A CONTINVATION of Lucan's Historicall Poem till the death of IVLIVS CAESAR By T M
London Printed for James Boler at the Signe of the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard. 1630
TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH CHARLES BY THE GRACE of God, King of Great Brittaine, France, and Ireland, &c.
SIR,
I SHOVLD haue taught my humble labors a lower presumption than to haue approached your sacred hand, if I had onely [Page] weighed mine owne weaknesse and disabilitie; but the dignitie of this subiect did somewhat encourage mee, being a remainder of that great Historie, whose former part was so richly dressed in the happie conceits, and high raptures of that Noble LVCAN: of whose abilitie in writing I was not so ambitious in emulation, as officious in desire, to continue so stately an argument for your Princely eare: with what successe I haue performed [Page] it, your MAIESTIES acceptation onely can determine; to whom if it present but the least delight, my end is accomplished, for which I haue runne so great a hazard, as (perchance) to be censured a foile onely to Lucan's lustre; and chose rather to fall vnder the weight of a great argument, than to present a meane one to so high a hand: your Maiesties renowned worth, and Heroicall vertues (the perfection of minde meeting in you [Page] with the height of Fortune) may make you securely delighted in the reading of great actions; to whom I humbly present this weake Worke, beseeching Almighty GOD long to establish your MAIESTIES Throne vpon earth, enriching it with blessings of the right hand and the left; and after to Crowne you with incorruptible Glorie: So prayeth
Your Maiesties most humble subiect THO. MAY.
IOHANNIS SVLPITII Verulani querela de interitu Lucani, opere nondum perfecto.
HAEC cecinit vates, scripturus plura: sed illum
In medio cursu iussit mors dira silere.
Accidit vt cigno, qui fixus arundine, carmen
Mille modis querulum, quod caeperat, interrumpit.
Nec Phaenix aliter, cum sese imponit in altum
Quem struit ipse, rogum, cantus dulcedine mira
Nondum perfectos plaudenti morte relinquit.
Nec secus Ismariis vates oppressus in oris
A Ciconum nuribus, Superûm dum cantat amores,
[Page]Bruta (que) cum syluis, & saxa sequentia ducit,
Haud potuit moriens medios absoluere cantus.
Proh scelera! Oh superi, cruciat quae poena Neronē?
Num rota, num saxum, num stagna fugacia vexant?
An vultur, pendensue silex? an feruet in vnda?
Illum comburat Phlegeton, lacerent (que) Cerastae:
Hydra voret, raptent (que) canes, semper (que) flagellis
Torua Megaera secet, nec sit requies (que) modus (que).
Quanto fraudata est tua gloria plena nitore
Corduba! quam (que) minus te Mantua docta veretur▪
Mantua, cui primae fulget nunc gloria palmae;
Sed contenta tribus longè lacteris alumnis.
Tu verò O nostrum vates diuine laborem,
Quem pro te subij, non auersate probabis.
THE COMPLAINT OF CALLIOPE AGAINST THE DESTINIES.
TOO cruell Sisters, why againe am I
Enforc'd to weepe, and tax your tyranny?
Was not my Orpheus death (though long agoe)
Enough for me to beare, for you to doe?
Orpheus so much by all the graces lou'd,
Whose charming skill, and matchlesse Musi [...]ke mou'd
The sauage beasts, the stones, and senselesse trees,
Yet could not moue the harder Destinies.
J saw his limbes (alas) scattered abroad
On Hebrus bankes, while downe the siluer flood
His learned head was rowl'd, and all along
Heard the sad murmurs of his dying tongue.
[Page]No other Tragedy but Lucan slaine
By your vntimely stroke could thus againe
Reuiue my griefe: Oh could you not prolong
That thread awhile, vntill the stately song
Of his Pharsalia had beene finish'd quite?
What sauage bird of prey, what murdring Kite
Could, in the mid'st of that melodious lay,
Rauish the charming Nightingall away?
Thou sung'st no lusts, no riots, nor mad'st knowne
(Corrupting others manners with thine owne)
New crimes, nor with lasciuious wantoning
Did'st thou defile the sacred Thespian spring.
Thy verses teach no foule adulteries,
Nor rapes committed by the Deities,
Which may from guilt absolue the worst of men;
But actions great and true: thy happie pen
Adorning History with raptures high,
With quicke conceits and sound moralitie
Condemn'd the strong iniustice of that age,
And reines too much let lose to ciuill rage,
When Rome the strength, which she had made, did feare,
No longer able her owne weight to beare,
Taxing bad greatnesse, and in deathlesse verse
Bestowing fame on Noble Sepulchers;
And had'st enobled moe; but woe is me,
Th' vntimely stroke of death did silence thee.
Of which the griefe not onely vs inuades,
But diues into the blest Elysian shades,
Sadding the worthies there, that so did long
To fill a roome in thine eternall song.
There Cato thinkes (and grieues it was deny'd)
If thou had'st liu'd, how great he should haue dy'd:
The Roman Scipio, did disdaine a Tombe
On Libya's shore, in hope to finde a roome
[Page]Within thy stately Poem, well content
Saue there, to haue no other Monument,
Those stately Temples, where Great Caesar's name
Shall be by Rome ador'd, wanting the fame
Which thy high lines might giue, in time to come
Shall enuy Pompey's small Aegyptian Tombe.
Had Iuba's Tragicke fall beene sung by thee
'T had eas'd the losse of his great Monarchy▪
But that to them and vs did Fate deny
That we the more might waile thy Tragedy.
[Page] [Page] A CONTINVATION of the Subiect OF LƲCAN'S HISTORICALL POEM till the death of Iulius Caesar.
The first Booke.
The Argument of the first Booke.
Th'Aegyptians sue to Caesar for a peace,
Excuse their crime, and craue their King's release:
The King restor'd by Caesar to his state,
Reuolts againe: Euphranor's noble fate.
Ptolomey's vision from Serapis sent
Foreshews the change of Aegypts gouernment.
The warre in Delta; Caesars victory.
The ouerthrow and death of Ptolomey.
THe threatning Ocean now had spent in vaine
His swelling spite, and from the watery maine▪
From Aegypts feeble Treason, and the band
Of Pharian slaues is Caesar safe at land
Fill'd with reuenge and scorne, arm'd with a rage
Greater than Aegypts ruine can asswage.
[Page]His warre is now made iust; but that great minde
Too much disdaines so iust a cause to finde
From such a State, grieu'd that they durst afford
Wrongs proud enough to call on Caesar's sword,
Or prouocation to his fury lend,
Whom Rome it selfe had trembled to offend,
And ru'd his anger at no cheaper rate
Than Pompey's fall, and ruine of the State.
How well could Rome excuse the gods aboue
For Caesar's late-wrought safetie, and approue
Their fauour in it, if no other State
Had felt the force of his reuiued fate
But Aegypts guilty land? in that warre nought
But iust reuenge for Pompey had beene wrought.
The willing Senate had with ioy decreed
Honours for such a conquest; for that deed
From euery Towne th' Italian youth in throngs
Had met his Charriot with triumphall songs,
Nor had great Pompey's spirit from the skie
Repin'd at sight of that solemnitie.
That act had reconcil'd the Conquerer
To Rome againe, had not the fatall warre,
Which straight in Affrick, and in Spaine ensew'd,
His conquering army with first guilt embrew'd.
The treacherous band of Aegypts Souldiers now
That chose Arsinoë Queene, gan disallow
The pride of Ganymedes, and disdaine
A feeble woman, and base Eunuchs reigne.
All murmur, all to muteny inclin'd,
Yet each afraid to sound each others mind:
Till one at last more venturous than the rest
Thus with his owne the thoughts of all exprest.
What end haue these our armes? Why doe we make
Tumults in stead of warres? If armes we take
[Page]To free Niles fruitfull regions from the yoke
Of Romes ambition, why doe we prouoke
The strength of Caesar at a time when he
Detaines our King within his custodie?
The King as hostage for our truth doth lie
We hazard not the warre but Ptolomey.
Though our attempt 'gainst Caesar should succeed
We staine the honour of so great a deed
Wanting a lawfull chiefe; and twill be thought
Rebellious tumults not iust warres haue wrought
Rich Aegypts freedome: More may be obtain'd
By peace, than can be by such hazards gain'd.
Then let vs sue for Ptolomey's release:
Caesar (though now incenst) will grant vs peace
On easie termes; and thinke it better farre
Then to be here entangled in a warre,
Whilest yet Pharsalia's reliques doe remaine
To ioyne their strength, and trie their fate againe:
Whilest the dispers'd not conquer'd powers of Rome
Are gathering head, and furious nations come
From Iuba's kingdome, Ammons farthest sands,
And where Spaines Calpe bounds the Westerne lands
To crosse his growing fortunes: But if we
Tender the state of young Arsinoë,
(Because descended from great Lagus race,)
Why doe we wrong her brother, and misplace
Our dutie so? Preposterous loyalty
It is, to honour Lagus family,
And therefore Lagus lawfull heire depose.
A generall shout, which through the Campe arose,
Shewes their agreement too too great to be
Suppressed now, or term'd a muteny.
That euen Arsinoë seeing this consent
Is forc'd to be, or seeme (at least) content.
[Page]Embassadours to Caesar they addresse
To begge the King's inlargement, sue for peace,
And pardon for their treachery to him:
Which they excus'd at large, and all the crime
Vpon Photinus and Achillas lay'd:
Whose liues (say they) haue for their treasons pay'd.
Caesar, though once enrag'd, admits their low
Submissiue prayers, and smooths his angry brow,
Scorning to lose so proud a wrath vpon
Such worthlesse obiects; or intent alone
On ciuill warres, reserues his fury all
To wreake in nothing but his countreys fall.
Nought but so hard, and so abhorr'd a crime
Had guilt and danger great enough for him.
He breefly grants them their desired ends,
And Ptolomey backe to his kingdome sends.
Poore boy, what fatall freedome hast thou gain'd?
Thou to thy ruine hast thy wish obtain'd.
Tis Caesar's crueltie that sets thee free,
To make thee guiltie and then punish thee.
Thine innocence did guard thee, whilest by him
Thou wert confin'd, and could'st not act a crime
That might deserue thy death; but well knew he
Thy ages weaknesse, and the treachery
Of thy perfidious and vnconstant men
Would draw thee to offences, and thou then
By faire pretence of iustice might'st be slaine
A sacrifice to Cleopatra's a reigne,
And his desires, who meanes thy crowne shall buy
Or pay the hire of his adultery.
Caesar's surmises finde a true euent;
For Ptolomey backe to his people sent
(Whether that falsehood were the nations vice,
Or else by nature or bad nurture b his,
[Page]Or he by others easie to be sway'd)
Forgets the oath that he to Caesar made.
And fill'd with vaine and flattering hopes, calls on
The forward fates t'his owne destruction.
A well rigg'd fleet of Ships he forth doth send
In ambush neere Canopus to attend
(An Ile that East from Alexandria lies)
To cut off all prouision and supplies,
That might by Sea to Caesar's campe arriue.
To this his first attempt doth Fortune giue
Some seeming fauour; for while there they lie,
Euphranor's Ship, seuer'd vnhappily
Alone from all the rest of Caesar's fleet,
By this Aegyptian Nauy is beset.
c Euphranor's valour, that had neuer found
The fates but friendly, and so oft renown'd
With Caesar's fortune had for Caesar fought,
This change affrights not; his vndaunted thought
Not feare but rage possesses; and though there
Beset, he playes th' assailant euery where.
They feare to ioyne with him, and euermore
Fly from his grapple; as a chafed Bore
The following hounds auoid, so Aegypts fleet
Surprises danger which it dares not meet.
But being so many Ships they cannot all
Escape from him; some, though vnwilling, fall
Vpon Euphranor, and are forc'd to buy
With their owne losse their fellowes victory.
Some vessels bor'd twixt wind and water sunke,
And drinking waues into the waues were drunke.
'Gainst others from the Roman vessell fire,
Wrapt vp in balls was throwne; whose actiue ire
The Ocean could not quench vntill too late,
And did not succour then, but change the fate.
[Page]Some dead, some liuing float in Neptunes flood
The Sea discolour'd with the victours blood.
Had but one more of Caesars Ships beene caught
Th' Aegyptian fleet a fatall prey had sought,
And learned then how they deceiued tooke
But Fortunes bait, which hid a mortall hooke.
But when at last those few Caesarians
Were spent with wounds and toile, and that their hands
Could for that endlesse taske no more suffice
Euphranor weary with subduing dies,
Leauing the rest of those Aegyptian powers
Suruiuours rather than true Conquerours.
Now Ptolomey was leuying strength by land,
When Mithridates with a warlike band
Of men, from Syria, and Cilicia came
Raised from thence by him in Caesar's name.
And marching swiftly ore the land, at last
Arriu'd where strong Pelusium's fitly plac'd
Vpon the continent, and on that side
Th' Aegyptian bounds from Syria doth diuide:
Pelusium's strength is thought by land to be
Aegypts defence as Pharos is by Sea.
But now (alas) too weake it proues to stay
Fierce Mithridates course, who in one day
(Though there Achillas left a Garrison)
Summons, assaults, and wins by force, the Towne;
Nor stayes he there, but marches speedily
To ioyne his strength with Caesar's power, whom he
Of this exploit before had certifi'd.
This Mithridates, who on Caesar's side
So well had seru'd as to deserue from him
After this warre, the Thracian diadem,
Of great and royall parentage was sprung,
And trained vp in princely arts, when young,
[Page]By that great King, that Asian Conquerour,
Who fortie yeares withstood the Roman power,
And in so many honour'd fields did fame
Lucullus, Sylla, and great Pompey's name.
The King, that now besides Canobus lay,
With all his power, intends to march away
With speed through Delta, where the Fates decree
To seat the warre, and his sad tragedy.
Rich Delta, Aegypts pride the flower alone
Of all the Pharian Kings dominion;
Vpon whose fertile brest a thousand wayes
In winding tracks the wanton Nilus playes,
And with his amorous folding armes doth seeme
T' embrace small Ilands, whilest his siluer streame
From seuerall channells oft it selfe doth meet,
And oft it selfe with wanton kisses greet.
So those faire riuolets, which for the food
Of liuing bodies, beare the crimson blood
To euery part, within the liuer meet,
And there with kisses number lesse doe greet
Themselues; and as they through each other glide
Make many knots, as if they tooke a pride
In their strange foldings, and themselues did please
In those admired Anastomoses.
This fertile region, whose extension makes
A iust triangle, from the letter takes
Delta for name, whose basis is the Sea,
Whose two sides Niles two widest channells be.
For all the other fiue within those two
Into the Northren Sea through Delta goe.
Downe from the lesser cataract Nile flowes,
And in one single channell Northward goes
From Elephantis Ile the ancient bound,
Twixt th'Aethiopian, and Aegyptian ground
[Page]Foure thousand furlongs to that spatious plaine,
Where Memphis stands, so famed for the vaine,
And mispent labour of so many men,
Her wondrous Pyramids; which had not beene,
If natures bountie, and the wealthy soile
Had not too much excus'd the Plowmans toile.
So many hands (as there were vainly found)
Had beene enough t' haue made the barren'st ground
Of Ammons deserts, or the Libyan sands
Fruitfull by working, t' haue entrench'd whole lands,
And fenc'd their Aegypts often conquer'd Towers
From Persian, Graecian, and Italian powers.
At Memphi [...] Nile his channell doth diuide:
That branch that flowes along the Easterne side,
Into the Ocean rowles his curled waues
At strong Pelusium; tother channell laues
(A thousand furlongs distant thence, as he
Into the Ocean falls) the regions nigh
To faire Canobus, which (by ancient fame)
From Menelaus Pylot tooke the name;
Who dying there, was buried on the shore,
When Aegypts Crowne that iust King Proteus wore:
Who tooke from Priam's wanton sonne away
Atrides beautious wife, his rauish'd prey,
And to her husband after her restor'd
When Troyes sack'd towers had felt the vengefull sword
Of armed Greece. That region, which betweene
Those two the widest armes of Nile is seene,
Is Delta, which so plentifully yeelds,
Ceres and Bacchus, rich in pasture fields,
And flowery meadowes, where the bleating flocks,
And horned heards doe graze; the labouring Ox
Weary'd in those fat furrowes, nere deceiues
Hopes which the greediest husbandman conceiues.
[Page]There loftie Cities stand, and Townes of fame,
Lakes flow, which from those Cities take their names.
Butum enuiron'd with the Buticke lake,
Where once her Oracles Latona spake:
There faire Diospolis, Lycopolis,
Hermopolis, and Leontopolis
Proud Cities rise: There doth Busiris stand
Fatall to strangers, that were forc'd to land
Vpon her bloody shore; vntill the hand
Of great Alcides freed the grieued land
From that fell Tyrants reigne, whose name the towne
Yet beares; neere that is that faire Citie knowne
By Venus name; there faire Panephysis,
Tanitis, Xois, and Cynospolis,
And Sais chiefe of all the region,
In which Minerua's stately Temple's showne,
Where fam'd Psammiticus entombed lies.
There also Mendes famous walls doe rise,
Where Pan th'Arcadian god is worshipped,
And goates ador'd; there goates (as we haue read)
Doe mix with womankinde; so got was he
That lou'd the boy turn'd to a Cypresse tree.
But now to know the future warres successe,
The King aduis'd by Dioscorides
Ere from Canobus he through Delta passe,
(Since there Serapis stately Temple was)
Resolu'd to craue that Oracles aduice
Commands the Priests prepare a sacrifice.
This snake-like god Serapis seated there,
Whom all rich Aegypt, and the nations neere
Deuoutly worship, and from euery port
To his vndoubted Oracle resort,
Speakes not to men, like other gods, nor snewes
His truth by voyce, as horned Ammon does;
[Page]Norlike their Apis, fore-declaring good
Or bad, by taking or refusing food;
Nor like the Delphian Phaebus doth possesse
In killing rage, a wretched Prophetesse,
Making sad death the punishment or hire
Of euery soule his fury doth inspire;
But gently glides into a sleeping brest,
By dreames instructing our repose and rest,
In truths that can be by no labour gain'd:
There only knowledge is with ease attain'd.
To this renowned Temple farre and neere
Th' Aegyptian Lords and Princes come to heare
Truth without helpe of senses, and to know
By dreaming there their future weale or woe.
Why should this god his knowledge then declare
To men, when men least fit for knowledge are?
And chuse to come to them at such a time
When they no duties can returne to him?
Is it his bountie or his power to show,
That men so taught may plainly see they owe
Nothing at all to studies of their owne,
But to his bountie and his power alone,
That then can make them vnderstand aright
When they are rest of vnderstanding quite?
Or else the god, when men can exercise
Their powers and intellectuall faculties,
Will not descend with their weake thoughts to ioyne
Commixing human reason with diuine.
Within the Temples inmost roome, a bed
Of richest purple wrought with gold was spred;
To which the King was by the Priests conuay'd,
And there, to take his dreaming vision, lay'd.
No dreames at all within that sacred roome
But such as were diuinely sent, might come.
Others, which from complexions difference
[Page]Or naturall humors flow'd, were banish'd thence;
And those which from the studies of the day,
Or cares arose, in th' outward Temple stay,
And there together flie in companies
Of different colours, shapes, and qualities.
Faire sanguine dreames, that seeme to cheere the night,
With beautious shapes, and rosie wings, as bright
As is the morning, or those flowers, that grace
In mid'st of spring, the painted Flora's face,
Within the Temple merrily doe sport;
To whom the little Cupids oft resort;
The little Cupids from faire Venus groue
Stealing by night, doe thither come, and loue
With those bright sanguine dreames to passe away
The howers of night in sport and amorous play.
There dreames of choller in a flame-like hew
Through th' aire, like little fierie Meteors flew
With swift and angrie motion to and fro,
As if they sought within that place a foe.
Sometimes vp to the Temples roofe on high
They soare, as if they meant to scale the skie,
Or some impossible atchieuement sought
T' allay the thirst of an aspiring thought.
But downe below with sad and heauy cheere
On dead mens Tombes, and euery Sepulcher,
The duskie dreames of melancholly light,
With sable wings like Bats, or birds of night.
Fluttering in darkest corners here and there,
But all alone, and still each other feare.
Courting dead skulls, and seeming to inuite
The dismall ghosts for company by night.
There all along the Temples whited wall
Phlegmaticke lazy dreames, not wing'd at all,
But slow, like slimie Snailes, about doe crawle,
And euermore are thence afraid to fall
[Page]And so be drown'd; for on the floore below
They doe suppose deepe pooles of water flow.
But swift as thoughts can flie, as windes doe blow
Or winged lightning, in a moment goe
The flatuous dreames through th' aire; sometimes with noyse
Like the farre-off affrighting thunders voyce.
Besides a thousand other companies
Of dreames, which doe from daily cares arise,
From thoughts and deeds of men; which doe appeare
In formes as many and as different there
As all the world has obiects, or is fil'd
With deeds: All these to dreames diuiner yeeld,
And flie aloofe without; nor dare they come
Into the Temples inward sacred roome.
The dead of night had closed euery eye,
And sleepe now seiz'd the brest of Ptolomey,
When loe a vision from Serapis sent
To his affrighted fancy did present
The changed state of Aegypts haplesse land,
Which now by fates appointment was at hand.
A large-siz'd Ox, into that sacred roome
With sad and heauy pace did seeme to come,
And leane he was, as if he had not eat
Of long, or wanting, or refusing meat;
Saue two white spots, his colour wholly blacke,
One on his forehead, tother on his backe:
And passing by he seem'd to waile and moane,
From his blacke eyes the teares fast trickling downe.
After a woman came of stature tall,
Of presence stately and maiesticall;
High Towers, and Castles on her head she bare,
But loose, as if all torne, hung downe her haire.
Strong chaines did seeme her naked armes to tie;
With that arose a dismall shreeke and crie,
[Page]As it had beene from ghosts infernall sent,
Whose fury rent the regall monument:
And from their open'd tombes he saw arise
The ghosts of all the bury'd Ptolomeys,
From Lagus sonne the first, in order all,
Who following, seem'd to waile the womans fall.
With that cold chilling horrour from the brest
Of sleeping Ptolomey had banish'd rest,
Who with amazed thoughts look'd vp and downe▪
But when his eyes were ope, the sight was gone.
The Priests approach, and hearing him relate
His dolefull dreame, lament the wretched State
Of Aegypts kingdome, and with one consent
Foretell th' approaching change of gouernment:
Yet to appease the gods, by their aduice,
The King commands a solemne sacrifice.
But neerer miseries by farre than those
Doe threaten thee, poore King; the god foreshowes
Thy Countries future dangers, and from thee
Conceales thine owne approaching tragedy.
To meet with Caesar then he march'd away
Through wealthy Delta, and encamped lay
Vpon an high and spatious hill, which round
About commands the lower champian ground;
From whence the Countrey he afarre descri'd.
A place by nature strongly fortifi'd
Three seuerall wayes; th' ascent so steepe and hard
To climbe, as seem'd impregnable, did guard
One part alone without rhe aid of men:
Vnto another part a spatious fen
And lake did seeme to giue protection:
To guard the third a riuer swiftly run.
Betwixt the lake and which alone did stand,
To lend some passage, a small necke of land:
[Page]That little Isthmos seem'd alone to stand
In need of guarding by a souldiers hand
Against the foes assault. But in that place
The King supposes, twere too much disgrace
To be assaulted first, and would dismay
His souldiers hearts, for Caesar there to stay;
Or else not safe in what defence the lake,
The riuer, hill, or his owne workes could make,
To hinder Caesar's comming he intends
Farre off; and most of all his forces sends
To guard a riuer where his passage lay.
That banke, on which th' Aegyptian souldiers stay,
Was high, and farre from water, and might well
Keepe the Caesarians off, or them compell
To fight on wondrous disaduantage there.
But Caesar's troops incapable of feare,
At first approach, resolue, viewing the place,
In spight of disaduantages to passe.
And whilest the legionary souldiers throw
'Gainst tother side, to busie there the foe,
Thicke stormes of winged piles; whilest some of them
Striue to lay trees, for bridges, ore the streame,
The German cohorts vp and downe doe try
The riuers depth, and where most easily
They may or swim, or wade the channell through;
And make as boldly their attempts as though
They went against no enemie at all.
Whilest the Aegyptians doe securely gall
Downe from aboue their labouring enemy,
And on the place, not their owne worth rely:
For all the weapons, which from them are throwne,
Require no strength, but by descent alone
Bring wounds to the Caesarians, who, inrag'd
To be 'gainst such aduantages ingag'd,
[Page]Sigh, that their valour they must vainly lose
Not to subdue, but to approach their foes,
And must contend as eagerly to gaine
A fight, as erst a conquest to obtaine.
