A discourse of constancy in two books chiefly containing consolations against publick evils written in Latin by Justus Lipsius, and translated into English by Nathaniel Wanley ...

CHAP. XXIV.

A rehearsall of some strange Cruelties and murthers in time past, above the guilt of this Age.

BUt yet (say you) there are such cruelties and murthers at this day, as the like have not been heard of. I know vvhat you point at, and vvhat vvas done of late, but I appeal to your conscience Lipsius, vvas their no such thing amongst the ancients? How ignorant are you if you know it not, and how vvicked if you dissemble it? For there is such a plenty of Exam∣ples in this matter, and they lye so ready, that it is some trouble even to choose. Know you not the name of Sylla the Fortunate? If you doe, you remember that infamous and cru∣el prescription of his, by vvhich he cast out of one City four thousand se∣ven

hundred Citizens. Nor were they of the meaner sort; but one hun∣dred and forty of them vvere Senators. Nor do I touch upon those infinite slaughters that were usually acted either by his permission or command. So that not undeservedly those words burst from Quintus Catulus vvith vvhom at length shall vve live; if in Warr vve kill armed Men, and in peace the dis∣armed. But shortly after; this same Sylla vvas imitated by his Disciples: I mean the triumvirs, vvho in like man∣ner proscribed three hundred Sena∣tors, and above two thousand Roman Knights. O vvickedness! A greater cruelty than this the Sun in all its tra∣vels from the East unto the West, did never yet behold; not is like to do hereafter. If you please you may look into Appianus, and there you may be∣hold the various and deformed condi∣tion of those times: Of those that lay hid, and fled; of those that stopped their flight, and halled them forth:

the vvoful vvailings of Wives and Chil∣dren; so that you vvould believe hu∣manity itself had perished and fled from that savage and inhumane age. These cruelties were acted upon the persons of Senatours and Knights, that is to say, upon so many little less than Kings and Princes; but possibly the Com∣mons were more favourably dealt with. No such matter. Look upon the same Sylla, who commanded four Legions of the contrary party (for whose secu∣rity he had given his faith) to be mur∣thered in the publick Villa; they in vain imploring the mercy of his treach∣erous right hand: Whose dying groans reaching the Curia and the Senate be∣ing startled and amazed at it: Let us mind our business Conscript Fathers, (said he) a few seditious fellows are punished by my command. I know not vvhich I should most vvonder at; that a Man could do so, or that he could speak so. Will you have more ex∣amples of cruelty? Take them. Ser∣vius

Galba in Spain summoning the peo∣ple of three Cities together; as if to communicate to them something to their advantage; suddenly commanded seven thousand of them to be slain; amongst vvhich vvas the flower of their youth. In the same Country Lucius Licinius Lucullus the Consul sent his Souldiers into the City of the Cau∣caeans, and slew twenty thousand of them contrary to the Articles agreed upon at their yielding Octavianus Augustus vvhen he had taken Perusia; chose out three hundred of the chief∣est of both orders, and though they had yielded themselves, he slew them as Sacrifices before an Altar vvhich he had erected to D. Iulius Antonius Caracalla, (being offended vvith those of Alexandria; for I knovv not vvhat jests upon him) enters that City in a semblance of peace, and vvhen he had commanded all their young Men into the Field; he surrounds them vvith his Souldiers, upon a Signal given

he kills them every one, and using the same cruelty to the remaining multi∣tude, he utterly exhausted that po∣pulous and most frequented City. King Mithridates by one letter caused eighty thousand Roman Citizens to be slain; that were dispersed through∣out Asia about their mercandise. Vo∣lesus Messalla the Proconsul of Asia, in one day caused three hundred to be beheaded; and strutting amongst the dead bodyes with his armes on his sides, as if he had done some glori∣ous act; cryed out aloud; O Princely deed! Hitherto I have only spoken of prophane and impious persons; but behold amongst those that are devoted to the service of the true God: You vvill find it of the Emperour Theodo∣sius that having by the highest vvicked∣ness and deceit, betrayed seven thou∣sand innocent people of Thessalonica into the Theatre, under pretence of exhibiting some playes; He sent his Souldiers amongst them, and mur∣thered

them all: Than vvhich fact nothing is to be found more impious in the records of all the Heathen im∣pieties. Go now my Belgians, and af∣ter all this, accuse the cruelty and treachery of the Princes of this Age.