Tricoenivm Christi in nocte proditionis suæ The threefold svpper of Christ in the night that he vvas betrayed / explained by Edvvard Kellett.

PAR. 5.

HOw large a field I have to expatiate in; if I should take a full liberty to shew that Conquerours have condescended to the fashions of the conquered, who seeth not? I will be briefe: Justinus (Hist. lib. 12. penè in Initio) Alexander habi∣tum Regum Persarum, & diadema (insolitum anteà in regibus Macedonicis) velut in le∣ges eorum, quos vicerat, transiret, assumit; quae, ne invidiosiùs in se uno conspicerentur, amicos quoque suos, longam vestem auream, purpureá;mque sumere jubet, ut luxum quoque, sicuti cultum, imitarensur: that is, Iustine, almost at the beginning of the 12. book of his history, thus: Alexander that he might as it were subject himselfe to the Lawes of the Persian Sophies, (whom he had Conquered) tooke on him their garbe and Crowne, (an unusuall thing among the former Kings of Macedon) and lest he might chance to be envyed by his Nobilitie, and Courtiers, for so doing; he commanded them also to weare long robes of gold, and purple; that so they might imitate, and follow the Persians, as well in their luxury, as in their bravery. Q. Curtius (6. pag. 153.) Alexander â victoris insignibus, in devicti transivit habi∣tum, & ille se quidem spolia Persarum gestare dicebat, sed cum illis quoque mores (eorum) induit; that is, Alexander leaving his accustomed ornaments, went habited like the conquered; and indeede, he sayd, he wore the spoiles of the Persians, but with them he also assumed, and put on their manners, and all the Campe beleeved; and reported, that more was lost by the victory, than gotten by the warre; (Pag. 154.) and Alexander was alwayes, bello, quàm post victoriam, clarior, more famous in War than after his victories, saith Curtius, (8. pag. 253.) againe, Alexander mores Persa∣rum assumpsit, quos propter mores tales, vicerat; sed ne solus vitiis eorum, quos armit subegerat, succubuisse videretur, militibus suis permisit uxores ducere; that is, Alexander imitated the manners of the Persians, whom by reason of such manners, hee had overcome; and because he would not be thought, to be the onely man, who would yeild to their vices, whom he had overcome by Armes; he gave his Souldiers leave to marry any of the Captive women, whom they lust: Thus Asia corrupted Greece, Greece also being conquered, corrupted Rome; even old Crones, did wantonize

with their Graecisme, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, My life, my soule;—

—Non possum forre, quirites, Graecam urbem—

saith Iuvenal, very tartly, that is,

I cannot I, O Romanes sure, The Graecian Language well endure:

And Horace before him, most truely, Graecia victa suum victorem cepit—Greece overcome her Conquerour overcame: Macrobius, (Saturnal. 3.13.) Triumphales viros, victores gentium, Luxuria vicit, that is, Luxury hath conquered and trium∣phed over the triumphant Conquerours of Nations, Let us briefely touch, how the Asiatickes corrupted the very Romanes; for almost the first sixe hundred yeares, ab urbe conditâ, from the foundation of the city; the forth-right; and plaine Ro∣manes had no Bakers, nor Milles; nec pane sedpulte victitabant, they fed not on bread, but on beanes or barly, mingled with water, sometimes with honey. It is not a thousand yeares since Sugar was first found, by the Arabian Philosophers, or Physi∣tians; none of the foure Empires, no not the Roman it selfe, till its declining ever knew the use, or heard of the name of Sugar, (though now it be Temperamentum omnium medicamentorum, the sawce of Physicke) honey was their prime, if not onely sweetner: Martial (lib. 14. Epigr. 222. ad pistorem Dulciarium)

Mille tibi dulces operum manus ista figur as, Extruit; huic uni parea laborat apis.

that is;

That curious hand of thine a thousand shapes, in paste Hathrais'd; for that thy hand the sparing Bee doth haste.

I come now roundly up to the point: Florus (rerum â Romanis gestarum, 3.12.) Syria prima nos victa corrupit; mox Asiatica, Pergameni regis haereditas; Illae opes, atque divitiae afflixere saculi mores, mersamque vitiis suis, quasi sentinâ, rempubl. pessum de∣dere; famem luxus fecerat, hinc seditio; that is, Florus saith, Syria, after it was vanqui∣shed, did first of all corrupt us; then the Asiatickes, the off-spring of the Trojans; their wealth and riches afflicted the manners of the world, and have utterly ruina∣ted, and drowned our Common-wealth, in her owne vices, as it were in a kennell, or sinke of all filthinesse; Luxury brought forth famine, and famine was the mother of sedition; who now corrupted one the other first? Rome Syria? or Syria Rome? Iustine (Lib. 36.) saith, Licinius Crassus was attentior Attalicae praedae, quàm bello; Li∣cinius Crassus was more attent to the wealth of Attalus, then to the warres with Aristonicus: and in the end of that booke; sic Asiafacta Romanorum, cum opibus suis, vitia quoque Romam transmisit; that is, when Asia was become a Province to Rome, it sent thither its vices, together with its riches: Alexander ab Alex. (Genial. Dier. 3.11.) Luxuriae peregrinae (invictum malum ad effoeminandos animos) ab Asiatico exercitu in Romam primùm invectae; mores infecerunt; Forraine Luxurie (an invin∣cible evill, to effoeminate mens mindes) being first brought to Rome, by the Asiatick Armies, infected the sound manners of the Romans; from this servile imitation of the Conquered, and against it issued forth all those excellent Lawes; by which the Romans were forbid to have such sumptuous suppers, and cloathing: The Fan∣nian, Orchian, Didian, Oppian, Cornelian, Ancian, and Junian Lawes; Tiberius Caesar would have repressed the immoderate spending by a new Law; but when he saw, he could not well compasse it, he held it better to omit that, he could not handsomely bring to passe, then vainely to attempt it: Lastly, the Romish imitation of the Jewes, caused the Poet justly to complaine,

O utinàm nunquàm Iudaea subacta fuisset, Pompeii bellis, imperiove Titi! Latiùs excisae gentis contagia serpunt, Victoresque suos Natio victa peremit:

that is,

O that Judaea never bad beene wanne, By Pompey's sword, nor yet by Titus Ramme: Then had not sinnes of Jewes beene Romanes bane, Nor Nations Conquered beene the Conquerours want.

Now let the Reader judge, betweene divers the recited passages of Pererius; and me, whether the Romanes borrowed these customes, of the Iewes, or the Iewes of the Romanes. Lastly, more particularly, concerning the gesture of (discumbing) at their feasts, and Suppers; Rosinus (Antiquit. Rom. 5.28.) Manavit hie mos accumben∣di, ad Romanos, ut verifimile est, post Asiam devictam, Graciamque cognitam: that is, this custome of (accumbing) was in all probabilitie derived to the Romanes, after the conquest of Asia, and their acquaintance with the Graecians; and the Graecians had it from the Asiatickes, as they had most of their superfluities; what sayd Alexander to his Souldiers? Curtius (7. Pag. 251.) view my whole Armie; He, who a little while since, had nothing besides his Armour, now lyeth on silver beds, and they loade their Tables, with gold: But of this more hereafter.