Against the riuer and the bankes they goe:
And in this warre the foe is least the foe.
Caesar perceiues in what distressed plight
The legionaries are enforc'd to fight,
And therefore straight commands his lightest horse
To wheele about, and with a speedy course
Farre from that place to crosse the riuer ore.
Which they performed swiftly, and before
Th' Aegyptian Souldiers their approach could feare,
Behinde they charg'd them in a full carriere.
Whose force whilest they, turning about, withstood,
The legionary Souldiers past the flood
With greater ease by bridges which they made,
And through the shallowest fordes the Germans wade.
And now at last th' Aegyptian Souldiers
Are forc'd, though loth, to enter equall warres.
But feare made them vnequall, and subdu'd
As soone as fought with, by the fortitude
Of Caesar's men, who else had sought in vaine
By so much sweat and labour to obtaine
A battell, had they not a conquest had:
And now a slaughter, not a warre was made.
The King from out his loftie Campe beheld
His slaughtred Souldiers bodies strow the field,
Which late they stood vpon: for scarce by flight
Were any saued; the Caesarian spight
Pursu'd the conquest which they had obtain'd
With such a fury, that the fields distain'd
All ore with blood, might let th' Aegyptians see
How they before had fought vnequally.
[Page]He viewes how few return'd, that newes to tell,
Which he had seene, and knew too sadly well.
But to the Campe those, that escaped were
Brought nothing but astonishment and feare.
Th' incamped finde in them no aid at all,
But see the greatnesse of their fellowes fall:
Whom Caesar's men so swiftly follow home,
That to the trenches, and out-workes they come.
Caesar, that neuer in his battells, held
A foe subdu'd, till from his Campe expell'd,
Exhorts his Souldiers to forget their paines
And freshly force the workes, whilest feare there reignes,
To end this warre, and with the wealthy spoyle
Of Aegypts King to recompence their toyle.
Nor need the Souldiers be incouraged
To seeke their wages for the blood they shed.
They first inuade that little necke of land
Which twixt the riuer and the lake did stand.
But that th' Aegyptian Souldiers most doe guard;
When on the passage there begins a hard
And bloody conflict; one side fight to make
Their conquest perfect, and the fruit to take:
Tother despaire in stead of courage armes;
For vanquished they feare the worst of harmes.
From either side the passage where they stood,
The lake and riuer are distain'd with blood.
Downe halfe dead bodies they precipitate,
Who drown'd in water taste a double fate.
There oft together, as they fighting stand,
Aegyptians and Caesarians hand in hand
Doe grappling fall into the crimson lake;
Nor there (alas) their enmitie forsake:
But weakely trie the combat out, where he
That conquers can no long suruiuour be.
[Page]Whilest on that side the Campe, both parties fought
So furiously, and all hands thither brought;
Caesar perceiued on the other side,
That seem'd enough by nature fortifi'd,
Where the ascent was craggie, steepe, and hard
To climbe, that Ptolomey had left no guard;
Or those that had beene left, from thence were gone
To tother side, as aid, or lookers on.
Thither his lightest cohorts he commands;
Bold Carfulenus leads those actiue hands,
Who straight, as Caesar gaue in charge to him,
With those light-armed cohorts gins to climbe.
Th'ascent so steepe and hard, that to the foe
Did seeme impregnable, but prou'd not so,
Brought on their ruine; death there enter'd in,
From whence with greatest ease he might haue beene
Repel'd by them. But Carfulenus now
Entring th'Aegyptian Campe, with small adoe
Kills or repells his few resisting foes,
Feare and distraction through the Campe arose.
The workes, whilest to and fro th' amazed runne,
On euery side by the Caesarians wonne:
To whom for mercy now they sue in vaine,
Nor does the Generall their swords restraine;
But bids them kill, and in their slaughter free
The world from so much fraud and treachery.
Part of th'Aegyptian-Campe had beene before
Romes legionary Souldiers, and brought ore
Vnder Gabinius, there in Aegypt left
Were by her pleasures softned, and bereft
Of military vertue, and became
Degenerate staines vnto the Roman name.
Like the Aegyptians they were growne to be
In manners, basenesse, fraud, and treachery.
[Page]Not farre from thence, vnto the riuer side
A little vessell by a rope was ti'd:
Whither the King in this tumultuous heat
Of flight, escaped from the Campe, doth get;
And now aboord, commands his slender traine
With all their strength to launch it forth amaine.
His purple robe vpon the shore he throwes
To flie disguis'd; but cruell Fate allowes
No flight nor safetie to him; nought at all
Gaines his disguise but a Plebeian fall.
For loe the flying multitude espi'd
(That from the Campe prest to the riuers side)
That barke, contending all to get aboord
To saue themselues, respectlesse of their Lord.
He cries, the King is here; doe not intrude;
There is no safetie for a multitude
In one small vessell; why should you destroy
(Losing your selues) the life of Ptolomey?
Though Fortune worke my ruine, doe not you
Murder your King: but Caesar's men pursue,
Amazement stops their eares, and feare of sword
Had banish'd all allegiance to their Lord:
Till, the ore-laden vessell sinking downe,
Themselues together with their King they drowne.
Mixt with Plebeian deaths a Monarch lies
The royall race of th' ancient Ptolomey's
Vnder no couert but his Nile's cold waues,
No Pyramids, nor rich Mausolean graues,
Nor sacred Vaults, whose structures doe excell:
As his fore-fathers ashes proudly dwell,
And dead, as liuing, doe their wealth expresse
In sumptuous tombes as gorgeous Palaces.
Vnhappie Ptolomey, how short a date
Haue Fates allotted to thy kingly State?
[Page]No otherwise didst thou a Crowne obtaine
Than sacrifices, crowned to be slaine.
Happier might'st thou haue di'd, before thy reigne
(Though short it were) had left that lasting staine
Of Pompey's death vpon thy name, and shew'd
To future times thy foule ingratitude,
Depriuing him of breath, that did before
Thy banish'd e Father to a Crowne restore.
And now to that dead Roman worthyes Tombe
Art thou enforc'd a Sacrifice to come
T'appease his Ghost, and offer'd vp by him,
In whose behalfe thou did'st that heinous crime.
Who chooses rather to reuenge, than owe
To thee, so base a ruine of his foe.
Caesar, possest of this great victory,
By land, through Delta marches speedily
To Alexandria; but supposing there
How much the Citie his iust wrath might feare,
He sends before to comfort them, and free
Th' inhabitants from feare and iealousie.
To be with ioy receiued, he declares
That all his wrath is ended with his warres;
That he, as Romes Dictatour, would preserue
Their liues and liberties, and still reserue
The Crowne of Aegypt free, rightly to place
Vpon the next of Lagus royall race.
And that no other now was his intent
Annotations to the first Booke.
a Thus Dion; Caesar beleeued that the Aegyptians had truly desired peace, disheartned with their designes not succeeding (for he had heard they were a people by nature timorous and vnconstant;) but howsoeuer their intentions were, he resolued to grant their request, lest he should seeme to withstand an offered peace; he sends therefore their King to them; for by his presence he knew there was no increase of strength brought to them, considering his age and bad education: by this meanes he supposed he might afterwards conclude a peace with the Aegyptians vpon his owne termes, or finde a iust pretence of conquering the Countrey, and giuing the Kingdome to Cleopatra: for he was not at all afraid of their strength now, hauing receiued his army out of Syria. Dion. lib. 42.
b The young King educated in false and deceitfull disciplines, that he might not seeme to degenerate from the manners of his Nation, weeping intreated Caesar that he would not send him from him; for enioying of a Kingdome could not be to him so pleasant as the presence of Caesar. Caesar moued with his teares comforted him, and promised if there were need shortly to visite him; but Ptolomey at libertie, began immediatly to warre against Caesar with so fierce and eager a desire, that the teares which at the parting he shed, might seeme to be teares of ioy. Hirt. Commen. de bello Alexan.
c None of the Roman ships came at all to the succour of Euphranor, either bacause they durst not partake of the danger, or because they had a strong confidence in the great vertue, and extraordinary felicitie of Euphranor, which in all his other fights had euer attended him: so that he only at that time behaued himselfe well, and perished alone with his victorious Galley. Hirt. Commen. de bello Alexan.
d Of this towne Canopus, and the Temple of Serapis there, [Page] thus Strabo speakes in his seuenteenth booke; Canopus distant from Alexandria an hundred and twentie furlongs by land, was so called from Canopus Menelaus his Master of his ship, who was buried there: in it is the Temple of Serapis, with great deuotion honoured amongst them, insomuch as the Noblemen put great affiance in that god, and come thither to take dreames both for themselues and others: some of them haue written of diuers cures which haue beene there wrought, and many miracles in seuerall kindes: but aboue all other things, wonderfull is that number, who vpon Festiuall times come downe thither by the Lake from Alexandria: for night and day is that Lake full of boats, in which men and women with songs, and gestures of all manner of Lasciuiousnesse doe recreate themselues; and in Canopus it selfe, diuers Jnns there are vpon the Lake side to entertaine passengers with such leuities and vaine delights. Strabo lib. 17.
e This young King Ptolomeus Dionysius sonne to Ptolomeus Auletes the last of all the race of Ptolomey's, by the wicked counsell of his followers, as Photinus the Eunuch, Achillas Captaine of the guard, and Theodorus Chius the Rhetorician, had vnthankefully slaine Pompey the great flying to him in his necessitie, who before had beene the greatest meanes of restoring his father Auletes to the Crowne of Aegypt. Dion. Plutarch. Appion.
f Auletes Ptolomeus the ninth Ptolomey from the sonne of Lagus, who after the death of Alexander the great possessed Aegypt, was a man (saith Strabo) of most dissolute and wicked manners, for which he was expelled his kingdome by the people of Alexandria; who made the eldest of his three daughters Queene ouer them; his two sonnes being both infants had by this meanes lost all hope of succession in their fathers Kingdome: the Queene elected was married to one Cybiosactes of Syria, who deriued his pedigree from the ancient Syrian Kings: but the Queene within few dayes strangled her husband, not able to endure his sordid and base nature; and married her selfe to Archelaus, [Page] who fained himselfe the sonne of Mithridates Eupator; but was indeed the sonne of that Archelaus, who had warred against Sylla, but was afterwards h [...]noured by the Romans, and grandfather to him who reigned last in our times ouer Cappadocia: this Archelaus liuing then with Gabinius, whom he promised to aid in a warre against the Parthians, was by some of his friends (vnknowne to Gabinius) brought vnto the Queene, and declared King: at that time the banished King Ptolomeus Auletes was fled to Rome, and there kindly entertained by Pompey the Great, and by him commended to the Senate: Pompey aduised them to restore Auletes to his Kingdome and put to death those Embassadours that were come thither to plead against their Prince, of which Embassage Dio the Academian was chiefe. Auletes therefore brought backe to his Kingdome by Gabinius ouercame, and killed the Queene his daughter, and Archelaus his sonne in law; dying sh [...]rtly after he left behinde him two sonnes and two daughters. Strabo lib. 17.
g Ptolomeus Auletes by his testament had willed (according to the incestuous custome of that family) that his eldest sonne Ptolomey should marry his eldest daughter Cleopatra, and with her enioy the Crowne of Aegypt: the procuration of this testament was by him assigned to the people of Rome, which Caesar as Dictator had power to execute. Dion. lib. 42. Hirt. Commen. de bello Alexand.
FINIS.
THE SECOND BOOKE.
The Argument of the second Booke.
Faire Cleopatra is espous'd, and led
A wife in name, to her young brothers bed:
Great Caesar's heart her tempting beauties fire,
Who reapes the wanton fruit of his desire.
The scatter'd reliques of Pharsalia
Scipio vnites againe in Affrica.
The strength of Varus there; each nations name,
That vnder Iuba's royall standard came.
Caesar from Aegypt 'gainst Pharnaces goes,
And vanquishes, as soone as sees, his foes:
Erects a trophee there; and crossing ore
More swift than thought, arriues on Libya's shore.
THe Alexandrian Citizens releast
From all their feares by Caesar's pardon, feast
With ioy; extoll his goodnesse to the skies,
And to their gods deuoutly sacrifice
With vsuall rites: Alas, you doe not know
Fond Alexandrians, to whom you owe
Your Cities safetie; not those deities,
That you with vaine and barbarous mysteries
Adore, haue wrought it; nor could all your Towers,
Your stately Temples, Tombes of Conquerours,
Nor Alexander's buri'd dust, which more
Than your religion Caesar's thoughts adore,
[Page]Preuaile so much in purchasing his grace,
As beauties charmes in Cleopatra's face.
It was the glance of her bewitching eyes,
Had power to helpe your helplesse deities:
Nor was it fit such people, rites, and lawes
Should owe their safetie to a better cause.
Great Cleopatra mistresse of the State,
To giue the conquering author of her Fate
High entertainment, to his eye displayes
Th' Aegyptian wealth in such luxurious wayes
As might excuse euen Rome, and make the riot
Of her degenerate Senate seeme the diet
Which th' ancient Curii, and Camillus vs'd,
Not what her Asian victories infus'd.
The gorgeous Pallace with such lustre shone
As wealthy kingdomes neere their ruine growne
Vse to expresse; which shew the present crimes,
And speake the fortune of precedent times.
But Caesar's eyes in all that wealthy store,
Which he so lately had beheld before,
No pleasure finde, nor with delight viewes he
The golden roofes, nor precious imag'ry,
Rich Eben pillars, boords of Citron wood,
Which on their carued Iuory tressells stood:
Nor curious hangings doe his eyes admire.
For Cleopatra's beautie, and attire
Did quite eclipse all obiects, and outshone
All other splendours; on her lookes alone
His eyes are fix'd; which, though beheld before,
The more he viewes, doe rauish him the more.
All other obiects lose at second sight;
But womans beautie breeds the more delight
The ofter seene: he viewes that snowie necke,
Those golden tresses, which no gems can decke.
[Page]The wealth, she wore about her, seem'd to hide,
Not to adorne her natiue beauties pride.
Though there bright Pearles from th' Erythraean shores,
From all th' Assyrian lakes, the wealthy stores
Of siluer Ganges, and Hydaspes shone;
From Aegypts Easterne Iles the gold-like stone,
And cheerefull Emeraulds gather'd from the greene
Arabian rocks were in full splendour scene.
Pale Onyx, Iaspers of a various die,
And Diamonds darkned by her brighter eye.
The Saphires blew, by her more azure veines,
Hung not to boast, but to confesse their staines.
And blushing Rubies seem'd to lose their die
When her more ruby lips were mouing by.
It seem'd (so well became her what she wore)
She had not robb'd at all the creatures store,
But had beene natures selfe, there to haue show'd
What she on creatures could, or had bestow'd.
But Caesar's heart enflamed long before
Burnes with fresh fury, and resolues no more
Now to conceale, but feed the pleasing flame.
What power (quoth he) controules my wish, what fame?
What would the sowrest seeming vertue doe
Arm'd with a power like me, and tempted so?
By such a beautie as from guilt would free
A Rauisher, and make adulterie
No crime at all, but such a piece of vice
As former times vnto the Deities
Did oft impute; had Cleopatra beene
By those renowned Graecian writers seene,
Whose deathlesse Poems in the skies aboue
Haue fix'd so many paramours of Joue;
Before the daughters of faire Pleione,
Atlanta, Maia, and Taygete, she
[Page]Had there beene grac'd: her Tresses farre more faire
Had shew'd in Heauen than Berenices haire.
Calistho's Waine had not in skies beene set,
Nor Ariadnes shining Coronet,
Till Cleopatra's Starre had found a place,
And chose what part of Heauen she meant to grace.
Let Ioue my warrant be; whom powerfull loue
So oft has forc'd from Heauen; or let it proue
The Thunderers excuse to future times
That Caesar now partakes the Thunderers crimes.
There is no cause thou should'st misdoubt thy suit,
No waking Dragon keepes that golden fruit
Thou mean'st to taste, nor need'st thou feare to finde
That beautie guarded by too chast a minde.
Yet wanton loue, and Cupids childish fires,
Which warme Plebeian hearts, and moue desires
In rurall Girles, and lowly Shepherds swaines,
Aid not thy suit, Oh Caesar. She disdaines
That common cause should make her beautie yeeld
To thy embraces; her proud brest was fill'd
With higher thoughts; desire of Soueraigntie,
Aspiring hopes of State and Maiestie
In Cleopatra's brest had now controll'd
All other passions; had her blood beene cold,
Yet when ambition pleaded on thy side,
Her chastitie had yeelded to her pride.
That reason Caesar, that did first subdue
Thy loyaltie to Rome, made thee embrue
Thy parricidall hands in her sad wounds,
And die with blood Thessalia's guiltie grounds,
Proues now the selfe same cause that conquered
This Queene, and drew her to thy wanton bed.
Let not the guiltie greatnesse of thy minde
Be by vaine men extoll'd; since here we finde
[Page]A womans brest the same impressions moue:
Ambitious pride, and Soueraignties dire loue
Alike in thee and Cleopatra plac'd,
Made thee disloyall proue, and her vnchast.
Caesar, lest Rome should iudge he first did moue
This warre alone for Cleopatra's loue,
To winne for her, not for his Countries sake,
(For conquer'd Aegypt he intends to make
No a Roman prouince) and on th' other side
Too much suspecting that th' Aegyptians pride,
His bountious fauour would farre lesse esteeme
If that a woman wore their Diadem,
Whilest yet a male childe liu'd of Lagus blood;
Thus cleares both doubts; to make the action good
One colour serues: young Ptolomey, whom he
Before had married to Arsinoë,
A childe of eight yeares old, must now supply
The roome of his dead brother Ptolomey,
And weare two shadowes both of loue and State,
Of Aegypts King, and Cleopatra's mate.
What more than names, poore boy, dost thou obtaine?
As vaine thy marriage is, as is thy reigne,
And but in title nothing is thine owne:
Caesar thy bed possesses, she thy Crowne.
Nor canst thou yet so much as riuall proue
In Cleopatra's reigne, or Caesar's loue.
Yet happie art thou that thy tender age
Cannot enioy th' incestuous marriage:
For if the match for thee had beene more fit,
Thou had'st contracted greater guilt from it,
And with fowle Incest stain'd a brothers name;
But whilest thou want'st the fruit, thou want'st the blame.
Now without care thou dost a Crowne obtaine,
And an Incestuous marriage without staine.
[Page]Now nights blacke mantle had the earth ore-spread,
And all the host of Starres in Phaebus stead
(Though with lesse light) adorn'd the spangled skie:
When Caesar fir'd with loue, and raised high
With M [...]roës sparkling wine, pursues his suit,
And soone obtaines the wish'd and wanton fruit
Of his late warres and toiles; his fame and glory,
His power, and gifts the strongest oratory
Had woo'd, and wonne the Queene to his delight,
Within whose armes he spends the wanton night.
Nor, Cleopatra, was 't a crime in thee;
Th' incestuous custome of thy family,
Where sisters wiues on brothers are bestow'd,
And mixture of the nearest names allow'd,
Makes this a vertuous loue: thou had'st beene led
With greater guilt to such a Nuptiall bed;
And 'tis thy fate, thy beautie cannot be
Better enioy'd than by adulterie.
Yet from the burden of her fruitfull wombe
Both hers, and Caesar's punishment come.
For young b Caesario, whom their loues short ioy
With aduerse Fates begets (vnhappy boy)
Vntimely slaine, shall be in future time
Augustus Caesar's parricidall crime,
And Caesar's house with Caesar's blood shall blot;
Thy guilt, Augustus, is that night begot,
Which shall hereafter those rich triumphs staine,
Which thou from Aegypts conquest shalt obtaine;
Vnlesse that flattery be taught for thee
To wrest all natures lawes, and policie
Of State, together with the peace of Rome
Alleag'd to iustifie thy bloody doome.
Whilest Caesar thus a wanton Conquerour
In Aegypt stayes, the Senats scatter'd power
[Page]And flying legions from Pharsalia
Scipio againe vnites in Affrica,
'Great Pompey's father in law, who now ore all
Is by consent elected Generall.
Stout Labienus most engag'd of all
In hate to Caesar, (though against the Gaule
He vnder Caesar's colours oft had fought)
Serues vnder him; and matchlesse Cato brought
By no engagement of a priuate cause,
But for his Countries libertie and lawes.
d Petreius falsely there takes armes againe
'Gainst Caesar's side, by Caesar once in Spaine
Pardon'd before; there Attius e Varus stands,
Who all the Roman Prouinces commands
In Affrick, once proud Carthage feodars:
Who brings his Punick forces to the warres,
Subtle in warlike slights, with Targets light,
Short swords, and brests vnarm'd they vse to fight▪
And still in battell weare their Cassocks red
To hide the colour of the blood they shed.
Drie Barces scorch'd, and euer-thirsting sands
Send men to Varus; there the warlike bands
Of hot Cyrene stand, the progeny
Of Pelops stain'd and tragick family,
That from Mycena came; there th' Aaeans stood
Mixed of Libyan and Sicilian blood;
And those of Tabraca, th' old Tyrians brood.
The men of Leptis, and at Hippo bred,
Where the Phaenicians first inhabited
When they to Affrick came; Hippo, whose site
Made it the ancient Libyan Kings delight.
And there in armes the men of Thapsus be,
That from the Latines draw their pedigree.
Juba to these his mighty army brings,
Juba the greatest of all Affricks Kings,
[Page]Who had already giuen a fatall blow
In Curio's sad and mortall ouerthrow
To Caesar's side: No Libyan King alone
Commands so large and vast a region.
Th' extent of his dominion lies as farre
As Thera's plaines, and horned Ammon are
From Mauritania's farthest Westerne lands,
Where neare the Gades heauen-propping Atlas stands.
With whom to warre so many nations went
Of manners, rites, and habits different;
Fierce Mauritanians, which deriue their race
From th' ancient Medes, who peopled first the place.
The Nasamonians euer bare and poore
Till wrackes at Sea enrich their fatall shore
With mankindes ruine; the scorch'd swarthy bands
Of Garamantians, on whose barren sands
No shady trees ere spred, no flockes doe feed,
Nor ought but serpents, and dire monsters breed.
With these Marmarians march, whom nature makes
As antidotes against those mortall Snakes.
Then march the vagrant bold Numidians
On well-rein'd Steeds; and light Massylians,
Who euermore their Horses bitlesse ride;
And them alone with slender wands can guide▪
The strong Getulians, that no dwellings know,
But with their heards doe wander too and fro;
That in no sports but dangerous delight;
And singly dare with raging Lions fight.
The light Autololes, whose winged speed,
In running, farre out-strips the swiftest Steed,
Equalls the winds themselues, and, as they passe,
Scarce bend the standing corne, or slender grasse.
The cole-blacke Mibian next, vpon whose brow
And curled-lockes the scorching Sunne doth show
[Page]His lasting Tyranny; who to the warre
Does lightly goe, his brest and body bare,
And neuer iron nor brasse armour weares;
Great linnen Turbants on his head he beares
In stead of helmes: his arrowes mortall points
With venom'd iuyce he treacherously annoints.
Shaggie Cyniphians too were armed there
Who Goats rough skinnes vpon their shoulders weare,
Their beards oregrowne and horrid: neare to these
With painted shields the Adyrmachides
Arm'd on the left side only, not the right;
And swords, like sickles, crook'd they vse in fight.
Of diet course and rude; their meat vpon
The sands is roasted by the scorching Sun.
Besides the troops that were from Vaga sent,
That from Ruspina and faire Zamah went.
From all these seuerall places Iuba drawes
A royall Army t' aid the Senates cause,
Ioyning himselfe with Roman Scipio.
With all these forces they intend to goe
When first the spring her verdant face shall show,
And comfortable gales of Zephyre blow,
T' inuade their natiue Countrey, and set free
Subiected Rome from Caesar's Tyrannie:
And this their great designe from the euent
Of old examples found encouragement.
Since sad experiences did often shew
Romes strength, neere Rome, 't was easiest to subdue.
They knew the barbarous Cimbrian, furious Gaule,
The force of Carthage led by Hannibal
Beat oft in forren parts by Roman powers,
In Italy prou'd easie Conquerours.
With these they sadly call to minde how soone
Cinna, Sertorius, Carbo, Marius wonne
[Page]Rome by surprise, though beat in forren lands
With ease by Sylla, and great Pompey's hands.
And last of all, when this sad warre begun,
And Caesar first had crossed Rubicon,
Pompey without one conflict fled away,
And Rome to him became an easie prey.
But Caesar's fortune frustrates their intents;
His wonted speed and strange successe preuents
Their expedition; and, as euery where
He had before, so playes th' assailant here.
