The image of gouernance compiled of the actes and sentences notable, of the moste noble Emperour Alexander Seuerus, late translated out of Greke into Englyshe, by syr Thomas Eliot knight, in the fauour of nobylitie

¶The fyrst practyse of Alexander in reducyng of the empire into his prystinate honour. Cap. viii.

THE NOBLE AND prudente ladye Mammes, mother of the emperour A∣lexander, consyderynge her sonne to be nowe entred into the moste dangerous passage of youth, being but .xvi. yeres olde, feared leste the excellency of his astate (as it of∣tentymes hapned to other) shulde incite hym to assay thynges, whyche frayle nature thynketh delectable, and tastynge ones of them, his tender youth mought not withstande the assautes of pleasaunt affections, wherby he mought eftesones brynge the empyre into ruine and infamy, and hym selfe and all his bloud to vtter destruction. Therfore she perceyuing hym to be obedient to her exhortations, (in dede she was a wo∣man of moche wysedome and holynesse, but that she

was somwhat noted of couetyse) she with good reson perswaded to hym, that he coulde neuer wel stablyshe his astate Imperyall, but onely by reducynge of the senate and people into their prystmate order, whyche coulde neuer be brought to passe, except that fyrste his owne palaice were cleane purged of personages cor∣rupted with vices, and into their places men of appro¦ued vertue and wysedom elected. And semblably that to the examp••e of themperours owne householde, the sondry dignities and offices in the weale publik were aptly distributed: consydering that the princis palaice is lyke a common fountayne or sprynge to his citie or countrey, wherby the people by the cleannes therof be longe preserued in honestie, or by the impurenes ther∣of a••e with sundry vyces corrupted. And vntylle the fountain be purged, there can neuer be any sure hope of remedy.

¶Wherfore Alexander immediatly after that he had receiued of the senate and people the name of Augu∣stus, whervnto was annexed the entier power and iu∣risdiction imperiall, wherby he mought commaunde or prohibite what he thought moste conuenient, fyrste he dyscharged all minysters, whiche the monstruouse beaste Heliogabalus hadde vndyscretely promoted of most vyle and dyshonest personages, banyshyng also out of his palaice, al such as he mought by any mea∣nes knowe, to be persones infamed. semblably flatte∣rers, as well those, whiche therfore were fauoured of his predecessour, as theym, whom he apprehended a∣busyng hym with semblable falsehode. Accordynge to that example he reformed the hole senate and iudges, and also all other dignities and offices in the publike

weale. In lyke maner he pourged his garrisons and men of warre, and corrected their lyberties and priui∣leges, gyuen vndiscretely to theym by other empe∣rours, or by them misused.

¶Moreouer with all spede conuenient, by the aduise of Ulpiane his tutour, Frontinus, and other the wi∣seste men of the Senate, he with all dilygence elected out of all partes of the empire, a conuenient and ho∣norable company of wyse & honorable counsaylours. This numbre were the moste excellente lawyars, of whose sentences is made the texte of the lawe cyuile, gathered in the bookes named the Digestes. There was also Fabius Gabinus, surnamed Cato for his singular wysedome. Also Gordiane, of whom I late dyd wryte, a man of moche grauytie and noblenesse, whose sonne was afterwarde emperoure. Moreouer there was Claudius Uenatus a noble and eloquente oratour, Also Catilius Seuerus, kinseman to the em¦perour, moste excellently lerned aboue all other, Se∣renianus a man of great perfectiō and grauitie, And Caius Marcellus, who was of such vertue and good¦nesse, that neuer historye remembred a better. These good and honorable personages, with many other not of moche lasse estimation, at all tymes and places attended vpon that noble Emperour: of the whiche Ulpiane was in maner his chauncellour or keper of the imperiall monumentes: And the Emperour had hym for his chiefe counsaylour.