The Theater of Gods Judgments, Book 2 · Chapter 7
CHA. VII. A sute of examples like unto the former.
LEaving the Scripture, we finde in other writers notable examples Herod. lib. 1.of this subject▪ As first of Astyages king of the Medes, who so much swarved from humanity, that he gave in strait charge that young Cyrus his own daughters sonne, now ready to be borne, should be made away by some sinister practise, to avoid by that meanes the danger which by a dreame was signified unto him. Notwithstanding the young infant finding friends to preserve him alive, and growing up by meanes of the Peers favor (to whom his grandfather by his cruell dealings, was become odious) obtained the Crowne out of his hands, and dispossessing him, seated himselfe in his roome.
This Cyrus was that mighty and awfull king of Persia, whom God used as an instrument for the delivery of his people out of the captivity of Babylon, as he foretold by the Prophet Isaiah: who yet (following kinde) made cruell war in many places for the space of thirty yeares: and therefore it was necessary that he should taste some fruits of his insatiable and bloud-thirsty desire, as hee indeed did: for after many great victories and conquests over Oros. lib. 2.divers countries atchieved, going about to assaile Scythia also, hee and his armie together were surprised, overcome, and slaine, to the number of two hundred thousand persons: and for his shame received this disgrace at a womans hand, who triumphing in her victory, threw his head into a sacke full of bloud, with these tearmes, Now glut thy selfe with bloud which thou hast thirsted after so long time.
Cambyses, Cyrus son, was also so bloudy and cruell a man, that one day hee Herod. lib. 3.shot a noblemans sonne to the heart, with an arrow, for being admonished by his father of his drunkennesse, to which he was very much given, which he did in indignation, and to shew that he was not yet so drunken but he knew how to draw his bow. He caused his own brother to be murdered privily, for feare he should raigne after him; and slew his sister for reproving him for that deed. In his voyage to Aethiopia, when his armie was brought into so great penurie of victuals, that they were glad to feed upon horse flesh, hee was so cruell and barbarous, that after their horses were spent he caused them to eat one another: but at his returne from Aegypt, the Susians his chiefe citizens welcommed him home with rebellion: and at last, as he was riding, it so chanced, that his sword fell out of the scabberd, and himselfe upon the point of it, so that it pierced him through, and so he dyed.
After that Xerxes by his overbold enterprise had disturbed the greatest part of the world, passed the sea, and traversed many countries, to the Diodor. lib. 11.end to assaile Greece with innumerable forces, he was overcome both by sea and by land, and compelled privily to retire into his countrey with shame and discredit: where he had not long beene, but Artabanus the captaine of his guard killed him in his palace by night: who also after that and many other mischiefes committed by him, was himselfe cruelly murthered.
The thirty Governours which the Lacedemonians set over the Athenians by compulsion, were such cruell tyrants, oppressors, and bloudsuckers Iustine.of the people, that they made away a great part of them, untill they were chased away themselves violently: and then being secretly dogged and pursued, were all killed one after another.
Pyrrhus king of Epire that raigned not long after Alexander the great, was naturally disposed to such a quicknes and heat of courage, that he could never be quiet but when he was either doing some mischiefe to another, or when another was doing some unto him: ever devising some new practise of molestation for pastimes sake. This his wilde and dangerous disposition began first to shew it selfe in the death of Neoptolemus, who was conjoyned king with him, whom having bidden to supper in his lodging under pretence of sacrifice to his gods, he deceitfully slew: preventing by that meanes Neoptolemus pretended purpose of poysoning him when occasion should serve. After this he conquered Macedonia by armes, and came into Italie to make war with the Romans, in the behalfe of the Tarentines, and gave them battel in the field, and slew fifteen thousand of them in one day: he took their camp, revoked many cities from their alliance, and spoyled much of their countrey even to the walls of Rome: and all this in a trice without breathing. Againe by Ascolie he encountred them the second time, where there was a great overthrow of each side of fifteene thousand men: but the Romanes had the worst, and tooke their heeles. When hee was intreated by the Sicilian embassadors to lend them aid to expulse the Carthaginians out of their Isle, hee yeelded presently and chased them out. Being recalled by the Tarentines into Italy for their succour, he was conquered by the Romanes after he had made war upon them six yeres. At his returne to Epire he re-entred by violence Macedonia, tooke many places, overcame the army of king Antigonus that resisted him, & had all the whole realm rendred into his hand. Being intreated by Cleominus to make war upon Sparta, to the end toreinstall him in his kingdome which he was deprived of: forthwith he mustered his forces, besieged the citie, and spoyled and wasted all the whole country. Afterwards there being a