Too soone, alas, shall you in Affrick see
Whom you intend to seeke in Italy.
But Caesar plung'd in Aegypts soft delights
Insnar'd by beautie, and the charming slights
Of Cleopatra, could almost forget
How many armed foes, and forces, yet
Oppose his growing fortunes, and remaine
Threatning the height of his vsurped reigne.
As when Alcides with ill fate had seene
The tempting beauties of th' Oechalian Queene▪
His brawny shoulders straight forget to weare
The lions skin, his awfull hand to beare
The monster-taming club; from his rough head
The poplar garland falls; no tyrants dread
That world-auenging strength; which had well nigh
Beene sunke into a famelesse lethargy.
And Iuno's hopes of great Alcides fall
A womans beautie further'd more than all
Those monstrous plagues, which she had power t' inuent,
Or could from aire, earth, seas, or hell be sent.
But Fortune findes alarums to awake
The soule of Caesar from this dreame, and make
Compleat for him the worke she had begun,
Whither she hasten'd Romes sad ruine on;
[Page]Or rather blush'd such liberties and lawes,
Should owe their safetie to so base a cause
As Caesar's sloth; and iudg'd it better farre
Than keepe it so, to lose it by a warre:
That warre alone, which built vp Romes high reigne,
Should now haue power to ruine her againe.
Nor were the Fates pleas'd that the wanton loue
Of Cleopatra should more helpfull proue
To Romes affaires, than all those iust-drawne swords,
Which once Thessalia, Libya now affords.
Yet was it now no strength, no armes of Rome,
No part of Ciuill warre drew Caesar from
Aegypts delights; f Pharnaces feeble power
Prouok'd him first to make him Conquerour
Of greater forces than his owne; as when
A sleeping Lion's couched in his den,
The horned heards securely graze along
The verdant pastures; till that Lion stung
By some presumptuous little Gnat awake,
And wanting there his full reuenge, doth make
Those cattell feele his wrath; whose liues anon
Doe rue the little Gnat's presumption.
This false Pharnaces, who from Pompey's hand
Receiu'd (as price of parricide) the land
Of rich Cimmerian Bosphorus, was sonne
To Mithridates, whose fear'd power had wonne
From Nicomedes his Bithynia,
Conquer'd Armenia, Cappadocia,
And wealthyest Graecian Iles, whose swelling fame
Began to riuall Romes victorious name,
And long withstood her growing Fate; at last
By Pompey's force from all his kingdomes chac'd
He fell by treason, to increase the shame
Of his false sonne, and lessen Pompey's fame.
[Page] Pharnaces now with vaine ambition swell'd,
Deceiu'd by flattering hopes, when he beheld
Romes broiles, and saw how her diuided bands
Against themselues imploy'd their conquering hands,
Sought to regaine what once his father had,
And gan the Roman prouinces inuade:
In Asia minor, (his first enterprise
Fortune beholding with propitious eyes)
Domitius fall, who with ill Fate imploy'd
The swords of Caesar, rais'd his boasting pride.
Nicopolis, whose loftie walls were there
Founded as Pompey's Trophees, still to beare
Name of his Conquest, and the place to show
Of Mithridate [...] finall ouerthrow,
Beheld the slaughter of Domitius hosts
A parentation to the Ponticke ghosts.
Nine times had Cynthia now restor'd againe
Light to her waned hornes, when Caesar chain'd
In Cleopatra's wanton armes, had stay'd
On Aegypts coast; her swelling wombe display'd
At last th' effect of an adulterous bed.
Whom Caesar thus departing comforted:
Faire Queene, sole mistresse of thy Caesar's State,
The fate of him that rules all other fate,
Pharnaces cruell to himselfe and me,
With his owne ruine parts our company.
His treasons, Loue, now call my vengefull steele.
Doe not thou grieue; the conquer'd foes shall feele
Our parting griefe, and in their slaughter see
With how much anger Caesar goes from thee.
But that poore King dares not my force withstand;
He onely drawes me from this happie land,
To make a iourney rather than a warre,
For he at first will flie, and easier farre
[Page]May I obtaine a conquest than a fight:
His dastard troops my name alone shall fright.
And easie triumph comes; but I from thee
Goe grieu'd to triumphs, sad to victory.
From thee, whose eyes make Aegypts swarthy face
Brighter than that white path the gods doe trace▪
Without whose light no land breeds my content▪
And Rome it selfe to me is banishment.
But Fate to vs farre greater conquests owes:
How much, alas, would Cleopatra lose
If Caesar stay'd at home? we haue not yet
Fully attain'd that world-commanding height,
That must enthrone thy beautie in a State
High as it selfe, for all to wonder at
Like some new Constellation: those that neare
Th' Antartick pole, ne're see the Northren Beare
Descend into the Ocean; those that lie
(Enduring winters lasting tyranny)
Vnder the frozen wa [...]e, and lose the sight
Of bright Canopus, whose desired light
Cheeres this Horizon still, shall both adore
Faire Cleopatra's name; the farthest shore
That Peleus siluer-footed wife doth know
Shall honour thee; euen Rome her selfe shall bow,
And with her Eagles shall thy State maintaine,
Whilest Kings doe wait in Cleopatra's traine.
For such effects, faire Queene, (if Caesar know
His Fate aright) shall this our parting now
Returne to thee when I in triumph come:
By this deare part of Caesar, which thy wombe
Encloses here, thou shalt engage our speed:
Therefore farewell; we must pursue in deed
Our consultations, swiftly as we thought.
But Cleopatra, whom loues Queene had taught
[Page]All winning wiles; and blest with such a face
As teares became, and griefe it selfe did grace,
Thus with a seeming griefe, and teares replies:
I dare not hope to change the Fates, or prize
My worthlesse prayers at so high a rate,
As to haue power to change at all the State
Of Caesar's great resolues, on which depend
All nations Fates, and all the Starres attend.
If by their prayers fraile Mortalitie
Should hope to alter what the gods decree,
'Twere a proud pietie. Ile rather lose
My suit, and checke my loue, than interpose
It so; and rather to my selfe deny
The happinesse of Caesar's company,
Than loue it with so great presumption,
As, for mine owne delights, to hinder one
Of his resolues; yet pardon, mighty Lord,
If to mine owne desires I doe afford
One place in loue: cannot Great Caesar thriue
In these his warres, if Cleopatra liue
Neere to his person? Can it ouerthrow
His fortune to procure my safetie so?
There's no retreat in all the world for me,
So safe as thy victorious Campe will be.
But I am pleas'd to stay at thy command
In Aegypt still, and still suppose this land
Within Great Caesar's reach; whose powerfull hands
From siluer Ganges to the Baetick sands,
From Pole to Pole extend their conquering force:
No distances of place can long diuorce
Vs two, if Caesar in his loue can be
As speedy as in warre and victory,
And march as farre to finde his friends as foes▪
This pledge, which I within my selfe inclose,
[Page]Assures my longing minde against delay,
That Caesar long will not protract his stay.
Then with a kisse he bad the Queene adieu;
And wing'd with haste into Armenia flew
Swifter than lightning, or the Southern wind
Along through Libya's yeelding aire, to finde
Pharnaces out; whom he (past thought) oretooke
Neere Zela walls, and vanquish'd with a looke.
Soone beat, he left behinde him nought at all
That might deserue a mention, but his fall:
Nor can there ought of this short warre be said
But Caesar g came, and saw, and vanquished.
How much did Pompey's honour suffer there▪
When Caesar's troops beheld that nations feare?
And saw how easie 'twas to conquer them?
How vndeseru'd did his great triumph seeme
Ore Pontus and Armenia? More was lost
Than poore Pharnaces Crowne, and feeble host;
The fame of Pompey was orethrowne that day,
When Caesar boasting could finde cause to say;
Oh Pompey; happie thou, that by defeat
Of these base nations, got'st the name of Great;
Whilest I subduing the fierce Ganles, deseru'd.
No name, enioy'd no triumph: had'st thou seru'd
Beyond the frozen Alpes, or past the bound
Of Rhenes swift streame, the big-bon'd Germans found,
A difference twixt our acts thou then had'st seene;
Our Ciuill warres perchance had neuer beene.
Yet ere that he from thence to Affrick passe,
Though haste important vrge him, in the place
A stately Trophee he erects to show
To future times Pharnaces ouerthrow,
Not farre from that proud Trophee, which before
Great Mithridates for his Conquest ore
[Page] Triarius, had erected: that this story
Might quite eclipse old Mithridates glory,
Or please his Manes, that the field there wonne
Tooke punishment of his vnnaturall sonne.
But greater warres call Caesar thence away;
Scipio not farre from Adrumetum lay
With all the power of Rome, but did not h now
Since Winters fury rag'd, expect a foe.
For Phaebus lampe, to our Horizon low,
The shortest dayes, and coldest did bestow
From Capricorne, cold Winter glaz'd the floods,
And pur [...]'d with frost the fields and naked woods.
But Caesar's heart, admitting no delay,
Whose speedy march no season ere could stay,
When he his third Dictatorship at Rome
Had tane, and thence to Sicily was come,
Lest any time should to his fame be lost,
Euen then the Seas from Lilybaeum crost.
And sailing by the Libyan shores, espies
Great Carthages halfe-ruin'd edifice;
And Clupe as fatall station passes by
With griefe remembring how vnhappily
Bold Curio there did with his legions land,
A wofull prey to Juba's barbarous band.
Then from this ominous place he sailes away
Westward along; and leauing Vri [...]a
(Where Cato then in Garrison did lie;
Cato the soule of Roman libertie,
Who from that Towne must shortly take a name,
And leaue the Towne, in lieu, eternall fame)
At Ad [...]umetum lands; vpon which coast
Scipio encampes with all his Roman hoast.
Annotations to the second Booke.
a Dion relates it thus; Caesar hauing subdued Aegypt, would not subiect it, as a Prouince to the people of Rome, but bestowed it wholly vpon Cleopatra, for whose sake he bad made the whole warre in Aegypt; yet fearing lest the Aegyptians vnder the reigne of a woman would rebell againe, and that he might perchance alienate the hearts of the Romans from himselfe by reason of this, and the familiaritie, which he was knowne to haue w [...]th Cleopatra, he gaue her in marriage to her younger brother, and confirmed the Kingdome to them both; which was indeed but a show, for Cleopatra wholly possessed the power; her husband being a childe; therefore vnder a pretext of marriage, by which she should ioyne with her brother in the Kingdome, she both reigned alone, and enio [...]ed the bed of Caesar. Dion. lib. 42.
b This Caesario, both Dion and Plutarch report to be the sonne of Iulius Caesar by Cleopatra, when after the Alexandrian warre, and before his expedition against King Pharnaces, he stayed in Aegypt (according to Dion) nine moneths: after the victory of Augustus Caesar against Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra, this Caesario being sent away for safetie into Aethiopia (saith Dion) was intercepted in the iourney and slaine by Caesar's command: the reasons that moued Augustus to this cruelty were partly the Counsell (according to Plutarch) of Arius the Philosopher, his Tutor, who told him it was not s [...]fe to suffer too many Caesars: partly the remembrance of what Antonius had done, who before had commended this Caesario to the old Souldiers, aduising them rather to honour the true and naturall sonne of Iulius Caesar, than Octauius who was but an adopted heire.
c Scipio was chosen Generall of all the Roman forces in Affrica that meant to continue the warre against Caesar, partly by reason of his dignitie, and partly by an absurd persuasion (saith [Page] Dion) that no Scipio in Affrick could be vnfortunate: which thing when Caesar perceiued might encourage the enemie, and disharten his Souldiers, he tooke along with him a certaine obscure man descended of the ra [...]e of the Scipios, and of that name (but his surname was Salatto) and with him to thwart the other superstitious feare, he landed at Adrumetum before the enemie expected him, it being then an vnse [...]sonable time of yeare. Dio. lib. 43.
d Varus so long had gouerned those Countries, and was so puffed vp by the victory of [...]uba (saith Dion) that he contended with Scipio himselfe for the chiefe command: but by the authoritie of Cato it was swayed on Scipio's side. Cato, when all the Souldiers offered to him the chiefe command, or at least to be ioyned Generall with Scipio, refused both; accounting it iust that he which by the lawes had attained the highest dignitie, should haue now the greatest command; but hee himselfe had neuer attained to so much dignitie in Rome as Scipio; to him therefore of his owne accord he yeelded place, and gaue him also that army which he had brought into Affrick. Dion. lib. 43.
e Petreius had before beene vanquished by Caesar in Spa [...]ne. Lucan. lib 4. He was th [...]n pardoned and set free vpon oath neuer to warre against Caesar againe; which oath here hee violated.
f Cleopatra (saith Dion) had stayed Caesar longer in Aegypt or else accompanied him to Rome, if Pharnaces had not beene the hindrance: this Pharnaces the sonne of great Mithridates was King of Bosphorus Cimmeriu [...]; but m [...]ued with an ambitious desire of recouering all his fathers Kingdome, while Rome was intangled in Ciuill warre, he had rebelled: and during the time of the Ciuill and Aegyptian warres had with small adoe subdued Colchis, and all Armenia in the absence of Deiotarus, besides many Cities of Cappadocia, Pontus, and Bithynia. Caesar busied then in the affaires of Aegypt, and hoping to subdue Pharnaces by a Lieutenants hand, sends Domitius Caluinus to that [Page] warre, commanding him to take the regency of Asia, and of those armies which he found there. Domitius ioyning the Kin [...]s Deiotarus and Ariobarzanes to him, marches directly against Pharnaces, who was then at Nicopolis, where in fight Domitius was vanquished. Dion. lib. 43.
g Those three words Veni, vidi, vici, did afterward in Caesar's triumph expresse his sudden Conquest of Pharnaces, and that then he vttered such a speech concerning Pompey, Appian is [...]y authoritie.
h Caesar in the midst of Winter sailed into Affrica; by which speed of his (saith Dion) in comming vnawares vpon his enemies, hee had often prospered in his greatest affaires: nor was there any other so great reason, why Caesar so much excelled all other Generalls of those times, as his wonderfull speed in all expeditions. Dion. lib. 42.
FINIS.
THE THIRD BOOKE.
The Argument of the third Booke.
Iuba from Scipio to his Kingdome goes.
Caesar escapes the ambush of the foes,
And till th' arriuall of his full supplies
Himselfe within Rhuspina fortifies.
Sage Cato's counsell to great Pompey's sonne.
Iuba's returne; the whole warre meets vpon
Vzzita's plaines, and is remou'd from thence
To Thapsus fatall fields: what dire ostents
Foregoe the battell; Caesar's victory.
To seuerall coasts the vanquish'd Princes flie.
NOw neere this mighty warre began to draw:
Those blood-stain'd swords, which dire Pharsalia saw,
With no lesse guilt in Libya meet againe,
To draw that little blood that did remaine
In Romes afflicted State: Why did you spare
It then, oh gods, to make a second warre?
Was it cause one, though ne're so great a blow,
The Roman Empire could not ouerthrow?
Or must moe lands behold her fall? moe grounds
Drinke in the blood of her vnnaturall wounds?
Or must this second warre declare to all
The State subsisted after Pompey's fall,
[Page]And once againe her freedome might haue seene
Had Caesar's warre alone 'gainst Pompey beene.
Rome now in Affrick is; those scorched grounds
That once her Conquest saw, now see her wounds.
Where once the Scipios with triumphant Fate
Aduanc'd her Eagles 'gainst a riuall State,
This Scipio now, in stead of barbarous foes,
In Romes behalfe 'gainst Romes Dictator goes.
But Fate a while, content with meaner play,
Respi [...]s the tryall of so great a day.
So many liues, as there resolu'd were met,
Must not be throwne into the hazard yet.
Nor must sad Thapsus giue the fatall blow
Of Juba's fall, and Scipio's ouerthrow,
Vntill Rhuspina, and Vzzita's walls
Haue felt the force of both the Generalls,
And other parts of Affrick haue beheld,
Some bloody Prologues to so great a held.
Fortune a while from helping Scipio,
Diuerts King Juba's strength, inforc'd to goe
With speedy marches to his Kingdomes aid;
And Caesar's troops remaining on the shore
Of Sicily, himselfe had crossed ore
Into a land possessed by his foes,
With one weake new-fill'd legion; nor to those
That stay'd behinde, could he appoint the port
Where they should land, or whither to resort,
(As be in former warres had euer done)
Committing all to Fortunes rule alone.
So much on her protection he rely'd;
Nor had she euer fail'd his greatest need.
Could it not seeme to thine ambitious thought
Caesar, enough, that Fortune euer wrought
[Page]Th'accomplishment of all thy highest hopes
When ere in field inuiron'd with thy troops
Thou foughts against the greatest foes; but she
Without an army too, must succour thee?
And all thy rash aduentures rectifie?
Was not thy scape from Aegypts treachery,
Thy safe arriuall on Brundusiums shore;
(The stormy Seas so boldly ventur'd ore
From Greece by night) enough for her to doe?
How oft shall Fortune more her fauour show
From priuate dangers in protecting thee,
Than in bestowing th' earths sole Monarchy?
From Adrumetum, where in Garrison
Confidius lay, whose truth could not be won
From Scipio's side, does Caesar march away
With his small army, but in faire array.
Since now his highest hopes were not to get
The Towne, but thence in safetie to retreat.
Nor was that granted him; Confidius horse
With furious sallyes oft molest his course,
And vex his Armies rere: t' encounter those
Assaults, does Caesar in the rere dispose
The ablest men, and marching slowly on
Safe to Rhuspina brings his legion.
Nor did that act of warre, though seeming small,
But well become so great a Generall.
From thence remouing, Leptis him receiues,
In which a little Garrison he leaues,
And to Rhuspina marches backe againe;
That onely Towne in Affrick did remaine
A safe retreat for Caesar's feeble power:
Nor thither then, vnlesse a Conquerour,
Could he arriue; danger beset the way.
Pierce Labienus and Pacidius lay
[Page]In ambush there: in which, though timely spi'd,
Was Caesar's skill, and Fortune wholly tri'd.
He breakes with conquest through the aduerse troops,
Fortune but mocking Labienus hopes.
Who now with losse forsakes the field, and beares
To Adrumetum his hurt Souldiers.
Caesar returning with his little band
Vnto Rhuspina, takes a worke in hand
Of wondrous toile, (since now resolu'd no more
To march from thence, till on the Libyan shore
His legions all arriue; whom euery day
Chiding the Winds, and Fortune for their stay,
His eager thoughts expect) two trenches downe
To the Sea-shore he drawes, one from the Towne,
Another from his Campe; on either side
With sharpned stakes, and engines fortifi'd
So well, as that, without the Garrison
They might by land secure both Campe and Towne,
And make the shore betweene at his dispose:
But there inclos'd by his insulting foes
(For Scipio now with his great strength drew nigh)
He payes, in wants, for that securitie.
Nor can his men from out their Trenches goe
To fetch prouision in by land; the foe
Cuts off all passage there; and in disdaine
Of Caesar's weaknesse, on the spatious plaine
Scipio oft sets his Battells in array,
Who 'mong'st themselues in wanton skirmish play,
And exercise their Elephants, in sight
Of Caesar's trenches, and vnusuall fight
In Roman armies; those beasts ne're had beene
Till Pyrrhus warr'd with Rome, by Romans seene;
Nor ere in Triumph to the people showne,
Till the Dictator Curius had orethrowne
[Page]The Samnites, Sabines, and King Pyrrhus power:
The like Metellus Cretes fam'd Conquerour,
From his Sicilian Victory did bring,
And Pompey's Triumph ore Numidia's King.
Vncertaine aids in warre they euer proue,
And with like danger to both armies moue,
As well their owne annoying as the foes,
Fitter for other labours (sure) than those;
Nor, though their strength be wondrous, for that end
Did prudent Nature those great beasts intend.
The Nabathaean lands, where they are bred,
Are recompens'd with those rich teeth they shed.
Through all the world a wealthy merchandise,
Which on their deaths oft sets a greedy price.
But greater farre the Easterne countrey yeelds
Than those within the Mauritanian fields,
And farre more fierce; such as in India
Great Alexander's frighted Souldiers saw.
These mighty beasts, as they in bulke exceed
And passe in strength all other farre, that feed
On earths vast bosome, doe as farre excell
(If ancient authors haue obserued well)
In apprehension, and large faculties
Of soule; 'mongst beasts they onely exercise
Those qualities (or like to them) which we
In men stile vertues; perfect equitie
They keepe, and lawes of iustice haue in vse;
To which all morall vertues we reduce.
Nor are these creatures thought by some to be
Quite void of th' intellectuall facultie.
But that they can discerne and vnderstand
The language spoken in their natiue land;
And might discourse, if to so strange a wit
Nature had pleas'd to lend them organs fit:
[Page]Not speake as Crowes and Parrats oft haue done
By imitation of a sound alone.
If we so much to Elephants should giue,
Why should we call them creatures sensitiue?
We must extend the facultie of sense
To larger bounds; and put lesse difference
Twixt that and reason; or betwixt the two
Finde out a middle region to bestow
Their knowledge in; as to some things that liue
We place twixt sense and vegetation giue.
But in a higher kinde (as some relate)
Doe Elephants with men communicate.
(If you beleeue it) a religion
They haue, and monethly doe adore the Moone.
Beside the loftie Nabathaean wood
Of vast extent, Amylo's gentle flood
Gliding along the sandy mould combines:
Thither, as oft as wexing Cynthia shines
In her first borrowed light, from out the wood
Come all the Elephants, and in the flood
Washing themselues (as if to purifie)
They prostrate fall; and when religiously
They haue ador'd the Moone, returne againe
Into the woo is with ioy. Nor halfe so vaine
Is this deuotion which these beasts present,
As that which men more brutishly inuent;
Nor (as the mad Aegyptians vs'd) doe they
To Dogges and Snakes, and vilest creatures pray▪
Nor to the senselesse Leekes and Onyons bow,
Such gods as yearely in their Gardens grow;
Nor yet to wood or stone deuotion doe,
More senselesse than the stones they bow vnto;
A farre more glorious creature they adore.
Should this be true of Elephants; farre more
[Page]Wise in Religion are those beasts than men▪
But if that this a fiction be, why then
Did mens inuention faine a beast to be
Wiser, than are themselues, in Pietie?
While at Rhuspina both the Generalls
Encamped rest; in Vtica's strong walls
Whom thus sage Cato sharply sets vpon▪
Awake young man, and now in time redeeme
Thy youth from sloath-bred scorne; from disesteeme
Goe vindicate the name of Pompey now:
Goe trie all Kingdomes, search all Seas to know
How great thy father was; what fame he wonne,
How strong he leaues thee in thy name alone:
Trie if the Seas, which his braue hand did free
From Pyrates, can deny a fleet to thee.
That stocke of glory, which thy father won,
And left behinde for thee to spend vpon,
Armes thee with strength enough (though nought beside
So good a cause could lend) 'gainst Caesar's pride.
Goe trie the farthest West, sollicite Spaine;
The name of Pompey is enough to gaine
Those Nations to thy side: if nought at all
Thy groaning Countries suffrings, nor the fall
Of Roman libertie affect thy minde:
Although thou could'st endure a Lord, and finde
Content in seruing, yet the wrongs, which thou
Alone from Caesar suffrest, were enow
To rowze thy spirits, and stirre thine enmitie.
If thy great Father for Romes libertie
And Lawes alone fought in Pharsalia,
As great a Fortune did'st thou lose that day
As on a priuate Citizen could light:
But if thy Father for himselfe did fight;
[Page]Thy losse was more, and Caesar then from thee
By Conquest tooke the Worlds sole Monarchy.
But would'st thou know the true inheritance
Which he did dying leaue thee, to aduance
The name of Pompey; which may euer be
Thine owne, in spight of Caesar's enmitie,
Which honour bids thee claime, and Rome now needs?
The imitation of his noble deeds
Is thine inheritance: 'twas his braue Fate,
When great bad men had seiz'd th' afflicted State,
When Marius faction did the walls inuade,
And Rome it selfe a slaughter-house was made,
To saue his Countrey bleeding then, as now,
And not so much in debt to yeares as thou.
When he no honours yet, no titles had,
No power at all but what his vertue made,
He rais'd an army, rescu'd Italy.
By him did Carbo in Sicilia die;
By him did Spaine behold Sertorius fall:
And then in triumph to the Capitoll
He, but a Gentleman of Rome did bring
Hyempsal vanquish'd the Numidian King.
All this before he had attain'd vnto
Thy age, young Pompey, did thy father doe;
Which to his future greatnesse made the way:
And sleep'st thou here? What helpe in Affrica
Lend'st thou to Rome more than one priuate hand?
