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BVt as I said, these shall passe: marry not that of Mithridates, (a) King of Asia who gaue direct command, that what euer Romaine was to bee found
traffiquing or trauelling any where in al Asia, vpon one certaine day he should be immediately slaine: and it was effected. How dolorous a sight was this, to see men slaine in such numbers, wheresoeuer they were taken, in field, way, towne, house, streete, court, temple, bed or table, or wheresoeuer, so suddenly and so wickedly? what sorrowes would possesse the standers by, and perhaps the very doers of the deeds themselues, to heare the sad grones of the dying men? vnto what extremi∣ty were the hosts of lodgings brought now, when they must not onely behold those murders committed in their houses, but euen helpe to performe them them∣selues. To turne so suddenly from gentle humanity vnto barbarous cruelty? to do the act of an enemy in peace, and that on his friend, enterchanging indeed wounds with the murthered, the murthered being striken in the body, & the mur∣therer in the mind? & did al these that were thus slaine, neglect Auguries? Had they no gods publike nor priuat to aske counsell of ere they betooke them vnto this trauell from whence they were neuer to returne? If this bee true, then haue they of our times no cause to complaine of vs, for the neglect of those things, the Romaines of ould contemned them as vanities. But if they did not, but vsed to aske counsell of them, then tell me (I pray) to what end was it when other mens powers fell so heauy vpon these wretches without all prohibition, or meanes to avoyd them?
MIthridates (a) King.] The first Mithridates was of the bloud of the seauen Persians that * 1.1 tooke the kingdome from the Magi. Antigonus King of Syria was his foe and chaced him into Cappadocia, where he was afterwards King: and so left his crowne to his sonne, he to his, and so downe to the sixt of his descent, the sixt was the Mithridates that warred with the Romaines, a man of a strong body, and of as stout a spirit, he guyded sixe horses in his chariot, he spake two and twenty seuerall languages, and was surnamed the great. First hee was friend to Rome, for hee sent Crassus ayde against Aristonicus, but by reason of the warre hee had with Nicomedes King of Bythynia, he fell from affecting the Romaines; inuaded the Romaine Prouinces in Phrigia, expelled the legate Aquilius, and soone after imprisoned both him and Q. Oppius, viceconsuls together: and sent his letters forth through out all Asia, that vpon one set day, what euer Romaine were resident, in all his dominions, should be forthwith slaine without all respect of dignity, age, sexe or place that hee should fly into. And it was done as he commaunded.
Diuerse Mithridates