sedition raised in the city of Argos betweene two of the chiefest citizens, one of the which sent unto him for aid, he (what issue soever was like to ensue, whether victory or vanquishment) could not abide in peace from disquieting others and himselfe, but must needs go to take part in that sedition: but to his cost, even to his destruction. For first in his way he found an evill-favoured welcome by an ambush placed of purpose to interrupt his journey, amongst whom he lost his son: which mishap nothing dismaied him, nor abated any whit of his purpose or courage from pursuing this journey to Argos, though the citizens themselves intreated him to retire, and though he had no businesse there save only to looke over the town… being arrived by night, and finding a gate left open for him to enter by, by the meanes of him that had sent for him to his aid, hee put his souldiers in, and possessed himselfe of the towne incontinently. But the city being aided by Antigonus and the King of Sparta, charged and pressed him so sore, that he sought meanes to retire out of the same, but could not. At which time being about to strike a young man of the city that had done him some hurt, his mother being aloft upon the roofe of an house, perceiving his intent, threw downe a tile with both her hands upon his head, and hit him such a knocke upon the necke through default of his armour, that it so bruised his joynts, that he fell into a sudden swound, and lost his sight, his raines falling out of his hand, and he himselfe tumbling from his saddle upon the ground, which when some of the soldiers perceived, they drew him out of the gate, and there, to make an end of the tragedy, cut off his head.
The cruelty of the Ephori was marvellous strange, when being unwilling once to heare the equality of lands and possessions to be named, which Agis Plutarch.their King, for the good of the commonwealth (according to the antient custome and ordinance of Licurgus) sought to restore: they rose up against him and cast him in prison, and there without any processe or forme of law sttangled him to death, with his mother and grandfather. But it cost them very deare: for Cleamenes who was joynt King with Agis, albe it he had consented to the weaving of that web himself, to the end he might raigne alone; yet ceased he not to prosecute revenge upon them, which hee did not onelyonly by his daily and usuall practises openly, but also privily; for taking them once at advantage, being at supper all together, hee caused his men to kill them suddenly as they fat. And thus was the good King Agis revenged. But this last murtherer which was fullied and polluted with so much bloud, he went not long unpunished for his misdeeds: for soone after, Antigonus King of Macedonia gave him a great overthrow in a battell, wherein hee lost Sparta his chiefe city, and fled into Aegypt for succour: where after small abode, upon an accusation laid against him, he was cast into prison, and though he escaped out with his company by cunning and craft, yet as he walked up and down Alexandria in armor, in hope that through his seditious practises the citizens would take his part, and help to restore him to his liberty; when he perceived it was nothing so, but that every man forsooke him, and that there was no hope left of recovery, he commanded his men to kill one another, as they did. In which desperate rage and fury he himselfe was slain, & his body being found, was commanded by King Ptolomey to be hangd on a gibbet, and his mother, wives, and children that came with him into Aegypt, to bee put to death. And this was the tragicall end of Cleomenes King of Sparta.
Alexander the tyrant of Pheres never ceased to make and spy out all occasions of warre against the people of Thessaly, to the end to bring them generally in subjection under his dominion: he was a most bloudy and cruell minded man, having neither regard of person or justice in any action. In his cruelty he buried some alive, others he clothed in beares and boares skins, and then set dogs at their tailes to rend them in pieces; others hee used in way of pastime to strike through with darts and arrowes. And one day as the inhabitants of a certaine city were assembled together in counsell, he caused his guard to inclose them up suddenly, and to kill them all even to the very infants. He slew also his owne uncle, and crowned the speare wherwith he did that deed with garlands of flowers, and sacrificed unto him being dead, as to a god. Now albeit this cruell Tygre was garded continually with troupes of souldiers that kept night and day watch about his body wheresoever hee lay, and with a most ougly and terrible dog, unacquainted with any saving himselfe, his wife, and one servant that gave him his meat, tied to his chamber dore, yet could hee not escape the evill chance which by his wives meanes fell upon him: for she taking away the staires of his chamber, let in three of her owne brethren provided to murther him, as they did: for finding him asleep, one tooke him fast by the heeles, the other by the haire, wringing his head behind him, and the third thrust him through with his sword, shee all this while giving them light to dispatch their businesse. The citizens of Pheres when they had drawne his carkasse about their streets, and trampled upon it their bellies full, threw it to the dogges to be devoured; so odious was his very remembrance among them.