Goe gather forces in another land;
Repaire the ruines of thy house, or die
Great as thy birth has made thee. No reply
Young Pompey made at all; but, as if from
Some sacred Oracle the speech had come,
Or Romes owne voyce from Cato's brest had spoke,
His modesty obey'd, and straitway tooke
But finde a Tombe in Europe, and to Spaine
Carry as great a part of Romes sad wounds
As dire Thessalia's blood-distained grounds,
Or fatall Thapsus saw. Though destinie
Haue not allotted, braue young man, to thee
So great and long a race of happinesse
As to thy Father, yet thy fall no lesse
Than his shall be in weight, nor shall the field
Of fatall Munda to Pharsalia yeeld.
Caesar supply'd with strength from Sicily
Marches away, to take and fortifie
Those loftie Hills (in spight of enemies)
Which from the champian, neere Vzzita, rise:
Which Hills he takes and fortifies with ease:
Though Labienus vaine-lay'd ambushes
To their owne ruine did molest his way,
By Caesar's Scouts discouer'd where they lay
Too soone; and so by changed Fate, call'd on
In stead of his, their owne destruction.
So a Getulian Lion when beset
By weake-arm'd Hunters, whose vaine force doth whet
Not daunt his courage, with collected ire
Breakes through, and makes his wounded foes retire:
His seeming danger nought but anger moues,
And fatall onely to the Hunters proues.
Juba return'd and ioyn'd with Scipio,
With all their forces to Vzzita goe:
Now the whole warre was met; Vzzita's walls
Beheld the Campes of both Romes Generalls.
Thrice there did Scipio his whole strength display;
Thrice Caesar set his battells in array
Eager of fight; and thrice prouok'd his foe,
To triall of the day; but Scipio
[Page]Would not th' aduantage of the place forsake.
Nor did the Destinies intend to make
Vzzita guiltie of so great a staine,
Which did for Thapsus fat all fields remaine.
Whither, dislodging from his Campe by night
(When Scipio could not be prouok'd to fight)
With prosperous Omen, Caesar marches on:
There then Virgilius lay in Garrison,
Faithfull to Scipio and the Senates side,
The place by Nature strongly fortifi'd.
Scipio and Iuba follow, though the aire
Gaue sad presages of the future warre,
The Earth and Skies the like; his mourning face
The Sunne with clouds obscured: in whose place
Ruine portending Comets did display
Their blazing Lampes, and made a dismall day:
And lightning through th' vncertaine aire gaue light
More full of horrour than the shades of night.
The Thunders voyce was heard there where the aire
From clouds was free; and th' horrid noise of warre
From thence resounded: Helmes of Brasse did sweat,
Some Piles and Swords did melt; nor could they get
By strength their heauy Standards from the ground:
Which swarmes of Bees orespread; a hollow sound
Of Lions sadly murmuring was heard
About the Campe: the Mountaines all appear'd
To moue, which did about Vzzita stand.
And from the farthest part of Libyan land
The Mauritanian Atlas seem'd to shake
His skie-supporting top: Birds seem'd to take
Vnusuall flights; sad entrailes did appeare,
And fill'd the sacrificing Priests with feare:
Nor meane the gods, when these portents they show,
To teach fraile mortalls to preuent the woe,
[Page]But feare it onely. The vnhappie troops
To Thapsus march distraught twixt feares and hopes,
Where this great warre shall shortly finde an end,
On which so many ruines doe depend.
The Libyan Thapsus a Sea-bordering Towne,
An Ile almost by situation,
Is by that Sea, which Affrick doth diuide
From Sicily, enuiron'd at one side;
The other side a spatious fenne oreflowes,
Guarding that part from all approach of foes:
Betwixt the Sea, and that great fenne, doth stand
(The onely passage to the Towne by land)
A little Isthmos, which (although not wide)
A standing lake doth in the mid'st diuide,
And makes two narrow passages of one:
Within these straits, not farre from Thapsus Towne
Caesar is enter'd now with all his troops,
And with strong workes; and deepe-digg'd trenches stops
All meanes of sallies from the Towne, that might
Perchance infest his armies rere in fight.
Scipio encamp'd there where the Isthmos ends
Within the continent, with speed intends
To draw a trench downe to the shore, and so
Within that necke of land shut vp the foe:
But till the worke be perfected, to hide
What he intends, or battell to abide,
In faire array he marshalls all his bands:
Himselfe with his Italian legions stands
In the mid-battell; Iuba's legions
Mixt of so many seuerall Nations
Make the right battell; on the left doth stand
Stout Labienus with a warlike band
Of Gaules, which he had from Brundusium led,
And German troops, which from Pharsalia fled.
His Libyan cohorts: but before both wings
The mighty Elephants are plac'd, to fright
The foes first on-set; and by them the light
Numidian horse, and Mauritanian too:
Behinde the beasts the light-arm'd Souldiers goe,
His poison'd Quiuer the blacke Mibian beares,
The strong Mazacians their well-brandish'd Speares
Of aime as sure as Parthian Shafts; by these
With crooked Swords the Adyrmachides.
But seeing Caesar's army in array,
And now not likely to protract the day,
Thus Scipio speakes: True Romans, if a cause
So iust, so great, as to this battell drawes
Your farre-engaged hands, could need at all
Any incitements from a Generall,
The wrongs of Rome, the foes impietie
Afford too large, too sad a scope for me
To play the Oratour: and though the fall
Of our sad State and Lawes in generall
Should not affect your mindes; cast but an eye
Vpon those blood stain'd fields of Thessaly,
Thinke on Pharsalia's slaughter, and learne there
What each man suffers in particular,
Beside the publike losse: let euery ghost
Of friend or kinsman, that that day was lost,
(Yet vnreueng'd) excite your valour now:
On vs the gods and Fortune here bestow
A iuster cause than there, for Caesar's guilt
Was not so great before that blood was spilt;
Nor could that honour, Souldiers, haue beene gain'd
In Thessaly, that may be here obtain'd
By Caesar's fall; now his esteeme is more,
Although his strength no greater than before,
[Page]And we are bound to Fortune, who in this
On equall hazard sets a greater price.
Nor need you feare that she should now forsake
Her Romes defence, whom she has toil'd to make
Head of the World so long, because you saw
Caesar subdu'd Rome in Pharsalia.
The date of Pompey's fortune was expir'd,
His many triumphs, which her fauour tir'd,
So long had lasted, as it had beene thought
(Had Caesar fall'n when that great field was fought)
Not Romes, but Pompey's fortune had preuail'd:
And Rome then onely her long fauour fail'd,
As loth a priuate man should thinke her his,
And she depriu'd of publike sacrifice.
But thinke not, Romans, the rebellious Fate
Of one proud man shall still out-weigh the State:
Nor does the anger of the gods appeare
(If this good Omen we may trust) that here
On Affricks Sun-burnt face you meet the foe
Vnder the conduct of a Scipio.
I need not boast, what euery Nation knowes,
With what triumphant Fate the Scipio's
In Affrick haue aduanc'd Romes power and fame,
How well her Fortune pleas'd her in that name?
And what forbids vs hope the like, since we
As lawfully are armed here, and he,
Whom now our loyall valour copes withall,
As great a foe to Rome as Hannibal?
Into your hands the gods haue put their doome;
Nought but your vertue can restore to Rome
Her Lawes, and banish'd Citizens againe:
For banished are you, and must remaine
For euer so, vnlesse you conquer here:
He that would see his natiue land, his neere
[Page]And dearest pledges, by the Sword must now
Redeeme them all in Caesar's ouerthrow.
Their spirits were rowzed; and the Roman troops
Inflam'd with loue of fight, and fill'd with hopes;
No lesse did Iuba's barbarous Nations,
With rude and different acclamations
Desire a signall, and precipitate
With eagernesse their owne vnhappie Fate.
Caesar perceiuing that the gods gaue way
To his desire, and now the wish'd for day
Of fight was come, aduances, and thus cheeres
With confidence his forward Souldiers.
The time is come, braue Souldiers, that must crowne
And guerdon all the seruice you haue done,
That must conclude the labours of the Sword,
And (maugre enuy) to your heads afford
All those triumphant Bayes, which hitherto
Haue beene deferr'd, deseru'd so long agoe,
For conquer'd Gallia, Brittaine, Germany,
Treacherous Pharnaces, and false Ptolomey:
All these has Fortune but deferr'd till now,
To ioyne with them proud Iuba's ouerthrow
Great as the greatest; and this held, when done,
Confirmes, or loses all that we haue wonne:
But 'twere a crime to doubt it, since I see
Those lookes that neuer fail'd of victory.
Let you torne remnant of Pharsalia know
Their Conquerours. More would he say, when loe
From the right-wing, not staying his command,
The Trumpets sound a charge, and from their stand
(Although the Tribunes, and Centurions striue
To keepe them backe) the Souldiers rush to giue
The on-set straight; nor them in vaine to stay
Does Caesar striue, but giues their courage way:
[Page]As when two Charriots are prepar'd to run,
And one too hasty from the list is gone,
In vaine the Charrioter their course would stay,
Th' vngouern'd Horses hurry him away.
Then with a rage as great as if two Seas
(Some god remouing, for the Sailers ease,
The long Malaea) should each other meet,
Both hosts incounter, and begin the fight
With horrid showts, that all the Mountaines nigh
Resound aloud, and backe from Sicily
High Lilybaeum to the Libyan shore,
Returnes againe their eccho'd clamours ore,
As much afray'd to harbour but the sound,
Of such a warre within that quiet ground:
Their noise not that of Thracian Boreas
Among the Pines of Ossa, can surpasse,
Nor that which Nilus falling water makes
Precipitated downe the Cataracts,
When with his foame he seemes to laue the skie,
And strikes a deafenesse through the dwellers nigh▪
Mischiefe and fury rage; reuenge doth one
Excite, the other indignation:
That after Pompey's death the warre at all
Should laste, and finde another Generall.
Blood all th' adioyning fenne discolours ore,
And makes a flood, where ne're was flood before,
And from the moisture of so many wounds,
Combines the mould of Affricks thirsty grounds▪
Through both the hosts Enyo's blazing light
Like fatall lightning flashing flies t' excite
Their thoughts to fury; the Tartarian god
Set ope the vaults where Libyan ghosts abode,
And from th' infernall cauernes set them free
To view a while this fatall Tragedy.
[Page]And glut their dire reuenge with Roman blood:
Vpon the Mountaines gloomy tops they stood,
Blasting the day, and round about the hosts
Making a balefull ring; the cruell ghosts
Of Iugurth, Syphax, and Great Hannibal;
Who for their owne, and Carthages sad fall
Did then excuse the gods, when they beheld
The Roman fury in that mortall field.
Yet in Romes ruine Libya suffers too:
More wracke, alas, shall this sad battell doe
Than after-ages can repaire with ease.
More desolation now, more wildernesse
The wasted face of Affrick shall orespread,
And beasts possesse the seats of Nations dead:
Where feared Monarches once gaue Lawes to men
Shall Lions reigne, and Tygers make their dens;
The slimy Serpents all alone shall crawle,
And wanting men, shall be no plague at all.
Caesar foreseeing th'Elephants, that were
In front of Iuba's battell, would strike feare
Into his troops, doth such a cure prouide
As quite conuerts vpon the other side
The Fate that threatned his; to the right wing
His choicest bowes, and missile armes he brings,
And sets them, at faire distance, opposite
To th' Elephants; who there begin the fight
With such successe, as makes those beasts to be
The onely cause of Caesar's victory.
For gaull'd with shafts, confusedly they run
In spight of their distracted guides, vpon
Their owne vnhappie troops, to sudden rout
Putting all Iuba's quarter round about,
And bearing downe all that before them lay
To Caesar's conquest make a speedy way;
[Page]Their mighty strength, since now vngouerned,
Is by the hand of Fortune onely led,
And brings aduantage to that side alone,
Which she is pleased to bestow it on.
The Mauritanian, and Numidian Horse,
Which there were plac'd, by th' Elephants rude force
Orethrowne, were crush'd to death, or headlong downe
Into the trenches with their riders throwne,
Some few escaping by disorder'd flight:
The light-arm'd Souldiers mixt with these to fight
Reft of their shelter, now by heapes are slaine,
And to the foes a prey, no warre, remaine;
And tire (as standing not to fight but die)
With their bare throats the murdring enemie:
Nought there, alas, can weake Bamurians doe
With their fire-harden'd Darts; nought can the Bow
And poison'd Shafts the coale-blacke Mibian weares
Auaile their Master; vaine those brittle Speares
Are in the hands of light Autololes,
And crooked Swords of th' Adyrmachides:
The weake Cyniphians finde that skinnes of Goats,
Are too light armour to protect their throats;
When Brasse, and Iron no defence affords,
Against the force of the Caesarian Swords.
The purple field so great a slaughter strowes,
Blood from so many different people flowes,
That while King Juba takes a sad suruey
In how great breadth his Empires ruine lay,
No priuate deaths distinguishing at all,
He scarce can count how many Nations fall:
Nor does he thinke, his Campe, after so great
An ouerthrow, can be a safe retreat;
But leauing that to greedy enemies
A wealthy spoile, he with Petreius flies.
[Page]King Juba's Campe by the pursuing foe
Is soone possest, and the Caesarians know
Before their victory be fully done,
How great a prize their bloody toiles haue wonne.
But Fortune, where th' Italian legions fought,
And Scipio stood, had not so quickly wrought
Her Caesar's ends: there strength by strength repell'd,
And fury ioyn'd with equall fury, held
The ballance straight, whilst doubting victory
Seem'd, not, a while, resolued whose to be;
Or else deferr'd it onely to declare
That highest fury reignes in ciuill warre,
That countrey men in fight are cruell'st foes,
Or greatest courage from worst causes growes.
On equall hopes they both engaged were,
And in no quarter of the warre but here,
Did it at all into a question come
What should be Romes estate, or Caesar's doome.
Nor was the question here determined,
Till with his Libyan cohorts Varus fled,
And Labienus too, when he beheld
His slaughter'd Gaules, and Germans strow the field,
Reseru'd a while by Destinies to see
Another ruine great as this, to be
A bleeding part of Romes third mortall wound;
And lie enterr'd in Munda's fatall ground:
As long meant Fortune to prolong their fall
As Rome with Caesar could contend at all.
Scipio perceiues his army ouerthrowne,
And now the losse irreparable growne:
Horror distracts his thoughts; what should he doe▪
Suruiue this battell? and not rather goe
Vpon the Swords, and there in height of all
His honour die as Romes chiefe Generall,
[Page]And by the ruine of so great a name
Enoble Caesar's conquest? Or giue fame
To Thapsus fatall field? For what has Fate
Power to bestow on such a wretched State,
That can at all his minde to liue inuite?
With this resolue in fury of the fight
Had Scipio dy'd; but flattring hope withheld
(Euen such as from Pharsalia's mortall field,
Made Pompey flie to meet a sadder Fate)
His eager soule, that the afflicted State
Though seeming dead, after this fatall hower,
Might once more struggle against Caesar's power:
Then mounted on a Libyan Steed he flies;
And ore the field his routed companies,
Mixt with the Horsemen take disordred flight;
Some legions hoping to retire from fight
To Juba's Campe, and it to fortifie,
And finding that seiz'd by the enemie,
After the vsuall manner, casting downe
Their armes, they tender a submission.
But all in vaine; no safetie at the hands
Of the enrag'd, and fierce Caesarians,
(Oh shame of warre!) could their submission get,
Although that Caesar did himselfe intreat,
Grieuing that in his power it lay not then,
To saue from death his wretched countrey men▪
And by his speech and actions did declare,
That he was then no part of ciuill warre.
He cries aloud, Oh spare the yeelding foe,
They are no longer foes, but Romans now:
You more than lose your valour, and to me
Doe purchase enuy here, not victory:
They, that in conquest of so many lands
Nere disobey'd his most seuere commands,
[Page]Nor ere refus'd what he would put them too,
In this alone their disobedience show
Now his commands are good: all ore the plaine
Are Scipio's Souldiers miserably slaine,
That, to this Tragedy compared, light
Were all the slaughters of the former fight.
And now the mourning fields with slaughter strow'd
And couer'd ore with horrid ruine, show'd
A full and perfect conquest was obtain'd
That for the sword no farther worke remain'd;
When Caesar master of his highest hopes,
From the pursuit calls backe his weary troops,
And recompences, with the wealthy spoiles
Of Kings and Nations, their successefull toiles.
Annotations vpon the third Booke.
a Caesar hauing but a small force in Affrica, and much troubled at the report of the great army of his enemies, that all King Iuba's forces ioyned with Scipio, found helpe from an occasion little expected: for (as Dion relates it) Publius Sittius (if we may attribute it to Sittius, and not rather to Fortune) brought vnto Caesar not onely a timely safetie, but a great victory: this Sittius expelled before out of Italy, and ioyning to himselfe some other exiles, passed ouer into Mauritania; there obtaining an army from King Bocchus, he resolued to aid Caesar in this warre: though he had neither receiued any benefits from him, nor was at all knowne to him: but because he heard that Caesar was farre from him, and could then giue him no great helpe (for Caesar's forces in Affrick were then but small) watching the time when King Iuba drew his army out of his owne Countrey, hee inuaded Numidia, and Getulia another part of [Page] Iuba's Kingdome, wasting and spoiling both the Countries: by which accident King Iuba was forced to omit his expedition, and march backe againe with the greater part of his forces to the rescue of his owne Kingdome; for he had sent part of his strength to Scipio before: so that it is certaine if King Iuba by Fortune had not then beene diuerted from ioyning with Scipio, Caesar had not beene able to haue stood against their vnited forces, nor maintained himselfe then in Affrica. Dion. lib. 43.
b The Roman army remaining in Affrica, hearing that Spaine was vexed with dissentions and seditions, sent thither Cneius Pompeius the eldest sonne of Pompey the Great, as thinking that he for his Fathers sake would be receiued in Spaine with greatest honour; aduising him that when he had setled his affaires there, he should march to Rome; and they themselues intended with all their forces to meet him there, and make the warre in Italy, this counsell was had while Caesar as yet lingred in Aegypt according to Dion. lib. 42. but Hirtius in his Commentaries relates it after that time.
c Cneius Pompeius chid by Cato, and aduised to goe into Spaine and raise forces, with thirtie Ships of all sorts, putting to Sea at Vtica, sailed to Mauritania, and entred the Kingdome of King Bogud: there setting his army on shore, which consisted of about two thousand slaues, and Freemen, part armed, and part vnarmed, he marched toward the Towne of Ascurum; in which Towne there was then a Garrison of the Kings: the Garrison suffering Pompey to passe quietly till he approached the very walls of the Towne, sallying out then, on the sudden ouercame them, and some they killed, some they forced into the Sea; Pompey himselfe with a few of his men getting to their Ships sailed away; after which he neuer more arriued on the shore of Affrick, but went to the Balearicke Ilands, and from thence to Spaine. Hirt. comment. de bello Affricano.
FINIS.
THE FOVRTH BOOKE.
The Argument of the fourth Booke.
To his imperiall Zamah Iuba flies,
And thence excluded, with Petreius dies
Amidst their banquets bleeding. Scipio slaine
By his owne hands, within the watery maine
Intombes himselfe: The death of Cato fames
Old Vtica; Caesar laments, and blames
His wilfull Fate; and from the Libyan coast
Is ship'd for Rome with his victorious host.
BVt all the wracke, that Thapsus fields had made,
The fields could not containe; nor could so sad,
And great a ruine in such narrow bounds
Be circumscrib'd: the high Imperiall wounds
Which there were giuen, in other regions bled:
And those great names, which from that battell fled,
As loth to mix with vulgar Funeralls,
Must beare the fame of their renowned falls
To other lands, lest this great losse should be
In story told as one calamitie.
With winged speed by nights obscuritie
From Thapsus Iuba and Petreius flie,
To reach strong Zamah the Imperiall seat
Of Iuba's Realme, a Citie faire and great;
In which, when first the warre began, he lay'd
His wealth, and dearest pledges had conuey'd:
[Page]But now the gates were shut; the men deny'd
Their King an entrance; and with scoffes deride
His threats and prayers, for his changed Fate
Now gaue them leaue freely to shew their hate;
And all too late is Iuba forc'd to see
The curs'd effects of former tyranny.
Oh wretched State of Tyrants that nere see,
Vntill their sight in vaine and bootlesse be,
Their iust esteeme: nor euer till too late,
Can know what men deserue their loue, or hate.
In wretched times your friends are onely knowne;
But when that knowledge comes, the power is gone.
Your State requitall, or reuenge denies,
And Fortune, but to grieue you, opes your eyes.
The King opprest with griefe, and fill'd with ire
Vnto a Countrie Palace doth retire,
Not farre from thence; with him Petreius goes,
And a small troope of Horse: there they repose
Their weary bodies and vex'd mindes, vntill
A great resolue their brests with comfort fill:
Then he commands his seruants to prepare
Forthwith a stately banquet, and with rare
And sumptuous cates a full repast they take;
When thus King Juba to Petreius spake;
Roman, thou seest how Fortunes vtmost spight
Pursues our actions, and has rest vs quite
Of any future hopes; nothing can be
Safetie to vs but Caesar's clemency.
But thou and I in all this Ciuill warre
'Gainst Caesar's side, haue beene engag'd too farre
To hope for mercy; which, if I might haue,
By all our gods I should disdaine to craue:
For loue of Pompey I was Caesar's foe,
And in the great'st extreme dare still be so.
[Page]Had he preuail'd, a welcome friend to Rome
With greatest honour Iuba might haue come:
Nor shall she now behold me captiue there,
And led as Syphax and Iugurtha were,
Like slaues through her proud streets, to grace the power
Of an insulting laurell'd Conquerour:
No, let Rome rather heare how Iuba dy'd,
Disdaining Caesar's pitie, or his pride.
I doe not want a Hand, a Heart, a Sword,
Or whatsoeuer else may death afford;
But doe inuite Petreius as my friend,
To share in this last act of fame, my end:
Our cause, our Fortunes are alike in all;
Then like our selues, braue Roman, let vs fall,
But vse each others helpe: vnsheath thy Sword,
And let our friendship striue who shall afford,
First freedome to his friend; loue shall ingage
My valour against thee, as much as rage
Against a foe. Petreius drawes his Sword,
And thus in short returnes: braue Libyan Lord,
Worthy whom Rome with honour still should name,
To whom Petreius gladly owes his fame;
Nor (though a Roman Generall) doe I
Blush to be taught by Iuba how to die:
It was the Roman g [...]nius prompted thee
To this, lest Rome should be inforc'd to see
That King a captiue, and in triumph brought,
That had for her, her lawes, and freedome fought,
That had with Scipio and the Senate stood;
And thy disgrace proue Caesar's conquest good
Against his Countrey: No, great King, of thee
Rome still shall hold a dearer memory;
With Massanissa shalt thou ranked stand,
When our sad Annalls Caesar's deeds shall brand,
[Page]And marke his partie with as blacke a staine
As Catiline, and his rebellious traine.
The rest my Sword shall speake for me, and proue
How much thy freedome, and mine owne I loue.
With that they both in equall fury meet,
And with such fierce assaults each other greet,
As who had seene the combat, might suppose
That so much valour had not fought to lose,
But guard by conquest a desired life:
At last to end this hot despairing strife,
Iuba a bootlesse conquest did obtaine;
Vnder whose force was weake Petreius slaine:
Keepe in (quoth Iuba) life a while, and see
A life let out to beare thine company:
If not, before thou crosse the Stygian lake,
My fleeting soule thy ghost shall ouertake.
Farewell you fading glories that attend
A kingly State, too feeble to defend
Your proud possessours from the stormes of Fate:
What rest vpon the slippery heights of State
Findes man? What stay on Fortunes restlesse wheele?
Oh treacherous Zamah, may thy false necke feele
Romes yoke as hard, as thou to thy true Lord
Disloyall prou'st: then falling on his Sword,
From forth his strugling brest his Spirit flies,
And night eternall closes vp his eyes.
But see, from Thapsus fatall ouerthrow
A nobler death drawes neere, Great Scipio
Romes Generall, that had so lately led
The Senats warre 'gainst Caesar's fortune, fled
From that sad battell in a poore disguise,
And one small barke, the Seas of Libya tries,
To finde from thence safe passage into Spaine,
Where Pompey's sonnes with all their strength remaine.
[Page]But by a storme was driuen into the Bay
Of Hippo, where the Ships of Sittius lay,
Left there in Caesar's name to guard the coast.
Scipio perceiues himselfe and Barke are lost,
The weather crosse cuts off all hope of flight;
The winds (quoth he) and Seas for Caesar fight:
Why did I scape the stormy maine? Oh why
From Thapsus fatall battell did I flie,
And not in height of all mine honour fall,
Fighting for Rome to die her Generall?
