vnto what purpose should I name the Astomians a people in India without mouths who onely live with the air that commeth unto their nosethrils where they receive breath they can neither eat nor drink as Plini saith in his seventh book they live the longer with the sweet smell and odours of flowers Vnto what end likewise should I speak of those blind Andabates that fight without eyes or of those great eared people the Fanesii whose ears shadowed and covered their whole body or of the Monopods which in like manner shadow their whole body with one foot or of the Arimaspians people in Scythia having but one eye in the midst of their forehead like the great Ciclop Poliphemus which Ulisses destroied yea of millions more whose deformity to deprint whose uglinesse to write were too much charge to the writer and too much tediousnesse to the reader I might speak of people in some part of India who live two hundred years and more whose hair upon their heads in their young age is white and in their old age black called Pandorae I might likewiâ—e recite a people in Lybia whose horses may not be guided nor governed with bridles be the bitts never so strong but with rods most gently are they tamed be the rods never so weak Herodotus a famous Gréek writer is not ashamed to shew how the women Selencridae brought forth egs whence men were born of such heighth length and stature that I am partly abashed to alledg his authority therein Again the people called Sorbotae of Aethiope are said to be eight cubits long Why should I speak of the Troglodites who live in caves of the ground féeding on Serpents being people of wonderfull swiftnesse and out-run any horse in Aethiope and cannot speak but hisse Why should I speak of the Massagetes of the people Nasomones I will according to promise omit the prolixity therof touching all countreys by the way or some of the chief as of Egypt with brags and vaunts of their antiquity Of the Ethiopians and the people of Caria with their simplicity and slavery so the Carthaginians were false and deceitfull the Babylonians wicked and corrupted the Persians drunkards and gluttons the Sycilians wary and trusty so was the cruelnesse of the Caspians the filthinesse of the Lesbians the drunkennesse of the Scythians the fornication of the Corinthians the rudenesse of the Boetians the ignorance of the Cymmerians the beastlinesse of the Sibarites the hardinesse of the Lacedemonians the delicacy of the Athenians and the pride and glory of the Romans Thus we read that the Spaniards be the greatest travellers and the greatest dispisers the Italian proud and desirous to revenge the Frenchman politick and rash the German a warriour the Saxon a dissembler the Swevian a light talkative person the Britain a busie body the Cimbrian seditious and fierce the Bohemian ungentle and desirous of news the Vandal a mutable wrangler the Bavarian a flouter and a scoffer These qualities are incident to the aforesaid nations by nature But because in this place it were somewhat to the purpose to declare the glory and state of Rome which of all the world was estéemed and feared and for that Rome had more enemies then all the whole world beside to shew briefly how they flourished how their fame spread and their glory grew I think it not expedient to meddle with the antiquity thereof in the time of Janus and Cameses but to touch upon their fame by managing of wars in the time of Romulus who being begotten of Mars and Rhea a Vestal virgin was the first builder of the city and also king thereof This King Romulus warred on the Sabins after he had elected a hundred Senatours to discern and judge the causes of the City to defend Iustice and practice the same and to punish vice and wrongs according to the law of Plato who willed every Common-wealth to be governed with reward unto the vertuous and punishment to the vicious Again he appointed certain souldiers unto the number of one M. to be in a readinesse alwaies to defend the City After Romulus succéeded Numa Pompilius the second king a man very religious and pittiful he in his time made laws to observe rites sacrifices and ceremonies to worship their Gods he made Bishops and Priests he appointed the Vestal virgins and all that belong thereto Thirdly came Tulius Hostillius to be king in Rome whose felicity was onely to teach the youth of Rome the discipline of warfare and stirred them wonderfully to exercise and practice the same Then fourthly succeeded An. Martius with the like industry and care of the further and surer state of the City in raising the high walls of Rome and raising a bridge upon the river Tyber in amending and beautifying all the stréets of Rome The fifth King was Tarquinius Priâ—cus who though he was a stranger born at Corinth yet he increased the policy of the Romans with the wisedome of Greece he triumphed over the people of Tusk and inlarged the fame of Rome much more then it was to this came next Servius Tulâ—ius who was the sixth and Tarquinius Superbus the seventh and last King of Rome who for his misgovernment and lust in the City against the chast matrons for the pride and infringement of the liberty having withall ravished Lucrecia Collatinus wife was at length after long rule and government banished Rome The first alteration and change of state was then after these seven Kings governed Rome two hundred years and a half which was the first infancy of Rome Then Collatinus and Brutus after these Kings were exiled in reward of restoring liberty and for honest life were the first Consuls in Rome they I say altered the government of the City from a Monarchy to a kind of government called Aristocratia which continued in Rome from the time of Brutus and Collatinus untill the time of Appius Claudius and Quinâ—us Fulvius which was two hundred years In this season during this two hundred years was Rome most assailed of all kind of enemies stirred unto wars of all nations for the space of two hundred years and a half Then Appius Claudius forgetting the law which he himself made in Rome against fornication forgetting the ravishment of Lucrecia and the banishment of Tarquinius for breaking of the same against all right and reason willingly and wilfully ravished Virginia the daughter of Virginius and after that her own father slue her in the open fight of Rome the cause being known unto all the City the people were straight in arms to revenge the wrongs and injuries against the laws Even as the Kings before named were exiled and banished Rome for the ravishment of Lucretia so now the ten Commissioners called Decem. viri were likewise excluded and rejected for