I…gurth, sonne to Manastabal, brother to Micipsa King of Numidia, by Salustibirth a bastard, for hee was borne of a concubine, yet by nature and disposition so valiant and full of courage, that hee was not onelyonly beloved of all men, but also so deerely esteemed of by Micipsa, that he adopted him joynt heire with his sonnes Adherbal and Hiempsal, to his crowne, kindly admonishing him in way of intreaty to continue the union of love and concord without breach between them, which hee promised to performe.. But Micipsa was no sooner deceased, but hee by and by not content with a portion of the Kingdome, ambitiously sought for the whole. For which cause hee first found meanes to dispatch Hiempsal out of his way by the hands of the guard, who in his lodging by night cut his throat, and then by battell having vanquished Adherbal his brother, obtained the sole regiment without controlment. Besides, hee corrupted so by bribes the Senators of Rome that had soveraigne authority in and over his Kingdome, that in stead of punishment which his murther cried for, he was by the decree of the Senate allotted to the one halfe of the Kingdome. Whereupon being growne yet more presumptuous, hee made excursions and ryots upon Adherbals territories, and did him thereby much injury: and from thence falling to open warre, put him to flight, and pursued him to a city, where hee besieged him so long, till he was constrained to yeeld himselfe. And then having gotten him within his power, put him to the cruellest death he could devise: which villanous deed gave just cause to the Romanes, of that warre which they undertooke against him, wherein hee was discomfited: and seeing himselfe utterly lost, fled to his sonne in law Bochus, King of Mauritania, to seeke supply of succour, who receiving him into safegard, proved a false gard to him, and delivered him into the hands of his enemies, and so was he carried in triumph to Rome by Marius fast bound; and being come to Rome, cast into perpetuall prison, where first his gowne was torne off his backe by violence, next a ring of gold pluckt off his eare, lap and all; and lastly, himselfe starke naked throwne into a deepe ditch, where combating with famine six dayes, the seventh miserably ended his wretched life, according to the merits of his misdeeds. Orsius, saith he, was strangled in prison.
Methridates king of Parthia put to death the king of Cappadocia, to Oras. Sabel. Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3.get his kingdome, and after under pretence of parlying with one of his sonnes, slew him also: for which cause the Romanes tooke up the quarrell, and made warre upon him, by meanes whereof much losse and inconvenience grew unto him as well by sea as by land. After the first overthrow, where one of his sisters was taken prisoner, when he saw himselfe in so desperate a case, that no hope of helpe was left, he slew two other of his sisters, with two of his wives, having before this warre given his foruth sister (who also was his wife) a dram of poyson to make up the tragedy. Afterward being vanquished in the night by Pompey the Roman, and put to flight with onelyonly three of his company, as he went about to gather a new supply of forces, behold tydings was brought him of the revolt of many of his Provinces and countries, and of the delivering up of the rest of his daughters into Pompeyes hand, and of the treason of his yong sonne Pharnax, the gallantest of his sonnes, and whom he purposed to make his successor, who had joyned himselfe to his enemy, which troubled and astonished him more than all the rest▪ so that his courage being quite dashed, and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished, his other two daughters he poysoned with his owne hands, and sought to practise the same experiment upon himselfe, but that his body was too strong for the poison, and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature: but that which poyson could not effect, his owne sword performed.