Oh would Pharsalia's battell had destroy'd,
This ill-kept life, before that here imploy'd,
The Senats warre with ill successe I led,
And Affrick saw a Scipio vanquished.
You noble Soules of my dead ancestours,
That hither oft haue led the Roman powers
With glorious fame, as Carthages great fall,
As captiue Syphax, vanquish'd Hannibal,
And saued Rome can witnesse, blush not now
At this your Nephews haplesse ouerthrow;
No Libyan forces, but the strength of Rome,
Has Rome it selfe, and Scipio ouercome;
By her owne strength subdu'd, with her I die,
To wait vpon expiring libertie.
By this occasion Fate with kinde intent,
To me necessitie of death has sent,
Lest I my freedome might perchance out-liue;
Nor could the gods a fitter bountie giue.
Let Pompey's sonnes now trie their Fate, and gaine
Our Lawes and State againe, or lose in Spaine
As much from Rome, as here in Affrick I,
Or their Great Father lost in Thessaly;
My course is runne; and, though this armed hand
Shall testifie I could haue dy'd by land,
[Page]The Ocean likes me best, within the maine
Vnknowne for euer Scipio shall remaine:
Oh let my floating carcasse neuer come
To land, lest Affrick should bestow a Tombe,
And to her sonnes in after-ages show
A monument of vanquish'd Scipio:
With that a Ponyard in his hand he tooke,
And with a strength and aime so certaine s [...]rooke
His willing brest, that thence the gushing blood,
Made on the Deckes a crimson pretious flood:
But he, while yet his vitall parts retaine
Some spirits, leaps into the curled maine;
And her blew waues with purple staining, dies:
Vnbury'd Sc [...]pio's noble body lies
Within the Seas deepe bosome; th' Oceans frie
Deuoure the flesh of that braue family,
In which great Rome may make her iustest boast;
If all her actions, all her fame were lost,
If all those seuerall vertues, pietie,
True fortitude, admired constancy,
Impartiall iustice, frugall temperance,
That through the World her honour did aduance,
In all names else had beene forgot and gone,
In this renowned family alone
All might be found; nor did the Roman fame
Ere shine, more bright than in a Scipio's name:
Why did thy Countrey want an vine for thee?
Ore which the peoples vntaught pietie
Might truly mourne, and pay the teares they owe
Vnto the ruin'd race of Scipio.
By this the flying companies, that were
From that sad battell scap'd, had euery where
Fill'd Libya's Townes with terrour and dismay:
At V [...]ica the noble Cato lay
[Page]In Garrison; who free from priuate feare,
Not for himselfe dismay'd at all, to heare
The fatall newes of Scipio ouerthrowne,
Exhorts his Souldiers to defend the Towne
'Gainst Caesar's entrie; but perceiuing then
Th' astonishment, and faintnesse of his men,
He with the same vnshaken constancy
Forgiues their feare, and counsells them to flie;
Prouides from all the neighbouring ports a fleet
Vsing his vtmost diligence to get
Them safely all aboord, and timely gone,
Carefull for euery safetie but his owne.
The Citizens of Vtica he cheeres
With hope of Caesar's clemency, and cleeres
All dismall clouds of feare and iealousies,
That might within their fainting brests arise:
And such to them with cheerefull lookes (although
Resolu'd to die) did Cato striue to show,
As if himselfe had not at all disdain'd,
To begge, or take a life at Caesar's hand.
He, whose austerer vertue nere before
Had giuen him leaue to hide, or colour ore
His least intention, whom no feare had taught
How to dissemble, or once swerue in ought
From his profest, and rigid path of right,
For loue of death now prayes the hypocrite.
Nights silent reigne had robb'd the World of light
To lend, in lieu, a greater benefit,
Repose and sleepe; when euery mortall brest
Whom care or griefe permitted, tooke their rest.
But Cato's brest was not alone set free,
From perturbation and anxietie,
By vertues constant vse, for soft repose
Or sleepe, the common end, but to compose
[Page]And raise it selfe vnto an act more high
The contemplation of eternitie.
In contemplation the vntroubled Soule
Parts from the bodies bonds, free from controule
Of fleshly passions, by no cares distracted,
(Not as in sleepe she does, to lie contracted
Within her selfe, and from all action cease)
But to imploy her purest faculties
At nobler distance, where no sense of sight,
Or outward organ can direct her flight:
There by her selfe the Soule can take suruey
Of those high glorious bodies, which display
(Obiects too bright for sense) in their owne light
Some beames and glimpses of that infinite
Eternall essence, from whose fulnesse they
Deriue their beauties: there the Soule would stay,
Or wishes that from lets corporeall free,
She might (what now she cannot) plainly see
Those formes; and does in that desire imply
Her owne vndoubted immortalitie.
But ere the minde of man can fitted be,
To search the depth of true Philosophy,
It must be purg'd by morall rules, and freed
From impious lusts, from vice of thought and deed.
And as a wise Physitian euer giues
Before his medicines, cleane preparatiues,
So let no Soule contemplate, till it be
Prepar'd, and purg'd by sound moralitie.
First let it practise vertue here, before
With contemplations wings it dare to soare
In search of that, which is the perfect'st good,
And height of all that can be vnderstood;
Lest, as in Physicke, th' vnpurg'd humours may
Distract the medicines working force; so they
[Page]Not purg'd from vices through false glasses see,
And oft deceiu'd in speculation be:
Vnto thy selfe first morall Physicke giue,
And then securely be contemplatiue.
So cleans'd was Cato's soule; and fit was he
For strictest precepts of Philosophy,
Since vertues paths, which rough to others seeme,
Long vse had made habituall to him.
To whom the Fates present, as now on high
His thoughts were soaring to eternitie,
An obiect fit; casting his eye aside
Diuinest Plato's Phaedon he espy'd.
Oh welcome Booke sent from the gods (quoth he)
To teach a dying man Philosophy;
And though thou canst not further, or controule
The resolution of my fixed soule,
Since Fate has doom'd my end, yet may'st thou giue
Comfort to those few houres I haue to liue.
Man's Soule immortall is;
Plat. Phaed.
whilest here they liueThe purest mindes for perfect knowledge striue;
Which is the knowledge of that glorious God,
From whom all life proceeds: in this abode
Of flesh, the Soule can neuer reach so high;
So reason tells vs; if the Soule then die,
When from the bodies bonds she takes her flight,
Her vnfulfill'd desire is frustrate quite,
And so bestow'd in vaine: it followes then
The best desires vnto the best of men,
The great Creator did in vaine dispence;
Or else the Soule must liue when gone from hence:
And if it liue after the body fall,
What reason proues that it should die at all?
Since, not compounded as the body is,
And mixt of euer-fighting contraries,
[Page] But one pure substance, like it selfe, and may
(By reasons rules) subsist alone for aye.
And though we yeeld that God, who did create,
Can, if he please, againe annihilate
The Soule; and nothing in that sense can be
Indissoluble, saue the Deitie,
Yet Soules, which in their nature doe agree
So neare with that, shall nere d [...]ssolued be,
Till they at last their wished end attaine,
And so immortall by themselues remaine.
True grounds (quoth he) diuine Philosopher:
Else what were vertue, or true knowledge here
But waking dreames? Why, more than beasts, should we
Oblige our selues to Lawes of pietie,
Or curbe our lusts? Oh why should vertue be
Iudg'd, by the wisest, true felicitie
Before wealth, honour, pleasure? Vertue here
Does not (alas) so beautifull appeare,
But poore, and wretched rather; nor is she
(Vnlesse, which in this life we doe not see,
Some fairer substance or true forme she haue)
Ought but an emptie name, or Fortunes slaue.
The wisest men are glad to die; no feare
Of death, can touch a true Philosopher.
Death sets the Soule at libertie, to flie,
And search the depth of that Diuinitie;
Which, whilest imprison'd in the body here,
She cannot learne: a true Philosopher
Makes death his common practice, while he liues▪
And euery day by contemplation striues
To separate the soule, farre as he can,
From off the body: (what's the death of man
But separation of those two?) Should he,
That euery day did striue in some degree
[Page] To gaine this freedome, feare it at the time
When nature has allotted it to him?
Would birds incag'd, that with all motions trie,
And seeke all wayes to gaine their libertie,
The cage set ope, refuse to flie from thence?
Nay more, haue louers in impatience
Forc'd out their liues, and violently fled
Into the other World, to finde their dead
Deare loues? And should the Soule, which here below
Clos'd in the body, euery day did wooe,
And court that knowledge, which is perfect blisse,
Refuse to goe, and finde it where it is,
Then when the gods haue open'd her the way?
But here, till then, the Soule is bound to stay;
Nor must she leaue her station, till that God
Dee call her hence, that gaue her this abode.
Here Cato stopt and paws'd; is death (quoth he)
Vnlawfull then till rude necessitie
Inforce a man to taste it? And must I
Weare this loath'd life, till Caesar bid me die?
Is not the fatall ouerthrow so late
In Thapsus fields, and ruine of the State,
Necessitie of death enough for me?
May I not thinke the gods in that decree
The death of Cato? But must hold my hand
Expecting till the Conquerour command?
And giue more power to him, whose lawlesse might
Already has vsurp'd aboue his right?
Or begge for life, acknowledging him so
My Lord, whom iustly I adiudg'd Romes foe?
So saue my life by sinning, or el [...]e die
With one sinne more, if mercy he deny?
But this sure hand shall saue that hazard now▪
Plato, and all diuinest Lawes allow
[Page]Rather than act a crime, a man should die.
Should I take life from Caesar's clemencie,
It would be iudg'd by all (what ere were ment)
I did approue of Caesar's gouernment.
How great a crime might mine example proue?
How great a wrong to Rome, and all that loue
Her Lawes and liberties? Great Pompey's sonnes,
That now doe arme the Westerne regions,
And for their Countrie yet intend to fight,
Might thinke themselues excus'd if I submit,
And from their iustest resolution swerue
When old free Cato were content to serue.
Ile trie (since most assur'd the Soules doe liue)
What Lawes to vs the other World will giue:
For sure the gods, 'mongst Soules departed hence,
Twixt good and bad will put a difference.
Those happy Soules, that while they liued here,
By pure and perfect contemplation were
Abstracted from the body, that with true
Desires did oft the heauenly beauties view,
Shall thither goe, when they from hence are fled,
To haue their ioyes and knowledge perfected.
Within the Heauens shall they for euer be,
Since here with Heauen they made affinitie.
But those darke Soules, which drowned in the flesh
Did neuer dreame of future happinesse,
That, while they liued here, beleeu'd, or lou'd
Nothing but what the bodies taste approu'd,
When they depart from hence, shall feare the sight
Of Heauen, nor dare t' approach that glorious light;
But wander still in dismall darknesse, neere
Their bodies, whom alone they loued here.
Those sad, and ghastly visions, which to sight
Of frighted people doe appeare by night
[Page] About the Tombes and Graues, where dead men lie,
Are such darke Soules condemn'd t' accompany
Their bodies there; which Soules, because they be
Grosse and corporeall, men doe therefore see.
How different shall the Soules condition be,
If this (quoth he) be true Philosophy?
As true it is, nor doe I thinke it lesse;
If vertue be the way to happinesse:
And that be vertue, which we men haue thought,
What in-bred reason to our Soules has taught,
And Lawes commanded vs; if such thou be
Oh vertue, Cato still has follow'd thee;
And neuer from thy hardest precepts sweru'd;
Nere has this Soule the bodies pleasures seru'd.
What doubts can shake my long securitie?
But doubts, where frailtie is, will euer be:
Farewell, fraile World; what here we cannot see,
I goe to finde, cleare truth and certaintie:
Then with a fatall stroke he pierc'd his brest;
At noise of which his seruants vainely prest
In, to preuent the Fate; nor could they lend
Helpe to his life, but trouble to his end:
Who sadly shew'd, death could not be deny'd,
And rending wider his large wound, he dy'd:
The Citizens with honour did inter [...]e
That spotlesse mansion of a Soule so cleare.
Caesar from Thapsus, now secur'd from foes
By that full conquest, to Vzzita goes,
With ease possessing there all Scipio's store
Of corne and armes; and where the Sword before
Threaten'd his march, where horrid dangers lay
And ambushes, he now findes quiet way
To Ad [...]umetum backe; where he bestowes
A cheerefull pardon on his yeelding foes,
[Page]Since now all Affricke from his feares was free,
And Fortune had secur'd his clemency.
Marching away to Vtica from thence,
Humbly receiu'd by all the Citizens,
Who then solemniz'd Cato's funerall;
He sigh'd, and thus complain'd; Why did'st thou fall
Oh enuious man? Rather than not depriue
Caesar of honour, Cato could not liue.
How sadly cruell hast thou beene to me,
Against thy selfe to wrong my clemency?
And shew thy death a greater enemy,
Than all thy liuing power or armes could be.
To kill my ioyes thou dy'st, choosing to be
Lamented rather than embrac'd by me:
It is my sorrow not my loue is sought.
What strange rewards haue all my mercies got,
That greatest Romans rather chose to flie
To death it selfe, than to my clemency?
So haplesse Pompey, while he fled from me,
Durst rather trust th' Aegyptian treachery,
And there to perish by ignoble hands,
Than liue with Caesar, thinking barbarous lands
Better than Rome with vs: but he againe
Hop'd to repaire his strength; thou in disdaine
Of Caesar dy'st; but yet my goodnesse shall
Orecome thy enuy, and qui [...]e frustrate all
Thy scope in death; Ile giue all dues to thee;
Thy sonne in honour shall remaine with me,
And to the World shall witnesse, thou didst die
By thine owne enuy, not my crueltie.
Then to his grace he takes th'inhabitants
Of Vtica, and for his armies wants
Commands prouision, and, while there he stayes
The Cities walls, and fortresses suruayes.
[Page]Walking not farre from off the Towne, he saw
Vpon the sandy banke of Bagrada,
Which slowly there his muddy waues doth moue▪
(Within that Countrey rare) a stately groue
Not wide in circuit, where an awfull shade
The meering boughs, exiling Phaebus, made:
That shady groue, whilest with a curious eye
Caesar suruey'd, he chanced to espy
Within, a deepe and vast descent of ground;
The iawes of Taenarus, that balefull bound
Twixt earth and hell, is not a blacker roome;
To which, they say, the ghosts infernall come.
A Caue there was, in which no cheering light
At all ere peep'd; but sad and drery night
A squallid filth, and mouldinesse had made,
From whence exhaled stinches did inuade
The vpper aire, Whilest Caesar in amaze,
Doth neerely view the horrour of the place
His longing thoughts a Libyan standing by
(Taught by tradition) thus doth satisfie.
This denne, Oh Caesar, which for many a yeare
Hath emptie stood, and freed the land from feare,
A monstrous Serpent, by Heauens vengeance bred
The plague of Affrick, once inhabited.
The earth a greater monster neuer bare;
Not Hydra might with this dire Snake compare,
Nor that great Dragon, whose still waking eyes
Medea charm'd, when Colcho's golden prize
The venturous Iason bore to Thessaly;
Nor that, as great and watchfull too as he,
Whom great Alcides conquer'd to possesse
The glittering orchard of th' Hesperides;
Nor, though the Sunne that mighty Python slew,
Did ere the Sunne a greater Serpent view.
[Page]The seuerall Snakes, that out of Libya's slime
Are bred, might all haue beene combin'd in him;
Nor could Medusa's head, had all the blood
At one place fall'n, produce a greater brood.
A hundred ells in length was his extent;
When he vpon this side the riuer went,
With his long necke stretch'd out, what ere he spy'd,
With ease he seized from the other side.
With Lions here he fill'd his hungry maw,
That came to drinke the streames of Bagrada,
And fiercest Tigers all besmear'd with blood
Of cattell slaine, became themselues his food.
When first the Roman armies sailing ore,
And threatning Carthage on the Libyan shore
Were led by Regulus, whose tragicke fall
Sadly renown'd the Spartan Generall,
Here then this hideous monster did remaine:
The army marching on you spatious plaine,
Three Roman Souldiers, by ill Fate, drew neere
To quench their fiery thirst, the riuer here,
And tempted by these shady trees, to shunne
A while the scorching fury of the Sunne,
Entring the wood, downe to the streame they stoope,
And take in helmets the coole liquour vp;
When suddenly surpris'd with chilling feare,
A horrid hissing through the aire they heare,
And from the den the Serpents head appeares,
At once amazing both their eyes and eares.
What should they doe? For helpe they could not call;
The Serpents hissing loud had filled all
The wood; nor strength, nor hearts had they to fight,
Nor scarce did any hope appeare by flight.
Nor could their trembling hands the helmets hold;
When straight the Serpent from his scaly fold
[Page]Shot forth, and seized one, who calling on
His fellowes names in vaine, was swallowed downe,
And buried in the Monsters hungry maw,
His horrid destiny when th' other saw,
They leapt into the streame to saue their liues:
But that (alas) to them no safetie giues;
For forth his long twin'd necke the Serpent stretch'd,
And swimming Hauens in the riuer reach'd;
Who, though too late he striued to be drown'd
In Bagrada, a fate more cruell found.
Marus at last, while Hauens death did stay
The Monsters speed, had time to scape away;
And to th' amazed Generall relates
The Serpents greatnesse, and his fellowes fates.
But ere his faultring tongue had fully told
The tragicke story, they from farre behold
The scaly Monster rowling on the sands
In spatious windings: Regulus commands
The army straight their piles and speares prepare
To charge, and march against it as a warre,
And ready all their battering engines make,
That strongest walls and bulwarkes vs'd to shake:
The Trumpets then, as to a battell, sound;
Which noise the Serpent hearing, from the ground
Where he in spatious rings infolded lay,
Aloft his head aduances to suruay
The Champion round, and to their eyes appeares,
Long as that Dragon twixt the heauenly Beares.
Fire from his threatning eyes, like lightning, shot,
And Stygian blasts exhal'd from his dire throat;
While he aduanc'd, you would suppose from farre
A mouing Castle made offensiue warre:
And shooting forth he in a moment flew
Vpon farre distant faces; at whose view
[Page]The starting Horses could no more be held
By bits, but snorting flew about the field;
Whilest this dire Serpent sad massacres makes
Among the men, some twixt his iawes he takes,
And crushes there, some into aire he flings,
Who falling die: and while his spatious rings
He does vnfold with fury, sweeping round
The sands, he beats whole cohorts to the ground.
The army now gaue ground, and gan reti [...]e,
When noble Regulus inflam'd with ire
To see that shame, cries out, Oh stand the field;
To Libyan Monsters shall Romes vertue yeeld?
If so, I singly will the combat trie,
And expiating Romes dishonour die:
Then all alone, deuoide of feare, he goes,
And his strong pile against the Serpent throwes
With well tane aime, whom not in vaine he strucke▪
In his tough forehead the steel'd Iauelin stucke.
The hideous Monster, whose long age before
Had nere felt steele, sent out a yelling rore,
And shooting forth, impatient of the wound;
With his long taile he lash'd the suffering ground.
A shout the Souldiers raise, incourag'd now,
And altogether stormes of Iauelins throw;
Some harmelesse lighting on his scaly backe
Such noise, as Haile on tiled houses, make;
Some pierce his brest, and softer belly wound;
Those parts alone they penetrable found.
Blacke gore from thence distaines the swarthy sand;
At last two Iauelins sent from lucky hands
In both his fiery threatning eyes did light,
Depriuing him, though not of strength, of sight:
Whose yet blinde rage drawes many a ruine on,
Vntill at last a huge, and massie stone,
[Page]Shot from a bulwarke-battring engine, stroke
His bowed backe with such great force, it broke
That many-ioynted bone; nor then could he
Lift, as before, his speckled crest on high;
But while he struggling lay vpon the plaine,
Another stone dash'd out his poisonous braine;
The sands discolour'd with blacke filth appeare,
And that so lately feared Serpent there,
Stretch'd out at length his balefull life expires;
His vast extent the Generall admires:
But straight a grone the mourning Riuer gaue,
A dolefull noise the Wood, and hollow Caue
Resounded forth; the Naiades, that kept
Slow Bagrada, for their dead seruant wept;
Nor did the augurs then forbeare to shew,
The Roman troops his death should dearely rew,
And Regulus become a captiue prey
To his insulting foes; on whom (said they)
The Nymphs, and wrathfull Naiades would take,
That dire reuenge for their slaine Serpents sake.
Caesar enough delighted to behold
The Caue, and pleas'd with what the Libyan told,
Returnes to Vtica; thence marching on
With speed through Iuba's lost dominion,
Arriues at wealthy Zamah, Libya's pride,
Where late a powerfull Monarch did reside▪
And hearing there of Iuba's wretched fate,
Laments the frailtie of mans highest state:
Then he commends the Citizens, and ore
The Countrey leaues Sallustius Gouernor,
Which from a Kingdomes State is now become,
A subiect Prouince to Imperiall Rome.
[Page]Then marches backe to Vtica againe,
And lanching forth his fleet into the maine
Sailing by Sardos, on th' Italian coast
He safe arriues with his victorious host.
Annotations vpon the fourth Booke.
Lucius Scipio, Generall at Thapsus, perished at Sea by the report of all that write that story, but the manner of his death, as J haue here related it, is to be found onely in Appian, which I haue read, that first hee wounded himselfe with a Sword, and afterwards leaped into the Sea, as loth that his dead body should either suffer despight, or receiue fauour from his enemies. Appi. lib. 2. de bello ciuili.
FINIS.
THE FIFTH BOOKE.
The Argument of the fifth Booke.
What vnaccustom'd honours by decree
The Senate gi [...]e to Caesar's victory.
His foure rich triumphs shew'd ore Gallia,
Conquer'd Pharnaces, Aegypt, Affrica.
Whose pompous showes display the captiu'd fate
Of seuerall Princes: Caesar's high estate
To throw into the hazard once againe,
Great Pompey's sonnes reuiue the warre in Spaine.
WHen Caesar's conquest borne by winged Fame,
Had enter'd Rome, and to the Senate came,
Th' affrighted Fathers in pale haste declar'd
Their forced ioy; and while the Priests prepar'd
For Sacrifice, officiously decreed,
(Though Rome it selfe in that dayes fate did bleed)
That Supplications to the gods should be,
Twice twentie dayes for Caesar's victory;
Through all the Roman Temples they inuoke
The gods for him, and all their Altars smoke
With thankfull incense, more than when the fall
Of Carthages so feared Hannibal,
Or that defeat of all the Cimbrian powers
By Marius hand, that sau'd Quirinus Towers,
First pierc'd their ioyfull eares; no vanquish'd foe
Ere caus'd such seeming ioy. Rome's forced now
[Page]To thanke the gods for her subiection more,
Than all the greatnesse she had won before.
To that great Triumph, which so long before,
His ten yeares labour had deserued, ore
The conquer'd Gaules, and well deferr'd till now,
The forward Senate grant three Triumphs moe,
T' expresse more pompous State than ere before
The people saw, or lawrell'd Roman bore;
That all the seuerall vanquish'd Nations
From East and West, from both the Poles at once,
By his triumphant Charriot might combine,
The yellow Germans with blacke Libyans ioyne,
Gaules with Armenians meet, the Sun-burnt bands
Of Meroë with cold Pannonians,
The painted Brittaines, curl'd Sicambrians
With coale-blacke Mibians, and Mazacians.
Those that at farthest distance neuer yet
Each other view'd, at Caesar's Triumph met,
Might there acquainted in sad bondage grow,
And waile in chaines their common ouerthrow:
That the Imperiall Tyber might at once
All floods, that blesse so many regions,
In Caesar's rich Triumphall tablets see
Display'd, bewailing their captiuitie.
And bridled there by his proud conquest, ioyne
Seuen-channell'd Nilus with the German Rhine,
The swift Danubius with slow Bagrada;
And all those winding streames, which euery way
From North to South into the Ocean rowle,
Twixt fardest Thule and Tritonia's poole;
From whence Minerua deign'd her name to take,
When first within the quiet Chrystall lake
Come downe from Heauen, she view'd her virgin face.
Nor euer so did any Triumph grace
[Page]Romes power (as this had done;) nor yet in all
Those former Bayes, which deckt the Capitoll,
If here her selfe no part at all had beene
Of the subdu'd, had she more glory seene.
But lest these honours should not seeme to be
Enough for Caesar, by a new decree
The Senatours, before he enter Rome,
Make him Dictator for ten yeares to come,
And three yeares Censor; that it might be showne
How Caesar's conquering power had ouerthrowne
Their liberties, together with the fall
Of barbarous Nations: In the Capitoll
He in a Charriot was aduanc'd to sit,
To Ioue himselfe directly opposite:
A Globe terrestriall not farre from thence,
Display'd in short the vast circumference
Of all the earth; on which his Statue trod
With this inscription, He's a demy-god.
Swell'd with the Senates flattering decrees,
And fortune of so many victories,
Does Caes [...]r now in Pompe triumphant come,
His loftie Charriot through the streets of Rome
By snow-white Horses drawne, more bright by farre
Than those fam'd Steeds, which in the Troian warre
From slaughter'd Rhesus tent Tydides tooke,
Before they drunke of Xanthus Chrystall brooke,
Or cropt the Troian pastures, a vaine aid
To falling Ilion, the first night betray'd.
Declare, ye sisters of the Thespian spring,
(For you remember well, and well can sing,)
In those foure Triumphs, which the people saw
Ore Aegypt, Pontus, France, and Libya,
How many captiu'd people sadly went
In habits, tongues, and visage different
[Page]Before Great Caesar's Charriot, shewing there
With different gestures their disdaine, or feare.
How many lands and stately Cities there,
Display'd in his triumphall tables were,
Where skilfull hands had wouen to delight,
So many Nations seuerall kindes of fight,
With his proud conquests, and succesfull toiles;
By which were borne the armes, and wealthy spoiles
Of vanquish'd Princes, Crownes of burnish'd gold
For all the wondring people to behold.
But if ye Muses in so high a State,
Disdaine to mourne for each plebeian Fate;
Yet passe not slightly by that princely Gaule,
Stout Vercingetorix, for whose great fall
Some hearts relented there; whose stubborne thought,
Could not at all in nine yeares warre be taught
To brooke with patience the proud yoke of Rome:
Who now reseru'd for death by Caesar's doome,
Before the Charriot a chain'd Captiue went,
Striuing in vaine t' orecome the discontent
Of that dayes shame; and, though his hands were ty'd,
Shaking his blacke curl'd lockes, he sought to hide
His angry front, whil'st his vndaunted looke
Seem'd more to wish than feare deaths fatall stroke.
Another obiect, though vnlike to this,
Yet fall'n alike from height of worldly blisse,
Mou'd the beholders hearts; they earn'd to see,
The tender beauties of Arsinoë
A virgin a branch of Lagus royall Stem,
That once had worne th' Aegyptian Diadem,
By Fortune throwne into so low a state
Of bondage now; pittying her changed fate:
Those snow-white armes, that did a Scepter hold,
(Oh mocke of Fortune!) manicled in gold:
[Page]Although for her a gentler doome then death
Remaine, and Caesar's pitie spare her breath,
Or else his ends in loue restore her backe
Againe to Aegypt for her sisters sake:
How much (alas) had there her blood beene spilt,
Had Fortune tane from Cleopatra's guilt?
For all the fauour, which t' Arsinoë
Rome shew'd, repriu'd her but a while, to be
In after-times her sisters crime, and die
By Cleopatra's foule impietie.
But that in Libya's triumph, which aboue
All other obiects might deserue to moue
A iust compassion (if true innocence
In misery may iustly moue the sense)
Was young Prince Iuba, led in chaines, the sonne
Of that great Juba, whose dominion
From Mauritania's farthest Westerne end,
To Thera's sands so lately did extend:
Whose puissant hand a prouder Scepter bore,
Than euer Libyan Monarch did before.
This poore b young Prince by Fortune seem'd to be
Brought as a spectacle of misery,
Depriu'd so lately of so many lands,
And, ere his yeares could act a crime, in bands.
But Oh (how blinde are mortall eyes?) that day
Of seeming woe, first made the glorious way
To Iuba's future happinesse; and he
Was farre more blest in that captiuitie,
Than if his Fathers greatnesse still had stood.
Train'd vp at Rome he gain'd a truer good;
And freed from barbarisme, was taught to know
What Rome, or learned Athens could bestow:
Adorning so his minde, as wisest men
In euery age admir'd his happy pen.
[Page]So that to grace his future prosperous reigne,
(For great Augustus hand restor'd againe
This captiue Iuba to a kingly Throne)
A lasting name his Histories haue wonne,
And fame vnto his natiue Libya giue;
Where with himselfe those mention'd Kings shall liue,
When brazen Monuments are eat with rust.
And marble Columnes time shall bruise to dust.
And had the Ponticke King c Pharnaces beene
In person there and by the people seene,
That obiect well had ballanc'd with delight
The others ruth; but he was scap'd by flight:
Whose absence one proud sentence must supply,
J came, I saw, and vanquish'd th' enemy.
But those sad stories, which the tables show,
More than the liuing spectacles could doe,
Affect the peoples hearts: for there (although
No vanquish'd Roman might a captiue goe)
The bleeding wounds of Rome it selfe are spread;
And each man there his owne deare losse may read.
For mixt with forren conquests, with the falls
Of barbarous Captaines, Princes of the Gaules,
With dying Juba, drowned Ptolomey,
Those enuious tables to the eyes display
Domestike losse; and in sad figures tell,
By Caesar's Sword what vanquish'd Romans fell.
Here with King Iuba old Pe [...]reius dies,
Here slaughter'd Sylla, there Afranius lies:
There Damasippus and Torquatus fall;
And here (Oh wofull sight!) Romes Generall,
The Noble Scipio by his owne hand slaine,
Falls bleeding downe into the watery maine;
And sinking leaues a Noble crimson dye
On Neptunes face: but what true Roman eye
[Page]Refrain'd from teares, when he beheld the fall
Of matchlesse Cato, who, in spight of all
His friends preuention, dy'd, and wider tore
With his owne hands the wounds he made before?
Yet 'mongst so many wofull stories showne,
One Noble name was spar'd, one Fate alone
Was thought too sad; nor to the peoples eye
Durst they present Great Pompey's tragedy,
For feare so great a sorrow might outweigh
The pompous ioyes of that triumphant day:
But that conceal'd, which most of all was sought,
Remain'd more deeply fixt in euery thought▪
And they, without a picture, can supply
Each part of his lamented History.
What tongue, what pen can at the height relate
Each sumptuous part of that so enuy'd State?
The publike feasts, rare spectacles deuis'd,
And games by all the people exercis'd;
Who without number flock'd to doe him grace:
When all the Senate from the Iulian Place
Waited him home, and seem'd not then to be
The Worlds high Lords, but Caesar's family.
And as they passe, to gild their pompous way,
Numberlesse lights the Elephants display
Vpon their captiue backes, and mouing through
The streets, like heauenly Constellations show,
Like those great beasts, which in th' Horizon plac'd
Through euery part with glorious Starres are grac'd.
Nor in vaine showes was this Magnificence
Alone consum'd, but reall Monuments,
Which his great power to after-ages prais'd:
A stately Temple he to d Venus rais'd,
Or in Deuotion, or in pride to grace
That Deitie from whom he drew his race,
[Page]That now the Paphian Queene, by Caesar's reigne,
Might seeme a truer conquest to obtaine,
Ore blew-ey'd Pallas, and the wife of Ioue,
Than when they for the golden Apple stroue,
And Paris fatall iudgement did bestow,
The prize on her to Iliums ouerthrow.
For Rome and all the conquer'd World farre more,
Are forced now to honour and adore
Her name than theirs, so much it was to be
Th' originall of Caesar's pedigree,
More than the daughter, or the wife of Ioue:
The Temples structure in rare beautie stroue,
With what the height of fancy could expresse,
Or any pennes most gracefull happinesse
Describe aright: vpon the walls did stand
In Parian marble wrought with curious hand,
That amorous story where the Phrygian boy
The beautie of a goddesse did enioy:
The vale of Ida there was shadowed such,
As Poets made it, Ida vale so much
Indebted to the Muses, seemed now
Vnto a Painters hand as much to owe:
The bower of Loue was richly carued there,
That happie bower of blisse and pleasure, where
Venus descended from the Chrystall skie,
To generate the Iulian family;
Was as a Bride in all her glories led,
To fill with beautie young Anchifes bed.
Neere them their Noble issue, in whose blood
A Goddesse mixt with man, Aeneas stood;
Such was his shape, so shone his cheerefull face
As young Apollo's, when he goes to grace
His natiue Delos, and in height of State
That Festiuall intends to celebrate,
[Page]Or Bacchus, when from conquer'd India,
The yoked Tygers his proud Charriot draw,
Troian Aeneas, whose fam'd History,
Great Maro's Muse did after raise as high,
As th' old Maeonian did Achilles fame.
But that most pious posture more became
Aeneas farre, when at the fatall sacke
Of Troy, he stoop'd, and on a willing backe
Flying from thence, carry'd his aged Sire
From the Greekes Swords, and all-deuouring Fire,
Together with his gods, whom he priz'd more
Than Priam's wealth, and all Troyes burning store.
Behinde was young Iulus, and did seeme
With short vnequall steps to follow him,
That Prince, from whom the Iulian family
Deriue their name as well as pedigree,
Who the foundations of long Alba lay'd,
And ore that land a powerfull Scepter sway'd.
By him the Scepter'd issues of his blood,
In their successiue order carued stood;
Till Alba was destroy'd by Tullus doome,
And all her people were transfer'd to Rome:
From Alba's sacke the pedigree went on,
And was deduced lineally downe
To Caesar's time; in whose successe and reigne
Alba had seem'd to conquer Rome againe.
But into th' hazard once againe to throw
A State so strong, so sure as Caesar's now
Seem'd to the World to be, a furious e warre
More full of threats, of doubt and danger farre
Than euer had as yet oppos'd his reigne,
The two young Pompeys raise in farthest Spaine
There where the Great Alcides pillars stand,
And proudly boast to bound the farthest land.
[Page]That part of Spaine must proue the third sad stage
Of Ciuill warre, and Romes selfe-wounding rage.
Those, that inhabit that farre Westerne shore,
Vainely suppose that they alone, before
The setting Sunne forsake this Hemisphere,
Doe view his face at nearer distance there
Than other men, than other Countries can;
And that he falls into their Ocean
As Poets taught; or else his loftie Sphere
Bowes downe more neare the Globe terrestriall there,
Because his beautious Orbe, before the set,
Vnto their eyes appeares more large and great.
Those mistie fogges and vapours that arise
From that great Sea, which interposed lies,
Breaking diffuse the rayes, from th' eyes that went,
Or else inlarge the obiects figure sent,
And make the setting Sunne seeme greater so,
As bright things largest in the water show:
Whence they scarce any twilight haue at all,
Either at Phaebus rising, or his fall;
Day breakes together with the rising Sunne,
And day together with the set is done.
All Spaine, in figure of a bullockes hide,
Is by the Ocean wash'd on euery side,
And made almost an Ile, saue where her ground
The Pyrenaean hills from France doe bound:
From whose East end (for old description makes
Fiue sides of Spaine) the first beginning takes,
And Westward thence vnto the Gades extends,
But by the way to South obliquely bends;
And is inuiron'd by the mid-land Seas,
Where stand those Ilands Balearides,
From whence Metellus tooke his famous stile,
Faire Ebusu [...], and that small snaky Ile.
[Page]The second side from Gades, (of small extent)
Is to the sacred promontory bent;
In which short space two riuers, of no small
Account in Spaine, into the Ocean fall,
Baetis and Anas; farre their channells spread,
And from the siluer Mountaines both take head:
Both their great channells doe at last diuide,
And make two Ilands by the Oceans side:
From thence the third side in a line extends,
And at the Nerian promontory ends,
From South directly North it goes; this bound
Of Spaine doth Westward know no further ground:
That all along the boundlesse Ocean laues;
Thither the golden Tagus rowles his waues,
Winding through Lusitania, and into
That Ocean doth in one great channell flow:
From thence the Northerne side of Spaine extends,
And at the Pyrenaean Mountaines ends,
Bounded along by the Cantabrian Sea;
Within those shores the wildest Nations be
The barbarous Celtae, rough Asturians,
And (those that name the Sea) Cantabrians▪
But last of all, the fifth, and North-East side
The Pyrenaei make, which doe diuide
Gallia from Spaine, which by their wondrous height
Might seeme to threat the Skies, and once more fright
The gods with a Gigantike warre: that side
Of those high Mountaines, which surueyes the pride
Of wealthy France, doth bare and barren show,
Cloth'd with no grasse, no trees at all there grow▪
The other side, which barren Spaine oresees,
Shewes like a fruitfull Summer, cloth'd with trees
Which neuer doe their verdant colour lose:
And so to both th' adiacent Countries showes,
[Page]As if to clothe himselfe, he had robb'd Spaine,
And lost his owne, to make France rich againe.
That loftie Mountaine (if we trust to fame)
Did from the faire Pyrene take his name,
When Great Alcides moued by the fame
Of King Geryon's stately cattell, came
From Greece, to fetch that wealthy spoile away,
Entring the bounds of Spaine, he there made stay.
King Bebrix then ore all those Mountaines reign'd,
And there with Feasts Alcides entertain'd:
The conquering guest, by Fate vnhappie, spy'd
Pyrene daughter to the King, and fry'd
With inward flames; at last, while there he stay'd,
His charming words had wonne the royall maid:
He vowes his loue still constant shall remaine,
And, when with Conquest he returnes againe,
Espousall rites: But cruell Fates deny,
And make Alcides slow in victory,
Too slow, alas; nor could the fight be try'd
Ere faire Pyrene miserably dy'd.
Her swelling wombe now gan the fact reueale,
Nor could she longer her stoll'n loue conceale,
When fearing her sterne Fathers wrathfull spight,
Into the woods she takes a secret flight:
There all alone to caues and senselesse trees
She wailes her Fate, and calls Great Hercules,
Or false, or slow; till some fell beasts, that were
More sauage than their kinde, had seized her,
And whilest in vaine, alas, she did implore
Her absent louer, her to peeces tore.
Seuen times had Cynthia fill'd her waned light,
When he return'd with Conquest from the fight;
And laden with G [...]ryons wealthy spoiles,
The recompence of his successefull toiles,
[Page]Sought for Pyrene, but inforc'd to finde
What oft before his sad misgiuing minde
Made him suspect, distraught with griefe and woes
Among the woods, and craggy hills he goes
In search of her, and with a mournefull sound,
Calls his Pyrene; all the hills rebound
Pyrenes name; the hills themselues did shake,
The sauage beasts, and mountaine robbers quake;
No Tygers prey'd, nor Lions durst to moue,
Whilest Great Alcides sought his wretched Loue.
But wandring through the solitary wood,
When he had found her limbes, and vnderstood
Pyrenes wretched Fate, Oh loue, (quoth he)
'Twas my accursed absence murder'd thee:
What sauage beast durst this? What power aboue
Suffer'd so much against Alcides loue?
Oh would Geryons spoiles had all beene lost,
And I nere stirr'd from this beloued coast:
Then gathering vp those sad deare reliques, there
Within the Mountaines side he did interre
His loue and sorrow. This small Tombe (alas)
When Times strong hand (quoth he) shall quite deface,
Thy state shall greater be, and time to come,
Shall reckon all these hills Pyrenes Tombe:
The Fates consented, and by lasting fame
Those Mountaines euer bore Pyrenes name.
The two young Pompey's with their powers, not farre
From Gades now marching, meant to seat the warre
In that rich Countrey, where faire Baetis flowes,
And on the region his owne name bestowes,
(Though Turdetania, from the men that came
To plant it first, be yet another name.)
There they the fatall Munda doe possesse,
A Towne yet famous for their dire successe,
[Page]With other Townes not farre, A [...]egua,
And Vcubis, and stately Corduba
That old Patritian colony, whose name
The births of great and learned Romans fame.
The Turdetanian region may for rare
And wondrous gifts of nature well compare,
With any peece of earth; no other soile
Does more reward th' industrious plowmans toile
With rich increase; no other pastures keepe
Moe horned heards, moe wealthy-fleeced Sheepe,
Those many branches, which from Baetis flow,
Such wealth on all the neighbouring fields bestow;
Whose yellow bankes, no lesse than Tagus is,
Are stor'd with metalls of the highest price
In euery place; more gold no barren ground
Affords, than in that wealthy glebe is found:
Which nature seldome does together giue;
And happy might the Turdetanians liue,
But that their Countrey too too happy is,
And on their conquest sets too high a price.
Their wealthy grounds are oft the seat of warre,
And prey to euery powerfull conqueror:
There Rome and Carthage fought, and did maintaine
Their riuall forces with the wealth that Spaine
Afforded there, while Fortune doubted yet
Which land to make the Worlds Imperiall seat.
When like to Titius fruitfull liuer, they
Sustein'd those birds, to whom they were a prey;
And suffring Spaine by those great factions rent,
That Vultur fed which did it selfe torment;
Nor lies the gold of that rich region
Deepe in the bowells of the earth alone,
Thence to be digg'd vp with a toile as great
At is the value; there they need not sweat
[Page]In gathering wealth, nor need they farre to fire
From day, or threaten Pluto's monarchy
With their deepe labours; the rich metall's found
Vpon the glistering surface of the ground,
And lies on riuers bankes commixt with sand,
Or else with dust vpon the drier land,
And Mountaines tops: what reason can be found
Should so inrich the vpper part of ground
Vnlesse you trust a tale? When Phaëton
Did erst misguide the Charriot of the Sunne,
And scorch'd the earth; the nature then of all
These grounds Sulphurious was, and Minerall,
The metalls melted by the Sunne, fry'd vp,
And so with ease are gather'd at the top.
To Pompey's army, while they there remaine,
The seuerall nations from all parts of Spaine
(Besides those scattered troops, from Thapsus fled,
Which Labi [...]nus there and Varus led)
Adioyne themselues; the fierce Cantabrians,
That thinke it base to yeeld to Natures hands
Their liues, as if bestow'd for warre alone;
Gallecians skill'd in diuination;
The Callaicians too, whose men intend
Nothing but warre, and still in rapine spend
Their ventrous liues, vsing the womens hands
To all workes else, to sow and plow the lands:
From old Ilerda, that so lately try'd
Romes Ciuill warrs, comes aid to Pompey's side:
From Minius bankes come bold Asturians,
From golden Tagus Lusitanians;
Fierce Ceretans, Alcides Souldiers,
The light-arm'd Vascon, that no helmet weares:
And Concani, that in their drinke expresse
Themselues deriu'd from wilde Massagetes,
[Page]Their greatest thirst with horses blood they slake.
The Celtiberians, that mixt birth did take
From Gaules and Spaniards; who doe euer burne
Their friends dead bodies, and extremely mourne
(Accounting it the worst vnhappinesse)
If Wolues, or Vulturs their dead limbes should seize.
From Sucro's bankes come Hedetan supplies,
And from the loftie Towers of Serabis:
The Vettones, the Oretanians too,
And th' ensignes of Parnassian Castulo,
With all the Spanish Nations else, whom loue
Of old dead Pompey to the warre did moue.
Annotations vpon the fifth Booke.
a This Arsinoë, which had in the tumult of Aegypt beene saluted Queene by the Souldiers (as was before declared) and afterwards by Caesar apprehended, and here led in Triumph (according to Dion) and released at the suit of her sister Cleopatra then Queene of Aegypt, was afterwards murthered by the same Cleopatra (as Iosephus reports) for Cleopatra in the time of Marcus Antonius the Triumuir, did by her cruelty extinguish the royall blood of the Ptolomeys, and impatient of any that might afterwards proue riualls to her in that gouernment, did not onely poison yo [...]ng Ptolomey, her brother, whom Caesar had made her husband, but caused her sister Arsinoë to be murdered as she was at her Deuotion in the Temple. Iosephus lib. 15. de antiquitat.
b This Iuba (saith Plutarch) was happie in his captiuitie, and losse of his so great an inheritance, for at Rome he obtained happie education, and in stead of a barbarous Prince became a learned and iudicious writer: he is mentioned by diuers of those [Page] ages; he wrote Commentaries of the Libyan Kings, and diuerse obseruations of his owne times; he was industrious in the study of naturall Philosophy, and searching the natures of herbes & plants: he was the first that found out the vertues and malignitie of the herbe Euphorbium, and called it by the name of his chiefe Physitian: he serued Augustus Caesar in his warres against Marcus Antonius, and was afterwards by his bountie restored to a Crowne (though not to all the Dominions of his father) and married Cleopatra the daughter of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra. Strabo. lib. 17.
c Pharnaces had escaped by flight, and was slaine by Asander, who rebelled against him, to whom he had committed the gouernment of Bosphorus in his absence: so that his Person was not led in Triumph; the conquest of Pharnaces (saith Dion) though it were not glorious by reason it was so easily obtained, yet Caesar much gloried in it by reason of the speed, and that he might carry those three words in Triumph, Veni, vidi, vici. Dion. lib. 42.
d Caesar was especially magnificent in doing honour (saith Dion) to Venus, whom he accounted, and desired to haue it generally beleeued, the originall of his pedigree; from her also (as Appian reports) he would glory that he had receiued beautie of body, she being the Queene of Loue and Beautie.
e Caesar after all these Triumphs, and assurances of greatnesse was yet threatned by a third warre in Spaine: a warre (saith Dion) not to be contemned; nay, farre greater and more full of danger than all his former warres: the battell of Munda (saith Florus) for fury, slaughter, and crueltie as much exceeded Thapsus, as Thapsus did Pharsalia, &c.
FINIS.
THE SIXTH BOOKE.
The Argument of the sixth Booke.
Varus by Didius on the stormy Maine
Js vanquished: Caesar arriues in Spaine,
And raises Pompey's siege from Vlla's walls;
He takes Ategua: both Generalls
Remou'd from thence, the warre to Munda beare▪
Caesar's despa [...]re; his mens vnsuall feare;
A bloody conquest they at last obtaine,
Young Pompey, Varus, Labienus slaine.
BVt ere the Tragicke warre arriu'd in Spaine,
And did with blood the continent distaine,
The Ocean bore it, and was first the Stage
Of this third fury, and reuiued rage:
There where th' extended Libyan coast doth meet
Almost with Spaines Tartessus, Varus Fleet
Guarded the straightened Sea in Pompey's name;
Thither for Caesar Didius Nauy came:
Two shores their fury at neere distance saw,
Fearing to whether land the warre would draw;
But Affrick bled before; what did remaine
Of Romes dissentions, Fates decreed to Spaine:
That narrow point of Sea on all foure sides
Great Lands from Lands, great Seas from Seas diuides,
In breadth the Libyan continent and Spaine,
In length th' Iberian and great Westerne maine.
[Page]The Nauies scarce their furious fight began,
When all in waues the threatning Ocean
Swell'd vp; and they encounter'd from the Sea
As great a danger as the warre could be.
The Southerne wind from Tingitania blowes;
And from the Westerne Ocean Corus rose;
Fierce Boreas met them from the Spanish coast,
And now the Sea on euery side was tost:
Their seuerall waues the different winds did moue,
As if that Aeolus and Neptune stroue
A warre so sad and wicked to preuent,
Or drowne both Fleets while they were innocent.
But greater was their dire desire of fight
Than was the Oceans rage, or winds despight:
To impious warre through stormes as rough they goe
As would the greediest venturing Merchant doe
For Parma's wealthy fleeces, Spaines rich ore,
Or brightest gemmes from th' Erythraean shore.
But when no space almost at all diuides
Both eager Fleets, the rowers take their sides,
Tugge at the oare, and (though the Ocean raues)
With armes vnweary'd cut the curled waues:
The horrid showting of the Souldiers drown'd
All noise of rowing and shrill Trumpets sound.
Yet all these sounds, and all the noise of warre
The winds, and louder stormes out roared farre,
With which, and Darts, the aire is darkned round;
Ships against Ships, beakes meeting beakes resound:
Some by their owne endeuours meet their foes,
Others the winds and stormy Seas expose
Before they thought; to triall of the warre,
Dashing together with more fury farre
The aduerse Ships, than else they would haue met;
Now grew the horrour and confusion great:
[Page]Their feares were different; some, while others fought,
Repair'd those ruines which the storme had wrought,
And stopp'd their leaking Ships, preuenting so
The certaine danger of a nearer foe:
Nor could stout Didius now his Souldiers cheere,
Or guide his Fleet; the tempest euery where
Is onely heard; but leauing his commands
Puts all into the winds and Fortunes hands;
No more could Varus for young Pompey doe:
Guided by chance against each other goe
Th' amazed Fleets; some vessells sides bor'd through
By sharpe and brazen stemmes; nor doe they know
Surely to whom they doe their ruine owe,
Whether the weathers fury or the foe.
Nor did confusion of all sounds affright
The eares alone; but through that horrid night,
Which showre-black clouds, & skies tempestuous brought,
With no small terrour the wing'd lightning shot:
No other light to them the day could giue;
No other fire in such a storme could liue.