Though Pompey the great was never any of the most notorious offenders in Rome, yet did this staine of cruelty, ambition and desire of rule, cleave Plutarch.unto him: for first he joyning himselfe to Silla, dealt most cruelly and unnaturally with Carbo, whom after familiar conference, in shew of friendship, he caused suddenly to be slain, without shew of mercy. And with Quintius Valerius, a wise and well lettered man, with whom walking but two or three turnes, he committed to a cruell and unexpected slaughter. He executed severe punishment upon the enemies of Sylla, especially those that were most of note and reputation, and unmercifully put Brutus to death, that had rendered himselfe unto his mercy. It was he that devised that new combat of prisoners and wilde beasts, to make the people sport withall; a most inhumane and bloudy pastime, to see humane and manly bodies torne and dismembred by brute and senselesse creatures: which, if we will beleeve Plutarch, was the onelyonly cause of his destruction. Now after so many brave and gallant victories, so many magnificent triumphs; as the taking of King Hiarbas, the overthrow of Domitius, the conquest of Africa, the pacifying of Spaine, and the overwelding of the commotions that were therein, the clearing of the sea coasts from Pirates, the victory over Methridates, the subduing of the Arabians, the reducing of Syria into a Province, the conquest of Iudea, Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, and Paphlagonia: I say, after all these worthy deeds of armes and mighty victories, he was shamefully overcome by Iulius Caesar in that civill warre, wherein it was generally thought that he had undertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senat, and defending the liberty of the people, as he pretended to doe: being thus put to flight, and making towards Aegypt, in hope the King (for that before time he had beene his tutor) would protect and furnish him, that he might recover himselfe againe, he found himselfe so farre deceived of his expectation, that in stead thereof the Kings people cut him short of his purpose, and of his head both at once, sending it for a token to Caesar, to gratifie him withall. Neverthelesse, for all this, his murtherers and betrayers, as the yong King, and all others that were causers of his death were justly punished for their cruelty, by the hands of him whom they thought to gratifie: for as Cleopatra the Kings sister thr…w her selfe downe at Caesars feet to entreat her portion of the kingdome, and he being willing also to shew her that favour, was by that means gotten into the kings palace; forthwith the murtherers of Pompey beset the palace, and went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in. But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt, frustrated their purposes, and recovered his forces into his hands, assayled them with such valour and prowesse on all sides, that in short space he overcame this wicked and traiterous nation. Amongst the slaine, the dead body of this young and evill advised King was found, overborne with dirt. Theodotus the kings schoolemaster (by whose instigation …lor. lib. 4.and advice both Pompey was slaine, and this warre undertaken) being escaped and fled towards Asia for his safety, found even there sufficient instruments both to abridge his journey and shorten his life. As for the rest of that murthering fellowship, they ended their lives some here, some there, in (that mercilesse element) the sea, and by (that boisterous element) the wind, which though senselesse, yet could not suffer them to escape unpunished.
Although that Iulius Caesar (concerning whom more occasion of speech Plutarch.will be given hereafter) did tyrannously usurp the key of the Roman Common-wealth, and intruded himselfe into the Empire against the lawes, customes, and authority of the people and Senate, yet was it accounted a most traiterous and cruell part to massacre and kill him in the Senate, as he sat in his seat misdoubting no mishap, as the sequell of their severall ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare: for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displayed upon them, that not one of the conspirators escaped, but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly, till there was Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. & 4. Plutarch.nor one left of that wicked crue whom revenge had not overtaken. Cassius being discomfited in the battell of Philippos, supposing that Brutus had beene also in the same case, used the same sword against himselfe (a marvellous thing) wherewith before he had smitten Caesar. Brutus also a few dayes after, when a fearefull vision had appeared twice unto him by night, Eutrop.understanding thereby that his time of life was but short, though he had the better of his enemies the day before, yet threw himselfe desperately into the greatest danger of the battell, for his speedier dispatch; but he was reserved to a more shamefull end., for seeing his men slaine before him, he retired hastily apart from view of men, and setting his sword to his breast, threw himselfe upon it, piercing him through the body, and so ended his life. And thus was Caesars death revenged by Octavius and Anthony who remained conquerors, after all that bloudy crew was brought to nought: betwixt whom also ere long burst out a most cruell division, which grew unto a furious and cruell battell by sea, wherein Anthony was overcome, and sent flying into Aegypt, and there taught his owne hands to be his murtherers. And such was the end of his life, who had beene an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumvirship, and a causer of the deaths of many men. And forasmuch as Cleopatra was the first motive and fetter on of Anthony to this warre, it was good reason that she should partake some of that punishment which they both deserved; as she did: for being surprised by her enemies, to the intent she might not be carried in triumph to Rome, she caused an aspe to bite her to death. Marke here the pittifull Tragedies that following one another in the necke, were so linkt together, that drawing and holding each other, they drew with them a world of miseries to a most wofull end: a most transparent and cleere glasse, wherein the visages of Gods heavy judgements upon all murtherers are apparently deciphered.