Some Ships now almost taken by the foes,
The swelling Sea with violence orethrowes,
And vindicates their honour from surprise;
Some sinke, when boorded by the enemies,
Drowning the victors, and the vanquish'd see
A quicke reuenge of their captiuitie.
Fortune did seeme against both sides to fight
A while, and wreake in common her despight,
But long it held not; She at last decided
The day, and shew'd for whom she had prouided
So great a labour of the troubled Maine;
And Caesar's forces a full conquest gaine:
Though Didius blush it should be thought that he
Ow'd to such aids as those the victory.
[Page] Varus perceiues the Fates themselues conspire
On Caesar's side, and forced to retire
When now be saw part of his haplesse powers
Orewhelm'd, part seized by the conquerours,
With his poore remnant flies, and gets into
Carteias harbour; thence by land to goe
To Pompey's Campe; Pompey at Vlla stay'd,
And siege in vaine to that strong Citie lay'd.
Caesar with more than his accustom'd speed
(By which his great designes did still succeed)
Hasts to the warre in Spaine, and gone from Rome
In seuenteene dayes was to Sagunthus come,
That true Sagunthus, whose so Tragicke fall
Did once vpbraid the Heauens, and enuy call
Vpon their Iustice, till th' offenders fate,
And small ruine of the Punike State
Absolu'd the gods againe: with Chrystall waues
The Cities Westerne side faire Dur [...]as laues,
Clothing with verdant grasse th' adioyning plaine,
And gently slides into th' Iberian Maine.
His quicke arriuall, vnexpected there,
With sudden ioy did all the Souldiers cheere:
With speed as great from thence he marches on
Thorough the Celtiberian region,
Nor Duria's streame, nor mount Idubeda,
Nor Sucro's rapid flood his course could stay,
Nor that high glittering Mountaine, that for fame
Of his great wealth retaines the siluer name:
From whose descent rich Baetis takes his head;
Along, the shore of Baetis Caesar led
His cheerefull Souldiers on to Corduba;
Either to take that wealthy Towne, or draw
Pompey from Vlla's siege; the first in vaine
Caesar assay'd, the last he did obtaine:
[Page]For Pompey straight, although within the Towne
His brother Sextus lay in Garrison,
Abandons Vlla, and 'gainst Caesar goes;
Who from the walls of Corduba arose
Before his foes approach, loth there to trie
The vtmost hazard of a warre so high.
But passing thence ore Salsus streame, does lay
With more successe, siege to Ategua,
And winnes the Towne, maugre the feeble aid
Munatius brought: but there while Caesar stay'd,
A faire ostent the gods were pleas'd to shew,
A towring Eagle long ore Caesar flew
Till seeming weary, with a faire descent
It gently pearch'd on young Octauius tent,
Who follow'd then his Father to the warre.
A good presage the augurs all declare,
And not alone to shew the warres successe,
But young Octauius future happinesse:
But not so soone, alas, could they foresee
The full effect of this faire augury:
How many ciuill wounds did yet remaine
Ere Rome with patience brooke a Caesar's reigne,
And for her safetie be inforc'd to flie
To Great Augustus happy Monarchy?
For thee, great Prince, and thy insuing State
Was Rome opprest, and Iulius fortunate;
For thee were Marius crimes, and Sylla's wrought:
For thee was Thapsus and Pharsalia fought,
That Rome in those dire Tragedies might see
What horrid dangers follow'd libertie:
And thou at last a welcome conqueror,
Might'st those high titles without enuy weare
Which mighty Iulius with a toile so great,
With so much blood and enuy striu'd to get.
[Page]Thou then anew that powerfull State shalt mould,
And long the Worlds high Scepter safely hold,
Aboue all Riualls plac'd; thy god like State
No force shall shake; when shutting Janus gate,
Thou shalt set ope the sacred Thespian spring,
And there securely heare the Muses sing,
Whose stately layes still keepe thy deathlesse fame,
And make immortall Great Augustus name:
Nor euer did the Arts so truly reigne,
Nor sung the Muses in so pure a straine
As then they did, to grace thy glorious time;
As if the Muse before lack'd power to clime,
Or else disdain'd her highest notes to raise,
Till such a Monarch liu'd to giue the Bayes.
Grieu'd for Ategua's losse, and fearing now
That other Townes would, following Fortune, goe
To Caesar's partie, and his cause forsake,
Pompey resolues with all his strength to make
A speedy triall of a warre so great,
And on one hazard his whole Fortune set.
To Munda's fatall fields was Caesar gone;
Thither young Pompey's army marches on:
The Towne was his; and neere the Towne, arose
An high and spatious hill; where Pompey chose
T'incampe his men; from whence he might suruay
The plaines below where Caesar's army lay.
No prodigies forespake the blacke euent
Of that dayes wondrous battell, no ostent
At all was show'd from seas, earth, aire, or skies,
No entrailes spake, no birds gaue auguries:
Those sad protents, that vs'd to strike a feare
At other times in men, were spared there.
Yet were their feares farre greater; they suspect
The silence of the gods, loth to detect
[Page]So great a ruine as did then ensue:
Horrour inuades their brests; although they knew
No cause from whence those strange amazements grow,
No outward signes appear'd, their threatnings now
Were inward all; they make, by sad surmise
Within themselues a thousand prodigies.
In Pompey's campe th' amazed Souldiers
Sad silence kept, distraught twixt desp'rate feares,
And tragicke hopes; pale horrour to their eyes
Seemes to present the future Tragedies,
And the deare ghosts of slaughter'd friends appeare:
Yet know not they whether themselues should feare,
Or hope their hands should make th' ensuing Fate.
On one side Caesar's Fortune does abate
Their confidence too much; on tother they
Resolue, orecome, not to out-liue the day:
But (Oh strange Fate!) the bold Caesarians
Grow faint and heartlesse; and those actiue hands,
That had so often drawne their Countries blood,
And 'gainst all Lawes for Caesar's fortune stood;
That had before to their successefull toiles,
Promis'd the Worlds sole sway, and wealthy spoiles
Of euery nation, quake, and faulter here,
Nor from each other can conceale their feare.
How deare this field would cost, what 'twas to goe,
Against the fury of a desperate foe,
Their trembling thoughts reuolue; nor to their friends
Shame they to vtter it; those dauntlesse mindes,
That met with ioy Pharsalia's dreadfull day,
Those that at Thapsus battell could not stay
The Generalls command; preuenting there
The signall, now both fight and signall feare.
But that the feare, which did his Campe inuade
Might not seeme strange, Caesar himselfe was sad
[Page]Before the battell, and that cheerefull looke,
That vsuall vigour, whence his Souldiers tooke
Happie presages still, was changed there;
Nor did his wonted confidence appeare:
Perhaps reuoluing the vncertaine Fate
Of things, and frailtie of man 's highest state,
And how vncessant stormes doe beat vpon
The loftie Cedars, learnes to feare his owne
By other mighty falls so lately wrought;
Or Fortune else presenting to his thought
Her many fauours, and his long successe,
He weigh'd the time of Pompey's happinesse,
Who in her fauour claim'd as great a share
As he could now, before Phar [...]alia's warre.
That he arriued now as high in State
As Pompey was; might feare Great Pompey's Fate:
Whose fall (though wrought for him) had let him see
Fortunes great power, and strange vnconstancy▪
But lest his sadnesse should too much dismay
The Souldiers hearts before so great a day,
He recollects himselfe, and with fain'd cheare,
And forced lookes, taught to dissemble feare,
Thus to his army speakes; Victorious troops,
On whose knowne valour more than Caesar's hopes,
His certaine State depends, see here in Spaine
This fainting Hydra yet shoots forth againe
His last weake heads; let that Herculean might,
That lopt the first, and strongest off in fight,
Make perfect your great labour, which requires
The last hand here: of all your large desires
You are free masters, when this field is fought,
Though all the World for fresh supplies were sought,
In Fortunes power it lies not to expose
Your quiet State againe, or finde you foes.
[Page]But what are these that once againe should dare
Molest our peace with vnexpected warre?
What can these barbarous halfe-arm'd Nations doe?
Or what vnfain'd affection can they owe
To Pompey's side? or doe they feare his name,
And haue not heard enough of Caesar's fame?
Haue not the warres by old llerda taught
Our strength to Spaine? what Roman powers are brought
Thither, but young raw Souldiers, and vnskill'd
In Military arts, that nere beheld
A foe before? and those poore few that know
The warre, are such as haue beene beat by you;
And bring more feare than helpe vnto their side:
Will Varus troops your well-knowne strength abide?
Or that so often vanquish'd runnagate
False Labienus, long mainteine the Fate
Of his young Generall? Braue Souldiers on,
Perfect that worke that is so neerely done.
His speech no shouts, no acclamation findes,
Nor could it raise their sad deiected mindes:
And though, the signall giuen, all Trumpets sound,
And Pompey's army from the vpper ground
Make downe to charge, the cold Caesarians
Dare not approach, nor follow the commands
Of their great Generall; when Caesar fill'd
With griefe and rage, seizing a Speare and Shield,
This day, quoth he (no more my Souldiers)
Shall end the life of Caesar, and your warres;
Remember whom you leaue; then forth he flies
Alone to charge th' amazed enemies;
Who, till their wonder was expell'd by hopes,
Awhile made stand; at last from all the troops
'Gainst Caesar's head whole stormes of Iauelins come;
Some in his shield he does receiue, and some
[Page]Auoids, declining of his body downe
Till shame not courage brought his Souldiers on
To saue their Generall; and 'gainst the foe
They doe begin a fight so a furious now,
As if with this new rage they would appeare
To recompence their ignominious b feare.
Th'auxiliary troops on either side
Gaue backe, and left the battell to be try'd
By none but Roman hands; who man to man,
And foot to foot a constant fight began
With so great horrour, as who had beheld
Pharsalia's fight, or Thapsus bloody field,
Would haue esteem'd those furies light, and thought
He nere saw warre till Munda's field was fought.
Both Generalls alike twixt hope and feare,
With needlesse speeches their fierce Souldiers cheare,
Till weary'd with the toile, they both retire,
And from two little hills behold the dire
Encounter of their men; when Caesar's eyes,
That drie, had view'd whole Nations tragedies,
Began to melt; and whilest bright victory,
Ore both the armies houer'd doubtfully,
Caesar and Pompey had forgot their hopes,
And onely pity'd their engaged troops,
Fearing both armies in the place would die,
And leaue no conquest, but one tragedie.
A balefull silence on the sudden then
Possest the field; no showts of fighting men
Were heard; as if they labour'd to keepe in
Their sp'rits for action; hands alone were seene
To moue, and write in bloody Characters
Their deepe resolues: young Pompey's Souldiers
Beyond this day disdaine to hope at all;
And Caesar's men promise, in Pompey's fall
[Page]To all their toiles a rich and quiet close,
And that the World no more can finde them foes▪
At last the battells fortune seem'd to leane
To Pompey's side, and Caesar's fainting men
Gaue backe apace, nor scarce with all their might
Could the Centurions stay their open flight:
When Caesar arm'd with high despaire, preparing
The fatall Ponyard, which he wore, and baring
His manly brest, thus speakes; Oh Fortune, now
I see thou wants not power to ouerthrow
What ere thou build'st: but I accuse not thee;
Enough already hast thou done for me:
Enough haue thy transcendent fauours grac'd
My liues whole course: should'st thou not change at last
Perhaps the erring World might censure me
More than a man, and thee no Deitie:
I that so long haue thy high fauours knowne,
Can thus securely entertaine thy frowne.
There had he dy'd; but as kinde mothers doe
Oft let their children neere to dangers goe,
That then, when they perceiue them most afraid,
They may the more endeare their timely aid:
So Fortune findes an vnexpected way
To saue his Fate; whilest yet his men made stay
And kept the field, King Bogud, that without
The battell stood, wheeles suddenly about
To seize young Pompey's Campe; which to preuent
Leauing his station Labienus went,
And with him drew fiue cohorts from the fight:
Which action chang'd the battells fortune quite;
Whilest haplesse errour through both armies flew,
And Pompey's battell suddenly orethrew;
For misconceit that Labienus fled
Had quite disheartened his owne side, and bred
[Page]In Caesar's Souldiers most assured hopes:
Nor could young Pompey stay his flying troops,
Too late (alas) it was to make them know
What haplesse errour caus'd their ouerthrow▪
For routed once ore all the field they flie
A prey to the pursuing enemie.
Vnhappie Attius Varus, where he stood
Enuiron'd round with carcasses, and blood;
Varus, that twice before a warre had led
'Gainst Caesar's fortune, and twice vanquished,
When he had labour'd long in vaine to stay
His flying men, loth to out-liue the day,
Or longer keepe that often conquer'd breath,
Now rushes boldly on, to finde a death
Amid'st the thickest of his enemies,
And gladly there on all their weapons dies.
But when (alas) sad Labienus view'd
How great and swift a ruine had ensu'd
Vpon his haplesse action, cursing Fate
And his owne dire misfortue, too too late
Seeking to ralley his disorder'd troops,
He cryes, 'tis I, that haue vndone the hopes
Of wretched Rome; 'tis I haue lost the day:
Through this dire brest take your reuenging way,
And expiate this fatall ouerthrow,
Or Caesar's swords shall take reuenge for you:
Then (like a Libyan Lion round beset,
Arm'd with a high despaire and rage as great)
Carelesse of wounds or weapons forth he goes
To sell a loathed life deere to his foes:
Till by a thousand swords at last he dies,
And to the shades his angry spirit flies.
Pompey perceiues his army ouerthrowne,
And now the losse irreparable growne,
[Page]And though he see no cause that should inuite
Him to out-liue the fury of the fight,
His owne fresh youth perswades him t' entertaine
A future hope to raise his State againe:
High mounted on a Spanish Steed he flies
(Leauing in field his routed Companies)
With speed, Carteia's harbour to attaine,
And saile from thence: but to disastrous Spaine
Sterne Fates the death of this young man decree
And he ere long the selfe same destiny
Forc'd to endure on Spaines vnhappie ground
That his great Father in false Aegypt found.
His brother c Sextus scap'd from that sad day
Fortune long hides in Celtiberia
To raise his State againe, againe to breathe
Fresh warre and ruine after Caesar's death,
And once againe with faction rend the State
In that sad time of Romes Triumuirate.
The fight was done, and nothing now ensu'd
But impious rage, and murder; the pursu'd
To Pompey's Campe and Munda's walls (alas)
For refuge fled, but vaine that refuge was▪
So horrid now was the Caesarians rage,
That neither pitie could their heat asswage,
Nor strength defend their wretched enemies
From their dire force; on euery side the cries
And groanes of dying men are heard alone.
Neuer so sauage crueltie was showne
Against the worst of forren foes, as then
The vanquish'd felt from their owne Countrymen▪
Which most appear'd, when to surprise the Towne
(A thing among'st Barbarians neuer knowne)
The workes they rais'd against it to maintaine
The siege, were carcasses of Romans slaine.
[Page] Caesar, that nere before did truly see
How hard it was to gaine a victory,
(Since Fortune still his wish with ease had wrought,
And he for glory, not for life had fought
Till Munda's field) recounts what he had lost,
Grieuing to finde what this sad conquest cost,
He sometimes wail'd his owne slaine Souldiers then,
Sometimes the slaughter'd foes, as Countrimen,
And wishes some, to whom he now might show
His mercy, had suruiu'd the ouerthrow;
And almost taxes Fortune, who that day
Had wrought his ends by such an enuy'd way.
Neuer till now did Caesar's pensiue brest,
Truly reuolue how tragicall the best
Successe will be that Ciuill warre affords,
And how deepe wounds his sadly conquering swords
Had made in th' entrailes of afflicted Rome.
Now Thapsus battell, now Pharsalia come
Into his sad remembrance; and almost
He wishes all his Triumphs had beene lost,
Rather than with such horrid slaughter won,
And that he nere had crossed Rubicon:
Scarce can the glories, that it brings, outweigh
The inward sorrow for so blacke a day.
While thus Great Caesar's troubled thoughts were led,
Cenonius enters and presents the head
Of Noble Pompey, whose now pitty'd state
Call'd to remembrance his great Fathers fate,
In treacherous Aegypt; and no lesse than his
Inforced teares of ruth from Caesar's eyes.
How did he die (quoth he) relate to vs
His tragedy: when thus Cenonius;
When Munda's fields strew'd with his slaughter'd troops
Young Pompey saw, and voide of present hopes
[Page]Fled to Carteia, to embarque from thence
For forren coasts, fearing the Citizens
And our pursuit, he left the Towne againe,
And quite bereft of all his scattered traine
Wounded and lame, retir'd into a wood,
That not farre distant from Carteia stood,
Hoping the couert of that shady place
A while might yeeld him shelter from the chace▪
We enter'd in, and long the wood suruay'd
With curious eyes, and long in vaine we stray'd:
But farre within a spreading Beech there stood,
Where weary'd now, and faint through losse of blood
Alone he sate; he that had fought so late
'Gainst thee, Oh Caesar, with long doubtfull fate;
He whom so many Roman legions
Did lately guard, so many nations
Obey'd and seru'd, now all forsaken fate
A sad example of mans fraile estate.
When I approaching bad him yeeld to me
In Caesar's name: neuer aliue (quoth he,)
Let Caesar see my head, for nere can that
Be my disgrace, that was my Fathers fate▪
By this vnhappie token let him know
The heire of Pompey, and perceiue a foe
That might haue proued worthy of his feare
So let me goe to him, rather than beare
A conquerours disdaine, or blushing be
The pitty'd subiect of an enemie:
Nor shall you finde I prize, so cheape a life
(Though vanquished) as without any strife
To send it him: Then with a courage high
Aboue his strength, aboue the misery
Of his forsaken state, among vs all
He flies; or to preuent, or sell his fall
[Page]Deere as he could; alas, for victory
Fortune forbid him hope; nor did it lie
Within the power of his vnwilling foes
To saue that life which he resolu'd to lose;
But meeting wounds away at last it fled:
Caesar, with sighs, beholds the Noble head,
Pittying his fall, and bids Cenonius beare
It thence, to finde the body, and interre
Them both in such a manner, as became
Th' vnhappie ruines of so great a name:
And thence, secur'd from feares, marches away
By Baetis streame, to stately Corduba,
Now the Herculean Gades, faire Hispalis,
Munda, so lately fatall, Vcubis,
Ategua, and all the other Townes
Which fence the wealthy Beticke regions,
Breathe nought but peace, nor longer to oppose
Caesar's preuailing Fortune, harbour foes▪
Nor doe these onely their subiection yeeld
To Caesar, but the farthest, the most wilde,
And sauage Nations, rough Asturians,
Fierce Callaicians, bold Cantabrians
From all the farthest distant shores of Spaine
Doe humbly sue his fauour to obtaine:
The loue they bare to Pompey's name before
Was quite oreborne by Fate, and could no more
Maintaine a faction against Caesar's power;
Who now a sole vnriuall'd conquerour,
From that subiected coast hasts to be gone
To visite Rome, which now was his alone,
And there in fearelesse Triumphs to display
The wofull glories of blacke Munda's day.
Annotations vpon the sixth Booke.
a How truly the manner of this battell is here expressed, or how farre it may be lawfull for one writing by the way of a Poet to digresse, I leaue it to the iudgement of the Reader: and that you way briefely see it without the labour of searching Bookes, thus the cruell battell of Munda by two Historians of credit is described (to omit others for breuitie sake.)
Dion Cassius lib 43. thus: At the first conflict the auxiliaries on both sides fled away; but the Roman forces encountering fiercely continued the fight long, not regarding at all what became of their associates, euery man thinking that the whole victory depended vpon his hand: they gaue no ground, nor left their stations, but killing, or dying made good the place: there were no clamours nor military showtes heard, nor hardly groanes, onely these speeches, strike, kill. Caesar and Pompey both on horsebacke from two hills beheld the battell, and knew not what they should resolue, but were equally distracted betweene feare and confidence. And afterwards thus: so long and fiercely with equall hopes both armies fought, that vnlesse King Bogud, who stood with his forces without the battell, had turned about to surprise the Campe of Pompey, and Labienus had left the battell to preuent him, they had all without doubt died in the battell, or night had parted them vpon equall termes.
Florus relates it thus: Doubtfull and sad was this battell, Fortune seeming to deliberate, and not resoluing what to doe: Caesar himselfe was sad before the battell, contrary to his custome, either considering the frailtie of mankinde, or suspecting the long continuance of his prosperitie, or else fearing the fate of Pompey being now growne to the height of Pompey: but in the battell it selfe (what neuer before had beene knowne to happen) while both the armies were in their height of fury, a sudden silence, as if by consent, was throughout the field: and last of all (a [Page] thing not usuall in Caesar's army) the old Souldiers began to giue ground, and that they did not absolutely flie, it seemed to be shame, not valour that withheld them: Concerning the despaire of Caesar, and this his action Appian is my warrant, and Florus partly testifies as much.
c Sextus Pompeius did long lurke in Celtiberia, till after the death of Iulius Caesar he leuied forces, and surprising the Iland of Sicily, he commanded the Seas in those parts, and saued many Romans that fled to him from the proscription of the Triumuiri: he was at last vanquished at Sea by Marcus Agrippa the chiefe Generall for Augustus Caesar, and slaine in Asia by the Souldiers of Marcus Antonius the Triumuir.
FINIS.
THE SEVENTH BOOKE.
The Argument of the seuenth Booke.
What different passions 'mongst the people rise
At Caesar's new transcendent dignities:
He, to decline the Enuy of his reigne,
Designes a warre against the Parthian.
Cassius consults with Brutus to set free
The State againe by Caesar's Tragedy.
The Lords conspire: vnto the Capitoll
Caesar securely goes (though of his f [...]ll
By fatall prodigies foretold in vaine)
And entring there is by the Senate slaine.
THat ciuill fury, that so long had torne
Romes state, & through so many regions borne
Her bleeding wounds, it selfe had wasted now;
And long'd-for peace did seeme againe to show
Her cheerefull face; the people hop'd for rest,
Since now vnriuall'd Caesar was possest
Of all the honours, Rome could giue, alone,
And the World knew no other power but one.
The ore-ioy'd people wish it euer so:
(His power was growne aboue their Enuy now)
And to the gods they willingly forgiue
The losse of that vnsafe prerogatiue
Their libertie, and gladly would adore
A safe and peacefull Scepter; for the more
[Page]His might in warre their terrours did increase
The more his vertues now secure their peace:
No better guardian, wish they, to the State
Than mighty Caesar, whose vnconquer'd Fate
So long preuail'd 'gainst all opposing powers,
And crush'd so many great competitours.
Nor doe the poore plebeians wish it so
Alone; these hopes the weary'd Senate too
(Except some few) doe harbour with delight,
And gladly giue consent to Caesar's height:
They most of all desire a calme, since most
The highest Cedars by rough stormes are tost;
They wish the shadow of that freedome gone
Whose substance long agoe was ouerthrowne.
For what since Marius times, since Sylla's reigne
Did they of ancient libertie retaine,
But the bare name? For which so deere a price
They pay'd, and saw so many Tragedies:
And therefore not alone from flattery,
But from true ioy to Caesar they decree
More height of honour, and more state than can
Fit the condition of a priuate man,
Left he perchance might seeme in his owne eyes
Lesse than a Monarch: to those dignities,
Which after the defeat of Scipio
He had receiu'd, they adde farre greater now,
Diuine and humane; that throughout all lands,
And all the kingdomes which great Rome commands,
Not onely Sacrifices should be had
For him, and offerings in all Temples made,
But Temples to himselfe they doe decree
To consecrate as to a Deirie:
But one more sumptuous than the rest, and high
Erected is to him and Clemency
[Page]Ioyning their Deities, where hand in hand
Does Caesar's image with the Goddesse stand:
And (as his Countries sauiour) euery where
His rich-wrought Statues oaken Garlands weare▪
They stile him Consull for ten yeares to come,
Dictator euer, Father of his Rome;
And that in euery cause, for ample State,
He, as Supreme, and Soueraigne Magistrate
Should iudgement giue from a Tribunall high
Of burnish'd Gold and polish'd Iuory.
That those chaste maides, which keepe the Vestall flame,
And all Romes Priests should vow in Caesar's name,
And for his safetie offer euery yeare,
And he himselfe a robe Triumphall weare
At publike Sacrifice; that thankes should be
Giu'n to the gods for his each victory,
And the dayes sacred. Who could ere haue thought
That day, on which Pharsalia's field was fought,
Or that of Thapsus, or sad Munda's warre
As holidayes should fill the Calendar?
And Cato, Scipio, Pompey's tragicke falls
Be kept with ioy as Roman Festiualls?
The moneth Quintilis, to his lasting fame,
(Which gaue him birth) must beare great Iulius name.
What more deserued honour could there be,
More fit, more gratefull to posteritie
For Caesar's future memory to weare,
Than mention in his owne amended yeare?
That he, whose wisdome from confusion
Had freed th' accounts of time, and to the Sunne
Had squar'd his yeare, from all those errours freed
Which negligence insensibly did breed,
In that should liue, while people euery where
Throughout the World obserue the Iulian yeare.
[Page]And more to heighten his transcendent State,
They make decree, that euery Magistrate
Shall (when elected) sweare not to withstand
What euer Caesar's edicts shall command,
Making his power so great, there's nothing now
But he himselfe may on himselfe bestow.
What now should Caesar feare? What ill successe
Can shake so strong a grounded happinesse?
Or what should Rome now in a State so blest
Suppose can rend her peace, or reaue her rest?
Askes it a greater vertue to maintaine
A setled fortune than at first to gaine?
Or is it easier to the powers on high
To giue, than to preserue prosperitie?
Or would the gods else let proud mortalls see
By this so fatall mutabilitie,
Their fraile estate, and finde the distance so
Betwixt Celestiall powers and powers below?
Caesar to mould the State a new beginnes
With wholesome Lawes, and by his mercy winnes
(If mercy could such Enuy ouercome)
The peoples hearts, calling from exile home
Those banish'd Lords that had against him fought
To make all hatred, with the warre, forgot:
And through the Empires wide circumference
Extends his bountie and Magnificence;
Carthage and Corinth he re-edifies,
And plants them both with Roman Colonies,
And not detracting from th' old founders fames,
Lets them both beare their first renowned names.
But yet suspecting (what the sadde euent
Prou'd true) how hardly his new gouernment
Will at the first be brook'd, till time allay
That Enuies heat, that does as yet outweigh
[Page]His lenitie, and nothing more than rest
Matures the plots of discontented brests,
Caesar resolues with speed to entertaine
An honourable warre to wipe the staine
Of ciuill blood, by forren deeds, away,
To fetch againe from conquer'd Parthia
(Which yet secure did of Romes Trophees boast)
Those captiue Eagles which slaine Crassies lost.
His fixed thoughts on that high action set,
Vnto a great and frequent Senate met,
Thus Caesar speakes; Fathe [...]s Conscript, had I
Meant to abuse my power in crueltie,
As Cinna, Marius, and dire Sylla did,
What closest vizour could so long haue hid
My nature from you? You had found ere this
Some fatall signes: but I, that still did wish
Power, for no other end than to secure
The vse of vertuous deeds, and put in vre
Nor what my passions but true reason taught,
In all these warres haue for the publike fought,
To make my selfe a Guardian, not a Lord
Of Rome and you, and with a conquering Sword
Keepe out all Tyrants, that might else intrude,
Working your safetie, not your seruitude.
What can this Senate, or the people feare
From Caesar's power, whose mercy euery where
So many pardon'd enemies haue try'd?
And, saue in battell, none by me destroy'd:
Let those suruiuing witnesses relate
How I in warre haue vs'd my prosperous Fate;
Let Scip [...]o's papers burn'd, vnread by me
(After the field of Thapsus) testifie
How loth I was to finde in Rome a foe▪
And rather chose my dangers not to know,
[Page]But still to liue in danger, than to be
Secur'd by slaughter and seueritie:
Nor, but enforc'd, witnesse ye gods of Rome,
To this sad ciuill warre did Caesar come,
And was compell'd (though loth) to conquer more
To purchase that, which I deseru'd before,
For which ten yeares successefully I fought
Against the Gaules, and all those regions brought
Vnder the power of Rome, which lie betweene
The Pyrenaean hills, the German Rhine,
And Brittish Seas; nor did the German Rhine,
Or Brittish Seas my victories confine,
Which flew beyond them both, and crossing ore
(Where neuer Roman Eagles pearch'd before)
I taught the Germans there our yoke to carry,
And made the painted Brittaines tributary:
For which my Triumphs Enuy did deny;
To winne for Rome was made a crime in me.
Had not my foes vngratefull iniury
Turn'd backe those conquering armes on Italy
They had, perchance, Fathers, by your command
Ere this subdu'd the farthest Easterne land.
Our name the Indians, and tam'd Medes had knowne▪
The Persian Susa, and proud Babylon
Had felt our strength, nor on the Parthian coast
So long had Crassus vnreuenged ghost
Complaining wander'd: That designe for me
Rests now to act (so you the warre decree.)
When first the Spring dissolues the mountaine snow,
And Westerne winds vpon the waters blow;
When with his golden hornes bright Taurus opes
The chearefull yeare; shall these victorious troops
Aduance against the Parthians, and there die,
Or fetch those Eagles home with victory
[Page]Which Crassus lost: till then you need not feare
The insolency of the Souldier,
That their disorder'd licence here at home
May any way disturbe the peace of Rome.
My care already has (besides the spoiles
Of forren foes) rewarded all their toiles
With those great summes, which here so lately I
(Perchance much enuy'd) rais'd in Italy
To keepe them still, and did not feare to buy
With mine owne Enuy your security.
Then, Conscript Fathers, if your wisdomes shall
Esteeme of Caesar as a Generall,
Fit to reuenge the Roman infamy
'Gainst Parthia's pride, decree the warre to me:
I am your Souldier still; nor ere has ought
But Romes renowne by all my toiles beene sought:
You shall perceiue that Caesar's Souldiers are
Not onely fortunate in Ciuill warre.
Caesar had ended; when the Fathers all
To such a warre, and such a Generall
Giue glad consent, and with one voyce decree
The Parthian warre to Caesar's auspicie.
But Fates deny what they so much desir'd;
The date of Caesar's glory was expir'd,
And Fortune weary'd with his Triumphs now
Reuolts from him; more ruine and more woe
Was yet behinde for wretched Rome to tast▪
Nor can their quiet happinesse out-last
The life of Caesar, whose approaching Fate
More Ciuill warres and wounds must expiate▪
No vertue, bountie, grace, nor clemency
Could long secure vsurped Soueraignty:
For more that power to Citizens borne free
Distastfull was than benefits could be
[Page]Sweet and delight some: which soone hasten'd on
Th' vntimely death of Caesar; Nor alone
To this conspiracy did hatred draw
His ancient foes▪ as Pontius Aquila,
Bucolianus, and Cecilius,
Ligarius pardon'd once, and Rubrius,
Scruilius Galba, Sextus Naso too,
Spurius, with many of the faction moe:
But euen 'mongst Caesar's friends dire Enuy wrought;
And to his slaughter bold Trebonius brought,
Casca, and Cimber, and Minutius
His seeming friends; nor thee, Oh Cassius,
Could Caesar's fauour, nor thy Pretorship
Of Rome obtain'd, from this dire murther keepe.
Decimus Brutus too, so highly grac'd,
And in so neere a ranke of friendship plac'd
With Caesar, to whose trust and gouernance
The wealthy prouince of Transalpine France
Caesar had left, enuying his Patrons power
Among the rest is turn'd conspiratour:
Nor seemes the knot of this great faction yet,
To be of strength enough, vnlesse they get
Young Marcus Brutus in, who then did sway
The Prouince of Cisalpine Gallia,
Colleague with Cassius (as Romes Pretors) then,
And high in Caesar's grace: this braue young man
For his knowne vertues and admired parts,
In all the peoples discontented hearts
Did seeme most thought of, and mark'd out to be
The vindicatour of lost libertie:
Nor did they hide it, but in libells wrote
On his Pretorian cell, exprest their thought,
Taxing his courage as degenerate
From th' ancient Brutus, who first freed the State
[Page]Of Rome from Monarchy; as if the fame
Of such an act could suit no other name,
And he by fatall birth condemn'd to be
An Actor now in Caesar's Tragedy.
Now had Rh [...]m n [...]sian Nemesis possest
In all her blackest formes, the vengefull brest
Of fierie Cassius, and did wholly sway
His eager thoughts, impatient of delay:
Who, by nights silence, enters Brutus house▪
Him there he findes alone, and anxious,
Wailing his Countries Fate, and sadder farre
Than when the feare of this great Ciuill warre
First seiz'd the peoples hearts, and frighted Rome
Was fill'd with fatall prodigies: to whom
Cassius beginnes: Oh why should Brutus spend
That pretious time in thought, which he should lend
In actiue aid, to his sad Countries need;
That would againe by Brutus hand be freed.
See what the peoples longing thoughts expect
That thou should'st worke for them; marke the effect
Of what they write on thy Praetorian Sell:
There may'st thou read that (though contented well)
They look'd no farther than for vaine delights
(As Libyan huntings, and Circensian sights)
From other Praetors, they expect from thee
A benefit, no lesse than libertie:
Can Brutus thinke that Caesar, while he liues▪
Will ere resigne so great a power, who striues
To make it more his owne; and not content
With a Dictator's name and gouernment,
An office oft bestow'd, while Rome was free,
Aimes at more certaine markes of Monarchy
The Regall Crowne and Scepter, thinking all
The Senate giues, cause they can giue it, small?
[Page]Why were the Tribunes else, for taking downe
From Caesar's Statue, late, a golden Crowne,
Depos'd? Or what could he by law alleage
Against their persons sacred priuilege?
Did lewd Antonius put a Diadem
On Caesar's head, to be refus'd by him
In publike onely, and not there to trie
How we would all allow his Monarchy?
Besides a thousand more ambitious arts,
He daily findes to sound the peoples hearts.
His death the period of his pride must be,
And must with speed be wrought: for if, till he
Returne triumphant from the Parthian warre,
We should delay our vengeance, harder farre,
And with more enuy must it then be done,
When he more honour and more loue has wonne.
To shake off Caesar's yoke this is the time,
Or make it not our owne, but Fortunes crime:
The Noble Brutus sigh'd; Oh Cassius,
If Heauens (quoth he) haue not allotted vs
A longer date of freedome, how can we
With feeble armes controule their high decree?
They, that in Affricke, Spaine, and Thessaly
Condemn'd the cause of Roman liberty,
Will not protect it now: and better farre
It should be lost in faire and open warre,
From whence at first it sprung, and grew so high,
Than to be sau'd by secret treachery,
Such as the ancient Romans scorn'd to vse
'Gainst worst of foes. Noble Fabritius,
When conquering Pyrrhus threaten'd Rome, disdain'd
To free his Countrey by a traitours hand,
Aduenturing rather Romes sad ouerthrow
By open warre: nor 'gainst a forren foe
[Page]Were these respects obseru'd alone by vs:
What greater traitour than Sertorius,
And foe to Rome? Yet he by treason slaine
On base Perpenna stucke a lasting staine:
What hope was there that one so deepe in blood
As was that Butcher Sylla, euer would
Resigne his reigne to be a priuate man?
Yet who 'gainst Sylla's life attempted then?
Twixt whom and Caesar was as great an ods
Almost, as twixt the Furies and the Gods.
As much as those then liuing Romans were
Too timorous, too base, and prone to beare
A Tyrants yoke, as much, for this, shall we
Be iudg'd ingrate to Caesar's clemency:
And those old men will more accuse our crime,
That can remember Sylla's bloody time:
But I (of all accurst) that so much owe
To Caesar's fauours, am condemned now
To be a subiect, or from seruitude
To free my selfe by foule ingratitude:
Oh what a torture my distracted brest
Suffers, twixt two such sad extremes opprest?
Oh why, when dire Pharsalia's field was fought,
And I disguis'd in common armour sought
To reach his life, before I was descry'd,
And sau'd by Caesar, had not Brutus dy'd,
And free descended to the shades below?
Or if my aime had hit, one happie blow
Had rescu'd Rome from thrall without a staine
(Vnlesse Great Pompey had vsurp'd a reigne)
And had not left our libertie to be
Thus poorely wrought by secret treachery:
Oh, stay awhile our vengeance, Cassius,
See what the gods, and Fate will doe for vs▪
[Page]Or what ere long our fatall enemies
The Parthians can doe. Cassius replies,
Could Brutus then be pleas'd, the Parthian foe
Againe should triumph in our ouerthrow?
To haue, with publike losse and infamy
That wrought for vs, which may with honour be
(And Rome yet safe) by our owne hands atchieu'd.
In all thy reasons, yet, thou art deceiu'd,
Mistakinq grounds of things, thou dost conclude
Impartiall Iustice foule ingratitude:
For if the deed be iust, no benefit
Receiu'd, should hinder thee from acting it;
That were corruption, not true gratitude:
The greater fauours Caesar ere has shew'd
To thee, the more thy Iustice will appeare
In that the publike good thou dost preferre:
'T would take much honour from a deed so high,
If Caesar had beene knowne thine enemie:
Nor could an act, wherein thy priuate hate
Had borne a share, so much oblige the State:
To purchase honour, and our Countries good
Priuate respects of friendship or of blood
Must be forgot and banish'd: is that old
Brutus through, all succeeding times extoll'd,
By whose strict Iustice his owne sonnes did die,
That sought againe to bring in Monarchy?
And art thou bound to suffer Caesar's reigne?
What would old Brutus doe, if here againe?
Or vnto thee can Caesar's fauour seeme
A greater bond than nature was to him?
Nor canst thou terme it secret treachery
If by our hands vsurping Caesar die;
Since Fate of warlike power has vs bereft,
And no meanes else to worke our freedome left.
[Page]Should we a while deferre the action,
It cannot be, perchance, hereafter done
But with dishonour and base Treasons staine,
When we before haue both approu'd his reigne:
For in the Sibils bookes 'twas lately read,
The Parthians neuer can be vanquished
But by a King: which in the peoples eares
Is told already; and his Flatterers
By them would haue it publikely desir'd;
Our voyces, Brutus, will be then requir'd;
Which we with greatest perill must deny,
Or else for euer lose our libertie.
When Cassius had with his persuasiue art
Fully confirm'd young Brutus wauering heart
To this sad deed; a noise at doore they heare;
Decimus Brutus now was enter'd there,
And all the rest of that conspiracy:
Where 'mongst themselues the fatall knot they tie,
By mutuall othes; striuing (alas) in vaine
By Caesar's death that freedome to attaine,
Which was for euer banish'd by the doome
Of Fate, and neuer to returne to Rome
Though often sought; in stead of freedome now
More desolation, Tragedies and woe
After this slaughter must againe ensue;
And all the people that dire action rue
Which they desir'd. Philippi's balefull day,
Perusia's siege, and fatall Mutina,
With Leuca's fleet shall make afflicted Rome
Truly lament ore slaughter'd Caesar's Tombe.
The balefull Ides of March approaching nigh
Ordain'd by Fate for this great Tragedy,
Th' Etrurian Augurs, who diuine by sight
Of slaine beasts entrailes, and the various flight
[Page]Of Birds, in Caesar's danger were not dumbe,
But boldly told what they foresaw to come.
The Ides of March Spurinna bids him feare:
Nor did the Earth, the Aire, or Skies forbeare
Presaging signes (if any signes could lend
Meanes to preuent what destinies intend:)
Affrighting voyces in the Aire were heard;
The Sunne himselfe in threatning formes appear'd,
Sometimes, as if he wept, his glorious head
With a blew Rainebow round enuironed;
Sometimes quite dimm'd, as if he fled the sight
Of men, and meant to make eternall night.
The windy Spirits through earth's torne cauernes breake:
Floods change their courses: beasts 'gainst nature speake▪
The swelling Poe oreflowes th' adioyning plaine,
And to his channell suddenly againe
Retiring backe, thousands of monstrous Snakes,
Which he brought forth, vpon dry ground forsakes.
The Sea, that had orewhelm'd a part of land
By Tyber's mouth, retiring, on the sand
As many fish did in like sort forsake:
But nearer signes great Caesar's death fore-spake.
Those stately Steeds, which, when the warre begun,
He crossing ore the streame of Rubicon
Had consecrated, and for euer freed
From future seruice of the warre, to feed
At libertie along the Chrystall flood,
And quiet wander through the shady wood,
For many dayes before their Lord was slaine,
Did, of themselues, their pleasant food refraine:
Their mourning eyes presaging sorrow shew'd,
And all the pasture fields with teares bedew'd.
The little regall Bird, the day before,
Flying along, a sprig of Laurell bore
[Page]Within her mouth; whom straight a multitude
Of Birds from out the neighbouring wood pursu'd,
Till she had enter'd Pompey's Court, and there
The Laurell'd Bird did all to peeces teare.
That night, that vsher'd forth the fatall day,
Was come, and with her darknesse did display
Prodigious feares, bringing, in stead of rest,
A sad disturbance to each wakefull brest:
Throughout the Palace, where great Caesar slept
His last, the armes of Mars, which there were kept,
Were heard to yeeld a horrid ratling sound,
Clashing together of themselues; and round
About the house the doores flew ope at once:
The aire of night was fill'd with dismall grones;
And people oft awaked with the howles
Of Wolues and fatall Dogges: ill boding Owles,
Night-iarres, and Rauens with wide-stretched throats
From yews, and holleys send their balefull notes;
The shrieches wailings, and all cries were heard
Of euery fatall and affrighting Bird.
Shape-faining Morpheus, in the dead of night,
Sent from the King of rest, with speedy flight
Entring the Palace, to Calphurnia,
Who sleeping in her Lords embraces lay,
Presents his slaughter'd figure in such wise
As vnto all th' amazed peoples eyes,
The next day's Sunne must show; all stain'd with blood
Before the bed she dreamt her Caesar stood,
His visage pal'd with death: that robe of State,
Which neuer foe before could violate,
All torne, through which his gaping wounds appeare:
Calphurnia weepes, then shriekes aloud for feare,
[Page]And stretching ore the bed her louing armes
T' embrace the flying shade; though free from harmes
She finde her Lord, who was awaked now,
Scarce dares she trust her waking senses so
As she beleeues the vision; in her thought
So much that too prophetike dreame had wrought.
Caesar with kisses wipes away her teares,
And askes the cause of her so sudden feares:
She trembling yet, the fatall dreame declares
Which had disturb'd her sleepe (nor could the cares
That rose from thence, be banish'd) with the story
Mixing fresh teares, and louing oratory,
Persuades her Caesar to remember now
What th' Augur's skills so lately did fore-show,
And what the learn'd Spurinna bad him feare
From th' Ides of March, which now (ill) present were:
She begges of him he would forbeare to goe
That morning to the Senate, and bestow
That one poore day, if not vpon his owne
Deare safetie, yet vpon her feares alone:
And grant to her as much, as to a wife
Was due, of int'rest in a husbands life.
That he those Spanish guards would entertaine,
Which had so lately beene dismiss'd, againe:
That safe preuention of a danger neere
Was Noble still, and could be stiled feare
No more than scorning the gods threats could be
True fortitude or magnanimitie.
Caesar replies; Ah deare Calphurnia,
Dearer to me than that life-breath I draw,
Would'st thou forbeare thy griefe, it could not lie
Within the power of any prodigie
[Page]To make this day a sad one: should I here
Begin to learne that superstitious feare
Of fatall dayes and houres, what day to me
Could ere hereafter from such feares be free?
I onely should my wretched life torment,
And not my destin'd time of death preuent,
But liue for euer with vaine feares diseas'd
When ere Astrologers or Augurs pleas'd:
Euery beasts entrailes were a care to me,
And flight of euery bird a malady.
If Caesar's danger grow from discontent
Of Rome, not one dayes absence can preuent,
Nor scarce repriue my Fate; and once to die
Better than euer feare conspiracie:
What good can strongest guards on me conferre
But make me liue perpetuall prisoner?
Why should I feare the peoples discontent,
Who now enioy vnder my gouernment
More wealth, more safetie, and prosperitie
Than by my death they could? The death of me,
That haue already reach'd the height of all
Glory and State that can to man befall,
And wrought my farthest ends, can neuer be
So much mine owne as their calamitie;
Who will againe with Ciu [...]ll iarres be rent,
And wish a safe and setled gouernment:
Oh doe not feare thy dreame, Calphurnia,
Nor sad presages from such trifles draw:
If dreames were fatall, Loue, sleepe were not rest;
Since most our cares would be by sleepe increast:
But if they were presages, tell me then,
For our two dreames to night haue different beene,
[Page]Which should preuaile? Me thought I flew aboue
The loftie Cloudes, and touch'd the hand of Joue,
And to my selfe did seeme more great and high
Than ere before: what but felicitie
Should this portend? I dare not now suspect
In calmest peace, those powers, that did effect
My roughest warres; Oh let no sad surmise
With causelesse griefe distaine Calphurnia's eyes.
Aurora now from T [...]thon's purple bed
Arose, and th' Easterne skie discoloured
Gaue cheerefull notice of th' approaching Sunne;
When forth, through Rome, th' officious clients [...]unne,
The Palace all with early visitants
Was fill'd, to wait when Caesar would aduance
Forth to the Senate; striuing to be seene
Neere th' earthly Sunne, and in his raies to shine:
Some to doe grace, and grace receiue from him,
Some, like malignant cloudes prepar'd to dim,
Or in eclipse eternall bury quite
Before the set of Phaebus, Caesar's light.
Among the rest did Decimus attend
With fained seruice, and the name of friend
To Fatall ends abusing, hasten'd on
Perswaded Caesar to destruction;
Though, ere they goe, the Sacrifices all
Threatning and blacke appear'd, and did appall
The fearefull Priests, who from those entrailes show
Portent of dire calamitie and woe:
Some Bulls they could not at the Altar stay,
Who breaking thence fled through the streets away;
In others, which were slaine and open'd there,
None but th' infernall gods deign'd to appeare:
[Page]The hearts were perish'd, and corruption flow'd
Through all the vitall parts, blacke was the blood.
The burning entrailes yeelded onely fume,
No flame at all, but darkely did consume
Mouldring away to ashes, and with blacke
Vnsauoury clouds through th' aire a darkenesse make.
But Caesar, maugre what the entrailes threat,
Vndaunted passes on (how wondrous great
Is Destiny?) and as he goes, neglects
That Scroll presented to him, which detects
The whole conspiracy: which, as of small
Import, he pockets vp not read at all,
And enters Pompey's bloody Court, led on
By powerfull Fate to his destruction:
Where ominously receiu'd, he mounts his high
Dictator's Sell of Gold and Iuory:
The Lords obeisance make in humblest wise,
When different passions in their brests arise;
Euen those bold hearts that vow'd his Tragedy,
Almost relent: the mans great Maiestie,
That awfull Fortune, that did still attend
His deeds, in all extremes a constant friend
Produce a feare t' encounter discontent:
Nor doe their fancies onely him present
Inuincible in open field, as when
He stood enuiron'd with his armed men:
But such as when alone he wrought his ends,
Aided by none but Fortune, as his friends,
As when he scap'd th' Aegyptian treachery,
When he appeas'd his Souldiers muteny,
Or when the stormy Seas he crossed ore
By night, and safely reach'd Brundusium's shore:
[Page]And why should not that friendly Fortune now,
As then (thinke they) preuent his ouerthrow
And to their ruine quite defeat the plot.
But shame forbid them to relent; the knot
Among too many conscious brests was ty'd
To let them start; and on the other side
Reuenge encourag'd by the multitude
Of Actors, enter'd, and all feares subdu'd,
First to his Sell bold Cimber made approach,
And seiz'd his Purple robe; at whose rude touch
While Caesar's wrath together with amaze
Began to rise, the rest from euery place
Drawne neere, no longer hiding their intent
The fatall Ponyards to his brest present:
The first wound on him Casca did bestow,
Whose Ponyard Caesar wresting, to his foe
Returnes a stabbe backe for the stabbe he gaue,
Striuing in vaine with one poore strength to saue
A life assaulted by so many hands;
No succours could approach, no guard, nor bands
Of aiding friends were nigh; that courage quite
Was lost, that nere was lost before in fight;
Vntill enfeebled by a deeper wound,
And by inuading death enuiron'd round,
Hopelesse he hides his face, and fixed stands
T' endure the fury of reuenging hands
Repressing groanes or words, as loth to shame
His former life, or dying staine the fame
Of those great deeds through all the World exprest,
These silent thoughts reuoluing in his brest:
Yet has not Fortune chang'd, nor giuen the power
Of Caesar's head to any Conquerour;
[Page]By no Superiours proud command I die,
But by subiected Romes conspiracy:
Who to the World confesses by her feares,
My State and strength to be too great for hers,
And from earths highest Throne, sends me to be
By after-ages made a Deitie:
Through many wounds his life disseized, fled
At last; and he, who neuer vanquished
By open warre, with blood and slaughter strew'd
So many lands, with his owne blood embrew'd
The seat of wronged Iustice, and fell downe
A sacrifice t' appease th' offended gowne.
FINIS.